Accountability

My wife does not work and is covered by my employer's health insurance plan. I am 60, she is 53. If I retire in five or seven years and go on Medicare, what does that mean for my wife? At most, she will be only 60. Do we have to purchase private insurance (which I suspect will be very expensive)? Or is there some kind of Medicare coverage for dependent spouses? Unfortunately for you and for millions of other couples in your position, Medicare does not provide dependent coverage.

For the past 60 years, we have been learning a new language. Ever since the double-helix structure of DNA was uncovered in 1953, the vocabulary of genetics has been creeping into our lives, becoming over time a full and rich lexicon. Last week's Supreme Court ruling against patents for two genes implicated in cancer is a step toward ensuring that this language remains one of science and humanity rather than profit. The landmark ruling centered on patents for two genes - BRCA1 and BRCA2 - held by Myriad Genetics, a diagnostic testing company based in Utah.

WASHINGTON - The refinancing boom may be cooling down, but the move to shorter mortgages - especially 10-year loans among pre-retirees - appears to be accelerating. Some community banks say 10-year mortgages, once an insignificant niche option, are accounting for increasingly large chunks of their business. For example, Rockville Bank in South Windsor, Conn., reports that 10-year loans represented a surprising one-fifth of its total residential mortgage originations in dollar terms last year.

WASHINGTON - The refinancing boom may be cooling down, but the move to shorter mortgages - especially 10-year loans among pre-retirees - appears to be accelerating. Some community banks say 10-year mortgages, once an insignificant niche option, are accounting for increasingly large chunks of their business. For example, Rockville Bank in South Windsor, Conn., reports that 10-year loans represented a surprising one-fifth of its total residential mortgage originations in dollar terms last year.

Re "Pockets of Progress but Question Marks, Too," July 23: Please know that my decision to temporarily withdraw my school accountability plan from school board consideration does in no way suggest that we are abandoning our efforts to hold schools accountable for student achievement. If approved, our new accountability plan will not only use standardized test scores to evaluate a school's performance, it will do so in a much tougher way than did our groundbreaking 100 schools plan. The reason for withholding our plan for a brief period is only to allow time for district staff to align portions of our plan with the one being developed by the state.

In response to "Grading the Teachers," editorial, Sept. 14: Holding teachers accountable for student achievement is, as you state, not simple. Nor should it be simple when one seriously considers the nature of teaching. Those critics who would measure student performance solely based on standardized tests fail to understand the diverse needs of our student population and appreciate the significant progress of the teaching profession. To challenge teachers with accountability is fair and reason- able, but the means of assessment must be valid and reliable.

Re "Zacarias Cracks the Whip," Aug. 4. I am delighted to see [LAUSD Supt. Ruben] Zacarias' plans for accountability in education, especially when recalling those of his predecessor, and hope he gets the support necessary to see his program through to a definite conclusion. He should be eager to accept the assistance of Ted Mitchell, "a high-ranking UCLA administrator who formerly headed the Graduate School of Education," and should apply Mitchell's ideas in an accountable experimental way. Low-scoring schools could be matched into three comparable groups--one group to use primarily Mitchell's academic advice, another to use primarily teacher-training by outstanding teachers, and the third group free to choose and apply methods used in more successful neighboring schools.

Budgetgate--Who knew and when did they know? Official documents prepared by officials of the Los Angeles County Office of Education made public March 18 leave tainted the credibility of statements by Antelope Valley Union High School District administrative officials that the district did not have knowledge of the impending $6-million deficit. In fact, the documents indicate "a potential negative position as high as $14.6 million may be realized by the end of the fiscal year."

UCLACoach Jim Mora's first words at his first Pac-12 media day were: “What's that?” Mora had just been asked by the moderator to make an opening statement and was off to a slow start. Still, it may work out better than opening with a joke that became a self-fulfilling prophecy. A year ago, then-UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel's first words were, “I'm happy to be here. But as a coach on the proverbial hot seat, I guess you're happy to be anywhere” The buzzwords that might keep Mora around longer were tossed out. Mora frequently used “accountability” throughout the 20-minute group media session.

Re "Torture and accountability," Opinion, Oct. 17 It seems that Alan Dershowitz is still in favor of the rack and other forms of torture to find those mythical "ticking bombs." Only now he's complaining that when President Clinton suggested something similar, the media and public didn't beat up on him. But Clinton pointed out that he didn't know of any ticking bomb instances, and he was aware that errors had been made in deciding who was a suspect. Dershowitz has not, to my knowledge, addressed what to do with innocent people who have been subjected to torture warrants.

Forty crew members were set up inside of Banco Popular building in downtown Los Angeles. Some angled the lights and cameras toward a staircase, preparing to film a character running out of the building after an altercation. High walls of marble cast shadows inside the building as the crew began shooting a pilot episode of "D-Tec," a TV crime drama set in the future. Producer Richard King hopes the series will get sold to a network or an online distributor. PHOTOS: Hollywood Backlot moments FOR THE RECORD: Student film production: In the June 12 Business section, an article about the rise in student film production in L.A. said that director Francis Ford Coppola was an alumnus of USC. Coppola is a graduate of UCLA.

I'm tired of hearing "culture change" held out as a fix for idiocy. That's the standard excuse when institutions fail: A dysfunctional culture is to blame when students don't learn or jail inmates are beaten. And it's the explanation being offered up in the latest example of tragic incompetence by the Los Angeles County foster care system: the death of 8-year-old Gabriel Hernandez, who police say was tortured and killed by his mother and her boyfriend. The child was on social workers' radar for months.

In the restaurant world, being called "a regular" is a badge of honor. Phil Gittelman has been eating at Hugo's in West Hollywood almost every day for 32 years. He is so fond of the restaurant, which opened in 1980, that he is more than a customer; he's become a living time capsule for the place, a faithful repository of its stories, characters and food. The 75-year-old L.A. native lives half a block away from the restaurant, which is at Santa Monica Boulevard and Kings Road. The staff has affectionately dubbed him "Mr. G," and the owners have given him an honorary key to the front door.

The central provisions of the Affordable Care Act require younger and healthier Americans to buy insurance policies that will, in essence, subsidize the healthcare of older and sicker Americans. But one of Obamacare's hidden taxes - a new limit on contributions to health flexible spending accounts, or FSAs - will hit older and chronically ill individuals hardest. Starting this year, the healthcare law imposes a $2,500 annual cap on an individual's contribution to an FSA that is part of an employer's "cafeteria" benefits plan.

A former senior partner at accounting firm KPMG's Los Angeles office has agreed to plead guilty to a securities fraud charge of passing inside information about the firm's clients to a friend, who used it to make more than $1 million in stock trades. Scott London, 50, who supervised more than 500 KPMG auditors, agreed Tuesday to plead guilty to one felony charge, according to a court document he signed. The date he will enter the guilty plea has not yet been scheduled. London's stock-trading friend, Encino jeweler Bryan Shaw, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge last week.

WASHINGTON - Here's a heads-up for the growing ranks of seniors whose post-retirement monthly incomes aren't sufficient to qualify for a mortgage under today's tough underwriting standards: Thanks to a rule change by the largest players in the home loan business, you may be able to use imputed income from your 401(k), IRA and other retirement assets to qualify for the loan you want. That, in turn, could open the door to a money-saving refinancing to a lower-rate loan or a downsizing purchase of a new house or condo.

Dear Liz: I just finished paying off my last credit card and checked my credit report as I am now separated from my wife. I found we had one joint account that she had not been paying. There are two stretches of five months each of no payment. I immediately called up the creditor and paid off the balance and the creditor closed the account due to the lack of payments. This one account killed my credit score. I also found two old accounts on my credit report that are both still active but I have not used them for years.

The Kings' official Twitter account received a game misconduct penalty Tuesday … from the Kings' front office. Kevin Ryder, of KROQ's "Kevin & Bean" morning show, handled the Twitter posts for the Kings' Stanley Cup playoff game against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday. He took over after the first period, with embarrassing results for the team. At one point Ryder made light of sexual assault when describing a play that happened in front of the San Jose Sharks' net when the Kings' Anze Kopitar was knocked to the ice. Complaints poured in via reply tweets.