Doubt

In an age of long commutes, late sports practices, endless workdays and 24/7 television programming, the image of Mom hanging up her dish towel at 7 p.m. and declaring "the kitchen is closed" seems a quaint relic of an earlier era. It also harks back to a thinner America. And that may be no coincidence. A new study, conducted on mice, hints at an unexpected contributor to the nation's epidemic of obesity - and, if later human studies bear it out, a possible way to have our cake and eat it too, with less risk of weight gain and the diseases that come with it. Just eat your cake - or better yet, an apple - earlier.

Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - In 1988, well-heeled gay activists went to Michael Dukakis' presidential campaign with an offer to raise $1 million for his election effort. The campaign said no, according to the activists. "They turned us down flat because it was gay money," said longtime gay rights advocate David Mixner. Less than a quarter-century later, the gay and lesbian community ranks as one of the most important parts of President Obama's campaign-finance operation.

When the White House sent a last-minute invitation for Asif Ali Zardari to attend the two-day NATO summit, they were taking a highly public gamble. Would sharing the spotlight with President Obama and other global leaders induce the Pakistani president to allow vital supplies to reach alliance troops fighting in Afghanistan? But long before the summit ended Monday, the answer was clear: No deal. Zardari's refusal to reopen the supply routes left a diplomatic blot on a summit that NATO sought to cast as the beginning of the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.

Earnest and filled with self-doubt, "The Perfect Family,"starring Kathleen Turner, is a darkly comic family drama about the imperfect union between real life and the rigors of Catholic doctrine. Like Eileen Cleary (Turner), the hopelessly devoted Catholic mother at its center, the movie has lost its way. It makes an unsteady debut for director Anne Renton, and the screenplay by Claire V. Riley and Paula Goldberg is literal to a fault. The film's single saving grace is Turner, who channels that legendary Catholic guilt like there is no tomorrow.

Of all the people who deserve credit for making No Doubt's return tour such a giddy success, singer Gwen Stefani's trainer merits extra kudos. When Stefani took the Gibson Amphitheatre stage Wednesday night in a brash outfit that seemed equal parts chola swagger and Hamptons riding crop, women in the audience gasped at the impeccable tone of her abdominal muscles.

Rock band No Doubt has filed a real-world lawsuit over its virtual role in the just-released Band Hero edition of the Guitar Hero video game series, claiming that the game has "transformed No Doubt band members into a virtual karaoke circus act," singing dozens of songs the group neither wrote, popularized nor approved for use in the game. In a suit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the band alleges that Santa Monica-based Activision Publishing Inc., the maker of the game, far exceeded the contractually approved use of likenesses, or avatars, of band members Gwen Stefani, Tony Kanal, Tom Dumont and Adrian Young.

The doubters are everywhere. Never mind that Albert Pujols has never been publicly linked to anything stronger than cough syrup. You just don't do what he has done and escape suspicion. Not now. Not after Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, Roger Clemens and a finger-wagging Rafael Palmeiro "He hits the ball a long way and they're going to say, 'Ah-ha, I wonder.' And it is unfair," Dodgers Manager Joe Torre said. "There's no question it's unfair." Never mind that the St. Louis Cardinals slugger has never failed a drug test since mandatory testing went into effect.

"Shadow of Doubt" is a typical example of a journalistic failure. After reading the article, the readers are no closer to understanding what went on in the child molestation case than before. The author seems to be totally confused by conflicting evidence. The article serves no apparent purpose and should never have been published. VLADIMIR PAPERNY Santa Monica

Re "The Golden State's Fool's Gold," Commentary, Sept. 8: Unlike most writers, Joan Didion's prose slips further and further into incoherence and cant the older she gets. Note the clear, unaffected sentences and ideas in her eighth-grade essay and compare them with the mushy musings she gives us "deep into adult life" (whatever that means). Didion seems to think that Californians are more riven with doubt about their state than residents of, say, New York, Florida or Oregon, which is patent nonsense.

His success was never going to last. Not with that fastball. Not with that frame. Wait until Ian Kennedy gets to college, the skeptics yammered. Then we'll see how dominant a 6-foot right-hander whose pitches top out in the low 90s can be. Dave Demarest believed otherwise. Kennedy's coach at Westminster La Quinta had seen the slight kid endure only two bad innings in four years of high school. Demarest figured his ace would have cards to play at USC and beyond based on his poise, mound presence and fastball command.

WASHINGTON — New York Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte threw the perjury prosecution of his friend Roger Clemens into disarray Wednesday when he testified that he could have misunderstood a conversation with Clemens about human growth hormone. Pettitte said he thought Clemens told him sometime in 1999 or 2000 that he used HGH, but he admitted under cross-examination that he was hazy on the details. Is it possible, asked Clemens lawyer Mike Attanasio, that Pettitte misunderstood the critical conversation?

SAN FRANCISCO - It looks likeGoogle Inc.won't be able to put the Street View privacy scandal in its rear-view mirror any time soon. A newly unredacted report from federal investigators and fresh information about the engineer behind the data collecting software are casting doubt on Google's assurances that it did not realize that its street-mapping cars were snatching personal data from Wi-Fi networks used by millions of unsuspecting households....

WASHINGTON — The government's watchdog for the $700-billion Troubled Asset Relief Program disputed suggestions the bailout fund would turn a profit for taxpayers and warned that many small banks are still struggling to repay. "It is a widely held misconception that TARP will make a profit," said a report by Christy Romero, the special inspector general for TARP. The Obama administration has said TARP has turned a profit on about $205 billion injected into banks, but still projects losses for the entire fund.

AT&T activated 3.3 million fewer iPhones in its first quarter compared with its fourth, a potentially concerning sign for Apple as the tech giant prepares to announce its own earnings later Tuesday. AT&T said it activated 4.3 million of the smartphones, up from the 3.6 million activated in the first quarter of 2011. But that's down significantly from the 7.6 million activated by the wireless carrier in the fourth quarter, after the iPhone 4S model launched. Apple's shares tumbled 2.5% midday, or $14.08, to $557.63 on the news, which came after Verizon said last week that it had activated just 3.2 million iPhones in its first quarter - a 24% drop.

Netflix Inc. reported its first net loss since 2005 during the first quarter and raised investors' concerns about its future subscriber growth, sending its shares tumbling in after-hours trading. The Los Gatos, Calif., video subscription company reported a net loss of $5 million on revenue of $870 million in the first three months of 2012, compared with a profit of $68 million on $789 million in revenue during the same period last year. Netflix's losses were caused by its rapidly expanding international operation, which sucked $103 million out of the company's bottom line.

Walt Disney Studios film chief Rich Ross' abrupt departure Friday comes at a difficult time for one of the largest, oldest and most successful of Hollywood's historic entertainment companies. It has also called into question Walt Disney Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Robert A. Iger's ambitious attempt to modernize the 89-year-old studio by placing a TV executive in charge of his film division and accelerates uncertainty at a time when all entertainment companies are struggling to come to terms with a dying DVD business and long-term declines in movie ticket sales.

Now it can be told. Eric Dickerson's two-game holdout was designed to remove any doubt about his single-season rushing record. He clearly intends to surpass O.J. Simpson's rushing mark in a 14-game season. FRANK JOHNSON Las Vegas

Most times, Lakers Coach Mike Brown pledges to simply look at the game ahead. It's the oldest cliche in the book, but he's not using that approach in assessing Kobe Bryant's left shin injury. Brown  said Bryant would "most likely not" suit up Wednesday when the Lakers play at Golden State. He is missing his sixth consecutive game Tuesday against the San Antonio Spurs, and the Lakers appear in no rush to have him return. "We're taking our time with it," Brown said. "We want to make sure that it's right.

With the minutes ticking away, Kobe Bryant stood up. This proved his time to shine. But this time, it had nothing to do with Bryant hitting a game-winning shot, setting up a teammate in the post or making a defensive stop. He's still sidelined because of a sore left shin. So beyond receiving treatement, Bryant's kept himself busy doing something else. He placed his right hand on Coach Mike Brown's shoulder and pointed to something on the court while Andrew Bynum took a free throw in the waning minutes in regulation during the Lakers' eventual 112-108 overtime victory Sunday over the Dallas Mavericks.