Parking

Times are tough enough for Californians; they're even tougher for Californians' teeth. "One-quarter of all adults and 28% of children in California have untreated dental caries [cavities]," says Len Finocchio, a senior program officer at the California Healthcare Foundation, a health advocacy group. "Our research tells us that many people in California have been avoiding routine care that might have cost about $100 for a checkup and cleaning, and then find themselves in the emergency room, where they get only an antibiotic, a bill that can average over $600 and instructions to see a dentist."

A bleary-eyed Chui Hom tripped down her apartment stairs at 8 a.m. sharp and started her car. She didn't get far. The vehicle inched across Riverside Terrace, a narrow one-way lane in Echo Park, and stopped on the other side. Hom is part of Los Angeles' Great Street-Sweeping Do-Si-Do. Twice a week, residents of Koreatown, Pico-Union and other neighborhoods with more apartments than parking spaces race to their cars, hoping to move them before parking enforcement officers arrive and ticket them for blocking street sweepers.

If you're thinking of visiting a Disney park in Anaheim this summer, be warned that the price is about to jump by between $7 and $150 depending on the ticket deal. The annual summer price hike for tickets to Disneyland and the Disney California Adventure Park were announced Friday and take effect Sunday. For example, a ticket for one day at either Disneyland or California Adventure had cost $80 for parkgoers who are 10 or older. The new price, starting Sunday, will be $87, up nearly 9%. The biggest increase will hit people who buy the premium annual pass that includes parking.

Deborah Pauly, the outspoken Villa Park councilwoman who drew community ire when she protested outside an Islamic charity event, was removed this week from a leadership position with the Orange County Republican Party's central committee. Party officials said Pauly, who is running for county supervisor, has been a divisive figure. Her removal comes a month after Orange businessman Bob Walters mailed out letters supporting Pauly's candidacy on a "George Wallace for President" letterhead.

Long Beach Airport (LGB) this week will open a new parking structure, bringing all airport parking on-site and within walking distance of the main terminal building. But it will also shut down its cheapest lot. The new Lot B parking garage, under construction for more than a year near the terminal, holds about 2,000 cars. Airport spokeswoman Kim McMahon said the lot will open at 12:01 a.m. Friday. On the same day, remote parking Lot D at Lakewood Boulevard and Conant Street will be closed, although of course cars already parked there can remain until they exit, McMahon said.

The biggest home in Los Angeles County is ready for a new nickname: The 56,500-square-foot Manor, dubbed Candyland after owner Candy Spelling, has been sold to another wealthy socialite, British heiress Petra Ecclestone, in an all-cash deal for $85 million. As steep as that price is, it's not a record or even close to what Spelling was asking. The priciest Southland home transaction was the 2000 sale of an 8-acre estate in Bel-Air to financial executive Gary Winnick in a deal that included the trade of other land, for a total value of about $94 million.

This is a story about yogurt, but it is also about entrepreneurship, financial and cultural expectations, beating the heat, beating the caloric system and parking. It's a feel-good story about an ambitious 32-year-old Korean woman whose small business has become successful beyond all reasonable expectations. And it's a feel-bad story about a sleepy neighborhood attacked, out of nowhere, by an army of frozen-yogurt fiends.

If you buy something from online auctioneer Property Room, you don't have to wonder if it was stolen. That's because it probably was. Property Room, started by a former police detective, gets its items from law enforcement property rooms nationwide. Most of its inventory of jewelry, bicycles, computers, furniture, tools, car stereos, cameras, sports equipment, portable music players and things that could best be categorized under miscellaneous -- or bizarre -- was seized from crooks.

Parking lots within LAX's Central Terminal (which has about 25,000 spaces) haven't raised their rates in the last year, according to LAX spokesman Tom Winfrey. But in a few cases, some of the established private garages in the area have raised their prices in 1998-99. Parking rates at hotels may vary for guests and non-guests. The Department of Airports runs long-term parking lots B (about 6,000 spaces) and C (about 8,000).

Everyone knows there's a large municipal force in Los Angeles devoted to writing parking tickets. Each officer averages about six citations an hour, and 80% of those who receive tickets pay their fines, averaging about $37. Gross collections ran to $125 million in 2001, and $93 million of that was net, going into the city's general fund. But there are aspects of the parking laws and their enforcement that remain obscure.

Imagine inner tubing down a water slide only to realize you've been riding along the back of a hissing 250-foot-long snake and are about to plunge into the gaping mouth of the fang-bearing and venom-spewing King Cobra. The new racing slide debuting in early July at Six Flags Great Adventure's Hurricane Harbor in New Jersey sounds more like a terrifying psychotic nightmare than a fun-filled day at the water park. PHOTOS: King Cobra water slide at Six Flags Great Adventure With King Cobra installations already in place in Turkey and Russia, the new Hurricane Harbor water park attraction marks the United States debut of the snake-themed water slide.

A minor traffic accident after the Dodgers' win over St. Louis on Sunday night sparked a fight that resulted in the beating of one man and the arrests of four others, Los Angeles police said. The beating victim was treated for non-life-threatening injuries at a hospital and released, police said. A pregnant woman who was a passenger in his car was taken to the hospital for observation as a precaution and also was released. Occupants of the other vehicle, four men in their 20s, were booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and were being held in lieu of $30,000 bail, Los Angeles police officer Bruce Borihanh said Monday.

If you're thinking of visiting a Disney park in Anaheim this summer, be warned that the price is about to jump by between $7 and $150 depending on the ticket deal. The annual summer price hike for tickets to Disneyland and the Disney California Adventure Park were announced Friday and take effect Sunday. For example, a ticket for one day at either Disneyland or California Adventure had cost $80 for parkgoers who are 10 or older. The new price, starting Sunday, will be $87, up nearly 9%. The biggest increase will hit people who buy the premium annual pass that includes parking.

Like a bad love affair, they kept it a secret from their families as long as they could. Because in 2012, who can admit the thing they want more than anything in the world is to open a bookstore? Now they know. Pop-Hop Books & Print is holding its grand opening on Sunday with readings, music, printing and refreshments. Located in Highland Park on a stretch of York Boulevard that sparkles with new shops and restaurants, the store is a celebration of books as print artifact, with used literary and art books for sale and, tucked behind movable shelves, a screen-printing salon.

INDIO, Calif. - In one corner stands a music promoter that made its mark in L.A.'s punk scene, throwing gritty events at warehouses and velodromes, giving voice to songs like "Beat Me Senseless" and "I Kill Children" before birthing an annual desert bacchanal that might be the world's most successful music festival. In the other corner is the master-planned community that put the O.C. in Orange County, where safety, schooling and temperance are hallmarks and a homeowners association can overrule one's choice of house paint.

Need a quick, soul-reviving fix of Yosemite? A webcam pointed at one of Yosemite National Park's main attractions, soaring Yosemite Falls, went live this week. It joins Yosemite cameras already in place at Half Dome and El Capitan. Find them here .  “In a lot of ways I equate it to all of the beautiful picture books that we've had on our coffee tables, or the art from the 1870s that made Yosemite exciting to people around the world when they saw it for the first time,” said Michael Tollefson, president of the nonprofit Yosemite Conservancy, which placed the cameras.

Like almost everything else, the cost of attending Los Angeles County museums or parking at a state or county beach is going up. Effective April 1, the Board of Supervisors has decided, it will cost most adults $3 rather than $1.50 to visit the County Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural History, the Page Museum at La Brea Tar Pits, the county Arboretum and the Botanic Gardens. Parking at county beaches (and at state beaches operated by Los Angeles County) will go from $3 to $4 a day.

Former construction worker John Dutchover found his own tiny piece of Brentwood last year, staking out a space on San Vicente Boulevard for the recreational vehicle that -- with a bed, refrigerator and microwave -- also serves as his home. The Gulf War veteran said he picked the spot largely because it was close to the leafy Veterans Affairs campus, where he receives medical treatment.

Right-hander Luke Eubank of Newbury Park is 9-0 with a 1.08 earned-run average, six shutouts, three no-hitters and has given up only 10 walks in 65 innings. "It's the best pitching performance in the last 30 years that I've seen," Newbury Park Coach Matt Goldfield said. On Friday in his latest dominating performance, Eubank struck out six, walked none and finished with a two-hitter as the Panthers defeated Long Beach Wilson, 3-0, in a first-round Southern Section Division 1 playoff game.

The political mailer that arrived recently in Orange County mailboxes seemed from a different era, embossed with a tiny portrait of former Alabama Gov. George Wallace's face and the campaign slogan "Wallace for President, Stand up for America. " But the letter contained no direct mention of the fiery Southern politician, who gained a national reputation as a segregationist during the civil rights era, mounted four failed presidential campaigns and died in 1998. Instead, it was a plea to American Independent Party members to elect Villa Park Councilwoman Deborah Pauly to a seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors.