Three years in the making, Chavez Ravine: A Record by Ry Cooder, is his first "solo" offering since 1987's Get Rhythm.

In addition, it is a concept album; but don't be afraid. It documents in mythical style the disappeared Los Angeles neighborhood of Chavez Ravine, a Mexican-American district that was fought over by real etate developers, urban planning activists and city government. It was bulldozed in a sleazy deal was cut and it was razed order to erect a stadium that would lure Walter O'Malley's Brooklyn Dodgers to L.A.

THE government was rightly lambasted last week by a parliamentary committee for its mismanagement of the 2012 London Olympic finances since winning the games in July 2005. But the Eye has discovered that even as the crowds were erupting in Trafalgar Square two summers ago, the government knew the real costs bore no relation to those set out earlier that day in Lord Coe's decisive presentation to the International Olympic Committee.

The chairman of the Siemens Group in Greece and another senior company official testified Wednesday before a prosecutor investigating possible wrongdoing in the awarding of a major security contract for the Athens 2004 Olympics, court officials said.

Marc Hodler, the senior Swiss member of the International Olympic Committee, who in 1998 exposed widespread bribe-taking among the Olympic delegates who decided where the Games would take place, died Wednesday in Bern, Switzerland. He was 87.