Passports

Outside a will-call booth at the Federal Building in Westwood on Friday afternoon, Semida Crihalmean giggled and posed for a photo for her friend Andreea Boitor while tightly clutching her passport. Around the two, roughly 500 people milled about or sat in a line stretching halfway around the building. The lucky ones had umbrellas or folding chairs; others used envelopes to shield themselves from the sun.

Question: I just renewed my passport. Why does the U.S. Department of State send the new passport and the old passport separately? I know the Postal Service needs all the business it can get, but two mailings instead of one seems wasteful. Daniel Fink Beverly Hills Answer: Like Fink, I just got a new passport and was puzzled about why it arrived in one heavy envelope and the documentation I had provided in another. I was smugly certain it had to do with security, and in my smugness, I disregarded the lesson of Ockham's (sometimes spelled Occam's)

Maybe getting a new or updated passport isn't the most stimulating aspect of foreign travel, but just try leaving North America without one. At the Los Angeles passport office, estimates of processing time run from two to three weeks in the slower months of winter. When spring yields to summer, last-minute requests pile up, and officials warn that travelers applying then should be ready for waits of four to six weeks before their papers come in.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court weighed into one of the thorniest issues in the Middle East conflict - who has sovereignty over Jerusalem - ruling that courts have the power to decide whether Congress can order that passports for U.S. citizens born there list "Israel" as their birthplace. The justices, ruling 8 to 1 on Monday, passed the decision back to a lower court. So Menachem Binyamin Zivotofsky, now 9, will have to wait to find out what his passport will look like. The U.S. has long taken the position that sovereignty over Jerusalem, which Israelis and Palestinians both claim as their capital, must be resolved in negotiations, so the government does not recognize Israeli sovereignty there.

With the recession choking foreign travel, passport applications are plunging and the workload at the State Department is easing enough that those applying are getting their documents in three weeks or less. The State Department said last week that it expected to issue 12 million passports this fiscal year, about 25% fewer than last year. In early December, it was forecasting 17 million passports for the year ending Sept. 30.

I am very grateful to "Jerry Hulse's Travel Tips" (March 5) on ways to (counteract) theft while traveling in Europe. Unfortunately I ignored his advice on the money belt, but I did duplicate all of our personal papers and travel documents. While in Paris in June my husband and I had our camera case stolen. Besides our expensive Nikon, the case also contained our passports and other travel necessities. Because we had duplicates of everything we were able to replace our passports in a few hours.

WHERE: There are two ways to apply in person for a U.S. passport in Los Angeles County. In both cases, the passport is sent to you by mail. 1. U.S. Passport Agency office (open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.) Los Angeles Federal Building, 13th Floor 11000 Wilshire Blvd. West Los Angeles 2. About 50 post offices also are authorized to accept applications. Call the Passport Agency at 213-209-7075 for the location of the one nearest you.

Britain expelled a high-ranking Israeli diplomat Tuesday in retaliation for alleged misuse of British passports by Israeli agents suspected in the assassination of a senior Hamas commander two months ago in Dubai. Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the decision was made after consultations with his Israeli counterpart. The expelled official was not named, but BBC and the Times of London reported that he was the head of the Mossad intelligence agency in the Israeli Embassy. The expulsion follows an investigation by Britain's Serious Organized Crime Agency, or SOCA, into the Jan. 19 slaying of Mahmoud Mabhouh at a luxury hotel in Dubai.

The U.S. ambassador to West Germany today criticized East Germany for requiring diplomats traveling between East and West Berlin to present passports, but stopped short of delivering a formal protest to the Soviet Union, diplomatic sources said. U.S. Ambassador Richard Burt met at his West Berlin residence with the Soviet ambassador to East Germany, Vyacheslav I. Kochemasav, to discuss the policy.

The Libyan government abruptly denied entry to tourists without an Arabic translation of their passports, forcing several planeloads of foreigners to turn back on arrival and stranding at least two French tour groups. The development reflects apparent confusion in government policies, amid recent strides by Libya to promote itself as a lucrative tourist destination.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton 's first trip with her first passport took her across the pond. She describes her experience in the video (above) that she made to publicize Passport Day 2012 this Saturday. The day provides an opportunity for walk-ins to apply or renew passports, no appointment needed, at passport offices, libraries, post offices and other locations. Here's an excerpt from Clinton's video: "Bill and I went to London, where we spent hours touring Westminster Abbey , the Tate Gallery, and Parliament.

Visit Napa Valley in winter and you might want to bring along a passport -- a Winter in the Wineries Passport . It offers tastings at 17 wineries in Calistoga for $50. Don't worry; you don't have to sample all of them in one visit; the passport is good for several months. The deal: The wine passport offered by the Calistoga Chamber of Commerce is good for one tasting per winery, and buyers must be 21 or older. Some area hotels and restaurants extend discounts to passport-holders too. Participating wineries include Sterling Vineyards, Castello di Amorosa, Madrigal Vineyards, Rios Wine Co., Zahtila Vineyards, Von Strasser Winery, Tomey Cellars and more.

After Thursday's extravaganza, it might be the right time to think about the lightest meal of the day - or the meal that affords us the rest of the day to burn off some calories, anyway. Forget pancakes. How about savory Taiwanese crullers dipped in super-fresh soy milk, house-made longaniza sausage with eggs, sweet Belizean ducunu (they're like logs of unfilled tamale made with fresh corn grated off the cob) or poached-egg soup with hand-patted tortillas? Whether on La Brea Avenue or Bolsa Avenue, early-morning options abound.

When our youngest son was born in Jerusalem in 1995, a number of questions faced us. First was whether we should accept Israeli citizenship for him, which would grant him a second passport and the ability to work (and take refuge, if necessary) in a foreign land — but which would come with a military service requirement in a country that wouldn't really be his home. We opted against it. Then there was the less pressing question of whether our newborn son could become president of the United States despite some ambiguity about whether he was a "natural-born citizen," as required by Article II of the U.S. Constitution.

The Supreme Court this week will take up the case of a 9-year-old boy born in Jerusalem to American parents who want their child's passport to say his birthplace is in Israel. The State Department refused their request in keeping with long-standing American foreign policy against recognizing Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem. This seemingly narrow dispute over one word on a passport has put before the high court several broad questions that have long divided diplomats and constitutional scholars.

The Australian Passport Office this month rolled out a new passport option for transgender travelers in transition or  those who don't identify with either gender: the "X" passport. The passport adds X, or indeterminate, to "male" or "female" choices. Now Britain also may be mulling the idea of gender-free passports, the Associated Press reports. The Australian Passport Office's website says the move aims to "remove discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or sex and gender identity.

The Albanian Foreign Ministry on Thursday promised to grant passports to the hundreds of Albanians who have sought refuge in foreign embassies in the Albania capital of Tirana in a desperate attempt to flee their Communist homeland. Hundreds of additional would-be refugees gathered outside at least 12 foreign embassies on Thursday, raising the number of asylum-seekers to about 600, diplomats said.

If you need to get a passport or renew an old one, Saturday might be your lucky day. Passport Day provides walk-up service at passport agencies, libraries, post offices and other sites in Southern California and around the country. The idea is to provide passport information and services on Saturday for folks who can't get to offices and agencies during regular weekday business hours. Passport Day was scheduled for April 9 but was canceled during the fedral government's budget crisis and potential shutdown earlier this year.

Rebecca Subbiah's first encounter with a Putumayo Kids CD was hearing it over the speakers at a music store where she was shopping. She instantly recognized some of the lyrics from "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" but was tickled and fascinated by the funky tune, a medley of Afrobeats sung by the late blues and soul singer Rufus Thomas. Subbiah ended up buying the CD. Soon after, she bought several more of the company's albums online, and she's been playing them for her 3-year-old daughter, Jasmine, since she was born.