Web Sites

Money-minded travelers wondering about the Internet should check out the "Snooze You Lose Specials" at Best Fares Online to see just how cutthroat airline pricing can be. You may not find the flight you want, but it's hard not to be impressed by the list of low fares, many of them unadvertised.

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.

The Anaheim Grizzlies might never materialize, but that hasn't stopped an Anaheim ticket brokerage from reserving the Internet domain name, anaheimgrizzliestickets.com, and a Mississippi college student from reserving the name anaheimgrizzlies.com. Michael Heisley, owner of the Vancouver Grizzlies, faces a March 26 deadline to tell the NBA where he would like his team to play next season, with Anaheim one of five cities under consideration.

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.

The NBA on Thursday detailed plans to dramatically expand its digital business deal with Turner Broadcasting System by turning over operation of its league website, a 24/7 digital television channel and a cable and satellite television package that lets avid fans watch out-of-town games. NBA Commissioner David Stern's decision to partner with a media company on digital rights runs counter to the go-it-alone strategies adopted by the NFL and MLB.

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.

Perhaps it's only appropriate that an antidote to the urban legend comes from the suburbs--Agoura Hills, to be precise. It is out of their home at the western end of the San Fernando Valley that David and Barbara Mikkelson track down the origins of tales of impossible tragedy, irony and revenge. More often than not, the Mikkelsons said, a little double-checking is all it takes to debunk a legend told and retold as "verifiable truth."

California drivers who want to personalize their license plates now have a way to find out quickly whether the name or clever saying they have in mind has already been taken, the state Resources Agency announced Friday. The agency, which uses money from "vanity" plates to pay for environmental programs, has created a World Wide Web site with the Department of Motor Vehicles, enabling Internet users to search a database of 1.6 million existing personalized plates. At the Web site, http://plates.

IN an announcement about the opening of the Spider Pavilion at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, I recently referred to spiders as insects. It brought this response from a reader in Whittier: "Spiders are not insects! Insects have six legs. " The reader is correct. Spiders have eight legs. Although insects and spiders are both arthropods, spiders belong to a distinct class, Arachnida . Unfortunately, the term became known almost exclusively as a root for a word concerning the pathological fear of spiders: arachnophobia.

To hear Friday's U.S. Supreme Court hearing, join a discussion about the case and get the latest news on the recount in Florida, go to: http://www.latimes.com/deci sion2000. Here are some other Internet resources about the disputed election and the legal issues at stake: * U.S. Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/ * U.S. Constitution: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/sen ate/constitution/toc.html * Florida Constitution and election statutes: http://www.leg.state.fl.

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.

BET Holdings Inc., owner of Black Entertainment Television, unveiled a Web site aimed at the black community that will offer e-mail, instant messaging and chat features as well as links to other Web sites. BET said the venture will receive $35 million in backing from its four partners: Microsoft Corp.; USA Networks Inc.; the U.S. arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.; and AT&T Corp.'s Liberty Digital, the online media company run by cable magnate John Malone. Liberty holds a 34% stake in BET.

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.