Warning Signs

Single-payer. Insurance-based. Socialized medicine. Free-market reform. A lot of terms are flying in the debate over what shape healthcare reform should take in the U.S. Ask two people to tell you how it should be approached, and you'll get six answers. But at this stage in the process, it's important to put all ideas on the table. With that in mind, we present three viewpoints on what a new system should -- and shouldn't -- look like.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has decided to stick with Los Angeles, and we applaud that. The city has difficult days ahead, and Villaraigosa, who announced Monday that he wouldn't run for governor, has yet to fulfill the promise that so many of his supporters see in him. It won't be easy, however, as some new poll numbers make clear.

Scientists are watching closely to see if small faults crossing under the Salton Sea are transferring energy to the larger, more dangerous San Andreas fault after a series of small quake swarms in the area. The quakes appeared to be tapering off by Monday afternoon, according to the monitoring system run by the U.S. Geological Survey and Caltech. But in a 48-hour period starting Saturday morning, 42 quakes shook just south of Bombay Beach on the Salton Sea. The quakes ranged in magnitude from 0.

The conflict between Russia and Georgia that started as a regional spat over a pair of breakaway republics is looking increasingly like an all-out invasion, and perhaps even the start of a Russian drive to begin rebuilding the old, dismantled Soviet empire. Some are calling on the United States and NATO for a strong, perhaps military, response. What these hawks seem to have forgotten is that their beaks and talons are as sharp as marbles. With the U.S.

The basic rule for Marine boot camp is simple: Keep your mouth shut and mind your own business. But it's different when the subject is suicide. Drill instructors encourage recruits to share their feelings in "guided discussions" and tell them to watch out for, and promptly report, warning signs in their buddies. The suicide rate in the active-duty Marine Corps was 16.5 per 100,000 in 2007 -- below both the active-duty Army and a similar demographic in the civilian population.

The great-grandmother of a 5-year-old South Los Angeles boy at the center of torture and abuse allegations noticed about a year ago that he had scratches across his back. When she asked him about it, the boy replied: "A dog attacked me." Another time, Barbara Moreno saw a large knot on his forehead. "I fell down some stairs," he told her. Then, a family friend ran a bath for the boy and saw something troubling: scratches from his chest down to his ankles.

Wondering if you should have that mole on your arm checked out? There have been a few updates on what you should look out for. Most dermatologists now recommend the following: * Look for "ugly ducklings." The Skin Cancer Foundation recently promoted this simple screen for identifying potentially cancerous lesions: Just look at the moles on your body and note any that look significantly different from the others -- the ugly ducklings.

Societe Generale, France's second-largest bank, failed to follow up on 75 warnings on securities trading bets by Jerome Kerviel that led to a stunning loss of $7.2 billion, independent board members concluded in a report issued Wednesday. Written by a three-person committee, the report said Kerviel acted alone, allaying concerns that he had accomplices in the bank. But not all of his trading positions have been identified, the report warned.

Our friends said we were crazy. Relatives asked whether we were in financial trouble. But in April 2005, my wife and I bailed out of the American dream. We sold our two-bedroom Pasadena condominium and became renters again. We got nearly three times what we had paid for the place nine years earlier. It seemed to us like a staggering profit -- and a sign that the market had been pumped up beyond reason. That's why we decided to rent instead of buying another house right away.