Tract

Tract housing is not what comes to mind when one thinks of Malibu, but amid the custom estates and beachfront mansions here is a modest set of about 200 homes known as Malibu West. The tract, built in 1962 near Pacific Coast Highway, is made up of traditional and modern homes, many restored to their original design. To some, these midcentury houses may look like knockoffs of the famed tract homes built by Joseph Eichler, but Malibu West was built by Nisan Matlin and Eugene Dvoretzky, award-winning architects (now retired)

Women who get urinary tract infections - and that's nearly half of all women -- likely know this already: Try cranberry. It's a treatment that's been passed around among women for a long time to prevent the recurrence of this annoying infection. Unlike some folk remedies, this one has gained credence through the years from the experts - the medical experts, that is. And a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine reinforces the use of cranberry products to prevent UTIs - one of the most common bacterial infections among adult women, with about 7 million doctor visits a year in the United States alone.

Newport Beach-based Akins Development Co. plans to build 113 attached homes at Turtle Rock Crest, at the highest elevation of the Irvine development. Four plans will offer from 2,400 to 3,500 square feet of space.

Urinary tract infections are common conditions that occur when bacteria from the intestines enter the urinary tract. New research, however, suggests that the bacteria causing these infections may come from contaminated food -- especially chickens. While it sounds bizarre, studies from Canadian researchers show that stricter chicken-farm ani-contamination practices may help curb cases of urinary tract infections. In 2010, researchers showed that the most common cause of the infections -- E. coli bacteria -- can originate in food.

"Dog treed a mountain lion last night; coffee's over there," John Jones drawled, offering his first words to a couple of unfamiliar flatlanders up poking around in his neck of the woods one morning. Back in a corner of the Holy Jim Volunteer Fire Department's fire barn, a big pot of coffee simmered on a wood-burning stove.

Cambridge Bioscience said it completed a joint development agreement with American Hospital Supply to jointly develop Cambridge Bioscience's urinary tract diagnostic system.

I read with great interest the article written by Janny Scott about marketing of dictionaries ("Publicity Wars Rage Unabridged," May 25). The use of unorthodox methods of marketing of dictionaries, however, is not a recent development. There is a tract of real estate in rural San Diego County called Dictionary Hill. At the turn of the century, some enterprising dictionary vendors spurred interest in their products by giving away a parcel of land in this tract with every dictionary sold.

In 1957, the small Owens Valley town of Bishop, 280 miles north of Los Angeles, was no less remote than today. Its first housing tract was completed that year. It featured ranch-style houses designed by the late Cliff May. Our family bought a new one with three bedrooms and two bathrooms for $16,300. The tract, typically financed by the Veterans Administration, was named "Westridge Manor." (Some dubbed it "Mortgage Manor.") So great was the demand, the tract sold out before the houses were completed.

The Interior Department's switch to area-wide offshore leasing in 1983 has caused diminished competition and a $7-billion loss to the U.S. Treasury, congressional auditors reported Thursday. The General Accounting Office told the House Energy oversight and investigations subcommittee in a report that more leases on the Outer Continental Shelf have been sold under the "area-wide" system than by the former tract method. The GAO estimated that the government took in $8.

So, according to Parker, Lake Elsinore is a "dreary lakeside town," whose only claim to fame is that of being associated with a serial killer. For your information, Mr. Parker, most of the inhabitants of this beautiful Elsinore Valley fled the traffic-clogged, smog-choked, yuppie-ridden, tract-sterile, boringly bland streets of your own Orange County . . . which undoubtedly inspired your bland and boring books. CATHERINE STUART, Lake Elsinore

To the cognoscenti, Edward H. Fickett was the award-winning architect behind the Port of Los Angeles, La Costa Resort & Spa, Edwards Air Force Base and tens of thousands of airy, affordable tract homes throughout Southern California. To Better Homes & Gardens, he was the " Frank Lloyd Wright of the '50s" -- a visionary who designed mansions for the likes of Joan Crawford and Groucho Marx, and more modest accommodations for regular folks. But to Joycie Fickett, he was simply Eddie, the handsome, life-of-the-party husband who greeted her each morning with an original love song and breakfast in bed. "We laughed every day of our lives together," she said.

Eating cranberries to help prevent urinary tract infections is an old home remedy that has stood the test of time. But women who have recurrent urinary tract infections will find more relief from antibiotics, researchers said Monday. An estimated 30% of premenopausal women develop chronic urinary tract infections. A low dose of the antibiotic trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole is often prescribed to women who have repeated urinary tract infections in order to prevent recurrences. Typically, however, doctors try to avoid long-term use of antibiotics because it can lead to antibiotic resistance.

Don't let the dance pole and two-story bar fool you. Although most of the Hollywood Hills homes designed by Angie Thornbury have been sold to bachelors, there's something for everyone in this house above the Sunset Strip. Thornbury began renovating what was then a 2,400-square-foot ranch house three years ago, transforming the former tract home in the prestigious "bird streets" area of the Hollywood Hills into a trendy, modern space nearly three times its original size. She designed the house around the views that span from downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Ocean and San Nicolas Island.

Among the advantages for those who live in multimillion dollar houses on the hillside in Los Feliz are celebrity neighbors, sweeping views of the downtown skyline, the Griffith Observatory in their backyard and designation by state tax authorities that they are economically disadvantaged. That means tens of thousands of California businesses can claim tax breaks worth up to $37,400 each for hiring some of Los Feliz's rich residents, through a program that provides benefits to companies for hiring welfare recipients, ex-convicts, military veterans and the chronically unemployed.

Q: I published the original article on cranberry juice cocktail and urinary tract infections (Journal of Urology, May 1984). We also demonstrated in several nursing home studies that cranberry juice cocktail, not the plain juice, works best. Please spare your readers the tartness of the straight juice. — Anthony E. Sobota, PhD A: Thank you for investigating this old wives' tale in such a scientific manner. Investigators have confirmed your original findings and explored why it works (Urology online, April 16, 2010)

The gated community in Hemet doesn't seem like the best place for Eddie and Maria Lopez to raise their family anymore. Vandals knocked out the streetlight in front of the Lopezes' five-bedroom home and then took advantage of the darkness to try to steal a van. Cars are parked four deep in the driveway next door, where a handful of men rent rooms. And up and down their block of handsome single-family homes are padlocked doors, orange "no trespassing signs" and broken front windows.

As I've been stridently critical of one-sided Times reporting, may I be among the first to credit you for the exceptional coverage of Cadillac Jim's funeral. It is refreshingly free of prejudgments. The color and emotion of the moment carry the gang article splendidly. Yet there is no emotional piety on the writers' part. The event is not hectored into a preconceived political tract. D. CLARK Glendale

Re "Ojai Valley Group Pleads for County Flood Protection," March 18. Thank you for spotlighting the severe flooding our community has experienced and the importance of immediate remedial action. However, your article gives the impression that a neighbor's private retaining wall had previously protected the tract from flooding. This is far from the case. The flood waters, before the retaining wall broke, simply ran through the adjacent home and property, still causing flooding problems for homes downstream.

Tract housing is not what comes to mind when one thinks of Malibu, but amid the custom estates and beachfront mansions here is a modest set of about 200 homes known as Malibu West. The tract, built in 1962 near Pacific Coast Highway, is made up of traditional and modern homes, many restored to their original design. To some, these midcentury houses may look like knockoffs of the famed tract homes built by Joseph Eichler, but Malibu West was built by Nisan Matlin and Eugene Dvoretzky, award-winning architects (now retired)