Balloons

The only things missing when Los Angeles' top air artists get together are inflated egos. There's something resembling Betty Boop standing in the corner. Pluto, the cartoon dog, is sitting on the floor. A tiny ladybug rests on a hand. There's a birthday cake, a Viking headdress, a witch's hat and broom, an octopus, Casper the ghost. All made of twisted-together balloons. "We're standing on the shoulder of giants," says Eddie Medrano, one of the balloon blowers. "Look at that guy over there.

The ground zero mosque controversy is one of the stupidest debates of our time. I don't mean the substance of the debate (though there's no shortage of stupidity on that front either). I mean that we are having it at all. The CIA usually defends its existence by pointing out that we never hear about its successes, only its failures. The bombs that don't go off don't make headlines. Politics works the same way. Good politicians instinctively see down the road and around the corner.

Despite appearances, the Lakers' predicament isn't the same one their famous forebears with Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor faced against another dark-horse Celtics team in 1969. It's worse. In 1969, everyone thought the Lakers were in control, right up to Game 7 in the Forum with Jack Kent Cooke's balloons penned up, waiting to waft down in the victory celebration. If those Lakers were a bust as far as living up to their hype as the greatest team ever assembled, they nonetheless led the series, 2-0, a deficit no team had come back from in the Finals.

EVENTS Temecula Valley Balloon and Wine Festival Colorful hot-air balloons will dot the sky as the Temecula Valley Balloon and Wine Festival lifts off. Aerial activities include balloon shows and rides. On the ground, visitors can partake in food and wine tastings, live music, children's activities and a motocross show. Lake Skinner Recreation Area, 37701 Warren Road, Winchester. 5-11 p.m. today, 6 a.m.-11 p.m. Sat., 6 a.m.-6 p.m. Sun. $15-$22 per day, $50 for a weekend pass.

Didier Remy has spent his life so intent on retiring on his 55th birthday that he and his wife even planned their children accordingly, wanting them to be grown by the time he stopped working. So pardon a little indignant hand-waving as he ponders the prospect of Nicolas Sarkozy fouling everything up. If the French president has his way, Remy will find it tough to retire with his full state pension in 2015, as he carefully plotted 20 years ago. "My life was organized around the idea that I'm going to leave work at that age," said Remy, a lifelong employee of France's state-owned railway, whose benefits are the envy of other Frenchmen, never mind long-slogging Americans.

On April 15, every Washington policy wonk's fancy turns to thoughts of streamlining the tax code. This year's most-talked-about idea comes from two iconoclastic senators, Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden and New Hampshire Republican Judd Gregg. The two have proposed a plan that would simplify the tax law, shrink your 1040 form to a single page and even cut taxes slightly for most people who make less than $200,000 a year. Their plan still has a few kinks.

Alarmed by soaring legal costs at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a state legislator has called on the giant transit agency to review its litigation practices and finally heed the recommendations of a 2004 state audit. In a letter sent this week to MTA Chief Executive Arthur T. Leahy, Assemblyman Hector de la Torre (D-South Gate) said he was concerned that the agency's legal costs had surged more than 200% since 1995 and that MTA officials had brushed off suggestions from the state auditor to improve the oversight of contracts.

Yolanda Miranda spent two months planning for Valentine's Day this year -- assembling hundreds of cellophane-wrapped gift baskets, designing dozens of flower bouquets, hunting for deals on teddy bears, holiday mugs and picture frames. A year ago, she made $3,000 peddling Valentine's Day gifts from a folding table in a Northridge parking lot. This year, she doubled her offerings, staked out three spots, and imagined dollar signs over every heart. But on Sunday night, Miranda was pacing the sidewalk in front of her home, her melting candy, wilted roses and untouched pile of teddy bears crowding her tiny front lawn.

More than 100,000 people have ascended skyward in Irvine's balloon ride to savor aerial views of Orange County, take panoramic photographs and even make the occasional marriage proposal. But imagine the shock the pilot of the Great Park balloon must have felt just before 9 p.m. Sunday when, high above the ground, the gondola shook and a young man parachuted out. The orange-hued helium balloon had ascended to a height of 330 feet when one of the 12 passengers climbed up and out of the netting enclosing the gondola, unfurled a hidden parachute, threw it ahead of him and jumped out, said Irvine city spokesman Craig Reem.