Quality Of Life

In the seven years since they moved into their house on 2nd Street, Jim Calvillo and his family have learned to hate their next-door neighbors: three oil wells that are unwelcome companions, day and night. * "We can't even sit out in the back yard, especially during the summertime, because the fumes from the oil produced and solvents used are so strong," said Calvillo, who is also plagued by noise from the wells, which pump 24 hours a day.

A study has found a startling level of despair among obese children, with many rating their quality of life as low as that of young cancer patients on chemotherapy. The research published in today's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Assn. offers a sobering glimpse of what life is like for many obese youngsters nationwide. They are teased about their size, have trouble playing sports and suffer physical ailments linked to their weight.

THE scene is set for yet another knock-down, drag-out brawl between red and blue state mentalities. Two middle-age couples, one from Northern California, the other from Ohio, square off over evolution and the Bible, medical marijuana and the right of the terminally ill to end their lives. But Jane Anderson has even more profound concerns brewing in her new play, "The Quality of Life," which had its world premiere Wednesday at the Geffen Playhouse's Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theater.

Nearly 80% of companies responding to a nationwide survey have plans to relocate or expand, most in the next three years, according to a study released Sunday. North Atlanta, Dallas' northern suburbs and the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., area topped the list of preferred sites, said the joint study by Ernst & Young accountants and the International Assn. of Corporate Real Estate Executives. The respondents ranked financial costs as the highest priority in determining location, the study found.

The Israeli government's announcement this week that it intends to expand Jerusalem has created a storm of protest from the United States, the United Nations and others who say it will further damage the beleaguered peace process with the Palestinians. But inside Israel, the plan's most vocal opponents are people whose focus is not on the peace process but on the kinds of quality-of-life issues that might sound familiar to municipal annexation foes in California and elsewhere.

One of California's key engines of economic growth--Silicon Valley--is in danger of stalling because of a severe shortage of affordable housing and a widening income and education gap between rich and poor, whites and minorities, according to a report to be released Sunday. "These issues are on the minds of virtually everyone. They really see a threat," said Doug Henton, research director of the report, produced for the nonprofit Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network.

Where have all the Valley jobs gone? Utah. Nevada. Mexico. Idaho. Oklahoma. Kentucky. They are some of the winners in the economic tug-of-war California has been losing, as companies in the San Fernando Valley and Ventura County have moved facilities out of state to manufacture more cost-efficiently, or have relocated altogether. Since the mid-1990 employment peak, California on the whole has lost between 400,000 and 600,000 jobs, most of them in manufacturing, construction and retailing.

Last summer, Rachel Kraut and Cyrus Papan were senior postdoctoral researchers at Caltech, yet they were worried about their future. With four young children, they wanted jobs heading their own laboratories in the same city -- a chancy prospect in today's job market, even for experts from an elite university. They found salvation half a world away in Singapore, where each now enjoys a competitive salary, a cutting-edge lab and an occasional view of balmy Sumatra across the Singapore Strait.

Few teen pregnancies, good air and water quality, low levels of child poverty and low dropout rates add up to make Irvine the third most child-friendly city in the nation in a poll just released by Zero Population Growth. In the yearlong nationwide study by the educational organization, quality-of-life measurements such as crime rates, income and infant mortality were tallied for 219 cities of more than 100,000 people.

Frank discussions between caregivers and ill or dying patients not only can ease the patients' fear of becoming a burden, but can prevent eventual feelings of guilt in their loved ones. Yet increasingly, caregivers must make irrevocable, life-altering decisions on loved ones' behalf -- without knowing what they would have wanted.