Carl Landry is definitely feeling better now. Landry matched his career high with 27 points in his first game back after dental surgery, helping the Houston Rockets beat the Los Angeles Clippers 108-99 on Tuesday night. Landry damaged five teeth Friday night when he took an elbow to the mouth from Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki.

In exchange for a heftier distribution fee, the studio said it would assume those costs.But the first two movies to come out — “Harsh Times” and “Van Wilder 2″ — performed poorly, grossing $3.3 million and $4.3 million, respectively. And now Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, with the support of Fidel Castro, is intent on building a Latin American anti-U.S. And let me tell you, fame is not what it’s cracked up to be.”For one thing, famous people have to do a lot more press, and Keener doesn’t like doing press. Colletti filled a foam container with food from the press-box buffet line and took it to his booth. UPSTART carriers, which may have unfamiliar names but offer low prices, have begun flying between continents, not just within them.Though America’s pricecutting Southwest, JetBlue, AirTran and Spirit largely have confined themselves to flights within North America, no fewer than seven European upstarts are now crossing the Atlantic.The phenomenon is of interest primarily to travel junkies (backpackers, budgeteers who seek to save by flying on little-known carriers), but the trend bears watching.

Faced with reduced buyer demand and rising inventories of unsold properties, many sellers of homes worth more than $750,000 are dropping asking prices.Many also are taking weeks before landing buyers.The slowdown in pricier homes is typical of the latter stages of a housing boom, analysts say, as expensive properties were the first to rise sharply at the beginning of the current cycle.It’s also a leading indicator that the overall housing market is beginning to lose steam, as double-digit price increases become harder to sustain and mortgage rates rise.Data from a cross-section of more-affordable neighborhoods within Los Angeles and Orange counties — from Aliso Viejo to Valencia to Compton to Santa Ana — show that homes priced $500,000 and below were usually snapped up at full list price or more in the second quarter, according to a review of property listing data compiled for The Times by Brea-based research firm Real Data Strategies.On the other hand, sellers in many pricier neighborhoods in the two counties have dropped original list prices by an average of about 5% since the spring, the data showed.Of the 165 houses currently on the market in Yorba Linda, for example, nearly 40% have had their prices reduced since hitting the listing service.In some of the ritziest areas, such as the 90210 ZIP Code of Beverly Hills where the average home price is $3 million, sellers have cut asking prices by an average of at least 10%.In the first half of 2004, by contrast, sellers of pricier homes typically got 5% to 10% above their asking prices.Median prices in more expensive areas are generally still higher than a year ago, but they are rising at a slower rate than in more affordable areas, according to data released Monday by DataQuick Information Services, a La Jolla-based real estate research firm.In more affordable San Bernardino County, the median home price of $352,000 in September was 33% higher than the year-ago month, according to DataQuick.In pricier Orange County, the median of $610,000 was 14% higher, while Los Angeles County’s median of $494,000 was up 21%.”This is a natural part of the normal real estate cycle because trends in lower-cost markets tend to lag trends in more expensive markets,” DataQuick President Marshall Prentice said.”We’re moving into a different market,” said Orange County-based real estate agent Steve Ambuehl.”Homes aren’t selling within a week or even a month,” which was the norm when the market was sizzling in the first half of 2004, he said. “I believe these compacts are good for the state, the tribes and the local communities,” he said in a statement. Each of its tightly interconnected six segments, involving 10 key figures, is literally a power play, with one individual exerting control over others with either money or a gun or both.A jet-lagged computer technology tycoon (Rick D. “It was ruled an industrial accident,” said LAPD Officer Sandra Escalante..

But Khurrum Wahid, another of Abu Ali’s lawyers, questioned the practicality of such an arrangement, given that any lawyer with clearances would still be unable to share the information with the rest of the defense team.Lee will hear arguments at a pretrial hearing set for Sept. They’re the best at their positions and nobody can guard them.”Still it was big to beat the defending champions after coming off a bad loss This was an important game for us. In Zuni, the Seowtewa family’s murals in the 376-year-old Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission are on view for a $10 fee paid to the Pueblo of Zuni Tourism Department, (505) 782-7238, in the tribal office complex on Highway 53. Still, the company began paying for Cunningham’s expenses, according to court documents. TOKYO Japanese police raided a precision instrument maker today, amid media reports the firm illegally exported machinery to China and Thailand that could be used in uranium enrichment.Investigators searched the headquarters of Mitutoyo Corp.