By GREGOR MCGAVIN, The Press-Enterprise

With soaring oil and gas prices, record home foreclosures and the cost of just about everything else rising, it seems times are tough for everyone. Except maybe the repo man.

Business is brisk for repossession companies nationwide that recover vehicles for lienholders after buyers default on their loans, industry officials say.

Debbie Dunning hasn't even gotten her first shipment of motor scooters yet, and she's already getting calls from would-be buyers.

The owner of Renegade Classics motorcycle dealership in Cathedral City, Calif. is getting about a dozen scooters this week delivered from a Chicago manufacturer. She expects them to sell quickly, and plans to get another 10 or 15 in June.

Love may fade, but bills must be paid.

That's why some couples who are divorced or separated are continuing to live together, experts in Southern California say.

GILMAN HOT SPRINGS, Calif. -- An unauthorized biography hitting bookstands this week that bashes Tom Cruise and his Scientology faith has outraged church officials internationally, but it's business as usual at the church's movie-making studios near Hemet, Calif.