Traveling

This is a site for global travelers who demand more design and style than the average backpacker on a post-college, round-the-world romp. Name: ThePoshPacker.com What it does: PoshPacker introduces travelers to hostels and hotels that offer design-driven accommodations without the big price usually attached to them. What's hot: All accommodations are less than $100, despite the fancy wallpaper, modern beds and surroundings suitable for the trendiest culture connoisseurs.

GERMANY Presentation Peter Wortsman will read from and discuss his new book, "Ghost Dance in Berlin: A Rhapsody in Gray," which has been described as "the perfect guide to all aspects of life in Berlin - the best and the wurst of it. " When, where: 7:30 p.m. Monday at Distant Lands, 20 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena. Admission, info: Free. RSVP to (626) 449-3220. BICYCLING Presentation After four continents, 41 countries and almost 30,000 miles, Stephen Fabes, a British doctor, has reached California and will talk about his adventure on two wheels that took him from the mid-winter Alps to the blistering heat of the Syrian desert, and from the wilds of Africa to the magnificent peaks of the Andes.

SACRAMENTO - As Gov. Jerry Brown returned this week from his trade mission to China, his decision to have his travel and that of 10 staffers paid for by special interests was raising eyebrows. The dozens of delegates who joined Brown on the tour for $10,000 each - footing their bills and that of the governor's entourage - included about 15 groups that lobby the state for favorable treatment on their agendas. The California Hospital Assn., Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, the California Beer and Beverage Distributors and other interests sent along representatives - in one case a lobbyist - affording them face time with the governor during layovers, meals and receptions.

Pilots and a top airline group have filed a lawsuit to stop the federal government from cutting work hours for air traffic controllers this weekend, saying the furloughs will lead to travel delays of up to an hour across the country. Airlines for America, a trade group for the nation's airlines, on Friday joined a pilots association and operators of regional carriers in a suit that asks the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to prevent job furloughs called for under the so-called budget sequestration.

When a friend gets rich and famous and moves to Paris, then prattles on about the nutty things that French dentists say, that's grounds for never speaking to that person again. When the friend in question is an imaginary friend and his name is David Sedaris, such indiscretions are not only forgiven but embraced wholeheartedly. If there's ever been an author who is consistently forgiven for his trespasses, it's David Sedaris. In "Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls," everyone's favorite imaginary friend has abandoned France for the English countryside, where his life of leisure is only occasionally interrupted by sojourns to China, Australia and Japan.

Two years ago researchers outfitted an electric Toyota RAV4 with a set of test instruments and drove back and forth near four Los Angeles County freeways between 4:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., sampling the air. The results confirmed that in the early morning, concentrated plumes of air pollution from freeways can travel more than a mile downwind, exposing more residents than previously thought to harmful pollution levels. Most previous air quality studies, based on measurements taken during the day or evening, have found that vehicle emission plumes generally blow no more than about 1,000 feet downwind from a major roadway before they break up. But in the hours just before sunrise, weather conditions are different.

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WASHINGTON -- President Obama plans to travel to Massachusetts to honor the victims of this week's bomb attack at the Boston Marathon, the White House announced Tuesday. The president is canceling Thursday morning meetings at the White House to speak at a Boston interfaith service dedicated to those killed or seriously wounded in the bomb blasts. Attending such services at times of national tragedy or threat is a regular practice for Obama, who most recently spoke at a memorial for shooting victims in Newtown, Conn.

The charter tour bus that crashed Saturday evening outside Yosemite National Park, injuring more than a dozen people, was traveling at an unsafe speed when the driver lost control, according to the California Highway Patrol. The bus was leaving Yosemite on California 41, or Wawona Road, about 6 p.m., when it veered off the roadway and angled up a dirt embankment, according to a CHP report. As the driver attempted to regain control of the vehicle, the bus crossed both lanes of traffic and struck a tree.