Checks

Long before banks started locating branches inside supermarkets, grocery stores acted as informal financial establishments, cashing payroll checks and personal checks to provide ready cash for their customers. That's starting to change. Whole Foods Market Inc. is considering banning the use of personal checks at its stores and this month stopped accepting checks at two stores in Los Angeles County and one in Arizona as a test. Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, the California division of British retailing giant Tesco, won't take personal checks at any of the 70 stores it operates in California.

WASHINGTON - The consumer financial watchdog is taking aim at reloadable prepaid cards, moving to regulate a fast-growing product that has become a popular alternative to checking accounts for lower-income Americans and a new source of fees for some banks. Consumer advocates have been pushing for regulation of the cards, which look like conventional credit cards or debit cards tied to bank accounts. But the prepaid cards are not required to offer the same consumer protections, such as clear disclosure of fees and caps on losses if stolen.

WikiLeaks, oil leaks, jobs forecasts, foreclosures, Chelsea Clinton, Lindsey Lohan — no shortage of grave subjects for the ink-under-our- nails crowd. But sometimes political cartoonists just stick to … politics! And the dog days of August aren't too early to speculate about the dog-eat- dogfights of November. Phil Hands sees the GOP hanging ten and the Dems wiping out. Jack Ohman's homespun double-entendre makes a real-(e)statement. And Dan Wasserman's reworked campaign poster serves up a slice of practical realism instead of pie-in-the-sky idealism.

WASHINGTON - Effectively clinching the Republican presidential nomination last month allowed Mitt Romney's campaign to marshal larger checks and chip into President Obama's huge lead in the money chase heading into the general election. Romney still has a long way to go. According to campaign finance records filed with the Federal Election Commission during the weekend, Obama maintains an expansive advantage in cash on hand. His reelection effort ended April with $147 million in the bank, compared with $61.4 million for Romney and the Republican National Committee.

( CNN) -- Actress Lindsay Lohan has decided to check herself into a substance abuse rehab program in the next few days, a source close to the actress said Sunday. Lohan's decision came two days after a Los Angeles judge ordered her to jail without bail in the wake of a failed drug test. Another judge allowed her to post a bond Friday evening. It was not immediately clear which rehab program Lohan would enter, said the source, who asked not to be identified because the source was not authorized by the actress to release the information.

Los Angeles County welfare officials will begin distributing checks in person today, rather than by mail, to women receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). The new program, which requires recipients to come to one of 44 designated retail outlets, was adopted because so many checks were being lost or stolen in the mail. Checks are being distributed on a Sunday because it is the first day of the month. More than 300,000 people in the county receive AFDC.

Angels starter Joe Saunders was scheduled to be examined today as he began a stint on the 15-day disabled list for tightness in his left shoulder. Saunders said he has struggled with the problem all season and had hoped he could work through it. He had started the season 5-1 but has gone 4-6 since then. And after lasting only 1 2/3 innings Friday night against the Texas Rangers, in which he gave up five uns, the Angels decided to place him on the disabled list. The move should "let him get this little tightness out and then get back on the mound throwing and get back in the rotation, hopefully in a couple of weeks," Manager Mike Scioscia said.

Some UCLA football players and members of the coaching staff were at odds Sunday after bowl game checks meant to help with living expenses were withheld. Some players did not receive checks for failing to attend what they called voluntary workouts during finals week, according to one parent who asked not to be identified because it could affect his son. The workouts were mandatory, plus those players had not turned in their academic exit forms for the quarter, said UCLA spokesman Nick Ammazzalorso, who added that players were told that the checks would be withheld.

As Thomas Chavira listens to the final game rules, the fingers of his right hand type instinctively into the air. "I'm breaking your legs if you lose," warns his coach Nina Merikan. "If you lose, I don't want you to ever talk to me again." The pressure is on. Chavira--by no means, a lightweight--and his co-workers, are warming up their encoding machines, preparing to go head to head--or "check to check"--in First Interstate Bank's annual "Proof Tournament of Champions."

An estimated 117,000 Californians haven't received their unemployment checks -- some for more than a month -- because of what state officials blame on an archaic computer system. The people whose checks have been held up are among the neediest of the unemployed -- those who have been out of work so long that their benefits have expired. Under legislation signed by President Obama on Nov. 6, they were supposed to get unemployment checks for an additional 14 weeks or more. State Employment Development Department officials say they are doing everything they can to issue the checks, even postponing some staff furloughs to deal with the demand for services.

I love my dog. Sure, he has issues - what lover doesn't? He wheezes when he sleeps, or when he's awake. There is an unexplainable darkness to his soul that emerges when he's under extreme stress. He also has a taste for the blood in mosquito bites. (The vet thinks he might be a vampire.) Being from L.A., our dog is prone to anxiety attacks and an almost debilitating sense of envy, particularly when coming upon younger, fitter dogs, which almost all dogs are. The last time we weighed him, he was close to 300 pounds.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Kobe Bryant walked over to Derek Fisher , wrapped an arm around his former teammate's waist and patted him on the rear. For one moment during a break in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinal series between the Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder, the veteran guards who teamed for five NBA titles could safely resume their friendship. "I asked him if he was good, he asked me if I was good, and that was it," Fisher said Tuesday of his first-quarter exchange with Bryant on Monday during the Thunder's 119-90 victory.

This is how all new beginnings should be. All energy and smiles and positive vibes. Stan Kasten is on the move and taking it all in. He's greeting season-ticket holders as they enter the stadium. He's meeting with ushers, security personnel and ticket takers. He's walking the loge, the reserved and the field levels. He's talking to fans and ushers and complete strangers, and welcoming them all to Dodger Stadium. An attractive woman walks up and hugs the new team president.

The Transportation Security Administration reached what seems like a lofty milestone last week when it announced it had screened 1 million passengers through a new accelerated security program at airports across the country. But the TSA acknowledges that the new security program, dubbed PreCheck, has served only a small fraction of the nation's air travelers. The TSA screens an estimated 1.8 million passengers a day at 450 commercial airports. That means that in the same time that the PreCheck program screened 1 million passengers since it launched in October, the TSA has processed nearly 335 million passengers.

It was Richard Nixon who brought me into the Republican fold. He was running for president, and I had recently arrived in California from Austria, which I'd left because the European socialist mentality wasn't big enough for my dreams. Growing up, I was surrounded by kids whose greatest ambition was to one day collect a pension. I didn't intend to spend my whole life dreaming about floating on a government safety net. One day, when Nixon was talking on the television, my liberal friend Artie translated bits of what he was saying.

Mark Walter lives in Chicago. Stan Kasten spent most of his adult life in Atlanta. Peter Guber is an L.A. guy. So, when Guber pitched a nostalgic idea on behalf of L.A. fans, his partners in the new Dodgers ownership group listened. "Curly Coo," Guber told Kasten. "There is nothing like a Curly Coo. " Google that, and you get a bar in Scotland. Kasten had no idea what the heck Guber was talking about. Millions of Dodgers fans could have explained, the ones who cheered on Garvey, Lopes, Russell and Cey, the ones who rooted for Valenzuela, Hershiser and Piazza, all with ice cream dripping down the sides of their faces.

If you own a home, you've probably received at least a couple of official-looking "checks" in the mail, made out to you personally for anywhere from $15,000 to $75,000. Often the checks resemble the one that arrived at the home of Arlington, Va., homeowners in May: It was for $41,750 and carried a prominent FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.) logo reading, "Each depositor insured to $100,000." It also featured a 10-digit "Reservation Number" and the boldface words "Voucher Certificate."

"Some Consumers Resist End to Canceled Checks" (For What It's Worth, April 15) is timely. My canceled checks form a big part of my income tax preparation. Every taxable deduction is covered by a check, and thus, no argument. For upper-bracket taxpayers with good bookkeepers, the story is no doubt different. Run-of- the-mill working people such as my wife and I cannot afford not having definite evidence of our deductions. I. H. HAMMAN San Gabriel

Heroes for more than one day … There are the often impenetrable Jonathan Quick of the Kings in goal and Kings captain Dustin Brown and his Blues counterpart David Backes with their ferocious physical give and take. ("Cripes," said St. Louis Coach Ken Hitchcock of their bone-rattling second-period collision in Game 3.) But Hitchcock pointed to Kings defenseman Drew Doughty as the best player in this series. The Kings lead the Blues, 3-0, in the Western Conference semifinals and Game 4 is noon Sunday at Staples Center.

About three years ago, producer Graham Broadbent visited the offices of Peter Rice, who was then running Fox Searchlight Pictures. Stacked near Rice's DVD player were discs of the senior citizen comedies "Cocoon" and "Cocoon: The Return. " "There have to be movies for older audiences," Rice told Broadbent. "There have to be. " Broadbent replied, "I think we may have something for you. " The movie Broadbent pitched that day was "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,"a comedy starring Judi Dench and Bill Nighy about a fledgling retirement home in India.