Benefit

After years of futile attempts by lawmakers to regulate the medical marijuana industry in Los Angeles, a ballot measure to sharply limit the number of pot dispensaries in the city was leading in early returns Tuesday. Proposition D would reduce the number of pot shops to about 130 from around 700 by allowing only those that opened before the adoption of a failed 2007 city moratorium on new dispensaries. A rival initiative, Measure F, which would have allowed an unlimited number of dispensaries to operate, was trailing.

Blake Shelton is working with NBC to organize a benefit concert in the wake of the powerful tornado that ripped through Oklahoma on Monday. "We'll know more about it in the next 24 hours," Shelton told Billboard after Tuesday's taping of "The Voice. " "I'm hoping it will raise a lot of money. Obviously, it will be televised and will happen really quickly. " The country star is a native of Ada, Okla., about 75 miles south of where the tornado struck. Monday's twister, which produced winds topping 200 mph, killed at least 24 people and devastated the city of Moore.

Dear Liz: A few years ago I finished paying off my debt and now am in the very low-risk credit category. I have savings equal to about three months' worth of bills and am working to get that to six months' worth. I'm wondering, though, about an emergency that may require me to pay in cash (such as a major power outage that disables debit or credit card systems, or the more likely event that I forget the ATM or credit card at home). How much cash should a person have on hand? Is there a magic number?

WASHINGTON--The Senate approved a bill Wednesday that would increase funding for port projects in Los Angeles and elsewhere, shore up defenses against Sandy-like superstorms and study ways to better prepare the country for more extreme weather events. In California, the bill holds the promise of millions of additional dollars for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which have long complained that they receive only pennies back for every dollar raised by a tax on cargo. The $12-billion bill, approved 83 to 14 in a rare bipartisan vote, would also authorize flood protection projects and coastal restoration in such places as the Gulf Coast.

It's long been a basic tenet of the business world: You give us more business, we'll reward your loyalty with better deals. That's how cable companies operate with their service packages. That's how phone companies work. And until now, that's pretty much how banks played things as well. Want to avoid checking-account fees? Maintain a higher balance or, better yet, take out a home loan. As of this month, however, about 2 million erstwhile Bank of America mortgage customers are scrambling to figure out their status after the bank sold servicing rights to their accounts to a company called Nationstar Mortgage.

The Legislature is poised to offer health insurance to millions of additional low-income Californians, with the federal government covering much of the cost. The expansion would be a boon to counties, which collectively spend billions of dollars caring for the indigent uninsured. One sticking point, though, is what to do with the more than $4 billion in sales taxes and vehicle license fees the state has been sending back to counties every year to help pay for public health programs - and that the Brown administration wants to reclaim.

WASHINGTON - Seeking to ensure his landmark healthcare law is successfully implemented, President Obama is reprising his 2012 election strategy in hopes of enrolling millions of uninsured Americans in health plans this fall. The new campaign, whose outcome could largely shape the president's legacy, is targeting young people, Latinos and women - groups that were crucial to Obama's victory in November. It will rely on some of the same tools that the reelection campaign pioneered for voter turnout, including extensive use of social media, mobilization of volunteers and data-driven outreach.

Vietnam veteran John Otte did his best to forget the war. He got married, raised two sons and made a career working at credit unions. But as Otte neared retirement, memories of combat flooded back. Starting in 2005, he filed a series of claims with Veterans Affairs for disability compensation, contending that many of his health problems stemmed from the war. The VA agreed, and now the 65-year-old with two Purple Hearts receives $1,900 a month for post-traumatic stress disorder and diabetes - and for having shrapnel scars on his arms.

JOHANNESBURG -- Africa loses the benefit of billions of dollars each year through illegal tax evasion, money transfers and secretive business deals, more than all the money coming into the continent through aid and investment, according to a report released Friday. About $63 billion is lost annually, the 120-page Africa Progress Report states, and despite the continent's surging economic growth fueled by the global resources boom, poverty and inequality has worsened in many resource-rich African countries.

Marine biologist Dan Madigan stood on a dock in San Diego and considered some freshly caught Pacific bluefin tuna. The fish had managed to swim 5,000 miles from their spawning grounds near Japan to California's shores, only to end up the catch of local fishermen. It was August 2011, five months since a magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami had struck in Japan, crippling the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Madigan couldn't stop thinking about pictures he'd seen on TV of Japanese emergency crews dumping radioactive water from the failing reactors into the Pacific Ocean.