Fees

Open a checking account today and you'll be handed a plastic card that lets you withdraw cash from ATM machines, make purchases on credit and transfer money directly from your account to a merchant's. You'll be aware of these features because you've probably been using an ATM card for years. What you may not realize is that, in most cases, the bank has quietly signed you up for overdraft protection that kicks in automatically if you spend more than you have in your account. And you may not find out about this feature until you rack up hefty fees.

California's auto dealers are worried that the state's new budget will put an even bigger dent in already miserable sales. Increases in the sales tax and vehicle license fees were key components of the measure signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday. Both raise the cost of buying a car.

Leave it to the banks to try to turn passage of credit card reform legislation Tuesday into bad news for many cardholders. Here's the deal: Banks are basically saying that because they're going to have to change some lending practices to comply with the bill, they'll be facing greater risk.

At the UCLA studio of the American Society of Civil Engineers, undergraduates are engaged in such difficult extracurricular projects as designing and building a 20-foot-long concrete canoe to race against other California college teams. But the young engineers face a potentially tougher challenge as University of California leaders consider a plan to charge these students more for their undergraduate education than most others at the university. As part of a plan to plug UC's battered budget, the regents may vote as early as next month on the controversial, tradition-breaking proposal to require engineering undergraduates, along with those studying business, to pay $900 more a year than the rest of the student body.

The California Supreme Court unanimously overturned a billion-dollar class-action award against Bank of America Corp. on Monday, ruling that banks can collect overdraft fees from accounts in which government benefits intended for subsistence are directly deposited. The ruling threw out a 2004 verdict by a San Francisco jury that found the bank violated state law by taking fees for insufficient funds from accounts set up to receive Social Security benefits.

If you check out Wolfgang Puck's Spago restaurant on the Better Business Bureau's website, you'll discover that, under the organization's new rating system, the world-famous Beverly Hills eatery merits a grade of B-minus. Why? That's hard to say. The online report says the bureau has received no complaints about Spago from customers and is unaware of any government actions against the restaurant. Now check out the considerably less prominent Cafe Santorini in Pasadena.

Most reporters would love to make $75,000. In a year. So it set my eyes to blinking when I read that New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman got paid that much for a single speech, sponsored last week by the San Francisco Bay Area's clean air district.

University of California officials Wednesday said they will proceed with plans to seek a 9.3% hike in undergraduate student fees for next school year and warned that faculty and staff layoffs might be needed if state financing measures fail in the May election and the budget deficit worsens. The increase, amounting to $662, would bring the average basic cost for an undergraduate UC education to $8,720 a year for California residents, not including room, board and books.

A Los Angeles investment firm run by a well-known Southern California political operative has become ensnared in a widening probe into the fees paid to advisors who help place investments in public pension funds. Wetherly Capital Group has come under scrutiny for a $313,750 payment it made to a firm run by a New York political advisor who was arrested last month on charges of running a kickback scheme involving New York state's pension fund.

Scott Lowe enlisted in the infantry -- the "dirtiest job there is" in the Army, he says -- completing two Iraqi tours in which he dug up weapons caches, found improvised explosive devices and rounded up insurgents. "No better way to serve your country," said Lowe, 27. "Most of us lost friends over there, had close calls. . . . Now it's time to catch up."