Notes

CardHub.com , which compares and rates credit-card offers, has identified its favorite travel credit cards for 2013. Topping the list are the Capital One Venture Card , Blue Cash Preferred from American Express and the PenFed Platinum Rewards Card issued by the Pentagon Federal Credit Union. Credit cards make sense for travelers for many reasons, including getting free or low currency exchange rates when abroad, free rental-car insurance coverage and reward bonuses earned for dollars spent.

As President Obama contemplates his many bad options in Syria, he may want to consider the Aspin Doctrine, an argument for intervention abroad made by President Clinton's first secretary of Defense, Les Aspin. In 1993, the Clinton administration was wrestling with a seemingly insoluble conflict in Bosnia, where Serbian-backed troops were besieging cities and slaughtering civilians. Aspin's advice was straightforward: Let's bomb the Serbs and see what happens. INSIDE SYRIA: More Times coverage Critics objected that military action would put the United States on a slippery slope toward deeper intervention, but Aspin rejected that thinking as outmoded.

If you are a teacher in debt, there's good news and bad news. There are literally dozens of programs that could potentially help wipe out your student loans. But most of them have narrow requirements that may lock you out. Just ask Troy Dale, a high school counselor from Ellis, Kan. He and his wife have $23,000 in student loans that they've been paying down for nearly a decade. At their current rate, they'll still be paying off their student debts when their oldest child enrolls in college.

The gunman who killed five people last week during a shooting rampage through Santa Monica left an "almost conversational" farewell note expressing remorse for killing his father and brother, law enforcement authorities said Thursday evening. John Zawahri, 23, also wrote that he hoped his mother would be cared for financially and said goodbye to several friends. At a news conference, police gave their most detailed account yet of Zawahri's trail of bloodshed June 7 as he made his way from his father's home on Yorkshire Avenue and along busy Pico Boulevard before storming onto the Santa Monica College campus, where he was fatally wounded by officers in the library.

Plantar fasciitis. If you haven't had to deal with it personally, just ask around. Chances are you know lots of people who can describe it in great detail: stabbing heel pain and agonizing steps followed by a frustratingly slow recovery. Plantar fasciitis - an inflammation of the plantar facsia, a thick band of tissue that runs along the arch from the heel to the toes - has become so ubiquitous that podiatrists can practically make the diagnosis before a patient even sets foot in their office.

Until recently, very few people had ever heard of raspberry ketones, the aromatic compounds that give the berries their distinctive smell. Today, health food stores have trouble keeping the capsules or drops of the stuff on their shelves. Almost overnight, an obscure plant compound became the next big thing in weight loss - and all it took was a few words from Dr. Oz. In a February episode of "The Dr. Oz Show," Mehmet Oz told viewers that raspberry ketones were "the No. 1 miracle in a bottle to burn your fat. " Once Oz calls something a "miracle," it doesn't remain obscure for long.

A man with no risk factors for prostate cancer can go his whole life without ever taking a PSA test, according to the American Urological Assn. In a new clinical guideline unveiled Friday, the urologists said that only men between the ages of 55 and 69 should even consider getting a PSA screening test if they have no signs or symptoms of prostate cancer. Men should only get tested after discussing all the pros and cons with their doctors, and if they decide to get tested, they should not get tested again for at least two years, the guideline advises.

Many days, the sheer weight of Iszurette Hunter's clinical depression becomes more than she can lift. She clings to her bed in her South Los Angeles home. Important obligations slide away, including keeping appointments with doctors who are trying to control her asthma and high blood pressure. "I don't have no desire," she explains. As the nation seeks to extend healthcare coverage to millions of new and in many cases chronically ill patients, one of the great parallel challenges to controlling costs and improving delivery of care will be managing the mental health problems of people like Hunter.

E&J Gallo Winery and Dick Clark Productions Inc. said they've teamed up to celebrate the millennium. Clark will appear in commercials for Gallo's Ballatore Sparkling Wine and use it to toast the new year on his "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" special. The Gallo campaign for the wine also includes in-store promotions and radio ads. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Gallo had a similar deal with Clark in 1998.

PHOENIX -- Ted Lilly was scheduled to face the San Diego Padres Wednesday, but will instead pitch in a minor-league game on a practice field at Camelback Ranch. There were two reasons for the move. With Lilly scheduled to face the Padres on March 27 and again in his first start of the regular season, Manager Don Mattingly wanted to limit the number of times the division rival saw him. Also, a rain-shortened game on Sunday limited the workload of some relievers competing for the final roster spot and Mattingly wants to see them pitch in game conditions.

SAN ANTONIO - As LeBron James missed shot after shot and the Miami Heat racked up some serious scoreboard debt, the question had to be asked. Was Game 3 the worst performance ever by James on the big stage? He finally started scoring in the last two minutes of the third quarter, but Miami trailed San Antonio by, ahem, 21 points, leading to second-guessing, finger-pointing, whatever you wanted to call it, as the Spurs took a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals. "I've never seen LeBron passive," TNT and NBA TV analyst Charles Barkley said after Game 3. "He wasn't being aggressive.

A self-described "loud-mouthed Irish priest" ("And may they carve it on my gravestone!" he once quipped), the Rev. Andrew M. Greeley rejected a conventional definition of his vocation. Denied a parish, the Roman Catholic priest created his own pulpits as a sociologist whose groundbreaking research corrected misimpressions of American Roman Catholics and as a bestselling novelist whose works - "The Cardinal Sins," "Thy Brother's Wife" and more than 50 other titles - made readers blush and church superiors fume.

WASHINGTON - Cuba further distanced itself from terrorist activities last year but the U.S. government still considers it a state sponsor of terrorism along with Syria, Iran and Sudan, according to the State Department's annual report. The report for 2012, released Thursday, says the government in Cuba last year reduced support for Basque separatists in Southern Europe, joined a regional group that seeks to block terrorism financing, and sponsored peace talks between Colombia and an armed rebel group.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Peyton Manning has had dozens of signature moments in his football career that the outside world didn't witness. Since childhood, Manning has jotted handwritten thank-you notes, and for years he has maintained a tradition of sending them to various NFL players retiring from the game. "I don't know who qualifies for a letter, necessarily," Manning said. "It's probably just somebody I played against for a long time. I don't have to know you real well. The other guys on my list now, I've got [Baltimore center]

Preparing for his return to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles after six months' treatment at a center for pedophile priests, Father Michael Wempe sat down to type out a list of concerns. Arrangements for his dog. Counseling and support groups for himself. Above everything, he wrote at the top of the list in the 1987 memo: "Confidentiality - Reports from here destroyed, even this paper. " Wempe had good reason for the request. The reports from the center laid out how he had confessedto molesting young boys.

Re "Why USC, Dr. Dre?," Opinion, May 21 Proving that no good deed goes unpunished, Dillard University President Walter M. Kimbrough says that Andre Young (also known as Dr. Dre) should have considered donating the $35 million he gave USC to a historically black college such as his. It's sad that Kimbrough would intimate that race should have played a factor here. USC has a great history of developing the next generation of creative people in the arts, so it's natural to have music industry leaders challenge the university to develop the next line of producers, editors and artists.

"Are there scholarships to rehab?" Michelle Andrade endearingly asks in "Surrender Michelle," the most absorbing and among the largest of her drawings at Charlie James. Andrade nearly smothers the 31-by-50-inch sheet of paper with inked ramblings, doodles, intricate patterns, propositions, reflections and self-doubts: "I have the best taste in music....I am still filled with Catholic guilt....My mind races....Don't get too close....Want to come to the Verdugo tonight?" Andrade's drawings meld teenage exuberance with adult anxiety.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The number of women and girls jailed by Afghan authorities for "moral crimes" has risen by 50% in the last year and a half, an alarming statistic that reflects the Afghan government's need to step up efforts to protect women's rights, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday. The New York-based rights group cited Afghan Interior Ministry statistics showing a sharp increase in the number of women and girls imprisoned for "moral crimes," from 400 in October 2011 to 600 in May 2013.

Voters Tuesday trickled into St. Paul's Presbysterian church in South L.A. to cast their ballots after a torrent of campaign advertisements and  record-breaking spending in the race for mayor of Los Angeles.  Many arrived with firm opinions and researched notes in hand. Beverly Galloway, 72, of Baldwin Vista said she voted for Wendy Greuel. "I felt that she was honest, a leader that can't be dictated to,” Galloway said. “I watched the debates, and I was impressed. " PHOTOS: L.A. voters head to the polls Forrest Jackson, 68, of Baldwin Hills, also said he voted for Wendy Greuel.