Future

London is swinging again thanks to bride and princess-to-be Kate Middleton. Millions are hanging on her every move — where she shops, where she primps, what she eats and drinks. Although the couple live (part of the time) in a rented farmhouse in North Wales, Middleton and Prince William will likely move to London's Kensington Palace at some point in the future. And Middleton certainly spends a lot of time in London — especially now that the wedding is a month away — mostly in the swish neighborhoods of South Kensington, Chelsea, Knightsbridge and Mayfair, all of which are in close proximity to Hyde Park and the Buckingham and Kensington palaces.

It doesn't say much for the intelligence of Guggenheim Management, the owner of the Dodgers, when Frank McCourt turned out to be the smartest guy in the room. Guggenheim, I have a house I'd like to sell you. It was appraised for $1 million, but I'll let you have it for a million four. There is one condition, however. I keep the garage and the land under it, and you pay me $50,000 per year for the right to park in the garage. You'd better move fast, Guggenheim, before other interested parties emerge.

I'm an 84-year-old man on Social Security with original Medicare and Mutual of Omaha gap insurance. My insurance premium was raised from $262 to $363 a month, a 39% jump. After all my monthly expenses, I have just $240 left. What can I do in the event of another increase in my premiums? If you've had your current Medicare supplement plan for years, it's not surprising that you've seen your costs steadily rise, says Steve Zaleznick, senior Medicare advisor at PlanPrescriber, a Maynard, Mass.-based online provider of Medicare education and plan comparison tools.

PITTSBURGH - Andre Ethier doesn't know where he'll be batting in the lineup when the Dodgers open a three-game series in Pittsburgh on Friday. Or, for that matter, if he'll be playing at all. These days, nothing is certain for Ethier, who only a year ago was viewed as one of the team's centerpieces and signed to a five-year, $85-million contract extension. Not only is Ethier's short-term future now in question, his long-term future is too. The emergence of Yasiel Puig has led to widespread speculation in baseball circles that the Dodgers will attempt to trade Ethier in the near future.

Mercedes-Benz is talking up the changes for 2014 for its redesigned Sprinter cargo van as other automakers ramp up to compete in the segment. Mercedes-Benz says the new Sprint is slightly longer, with its radiator grill moved into a more upright and "self-assured" position, lending the new Sprinter "a more confident presence. " But the bigger changes are inside. Photos: The most American cars and trucks Claus Tritt, general manager of commercial vans for Mercedes-Benz USA, said in an interview that the most important difference, perhaps, was the new 2.1-liter in-line-four diesel engine.

British footwear brand L.K. Bennett , maker of the Duchess of Cambridge's favorite nude patent leather platform pumps since the time she was known as Kate Middleton, has opened up its first store in Los Angeles, at the Beverly Center. Besides royal favorite the “Sledge” ($345), the store stocks plenty of other styles, including the “Zela” ($295) patent leather wedge with an espadrille-like rope sole, the zebra print “Capri” ($475) gladiator sandal as well as clothing, bags and belts.

Honda issued a rare apology on Friday to frustrated customers who were having difficulty finding the electric version of it popular Fit hatchback. Honda has seen a rush of interest in the low-volume Fit EV since dropping the lease price in late May, to $259 from $389. The deal requires no money down, has no mileage limit, and includes a free in-home charger and collision insurance. One Santa Monica dealership said it had three of the cars sitting on the lot for months. Just after Honda's announcement, all three were snatched up by customers in a single morning and a waiting list formed.

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 these troubled economic times, it's not hard to understand why people might want to protect their life savings by purchasing a hard asset like gold or silver. At least, that's the pitch of Monex, the big Newport Beach investment firm, which bills itself as "America's trusted name in precious metals investments" and assures clients that it's "committed to customer service. " So let's take a look at the experiences of some customers who say their trust in Monex was misplaced.

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.

News Corp. has moved closer to its historic breakup that is expected to test whether investors share Chairman Rupert Murdoch's confidence that there is a solid future for newspapers. On Tuesday, shareholders approved measures that will allow Murdoch's sprawling media empire to be cleaved into two separate publicly traded companies. The most profitable assets - Fox News Channel, the Fox broadcast TV network, Fox regional sports networks, FX and the 20th Century Fox movie studio - will form 21st Century Fox Inc. The publishing assets, including the Wall Street Journal, Times of London, New York Post, the Australian, HarperCollins book publishing house and several Australian television properties, will form a separate company.

As an economist, an immigrant and a scholar of the effects of immigration on the U.S. economy, I find that few pieces of legislation have engaged me more than the proposal for comprehensive immigration reform that the full Senate will take up this week. The most heated debates have been about the path to legal status for those undocumented immigrants who are already in the United States. But this bill does much more than that. It changes the rules regulating the future flow of immigrants and of non-immigrant, temporary foreign workers.

My daughter, Kelzer , is a mother now with three children, and it's been more than a decade since she spent much time shooting a basketball. But I flew Kelzer in from Arizona to teach Dwight Howard how to shoot free throws because she still has to be better than he is. Who isn't? We all met at UCLA, Howard was as friendly as always and relaxed after fishing trips to Lake Tahoe and Aspen. He posted Twitter pictures of the fish that had jumped in his boat or the ones he claimed he had caught.

In 2004, with President George W. Bush dead set against stem cell research, California just went ahead and did it. Voters made stem cell research a state constitutional right, and endorsed $3 billion in bond sales for 10 years to cement the deal. CIRM, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine created under Proposition 71, has become a world center for stem cell research, and its president is Australian Alan Trounson, a pioneer in in vitro fertilization. As Proposition 71 approaches its 10-year anniversary, Trounson offers a prognosis.

Futuristic fabrics and high-tech garments are just one way technology is affecting the fashion landscape. Another, e-commerce, was the topic of discussion at Fashion Digital Los Angeles, a recent day-long conference in Hollywood. Some 450 registrants gathered for a range of discussions with such titles as "Beating Amazon With Inspiration-Based Commerce? Yes, It's Possible!" and "Turning Small Screens and Fat Fingers into Big Opportunities" that underscored that the fashion side of e-commerce is big and getting bigger.

WASHINGTON - With a wide grin and a quick step, letter carrier Kenny Clark brings more than the day's mail to the people on his route in suburban Maryland. Clark, 49, greets nearly everyone he sees by name. He puts packages under eaves on overcast days to keep them dry, reminds people to retrieve keys they might have left in keyholes, and shouts a quick "You OK?" at the doors of seniors. "He's a neighborhood icon - him and his truck," said Amy Dick, who lives on Clark's route.

SACRAMENTO - The Assembly passed a proposal Thursday to hike California's minimum wage from $8 to $9.25 an hour over the next three years and require future increases to keep pace with inflation. Higher wages would "allow our families to provide for their children, pay their bills and give them dignity and respect," said Assemblyman Luis Alejo (D-Watsonville), the bill's author. The measure, which now goes to the Senate, was one of scores that lawmakers advanced as they raced to meet an internal deadline to keep legislation moving.

Imagine having the fountain of youth as close at hand as the bathroom. We're not there yet — but there's a burgeoning number of at-home, high-tech beauty gadgets that claim to smooth wrinkles, whiten teeth and remove hair without the need to invest in pricey beauty treatments at the spa, dermatologist or plastic surgeon's office. Some of these gadgets are so high-tech the Food and Drug Administration considers them medical devices, so approach the world of cosmetic gadgetry with caution.

Aerospace giant Northrop Grumman Corp., plagued by setbacks with its pricey high-flying spy drones, has come up with a new version for the Navy that could keep the company's unmanned aircraft assembly line in Palmdale humming. An initial test flight - a relatively easy 80 minutes around the company's Palmdale plant - went off without a hitch. And that could have a major effect on the program's future in the Southland. The drone, called MQ-4C Triton, is a heavily modified version of Northrop's beleaguered RQ-4 Global Hawk, which has been dismissed as too expensive by the Pentagon and Germany's defense ministry.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Tuesday to send the bipartisan immigration bill - more formally known as the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernizing Act - to the full Senate. The 800-plus page bill is by far the most ambitious attempt to overhaul the nation's immigration system in nearly three decades. The version that will reach the floor is, not surprisingly, imperfect, but the fact that it emerged from committee at all, and largely intact, is a testament to both political parties' willingness to compromise - a characteristic that has been in short supply in Washington for a long time.