Reasonable

Skechers has agreed to pay $40 million to consumers who purchased its  rocker-bottom shoes under the mistaken belief that the shoes would help give them Kim Kardashian's booty or Joe Montana's stamina. So how do you get your piece of the payout if you purchased the shoes months, if not years ago, and don't have a receipt? No problem. This refund relies largely on the honor system. Anyone who purchased the company's line of Shape-Up shoes -- or its Resistance Runners, Tone-ups or Toners -- is entitled to a partial refund whether they have proof of purchase or not, officials said Thursday.

SAN FRANCISCO - It's a trend many public employees can relate to: Health insurance premiums climb year after year, while at the bargaining table workers have agreed to kick in more for pensions, take salary cuts and sign on to furlough days. But when Kaiser Permanente - which insures 45,000 public workers here - proposed another hike for 2014, San Francisco's Health Service System teamed up with labor unions to say "no more. " In a rare show of unity, they are demanding that Kaiser craft an alternative proposal, one that caps profits, links rates to the use of services and provides for more transparency.

If the horrific garment factory collapse last month in Bangladesh has any silver lining, it is the response from more than 30 of the world's leading apparel companies - including Benetton, PVH, Abercrombie & Fitch, H&M, Inditex (Zara), Marks & Spencer and Tesco - to sign an agreement to protect the safety and lives of that nation's workers, who make the companies' products. The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh is a historic advance over the voluntary private factory monitoring that has tragically failed to prevent the recent disasters in Bangladesh and in places around the world where clothes are stitched for the global market.

Grouse all you want about airline baggage fees, but the numbers don't lie: You are slowly learning to accept them as a painful but necessary part of the flying experience. In fact, the overall satisfaction with air travel has increased to the highest level since 2006, according to the J.D. Power & Associates airline satisfaction study for 2013. On a 1,000-point scale, satisfaction with airlines reached 695 points, up 14 points from 2012, according to the survey of more than 11,800 airline passengers.

Asthma sufferers have long relied on inhalers for relief from wheezing or coughing attacks. But as of Dec. 31, Primatene Mist -- the only available over-the-counter asthma inhaler -- was taken off shelves because of its adverse effect on the environment. Other inhalers are available, but these require a doctor's prescription. Some people with asthma aren't happy about the change, but lung doctors and asthma specialists agree that Primatene Mist wasn't the best option for patients anyway.

Your choices in San Francisco hotels are overwhelming. The prices can be too. So during our staff visit to the City by the Bay, we looked for reasonably priced hotels that had charm, location or both. We came back with 14 ideas on places to bed down. It's not a complete list, but it is eclectic, like the city itself. Mystic Hotel. This property, which opened in April, stands on a tunnel-adjacent block of Stockton Street that you'll never see on a picture postcard, yet it has style, as do the Burritt Tavern bar and restaurant downstairs.

Phoenix House has not attempted to work with "reasonable" neighbors in Lake View Terrace, as a recent letter writer stated. Judging by their outstanding lack of communication with the other approximately 3,485 out of 3,500 households in Lake View Terrace, it must be assumed that the Phoenix House definition of reasonable is "pliant" or "naive," rather than "having the faculty of reason" as defined by Webster's Dictionary. The neighbors surrounding the hospital--indeed, throughout the Northeast Valley--have merely questioned whether it is sound judgment to place this facility of 150 adolescents within 50 feet of single-family homes, and wished to have the potential impacts articulated.

If it's reasonable to require high school seniors to pass an exit exam, isn't it reasonable to require eighth-graders to pass an entrance exam? JAY CROSBY Oxnard

After watching the arguments in the Senate as to how to behave, I am forced to conclude that "bipartisan" means: Be reasonable, do it my way. ROBERT F. FALLER West Covina

Newkirk's methods are controversial but effective. Sometimes drastic measures are necessary to create reasonable change. BOB AND RAE LYON RADABAUGH Burbank

A loud screeching sound echoed across the oval racetrack as a driver burned rubber, revving the engine of a silver Mercedes-Benz and spinning the vehicle a full 360 degrees while kicking up a cloud of dust and smoke. This wasn't a stock car race, but a shoot for an upcoming Mercedes commercial that was being filmed at Irwindale Speedway, where about two dozen crew members huddled Monday morning under blue pop-up tents next to camera stands and film equipment to escape the suffocating 104-degree heat.

Always pack a flat rubber water-stopper for leaky bathtub and sink drains. I've needed it even in highly rated hotels. Bob Myers Lake Arrowhead When traveling with a child in diapers, prepare a grab-and-go package of diapers and wipes. Put three or four wipes in a snack-size plastic bag, then put that and one diaper in a quart-size bag. Place these single packages in a carry-on or diaper bag. For a diaper change, grab one pack and go. Save the leftover wipes in their bags for the return trip.

WASHINGTON - With full-fledged sellers' markets underway in dozens of metropolitan areas around the country, new research has found curious statistical patterns emerging: Even in cities where listings get multiple offers within days or hours, significant numbers of homes are sitting on the market for six months, 12 months or more with no takers. Call them turnoff listings. Despite roaring sales paces all around them, for one reason or another these houses send shoppers scurrying away, often because of mispricing, excessive restrictions on access to buyers and agents, failure to clean or make repairs and a variety of other marketing bungles.

Staples Center held Pau Gasol in a warm embrace late in the fourth quarter Sunday, as fans stood to applaud when he left a game that had long been lost. Kobe Bryant then rose from his seat behind the Lakers' bench to tenderly place two hands on his teammate's shoulders. It was gracias , Gasol. It also felt very much like adios . The power forward who prompted Lamar Odom to exclaim, "The Beatles are back, baby!" on the day the Lakers acquired Gasol in February 2008 probably has played his last game as part of a not-so-Fab-Four.

Sprint and T-Mobile, citing inventory "challenges" faced by Samsung, are delaying the rollout of Galaxy S 4 smartphones. Sprint said it will not sell the phone in its store this Saturday as originally planned. It did not say when the phone would be available in stores. It will take online orders Saturday, but Sprint also did not say when phones ordered online would ship to customers. Sprint is selling the phone for $250 with a two-year contract. Meanwhile, T-Mobile said customers will not be able to order the phone online Wednesday as scheduled.

Americans are turning a corner on gay rights, and slowly but surely, they seem to be dragging the Boy Scouts along behind them. Leaders of the organization recently proposed dropping its ban on openly gay Scouts, while continuing to prohibit gay adults from serving as scoutmasters. Although we're glad to see the Boy Scouts of America become more tolerant, however limited and belated that change is, it must waste no time before taking the next step as well. There is no valid reason to exclude gay troop leaders of either gender, and the Scouts' lack of acceptance smacks of old and ignorant prejudices against homosexuality.

Oh why! Oh why would we want to spend good money to go to other planets and to study the stars. We have too many chores to do here at home! Global warming, poverty, pollution, crime, drugs, it never ends. How could a reasonable person decide to go to Mars? How could a reasonable person decide to have a baby? But people do want children, and people do want to explore. Despite the drawbacks, we must carry these burdens. I guess we're only human! EDWIN HOLLOWELL Lawndale

Re "Transit Needs: Unmet," Ventura County editorial, Feb. 20. I think there is a world of legitimate, reasonable unmet transit needs out there, just waiting to be met, and would urge the Ventura County Transportation Commission to allocate, from this year onward, every single penny of its available transit money to transit. None of the money earmarked for transit should continue to be diverted to roads. This is not because roads are unnecessary, but because there is more to society's needs for mobility than just roads and cars.

In my Sunday column , I argued that events are pushing President Obama toward a bigger role in aiding rebel forces in Syria's civil war -- not direct military intervention, perhaps, but certainly more direct help for the insurgents. Yes, I wrote, it's a slippery slope, but the U.S. interests in that part of the world are so great that it's dangerous to stand by. But wait, readers responded; what about all the reasons getting involved in Syria would be dangerous? In the view of the Obama administration, those objections appear to be eroding.

Administrators in the Los Angeles Unified School District would no longer be allowed to suspend students for mouthing off or other acts of “willful defiance” under a groundbreaking school board resolution set to be proposed next week. Amid rising national concern that harsh discipline practices disproportionately harm minority students, the resolution by board President Monica Garcia would mark the first state ban on suspensions for willful defiance. Instead, schools would be required to use less punitive alternatives to deal with behavioral problems.  Students have been suspended for such acts as wearing hats, tapping their feet on the floor and refusing to read as directed under the willful defiance category, which accounts for nearly 42% of all suspensions in California and about one-third in L.A. Unified.