Towns

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.

The sleepy Central Coast town of Arroyo Grande, population 17,000, is the ideal place to shut out the mayhem of city life for a few days. There's not much to do except relax, drink wine, read your book and take sunset strolls. The bed. House of Another Tyme Bed & Breakfast (227 Le Point St.; (805) 489-6313; http://www.anothertymebnb.net ; rooms for two, $120) is a remodeled Victorian home that dates to 1916 and contains three guest rooms. The B&B is run by husband-and-wife Jack Tiedemann and Judy Zwarg.

Hidden from view in a bucolic grove about 20 miles from Baton Rouge, La., the only operating leper colony in the continental United States has been Jose Azaharez's home for a quarter of a century. "This is all I have in the whole world," said Azaharez, a former welterweight boxer from Cuba who was diagnosed with the disease in the 1950s and is now marginally disfigured. "If I had to leave here, where would I go? Who would I stay with? This is the only home I know."

I love my dog. Sure, he has issues - what lover doesn't? He wheezes when he sleeps, or when he's awake. There is an unexplainable darkness to his soul that emerges when he's under extreme stress. He also has a taste for the blood in mosquito bites. (The vet thinks he might be a vampire.) Being from L.A., our dog is prone to anxiety attacks and an almost debilitating sense of envy, particularly when coming upon younger, fitter dogs, which almost all dogs are. The last time we weighed him, he was close to 300 pounds.

This city in the foothills of the Rockies has scenery more diverse than most Hollywood back lots: A 19th century castle, a Spanish colonial plaza and miles of prairie and mountains. That landscape -- along with New Mexico's generous film incentives -- has lured more than a dozen movie productions here in the last decade. The filming has brought in a surge of money, but it has also brought tension.

On a Monday in September 2007, Teddy Johnson went to his son's apartment. Adam Johnson, 22, was in his first year at Marshall University in Huntington. A history major, he played guitar, drums and bass, loved glam bands like the New York Dolls and hosted "The Oscillating Zoo," an eclectic rock show on the university radio station. Teddy hadn't heard from his son in three days. Letting himself into the apartment, he found Adam lying lifeless on his bed, in the same shirt he'd seen him wearing three days earlier.

  In addition to everything else that Madrid has to offer, there are numerous possibilities for day trips that are less than an hour away. So it’s easy to get a complete change of scenery without packing your suitcase or hunting for lodging.    Aranjuez Other than flamenco, no music cries “Spain” in such vivid harmonic flourishes as Joaquin Rodrigo’s dramatic  “Concierto de Aranjuez.” So what better way to immerse yourself in Spain’s glory than to stroll the gardens that inspired this iconic piece of music?

More water gushed from additional floodgates opened Sunday to divert the swollen Mississippi River down a southern Louisiana floodplain, leaving residents of tiny towns in the water's path a grim choice: leave, or hope that the sandbags, levees and walls protecting them from inundation hold against the worst floods in decades. Nancy Allen, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans, said two more gates were lifted at the giant Morganza Spillway, some 40 miles north of Baton Rouge, which was put into operation Saturday for the first time since 1973.

Syrian forces attacked several towns Sunday, killing at least nine people as protests continued against the embattled regime of President Bashar Assad, activists said. Government troops and security forces stormed the central town of Rastan, using tanks and armored vehicles and shooting randomly, the activists said. At least four people were killed in the town of 80,000 and several injured, some critically, according to Wissam Tarif, executive director of the Beirut-based human rights group Insan.

As far as towns go, even some locals admit, Gorman isn't much of one. A block away from a lonely off-ramp of the Golden State Freeway about 65 miles north of Los Angeles, one end of town is anchored by a nondescript sheriff's station and the other--about a quarter of a mile away--is guarded by a Carl's Jr. In between stand a motel, a small restaurant, a convenience store and a few shops.

JOPLIN, Mo. - Arielle Speer started to cry. She was having a panic attack, and the movie hadn't even started. Speer is a Joplin tornado survivor, and she had come to remember. Almost a year ago, the 28-year-old was standing on the side of Connecticut Avenue looking at the pile of rubble that used to be her apartment building. It had since been cleared away, and now Speer was sitting in a local university auditorium, waiting to watch a documentary about the storm that destroyed it. A lot has happened since May 22, 2011, when a massive tornado erased nearly a third of Joplin and killed about 160 people.

Early in the novel, "Second Person Singular," a main character known throughout the book as "the lawyer" reads a note in his wife's handwriting. "I waited for you, but you didn't come," the note says. "I hope everything's all right. I wanted to thank you for last night. It was wonderful. Call me tomorrow?" The sense of intimacy leaps off the page. But the note was not written for the lawyer. It fell out of a copy of Tolstoy's "The Kreutzer Sonata" he had just bought from a used-book store.

What an appealing slice-of-life California town, an easy day trip by car or train. Come for the history, stay for the food. This restaurant-intensive ranch town is the oldest community in Orange County. If San Juan Capistrano - or SJC - had a dating profile it would say: "Self-deprecating, authentic, still likes a good time. " The bed. Choices here are limited, though a new hotel is on the way. Till then, you have the Residence Inn Marriott, with one- and two-bedroom suites starting at $179 (33711 Camino Capistrano; [949]

If you know anything at all about Del Mar, it's that the seaside town north of San Diego is the place to play the ponies. The horses aren't the only thoroughbreds in the track's history; you'll hear it connected to such names as Bing Crosby, W.C. Fields, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, jockey Willie Shoemaker and, my favorite, Seabiscuit. But I'd encourage a Del Mar visit any time except the July 18-Sept. 5 racing season, just for the peace and quiet. The bed. I was here for a family wedding at L'Auberge del Mar Resort & Spa (1540 Camino del Mar; [800]

The Portland Hop. I know, it sounds like a dance craze in 1937. But really, it's what you do when Southern California gets you down and you need to drink small-batch beer, eat Northwestern locavore meals and see bike commuters in the rain. My wife, daughter and I hit Portland, Ore., for a few days last August. Here's the report. The bed. Once a Days Inn, the Hotel Modera (515 S.W. Clay St.; [503] 484-1084, hotelmodera.com; rooms for two start at about $129 in spring) got a serious upgrade before opening in 2008.

COLUMBUS, N.M. - From a small hill at a state park here, the border town of Palomas, Mexico, can be made out through the desert haze. It lies four miles to the south, but the corruption that roils Palomas and the rest of Northern Mexico may as well be a block away. Last year, black sedans and hatchbacks loaded with federal agents poured into Columbus, a town of 2,000 people, arresting the mayor, the police chief, a city trustee and nine others. They have all pleaded guilty in a gun-smuggling operation that sold about 100 firearms, mostly assault rifles, to Mexican drug cartels.

Ash-gray cars filled the lanes at Crescenta Valley Car Wash on Sunday, waiting their turn to reclaim whatever shine they had before the wildfire danced in the foothills above La Cañada Flintridge. A week ago, towering flames were visible from this parking lot. But now, the smoke is clearing along this strip of shops and restaurants on Foothill Boulevard, and a normal weekend is almost visible through the haze. "I'm sorry to say that after the fire, we've had very good business," said manager Ed Isagholi, pointing to the line of customer-packed benches.

The white plume still billows from the smokestack at the ethanol plant off Highway 14, and the 18-wheelers still screech to a stop at the corn unloading station. Nothing is visibly different at the Al-Corn plant, one of Minnesota's oldest ethanol makers — except that an era of nearly unwavering government support for the industry seems to be over. "I had a feeling this was coming," local corn farmer John Fosness said of the U.S. Senate's June 16 vote to immediately kill ethanol subsidies.

"The Avengers," as you may have heard, is the biggest thing to happen to America since World War II but, you know, louder and more troubling. At the end of the matinee I witnessed, audience members actually cheered, believing what they'd just seen was some sort of documentary. Manhattan had been saved, which is almost always a cause for celebration, though I met this one New Yorker the other day at the rent-a-car place: swaggery young Italian guy, you know the type. The New Yorker said he didn't like L.A. because "ders nuttin' to do hair," which translates roughly into "there is nothing to do here.

Among all the special places inside his sprawling 10,700-square-foot mountaintop home, Daniel Coletti savors the vibe inside the living room most. It's a luxury dreamscape distinguished by mammoth walls of glass and Idaho-hewn stone. At night, he gazes out past the blue waters of an indoor-outdoor infinity pool and onto a vast citywide vista capped by the shimmering lights of the Strip. "It's like looking at a fire," his wife, Natalie, said. "You can't turn your eyes from it. " The property has another unique feature: Offered at $13.9 million, it's the most expensive residential listing in Las Vegas.