Hiking

TRAVEL Presentation Ava Waits will offer tips on healthy travel to Europe and what to do if you need to see a doctor or pharmacist on your trip. When, where: 7:30 p.m. Monday at Distant Lands, 20 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena. Admission, info: Free. RSVP to (626) 449-3220. MT. WHITNEY Workshop Experts will offer tips on preparing to hike Mt. Whitney, including the permit system, coping with high altitude and taking alternative routes to the top. When, where: 7 p.m. Wednesday at the REI store in Arcadia, 214 N. Santa Anita Ave. Admission, info: Free.

We admire this sugared peak from our downtown L.A. offices on the clearest winter days, a 10,000-foot postcard of pleasures. Indeed, Mt. Baldy offers challenging (though limited) ski terrain. Serious hikers use it to train for Everest. In short, this SoCal playground offers something for almost everyone. And you don't have to be Marco Polo to get there: Baldy is only an hour's drive - one easy turn off the 210 Freeway. The bed The village's centerpiece is the popular Mt. Baldy Lodge ([909]

WASHINGTON - Efforts are underway in Congress and at least half a dozen states, including California, to raise taxes on firearms or ammunition to pay for programs targeting gun violence. In Congress, a group of Democrats, led by Rep. Linda T. Sanchez of Lakewood, is pushing for an additional 10% tax on handgun purchases that could generate tens of millions of dollars nationwide to fund gun buybacks, firearms safety campaigns and anti-violence programs. Legislation that would impose taxes on guns or bullets has also been introduced in Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey and Washington state.

Nearly every week, 70-year-old Barb Johnson hears word of a nearby robbery or car break-in in Vermont Knolls , her neighborhood of modest bungalows just west of the Harbor Freeway in South Los Angeles. So it was alarming, she says, to learn this week that voters had rejected a proposed city sales tax increase that the mayor, the police chief and other civic leaders said was vital to shoring up the Los Angeles Police Department and improving emergency services. "How are we supposed to keep our streets safe if there's no money?"

Two days after Los Angeles voters defeated a sales tax hike that officials had said was vital to reducing the city's budget crisis, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said stronger revenues and an improving economy could cut this year's financial gap by more than half. Villaraigosa, who endorsed the plan to take the sales tax from 9% to 9.5%, said Thursday that he now expects a brighter financial outlook to take a looming deficit from $216 million to a much lower number, possibly less than $100 million, for the fiscal year that starts July 1. "The economy's getting better," he said.

Two veterans of Los Angeles politics, Councilman Eric Garcetti and Controller Wendy Greuel, pushed ahead of six other candidates in initial election returns Tuesday and appeared to be well-positioned to advance to a May runoff to become the city's next mayor. Former council President Garcetti and his onetime council colleague Greuel broke to a significant lead over Councilwoman Jan Perry, entertainment lawyer Kevin James, former technology executive Emanuel Pleitez and three lesser-known candidates.

A day after voters rejected a tax increase, top Los Angeles officials began preparing a new round of cuts to city services, warning that even the Police Department may not be spared. The sales tax was seen as a last-ditch attempt to help balance the city's budget without more reductions, which already have included slashing 5,300 positions and scaling back services ranging from sidewalk repairs to 911 rescue operations. "Everything has to be put back on the table, from the size of the police force to the restoration of fire services to the paving of our streets," said the city's Chief Administrative Officer Miguel Santana, who said he plans to deliver a menu of potential budget reductions to lawmakers within days.

Only eight days after launching a fare hike, Delta Air Lines has initiated another price increase for flights booked within seven days of the trip. But the good news for travelers is that Delta rescinded the latest fare hike over the weekend after few other airlines matched the increase. Delta initiated a raise of $4 to $10 per flights for flights booked within seven days of departure on Feb. 20, according to the website Farecompare.com, which tracks air fare trends. The hike, which targeted last-minute bookings made primarily by business travelers, was matched by all of Delta's major competitors.

A Los Angeles sales tax hike being promoted as vital to preserving public safety and helping end years of budget deficits is drawing support from a narrow majority of likely voters, according to a new USC Price/L.A. Times poll. Fifty-three percent of surveyed voters said they definitely or probably would vote for Proposition A, which is on Tuesday's ballot and would raise $200 million a year by boosting the city's sales tax rate by half a cent to 9.5%, one of the highest in the state.

When a trade group for corporate travel managers recently predicted airfares would rise in 2013, the group probably didn't expect the hikes to be launched so quickly. Domestic airfares are expected to jump 4.6% in 2013, while international rates will probably rise 8.3%, according to a survey of travel managers by the GBTA Foundation, an arm of the Global Business Travel Assn. The group attributed the increase to rising demand from companies ready to take advantage of new business opportunities in a strengthening economy.