Author: Martin Beck

So you think you’re busy?

Permanently disabled Iraq war veteran Mervin Roxas of Fullerton works as a life skills coach for Easter Seals of Southern California daily from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Then the Marine veteran goes to Cal State Fullerton until 10 p.m., studying history while working toward a teaching degree.

And, by the way, he’s training for Sunday’s L.A. Marathon.

Roxas lost his left arm in 2004 during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The roadside bomb that injured him also caused various facial injuries and left him with permanent scars. But he refuses to let any of that deter him from a planned career as a high school teacher.

When a friend told him about an organization called U.S. Vets, he decided to run the marathon to raise awareness and funding for the organization, which provides housing and employment assistance for homeless veterans.

If you’d like to sponsor Roxas, go to http://firstgiving.com/mervinroxas, and if you’d like to learn more about his story be sure to read my column in Sunday’s paper.

And, in the comments below, please send along other inspirational stories related to the marathon.

— Steve Lopez

Photo credit: Steve Lopez / Los Angeles Times

I had lunch this week with Fawn Weaver, an Agoura Hills woman who aims to counteract negative images of marriage in popular culture by enlisting 1 million women in her Happy Wives Club.

She’s convinced there’s a silent majority of wives like her "who love being married, adore their husbands and consider their union one of the greatest joys in life."

In my column today, I tell her story and share her tips for a happy marriage.

But our conversation got me wondering: What actually makes for a happy wife?

A study of 5,000 couples by two University of Virginia researchers concluded that the single most important factor in women’s marital happiness is the level of their husbands’ emotional engagement.

And the happiest wives were those who didn’t work outside the home or whose husbands brought in at least two-thirds of the family’s income, and those who share a strong commitment to lifelong marriage with their husbands.

That sounds like Weaver and her husband. And it jibes with suggestions offered by wives on her website.

The predominant view online was this: Make your husband feel respected and appreciated and he’ll respond with the "emotional engagement" you need.

But how does that mesh with your reality? What makes a wife happy and a marriage satisfying? Is happiness a state of mind, or a day-to-day feeling?

All you happy – and unhappy – husbands and wives out there, tell me what you think.

— Sandy Banks

So, how did I end up hanging with a rock star earlier this week on skid row?

Many, many moons ago I met a Catholic nun in Philadelphia who, to this day, is one of my heroes. Last year, I was honored to testify with Sister Mary Scullion at a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill about the virtues of programs like Lamp Community in Los Angeles and Sister Mary’s Project Home, both of which have rebuilt the lives of hundreds of people fighting mental illness.

One of Sister Mary’s biggest advocates and financial supporters is Jon Bon Jovi, who’s in Southern California on concert tour, and Sister Mary told me he wanted to know if I could set up a tour of Lamp Community.

Bon Jovi, it turns out, is no dilettante. He has studied public policy issues regarding mental health and homelessness in various cities while on tour, calling it a fact-finding mission for his nonprofit organization. The charity supports affordable housing projects, and I’ve seen the effects of Bon Jovi’s generosity in Philadelphia, where once-devastated neighborhoods have been rebuilt by and for Sister Mary’s mental health clients, or family members, as she would call them.

"One night I was in Philadelphia outside of the City Hall," Bon Jovi told me, "and I realized, at least in my beautiful, romantic vision of the world, that our forefathers didn’t envision" people sleeping on the pavement. "And I thought, I didn’t need a scientist, and I didn’t need a pill, to fix that."

If you’d like to hear more about Bon Jovi’s tour of skid row, tune in this weekend to John Rabe’s Off-Ramp on KPCC-FM (89.3 ) or listen to a clip here.

In the meantime, I was struck by how passionate Bon Jovi is about his mission, and it’s clear he has learned there are many rewards, spiritual and otherwise, in giving.

I thought it would be nice to hear from readers who make time in their lives for causes they’ve become passionate about. Send along a few thoughts about what kind of volunteering you do, why you do it, and how it has changed your life.

— Steve Lopez

Photo: Steve Lopez and Jon Bon Jovi visited the Lamp Community this week. Credit: 89.3-KPCC’s John Rabe

My Verdugo Hills doctor, Paul Toffel, is giving one last push to his healthcare reform proposal on the eve of the bipartisan White House summit.

Whether it’s workable politically or practically is open to debate, but it’s certainly bipartisan, and by Toffel’s numbers, there’d be no new taxes and no additional national debt. Since I first wrote about it last August, Toffel, a clinical professor at USC’s Keck School of Medicine, says each of his five points have been part of the debate at one time or another.

Take a look at the Toffel Fix and tell us what you think:

1. Change the current 50-state patchwork of private insurance programs to a national clearinghouse of choices to increase competition and provide portability for working Americans.

2. Return health insurance companies to the pre-1984 federal regulations that required 85% of collected premiums to go to healthcare.

3. Require all working citizens to purchase insurance to broaden the base and flatten the playing field, allowing elimination of pre-existing clauses.

4. Enact meaningful federal tort reform, as already exists in eight states with huge success in decreasing medical costs.

5. Mandate the 159 urban medical schools, who receive federal grants, to first serve the hard-core indigent and illegal immigrants in their shadows before engaging in empires of private practice (See the USC/LA County Hospital model).

— Steve Lopez

Like her or not, Sen. Dianne Feinstein is a smart cookie. Smart enough to know that the last thing she needs is to become governor of the broken-down state of California.

Feinstein must be well aware that the state’s mess isn’t going to get fixed without redistricting so moderates have a voice, dropping term limits so legislators are in Sacramento long enough to do some honest work, and dumping the two-thirds majority vote on financial matters.

She’s 76 now.

She could be 102 before those changes are made.

So that means we’re likely to see currently undeclared Democrat Jerry Brown going up against Republicans Steve Poizner or Meg Whitman, the latter of whom has closed to within five points of Brown in a head-to-head battle, according to a Public Policy Institute of California survey.

In a state with a huge advantage for Democrats, would a November election really be that close?

"At this early stage, it’s all about the ads," said Dan Schnur of USC’s Unruh Institute of Politics.

Whitman, the former EBay chief executive, has been emptying her purse to pay for TV ads, spending tens of millions of dollars in an attempt to buy what has to be considered one of the worst jobs in the state.

If the election were today, and your options were Brown, Whitman or Poizner, who would you vote for and why?

— Steve Lopez

The process of covering up the Hollywood sign began this afternoon. Letter by letter, workers are changing the sign to read “SAVE THE PEAK” in red lettering.

White fabric cover is being used to publicize efforts to raise funds to acquire Cahuenga Peak, the 138-acre parcel to the west of the sign.

“We want to raise the visibility of it, so that people will support our campaign to save the peak, to save the land,” said trust spokesman Tim Ahern.

The Trust for Public Land has an agreement to purchase the land for $11.7 million, which is about half the $22-million asking price, Ahern said.

Trust officials say they have raised about half the amount they need, but must have the total amount by April 14.

— Amina Khan

Activists begin covering up the iconic 450-foot-long Hollywood sign
during an effort to prevent the building of houses there on February
11, 2010 in Los Angeles, California.  (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

A friend of mine, Mika Mingasson, bought a ream of paper recently for her daughter’s Melrose Avenue Elementary School class because the school had run out. She said another parent bought five reams.

I guess there’s an upside here, with supply shortages serving as a lesson in conservation. But Mika’s tale reminded me how utterly commonplace it has become for parents and teachers to reach into their pockets because of budget cuts followed by more budget cuts.

The annual bake sale is now a weekly operation. Class sizes are growing, faculties shrinking. At our daughter’s school, my wife is involved in constant fundraising efforts to pay for everything from supplies to staff positions.

By giving so much, are we letting legislators and school district officials off the hook for funding shortages and management lapses?

Tell me what you think. And if you’re a teacher or parent, tell me about your out-of-pocket expenses.

I’m sure there are enough stories out there that, together, we could fill a book.

I’ll donate the paper.

— Steve Lopez

Michael Miles, Caltrans’ deputy director for maintenance and operations, was named the agency’s director overseeing Ventura and Los Angeles counties, officials announced Wednesday.

Miles, who has been with the California Department of Transportation since 1989, is taking the position vacated by Doug Failing, who left in October.

Failing left Caltrans to serve as executive director of highway programs for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Failing said his departure was solely for financial reasons. His Caltrans salary was $136,500, but mandated furloughs had cut it to roughly $116,000, he said. His job at the MTA pays $175,000.

It was unclear whether Miles would receive the same salary as Failing did.

Miles’ appointment to the District 7 position is effective immediately, but a spokesperson for Caltrans said he would probably move into the job over the next couple of weeks.

–Ari B. Bloomekatz

OK, so here we are in Greater L.A., with its long, dark history of land and water grabs, legendary air pollution, assassins, serial killers and gang kingpins, and according to last week’s Talk Back to Lopez poll, the worst Angeleno of all time is:

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa?

Does anyone out there know any history?

Sure, we got a lot of thoughtful nominations, but Villaraigosa had twice as many votes as the second-place finisher, who was another bizarre choice:

Congressman Henry Waxman.

Yes, I’m aware of his connection to our traffic nightmare. But give me a break.

As for Villaraigosa, I’ve pounded him pretty good over the years. But he wouldn’t have made my top 50, and neither would Waxman.

Cardinal Roger Mahony third? I have no problem there, and I like O.J. Simpson at No. 4.

As for the six-way tie at No. 10 — Ronald Reagan, Tom Bradley, former LAPD chief William Parker, Richard "Night Stalker" Ramirez, Clippers owner Donald Sterling and Steve Lopez — wait a minute, moi? I’d like to say that I would have made a much better owner of the Clippers.

— Steve Lopez

Image: Word cloud of blog reader votes for L.A.’s worst. Credit: Wordle.net

OK, now that readers have celebrated civic pride by selecting the most admirable Angelenos of all time – congratulations, Vin Scully and Tom Bradley – let’s move on to something a little different.

The villains.

When it comes to dishonorable, immoral and contemptible characters, we have  such a rogues gallery in greater Los Angeles, where does one begin?

I’m not sure any other region in the country can match our all-star cast of bigots, crooked business barons and dirty politicians, and let’s not forget that walking amongst us are people associated with films such as "Howard the Duck" and "The Hottie and the Nottie," starring Paris Hilton. Hollywood is bound to get a few votes, don’t you think?

Under "M" for Murder, we have Hall of Famers like the Hillside Strangler, the Night Stalker, the Freeway Killer and Mr. Helter Skelter himself.

But don’t let me influence your vote. Let local historian Joe Scott of the L.A. County district attorney’s office do that.

"Frank Shaw," said Scott, nominating as most disreputable Angeleno the L.A. mayor who, in 1938, was recalled in the midst of scandals that fueled the imaginations of Raymond Chandler and James Ellroy.

Nobody beats former LAPD chief William Parker, said author and former Timesman Bill Boyarsky. "He was the most damaging Angeleno of all time" because of his "us-against-them, all-white, anti-minority attitude. That has done more lasting harm to the city than anything."

We’ve also had more than a few John Birch Society honchos in our midst. And Richard Nixon. And O.J. Simpson.

And let’s not forget Cardinal Roger Mahony.

But let me get out of the way and let you have your say.

Who would you put in the Greater L.A. Hall of Shame?

— Steve Lopez

Photos: Candidates? From left, Frank Shaw, Charles Manson, Richard Nixon, William Parker, Susan Atkins, Richard Ramirez, O.J. Simpson.