Wealthy People

Some of us toss Fido some scraps off the dinner plate and call it a night. But for those channeling Leona Helmsley, the hotel magnate who left $12 million to her Maltese, Trouble, there's no shortage of over-the-top products to pamper a pet. At Three Dog Bakery in Santa Monica, owners Rocky and Hannah Keever are experts. Customers routinely ask to see the priciest pet paraphernalia, without even looking around the store.

He can't keep his backside on the bench, not when the clock is running and one of his stars is dribbling down the lane. He bounds to his feet, frizzy mullet springing crazily around his ears, eyes locked on his girls, Diana, Tina, Sue, the players he lured from the U.S. to catapult his team to greatness. At the start of the quarter, he sends them onto the court with his ritual, lingering embrace and a pat on the lower back.

"A little madness in the spring is wholesome even for the king!" said no less an authority than Emily Dickinson. That's license for gourmands with pockets as deep as royalty's to pack an extravagant picnic and head for the beach. We asked Norbert Wabnig, right, owner of the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills, for a few pointers on how to put together an over-the-top basket of afternoon snacks. His shop, a fixture since 1967, carries 500 to 600 varieties of cheese.

The economy is screeching to a halt and the housing market is melting down, but Gerald and Sue Vickers were popping champagne Wednesday at Lido Marina Village in Newport Beach, christening the 70-foot yacht they described as an impulse buy. With customers such as the Vickers -- five-time boat buyers -- business was expected to be brisk at the 35th annual Newport Boat Show, one of the fanciest yachting get-togethers on the West Coast.

It's become a familiar story line: Thousands of California teachers face layoffs and school districts statewide are scrambling for survival under the governor's threat of a $4.8-billion cut in education spending. But not in Laguna Beach. That's because the four schools in the 2,900-student district are funded primarily by property taxes collected from the affluent community, essentially insulating it from the state's economic emergency.

The rich may indeed be like the rest of us. Prices of their homes are now falling too. Gated mansions and hillside estates have held their own through most of the real estate slump, but data released Monday showed big drops in the region's most exclusive neighborhoods. Median sale prices fell by 13% in Beverly Hills in April, compared with the same month last year.

China's central government Friday ordered its wealthier provinces and cities to give immediate financial and technical aid to communities devastated by last week's earthquake. The order, which pairs cities such as Shanghai and Beijing with less-developed areas in Sichuan province, highlights China's awareness of the enormous task ahead, of rebuilding entire towns and resettling about 5 million displaced people. Banks were ordered to forgive debts owed by earthquake victims.

In Beverly Hills, a 32,000-square-foot beaux-arts mansion that will be sheathed in Portuguese limestone and adorned with gold-plated doorknobs fashioned in France is rising on Sunset Boulevard. A few miles away in Bel-Air, businessman Eri Kroh has requested permits to lop off the top of a hill, fill in a canyon and then, after moving some 68,000 cubic yards of dirt, replace the chaparral-covered lot with a 30,000-plus square-foot single family home with Pacific Ocean views.

If you're feeling steamed at the airlines for how they've been treating passengers, you might want to save some outrage for those who fly on private jets, two advocacy groups suggest. As most travelers endure long security lines, increasing flight delays and extra charges for checked baggage, they are helping subsidize far more elegant travel for a privileged few, according to a report to be released today by Washington-based organizations Essential Action and the Institute for Policy Studies.

The rich may be different for John McCain and Barack Obama. On almost every issue, the two presidential candidates have staked out opposing positions. Their contrasting views on wealth surfaced during their back-to-back appearances in Southern California on Saturday night when each was asked to define "rich." Obama didn't hesitate. "I would argue that if you are making more than $250,000, then you are in the top 3, 4 percent of this country," he said. "You are doing well."