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If you think Bluetooth is a rare dental condition and an app is what you eat before the entree, you might not be a candidate for today's high-tech, whiz-bang smart phones. Instead, you might be happier with a mobile phone geared toward seniors. Those phones typically don't have Web-surfing capability, GPS maps and video games. Instead they have large buttons, oversized digital readouts and hearing-aid compatibility, along with a relatively simple calling plan. Although senior-friendly phones aren't new, their lower prices and variety are. A recent price skirmish among wireless companies means seniors can get an easy-to-use cellphone and cheap service to go with it, said Mac Haddow, senior fellow on public policy for the independent and nonprofit Alliance for Generational Equity.

Environmental officials reassured residents Saturday that radiation in Southern California's air remained below levels of concern as workers in Japan struggled to contain releases from a stricken nuclear power plant. Los Angeles County Fire Department officials also sought to debunk an e-mail hoax that predicted acid rain would result from Japan's nuclear accident. The fraudulent e-mail was issued in the fire agency's name and claimed that radioactive particles released in Japan could mix with rain and "cause burns, alopecia or even cancer.

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.

As Bell's newly elected council members considered slashing city services and laying off workers, the man accused of stealing millions of dollars from the working-class community ? leaving it in financial disarray ? was ordered to stand trial. Former City Administrator Robert Rizzo showed little emotion Thursday as he was reprimanded by Judge Henry J. Hall for leading officials in one of L.A. County's poorest cities in a "massive ongoing conspiracy to enrich themselves. " Hall ordered Rizzo, his onetime assistant Angela Spaccia, recently recalled Mayor Oscar Hernandez and former Councilman Luis Artiga to appear in Los Angeles County Superior Court on March 24 to face charges of misappropriation of public funds, making unauthorized loans, conflict of interest and falsification of public records.

A small wooden cabinet went up for auction on EBay. Inside were two locks of hair, one granite slab, one dried rosebud, one goblet, two wheat pennies, one candlestick and, allegedly, one "dibbuk," a kind of spirit popular in Yiddish folklore. The seller, a Missouri college student named Iosif Nietzke, described the container as a "haunted Jewish wine cabinet box" that had plagued several owners with rotten luck and a spate of bizarre paranormal stunts.

Americans spend billions on hair-care products each year, a remarkable investment for a part of the body with no real function. We clean it, nourish it and style it -- and we definitely mourn its loss. Lots of products and procedures promise to restore thinning or disappearing hair. One especially intriguing option is the HairMax LaserComb, a hand-held laser device that supposedly revives hair follicles.

For millions of people, the quietest room is never quiet enough. Even when surrounded by silence, they can hear a ringing or buzzing in their ears that drives them to distraction. The sound is called tinnitus, and sufferers — often people with hearing trouble thanks to advanced age or loud sounds — are willing to go to great lengths to stop the noise. Some plead with their doctors to cut their hearing nerves completely, but even this drastic measure won't help. The few patients who have had the procedure could still hear their tinnitus — and nothing else.

A free Caribbean cruise -- and all you have to do is participate in a brief phone and online survey. Sweet! I received just such a call on my office line a few days ago and eagerly dove in. Who wouldn't want a two-day, two-night, all-inclusive cruise to the Bahamas? First I had to respond to a series of automated questions. What's my gender? What's my age group? Do I speak Spanish? Is anyone in my household a diabetic? Am I a homeowner? Do I use a credit card when I make purchases?

It's the sort of spam that gets your attention: An e-mail showing a topless woman offering drugs that promise to enhance a man's sexual prowess, illustrated with very naughty before-and-after photos. The first such e-mail, ostensibly from a Canadian pharmacy, arrived in Beverly Hills resident Tom Hayostek's AOL inbox in July. He ignored it, figuring that would prompt the spammer to go elsewhere. It didn't. Since then, Hayostek, 51, said he's received multiple versions of the spam every day -- more than 200 so far. The latest batch arrived Tuesday morning.

Los Angeles became the largest city in the nation to move to Google Inc.'s vision of online computing as the City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to outsource e-mail to a Web-based system run by the Internet search giant. Despite a flurry of lobbying by arch rival Microsoft Corp., the council agreed to shut down the city's in-house messaging system and transfer e-mail operations for its 30,000 employees to Google's nationwide network of servers. The decision could have implications for other major cities and large corporations considering whether to stay with older e-mail programs, such as Microsoft's Outlook, or to embrace the "cloud" model championed by Google.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), who runs the House committee charged with weeding out government abuses, fired his press spokesman Tuesday after it was revealed that the aide had been sharing private correspondence from reporters with a New York Times writer. The actions marked the end of a colorful pairing between the press-savvy Issa, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and his outspoken spokesman, Kurt Bardella, who was known in some Washington circles as "Mini-Me.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), who runs the House committee charged with weeding out government abuses, fired his press spokesman Tuesday after it was revealed that the aide had been sharing private correspondence from reporters with a New York Times writer. The swift-moving drama marked the end of a colorful pairing between the press-savvy Issa, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and his outspoken front man, Kurt Bardella, who was known in some Washington circles as "Mini-me.

A preacher's son and perpetual optimist, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker pledged a "return to frugality in government" during his inauguration speech in Madison. The boyishly handsome Republican spoke from the flag-draped rotunda in the state Capitol, where a band sounded "On, Wisconsin" and well-wishers burst into applause. Six weeks later, boisterous protesters have seized the same real estate, comparing the energetic, 43-year-old governor to Adolf Hitler and Darth Vader. There's even talk of a recall election.

Mel Gibson's entertainment attorney was summoned to a meeting 11 months ago in Century City and presented with two troubling pieces of information: The movie star's estranged girlfriend had secretly recorded him in a series of vulgar, racist rants, and she wanted $20 million. Attorneys for the woman, Oksana Grigorieva, a Russian musician and the mother of Gibson's daughter, played excerpts of the recordings. Notes made by the actor's attorney suggested her lawyers wanted to resolve the couple's differences confidentially and keep the tapes private: "Never should become public.

Hoping to win a lucrative agreement with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, three data security contractors for federal defense and intelligence agencies developed a proposal to monitor and manipulate the chamber's left-leaning critics, according to recently released e-mail correspondence. Employees of the firms compiled short dossiers on a few activists that included photographs, references to their families and charts of their relationships with other liberal and labor leaders. A review of the correspondence, dating from late October through last week, suggested that the surveillance and intelligence gathering had begun only on a superficial basis in anticipation of a coming meeting with chamber officials.

As Bell prepared to hire a police chief in 2009, the top candidate for the post exchanged e-mails with the city's No. 2 official: "I am looking forward to seeing you and taking all of Bell's money?!" Randy Adams wrote shortly before starting the job. "Okay ? just a share of it!!" "LOL ? well you can take your share of the pie ? just like us!!!" responded Angela Spaccia, the city's assistant administrator. "We will all get fat together ? Bob has an expression he likes to use on occasion," she continued, referring to her boss and chief administrative officer, Robert Rizzo.

For techno-enthusiasts, the failure of Web 2.0 to have a bigger effect on everyday working life is something of a puzzle. Social networks, blogs and wikis have already changed the way millions of people communicate and share information online in their personal lives. But when it comes to work, these technologies generally are unused. E-mail still has a virtual monopoly. It is not for want of trying. John Chambers, chief executive of Cisco Systems Inc., several years ago took to forecasting a coming corporate productivity boom spurred by workplace use of new online "collaboration" tools that had their origins in Web 2.0. Some of the same technologies used to create successful Web services such as Facebook, Wikipedia and Twitter would make it easier for workers to find and connect with colleagues.

Tribune Co. Chief Innovation Officer Lee Abrams, who earlier this week sent a companywide e-mail that contained content deemed inappropriate for the workplace, resigned Friday. The e-mail, the latest in a series of free-form jottings Abrams sent weekly to company employees in an effort to inspire a rethinking of print and broadcast conventions, included links to satirical video parodies of newscasts. One, which included profanity and nudity, he labeled "Sluts. " Tribune Chief Executive Randy Michaels, whose leadership of the company had been characterized as fostering a sexist "frat house" atmosphere by the New York Times just one week earlier, had placed Abrams on indefinite unpaid suspension on Wednesday, pending review.

There's an e-mail going around warning that anyone who sells their home after 2012 "will pay a 3.8% sales tax on it" to help fund President Obama's healthcare reform law. "Oh, you weren't aware this was in the Obamacare bill?" says the e-mail, which is being forwarded by many people but the origins of which remain a mystery. "Guess what, you aren't alone. There are more than a few members of Congress that aren't aware of it either. " The e-mail was called to my attention by Chino resident Ken Burton, who wanted to know whether it was legit.

Rep. Christopher Lee, a second-term Republican lawmaker representing western New York, abruptly resigned Wednesday after flirtatious e-mails, including a photo of him shirtless, were posted online by a gossip website. In a brief statement, Lee referred only obliquely to "this distraction," apologizing "deeply and sincerely" for harm he caused his family, staff and constituents. Just hours earlier, the Gawker website posted e-mails Lee exchanged with an unnamed, single 34-year-old woman in response to her personal ad on Craigslist.