Carrying

The wait for tables is getting longer at Buck's, a popular breakfast spot for the tech elite and a weather vane for the Silicon Valley economy. Here, like everywhere else, Facebook is the talk of the town. "Charles Schwab was in the restaurant the other day, and I asked him to hook me up with some Facebook shares," said Jamis MacNiven, owner of Buck's, in the wealthy suburban enclave of Woodside. "He told me even he can't get Facebook shares. " The new tech boom officially gets underway Friday when Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg rings Nasdaq's opening bell remotely from the company's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, launching the largest initial public offering of stock in Silicon Valley history.

The City Council on Wednesday will consider whether to ban stores in Los Angeles from offering single-use plastic carry-out bags. A ban would take some getting used to, but examples from other jurisdictions, including the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, show that it can be done and that shoppers and stores quickly adapt. A ban is the right move. The council should adopt it. For a city with such a strong environmental ethic, Los Angeles is lagging on the plastic bag issue.

A new study showing an estimated 7% of American teens and adults carry the human papillomavirus in their mouths may help health experts finally understand why rates of mouth and throat cancer have been climbing for nearly 25 years. The evidence makes it clear that oral sex practices play a key role in transmission. The new data, published online Thursday by the Journal of the American Medical Assn., are the first to assess the prevalence of oral HPV infection in the U.S. population.

SANA, Yemen -- A suicide bomber targeting soldiers rehearsing for a military parade killed as many as 96 people Monday in a sign that Islamic militants are taking their fight to the capital after intense battles in the provinces with U.S.-backed government forces in recent weeks. The blast appeared to mark a shift in tactics by an Al Qaeda-linked group that for months had been concentrating on towns in the south. It indicated that militants, who have been unnerved by increased U.S. military and drone strikes, are expanding north in a campaign to upend the fragile government of President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the supplement nitric oxide? Richard Sunland Nitric oxide is a gas naturally found in the body; its function is conveying information between cells. One of its main jobs is increasing blood flow by dilating blood vessels, and that's why it's sometimes given in supplement form to heart patients, orally and intravenously. In at least one study it's been shown to be effective for lowering blood pressure.

BEIJING - "Beijing power struggle heralds end of China Communist Party," screams one headline. More sensational headlines purport to reveal how the wife of recently sacked Politburo member Bo Xilai poisoned an Englishman, who may have been her lover. And if that weren't enough, other stories claim that "Bo planned airline crash" and "slept with more than 100 women. " It's payback time for Chinese exiles, especially those with a printing press, television station or just a computer at their disposal.

I read of the Ojai Manor Hotel in Jerry Hulse's column and tried it. The romantically restored 100-year-old inn serves a delicious breakfast and is a delightful stopping place. The quaint little town is carrying on despite the recent extensive fires. Ojai Manor Hotel, 210 E. Matilija, Ojai 93023, rates $65-$75. MARJORIE A SCOTT Pasadena

Regarding "Such Carrying On," by Catharine Hamm ["On the Spot," Aug. 23]. Another increase in baggage fees? Where does it all end? The worst of it is they charge you to handle your bag, yet they are not responsible for damage that occurs. I guess the only solution is to carry on and cram the overhead luggage bins to the brim. Because I am entitled to two carry-on items, I'm thinking two Rollaboards, and stuffing my purse and food in one of them. Bettie Roman West Hills

Anita DeFrantz may well be the most powerful woman in sports ("She Lives and Breathes The Games," by Randy Harvey, June 30), but she looked pretty small during her recent vendetta to prevent Jimmy Carter, a great president and one of the persons instrumental in bringing the Olympics to Atlanta, from having the honor of carrying the Olympic torch for a mile or so. Lawrence D. Longo Redlands I disagreed with DeFrantz's stance opposing the...

Regarding your Dec. 15 story about the attempt to prohibit off-duty deputies from carrying guns while drinking: Has the Sheriff's Department (and other law enforcement agencies for that matter) abandoned the practice of assessing recruits' mental stability, judgment and maturity before hiring them? The cases referred to all involve individuals who demonstrated remarkably poor judgment and a junior-high-school maturity level. Expecting this type of person to exercise good judgment when drinking is only slightly more ridiculous than expecting it when they are sober.

SAN DIEGO - The $1.3-billion ship is billed as the most technologically advanced of any in its class in the U.S. Navy, with stealth capability and a state-of-the-art communications system. But the commissioning ceremony Saturday that made the San Diego an official ship of the fleet was drawn from rituals more than two centuries old - from the days of John Paul Jones, when the Navy's first commissioned ship was a captured British schooner. And so with the classic order, "Man our ship and bring her to life," sailors and Marines sprinted aboard the 684-foot amphibious transport dock ship.

The battleship Iowa, a storied vessel that languished for years in the U.S. Navy's mothball fleet, is about to start its final journey, from San Francisco to its permanent home as a museum in the Port of Los Angeles. Next Sunday, four tugboats will guide the Iowa, among the biggest U.S. battleships ever built, under the Golden Gate Bridge and out of the San Francisco Bay. One of them, the 7,200-horsepower Warrior, will chug down the coast with the massive ship in tow, taking three or four days to reach Southern California.

The creative engineers at Tumi like to put their own spin on design and function in their swank lines of luggage. The Dror International Expandable Carry-On , part of a new 11-piece collection (each sold separately), is an innovative case in point. The hard-sided wheeled carry-on expands from a depth of 9 inches to 14 inches -- but not by the use of anything as mundane as zippers. The bag's two-stage girth spurt comes when you pull up on the two levels of interior pockets.

WASHINGTON - President Obama's decision to endorse same-sex marriage staked out a stance that carries uncertain political risks but one he said was rooted in the biblical admonition "to treat others the way you would want to be treated. " Obama's endorsement Wednesday, a milestone for the gay rights movement, was the first from a sitting president and a potentially powerful tail wind for a cause still struggling for electoral approval. It comes as the country remains divided over whether same-sex marriages should have the same recognition and legal standing as traditional ones, and six months before an election expected to be so tight it may hinge on small slices of votes in a handful of key states.

The nonprofit Consumer Travel Alliance is urging federal officials to force airlines to be more transparent about their fees wherever they sell airline tickets. The action comes on the heels of budget carrier Spirit Airline 's recent announcement that come November it would increase baggage fees. Among the new prices: a $100 charge for a carry-on bag if you check it at the gate. The alliance called Spirit's fee frenzy "a wake-up call" for the Department of Transportation.

Spirit Airlines , the first carrier to impose fees for carry-on bags, starting in November will charge as much as $100 per bag for passengers who bring luggage to stow in the overhead bin.  It currently costs $45 if you show up at the gate with a carry-on bag. That figure will rise to $100 on Nov. 6, according to baggage fees listed on the airline's website.  Spirit has a dizzying menu of bag fees that are tied to the...

Half a dozen masked gunmen hijacked a bus carrying 33 Cuban and four Central American migrants detained in southern Mexico after they forced unarmed immigration agents away, the National Immigration Institute said. An immigration official initially said 34 Cubans had been involved. The bus was later discovered, empty, near the jungle city of Ocosingo. The official said he did not know who carried out the attack or why.

Kevin Batiste of the Toronto Blue Jays, arrested at Oakland International Airport on Saturday and charged with carrying a loaded handgun in his checked luggage, has admitted that he carried the weapon in his bags through Canadian and U.S. airports. The 22-year-old Batiste said he had the gun with him when he flew into Toronto from Knoxville, Tenn., on June 9, the day he joined the Jays from their farm team. Transport Canada spokesman Rene Mercier said, "If the gun is in the cargo (area)

ROME — Quiet and bookish, a little colorless, Mario Monti doesn't seem the kind of man to inspire religious epiphanies. But his leadership of Italy in the last five months has moved one leading politician to declare it not just a "miracle," but proof that God exists. Granted, his transformation from mild-mannered technocrat to the man charged with saving Italy has been a bit startling. From a photo op with President Obama in the White House to a whistle-stop tour of Asia to woo foreign investors, Monti is on a tear, busy telling the world that his country is back in business.

CHULA VISTA, Calif. — The hardest part for Carrie Johnson is not knowing. The 28-year-old kayaker can handle endless days of training on the water. She can remain calm in a race — the flatwater sprint — that requires two minutes of explosive strength and steely nerves. But as Johnson prepares for her third consecutive Olympic Games this summer, something else could quash her medal hopes before she so much as reaches the starting line. "It's frustrating," she said.