Slash

Guns N' Roses lead guitarist Slash may hail from one of rock's most volatile bands, but in the Hamburger Hamlet on the Sunset Strip there are no riots, groupies or shattered whiskey bottles around the 29-year-old musician. Slash, who's often portrayed in photos and videos as a dark and sleazy character, is laid-back as he smiles and tells jokes. He avoids eye contact the way shy people frequently do, but he graciously acknowledges fans who stop by the table to say hello.

The feeling of dread was overwhelming as I rendezvoused with my band and noted the absence of our foremost member, drummer Chris Gailfoil. Stricken with stage-four cancer, Chris had been teetering on the brink of death for weeks, and seeing his seat uncharacteristically empty, I couldn't help but assume the worst. It was a gut-wrenching scene, made all the more incredible because it occurred not at a hospital, but in a rehearsal room at the MGM Grand's Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

How absolutely brilliant: In a state where homeownership is unattainable for many, cut the renters tax credit. In a state claimed as the home of the rich and the famous, slash welfare dollars. And how absolutely out of touch with real solutions and long-range planning. EILEEN McDARGH, Laguna Niguel

Following the firing of singer and songwriter Scott Weiland earlier this year from Velvet Revolver, remaining members Slash, Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum and Dave Kushner have opted out of their recording contract with RCA Records so they can continue searching for a replacement for Weiland. "Their sole focus has been, and continues to be, finding the singer-songwriter who will stand alongside them," band manager Carl Stubner said in a statement issued Tuesday, the same day Weiland's solo album, " 'Happy' in Galoshes," was released.

A federal foreclosure-prevention effort that earmarked nearly $2 billion in taxpayer money to help troubled California homeowners has delivered only about one-sixth of that money in three years. But officials from the Keep Your Home California program say the pace of payouts is finally set to increase. That's because more banks, including the largest mortgage servicers, have agreed to use the funds to slash the loan principal amounts for certain borrowers. Until now, many borrowers seeking aid from the program have been frustrated.

What if someone decided to clean up Nairobi's slums and dispense with what locals call the "flying toilet," a plastic bag of feces thrown into the choked, filthy gutters? And what if that someone worked out a way to use the generated biogas as an inexpensive cooking fuel so that slum dwellers no longer needed to chop down trees for charcoal? Here in Nairobi, that someone, Josiah Omotto, head of the Umande Trust community organization, is thus far dealing with decidedly mixed results.

The list of freelance writing gigs on Craigslist goes on and on. Trails.com will pay $15 for articles about the outdoors. Livestrong.com wants 500-word pieces on health for $30, or less. In this mix, the 16 cents a word offered by Green Business Quarterly ends up sounding almost bounteous, amounting to more than $100 per submission. Other publishers pitch the grand opportunities they provide to "extend your personal brand" or to "showcase your work, influence others." That means working for nothing, just like the sailing magazine that offers its next editor-writer not a single doubloon but, instead, the opportunity to "participate in regattas all over the country."

SACRAMENTO - California's $8-an-hour minimum wage needs to go up, says Watsonville Democratic Assemblyman Luis Alejo. And he may be getting the votes he needs to make it happen. But don't count on it; Alejo has tried this before. Alejo is the author of AB 10, which would give the Golden State its first minimum wage increase since 2008. The bill would raise it 25 cents an hour next year, 50 cents in 2015 and an additional 50 cents to $9.25 an hour in 2016. In 2017 and annually thereafter, hourly pay would be adjusted upward automatically, based on the state's inflation rate.