California's tax collectors are sitting on $15 million in tax refunds that have been returned by the post office because the taxpayers cannot be located.

The refunds, ranging from $1 to $218,000, belong to about 49,000 people, the California Franchise Tax Board reported Friday.

"The check was in the mail, but it came back to us," said board spokeswoman Denise Azimi. "We want to get the money back to its rightful owners."

Taxpayers who think they might be due a refund that they didn't get should check the board's website and click on the "Access to MyFTB Account" link (registration is required) and then "Check Your Refund." The information is available in both English and Spanish.

Other taxpayers who want to make sure they get their next refund should sign up for direct bank deposits when filing 2010 tax returns in the spring.

-- Marc Lifsher

The management of a West Hollywood club apologized to the city Friday after about 60 angry customers threw rocks and bottles at Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies when a punk rock concert was stopped early.

The apology appeared on the Key Club's website, alluding to the “unfortunate events that occurred last night” during a concert featuring the bands Youth Brigade and TSOL.

“We work hard every day to provide a safe & enjoyable experience for all of our patrons,” the apology states. “We hope that you will continue to trust & support us in the future!”

Deputies went to the Sunset Boulevard club about 10:30 p.m. Thursday in response to a report that a fight had broken out between customers and security. Robert James Bezeeley, 20, and Gabriel Jesse Ruiz, 19, were arrested on suspicion of attacking Key Club security officers. 

After judging the crowd's mood to be volatile, management decided to stop the concert, close the venue early and ask patrons to leave, sheriff's officials said.

As the crowd dispersed, about 60 people began throwing rocks and bottles at deputies, who responded by spraying Mace and shooting rubber bullets and beanbags into the crowd.

Ian Shepp, owner of the Key Club, said he initially did not want to close early, but sheriff's officials convinced him otherwise.

The crowd, already excited by the concert, probably overreacted in anger after the show ended so abruptly, Shepp said.

"Most of the people inside had no idea what was going on outside," he said. "Once outside ... the whole punk rock mentality is to rebel against authorities."

The fracas lasted about 30 minutes and no one involved has been arrested. Authorities were studying video of the angry crowd and checking area hospitals to identify possible participants, said sheriff's Lt. Lawrence Del Mese.

If suspects are identified, they could still be arrested, he said.

No deputies were injured in the incident, and the club was not damaged.

-- Shan Li

Moving sports from broadcast TV to cable often means a bigger paycheck for the rights holder, but it doesn't always mean bigger ratings for the buyer.

That's what happened to Walt Disney Co's. ESPN this year.

Several big college bowl games moved from their broadcast homes to ESPN and had disappointing ratings compared with those of 2010. For example, the Rose Bowl's audience dropped 14% to about 20.6 million, compared with the 24 million that tuned in to the game on ABC in 2010. The Fiesta Bowl's audience fell 22% to 10.8 million from the 13.8 million that watched it on Fox last year.

The biggest dip in viewership belongs to the Capital One Bowl. In 2010, 11.6 million watched Penn State beat LSU. This year, only 6 million watched Alabama beat Michigan State, a decline of almost 50%. The Orange, Fiesta and Sugar bowls also lost viewers.

Conversely, the Outback Bowl, which moved from ESPN to ABC, had huge growth. On ESPN, the 2010 game averaged about 5.7 million viewers. Last Saturday, the game got 12.4 million to watch, a jump of almost 120%.

ESPN said the lower numbers have more to do with the games themselves than they do with their new home on cable. An ESPN spokesman noted that the Gator Bowl (which lost 56% of its viewers on ESPN in 2011 vs. CBS in 2010) and the Capital One Bowl were both blowouts.

"We are very happy, particularly considering matchups and results," the spokesman said.

Indeed, the matchups do play a part. While the 2011 Sugar Bowl was off compared with 2010, its numbers were better than what Fox averaged in 2008 and 2009. ESPN's coverage of the 2011 Orange Bowl also scored more viewers than the 2009 Orange Bowl did.

-- Joe Flint

Photo: TCU celebrates its Rose Bowl win. Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

1. How will Lamar Odom respond with his sore left shoulder?

Both Lakers Coach Phil Jackson and Odom expect he will play tonight against the Hornets at Staples Center, but it remains unclear how exactly Odom's left shoulder is going to affect his play.

He joked he's going to have to go right more, a dig at his own penchant for rarely ever using his weak hand. He refused to lift up his shoulder after insisting to a reporter he could. And Jackson expected that Odom's injury will affect his shooting stroke, meaning his 57% shooting rate might go down.

If that proves to be the case, Odom will have to adjust his game, but his versatile skill-set will help him do that. Perhaps instead of going for coast-to-coast drives, he'll instead set up a teammate. Perhaps instead of posting up and exposing himself to more contact on his shoulder, he'll direct the offense from up top. Or perhaps his shoulder won't be an issue at all. It's something the team and fans will watch unfold.

2. The Lakers have enjoyed their size advantage since Andrew Bynum's return, but that doesn't mean there's not issues.

Yes, the Lakers are 4-1 since Bynum has returned and the Lakers have enjoyed a 42-13 mark when he and Pau Gasol play side by side. The Lakers also enjoyed 46 points in the paint in their last outing against New Orleans -- a 103-88 victory Dec. 29 against the Hornets in an effort that exhibited plenty of ball movement and plenty of production from the Lakers' front line with a lopsided advantage in points in the paint (46-30) and rebounding (44-24).

The Lakers are benefitting from Bynum's tangible improvement in conditioning, jumping, defensive movement and post presence as well as Odom's seamless transition and willingness to play off the bench, his vow that he'll play through his shoulder injury for now and that he'll ensure his new reality show won't inhibit his strong production. But Gasol's play has dropped significantly within the last month, a head-scratcher for someone who has usually been so consistent for the Lakers.

It also points to Gasol appearing to feel overwhelmed in many facets of the game. Defenders are playing physical with him and he's shying away from that contact. He's passively going through the motions in setting himself up in the lane. He's continuing to view defense as a chore than a necessity. And even if Jackson and Gasol contend otherwise, he still appears tired. Usually the conversation regarding the Lakers' front line entailed why Bynum couldn't feel as effective playing with Gasol. Now it's the other way around.

3. New Orleans may switch their lineup

Two days after the Hornets blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead to the Golden State Warriors, Hornets Coach Monty Williams told The Times-Picayune's John Reid that he is considering a change in the team's rotation. That would entail playing guard Chris Paul and forward David West at the beginning of the second and fourth quarters so that the Lakers can't enjoy spurring off to a significant run. Although Jackson generally sees lineup changes possibly helping the Lakers because it takes opposing teams out of their comfort zone, it might invariably prompt Jackson to change his rotation.

Normally, the Lakers reserves begin the second and fourth quarters as well so the starters can remain fresh to close off the first half and end of the game. This will either require Jackson taking a leap of faith in his bench or requiring heavier minutes from his starters.

4. Can the Lakers still keep the turnovers low?

The Lakers managing to beat New Orleans and show effectiveness on offense despite committing 20 turnovers should be seen as the exception to the rule. The Lakers have averaged 14.9 turnovers at home and 13.2 on the road, though that number has dropped in the last two games against Detroit (six) and Phoenix (10). Just as the Lakers' two-game winning streak should be viewed with a shrug, so should the Lakers' recent trend in cutting down on throwing the ball away. The Lakers committed 20 turnovers in their embarrassing loss Sunday to Memphis, concluding a stretch where the team averaged 17.5 turnovers in four games. It's not exactly a thing the Lakers want to accomplish against a team that ranks fifth in total defense, features the NBA's league leader in steals (Paul averages three a game) and ranks second in defensive rebounding, even if the Lakers have gotten away with it already.

--Mark Medina

Twitter.com/latmedina

E-mail the Lakers blog at mgmedin@gmail.com

Photo: Hornets point guard Chris Paul talks with Coach Monty Williams during a 103-88 loss to the Lakers last week. Credit: Derick E. Hingle / US Presswire

Starz is going ahead with plans for a second season of "Sparactus: Blood and Sand,” with the search continuing for an actor to take over from Andy Whitfield as series lead.

Whitfield's departure and its effect on the show was discussed during the network’s panel at the TV press tour, with network president Chris Albrecht saying the series would pick up where it left off.

“We don’t have casting news,” he said. “We’re very confident where we are in the casting process of finding a lead actor to step into Spartacus’ sandals, though we will never be able to truly replace Andy Whitfield.”

Whitfield was diagnosed last year with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which delayed production of the second season that was originally scheduled to air the fall of 2011. To fill the gap as casting directors searched for a replacement, Starz greenlit the prequel “Spartacus: Gods of the Arena,” set to premiere Jan. 21.

Writer and executive producer Steven S. DeKnight said Whitfield’s exit won’t hinder the story. “Season 2 is continuing with the story we were planning on telling about Spartacus,” he said.

Executive producer Rob Tapert added: “Nothing good came from losing Andy in terms of the guy for that role. If there’s any upside to Andy’s illness it's that we are better prepared to support the new Sparatcus when he comes into the role … [It’ll be ] a very epic Season 2.” 

In addition, the Starz session included a panel on its 10-episode "Torchwood" reboot, which sees the return of John Barrowman as alien-fighting Captain Jack and Eve Myles as former cop Gwen, with two new characters, CIA agents Rex (Mekhi Phifer) and Esther (Alexa Havins).

A premiere date for "Torchwood" has not been set.  The network's hourlong drama about King Arthur's court, "Camelot," will premiere in April. 

-- Yvonne Villarreal

twitter.com/villarrealy

Photo: Dustin Clare, center, is Gannicus in the Starz prequel "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena." Credit: Starz

As I get ready to head off to the men's fall and winter 2011-2012 European runway shows, I've been on the lookout for versatile pieces that maximize suitcase space and style. And, on a recent trip through the new retail shops at the Cosmopolitan Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, I found a pair of shoes that fits the bill.

At the menswear boutique Stitched, I discovered Creative Recreation's Capri -- a mock boat shoe with a detachable collar and foldable tongue that converts from a high-top to a low-top silhouette with the pull of a zipper.

The Capri colors include (pictured above left to right) chocolate gunmetal bronze, black shearling and (my favorite) rust flannel, with a suggested retail price of $115. (Even though that's hardly a wallet-emptying price tag, if you're waffling, just think of it as buying two pair of shoes for $57.50 each.) 

In addition to Creative's own website, (on which you can search for local brick-and-mortar retailers) the shoes can be bought online at Endless.com, Tobi.com and at Nordstrom's e-commerce site -- where at least one color combination of the Capri is being offered at a deep discount of 50%.

-- Adam Tschorn

Photos: Creative Recreation's Capri men's shoe ($115), is a high-top style that converts into a low-top. Credit: Creative Recreation

Ted Williams, the homeless man whose baritone voice has made him a star, hit "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" on Thursday -- making Fallon's show the deli meat in a sudden-fame sandwich with multiple slices of "Today" and "The Early Show" as the bread on either side.

Williams introduced the show, then sat down with Fallon for an interview to explain how it all went down. 

"I was just flying my sign there" by the highway one day, he said, when a guy from the local newspaper came by, gave him a buck and asked about his voice, which was referenced on the sign.

"For the dollar he offered me -- you know, a dollar is like $20 sometimes --  I just went, 'When you're listening to the best of oldies, you're listening to Magic 98.9,' and he looked at me and he said, 'Here,' and he gave me $2." That guy came back days later with a camera, and the rest is history.

"I never thought anything would become of it," he said, and without Internet access had no way to check it out. Friends hunted him down after a radio show mentioned it was looking for him.

Watch the video, above, to witness that if nothing else, Ted Williams is quite the charmer.

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Ted Williams, the homeless man with the golden voice, does 'Today' show

-- Christie D'Zurilla

Photo: Ted Williams takes a smoke break after his Thursday "Today" show appearance. Credit: Richard Drew / Associated Press

For the second year in a row, and for the third time in the last four years, Yellowstone National Park has set a new annual visitation record.

During the calendar year, more than 3.64 million people visited the national park. Recreation visits in 2010 were 10.5% higher than recorded in 2009 -- which itself was a record year -- when almost 3.3 million people visited. 

The park also set monthly visitation records in June, July, August, September and October. 

All park entrances recorded annual visitation increases compared to 2009 levels, with the West Entrance continuing to be the park’s busiest, hosting nearly 1.5 million recreational visitors in 2010.

Park managers say they believe the record visitation was due in part to the public’s recognition that visits to national parks represent a good value for their travel dollar. Aggressive promotion by state tourism offices, stable gasoline prices and 2009’s public television series on the national parks are also believed to have contributed.

Detailed park visitation information is available online at www.nature.nps.gov/stats/.

Yellowstone National Park annual recreational visitors:

-- Kelly Burgess
twitter.com/latimesoutposts

Photo: Visitors watch as the Old Faithful geyser erupts at Yellowstone National Park. Credit: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

Chart credit: Yellowstone/NPS

The year-end sales numbers released this week by Nielsen SoundScan contained the usual grim news for the music biz. Album sales once again declined in double-digit fashion, but that was fully expected. Perhaps more surprising and cringe-inducing was the drastic slowdown in growth in the digital sector, as sales of individual songs grew just 1% in 2010, compared to a 28% splurge just two years ago. 

But with the bigger industry picture having been covered earlier this week on these digital, tree-friendly pages, Pop & Hiss can further explore the seven-page bonanza of year-end SoundScan stats. So relax, stream your favorite album you downloaded (at no cost) in 2010, and read on. 

The headline: Vinyl Sales Hit a New High With 2.8 Million Sold
The context:  Sales of LP albums have been a niche bright spot for the industry, but let's put the emphasis on the word niche. In 10 weeks, Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" outsold the entire vinyl industry, moving 2.9 million copies since its release. That's not to write off the success of the format. Vinyl sales were indeed up 14% in 2010 compared to 2009 and managed to account for 1% of all album sales. The real story isn't that vinyl is up in a down market, but rather that vinyl is providing an edge to mom-and-pop independent retailers. SounndScan notes that overall album sales at indie stores grew two percentage points to 8% in 2010, and the artists dotting the top of the vinyl sales chart are the ones that shops like Amoeba Music hit out of the park. The Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" sold 19,000 vinyl LPs, the Black Keys' "Brothers" was close behind with just more than 18,000 LPs, and other artists in the top 10 included Vampire Weekend, the National, Beach House and the xx.

The headline: Overall Album Sales Were Down 12.7% in 2010
The context: The double-digit dip in overall album sales is now an early January tradition as dependable as the Rose Parade. The 12.7% number matches that of 2009, and album sales in 2008 and 2007 were down 14% and 15%, respectively. Yet the overall number includes all formats, from the CD to the digital album to the LP, and doesn't quite describe just how quickly the CD format is dying. So if current, non-catalog CDs are broken out, the format took a 16.2% hit in 2010. As for catalog CDs, the market fell 23.4%. In 2009, sales of the non-catalog physical CD shot down 20.7%, and the catalog offerings dipped 14.1%.

The headline: Mass Merchants Continue to Dominate Music Sales
The context: It's no sticker-shock that the likes of Wal-Mart and Target account for the majority of music purchases, as 33% of all albums sold we done so at mass merchants. Chain outlets such as Best Buy accounted for 23% of all album purchases. As noted earlier, sales at indie stores were up. So there's some good news/bad news here, essentially. In 2009, chain outlets accounted for 29% of all music purchases. The drastic drop would be a cut-down on floor space for music big box retailers, which Best Buy already announced would be a shrinking market for the company.

That's bad news for major labels, who count on impulse purchases of superstars at the likes of a Best Buy. Although perhaps the money saved on big box retail promotions can be targeted elsewhere. The death of the indie store was used often by the media for cheap headlines, but the fact remains that the surviving stores have become destinations, and will continue to do so as the mass retailers wave bye-bye to the CD.

Wal-Mart has also been trimming space for CDs, and mass merchants saw a 3% decline in album sales over 2009. One stratum not reported on SoundScan's 2009 report that appears this year is the all-important stat that 26% of all albums were purchased via a digital retailer. If digital sales aren't rising at as fast a rate as industry observers hoped, it's still clear that online is where the majority of music purchases will be made, perhaps as early as this year. Already, digital services amassed 86 million albums sold in 2010, whereas mass merchants stood at 108 million.

The Headline: So Ya Wanna Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star? Start Rapping or Go Country
The context: SoundScan's year-end report doesn't specify which artists are tagged "alternative" versus "rock," but the news wasn't good for either, so it doesn't really matter. Sales of rock albums dropped 15%, and sales of alternative albums dipped 21%. In fact, there's nothing even resembling a rock 'n' roll artist on the final top-10 tally of the bestselling physical CDs (and don't tell me Justin Bieber resembles a rock artist). The only genre to see an increase in sales was rap, and that no doubt has something to do with Eminem's "Recovery" being the year's top-selling album (3.4 million).

The Land of Swift didn't fare too bad, as country sales dropped 5%, helped no doubt by the fact that sales of Swift's "Speak Now" and Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" each sold about 3 million copies. If you're looking for rock 'n' roll to have led anything, you can find Train's "Hey, Soul Sister" atop the top-selling digital-track songs tally, having sold more than 4.2 million downloads. Although it's debatable whether "Hey, Soul Sister" is even rock, but SoundScan doesn't have a genre for "Easy-to-Ignore Balmy Songs to Play at Kohl's." 

The headline: 'Don't Stop Believing' That the '80s Are Back!' Right?
The context: Hey, trend watchers, there's a nifty little Nielsen chart that compiles a list of the top-selling digital-track sales by decade -- it tallies sales of songs that were recorded during a specific decade. No surprise that the 2000s were tops, with 743,000 digital tracks sold in 2010. The '90s fared surprisingly well, with 85,000 digital tracks sold, perhaps helped by comebacks from the likes of No Doubt, Blink-182 and Soundgarden. The Beatles' digital offerings were likely released too late to make a significant impact on music sold that was recorded during the '60s, which stood at 16.9 million.

Yet perhaps it's time dreaded '80s snyth pop can finally go away and twentysomething musicians can stop fiddling with vintage keyboard sounds. So everyone, are we done attempting to argue that Hall & Oates were something brilliant? And can we finally stop trotting out new editions of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin' "? The public appears to be on my side. Sales of music recorded during the '80s dropped 21% in 2010, down from 49,000 to 38,000. 

--Todd Martens

RELATED:

- On the pop charts: Online music growth slows, but Eminem, Taylor Swift survive unharmed

Images: Journey (promotional shot, unknown photographer); Eminem (EPA Music); Amoeba Music Hollywood (Amoeba)

San Clemente city officials red-tagged four houses Friday afternoon that lost parts of their backyards and patios to a hillside collapse the night before.

Residents of the homes in the 200 block of Via Ballena will be allowed to recover their belongings but not occupy the houses, said City Engineer Bill Cameron.

Neighbors called officials about 10 a.m. Friday, though the hillside had collapsed in the darkness of the night before.

"The slope failed," Cameron said. "Now behind the four homes there’s a 25- to 50-foot vertical edge about 10 feet" from back of the houses.

It is not clear what caused the hillside to collapse and deposit earth into a canyon and part of a golf course below, Cameron said.

No one was hurt in the collapse and no value has been placed on the damage to the houses, he said.

ALSO:

Driver gets four years in deadly Orange County freeway crash

Long Beach gang member arrested in three cold-case murders

-- Sam Quinones

Photo: KTLA News

"Coffee for one," taken at a Starbucks in Palm Springs in November 2010 by realworldfocus.

Every day of 2011, we're featuring reader-submitted photos of Southern California Moments. Visit the Southern California Moments homepage for more on this series.

FLIR is an abbreviation for "forward-looking infrared," and it is also the name of a company at the Consumer Electronics Show that makes thermal imaging equipment, mostly for military and law enforcement. Why is this exciting?

Some neighborhoods, including mine, are rife with coyotes, and they frequently pester little dogs, sometimes while they are on leash. So walking my 11-pound dog in the predawn dark can get a little nerve-racking. But not with the FLIR Scout, a line of thermal imaging devices marketed to the public, which you can pick up starting in late April for about $25.

No more coyotes hiding in the bushes ahead of me. If I had something like this gizmo, I could simply go a different way once I saw the coyote's heat signature.

The FLIR Scout has three display modes that let you see heat as white, black or an eye-catching red, and the Pro model will record stills and video. And I know that if my dog could understand what all of this meant, he would be just as excited.

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-- Tim French