Grading

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.

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center improved slightly from an F to a D in a national hospital safety report released Wednesday, while Cedars-Sinai Medical Center stayed at a C grade. Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit healthcare quality organization, based the scores on an analysis of infections, injuries, medication errors and other problems that cause patient harm or death. The organization publicizes the scores in an effort to inform patients and reduce safety problems, said Leah Binder, its president and chief executive.

Sullivan gives Shakespeare in L.A. Theater a "D" but mentions ony the Taper, Old Globe, Ahmanson and L.A.T.C. Has he seen the Bard's work at any waiver theaters recently? With talented and versatile actors working in our theaters--albeit on the small-theater level--we don't need a Brit to show us how to do Shakespeare. What we do need is a critic who grades the work of all the students, not just the big kids in the class! STANLEY BENTON Los Angeles

A drive along Angus Street in hilly Silver Lake requires navigating a gantlet of buckled concrete slabs and dirt-filled cracks. But on South Seabluff Drive in Playa Vista the ride is smooth, the pavement is black and you can smell the fresh asphalt. Despite the city's best efforts to keep up with the constant flood of road repairs, Los Angeles is a city divided - by its potholes, cracks and ruts. Interactive map: See your street's grade A Times analysis of street inspection data found wide disparities in road quality among the city's 114 neighborhoods.

Weasels: 3 Gnatcatchers: 1 HENRY C. OSTERMILLER, Costa Mesa

A proposal to change the city's grading ordinance to allow more building space on hillsides will be considered today by the City Council. The proposal would allow grades to be steeper, which would enlarge development space on hillsides. A request from a developer to build 19 condominiums at Lakeview Avenue and Orchard Drive prompted the proposal. The city's Planning Commission on July 14 is expected to consider the development request by Oakhill Development Inc. of Newport Beach.

In response to your editorial, "It Just May Not Make the Grade" (Sept. 10), referring to the new LAUSD report card: It is important for the public to know that the revised grading system is a part of the total reform movement in California elementary public schools. This reform movement is documented in the California State Department of Education 1992 publication, "It's Elementary." In its series of recommendations there is one in particular that addresses the grading system, with a recommendation to "not assign letter grades during the primary years."

I am saddened and outraged by the flooding of Laguna Beach during the recent rains, as I am certain most of the community must be. The cause of much of the flooding has been attributed directly to the irresponsible construction practices of the Transportation Corridor Agencies. Police Chief Neil J. Purcell Jr. blamed the grading on either side of Laguna Canyon Road for much of the mud that flowed into the city ("Laguna Hammered Again by the Elements," Jan. 5). The TCA was more concerned with destroying critical habitat than taking the necessary precautions to avoid the flooding and mudslides.

Morningstar Inc. on Tuesday started grading mutual funds on whether their interests are sufficiently aligned with those of shareholders. The so-called fiduciary grade rates funds on issues including public disclosure and quality of board oversight. Morningstar is initially offering the grades for about 600 funds and will expand that number in the next several months. The grades won't affect the five-star rating system for mutual fund performance.

Under pressure from the food industry, Orange County supervisors are poised to reject a proposal that would require the county's 10,000 eateries to post consumer-friendly letter grades reflecting the results of health and sanitation inspections. The board is now leaning toward using other methods to give restaurant patrons information about government inspections of restaurants, diners and other food establishments--without the A-B-C stickers so common in other Southern California counties.

The Better Business Bureau wants you to know that it's cleaned up its act in Los Angeles. The organization reached out to me this week to say that a new operation is up and running after the old BBB of the Southland was expelled in March after years of reports that the branch had been awarding inflated grades to businesses in exchange for cash. Carrie Hurt, head of the national Council of Better Business Bureaus, told me that a "virtual BBB" has been launched in Southern California, enabling bureau officials from across the country to address local consumer issues via the Internet.

Forget about learning the state capitals, at least, as the sum total of your knowledge of geography. "Geography is about meaning, not knowing place names and memorizing lists - that was school geography," said Daniel Edelson, vice president for education programs at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. Say hello to the new geography. It runs your GPS unit, takes you on mobile-device-guided tours, helps you find and see hotel rooms before you book them. Want to calculate your estimated time of arrival, locate a nearby gluten-free restaurant, or find out whether it's raining in Río?

A coalition of environmental groups says it has discovered that large-scale shipments of low-quality heavy crude oil from Canada's tar sands are being delivered by rail for processing by Southern California refineries. The groups on Tuesday called for an investigation by air-quality officials to evaluate the effects on health, air quality, safety and the climate of processing the heavy Canadian crude, which requires intensive processing to remove higher levels of sulfur to meet U.S. standards.

Another open-government group has given California a failing grade for a lack of transparency, this time in how the state spends its money. California received an "F'" grade from the CalPIRG Education Fund in part because the financial data it makes accessible to the public lack some information needed in order for residents to closely monitor state spending. The group said all 50 states provide some checkbook-level information on state spending via the Internet, but information is not easily searchable in California and Vermont.

A fraught romantic comedy shot through with anxiety about getting your child into an Ivy League school or else, "Admission" stars Tina Fey as a Princeton University admissions officer with a secret. Her genial foil is Paul Rudd, who runs a rural New Hampshire high school that's a progressive Eden of alternative educational grooviness. How these two nice, attractive, funny people find each other is up to the machinery of the source material, a novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz, adapted with mixed success for the screen by Karen Croner and directed with a calming glow by Paul Weitz, whose attention to relational detail was evident in "About a Boy," "In Good Company" and, more recently, "Being Flynn.

Six teams headed for the 2013 NCAA tournament this week have Academic Progress Rates below 930, meaning they would not be eligible for the postseason under tougher NCAA requirements that will be enacted in the future. Oregon, Oklahoma State, James Madison, Saint Louis, Southern and New Mexico State fell below the 930 line this year, according to a study released Monday by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida. Saint Louis, Southern and New Mexico State also missed the present APR standard of 925 -- which equates to about a 50% graduation rate -- but are eligible to play under the current rules.

Residents were jubilant Monday after Orange County ordered grading halted at a youth detention camp where bulldozers had cleared at least four acres of oaks and coastal sage without state and federal permits. County probation officials initially said they had sufficient permits from the county. But residents said the area was potential habitat for endangered or threatened species, and grading would require permits from the state Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

California consumers don't have easy access to prices for medical care, according to a national report card that gave the state a letter grade of D for its dismal showing. Overall, 36 states received grades of D or F in the report issued Monday by two nonprofit healthcare groups that analyzed government efforts to make pricing information widely available to consumers. This issue has taken on added importance in recent years as patients shoulder a growing share of healthcare costs from higher deductibles and other insurance changes.

SACRAMENTO -- A national study on government transparency has given the California Legislature a D grade for failing to shine adequate sunlight on its operations. The Sunlight Foundation issued the Transparency Report Card  to show how well state legislative information is made available to the public online, judging states on factors including timeliness of information, searchability and permanence. California was downgraded, in part, for the lack of detail provided on committee actions that would help the public understand who voted for and against bills.