Adjustable

Since "one good turn deserves another," pick an adjustable wrench that will do the job well. Crescent adjustable wrenches manufactured by CooperTools, for example, are ambidextrous.

President Obama won't release his proposed budget for 2014 until Wednesday, but liberals and AARP have been howling all week about something they expect to be in it. What has our president done to provoke such outrage among his supporters? He's chained CPI. In an attempt to meet Republicans halfway in the battle over taxes and spending, Obama has offered to change the formula for calculating Social Security's annual cost-of-living increase - an "entitlement reform" GOP leaders have long asked for. The result would not change current Social Security benefits, but it would reduce future raises by an estimated three-tenths of 1% in the first year, or about $42 for the average beneficiary.

Average rates on 30-year fixed mortgages fell to 4.8% from 4.82% last week, mortgage company Freddie Mac said. The average rate on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage was 4.48%, unchanged from last week. Rates on five-year adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 4.85% from 4.88%. Average rates on one-year adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 4.82% from 4.91%. The rates do not include add-on fees known as points. The nationwide fee averaged 0.7 of a point last week for 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages.

ATLANTA — Michigan will have three or four thank-you notes to hand out should it win Monday night's national championship game against Louisville at the Georgia Dome. It can start with Penn State, which beat the Wolverines by 14 points in State College on Feb. 27. Penn State, before that night, was 0-14 in Big Ten play. That had to be a defibrillator-like shock to the system. Michigan can thank the NCAA for tournament expansion and ditching the rule that once required that a team win its conference title or postseason tournament.

I take issue with Robert J. Bruss' comments regarding the 11th District Cost of Funds index. ("Is Adjustable Rate Loan Better Than Fixed Rate?" Real Estate Q&A, Aug. 14). There are other viable adjustable indexes that are also lagging indicators that move as or even more slowly than the costs of funds, for example, Bank of America's 12 Month Treasury Average Index. Also, Bruss neglected to mention that the majority of 11th District Cost of Funds loans have negative amortization, which means that loan balances can increase rather than decrease.

Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.32% this week, up sharply from 6.09% last week and the highest since they averaged 6.33% in the week of Oct. 25. Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 5.93%, up from 5.65% last week. The five-year adjustable-rate mortgage rose to 5.70%, up from 5.51%. The rate on a one-year adjustable mortgage edged up to 5.09% from 5.06%. These rates do not include add-on fees known as points. The nationwide fee for 30-year and five-year mortgages averaged 0.7 of a point.

Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.42% this week, up sharply from 6.32% last week and the highest since September, mortgage company Freddie Mac said. Average rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 6.02% from 5.93% last week. Five-year adjustable-rates rose to 5.89% from 5.70%. The average rate on a one-year adjustable-rate mortgage rose to 5.19% from 5.09%. These rates do not include add-on fees known as points. The nationwide fee for 30-year and 15-year mortgages averaged 0.7 of a point.

Defaults on U.S. sub-prime mortgages continued their relentless climb in December as some borrowers faced rising payments on adjustable loans, according to Wachovia Corp. A team of analysts at Wachovia said 28.1% of loan balances backing 20 sub-prime bonds created in the first half of 2006 were in default, up 2.43 percentage points from the previous month. That increase compares with a jump of 2.25 percentage points in November. "It is increasingly difficult to find new synonyms for the word 'increase' to describe the direction of nonperforming loans," the analysts wrote in a report dated Friday.

Eddie Oruna and Kerman Rogers are sub-prime borrowers, thirtysomethings with spotty credit histories who bought a three-bedroom home in Chino Hills in 2002 and then financed it to the hilt. The interest rate on their two loans recently jumped more than 2 percentage points, and they're struggling to make monthly payments. To keep their mortgage current, they're setting aside other bills, which is thumping their credit ratings and hurting their chances of refinancing with a new loan they can afford.

When times get tough, people go hiking. That's the news from a CBS News/New York Times poll released a couple of weeks ago, which found that recession-wracked Americans are now getting by on less, doing more and valuing experiences over things. High on the list: inexpensive, exciting family-bonding adventures like canoeing, biking and backpacking. Coincidentally, backpacking was the theme of the mammoth Outdoor Retailer trade show that began Thursday in Salt Lake City. Straight from the showroom floor, here's a look at some standout backpacking gear that can offer assistance on the long, adventurous trail to recovery.

WASHINGTON - A few hours before midnight during a marathon budget session, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the only member of Congress elected as a socialist, called for a vote on his proposal to oppose any cut in cost-of-living adjustments for veterans benefits. With no opposition from senators on the floor, Sanders watched as his measure was unanimously adopted. In this first salvo ahead of the next round of budget battles with the White House, score one for the real-life socialist; zero for the president who is often derided as one. President Obama, however, was not dissuaded.

When Pau Gasol initially went down with a foot injury, Earl Clark gave the Lakers a burst with his athleticism and energy. As teams became increasingly cognizant of Clark's ability to affect the game, defenses began to plan against him. Playing major minutes night after night -- after three years of limited opportunity -- hit Clark like a wall. With Gasol's return, the young forward was moved back to the bench. Over the last six games, Clark has scored just 16 points. On Tuesday night in a must-win game against the Dallas Mavericks, he exploded for 17 points, 12 rebounds and a career-high five blocks.

Tesla Motors Inc. is poised to turn a profit for the first time, based on stronger-than-expected sales of its premium electric cars. The Palo Alto automaker sold about 4,750 of its Model S sedans in the first quarter, about 250 more than it projected in February. The automaker on Monday predicted "full profitability" in an amendment to its guidance for first-quarter performance. "There have been many car start-ups over the past several decades, but profitability is what makes a company real," Tesla co-founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk said in a statement.

Orange County's former sheriff is waging a battle to be released from federal prison, where he is serving time for witness tampering in a corruption case that exposed wrongdoing in the state's second-largest sheriff's department. On Monday, a federal judge heard arguments on whether to resentence Michael S. Carona, once a rising political star before he was indicted in late 2007 in a sprawling corruption case. Carona's attorneys argued that the 66-month sentence handed down by U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford on the one witness-tampering charge on which he was convicted should be adjusted based on changes in the law. About one year after Carona's sentencing, the Supreme Court narrowed a definition of corruption to just bribes and kickbacks.

In 92 years, See's Candies has never shied away from being old-fashioned. At the factory on La Cienega Boulevard, some octogenarian workers measure their decades of employment in hip replacements. Quaint floral details are still hand-piped onto chocolate eggs. An inexorable march of candies heads through tubes the length of a football field, where they're drenched in layers of chocolate - a traditional practice known as enrobing. Like cars merging out of highway toll lanes, they appear from cooling tunnels into employees' waiting hands.

What the Detroit Red Wings accomplished by ending the Ducks' 13-game home winning streak is a weekend debate. Was a formula established to beat the team that two nights earlier had pronounced itself the Western Conference power? Or was it simply an aberration that can be quickly corrected? The answer should arrive Sunday at 5 p.m., when the teams meet again at Honda Center. "We'll practice, look in the video room, make some adjustments and come back a lot better," Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau said.

In the article by Robert J. Bruss "Making 'Best' Choice When Refinancing," (Dec. 26) he makes many good points. However, the relatively short description on adjustable rates mortgages may lull the reader into a false sense of security in believing he is now "ARMed" with sufficient knowledge. Three warnings seem appropriate. Bruss indicates that the best way to choose loans is to "shop," comparing annual percentage rate (APR). Deceptive APR advertisements of ARM loans, although unlawful, are unwittingly carried by nearly every newspaper.

In "Bob's New Suit," a family deals with a series of intersecting dramas. Bob and Jenny (Hunter S. Bodine and Hayley DuMond) decide to get married just as Bob's sister Stephanie (Shay Astar) announces she is transitioning from female to male and will now go by Steve. Their parents, Polly and Buster (Suzi Bodine and John Bennett Perry), struggle to take it all in as Buster deals with escalating health issues. Though Alan Howard, a former studio executive and film critic in his debut as a writer-director, captures the way in which personal and family dramas intersect so there is not one episode or incident that prevails in making life chaotic, he also can't stop himself from piling problems one on top of another like a late-night sandwich gone out of control.

Once again, the oft-dreaded daylight saving time change is upon us. The day that the clocks “spring” forward also inevitably takes a spring out of our step. Sure, the birds seem to chirp a little later, the sunlight shines a little less as we drag ourselves through the morning routine. But as study after study has shown, that seems to be about the only highlight in those first days after the change. According to the Better Sleep Council, a nonprofit organization supported by mattress manufacturers, 61% of U.S. adults say daylight saving time affects their work the Monday after the changeover.