2008 Year

Actress Kristen Stewart's new view home is not far from "Twilight" costar and on-again boyfriend Robert Pattinson's place in Los Feliz. Set in gated Laughlin Park, the 3,361-square-foot house Stewart bought for $2.195 million features a carved wood front door, an open floor plan, a veranda, a den, an office, two fireplaces, four bedrooms and 41/2 bathrooms. The quarter-acre of tropically landscaped grounds includes a blue-tiled swimming pool with spa, a fire pit and terraced gardens.

A woman who lost her face and her hands when her friend's chimpanzee turned on her has reached a settlement in a lawsuit filed after the attack and will receive about $4 million -- an amount her attorney says is far less than needed to cover a lifetime of medical care. The suit had initially sought $50 million from Sandra Herold, whose 200-pound chimp, Travis, attacked Charla Nash in February 2009 outside Herold's home in North Stamford, Conn. Herold, who died in 2010 of a ruptured aortic aneurysm, had called Nash to come over and help lure Travis back into her house after he escaped.

Californians had a bad year at the pump in 2012, averaging a record $4.028 for a gallon of regular gasoline, according to AAA. That shattered the previous record, set in 2011, by 21.3 cents a gallon. The jump was so big that it surprised even people who review fuel prices on a daily basis. "I can remember when the California average for the year in 2008 was $3.525 and we thought we would never see it go that high again," said Marie Montgomery, spokeswoman for the Automobile Club of Southern California.

Last Sunday, New Yorkers gathered in Times Square for the second annual Good Riddance Day, feeding reminders of the things they least liked about 2008 into an industrial-sized paper shredder. There's something so wonderfully archetypal about this ritual -- the only reason James George Frazer didn't mention it in "The Golden Bough" was that the ancient Celts didn't have giant shredders -- that we can't help but hope the tradition catches on.

A light on motorists' instrument panels will soon warn them when a tire is underinflated. The safety regulation, issued by the government Thursday, has its roots in the Firestone tire recall of 2000. It requires new passenger cars to have tire-pressure monitoring systems in place by the 2008 model year. Automakers probably will attach tiny sensors to each wheel that will signal if a tire falls 25% below the recommended inflation pressure.

A disaster-prone Texas tourist destination that for more than a century has been an on-again, off-again home to oceanfront amusements will once again lure thrill-seekers with roller coasters, midway games and carnival confections. PHOTOS: New rides at Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier The $60-million Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier plans to open in May with 16 rides, including a vertical-lift steel coaster, a 100-foot-tall Ferris wheel with programmable LED lights and a 200-foot-tall swing tower offering panoramic views of the Gulf of Mexico.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is taking a pay cut and the league staff has been trimmed by 15% because of the reeling economy, the NFL confirmed Wednesday. The league said that its staff cut, announced more than two months ago, has resulted in a reduction of 169 jobs through buyouts, layoffs and other staff reductions. That amounts to just over 15% of the league's work force of 1,100.

Toyota has recalled more than 1 million of its Corolla and Matrix cars, just days after U.S. auto safety regulators stepped up a probe into the risk that the vehicles could stall because of defective electronic engine control units. The recall also affects 200,000 Pontiac Vibe models built by a joint venture between General Motors Co. and Toyota. Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. said Thursday that the recall of the 2005 to 2008 model year vehicles sold in North America was to address a problem with an electronic component called an engine control module that might have been improperly manufactured.

Two years ago, Peter J. Eichler Jr. was one of the most successful men in Southern California. His money management firm ranked among the largest in Los Angeles, with high-wattage clients such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. And he fashioned a lifestyle that was sumptuous even by the gilded standards of Wall Street. Eichler paid himself $33 million one year. He owned five homes. He had a fleet of luxury cars, including a $320,000 chauffeur-driven Maybach. He shuttled to and from Europe in private jets.