Sand

Mexico plans to spend 1 billion pesos ($91.6 million) to replace sand on the Caribbean beaches of Cancun, Cozumel and the Riviera Maya that has been eroded away by storms, threatening to turn off tourists.

They say something in our salty blood draws us to the sea. As such, Ventura will always be one of our easiest, breeziest, saltiest options. You know you've left L.A. proper when the boot shops start popping up along the 101. You know you've arrived in Ventura when the wind begins to whip and the gulls begin to circle. The tab: $289 for two nights right on the beach, $120 for meals and $98 for three tickets to the whale-watching experience of a lifetime. The bed We set up at the Inn on the Beach (1175 S. Seaward Ave.; [805]

California's coastline is full of colorfully named strands like Seal Beach, Pismo Beach and Muscle Beach. However, Tin Can Beach — a wacky monument to littering — is just a memory. The nickname for a 3½-mile stretch of sand just north of Huntington Beach, Tin Can Beach reached the heights of trashiness in the 1940s and '50s when it was the sometime domain of hobos, drinkers, free spirits and vacationers. They built cardboard shacks, erected tents and thought nothing of tossing used cans, bottles, paper plates and other debris to the ground.

This year President Obama will decide whether to allow construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico. Few environmental issues in recent years have engendered so much passion and debate. The pipeline would facilitate the transportation of a particularly thick type of oil, oil sands crude, from Canada to U.S. ports. What is oil sands crude? It is a tar-like substance containing bitumen, extracted from the boreal forests of western Canada by strip mining.

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. - They never got close, and Mitt Romney may not have even seen them, but protesters - some from Occupy Wall Street - took political theater to a new level Sunday outside the beachfront estate of billionaire David H. Koch, where the Republican candidate was raising money. Some of the 200 protesters marched down mile-long Coopers Beach toward the home in a cloud of sand, bearing banners and signs: "Your $50,000 ticket equals my child's education," "end corporate personhood" and "don't forget to tip the help.

Having been born to one of the most famous couples of this century--America's greatest modern writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his talented flapper wife Zelda Sayre--Scottie Fitzgerald was thrust a heavy mantle, particularly as their only child. Add to that the heady cocktail of parental alcoholism, prescription drug abuse, numerous failed suicide attempts and schizophrenia. Talent and tragedy were genetically passed on to Scottie as surely as her blond hair and blue eyes. Until now, very little was known about the Fitzgeralds' daughter beyond her school days.

'Spartacus: Blood and Sand' Where: Starz and Encore When: 10 tonight Rating: TV-MA (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 17)

CHIPPEWA COUNTY, Wis. - Where County Highway A crests a knoll, Ken Schmitt pulls up to the edge of a farm and idles the car. Above a cornfield yellowed and brittle from a killing frost is a 100-foot hill with a wide section cut away, revealing bands of stone, clay and sand neat as a layer cake. In time, 800 acres of farmland will be mined to feed an energy boom sweeping the United States. No one is drilling for oil or gas amid the gently rolling farmland and wooded ridges of western Wisconsin.

People who live along the shimmering coastline of Southern California have found many creative ways over the years to discourage the public from using the parts of the beach they would prefer to consider their own. They have put up gates that block public access and have taken down signs that say "public welcome. " The latest gambit, by residents in Newport Beach, involves planting lawns and hedges, installing sprinkler systems and fire pits, and plopping down furniture and ornaments that spill over from their property onto the public beach.

The sun is high and it's a slow day for selling and there's not much for a camel trader to do except scatter hay and greens and listen to the big beasts munch. Sounds like shoes walking through gravel. Essam Ammar lifts a cellphone from his tunic. "Hi, Ahmed. No, I won't lower the price." Eyes roll. Ammar pulls the phone from his ear and looks at it; Ahmed's words crackle in the air. Click. It's not even noon. The day seems in retreat. "I've been doing this for 29 years," says Ammar, who wears a white-lace cap and an even snowier pinstriped vest, a risky choice amid blowing dust and rubbish fires.

Time was that Malibu's celebrity-studded Broad Beach lived up to its name. Not anymore. In recent years, punishing winter storms and high tides have swept away much of the 1.1-mile oceanfront lined with the multimillion-dollar getaways of such notables as Steven Spielberg, Dustin Hoffman, Pierce Brosnan and businessman-philanthropist Patrick Soon-Shiong. To protect their seaside showplaces, residents have piled sandbags and built a massive emergency rock wall. Now, under orders from state coastal officials, they are fighting against time to seek a more permanent solution - permanent being relative in an era of rising seas and extreme weather.

Las Vegas Sands Corp., the casino behemoth run by Republican fundraiser and billionaire Sheldon Adelson, is facing criticism for its operations in Spain and Macau. The gambling company recently acknowledged it is likely that in Macau it violated the federal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, an American law best known for banning bribery of foreign officials, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filing. It was the first time the company disclosed it was under investigation by the SEC. In Spain, advocacy groups are protesting Las Vegas Sands' plans to build a giant 1,850-acre casino outside Madrid.

The Las Vegas casino company headed by high-profile Republican donor and billionaire Sheldon Adelson said it probably violated a federal law that prohibits the bribery of foreign government officials. Las Vegas Sands Corp. said its auditors found that "there were likely violations" of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars Americans from bribing foreign officials to secure an advantage. The disclosure was made in a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Real estate businessman Fred Sands has purchased a newly built beach home in Malibu for close to its asking price of $14.7 million. The sellers are Tom Mendoza, vice chairman of NetApp, and his wife, Kathy, who has served as sales director and an operations director at the data management firm. Kathy Mendoza spent three years working on the house, bringing in roof tiles from an Italian convent and importing the teak windows from Italy. Her current project is a castle restoration in Crete.

Can you program a 3-D printer to build an entire building? Architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars wants to try. The Dutch architect has laid out plans for Landscape House -- a structure that looks like a Mobius strip or "one surface folded over into an endless band," as he  describes it. To build it, he plans to use a 3-D printer called D-Shape that will lay down thin layers of sand that combine with a bonding agent to create a material that is...

JERRY SAND S, 25, outfielder Final 2012 stats: .174 batting average, two doubles, one RBI, one walk, nine strikeouts in just 23 at-bats. Contract status: Now belongs to the Pirates. The good: Had a second strong offensive season - at triple-A Albuquerque (.296, 26 homers, 107 RBI in 452 at-bats). The bad: Thus far has been unable to translate his triple-A game to the majors, though he received almost zero chance last season. What's next: Should receive better playing opportunity with the Pirates.

Time was that Malibu's celebrity-studded Broad Beach lived up to its name. Not anymore. In recent years, punishing winter storms and high tides have swept away much of the 1.1-mile oceanfront lined with the multimillion-dollar getaways of such notables as Steven Spielberg, Dustin Hoffman, Pierce Brosnan and businessman-philanthropist Patrick Soon-Shiong. To protect their seaside showplaces, residents have piled sandbags and built a massive emergency rock wall. Now, under orders from state coastal officials, they are fighting against time to seek a more permanent solution - permanent being relative in an era of rising seas and extreme weather.

Mysticism isn't new to art, having prompted (among other things) the emergence of pure abstraction into the Modernist lexicon more than a century ago. At Michael Kohn Gallery, a group exhibition of about 30 paintings, sculptures, video, prints and mixed media works from the past 50 years by 14 artists shows that it's alive and well today - albeit with a suitably altered consciousness. “Into the Mystic” takes its subject loosely, proposing that ultimate insight consists of contemplative, intuitive knowledge, not merely facts.

It was our first Christmas together, and I was determined that it would be special. We had booked a hotel room for the holidays on the sand at Pismo Beach. Jim, my new love, had Mark Harmon hair and a Richard Gere smile. He watched BBC News, read (actual) books and regularly finished the Sunday Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle - in pen. He was also a no-nonsense merchant marine, so I was resolved that there would be nothing too frilly about this celebration. I spent the weeks before the holidays scouring thrift shops for inexpensive lights, garland and ornaments - with no emotional baggage - all of which could be discarded when Christmas was done.