Web Sites

Looking for some hot goods? PropertyRoom.com, a Web site launched this week in San Clemente, auctions goods that were seized or recovered by law enforcement agencies in Southern California. The parent company, Property Bureau, has agreements with a dozen Southern California police departments, including Fullerton and Garden Grove. By law, departments are required to sell the goods that accumulate in their warehouses. The money usually goes to the city or county. Enter Property Bureau.

The 1st Amendment doesn't protect hostile Internet banter among teenagers if the messages can be taken as genuine threats of harm, a California appeals court has ruled in a case that more clearly defines when free expression crosses a line into cyber-bullying. The 2-1 ruling by the 2nd District Court of Appeal will allow a lawsuit to go forward that was brought by the father of a 15-year-old student at the elite Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City. The father's lawsuit accuses six of his son's classmates and their parents of hate crimes, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress caused by their posting of death threats and anti-gay diatribes against the boy on his website.

Sipping coffee in a strip mall, Joseph Farah looks like something out of a spy novel -- suave, mysterious, bushy black mustache. He's surprisingly relaxed, considering he believes his life is in danger because of his occupation. He runs a must-read website for anyone who hates Barack Obama. Once a little-known Los Angeles newspaper editor, Farah has become a leading impresario of America's disaffected right, serving up a mix of reporting and wild speculation to an audience eager to think the worst of the president.

Like many Americans, Doug Pagitt grew up outside the world of organized religion. Neither his parents nor his grandparents were churchgoers, and there was no expectation that he would be any different. Today, with his goatee, ear stud and funky clothes, he could easily pass for the sort of Gen X hipster who lives an entirely secular life. But at 17, Pagitt saw a Passion play that hit him like a thunderbolt, and he wound up becoming a Christian pastor. His church in Minneapolis, Solomon's Porch, is blazing a trail in a new movement that could be called Church 2.0. That was, in fact, one of the terms used last week during a three-day conference about the future of American Christianity at the Claremont School of Theology.

Just as top athletes train and perfect their skills through tests of strength, speed and agility, you can develop your own mental prowess through tests of knowledge. Scientists have discovered that the brain actually needs exercise (both mental and physical) to stay healthy. So exercise some neurons and have fun finding out what you know through these interactive quizzes and puzzles via The Times' Launch Point Website: http://www.latimes.com/launchpoint.

In one corner is the Tiny Tormentor, the Argentine ant that in the last hundred years or so has managed to spread as one giant colony throughout California's coastal areas. In the other corner is the Texas Terror, the imported red fire ant whose recent arrival here could mean the featherweight--OK, extreme featherweight--fight of the century. Which will be the victor in this mandiblefest?

All around the world for hundreds and hundreds of years, people have told stories. These tales not only provide great entertainment over a summer campfire or for a long winter's night but also teach important moral lessons, preserve moments in history and even explain some of the mysteries of the universe. Discover the rich heritage of folk tales and fables from around the world through the direct links on the Times Launch Point Web site, http://www.latimes.

ON a trip to London last month, I bid for a hotel room on Priceline, a plunge I had never taken because I like to know in advance what I am buying. On Priceline, which is called an opaque site, the name of the hotel is not revealed until you have completed the booking process. I ended up with a successful bid of $103 a night for a four-star hotel in Kensington. The hotel was the more-than-adequate Copthorne Tara.

Can you believe GodTube.com? First, the upstart Christian video site became the nation's fastest-growing Web property for August, according to ComScore's Media Metrix. Its 1.7 million unique visitors represented a 973% increase in traffic over the previous month. In September, the number of visitors leveled off, but the length of the average user's stay nearly doubled to a healthy 7.7 minutes, ComScore said.

There's been a lot of ink spilled and hot air expended about how to cover and comment on the World Trade Center disaster, the anthrax scare and the bombing of Afghanistan. How aggressively should the media pursue operational details? Have they been too uncritical of the administration's domestic antiterrorist policies? Should they keep their clothes on? This last question is certainly not going to be entertained by Dan Rather or Christiane Amanpour.

A wealthy philanthropist has kicked in $5 million in seed money. A top management consultant has come up with a business plan. A renowned university will lend not only its students but research help. And the budding endeavor has a chief executive who will pull down $400,000 a year and one of the world's most prestigious newspapers ready to give its future news offerings a home. When the Bay Area News Project launches its website in late spring or early summer, it will be just the latest -- and perhaps the most ambitious -- nonprofit venture among a string of similar start-ups.

Bill Lobdell made quite a name for himself in this newsroom writing about faith gone wrong. He called out crooked ministers, fraudulent faith healers and abusive priests. Now Lobdell has launched a new journalism website with a partner who once was convicted and sent to prison for a multimillion-dollar swindle. The veteran religion writer hopes to do to crooked businesses what he did to ministers who did not live up to their calling. What has many traditional journalists agog is not just that Lobdell threw in with onetime ZZZZ Best con man Barry Minkow, but what the duo, operating as iBusinessreporting.

Sipping coffee in a strip mall, Joseph Farah looks like something out of a spy novel -- suave, mysterious, bushy black mustache. He's surprisingly relaxed, considering he believes his life is in danger because of his occupation. He runs a must-read website for anyone who hates Barack Obama. Once a little-known Los Angeles newspaper editor, Farah has become a leading impresario of America's disaffected right, serving up a mix of reporting and wild speculation to an audience eager to think the worst of the president.

For would-be sugar daddies perusing SeekingMillionaire .com -- "the meeting place for wealthy and beautiful singles" -- there was much to like about profile #160127. "Bree" identified herself as a 23-year-old model from Newport Beach, and the accompanying photos showed an emerald-eyed beauty with a mane of silky brown hair and a wraparound smile that seemed both sexy and sweet. "Just looking for Mr. Right," her brief self-description read. If the pictures -- one in a backless dress at a party, another in a clingy halter top -- seemed somehow familiar, a quick Internet search offered an explanation: Bree Condon, 23, of Newport Beach was a successful model and aspiring actress who'd done a Guess jeans campaign and posed for Maxim magazine's swimsuit issue.

The Los Angeles Times Media Group and U.S. Local News Network Inc. have formed a joint venture that will include launching two news websites aimed at readers and advertisers in Orange County. The venture, which will be announced today, will allow the companies to share content and advertising sales across the sites -- www.theocnow.com and www.oclnn.com -- and those of three existing Times-owned local newspapers in Orange County: the Coastline Pilot, the Daily Pilot and the Huntington Beach Independent.

First, Chicken Little warned children that the sky was falling. And now Build-a-Bear Workshop has warned children that the North Pole could disappear before Christmas. The Missouri-based company has found itself in hot water, defending an animated series on its website featuring polar bears, penguins and Mrs. Claus, as Santa is warned that global warming is "a serious situation." Conservative bloggers reposted the videos online and called for a boycott of the toy company, saying Build-a-Bear should not be presenting a political stance to children.

They had an empire that lasted more than 1,400 years--and then mysteriously disappeared. They developed the concept of zero, had complicated astronomical calendars and advanced architecture, all developed long before Columbus discovered the Americas. The Maya were one of the great civilizations that inhabited Central and South America. They were followed by the Incan and Aztec empires. To learn more about their cultures, use the direct links on The Times Launch Point Web site: http://www.

Nibbling tentatively at the online grocery business, Stater Bros. Markets announced a partnership with a home-delivery service that will allow residents in south Orange County to order items from its supermarkets over the Internet. Colton-based Stater Bros. plans to begin the service next month with partner Whyrunout.com, an Aliso Viejo company that also delivers dry-cleaning, processed film and other goods. Stater Bros. will pay Whyrunout.com an undisclosed fee to make the deliveries.

With the state bracing for billions of dollars in budget shortfalls, a group of casinos is offering California leaders a stake in a new pot of money if they allow Internet poker sites to set up business in the state. A consortium including the Morongo Band of Mission Indians and the Commerce Casino plans to take the idea to the state Legislature next month. The two would be among the gambling interests seeking to operate poker websites if the proposal were approved. Gambling industry experts say $347 billion annually is wagered online globally, with millions of U.S. residents giving their credit card numbers to Internet sites so they can bet on poker games they play on their personal computers against other gamblers who are doing the same.

In a move that will be watched carefully by newspapers struggling to find a viable financial model in the digital age, entertainment industry publication Variety today will begin charging readers for access to the news and information on its website. The return to erecting a "pay wall," though anticipated, nonetheless could be risky because several online competitors -- including the Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, the Wrap and the Los Angeles Times -- offer similar content without charge, potentially undermining Variety's ability to get subscribers to pay. Although it's one of the first publications to make the move to cut off unpaid access to its site, many others are examining the issue as advertising migrates from print to the Internet.