Keeping tabs on healthcare

How much money do health insurers actually spend on healthcare? One doctors’ group says that among large health plans last year, the nonprofit Kaiser Foundation Health Plan spent 93% of revenue on medical care, while Blue Cross of California allocated 78.9% to medical care, 11% to administrative costs and 10% to profit.

Blue Cross’ healthcare percentage is the lowest among any large insurer in the state, says the California Medical Assn., which wants to force insurers to spend more on medicine.

Blue Cross disputes the physicians’ arithmetic, and an insurance industry executive defends administrative spending, saying that sometimes it includes disease management programs that help patients avoid hospitalization. Page C1

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Did Bush get what he wanted?

President Bush, taking stock of the truce between Israel and Hezbollah, says the pact marks a defeat for Hezbollah, which he contends would no longer be able to function as a “state within a state” in southern Lebanon.

But observers say the outcome is far less than the administration had hoped for. Hezbollah hasn’t agreed to disarm, and merely surviving the conflict might strengthen it. Page A6

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Immigration stand faces backlash

The Costa Mesa City Council’s stance against illegal immigration has ignited passions among residents and drawn national attention. Not everyone is happy about it, of course.

Return to Reason, a coalition of residents, ex-lawmakers and businesses, including the owners of South Coast Plaza, supports two City Council candidates in November’s elections. They’re running against the mayor, who wants city police to enforce immigration laws, and a council hopeful who last year suggested citing soccer players if they didn’t have a permit for group play.

Coalition members say the council should focus on local issues and try to end divisiveness. “Things have deteriorated to where people are not mentioning the fine points of our community,” says former Police Chief Dave Snowden. Page B3

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Gas prices up -- but for how long?

Gasoline prices in California went up last week, ending a three-week streak of declines, but that’s not necessarily the start of a new trend. A recent “extraordinary streak of good news,” as one analyst puts it, could keep prices in check.

Among the factors that might ease the pressure on prices: a restoration of some oil pumping from Alaska; the Israel-Hezbollah truce; and renewed oil shipments from Nigeria. Page C1

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Alleged sex ring in Palm Springs

A Palm Springs-based escort service is actually a prostitution ring employing more than 240 women in four states, authorities contend after arresting the enterprise’s alleged ringleaders.

The Riverside County sheriff says Elite Entertainment advertised online and in newspapers. Customers would call an 800 number -- the business managed more than 80 phone lines, authorities say -- and escorts would charge $200 to $2,000 for sexual services. Page B4

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Crossroads

President Bush signs a bill designating the controversial San Diego cross -- and the war memorial and land beneath it -- as federal property. An earlier ruling declared it a violation of the separation of church and state, an argument to be revisited next month. Page B1

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THE CRITIC: ‘Dole-Recio’s work straddles the elegance of fine mosaic inlay and the irreverence of tossed confetti. It marries intelligent design with a crafty sense of humor.’ Leah Ollman reviewing Lecia Dole-Recio’s collage paintings at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Calendar, E3

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BUSINESS

Ford looking to thin the herd

Nationally, each Ford dealership sold an average of 696 vehicles last year; Toyota dealers averaged 1,613 sales. At the average Ford dealership, profit dropped 10% the first half of this year.

Ford Motor Co. has done the math, and concludes that there are too many dealerships selling too few cars, particularly in major metropolitan areas. The solution, the company said at a dealership meeting last week, is to consolidate.

The company won’t say how many dealerships it wants to cut, or whether the loss would occur through attrition or corporate buyouts of weaker dealers. The former would take more time, but one local dealer doubted the company would put cash into buyouts. But another dealer believes the automaker will subsidize consolidation; otherwise, he said, “All this is just lip service.” Page C1

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CALENDAR

The currency of foreign exchange

After a six-week Asian stew of culture at UCLA, writer Lewis Segal concludes that while audiences enjoyed new fusions of music and dance at the Asia Pacific Performance Exchange, perhaps even more potent than the programs was the process of bringing them to the stage. Page E1

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Revival of the fittest

Never mind her age (22) nor the fact that her vocal ability surpassed her youth, the sexual theme of Christina Aguilera’s last studio album, “Stripped,” left folks a bit cold -- her public perception was still more Disney Mouseketeer than I-am-woman-hear-me-roar.

With the release today of her new album, “Back to Basics,” writes pop music critic Ann Powers, the gifted grown-up demonstrates a retro respect, and pretty much everyone can relate. Invoking a range of music from the Andrews Sisters to Stevie Wonder, Aguilera, right, shows the maturity of acknowledging there was good music before she was born.

Matched to a too-hip sound, Powers says, this serves her well “as she inevitably reasserts herself as the utterly contemporary creature she is.” Page E1

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The perils of Pauline Kael

OK, players, who’s next in this series: politicians, lawyers, used-care salespeople? Yeah, we know. Too easy. These days, traditional film critics are so dissed that the promo for one upcoming movie invokes the trashing reviewers gave its prequel: “Unfortunately for them, we just made ‘Number Two.’ ”

In the age of the Internet, Patrick Goldstein writes, when anyone with a modem can be a content provider, the relevance of print critics is called into question. The nature of the content is beside the point; the immediacy of it isn’t. “We’re in an era,” Goldstein says, “in which shared enthusiasm matters more than analysis, stylistic cool trumps emotional substance.”

But Goldstein’s no Chicken Little -- he suggests how to marry old critics with new media to make a happy family. Page E1

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It’s a wonderful collection ...

... starring James Stewart and Clark Gable, and, really, what more does a DVD collection need?

Though “James Stewart -- The Signature Collection” doesn’t contain his signature “It’s a Wonderful Life” role, the six films offered are of interest. Among them is “The Stratton Story,” in which he plays a one-legged Chicago White Sox pitcher (true story), “The Naked Spur,” in which he’s a bounty hunter (as if), and “The Spirit of St. Louis,” in which Stewart, 49, plays Charles Lindbergh at 25 (willing suspension of disbelief).

The “Clark Gable Collection” has three films, the best known an adaptation of “Call of the Wild” in which he looks macho-marvelous. “Soldier of Fortune” and “The Tall Men” complete the set, and if they’re not all Rhett, at least they’re all Clark. Page E3

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SPORTS

Game-breakers and rule-breakers

Mid-August means players are putting on the pads and Chris Dufresne is taking off the wraps on his weekly college football column, which today weighs some of the off-season’s rule-breaking against shenanigans of years past. Are players and programs out of control?

Dufresne’s judgment: Nope. “The sport, in fact, has never been cleaner, its coaches never more vigilant; compliance officers never more defiant,” he writes, and one reason is that in the era of the 24/7 news cycle and Internet message boards, schools are trying harder to police themselves before someone else blows the whistle.

Not that everything’s perfect. As one athletic director says: “Compliance programs are much better than they’ve ever been ... but you can’t be everywhere with everyone.” Page D1

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The short and long of the PGA

The top 10 golfers in the world are entered at the PGA Championship this week, and if you have to ask who is the favorite, you probably still listen to music on cassettes.

Thomas Bonk profiles the top 10, reaching the inevitable conclusion that Tiger Woods remains the man to beat. He has been ranked No. 1 for 404 weeks, leads the PGA Tour this year in earnings, and has a close, personal relationship with the gods and goddesses of golf. Still, Mickelson, Singh, Furyk, Goosen and 151 others are teeing it up for more than practice. Page D1

Columnist Bill Dwyre profiles PGA Championship hopeful Corey Pavin (No. 91), who is ranked last in driving on the PGA tour and this week faces a course that, at 7,561 yards, is the longest in the history of major championship golf. Page D1

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ON LATIMES.COM

Academy statues that lack Emmys

Emmy entry: At the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ North Hollywood headquarters, busts and statues of Lucille Ball, Andy Griffith and Jackie Gleason, among others, grace the grounds. However, Gold Derby blogger Tom O’Neil takes note of a subplot to the sculptures: Many of those depicted were famously snubbed by the academy during their lifetimes. Gleason died furious at being passed over, while Griffith was not only snubbed but had to endure his sidekick Don Knotts winning five. latimes.com/goldderbyRock of Chavez: As the pennant race gets into its stretch run, Blue Notes bloggers Andrew and Brian Kamenetzky pose the question: Is there one player who has to come through for the Blue? They offer Derek Lowe. latimes.com/dodgersblog