Perks

The wait for tables is getting longer at Buck's, a popular breakfast spot for the tech elite and a weather vane for the Silicon Valley economy. Here, like everywhere else, Facebook is the talk of the town. "Charles Schwab was in the restaurant the other day, and I asked him to hook me up with some Facebook shares," said Jamis MacNiven, owner of Buck's, in the wealthy suburban enclave of Woodside. "He told me even he can't get Facebook shares. " The new tech boom officially gets underway Friday when Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg rings Nasdaq's opening bell remotely from the company's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, launching the largest initial public offering of stock in Silicon Valley history.

The embattled former chairman of a foundation at Los Angeles Trade Technical College that has come under scrutiny over its executive director's lavish perks and spending resigned from the board Thursday, with parting shots blaming the college president for some of the foundation's issues. Darryl Holter had previously stepped down as chairman of the foundation board, but on Thursday resigned from the panel altogether. Holter had been criticized for allowing the foundation's executive director, Rhea Chung, to receive the perks.

At a time when county government is slashing programs for the mentally ill and homeless, social service agencies are fuming over recent disclosures that Orange County is spending $750,000 in car allowances for 88 top officials--some of whom are leasing Lincoln Continentals and Town Cars at taxpayer expense.

Reporting from Pala, Calif. -- When Margarita Owlinguish Britten died in 1925, she was a revered elder of the Pala Indian tribe, a survivor of the forced relocation in 1903 of the Cupeño Indians to an area beside the San Luis Rey River in northern San Diego County. But now, renewed doubts about Britten's lineage are at the root of a divisive "blood quantum" dispute roiling the 1,000-member Pala Band of Mission Indians, formed by the fusion of the Cupeño and Luiseño bands. At issue is whether Britten was a full-blooded Indian.

The real outrage is not presidential and congressional perks, but that they receive them and still cannot do their jobs. JASON LILES, Playa del Rey

Even as the nation's biggest financial firms were struggling and the federal government was spending hundreds of billions to save many of them, the companies as a group were boosting the perks and benefits they pay their chief executives. The firms, which account for more $350 billion in federal bailout funds, increased these perks and benefits 4% on average last year, according to an analysis of corporate disclosures filed in recent months. Some chief executives, such as Kenneth D. Lewis of Bank of America Corp.

Any time a candidate for office receives endorsements from public employees before the filing date, voters can automatically assume that a deal has been made between the employees union officials and the candidates to support higher wages and perks for the employees in exchange for a voting block of city employees. Employee perks can include city-paid expense accounts of public officials such as bar bills and expensive dining clubs and restaurants, or deluxe health care benefits paid by the city long after the officials have left office.

Regarding Peter Greenberg's article, "Some Perks Make Visitors Feel Right at Home," on March 18. I don't need cookies (ugh) or flowers on my pillow in my hotel room. I like a clean, quiet, tastefully furnished room and decent towels. I want to pay for the room and the service, not the unneeded amenities. LYNN SPEAR MERLES Costa Mesa

Luxury auto makers are laying on the perks to distinguish their brand from their competitors. Luxury auto makers are laying on the perks to distinguish their brand from their competitors. Nissan said its upscale Infiniti division will offer a free concierge service for buyers of its vehicles. The Infiniti Personal Assistant will give owners unlimited 24-hour access to a live team of professional assistants who can provide driving directions, weather forecasts, dining suggestions and reservations, travel arrangements and sports scores through the car's Bluetooth system or even away from the vehicle by phone.

Does your company pay your gym membership? Better start using it. Hundreds of thousands of Americans who get their health insurance through their employers have gotten used to company perks such as reduced-cost gym memberships, free weight-loss or smoking-cessation programs, or getting cash back for filling out health-assessment profiles. But a new survey reports that a small but growing group of firms will be imposing tougher requirements to get the incentives, such as actually losing weight or quitting smoking.

A Los Angeles County supervisor called on the Sheriff's Department on Tuesday to be more transparent about how taxpayer dollars are being spent within its volunteer reserves program. Supervisor Gloria Molina's comments came after The Times reported this week that at least one reserve deputy — a fundraiser for Sheriff Lee Baca — had been assigned a county car, a perk most full-time deputies are denied. The department's acknowledgment came after several initial refusals to disclose that information.

Washington, Jefferson and Madison will be chatting with guests at Colonial Williamsburg this Presidents Day weekend when presidents of all stripes -- PTA, student council, book club, etc. -- get free admission to the re-created 18th century Virginia attraction. The deal: Williamsburg visitors have a chance to hobnob with the Founding Fathers (well, actors playing them) and take in special programs, including a fife-and-drum salute to the presidents and Q&As with some of them.

Los Angeles County's office rental market finally showed signs of improvement in the fourth quarter as many businesses moved to new quarters and losses in occupancy slowed dramatically. The market is still weak for landlords and is expected to stay that way for months, but the long slide appears to be over as companies grow more optimistic about their prospects, real estate brokers said. "People are confident in their businesses and are committing to new leases," said Joe Vargas, area leader at brokerage Cushman & Wakefield.

Even the police are driving Porsches. Chinese officials love their cars - big, fancy, expensive cars. A chocolate-colored Bentley worth $560,000 is cruising the streets of Beijing with license plates indicating it is registered to Zhongnanhai, the Communist Party headquarters. The armed police, who handle riots and crowd control, have the same model of Bentley in blue. And just in case it needs to go racing off to war, the Chinese army has a black Maserati that sells in China for $330,000.

Where's the next John McCain? Re "Rightward ho!," Opinion, Sept. 25 None of the current crop of Republican presidential candidates had the courage to call out the haters at the recent Florida debate who booed a brave American serviceman just because he's gay. None of them had enough courage to confront the right-wing zealots at a previous debate who cheered for the idea that a person without health insurance should be left to...

British Prime Minister David Cameron faced more questions about his judgment Tuesday amid reports that one of his top aides continued to receive money from the News of the World even after quitting the tabloid because of the phone-hacking scandal and signing up to work for the Conservative Party. Cameron hired Andy Coulson as the party's chief communications guru in 2007, shortly after Coulson stepped down as editor of the News of the World. His resignation followed the conviction and imprisonment of the newspaper's royal affairs reporter for illegally accessing voice mail messages left by Princes William and Harry.

Among the many adjustments Angels rookie first baseman Mark Trumbo has made this year, there is one change he does not mind. In fact, he downright enjoys it. When he sits at his locker before a game, taping the handles of a batch of new bats, he isn't fine-tuning his most recent $65 purchase. After six seasons in the minors, buying bat after bat from the Trinity Bat Company in Fullerton, Trumbo no longer has to purchase his preferred piece of lumber, the T-271 model. "It's really nice," said Trumbo, who estimated he has already broken 10 bats this season.

A partisan tangle erupted Wednesday over a report that as part of a Democratic National Committee program to woo donors, the White House had met privately with major campaign contributors and approved perks that included invitations to White House events. Republicans trumpeted an article in the Washington Times that cited internal Democratic documents showing that people willing to raise $300,000 for the 2010 midterm elections would be entitled to meet with senior Obama administration officials and help shape policy.

A proposal to prevent repeats of the Bell scandal — in which city officials secretly granted themselves salaries of up to $800,000 — hung in limbo Monday, jeopardized by an unrelated dispute between two Southern California lawmakers. The measure, which would require many government officials in California to publicly disclose their compensation and perks, unanimously passed the state Senate in the morning. But it's unclear whether the measure will be taken up this year in the lower house.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has powered his political career on the largesse of donors like Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons, who gave the governor $1.12 million in recent years. And donors like Simmons have found the rewards to be mutual, reaping benefits from Texas during Perry's tenure. Perry has received a total of $37 million over the last decade from just 150 individuals and couples, who are likely to form the backbone of his new effort to win the Republican presidential nomination.