Puts

Auto leasing deals abound these days, with offers that often seem too good to be true. How about a well-equipped Honda Accord for $250 a month with no down payment or any other drive-off fees? Or better yet, $199 a month for a Chevrolet Malibu? So, what's the catch? There isn't any if you know what you're getting into. There are always details. You need top-tier credit to qualify. You pay a penalty if you turn that Honda in with more than 36,000 miles. And the payment is not $250 a month because of that little matter of tax. It is more like $275, depending on where you live.

A two-year campaign that has drawn record spending will see either the first woman or the first Jew elected as Los Angeles mayor. But despite those milestones, candidates Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti sped around the city Sunday trying to avoid another distinction: drawing the lowest turnout for an open mayoral seat in modern history. The two candidates reached out to voters in churches, at a pizza parlor and in a bowling alley on a long day of campaigning - their last extended opportunity to connect directly to voters before Tuesday's election.

Fittingly for an actress who has already shown remarkable range, the petite, blond Jess Weixler's face can change radically. Depending on the angle, the moment or the character, she can go from pretty to harsh, innocent to murderous. In the chaotically sequenced romantic drama "Peter and Vandy," she puts on display the many facets of what she calls "a whole person." "It feels so much better to act when you're not just part of a person; you're not just trying to be charming or lovable," she says, warming her hands on a double shot of green tea. "Stuff is going to fly out of you."

David Beckham is retiring. ... Again. Only this time, after a couple of false starts with the Galaxy over the last three years, the former captain of England's national team says he's really, truly hanging up his boots for good, drawing to a close a playing career both eventful and spectacular. "Now is the right time to finish," Beckham said Thursday. "Nothing will ever completely replace playing the game I love. However, I feel like I'm starting a new adventure, and I'm genuinely excited about what lies ahead.

Ben Foster is standing on a boulder in a field in Armenia. That's not some trendy new Zen practice and he's not shooting a scene (although he's there working on "Here," his next film); he's just trying to manage some decent cell reception. Normally soft-spoken, he gamely shouts into the wind about his turn as an Army casualty notification officer in Oren Moverman's "The Messenger." "If you can remove the filter of war, it's about feelings we all have -- falling in love with someone in a difficult situation; we've all experienced loss; we will make the phone call to loved ones and have to break the news.

Regarding the Oct. 10 letter proposing "fingerprinting" of guns by the markings they make on bullets and shell casings: This would not work. A few seconds with a file will change the profile any barrel puts on a bullet. Not only that, rifling marks change with wear and time. Dream on about catching terrorists by destroying American rights. Chris Keller Alhambra

The Times reports that "UCLA will run basically the same version of Dorrell's West Coast offense that it used last season, [although] much of the terminology has changed." That made me think of a joke: A guy goes to the refrigerator and takes the milk out. It's gone bad. He puts it back, saying, "Maybe it'll be better tomorrow." Oh, how I miss Bob Toledo. Ken Haymaker Woodland Hills

Thank you, Chicago Bears. You gave us a 300-pound offensive back who runs for touchdowns, a quarterback who wears gloves indoors, a Hall of Fame running back who is not concerned with personal statistics, a defense that puts eight barking men on the line, a Super Bowl victory when you were supposed to, and a coach who directed you to come out throwing in the second half with a 20-point lead. Best of all, you put a spark of life to what had been one of the most predictable and boring events ever devised--professional football.

NEW YORK - The next wave of union protesters isn't blue collar. It's lawyers, paralegals, secretaries, helicopter pilots, judges, insurance agents and podiatrists. These white-collar workers are not exactly the picture of the labor movement, but they are becoming a more essential part of it as they turn to unions for help in a tough economy as bosses try to squeeze out more profits. "Employers have been downsizing, asking employees to take on larger roles, making them work more hours," said Nicole Korkolis, spokeswoman for the Office and Professional Employees International Union.

The powerful narcotic popped up on the cultural grid around the turn of the millennium. A Texas producer-remixer named DJ Screw paid homage to its woozy, heavy-lidded high by dramatically slowing down beats and vocals to replicate the drug's sleepwalker euphoria. Among Southern rappers, the chemical mixture - called "sizzurp" on the street - soon became as ubiquitous as gold jewelry. This wasn't some exotic new hallucinogen. In fact, it was usually mixed with fruit soda and sipped from oversized plastic foam cups.

Jennifer was one of my first patients as a new doctor, and she came to see me about an unintended pregnancy. A single mom to a rambunctious 5-year-old girl, Jennifer was struggling economically and battling depression. We talked about the options available to her: continuing the pregnancy and preparing to parent another child, offering the baby for adoption or having an abortion. She chose to continue with the pregnancy, and I worked with her over the following months as she struggled with the discomforts of pregnancy, excessive weight gain and the anxiety of having to raise two small children on her own. Seven months later, I delivered Jennifer's beautiful baby boy. Six weeks after that, I saw Jennifer, her new baby and her 5-year-old for a joint checkup.

CAIRO - His phone doesn't ring and his charts are gloomy. But every day Mostafa Ismail, a financial broker with a hangman's demeanor, steps into the Egyptian stock exchange hoping for positive blips. They are rare in a nation where revolution has brought two years of political instability and turned "investor confidence" into a quaint phrase from a more prosperous era. "The market has declined as far as it can go," said Ismail, his tie loosened, a string of numbers before him. "There's no one to trade or buy or sell with.

OAKLAND - Klay Thompson had just outdone himself and nearly everyone else in recent NBA playoffs. The shooting guard scored 29 points for the Golden State Warriors in the first half of a Western Conference semifinal game against San Antonio earlier this month. He finished with 34 points, 14 rebounds and three steals in a victory. Someone in the family wanted more, though, and you probably don't need two guesses if you're even vaguely familiar with the Thompson family's picky patriarch.

An upside-down American flag is considered a signal of distress. And that's the feeling Robert Rosebrock had when he looked up and noticed the red, white and blue street-lamp banners outside the Department of Veterans Affairs' West Los Angeles Medical Center were in disarray - tattered, tangled around the poles or flapping upside-down in the breeze. "It was disgraceful," said Rosebrock, a 71-year-old U.S. Army veteran who arranged for the flags' installation 11 months ago using $12,000 donated by Metabolic Studio, a charitable arm of the Annenberg Foundation.

The family of Mickey Mantle has applied a corkscrew to Grey Flannel Auctions. On May 3, the auction house announced it would be auctioning an authentic Mantle bat at the end of May. Oh, and it said there was something special about this particular bat: It was corked. The auction announcement was accompanied by a statement from John Taube, a professional bat authenticator, which said, "During our examination of the bat, we noticed a circular area .75 inches wide in the center of the top barrel.

Gregg Renfrew wants to change the way people live, starting with their cosmetics. Sitting in her light-filled office in Santa Monica, Renfrew rattles off the statistics she finds most alarming when it comes to some of the lotions, sprays and powders we apply to our bodies on a daily basis. "Did you know that there has not been a federal law passed since 1938 governing the cosmetics industry? And there are close to 12,000 ingredients used in all personal care products, from toothpaste to shampoo, lipstick to lotion, 80% of which have never been tested for safety on human health.

Rachael Mullenix, the Huntington Beach teenager who conspired with her love-struck boyfriend to murder her mother and dump the slashed body into Newport Harbor, expressed only grudging and limited remorse Friday as a judge sentenced her to 25 years to life in prison. "I don't care what the jury thought. I did not do that to my mother," Mullenix, 19, told Orange County Superior Court Judge David Thompson. "I can't even believe this is happening to me."

The days when parents could drop kids off at Disneyland for the day, leaving it up to Mickey and Goofy to watch over the youngsters, are over. Walt Disney Co. has unveiled a new admission policy requiring that children entering any of its U.S.-based theme parks be accompanied by a visitor at least 14 years old. In years past, parents living near theme parks would often use them as day-care facilities during summer vacation and spring break....

For hockey players, Game 7s have a particular resonance - sort of like Christmas morning wrapped up with a trip to the dentist. Something to anticipate, something to dread, in other words. Two years ago, the Boston Bruins needed to win a seventh game, on home ice, to escape the first round against Montreal - and ended up winning the Stanley Cup. The Bruins won three Game 7s that year, being able to win when it mattered most. That's what Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau wants from his team in Sunday's one-game, winner-take-all showdown with the playoff-tested Detroit Red Wings.

ESCONDIDO, Calif. - They're trying. The cyclists and team managers participating in the eighth Amgen Tour of California gathered Friday at City Hall to speak about the future of the sport. Not the past. Please, not the past. At least there was no chance Lance Armstrong would be riding this year. In the past there was usually a mystery. Would Armstrong ride? He did two times, including the year Floyd Landis blew the doping side of the sport wide open by accusing Armstrong of using illegal substances on the same day that Armstrong crashed in Bakersfield and left the race limping and angry.