Pay Back

M. Stephen Sheldon's letter of Dec. 18 said veterinarian assistants were "dead-end jobs at minimum wage." Perhaps that's what's wrong with the economy--the "me" generation still climbing the corporate ladder, trying to get as much as they can. I cannot think of a more rewarding occupation than helping ease the pain of animals. The 1990s will be the decade of "pay-back" for the excesses of the 1980s. Work will be about service to others and working together. GENNY TUBRIDY, Sherman Oaks

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Jerry Brown proclaimed last week that California, which now has enough cash to pay its day-to-day bills, can no longer be described by naysayers as a "failed state. " But even though it appears to be free of the deficit that dogged the Capitol in recent years, the state is no model of financial health. Sacramento is legally obligated to pay many billions of dollars withheld from schools, local governments and healthcare providers as lawmakers struggled repeatedly to balance the books.

President-elect Clinton announced his selections for Cabinet posts: Political euphemism for "pay-back time." H.K. FAULK Bel-Air

Question: I'm new to the board. In reviewing files and contracts as a director, I've found a number of CC&R and bylaw violations committed by recent and current board directors. These illegalities involve association-related plumbing and maintenance repairs that, according to our governing documents, clearly were the association's obligation to pay. Directors made up their own rules, in concert with the manager, and intentionally forced owners to pay for repairs that were the association's obligation.

Sprint Corp. must rehire and pay back wages and benefits to employees of a telemarketing operation closed more than two years ago during a union organizing drive, the government says. In a ruling last week, the National Labor Relations Board found Sprint and its San Francisco subsidiary intimidated pro-union employees and faked a letter to make it seem the office was being closed for business reasons. Sprint filed an appeal Monday with the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C.

Portrait studios at Sears and some Wal-Mart stores - the scenes of innumerable family photos - have unexpectedly closed as their operator, CPI Corp., goes out of business. The portrait provider said in a statement on its website that all of its U.S. locations have shut down “after many years of providing family portrait photography.” The St. Louis company has been making photo keepsakes for more than 60 years and offered its services at more than 3,000 North American locations, mostly in Sears and Wal-Mart stores.

WASHINGTON - A sweeping bipartisan plan to overhaul the nation's immigration system headed to the Senate floor after a key committee approved it Tuesday, but not before tilting the bill to the political right with amendments designed to attract more Republican support. The centerpiece of the legislation - a 13-year path to citizenship for many of the 11 million people now without legal status - survived intact, setting the stage for what could be the biggest victory in a generation for advocates of immigrant rights.

Dear Liz: Our son was recently turned down for a car loan even though my wife and I were willing to co-sign and we have excellent credit scores. The reason for the denial was "no credit history. " Because we had paid some college expenses and he had basketball athletic scholarships, our son graduated from college debt free. My wife and I have always tried to live within our means. Other than a mortgage and the occasional car loan that we almost always paid off early, we have had no other debt.

Elias Lopez never had a chance. He got sucked into something so much stronger than he was, something with a history so powerful, that there seemed no choice but to submit. He was 17, a nice, quietly handsome young man with jet-black hair and a plan. He was going to be a cop, a narcotics investigator. Sure, there were street gangs in his neighborhood, but he did not want to join one. All Elias wanted to do was look like a gang member.

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Jerry Brown proclaimed last week that California, which now has enough cash to pay its day-to-day bills, can no longer be described by naysayers as a "failed state. " But even though it appears to be free of the deficit that dogged the Capitol in recent years, the state is no model of financial health. Sacramento is legally obligated to pay many billions of dollars withheld from schools, local governments and healthcare providers as lawmakers struggled repeatedly to balance the books.

Bell's residents already pay one of the highest property tax rates in Los Angeles County despite being one of its poorest cities. Now, homeowners are discovering that their taxes are about to go up again to pay for a park that will never be built. It's one more legacy of the Robert Rizzo era, even though residents thought they had turned a page when the former city administrator was taken away in handcuffs, the last of those accused in a sweeping public corruption scandal were voted out of City Hall, and a new City Council was sworn in. The tax increase is needed to pay back $50 million in bonds issued by the city; it came as a surprise to homeowners who hadn't noticed when the former City Council quietly approved a resolution to increase the property tax rate for three consecutive years.

The nation's largest foreign currency broker was hit with a $2-million fine and accused by regulators of profiting at the expense of its customers. The fine levied against the broker, FXCM Inc., comes as foreign currency trading is growing in popularity among home investors but also coming under greater scrutiny for the large losses suffered by investors. The $2-million sanction from the National Futures Assn. is the largest single fine ever imposed against a currency broker in the U.S., according to the NFA. The group's complaint said its investigation "revealed a number of deficiencies," including practices that were unequal, inequitable and arbitrary.

John Edwards' 2008 presidential campaign must repay $2.3 million in federal campaign funds, the Federal Election Commission ruled Thursday. The funds had been paid to Edwards' campaign committee by the Presidential Election Campaign Fund, which matches funds privately raised by a campaign. An FEC audit found that the Edwards campaign received more than it should have because of accounting errors. Such audits are required as part of the matching funds program, and it is not uncommon for campaign committees to be required to pay back some portion of the funds that were received.

The struggling city of Montebello was hit with another significant setback Wednesday as federal housing officials suspended funding to the city and demanded that it repay a total of $5 million in grants. The news added more financial pressure to a city already facing possible insolvency later this year as well as investigations by state and local agencies into allegations of misspent money and falsified records. In a memo to City Council members Wednesday afternoon, departing city administrator Peter Cosentini said a meeting with Department of Housing and Urban Development officials had reduced him to tears.

It does not matter where the Lakers and Boston Celtics play each other. That's because the rivalry between the Lakers and Celtics, the two teams with the most NBA championships, is so intense and historic. They will square off Thursday night at the TD Garden, but the venue is not important. Each team has won recently on the other's court. The Lakers won here in the regular season last season, and they won Game 3 of the NBA Finals here in June. And the Celtics defeated the Lakers, 109-96, at Staples Center on Jan. 30 and won Game 2 in the Finals in Los Angeles last year.

In a blow to the state's civil lawsuit charging eight current and former Bell city leaders with plotting to enrich themselves at taxpayer expense, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge warned Thursday that Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown's case is in jeopardy of being dismissed. Brown appears to have overreached his authority in the lawsuit, which seeks to force the city leaders to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars in back salaries and slash their future pensions, Judge Ralph W. Dau said.

The road to hell is typically paved with good intentions. For Greg Mortenson, it was laid down with two New York Times bestsellers, hundreds of public appearances and the idea that Afghanistan and Pakistan could be saved if you built enough schools in them. Hidden beneath those efforts appear to have been “significant lapses in judgment” involving charity money. Those lapses have led the Montana state attorney general to toss Mortenson out of his own charity, the Central Asia Institute, and now to force him to pay back $1 million, according to the results of an investigation announced Thursday.   “The story of Central Asia Institute and Greg Mortenson evokes notions of the best of our aspirations to do good and the generosity of the American public,” Montana Atty.

The Internal Revenue Service will seize almost anything to pay off back taxes--even a collection of whiskey bottles. John Simpson, an IRS revenue officer in Riverside, called us with such a tale. He said two owners of a San Bernardino bar, behind in their taxes, recently saw their establishment padlocked by revenue agents. Included in the inventory were 89 collectible decanters, Simpson said, of which 87 were produced by Lionstone Distilleries and two by Jim Beam Distilling Co.

With his long and strikeout-filled season coming to a close, Matt Kemp started making bold predictions about next season. First, he said James Loney will hit 20 home runs. When he was asked how many home runs he will hit, Kemp replied, "40. " How many steals? "Forty," he said. Forty-forty? "I have to pay the fans back, man," Kemp said. "They deserve it. " Laughing, he added, "They've been mad at me all season. I have to do something for them, something special.

For decades, the push for solar power has stalled not on public support but on cost. That might be about to change with the launch of a tax program that's exciting some industry veterans. Gary Garber is one. Garber built his first solar panels from scratch back in 1976. They went up on his parents' rooftop in nearby Walnut Creek, Calif. Today he runs Sun Light & Power, a 60-employee solar panel installation firm that's been behind some of the San Francisco Bay Area's biggest solar power arrays.