Prompt

A surprisingly fierce rainstorm overnight and Saturday morning is prompting evacuations in the La Cañada Flintridge burn area, centered at the top of Ocean View Boulevard. Several homes in the area have been damaged by mudslides, cars have been swept down Ocean View in a torrent of debris and mud has flowed nearly a mile to Foothill Boulevard. No injuries have been reported. Fire officials were expected to go door to door warning residents, and they plan to use the reverse 911 warning system to make notifications.

SACRAMENTO — A data breach that jeopardized the personal information of more than 700,000 people has spurred California officials to change the way they transport sensitive material. Packages of payroll data, including Social Security numbers, will be delivered by courier rather than dropped in the mail. And officials are examining ways to transmit encrypted data rather than store it on microfiche. "We're looking to improve the process," said Oscar Ramirez, a spokesman for the California Department of Social Services.

Stephen King "couldn't stop reading" it. Stephenie Meyer was so "obsessed . . . I had to take it with me out to dinner and hide it under the edge of the table." Publisher's Weekly called it "the best book of 2008." What's the source of all the buzz? Suzanne Collins' novel "The Hunger Games" -- an action-packed, post-apocalyptic, young adult fantasy in which 24 children are selected to compete to the death before a television audience. The hang-on-the-edge-of-your-seat dystopian fiction is now in its ninth printing, with foreign publishing rights sold for 35 territories and a movie in the works.

State safety regulators have ordered stringent inspections of a downtown Los Angeles rail junction for the newly opened Expo Line because of a serious design flaw that poses an increased risk of train derailments. Officials of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority insist the intersection of the region's newest light rail service and the older Long Beach Blue Line at Washington Boulevard and Flower Street is safe for now because of small modifications to the tracks.

The Times published a story (Aug. 11) concerning the 1985 Delta Air Lines crash in Dallas-Fort Worth. The thrust of the story is that very few losses have been filed by the families because Delta has been very sensitive and fair to the plight of the victims and has apparently offered prompt and fair settlements. Apparently the U.S. district judge who is hearing the case was very surprised by the low number of lawsuits that were actually filed. There is a lesson to be learned from this story for all concerned with the current insurance crisis.

There's certainly nothing like a prompt denial to clear the air. Thanks, Gary. RON REEVE Glendora

My deepest gratitude to the good Samaritan, who, early July 11th, observed my plight when I broke my ankle at the entrance to Crown Valley Community Park. Thanks to your prompt action in calling the paramedics, I had help within 12 minutes of my fall. EVA M. HOLEMAN Laguna Niguel

Re "Who Decides How Much to Tip," Voices, May 29: Etymology lesson! In olden days, the amount one tipped was determined by the price of the cheapest (alcoholic) drink. That's where the word tip comes from: the British "tipple." In French, it's called pourboire, which translates literally to "for to drink." In German, it's trinkgeld (or "drink money"). David Stockman's assertion that "tips" is an acronym for "To Insure Prompt Service" is a popular misconception, reflecting the American love of slogans, buzzwords and platitudes (and presenting them as facts)

Jerry Hulse has very kindly written about me several times, starting more than 13 years ago. It is that long ago that I started specializing in travel for singles. I have just moved to a larger office and am now associated with Schulman Travel Ltd. at 16820 Ventura Blvd., Encino 91436. With the added space and equipment I will be able to give more prompt and efficient assistance. My new phone numbers are (213) 770-2090 and (818) 783-0333. I also have a 24-hour number, (818) 981-6724.

The most recent tragedy of the handgun shooting of an 18-year-old boy by a 16-year-old points up the urgency of the passage of the Brady Bill (H.R. 467), which would require a seven-day cooling off period for handgun sales. At present, this bill is seven votes short of passage in the House of Representatives and needs voters to prompt its support by their congressmen who, like ours, are still undecided. The price for delay will be more innocent children killed in the crossfire.

We're fat, in case you hadn't heard. And as we learned last week, 42% of American adults will be obese by 2030, according to researchers at the Weight of the Nation conference sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If that's a party you'd rather miss, the grocery store is a place to start. Nutritionists often advise us to buy fresh food and stick to the perimeters of the store (instead of the middle aisles that are stocked with Oreos, Doritos and Froot Loops)

Facebook Inc. is certain to make a dramatic entrance to the stock market Friday with its hotly awaited initial public offering. What's less certain is whether you should buy the stock. Enthusiasts have salivated for months over the prospect of buying into Facebook's surging growth rate and untapped advertising potential. They hope Facebook can mimic the stratospheric rise of Google Inc. in its early years, when its shares ballooned from $85 at its 2004 IPO to nearly $750 barely three years later.

Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives have launched a probe into what appears to be a secret deputy clique within the department's elite gang unit, an investigation triggered by the discovery of a document suggesting the group embraces shootings as a badge of honor. The document described a code of conduct for the Jump Out Boys, a clique of hard-charging, aggressive deputies who gain more respect after being involved in a shooting, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation.

From the White House to the American Embassy in Kabul, American officials rushed to distance themselves from the actions of U.S. soldiers who posed for photographs next to corpses and body parts of Afghan insurgents. Two photos of incidents from a 2010 deployment were published Wednesday by the Los Angeles Times. In one, the hand of a corpse is propped on the shoulder of a paratrooper. In another, the disembodied legs of a suicide bomber are displayed by grinning soldiers and Afghan police.

Multiple tornadoes ripped through the Dallas-Fort Worth area Tuesday, with two major twisters damaging hundreds of homes and causing numerous injuries, some critical. The mayor of Lancaster, Texas, a suburb about 15 miles south of Dallas,  saw one of the twisters approach. “I was leaving a meeting here in town and heard the tornado sirens go off,” said Mayor Marcus Knight at a news conference, adding that he watched the tornado bear down on the area before arriving at City Hall.

CANON CITY, Colo. — Sometimes if you build it, they don't come. When construction was first planned in 2003 for a $184-million high-security facility within the Colorado prison complex in Canon City, the number of inmates being locked up in the state was increasing at what officials considered an alarming rate. But something happened between the first shovelful of dirt in 2007 and the final paintbrush stroke in 2010: The Colorado prison population started decreasing, first a little and then a lot. So much, in fact, that officials announced in March that the new facility — open just 18 months and two-thirds empty — would close next year.

I cannot believe that 26% of the L.A. voting populace objects to $5.50 a month to repair our public schools. People who have received the benefit of clean, safe schools in good repair for themselves and yet deny this to our children, all of our children, are truly mean-spirited, shortsighted and just plain cruel. For those who sink between $3,000 and $15,000 a year into private education for their "own" child, what is $66 for all children? Who do you think populates this Earth? We are all interdependent.

We have lived north of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station for 35 years and have noticed how quiet it is in the mornings since the F18s recently moved to Miramar in San Diego. There was noise, but it had an important national purpose that we understood and accepted. With the aircraft went some very fine men and women who were pilots, ground crews and other support groups. The Marines have always been good neighbors and have provided prompt and valuable assistance during fires, floods and various accidents.

Remember the furor over $16 muffins? That's nothing compared with the $100-plus per-person reception that featured 400 pieces of $4.75 "Petit Beef Wellington," 400 "Mini Monte Cristo Sandwiches" at $5 each and 1,000 sushi rolls for $7 apiece, as well as other "excessive and wasteful" spending at a General Services Administration conference in the Las Vegas area in 2010. The $822,000 cost of the conference, attended by about 300 employees, led Monday to the resignation of GSA Administrator Martha Johnson, along with the dismissal of two of her deputies - while prompting outrage on Capitol Hill.

With airfares to Europe on the rise, it looks like Americans are planning to rediscover the good ol' U.S.A. this summer. As a result, perhaps more Americans will use the opportunity to visit some of the country's landmarks such as the Alamo and the Grand Canyon that sometimes get overlooked. Summer airfares to Europe have climbed about 11% compared with last summer, according to travel website Kayak, which attributes the jump to airlines trying to cash in on travelers visiting the London Olympics starting in July.