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Call it retirement anxiety, or maybe recession obsession. For all of their married life, Patrick Webster, 63, and Susie Martin, 54, have been extremely frugal. Webster and Martin, who both work at Marymount College in Rancho Palos Verdes, have been stashing away their combined income at an enviable rate - more than 25% - for retirement. Together they have more than $1 million in investments and no debt. But rather than feeling reasonably secure about their financial future, they dread a return of hard times.

After a contest for mayor of Los Angeles that has consumed the better part of two years, the two finalists, their staffs, the media and a largely disinterested electorate doubtless would welcome an end to the drama Tuesday, election day. But the large number of Angelenos voting by mail, the apparent tightness of the race and the peculiarities of the City Clerk's ballot-counting procedures open the possibility that the winner might not be known for...

Auto leasing deals abound these days, with offers that often seem too good to be true. How about a well-equipped Honda Accord for $250 a month with no down payment or any other drive-off fees? Or better yet, $199 a month for a Chevrolet Malibu? So, what's the catch? There isn't any if you know what you're getting into. There are always details. You need top-tier credit to qualify. You pay a penalty if you turn that Honda in with more than 36,000 miles. And the payment is not $250 a month because of that little matter of tax. It is more like $275, depending on where you live.

A Mississippi man who had been accused of sending ricin-laced letters to President Obama, a U.S. senator and a Mississippi judge was set free Tuesday and charges against him were dropped as authorities converged on the home of another man. Paul Kevin Curtis of Corinth, Miss., had been released on bond earlier in the day. The part-time Elvis impersonator had been arrested last week on suspicion of mailing three letters filled with ricin within days...

You're at the gym working out, confident that you can lift more weight today than yesterday. You bend down to pick up the barbell and, as you come up, you feel a pop in the groin area. Next comes a dull pain and a queasy feeling. Even though the pain continues after you finish your workout, you figure it's just muscle strain. But the bad news is it may be a hernia. A hernia occurs when part of an organ within the body slips through an abnormal opening in the wall that normally contains it.

SOCCER/FOOTBALL URBAN LEGEND : Pele was paid to tie his shoelaces in the 1970 World Cup Final. Nowadays, the idea of athletes endorsing sneakers is well ingrained in the public consciousness. Seemingly every draft class in the NBA has at least one player sign an endorsement deal with one of the major sneaker companies in the United States (for instance, Anthony Davis, the first pick of the 2012 NBA Draft, has already signed with Nike). However, in the early days of the so-called "sneaker wars" between rival shoe companies Adidas and Puma, athlete endorsements were seen as a much bigger risk.

After a contest for mayor of Los Angeles that has consumed the better part of two years, the two finalists, their staffs, the media and a largely disinterested electorate doubtless would welcome an end to the drama Tuesday, election day. But the large number of Angelenos voting by mail, the apparent tightness of the race and the peculiarities of the City Clerk's ballot-counting procedures open the possibility that the winner might not be known for...

Pity the poor Costa Rican postman. Sure, he doesn't have to deal with sleet or snow. But consider what passes for an address here: From the Tibas cemetery, 200 meters south, 300 meters west, cross the train tracks, white two-story house. That's actually a pretty easy one. Making his rounds on the outskirts of this capital city one recent morning, carrier Roberto Montero Reyes pulled envelopes from his canvas sack whose addresses read like treasure-hunt clues or lines of haiku.

On a recent Saturday I got two pieces of mail. One was an advertisement from a hearing aid company to alert "a select few" that a "factory trained" representative would be available for "five days only" to conduct free hearing tests. "Your problem may just be wax!" the flier informed me optimistically. But just in case, I was being offered $1,000 off the purchase of a hearing aid. I already have hearing aids, and I don't need another, so I tossed the ad in the trash. The other piece of mail was the umpteenth reminder from Chase bank, where I have a checking account, that beginning Aug. 15, if I don't sign up for debit card overdraft coverage my debit card purchases will be denied if I don't have sufficient funds.

The post office doesn't deliver mail to Steven Stark's Santa Maria home anymore. It's not that Stark, the 36-year-old owner of an Internet company, is unpopular. He just decided that he'd rather deal with all of his correspondence online. Millions of Americans receive online versions of their bills and bank statements. But Stark is one of tens of thousands who have decided they don't need any physical mail, be it love letters or advertising come-ons.

WASHINGTON -- A Mississippi man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of sending ricin-laced letters to President Obama, a U.S. senator and another official, authorities said.  The FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service said Paul Kevin Curtis was taken into custody at 5:15 p.m. for sending three letters "which contained a granular substance that preliminarily tested positive for ricin. " Ricin, a poison, is deadly in small amounts if inhaled or ingested. Further tests will be performed on the letters to confirm whether the substance is ricin.  The letters went to the White House, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.)

Initial election results in Compton's hotly contested race for mayor showed former Mayor Omar Bradley - whose 2004 conviction on corruption charges was overturned by an appeals court last year - heading into a runoff with political newcomer Aja Brown. The results could signal an ouster of Mayor Eric Perrodin, a deputy district attorney and former Compton police officer who unseated Bradley in 2001. However, with 1,176 vote-by-mail and provisional ballots yet to be verified by the county registrar, the final results may not be known for another week.

When the U.S. Postal Service announced in February that it would end Saturday mail delivery this summer, most Americans reacted with a mixture of wistfulness and resignation. Yes, it was sad that the mail carrier wouldn't be dropping off letters on Saturday anymore, but scaling back to five days was a necessary concession to the agency's financial problems and a reflection of changes in communication wrought by the Internet. But not everyone saw it that way: The unions representing postal employees and their champions on Capitol Hill were especially determined to block the change, and a continuing resolution passed by Congress last month prohibited the USPS from curtailing service.

Britain's Daily Mail has issued an unusual high-profile apology and will pay an unspecified settlement to Journey guitarist Neal Schon in connection with an article that falsely characterized him as a "deadbeat dad" who slighted his children and ex-wife while showering his fiancee with pricey jewelry. The newspaper issued its statement regarding Schon and fiancee Michaele Salahi on the U.K. Home page of its Mail Online website. "We accept that these allegations are untrue and apologise to Mr. Schon, Ms. Salahi and the family for any distress caused," the statement said.

The postcard from France was unexpected, its message brief: "Mom, I think we need a geography lesson but not too bad - Linda & John. " Linda Sohus had told her mother she and her husband, John, were going on a two-week trip to Connecticut for an interview John had for a job working with computers. She made plans to see the play "Cats" with her mother when she returned. So when the postcard came in from Paris a few months later, her mother, Susan Mayfield, was confused, she testified Thursday.

SACRAMENTO - Three years after a major influence-peddling scandal rocked California and the nation's largest public pension fund, a federal grand jury indicted two former top officials on fraud, conspiracy and obstruction charges. The indictment, unsealed Monday in San Francisco, names as defendants Federico Buenrostro Jr. of Sacramento, a former chief executive of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, and Alfred J.R. Villalobos of Reno, Nev., a former CalPERS board member and one-time deputy Los Angeles mayor.

After reading Jerry Hicks' June 5 column on the mail problem, I now know why we get our mail 2-3-4-5-6 o'clock. What puzzles me is that we've been getting our mail 2-3-4-5-6 o'clock for the last 15 years, and we've been complaining for 15 years. SID LAZAROW Orange

Hollywood billboard queen Angelyne knows what's going to be on the next giant-sized sign she puts up in L.A. Along with her buxom-blond image will likely be a stark message to the city: "Stop hijacking my fan mail!" The Tinseltown personality best known for billboards that promote her Barbie Doll figure and her name alleges that the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency reneged on a promise to let her keep her longtime mailing address after evicting her to make way for a new Hollywood luxury hotel project.

Faced by widespread public opposition, the Los Angeles County supervisors on Tuesday sent a proposed parcel fee to combat storm water pollution back to the drawing board. The proposed fee would be levied on all property owners within the county's flood control district, raising an estimated $290 million a year to help cities and the county deal with widespread water quality issues stemming from polluted storm water and urban runoff and the need to comply with new state regulations.

SACRAMENTO -- The tax bill isn't in the mail, at least for the next 90 days. The California Franchise Tax Board, which collects the state income tax, has temporarily opted not to send out bills to about 2,000 taxpayers telling them they owe $120 million in back taxes. State tax collectors originally mailed notices in December retroactively dunning taxpayers after a court threw out as unconstitutional an investment incentive program. As a result shareholders in small businesses could be on the hook for taxes on income from the sale of stock for the years 2008-12, plus interest.