Nada

Kyle Abbott couldn't wait for tonight's All-Star game. Not that the Philadelphia Phillie rookie left-hander will play in it. Heck, he probably won't even watch it on television or listen to it on the radio. Nope. What Abbott wants out of this three-day break in the major league schedule is to catch a break himself, a brief respite from the miserable season he has endured thus far. Abbott, once a top prospect in the Angels' organization, is living a pitcher's nightmare.

A compound once owned by "Silky Soul Singer" Marvin Gaye and his first wife, Anna, has come on the market in Hollywood Hills West at $3.799 million. The 1.46-acre estate includes a four-bedroom, five-bathroom main house, a guesthouse, an outdoor kitchen and an eight-car motor court. Water spills down a wall of boulders and into the swimming pool. There are three fireplaces and 3,156 square feet of living space. Gaye, who died in 1984 at 44, found success in the late 1960s singing duets with Tammi Terrell such as "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing.

Pop star and singing competition judge Britney Spears has bought the Thousand Oaks home of former professional hockey player Russ Courtnall and his wife, actress Paris Vaughan. The property came on the market in August at $8.5 million and was withdrawn from the Multiple Listing Service within a month. A withdrawal is a tactic sometimes used to hide celebrity home purchases. The sales price was not disclosed. The Mediterranean-style house, built in 2010, is in the Lake Sherwood area.

When electric-car company Tesla Motors Inc. started selling its flagship Model S luxury hatchback earlier this year, it eschewed the traditional dealership network to open its own stores. But that's not sitting well with U.S. auto dealers, who have controlled new-vehicle sales for nearly a century. The nation's roughly 18,000 new-car dealers got a cut of every one of the 12.8 million new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. last year, from the biggest domestic sport-utility vehicle to the tiniest Japanese import.

It's been two years since DJ Dave Nada spawned a dance genre that propelled him from Washington, D.C., nightclub fixture to unwitting sire of a rhythmic revolution. Since 2009, moombahton — Nada's woofer-rattling concoction of Dutch house and reggaeton — has become a rapidly mutating force in DJ culture, collecting piles of fans and eclectic sub-genres. So, when Nada decided to relocate to Los Angeles in 2010 to further his DJ career, the monstrous music movement he hatched in D.C. wasn't far behind.

It shouldn't surprise anyone who reads this column that I was active in the again-controversial Latino student group MEChA during my college days. MEChA is an esoteric Spanish acronym that translates as Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan. That final word refers to an ancient legend that places an Aztec homeland somewhere in the north. A few Mexican Americans use the word to refer to the U.S.

THOUGH STEVE LYOns probably doesn't think so right now, sometimes it pays to insult Latinos. Take, for instance, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's description of Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia (R-Cathedral City) as "very hot," followed by this ramble: "I mean, they [Cubans and Puerto Ricans] are all very hot ... they have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them that together makes it."

How can a family keep travel costs down? By taking advantage of freebies on the road. Across America, budget travelers can find plenty of rewarding attractions that cost nothing. In the last year, I've driven thousands of miles in search of such bargains. I've been amazed by how much there has been to see and do for free. One of my favorites is the summer salmon show at the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery in Stanley, Idaho. It's exciting, wet and -- parents, take heed here -- highly educational.

Lesbian, shmesbian. Should we really give a hoot whether Ellen Morgan, the single neurotic played by Ellen DeGeneres in her ABC sitcom, "Ellen," discloses that she's a lesbian? Well . . . yes. It's a long season, and we need something besides O.J. Simpson and Clinton vs. Dole to push our buttons. I'm for Ellen Morgan bursting from the closet if only because Donald Wildmon, big-talking founder of the impotent American Family Assn., says he's against it and may boycott the show's advertisers.

When the North American Free Trade Agreement, better known as NAFTA, was being debated in Congress, some of its critics argued it would be bad for U.S. workers. Others said it would hurt Mexican workers. Their concerns were shouted down by the treaty's proponents, who optimistically predicted that a rising tide of profits and productivity would raise all boats. Now, after a decade under NAFTA, it's clear the picture isn't so rosy.