Remainder

Vietnam veteran John Otte did his best to forget the war. He got married, raised two sons and made a career working at credit unions. But as Otte neared retirement, memories of combat flooded back. Starting in 2005, he filed a series of claims with Veterans Affairs for disability compensation, contending that many of his health problems stemmed from the war. The VA agreed, and now the 65-year-old with two Purple Hearts receives $1,900 a month for post-traumatic stress disorder and diabetes - and for having shrapnel scars on his arms.

ATLANTA - Will Don Mattingly be the Dodgers manager for the remainder of the season? Team President Stan Kasten wouldn't say. "I don't discuss the manager and I never do," Kasten said. "Ever since spring training, we said that, when you wanted to talk about him every day. We had a rough start but we expect to get through this. " Kasten was reminded he was asked a yes-or-no question. "What was the question again?" Kasten asked. Will Don Mattingly be your manager for the rest of the year?

The 45 t h California International Antiquarian Book Fair Where: Pasadena Convention Center, 300 East Green St., Pasadena. When: Friday, Feb. 10: 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 11: 11 am to 7 p.m.; Sunday, Feb. 12: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission: A three-day pass may be purchased at the door Friday for $25. Tickets puchased Saturday or Sunday are $15 and include return entry throughout the remainder of the fair. Information: http://www.labookfair.com/index.php

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is making the rounds to promote his book "Immigration Wars" -- but he seems to be most at war with himself. "Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution" proposes that illegal immigrants could become permanent legal residents, but not citizens. The trouble is, the political landscape has shifted -- and so have Bush's ideas. On Tuesday, Bush said he would support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants “if you can craft that in law where you can have a path to citizenship where there isn't an incentive for people to come illegally.” That's at odds with his own book, in which he writes, “those who violated the laws can remain, but cannot obtain the cherished fruits of citizenship.” Tuesday on "Morning Joe," he explained:  “We wrote this book last year, not this year.” So...

WASHINGTON — If you have a pressing need to raise some cash, here's some good news: Rising home values are encouraging lenders to revive a product that imploded during the housing bust years — second mortgages. Researchers at Equifax, one of the three national credit bureaus, say total outstanding balances of second home mortgages at banks rose in the latest month for the first time in nearly five years. Though the blip was relatively small — about three-tenths of a percent — analysts say any increase in the amount of second mortgages is a bellwether event, indicating that major lenders are showing growing confidence that the real estate market has finally made the turn to recovery.

Supporters of a measure that would have expanded background checks for firearm purchases decried the bill's death in the Senate last month. But was the defeat really such a bad thing? Had it passed, the new law would have been hailed as a historic breakthrough by "anti-gun" forces and a historic mistake by "pro-gun" forces. But on the ground, where American citizens are being shot and killed every day, nothing much would have changed. That's the way things have gone for decades in the grinding American culture war over guns.

In the late 1950s, Jimmy Swaggart was roaming around the back roads of Louisiana in a broken-down Chevrolet, earning about $40 a week from his preaching and gospel singing. He has come a long way since then. The controversial evangelist now heads a tax-exempt enterprise that ranks, by almost any measure, as one of the most successful of its kind. Jimmy Swaggart World Ministries and its Bible college boasted revenues of $150 million in 1987--more than $500,000 each working day.

In September I wrote about an unsettling incident in which I'd found high levels of lead in the chard I'd grown in a backyard planter box filled with store-bought soil. According to the head of the lab that did the testing, I shouldn't have eaten more than one-quarter pound of the leaves a day or I'd risk lead poisoning. The results were enough to make me rip out all the leafy greens I'd been growing in my custom-built planter and throw them into the black trash bin, not even the green waste bin or my compost pile, because I didn't want this stuff recycled.

The 18,000-plus fans who crammed into Staples Center didn't want to leave, lingering to digest what they had seen and savor an improbable moment. Who could blame them for trying to prolong a moment so stunning that it was at least the equal of the many feats the Kings pulled off last spring in winning the Stanley Cup for the first time in 45 years? The Kings won a game they seemed bound to lose Thursday, rallying for two goals in the last two minutes for a 4-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks to take a solid 2-0 series lead.

What is it about presidents' second terms that makes them seem so scandal-ridden? Simple: The iron law of longevity. All governments make mistakes, and all governments try to hide those mistakes. But the longer an administration is in office, the more errors it makes, and the harder they are to conceal. Just ask Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton or George W. Bush, all of whom spent much of their second terms playing defense. The longevity rule caught up with Barack Obama last week as he wrestled clumsily with not one controversy but three: the Internal Revenue Service's treatment of "tea party" groups, the Benghazi killings and the Justice Department's seizure of Associated Press telephone records.

As expected, the NHL on Thursday canceled the remainder of its scheduled exhibition games, putting an on-time start to the regular season in serious jeopardy. The season is scheduled to begin Oct. 11. However, with labor talks at a stalemate and the sides due to meet Friday to discuss only “non-core economic issues,” a resolution that would save the full season seems ever more unlikely. The NHL, which had previously canceled exhibition games through Sept. 30, issued a terse statement on Thursday announcing its move.

Jered Weaver understands the importance of September baseball, but he's more intimate with how his right arm should feel. "I can't keep going at 75 to 80%," Weaver said Friday, making his first comments since an MRI exam this week revealed biceps tendinitis that forced him from Friday's scheduled start against the Detroit Tigers. "I needed some time off. " How much remains uncertain. Angels Manager Mike Scioscia wouldn't discount the idea of Weaver returning next week against the Oakland Athletics.

MUSIC The Rock Bottom Remainders are living proof that all writers are really just failed rock stars. Stephen King, Dave Barry, Mitch Albom, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, Matt Groening and a whole slate of other on-the-page favorites have soldiered on for two decades in this cheeky rock outfit, which draws its run to a close at this final public show, with proceeds benefiting L.A.'s Midnight Mission and the Downtown Women's Center, plus the launch of...

Pick a fight with Stephen King? Roger McGuinn has no fear. Asked if he's a better writer than King is a musician, McGuinn - a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer with '60s Los Angeles band the Byrds - laughed, but didn't hesitate. "I think so," he says, speaking from a solo tour stop in Nashville. "That's not saying a whole lot, though. Stephen still needs to work on his F chord. " McGuinn and King, an amateur guitarist and singer, are sometimes-members of the Rock Bottom Remainders, a pickup band of mostly authors which for the last 20 years has played charity concerts of rock classics and a few originals.

A new kind of Mav-wreck It was a week that packed enough drama for a season's worth of episodes on "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" - or "Jersey Shore," for that matter. There were confrontations, finger-pointing and plenty of regrets, all involving one Lamar Joseph Odom. It started with the infamous locker-room clash last weekend between Odom and his boss, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who reportedly asked his mopey, underachieving forward whether he wanted "to go for it or not?"

The 45 t h California International Antiquarian Book Fair Where: Pasadena Convention Center, 300 East Green St., Pasadena. When: Friday, Feb. 10: 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 11: 11 am to 7 p.m.; Sunday, Feb. 12: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission: A three-day pass may be purchased at the door Friday for $25. Tickets puchased Saturday or Sunday are $15 and include return entry throughout the remainder of the fair. Information: http://www.labookfair.com/index.php

So you want to grouse about paying almost a quarter for a postage stamp? Consider this: Newport Beach lawyer Michael T. Walsh paid $75,000 for one Thursday. And the picture on it isn't even right side up. The stamp was issued by the Iranian government in 1950 and still is glued to an envelope. It is, according to a stamp broker, the most expensive Iranian stamp ever sold, and it is thought to be one of only two of its kind still in existence.

In contrast to their upbeat public assessments, U.S. officials expressed frustration with a "risk averse" Mexican army and rivalries among security agencies that have hampered the Mexican government's war against drug cartels, according to secret U.S. diplomatic cables disclosed Thursday. The cables quoted Mexican officials expressing fear that the government was losing control of parts of its national territory and that time was "running out" to rein in drug violence. The cables gave a much starker view of the pitfalls and obstacles facing Mexican President Felipe Calderon, a departure from the public statements of unwavering support that have come out of Washington for most of the 4-year-old war, which has claimed more than 30,000 lives.

The Chicago Bears have won five in a row, but now they've lost something even bigger. Quarterback Jay Cutler could be done for the season with a broken right thumb suffered in the fourth quarter of Sunday's victory over San Diego. If Cutler undergoes surgery on his throwing hand, there's a good chance he would not be ready to return for the regular season and possibly the playoffs. According to the Chicago Tribune, Cutler was injured when he was knocked to the ground by San Diego linebacker Donald Butler on an interception return by the Chargers.

NBA Commissioner David Stern said he and a small group of negotiators met Monday in New York to "set the table" for a larger meeting Tuesday that will probably determine whether the remainder of the exhibition schedule will be scrapped. The league's lockout of its players is moving toward the 100-days mark, with the scheduled Nov. 1 season-opening games in jeopardy. "A lot of signs point to [Tuesday] being a very important day," Derek Fisher, the Lakers point guard and players' union president, told reporters Monday.