Travel

Chrysler Financial employees traveling on business can no longer be reimbursed for lunch on trips that don't require an overnight stay. If flying on business, they must travel coach if the flight is less than four hours. Tips to baggage handlers shouldn't exceed $2 per bag. The $4 cost of an in-flight movie? Not reimbursable. The company's new expense rules, posted on its website Friday, are among a handful of policies that have been made public so far as hundreds of companies receiving federal rescue funds scramble to meet a deadline Monday to put in place policies on "excessive or luxury expenditures."

At a time when congressional travel is coming under new scrutiny, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) has the distinction of taking more trips at taxpayer expense than anyone else in the California delegation. In the last 3 1/2 years, she visited the South Pole, snorkeled at Australia's Great Barrier Reef and joined world leaders at a security conference in Munich, Germany. She met with Darfur refugees in Sudan, attended a "legislators' dialogue" with European Parliament members in Slovenia, delivered a speech on transportation security in France and inspected anti-terrorism defenses in Genoa, Italy, and Mombasa, Kenya.

A flock of state legislators is winging it to Denmark and Spain during the next 19 days to see how Europeans govern, further delaying long-promised action back home on California's water-supply problems and help for cash-strapped schools. Seven state senators are heading overseas this week, some having left Thursday, on a trip that includes stops in Copenhagen, Madrid, Bilbao and Barcelona. They plan to study Spain's national water system and Scandinavian environmental programs, and to promote trade between California and Catalonia, according to a statement from the Senate Office of International Relations, which is organizing the trip.

Brad Garrett won three Emmys playing Ray Romano's brother on "Everybody Loves Raymond," and now he's got another juggernaut going with his Fox series "Til Death," which begins its fourth season tonight at 8:30. But what he really wants to talk about is dining out. "I'm a foodie, and I go all over town," he says. "You know what I say -- there's no scales in heaven. I eat like I'm going to the electric chair." Eat and run We love to eat in my family because, well, we're nervous.

France, anyone? Airfares are becoming more affordable after summer highs, and new websites, including YourTour ( www.yourtour.com), are busy crafting ideal itineraries for you. What's hot: Getting a suggested day-by-day itinerary that you can edit helps take the guesswork out of a from-scratch tour. Use the map and click on the region(s) you're interested in, select travel dates and specify whether you'll be traveling one way or round trip. Don't worry about including your favorite activities; that fine-tuning comes next.

Are you so intertwined with your computer, BlackBerry and iCal that you don't use Post-it notes anymore? Do you miss them? Duffelup.com brings back the simplicity of travel planning with virtual stickies. What's hot: Creating a travel itinerary with a corkboard and virtual Post-it notes puts the fun back in online travel planning. (But FYI, create-your-own travel itineraries are not new. NileGuides, TripWolf, TravelMuse and many other websites offer similar features.) On this one, you drag and drop your stickies into the different days of your trip itinerary.

The spotlight is on Rio de Janeiro now that it's been chosen as the host city for the 2016 Summer Games. If you are researching a trip to Brazil, don't miss Hiddenpousadasbrazil.com, an accommodations eye-opener that will inspire you to trade your hotel for an eco-trip, farm stay or hideaway in a colonial mansion overlooking the ocean. What's hot: If you know nothing about Brazil, HiddenPousadasBrazil will at the very least tell you what a pousada is (a place to stay)

This is not your average online news aggregator. Eugen Beer handpicks timely, travel-related news articles from a variety of well-respected media sources and highlights them on one page at the website 27Clouds. What's hot: The front page of 27Clouds engages readers with travel news headlines, corresponding photos and links to travel news articles from big media players such as NPR, the Economist, Financial Times, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Sydney Morning Herald and more.

Think your commute is bad? Others have it worse -- unless you happen to live in Lake Elsinore. The U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday released new data showing how long it takes people to get to work. In Southern California, Lake Elsinore in Riverside County topped the list, with residents taking an average of 41.8 minutes to get to work. Palmdale and Adelanto were just behind at 40.5 minutes. The report, which examined data collected between 2006 and 2008, confirms something veteran commuters know well: The worst drives to work are often shared by residents who live in far-flung suburbs.

Former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez broke no state laws when he spent tens of thousands of dollars in campaign funds on luxury travel around the world, gifts at high-end boutiques and meals at exclusive restaurants, the state's ethics watchdog has ruled. The Fair Political Practices Commission also has cleared the Los Angeles Democrat of any illegal activity in funneling nearly $300,000 from companies and organizations with business in the Capitol to a charity that spent it on events that helped him politically.