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Chad Colby's ode to meat, beautiful meat. LOCATION 6610 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 297-1133, chispacca.com PRICES Cured meat board, $24; salads, $14-$16; main courses, $16-$38; large-format meat, $74-$175; side dishes, $10-$12; desserts, $9-$10. DETAILS 5:30-10 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays (seatings at 6 p.m. and 8:15 p.m.). Credit cards accepted. Wine. Valet parking on Highland Avenue. RECOMMENDED DISHES Cured-meat board, testa frittata, "tomahawk" pork chop, baked shell beans.

The drop in gasoline prices in California that began more than a month ago has slowed to a crawl, but there may be good news ahead when one of the state's most important refineries returns to full production as early as this month. When operating at its full 245,000-barrel-a-day capacity, Chevron Corp.'s Richmond refinery is the second most productive in the state. But it has been operating at lower levels since a fire idled part of the facility in August. Analysts at the Oil Price Information Service said the refinery could be back at full operation as early as this month.

Budget motel chain Howard Johnson wants to brighten up Mondays. The company's latest pitch rewards those staying on Monday and/or other midweek nights by taking 35% off the daily price for hotels in the United States and Canada. You have about 370 hotels nationwide to choose from for this deal. The deal: Hojo Happy Monday discounts the best available room rates excluding Friday and Saturday nights. Here's how it works: You register with your name and email address, and a rate code is sent to you. Check your email and use the rate code to see and reserve the marked-down room price.

Travel packages for the 2013 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio this month are probably the most decadent way to do the big desert fest, but so what? If you've got money to spend, buying a package to the sold-out event features a hotel room, festival pass and shuttle for three glorious days. The festival runs on two weekends - April 12 to 14 and April 19 to 21 - with headliners Blur, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Phoenix and more than 170 other musical acts . Tickets priced at $399 for a three-day pass and shuttle sold out quickly when they went on sale in January.

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. - After George Lucas abandoned plans to build a movie studio along a woodsy road in Marin County, he complained about the permitting process in a place so environmentally friendly that hybrid-car ownership is four times the state average. His next move, some here say, was payback for what Lucas described in a written statement as the "bitterness and anger" expressed by his neighbors. The creator of "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" is working with a local foundation that hopes to build hundreds of units of affordable housing on a former dairy farm called Grady Ranch, where his studio would have risen.

Other states have long poached California manufacturers and jobs. Now they're coming for the cows. Seizing on the plight of the state's dairy industry, which is beset by high feed costs and low milk prices, nearly a dozen states are courting Golden State dairy farmers. The pitch: cheaper farm land, lower taxes, fewer environmental regulations and higher prices for their milk. At the World Ag Expo, a behemoth trade show held in Tulare County last month, nine states had recruitment booths on the ground's Dairy Center.

When Ferrari's biggest and baddest supercar is a hybrid, you know the world has changed. Once considered the province of techies and the eco-friendly, hybrids are catching on in almost every vehicle segment. Hybrid sales were up 32% in the first two months of this year compared with the same period last year, according to research firm Autodata Corp. That's driven by a combination of trends, including upward-creeping gas prices, a growing track record for reliability and the wider selection of hybrid offerings - everything from the entry-level Toyota Prius C to the spacious Ford Fusion sedan to the LaFerrari, a 949-horsepower, million-dollar monster.

Depends on whom you ask. The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday proposed what it called "sensible standards for cars and gasoline that will significantly reduce harmful pollution, prevent thousands of premature deaths and illnesses" while "enabling efficiency improvements in the cars and trucks we drive. " For example, the EPA would reduce gasoline sulfur levels by more than 60%, down to 10 parts per million (ppm), in 2017. The EPA proposal would bring the rest of the nation in line with standards already in effect in California, the agency said.

CHICAGO - Calgary Flames captain and spiritual leader Jarome Iginla might fit in quite nicely with the Chicago Blackhawks or the Boston Bruins. How about with the reigning Stanley Cup champion Kings? On the ice? Yes. With a shrinking salary cap looming? Probably not. This is why the chances of the Kings making and succeeding in a serious pitch for the right wing appear slim. The struggling Flames and Iginla played in Chicago on Tuesday night. Of course, things can change with one tweet in the NHL, especially with the trade deadline still eight days away.

— The Angels' trade of Vernon Wells to the New York Yankees, which is expected to be finalized Tuesday, will have financial implications beyond the $13 million or so the Angels will save over the next two years by shipping the veteran outfielder to the Bronx. A major incentive for dealing Wells, according to a person familiar with the team's thinking but not authorized to speak publicly, is to give the Angels enough financial relief to finish the season under the $178-million luxury tax threshold.