Driving

What would it take to get you into an electric car today? Forced by state regulators to sell more zero-emission vehicles, automakers are tripping over each other to offer consumers rock-bottom lease deals. For the first time, electric vehicles are penciling out cheaper than their gas-powered counterparts. Honda joined the price war this week by dropping the lease on its Fit EV from $389 to $259 a month. It threw in collision and vehicle theft coverage, maintenance, roadside assistance - even a charging station at your house.

PITTSBURGH -- Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly was supposed to watch Toby Keith in concert Saturday night. He never made it. The Dodgers' notoriously unreliable bullpen blew yet another lead, extending a game that should have been won in nine innings. So while the concert was starting, Mattingly was still in the visiting manager's office at PNC Park, fielding questions from reporters. "It cost me an hour of limo time, too," Mattingly said, shaking his head. But the manager said, "It's worth it. " It was worth it because the Dodgers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in 11 innings, 5-3. How the last-place Dodgers won for only the second time in five games is something Mattingly probably won't want to relive any time soon.

Those searching for answers to the question " Is medical marijuana good medicine? " will find few in Dr. David Sack's Times Op-Ed article.   On the one hand, Sack concedes, "Marijuana can effectively treat neuropathic pain, and it has been shown to improve appetite and reduce nausea," an acknowledgment substantiating the plant's therapeutic utility. However, he later warns that cannabis' ability to provide relief for certain other conditions, such as lupus and anxiety, remains unproven.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Hundreds of riot police firing tear gas stormed a central Istanbul park Saturday, tearing down tents and clearing out demonstrators in a bold, if politically risky, move by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to stem more than two weeks of antigovernment protests. The police assault at twilight sent hundreds of protesters scurrying for cover as street clashes echoed through the city. The swift and overwhelming action by security forces highlighted the country's deepening political divide and the potential danger Erdogan faces in further provoking a large segment of Turks critical of what they see as his authoritarian tendencies.

As lifeguards begin their busy summer season, the bronzed guardians of California's beaches find themselves at the unlikely center of the battle over costly public pensions. The six-figure salaries of some full-time municipal lifeguards have fueled talk radio segments and blog comments in recent weeks, with some commentators expressing surprise at the pay for those who patrol the beaches. For local government, the larger concern is over the pensions that lifeguards receive when they retire.

Auto leasing deals abound these days, with offers that often seem too good to be true. How about a well-equipped Honda Accord for $250 a month with no down payment or any other drive-off fees? Or better yet, $199 a month for a Chevrolet Malibu? So, what's the catch? There isn't any if you know what you're getting into. There are always details. You need top-tier credit to qualify. You pay a penalty if you turn that Honda in with more than 36,000 miles. And the payment is not $250 a month because of that little matter of tax. It is more like $275, depending on where you live.

At Olympic High, Santa Monica's alternative school for students who have struggled in traditional programs, inappropriate behavior is not uncommon. But what a veteran English teacher saw on the computer screen of a student named John Zawahri stopped him cold. The solitary teen who regularly ditched class was surfing the Internet for assault weapons, the teacher recalled Monday. Alarmed, he sent Zawahri to the principal's office. Within days, the police were involved and Zawahri was admitted to UCLA's psychiatric ward.

With more than 4 million people visiting Yosemite National Park last year ? and that number expected to increase this year ? it's no wonder lodging inside the park is snatched up quickly. "We typically sell out during the summer season," Delaware North Cos. spokeswoman Lisa Cesaro said of its Yosemite accommodations (Ahwahnee Hotel, Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, Curry Village and the housekeeping camp on the Merced River; the Wawona Hotel, and in the back country, Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, White Wolf Lodge and the High Sierra camps)

It is illegal to drive the speed limit in California! JOEL ZESERSON Marina del Rey

Re "Tougher Driving Test Keeps More Off Road," Aug. 11: It was encouraging to read the DMV is cracking down on driving tests. I hope they pay attention to tailgating. I have been struck from the rear five times; the last three cars I have owned were totaled as a result of tailgaters. One accident incurred injuries to passengers in my car. Our state legislators refuse to make the law stiffer for tailgaters. They pass an anti-littering law that carries a $1,000 fine, but saves no lives, while ignoring a serious driving hazard.

It's always amazing that we need academic studies to state the obvious, such as the one in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology a few years ago finding that people are happier during weekends. No less amazing, though, is the knee-jerk reaction from businesses when a common-sense study comes anywhere close to threatening profits. They routinely say that the findings are inconclusive and that more research is needed. Is it any wonder it's so hard to get anything done? The latest example of a study confirming what most of us - if we're honest - knew already came this week from the American Automobile Assn., which hired researchers at the University of Utah to look into whether doing other stuff while we're driving is dangerous.

When Walt Arfons first strapped a jet engine onto a hot rod, experts thought the car would melt, explode or spin wildly out of control. They were wrong. Working in his family's old feed mill and hardware store on Pickle Road in Akron, Ohio, Arfons in the late 1950s created the world's first jet dragster. In 1963, he built the Wingfoot Express, a sleek jet-powered race car that hit an average speed of 413.2 mph and became the fastest vehicle on Earth - for three days. That's when Art Arfons, Walt's half-brother and longtime bitter rival, hauled his own jet-powered race car onto Utah's desolate Bonneville Salt Flats and, whipping along at 434.03 mph, snagged the record.

WHITMORE VILLAGE, Hawaii - Sure, Edward Snowden just used a simple thumb drive to smuggle classified information out of the National Security Agency. But one look at the sprawling NSA compound where he is believed to have worked in the mountains of central Oahu - with its chain-link fences and barbed wire, massive entrance gates and "Keep out" signs - raises the question of how even a trusted employee with a high-level security clearance could sneak out even an innocuous piece of equipment.

WASHINGTON - Former National Security Agency contract employee Edward Snowden used a computer thumb drive, a portable data storage device that is supposedly barred inside the spying agency, to smuggle highly classified documents out of an NSA facility in Hawaii, according to U.S. officials. Investigators "know how many documents he downloaded and what server he took them from," said an official who would not be named discussing the investigation. Another official said experts were still trying to identify everything that Snowden apparently copied.

WASHINGTON - Enthusiasm in the Senate for the debate over immigration gave way to reality Wednesday as party leaders quarreled to a stalemate over how to consider dozens of proposed amendments. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's move to schedule votes on the first five amendments was rejected by Republicans who opposed the Nevada Democrat's plan to require 60 votes for passage. "There is no reason, particularly in this first week, at the beginning of the process, to be blocking our amendments with a 60-vote margin," said Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, who is leading the debate for Republicans.

He was headed downtown, traveling along the 110 when - just like in the cartoons - a light popped on over Pervaiz Lodhie's head. If this city truly wants to improve the look of the busy industrial landscape, he decided, it should at least replace the burned-out and flickering fluorescent tubes in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum & Sports Arena sign that towers 160 feet above the freeway. Lodhie then went a step further. He agreed to supply the light bulbs. Lodhie, who owns a Torrance-based LED lighting business, made the commitment when he met with representatives of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in early 2011 to discuss development of a "green corridor" between downtown Los Angeles and the harbor.

Travelers to Mexico should be alerted that in an effort to reduce the levels of pollution in Mexico city, cars within city limits may not be driven on certain days of the week, determined by the last number on the license plate. Driving a car with a foreign license plate will not necessarily exempt you. LUCIE FORBES Tucson, Ariz.

"Driving Home an Important Point" (March 9) made me start thinking of when I was in my teenage years, wondering what it would be like to be in a drag race or be a spectator. I never did either. Now that I am older I appreciate that decision. I cannot imagine losing a friend or friends for a moment of pure adrenaline. Why can't teenagers open their eyes and see that driving at 100 mph down a deserted street can only endanger their lives? Somehow, we need to get a message to them that the need for speed is not the way to be. CARMEN L. PEREZ Granada Hills

When the tires on their Dodge Caravan had worn so thin that the steel belts were showing through, Don and Florence Cherry couldn't afford to buy a new set. So they decided to rent instead. The Rich Square, N.C., couple last September agreed to pay Rent-N-Roll $54.60 a month for 18 months in exchange for four basic Hankook tires. Over the life of the deal, that works out to $982, almost triple what the radials would have cost at Wal-Mart. "I know you have to pay a lot more this way," said Florence Cherry, a 57-year-old nurse who drives the 15-year-old van when her husband, a Vietnam veteran, isn't using it to get to his job as a prison guard.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. wages are so low they force many of its employees onto the public doles, creating a drag on taxpayers and the economy, according to a new report from the staff of congressional Democrats. The report analyzes data from Wisconsin's Medicaid program, estimating that a single 300-person Wal-Mart Supercenter in that state likely costs taxpayers at least $904,542 per year and could cost up to $1,744,590 per year, or roughly $5,815 per employee. "While employers like Wal-Mart seek to reap significant profits through the depression of labor costs, the social costs of this low-wage strategy are externalized," concludes the report's authors, the Democratic staff of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce.