Era

It's all crossovers these days. From the polo grounds of Malibu to the campgrounds of Maine, nearly a fifth of all vehicles sold in the U.S. last year resided somewhere in this netherworld between a car and an SUV. So the stakes were high for Toyota's overdue redesign of the RAV4, a pioneer of the segment in the mid-1990s that had grown stale in comparison with competitors. Often resembling small sport utility vehicles, crossovers are truck-like vehicles built on front-drive car platforms.

This story starts at a point in time that most observers predicted it would end. The year was 2002. The Internet party was long over. Pets.com and other high-flying digital darlings were defunct. It was the dark days for the few survivors of the dot-com bubble, and Razorfish was barely hanging on. The brash online ad agency that had come to symbolize the arrogance and frivolity of the era had slashed its staff from 1,800 employees to just 230. The company was sold for $8.2 million - a minuscule fraction of its $4.2-billion market value just two years before.

Vietnam veteran John Otte did his best to forget the war. He got married, raised two sons and made a career working at credit unions. But as Otte neared retirement, memories of combat flooded back. Starting in 2005, he filed a series of claims with Veterans Affairs for disability compensation, contending that many of his health problems stemmed from the war. The VA agreed, and now the 65-year-old with two Purple Hearts receives $1,900 a month for post-traumatic stress disorder and diabetes - and for having shrapnel scars on his arms.

In a reminder of the boom years of the late 1990s, California's fiscal picture brightened in the first few months of 2013, leaving the state unexpectedly flush with cash. But when Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled his revised budget proposal Tuesday for fiscal 2013-14, he did something much more reminiscent of the "era of limits" in the 1970s: He laid out a cautious and moderate course. Specifically, he called on the Legislature to increase spending by less than 1% while doubling the amount held in reserve.

Michele and Russell Poland's credit was shot, but they managed to buy their suburban dream home anyway. After a business bankruptcy and a home foreclosure, they turned to a rare option in this era of tightfisted banking - a subprime loan. The Polands paid nearly $10,000 in upfront fees for the privilege of securing a mortgage at 10.9% interest. And they had to raid their retirement account for a 35% down payment. Most borrowers would balk at such stiff terms. But with prices rising, the Polands wanted to snag a four-bedroom home in Temecula near top-rated schools for their 5-year-old son. By later this year, they figure, they'll be able to refinance into a standard loan.

Your choices in San Francisco hotels are overwhelming. The prices can be too. So during our staff visit to the City by the Bay, we looked for reasonably priced hotels that had charm, location or both. We came back with 14 ideas on places to bed down. It's not a complete list, but it is eclectic, like the city itself. Mystic Hotel. This property, which opened in April, stands on a tunnel-adjacent block of Stockton Street that you'll never see on a picture postcard, yet it has style, as do the Burritt Tavern bar and restaurant downstairs.

A love for the horror films of the late 1970s and early 1980s fueled writer-director Ti West's precise re-creation of the period in his film "The House of the Devil." But he started with a very odd detail. "The first thing [production designer Jade Healy and I] planned on was using the Coke cups that say Coke really big on the side," he said. The memory of the Coke cups played large in West's self-professed photographic memory of the era, which he bolstered by making extensive lists of items he remembered from his youth.

TEMPE, Ariz.  -- The Angels can score in bunches, as they showed again Friday, when they amassed nine runs for the second straight game. The question is, will they have enough pitching to win high-scoring games? They didn't in Friday's 13-9 loss to Kansas City, when C.J. Wilson was rocked for eight runs and eight hits in 2 2/3 innings, and they didn't in Thursday night's 10-9 loss to Texas, when Jerome Williams couldn't make it out of the second inning. The Angels have a 7.26 earned-run average in 25 spring games - a full run worse than any team in baseball - and of their five starters, only Joe Blanton has had a decent spring.

Former Dodgers and Angels are playing roles for teams all around the major leagues. Times staff writer Kevin Baxter ranks the teams and provides updates on them. (Statistics through Friday's games. Last week's rankings in parentheses): 1. TEXAS Ex-Dodgers Adrian Beltre (four HRs), Derek Lowe (1-0 in five games) making contributions. (7) 2. ATLANTA Former Dodger Reed Johnson hitting .250 off the Braves' bench. (1) 3. ST. LOUIS Dodgers helped St. Louis to a title when they sent Rafael Furcal there in 2011.

Commendations to KCOP for airing National Geographic's "Superliners: Twilight of an Era" (Oct. 18). It covered a period when the only way to Europe was by sea. Frank Argall, Sherman Oaks

SACRAMENTO - Dynamics have shifted dramatically in California's Capitol since Gov. Jerry Brown returned two years ago - both fiscal and political dynamics. The two are intertwined. And Brown is the beneficiary. In short, because the state's fiscal health is being restored - in no small part because of Brown - he is in a much stronger position to deal with the Legislature. Essentially, the governor now needs the Legislature much less than it needs him. Brown referred to this ground-shifting in a comment toward the end of his budget news conference Tuesday.

Giulio Andreotti, the seven-time Italian prime minister who dominated Italian politics after World War II, but was tainted by accusations of Mafia ties, died in Rome on Monday after suffering from respiratory problems. He was 94. A lawmaker who lived through Italy's monarchy and its fascist era and sat in every Italian parliament since 1945, Andreotti had a career so intertwined with the country's 20th century history that when he faced trial for seeking favors from Cosa Nostra, the entire system was on trial too. "Andreotti was politics," Pier Ferdinando Casini, head of the Italian centrist Democratic Center Union party, said Monday.

Occidental Petroleum shareholders ousted Chairman and former Chief Executive Ray Irani in a dramatic annual meeting that signaled the end of an era for the storied oil and gas producer. It concluded a nearly three-decade run as a director of the Los Angeles company for the 78-year-old Irani. He first took the reins as CEO in 1990 from oil industry legend Armand Hammer. Back then, Occidental was considered something of a joke in the industry, with far-flung holdings in such odd areas as film production and horse and cattle breeding.

Deanna Durbin, the singing starlet with the bubbly personality and the jewel-tone voice whose enormously popular movies were widely credited with saving Universal Pictures from bankruptcy during the Depression, has died. She was 91. Her popularity peaked by her late teens and by her mid-20s Durbin had left Hollywood forever, made wealthy by her relatively brief career. She died in April in France, said family friend Bob Koster, the son of Henry Koster, who directed Durbin in films early in her career.

SEATTLE - Pitching in games wasn't so much the problem for reliever Sean Burnett, who had a 1.04 earned-run average in 11 appearances before being put on the 15-day disabled list because of forearm irritation Sunday. It was the discomfort Burnett felt between appearances, preventing him from pitching on consecutive days, that sent the veteran left-hander to the sidelines for at least two weeks. "Pitching-wise, I feel better than I have all year," said Burnett, who had surgery to remove two bone spurs from his elbow in October.

Former Dodgers and Angels are playing roles for teams all around the major leagues. Times staff writer Kevin Baxter ranks the teams and provides updates on them. (Statistics through Friday's games. Last week's rankings in parentheses): 1. TEXAS Ex-Dodgers Adrian Beltre (four HRs), Derek Lowe (1-0 in five games) making contributions. (7) 2. ATLANTA Former Dodger Reed Johnson hitting .250 off the Braves' bench. (1) 3. ST. LOUIS Dodgers helped St. Louis to a title when they sent Rafael Furcal there in 2011.

Re: "Clash Couture," (Style, Dec. 22): Sorry, I can't appreciate it. I guess I was brought up in an era that was just too clash conscious. Dick Hirsch Silverado

[Corrected Aug. 14, 3:48 p.m.] Absolutely. That's not to say he's currently the leading candidate, but he has put himself back in the hunt. It could yet happen. A few weeks ago when Kershaw was melting in the St. Louis heat and left with a 7-6 record and a 3.14 ERA, maybe it seemed it was getting out of reach. To that point, Kershaw was having a strong season, but something below the dominating 21-5, 2.28 season he turned in last year. But last season he won it with an incredible finish (13-1, 1.22 in his last 15 starts)

Powering down The San Diego Padres moved in the outfield fences this season, a nod to hitters frustrated when a home run anywhere else would be an out at Petco Park. In the Padres' first 10 home games, three balls that would have been outs last season went for home runs. "All for the other guys," Padres Manager Bud Black said. It's been that kind of start for the Padres, whose record through Friday was worse than any team other than the losing-by-design Houston Astros and Miami Marlins.

MEXICO CITY - Gen. Tomas Angeles Dauahare, who once held the plum post of military attache to the Mexican Embassy in Washington, was rumored to be the next defense minister of Mexico. Until that day in May last year when he and three other top military men were arrested on suspicion of working on behalf of a notorious drug cartel. It was the largest indictment of army officers on charges of drug-trafficking in recent memory, hailed in many quarters as proof of then-President Felipe Calderon's determination to root out corruption at every level.