Subsidizes

Officials at Patagonia Inc. consider the bonding time between a newborn and its parents as a critical stage of the child's development. That's why the Ventura-based outdoor clothing company allows up to two months of paid child-care leave for mothers and fathers in its employ. The company also offers on-site day care for about 115 children, for which it spends more than $330,000 a year to operate. Parents pay $222 to $469 each month per child, depending on the type of care required.

A brush fire driven by powerful winds slowed to a crawl overnight in Fillmore as gusts died down and gave firefighters a chance to regroup. "Today is our day to get strong work done," Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Mike Lindbery told The Times early Tuesday. "We have limited time before these predicted Santa Ana winds. " The blaze scorched through about 170 acres in the Ventura County town Monday evening and burned two structures. Lindbery said he could not immediately determine how much of the fire had been contained.

The dry lake runways at Edwards Air Force Base, famous as the landing ground of the space shuttles, are cracking and sinking, apparently because the Antelope Valley's growing population is sucking ground water from beneath them, federal officials reported Thursday. During a hearing by the California Water Commission in Lancaster, officials of the Air Force and the U.S.

Los Angeles Times THERMAL, Calif. - Maria Mendez watched from the front stoop as her 2-year-old daughter toddled back from the ice cream truck down the street, clutching a brightly wrapped treat in her tiny fist. It was a simple, joyful moment for a young mother who rarely let her little girl out of the house just a few months ago. That's when they lived in Duroville, a ramshackle mobile home park choking with dust, the stench of busted sewer lines and noxious smoke billowing from the neighboring dump.

Private clubs can legitimately decide who may-- and who may not --belong to them. That is a matter of club privilege. But when the privileged deduct from their state taxes their business expenses at clubs that discriminate, it means asking all California taxpayers to contribute something to their privilege. That is unfair. Gov.

Regarding your article, "Neglect of Bright but Poor Students Frustrates Teachers" (March 28) at La Jolla High whose advanced placement exams are not subsidized by the financially strapped school district, I submit that J.M. Tarvin, the persuasive and respected principal at La Jolla High, could raise the needed $65-a-person fee for every qualified student every year by tapping the resources of the La Jolla High School Foundation--a private fund-raising organization....

The West End's musical producers may have lower costs than their Broadway counterparts, but some rely on provincial tryouts to keep expenses even lower. Now previewing here is "High Society," a new version of the Cole Porter film musical that was tested, improved and packaged in England's Midlands.

The Times is to be commended for its editorial "There Is Room at the Inn, Alas" (Dec. 21). It is a tragedy that general relief clients have seen their checks reduced from $341 to $293 and then to the current $212 over the past year. As you mention, "That is not enough to rent a room, unless the recipient is lucky enough to get one of the few (hotel rooms) subsidized by the Community Redevelopment Agency." Luckily we just reopened the La Jolla Hotel, which was rehabilitated with agency funds.

Re "Rev. Schuller says church owes him," Nov. 2 Regarding the bankruptcy court fight over the millions left over in the Crystal Cathedral sale and bankruptcy, I would like to volunteer to testify on behalf of the taxpayers who have been forced to subsidize these mega-corporations masquerading as churches. This is an absolute scam. The whole Schuller mob has been living high on the hog for years while enjoying an outdated tax system that shielded their church from paying taxes.

Hoping to end persistent skirmishing, peacekeepers moved into areas near South Ossetia's capital to separate Georgian troops and fighters in the breakaway region, officials said. Aslan Elbakiyev, a spokesman for South Ossetia's separatist government, said there were no reports of fresh fighting in the region, where nearly a week of mortar and gun fire had threatened to spiral into all-out war. The peacekeeping force includes Russian, Georgian and South Ossetian troops.

NEW YORK - As goes the "fiscal cliff," so apparently goes the stock market. The Dow Jones industrial average notched its best gain Monday in more than two months on optimism that feuding lawmakers can avert a potential fiscal crisis before it harms the U.S. economy. The blue-chip indicator rose more than 200 points and stocks rallied around the globe, easing at least momentarily the selling pressure that had weighed on share prices over the last month. It didn't seem to matter that investors' optimism was based on the faintest of hope - mild comments from lawmakers that they can stave off the dreaded spending cuts and tax increases that would kick in automatically Jan. 1. And President Obama said he believes that a deal can be struck in time.

Re "Rev. Schuller says church owes him," Nov. 2 Regarding the bankruptcy court fight over the millions left over in the Crystal Cathedral sale and bankruptcy, I would like to volunteer to testify on behalf of the taxpayers who have been forced to subsidize these mega-corporations masquerading as churches. This is an absolute scam. The whole Schuller mob has been living high on the hog for years while enjoying an outdated tax system that shielded their church from paying taxes.

To hear business leaders and political candidates talk, proper industrial policy comprises only three elements: a fair tax system, a level playing field and "certainty. " So why is it that all three are about to be thrown out the window as a sop to oil, gas and nuclear interests determined to fillet the wind-power industry? The maneuvering in Washington is over a federal subsidy known as the production tax credit, which is worth 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour to wind-energy producers.

WASHINGTON - The United States and China have filed international trade complaints against each other, escalating trade tensions amid a weakening global economy and a heated U.S. presidential race. The Obama administration launched a new enforcement action Monday with the World Trade Organization, alleging that China was illegally subsidizing exports of automobiles and auto parts. Beijing filed its own WTO complaint earlier Monday, challenging anti-dumping duties that Washington had levied on $7.2 billion in goods from China - including steel, tires and kitchen appliances - that the U.S. said were sold here below cost.

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is set to launch a new enforcement action with the World Trade Organization against China on Monday, alleging that the Asian economic giant is putting U.S. manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage by illegally subsidizing exports of autos and auto parts. The president, blending his roles as candidate and incumbent officeholder, will announce the move at the first of two campaign stops scheduled Monday in Ohio, a state where 1 in 8 jobs is tied directly or indirectly to auto manufacturing.

DES MOINES - It's an overriding conservative principle: Scale back government interference and let businesses survive or fail on their merits. But standing by that principle may hurt Mitt Romney in Iowa, a hotly contested swing state that could provide a crucial six electoral college votes in November. Romney recently upset many conservatives here by saying he would end a government tax credit that helps subsidize a burgeoning wind industry in the state. Some of them - farmers who earn tens of thousands of dollars a year for having wind turbines on their property - say they won't vote for Romney because of his wind position.

To ensure the service level at the Camarillo Library remains steady through next June, the City Council has again approved a contract to subsidize a portion of the library's annual cost of staying open. The council voted late Wednesday to spend $60,000 to pay for 11 extra hours in the weekly schedule. The city had already included the money in its current budget.

Malibu will receive state and federal funds to help offset the $426,968 cost of cleaning fire-damaged land, City Manager David Carmany said. He said the Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state Office of Emergency Services will foot all but $27,752 of the bill for clearing streams and storm drains, stabilizing hillsides and erecting retaining walls, and checking dams and barriers.

The National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People has withdrawn a discrimination complaint against the city of Lancaster, leading federal housing officials to end an almost yearlong investigation into housing practices in the High Desert municipality. The complaint alleged that officials used housing investigators, who are partially funded by Los Angeles County, and Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies in a campaign to drive primarily minority residents from government-subsidized housing.

WASHINGTON - It's a deal that most businesses would relish: Buy an insurance policy to cover losses or falling prices, and the government will foot most of the bill. Such an arrangement has been enjoyed for more than a decade by the farmers who grow crops such as corn and soybeans, and the companies that insure them. And it's about to get even better. The farm bill now before Congress includes a provision - estimated to cost about $3 billion a year - that would help cover the losses farmers suffer before their crop insurance policies kick in. Those losses, termed deductibles, can run in the tens of thousands of dollars for a typical mid-size farm.