Global Insights Local Impact
It was perhaps natural that campaign coverage of the presidential candidates’ healthcare policies began and ended with abortion rights; since June 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, 20 states have banned abortions or enacted draconian restrictions on the procedure. That landscape could turn even more dire with the reelection of Donald Trump.
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The Bay Area has long held the title for attracting the most venture capital funding in the nation, and that naturally includes the hot market for artificial intelligence startups. After all, San Francisco is home to some of the most prominent AI players, including ChatGPT maker OpenAI. But the Greater L.A. area is growing its
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Electric vehicle maker Rivian missed Wall Street’s expectations for revenue on Thursday, with sales coming in lower than anticipated in the third quarter. The Irvine-based company reported revenue of $874 million in the three months ending Sept. 30., which fell short of the $992 million projected by analysts, according to FactSet. The company recorded revenue
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The Federal Reserve cut interest rates for a second straight time on Thursday in an effort to keep the economy sailing along by easing the high borrowing costs it engineered to fight inflation. But going forward Fed policymakers must contend with a big new unknown: a second Trump presidential term. The quarter-percentage-point reduction in the
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The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday approved the county’s purchase of the Gas Company Tower, one of downtown L.A.’s most prominent skyscrapers, paving the way for the transfer of thousands of workers and public services out of the city’s civic center. With a 4-1 vote, the supervisors gave county officials the final
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The Federal Trade Commission is accusing Los Angeles-based cash app Dave Inc. of misleading its financially vulnerable customers about fees it charges and the amount of money it gives out. In a complaint filed Tuesday, the agency alleges that while Dave advertises it offers $500 advances “instantly,” only a “miniscule” number of customers receive close
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LeBron James’ production company, the SpringHill Co., is in talks to merge with Fulwell 73, the London-based studio behind “The Kardashians,” according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly. Financial details of the potential agreement were not immediately available. The SpringHill Co. declined to comment. The companies have
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By any measure, the lawbreaking by the U.S. subsidiary of Canada’s Toronto-Dominion Bank was spectacular. The bank, which goes by the name TD Bank in the U.S., facilitated the laundering of more than a half-billion dollars by human traffickers, fentanyl dealers, a major Ponzi schemer and others. It failed to file legally mandated reports of
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Apple has been accused by the National Labor Relations Board of trying to prevent employees from discussing pay equity and pressuring an engineer who attempted to circulate an online survey about wages to quit. In a complaint issued last week by the NLRB’s regional office in Oakland, federal labor regulators alleged Apple has unlawfully blocked
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Franchise Group, the company at the heart of a troubled management buyout that has devastated the stock of B. Riley Financial, has filed for bankruptcy — but plans to keep open most of its retail brands, including Vitamin Shoppe. The retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday, announcing it already had a deal
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The most valuable piece of memorabilia from the Dodgers’ World Series championship run is easily identified. It’s the baseball struck by Freddie Freeman that landed in the right-field pavilion in the 10th inning of Game 1, the first walk-off grand slam in fall classic history. Auction experts estimate it would fetch more than $2 million,
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NBCUniversal parent Comcast Corp. is considering spinning off its cable networks into a separate company as the media giant continues to grapple with massive changes in the overall linear television business. Folding the cable networks into their own company owned by Comcast shareholders could “position them to take advantage of opportunities in the changing media
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See if you can solve this arithmetic problem: Oliver picks 44 kiwis on Friday. Then he picks 58 kiwis on Saturday. On Sunday, he picks double the number of kiwis he did on Friday, but five of them were a bit smaller than average. How many kiwis does Oliver have? If you answered “190,” congratulations:
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If the new apartment tower had been planned for another plot of land, chances are good the concrete plant in the middle of the city would have helped build it. But, as it happens, the century-old facility on La Brea Avenue that has provided concrete for buildings and roads across the Los Angeles region sat
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Sony Pictures Television, producer of the long-running “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy!” TV programs, is suing CBS, the game shows’ distributor, for breach of contract. Sony claims that CBS entered into unauthorized licensing deals for the shows — two of the most popular and profitable TV programs — and then paid itself a commission on
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Carol Lombardini, who represented the major studios at the bargaining table during last year’s writers’ and actors’ strikes, is set to step down as president and chief negotiator of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in 2025. A spokesperson for the AMPTP confirmed Lombardini’s forthcoming exit Thursday night in an email, adding that
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Dodgers fans were ready to celebrate the second Walker Buehler struck out Alex Verdugo for the final out of the World Series, They were also ready to spend — and they did so more than any other fan base of a title-winning team in at least 10 years. After clinching their eighth World Series title
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Search giant Google wants people to use its navigation app for more than just finding directions and avoiding traffic. The tech giant is adding generative AI features to Google Maps so people can easily get recommendations for places to go and activities to do. With 2 billion people using Google Maps every month, the company
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Apple’s new artificial intelligence tools are here. Now the company is trying to help customers understand them. The Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant on Wednesday began offering 15-minute sessions for customers at its hundreds of U.S. retail stores on the company’s new suite of AI tools called Apple Intelligence, which can help iPhone users to compose
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WASHINGTON — The last and most consequential report on the nation’s economic health before next week’s election provided more evidence of America’s resilient growth. Whether it will make a difference to voters is an open question. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that U.S. gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic output, expanded at a robust
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When Netflix releases big movies, even the ones that resemble Hollywood blockbusters, its approach is consistent: Get people to watch them on the streaming service, not in theaters. In the cases where Netflix does put its films in cinemas, it does so in a limited fashion, primarily to build buzz or get awards consideration. Could
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Struggling B. Riley Financial said Tuesday that it had sold its interests in its apparel and Brookstone brands for about $236 million — the second such asset sale in a month as it works to pay down debt related to a buyout deal that turned sour. The Westwood-area financial services firm sold its Hurley, Justice
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Amid mounting pressure from Hollywood to bring production and entertainment jobs back to California, Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled plans Sunday to significantly raise the annual cap on the state’s film and TV tax incentive program. During a news conference held at Hollywood’s Raleigh Studios and attended by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, as well as
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State Farm General, California’s largest home insurer, is being accused of boosting the profits of its parent company at the expense of state policyholders — while claiming it’s in financial distress and in need of a 30% rate hike. The company bought hundreds of millions of dollars of excess reinsurance from parent State Farm Mutual
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Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a proposal Sunday to more than double the annual amount of money allocated to California’s film and TV tax credit program as Hollywood struggles to compete with other production hubs dangling lofty incentives. The governor declared his intent to expand the annual tax credit to $750 million, up from its current
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MEXICO CITY — If former President Trump is reelected and follows through with his promise to slap new tariffs on all imports to the U.S., experts say much of the global economy could be upended. And few countries would be more vulnerable than Mexico. The economy here is driven almost exclusively by trade, with 83% of
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WWE and UFC owner TKO Group Holdings Inc. on Thursday said it will acquire three businesses from Beverly Hills-based Endeavor Group Holdings, including Professional Bull Riders, in the latest move by mogul Ari Emanuel to reconfigure his sports and entertainment empire. In an all-equity deal valued at $3.25 billion, publicly traded TKO will receive Professional
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The Port of Los Angeles will get an amusement park with a large observation wheel as part of West Harbor, the attraction being built to replace Ports O’ Call in San Pedro. With the project’s $155-million first phase, which will include restaurants, bars and shops, set to open late next year, its developers announced plans
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A decision by the owner of the Los Angeles Times not to endorse in the 2024 presidential race — after the paper’s editorial board proposed backing Kamala Harris — has created a tempest, prompting three members of the board to resign and provoking thousands of readers to cancel their subscriptions. Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong
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A Trump judge just declared ‘qui tam’ anti-fraud lawsuits unconstitutional. They’ve been around since 1863.
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Former “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune” staffers have filed employment discrimination, harassment and retaliation complaints against Sony Pictures Entertainment after the Culver City-based company allegedly laid off workers who spoke out against toxic working conditions. Shelley Ballance Ellis, a former production executive on the game shows, and Monique Diaz, a former member of the series’
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Good news for theaters still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and other industry disruptions: A new UCLA study has found that teenagers’ favorite thing to do is going to the movies. The latest installment of the university’s “Teens and Screens” report — which surveyed 1,500 young people across the U.S. aged 10 to 24 —
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American political memories are notoriously short, so it’s unsurprising that our perception of abortion politics dates back only to 1973. That’s the year, of course, that the Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision in Roe vs. Wade, which safeguarded abortion rights in the U.S. for 49 years until a right-wing majority on the Court
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The 2024 U.S. presidential campaign has featured some notable deepfakes — AI-powered impersonations of candidates that sought to mislead voters or demean the candidates being targeted. Thanks to Elon Musk’s retweet, one of those deepfakes has been viewed more than 143 million times. The prospect of unscrupulous campaigns or foreign adversaries using artificial intelligence to
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The ubiquitous and popular diner chain Denny’s will close 150 locations by the end of next year amid declining revenue and changing consumer habits, the company announced Tuesday. Known for 24/7 service and a wide selection of menu items, the company behind the 71-year-old restaurant reported lower-than-expected earnings for the third quarter and has seen
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“To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid.” This warning from federal Judge Mark Walker of Tallahassee, Fla., to Gov. Ron DeSantis and his quack state surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, may not be the most scathing denunciation of a litigant by a judge in judicial history, but it will
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A Los Angeles-based production company has sued Tesla, its Chief Executive Elon Musk, and Warner Bros. Discovery, alleging that the electric vehicle maker ripped off scenes from the 2017 film “Blade Runner 2049” to promote its new robotaxi. Alcon Entertainment, which produced the film for Warner Bros., filed the copyright infringement lawsuit Monday in California.
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Since Cynthia Clemons’ employer announced last month that she was required to be in the office two days each week, the switch from remote work hasn’t been smooth. The self-described extrovert, who works as an organizer for the nonprofit Abundant Housing LA, said she so far hasn’t “gotten into a rhythm of being productive at
Read Morematerials are commonly used to make shoes moulds Shoe moulds are used to create different kinds of shoes for consumers. They help to ensure that each shoe produced meets specific standards and is made with the right amount of material. Moreover, they are very crucial for those who want to produce footwear that is comfortable
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Hollywood production was even slower this summer than it was during last year’s strikes because of a staggering decline in reality TV shoots, according to a new report. Overall production levels were down 5% in the third quarter of 2024 compared with the same stretch in 2023, per data released Wednesday by FilmLA, a nonprofit
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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the way for a climate-change rule adopted by the Biden administration that would force coal-fired power plants to cut their carbon pollution 90% by 2032 or shut down. By a 7-1 vote, the court rejected a series of emergency appeals from Republican-led states and the coal and
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The Federal Trade Commission continued its crackdown on businesses that deceptively market and sell subscription services, adopting a rule Wednesday requiring companies to let consumers cancel a gym membership, streaming video service or other subscription as easily as they started it. The rule expands the FTC’s restrictions on “negative option” offers, which automatically start, renew
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The Universal Orlando Resort in Florida is gaining a fourth theme park next year that will feature areas dedicated to Nintendo, Harry Potter and other intellectual property, a move that is expected to significantly ramp up the company’s competition with Walt Disney Co. in the state. Universal Epic Universe will open to the public on
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Tesla’s controversial “Full Self-Driving” mode is being investigated by U.S. authorities following a series of crashes, including one accident that killed a pedestrian. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened its latest probe into the leading maker of electric vehicles after receiving reports of four collisions that occurred while drivers were allowing their cars to
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Jeremy Hart played with Hot Wheels as a kid, but he eventually grew out of them, tucking the miniature cars away in a toolbox. Then nostalgia struck when he attended the Hot Wheels convention in California with his son three years ago. “I get these little glimmers and glimpses of memories and feelings when I
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After Wells Fargo was mired in a 2013 scandal over employees who opened millions of fake banking accounts, the bank created a new centralized unit to review customer complaints and employees’ allegations of workplace abuses. Now, however, that team is upended by its own turmoil as its members have accused bank officials of aggressively trying
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As AI technology advances, industry observers expect to see more deals between tech companies, studios and talent. But major challenges remain.
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Phillips 66 announced Wednesday that it will shut its historic Wilmington-area oil refinery complex but will work with the state to continue supplying fuel to consumers. The refinery near the Port of Los Angeles will cease operations in the fourth quarter of 2025, with the company saying it will replace its output with sources “inside
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Former President Trump said that any telephone conversations he may have had with Vladimir Putin since leaving office were a “smart thing,” though he declined to confirm the recently reported calls during an appearance at the Economic Club of Chicago on Tuesday. “I don’t comment on that,” Trump said. “But I will tell you that
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DIXON, Calif. — Deep inside one of the world’s largest corn mazes, where the tri-tip sandwiches and soft-serve ice cream purchased at the concession stand have become but a memory and all that can be seen in any direction are dirt paths and dead-end walls of green plants whispering in the breeze, people tend to reveal
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Outfest, the struggling nonprofit that had hosted a prominent Los Angeles LGBTQ+ film festival, is facing a defamation lawsuit from its former executive director, Damien S. Navarro. Navarro on Friday sued Outfest in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleging he was retaliated against after he raised discrimination and ethics concerns to the group’s leadership. In
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WASHINGTON — For a long time, Donald Trump derided electric vehicles as expensive and impractical. “Nobody wants them,” he charged, even though almost 6 million have sold in the U.S. since 2012. Then Trump met Tesla mogul Elon Musk, who began pouring millions of dollars into pro-Trump campaign advertising — and now the former president says
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In a major California workers’ comp insurance case, authorities have charged an Orange County man who was twice convicted of fraud, along with a San Diego neurosurgeon and two others, in connection with allegedly billing nearly $100 million in fraudulent fees. Following a three-year investigation, the Orange County district attorney’s office said on Friday that
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When Joseph Feminella matched with his would-be wife on Hinge in 2020, he was already growing tired of traditional dating apps. He told her he’d like to meet in person right away, and they met that night. The pair were married three years later, and Feminella launched his dating app First Round’s on Me nationwide
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California’s emergency ban on certain hemp products cleared a legal challenge Friday brought by cannabis businesses that sought to block the new rules. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Stephen Goorvitch denied the businesses’ request that he issue an order which would have temporarily allowed hemp sales while a lawsuit over the ban proceeded. The
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Fisker Inc. will wind down operations under a bankruptcy plan approved Friday that should allow car owners to drive their cars for years — while not paying anything to shareholders who were wiped out investing in the defunct Southern California electric-vehicle maker. The plan approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Thomas Horan in Delaware comes
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Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk presented a lofty vision for the future Thursday night, unveiling prototypes of a self-driving taxi and van that he said would revolutionize travel and claiming the electric car company would put fully autonomous vehicles on the road by next year. At an event on the Warner Bros. Studios lot in
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Which of California’s economic initiatives drives conservatives batty the most? No question: It’s the state’s $20 minimum wage for fast food workers, which went into effect April 1. For months before the wage increase, conservative pundits and economists filled the airwaves and newspaper columns with predictions that it would produce an employment bloodbath at fast
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McDonald’s is putting Beyond Meat’s plant-based chicken McNuggets on its French menu, marking an expansion of the El Segundo company’s European business. The Veggie McPlant Nuggets, made from wheat and pea proteins, will be served at all of McDonald’s 1,560 restaurants in France on a permanent basis, the fast food company said this week. “With
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FilmLA, the organization that handles film permits and tracks on-location production in the Los Angeles area, is urging California to expand its movie and TV tax incentive program to mitigate Hollywood’s ongoing production crisis. The Studio City-based permit office released a scripted content study on Wednesday revealing that filming activity in the region declined by
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Bronny James thinks they’re “pretty nice.” Max Christie says they’re “super cool.” D’Angelo Russell declared them his “favorite.” The Lakers revealed their 2024-2025 City Edition uniforms Tuesday, with a video that features several players — the ones mentioned above, as well as LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Rui Hachimura and Austin Reaves — sporting the new
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L.A. County’s Board of Supervisors took its first major step Tuesday toward buying Gas Company Tower, one of the most prominent office skyscrapers in downtown Los Angeles. The looming purchase could move workers and public services out of existing county offices, including the well-known Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, which dates to 1960. The building
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If you are wired into the flow of campaign news — as I am, for my sins — you will be inundated this week with reports of a new analysis of the fiscal impact of the economic proposals of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Long story short: Trump’s would be much worse in terms of
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Heath Evans really needed his Sonos speakers to work. He and his wife counted on one of the three wireless devices he owned to play music to help put their baby daughter to sleep. So, in May, when Sonos released a new controller app that was so riddled with problems he couldn’t get the speakers
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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court refused Monday to hear appeals from ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft, which were asking to block California state labor lawsuits that seek back pay for tens of thousands of drivers. Without comment, the justices turned down appeals from both companies. At issue, they said, was the scope of the arbitration agreements
Read More있는 파트타임 일자리가 있나요 간호사부터 산부인과 의사, 가정 건강 보조원에 이르기까지 의료 분야에서 여성이 점점 더 많아지고 있습니다. 이러한 직책은 종종 유연한 일정을 제공하고 정규직에 의존하지 않는 수입을 제공할 수 있으므로 일과 삶의 균형을 추구하는 사람들에게 훌륭한 옵션입니다. 많은 사람들이 변화를 만들고 싶어서 의료 분야에서 일하기로 선택합니다. 이는 특히 가족 계획, 옹호, 정신 건강 상담과
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An unexpectedly large surge in job creation last month, coupled with a downtick in unemployment, was good news for the economy, for the Federal Reserve and for Democratic politicians because it suggested policymakers have managed, thus far, to curb inflation without triggering a recession. The addition of 254,000 jobs in September, reported by the government
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Dear Liz: I’m way behind on retirement funds. I did get pension funds from my employer after 25 years of service but used a large portion to pay debt that was crushing me. I’m widowed, age 62 and work full time as a nurse. I rent my place. How do I catch up? I have
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Walt Disney Co. has been hit with a class action lawsuit accusing the Burbank-based entertainment giant of negligence, breach of implied contract and other misconduct in connection with a massive data breach that occurred earlier this year. Plaintiff Scott Margel submitted the complaint on Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court against Disney and Disney
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Electric vehicle maker Rivian saw its shares dip Friday after the Irvine-based company cut its production targets amid ongoing supply issues. Citing a shortage of a component used to build its electric pickups, sport utility vehicles and vans, Rivian said production could drop as much as 18% this year at its lone U.S. assembly plant.
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In April 2022, a Starbucks barista and union organizer was invited to meet with the company’s upper management in Long Beach. During the meeting, the employee raised several concerns, including charges of unfair labor practices the company faced. Howard Schultz, who had just begun his third stint as the company’s chief executive, became irritated and
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“When will I see the doctor?” Most female doctors have been asked this question many times. It feels like a slight — a failure to recognize the struggle it took to get to where they are, a fight that is far from over once a woman has her medical degree. Women now make up more
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Much is still not known about Saturday’s shooting at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, but it’s clear that the incident placed the stupidity and hypocrisy of America’s gun culture in high relief. Former President Trump was nearly assassinated while addressing the rally. One spectator seated in the bleachers near him, Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed
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Amazon’s annual sale starts Tuesday, which means even more impulsive purchases will be packaged and dropped onto porches across the state this week. Some of those parcels won’t make it into the buyer’s home, however. That’s because package theft is commonplace in California, as well as the rest of the United States. According to estimates
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When Ali Weiss, 30, shares a selfie on Instagram, she often adds a disclaimer: This is a face that hasn’t had any work done. “The most punk thing you can do in 2024 is not f— with your face,” the New York City-based on-air host and podcaster writes via email. Surrounded by peers who got
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The film and TV production drought plaguing the U.S. entertainment industry appears to be “here to stay,” according to a sobering new report by ProdPro. The tracking company found that production in the United States was down about 40% in the second quarter of 2024 compared to peak-TV levels of filming activity during the same
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WASHINGTON — Inflation cooled more than expected in June, helped by falling prices for cars, gas and airline tickets — a boost for the summer travel season — as well as some much-needed easing in the cost of housing. Overall, consumer price inflation for all goods and services was 3% in June from a year earlier,
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One of Olvera Street’s most photographed icons may soon vanish from his post because of a ruling by a Los Angeles city commission. Jorge, the stuffed donkey known as “El Burro” who greets guests entering Olvera Street, and his manager, Richard Hernandez, were given a 30-day eviction notice on Thursday. Hernandez owns and operates a
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SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, which carries astronauts to the International Space Station, experienced a rare failure Thursday night after blasting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on an uncrewed mission. The rocket, which had a payload of 20 satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink internet network, took off without incident about 7:30 p.m. Pacific time, but
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After teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, fast-casual restaurant chain Mod Pizza was acquired this week by Los Angeles-based Elite Restaurant Group, the company said. Prior to the announcement of the deal, a spokesperson for Mod said the pizza chain was “actively working toward strategic alternatives that would avoid a Chapter 11 filing.” . Founded
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Allstate is seeking to raise its California homeowners insurance premiums by an average of 34% — which would be the largest rate increase this year amid the state’s insurance crisis. If approved by the state’s Department of Insurance, the rate hike would affect more than 350,000 policyholders and would exceed a 30% increase sought last
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John Tsakoumakis has been shopping at the Vons grocery store on West 80th Street in Los Angeles’ Westchester neighborhood for three decades. He lives a few blocks away, often making the trip on foot if he only has to pick up a few things. The store is convenient, he said, but its real value comes
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Loose slots will take on a different meaning in the final week of the landmark Mirage Hotel & Casino. Before the 34-year-old Las Vegas Strip institution permanently shuts its doors on July 17, the casino is obligated to pay out all progressive jackpots, per Nevada Gaming Commission regulations. That’s a total $1.6 million in prizes
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The share of adult Americans who own stocks is approaching an all-time high of 63%, which may explain why events such as the surge in “meme” stocks like GameStop gets such generous play in the news. But it doesn’t explain why the investment vehicles that dominate Americans’ portfolios — passive mutual funds tied to market
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Supermarket giant Kroger Co. announced plans to offload more than 60 supermarkets in California as part of its planned merger with Albertsons. The 63 supermarkets — primarily in Southern California — are among hundreds of stores, distribution centers and plants on a list the companies released on Tuesday identifying which ones it plans to sell
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Noncompete clauses in employment contracts are sterling examples of the give-them-an-inch-and-they’ll-take-a-mile principle in business behavior. Once applied chiefly to executives, engineers and others with access to a company’s trade secrets, they have expanded to cover almost anybody — low-wage security guards, rank-and-file factory workers and even fast-food counter workers. A recent academic survey estimated that
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To compete in today’s tumultuous entertainment industry, Paramount Global will need to evolve into a “media and technology” company, tech scion and soon-to-be Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison told investors and financial analysts Monday, a day after the company’s board approved a merger deal with his Skydance Media. “When you look at the landscape that
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“Despicable Me 4” had a strong showing at the top of the box office this weekend as family films continue to drive returns for studios and movie theaters. The fourth installment of the Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment animated franchise raked in $75 million in the U.S. and Canada, according to three-day estimates from measurement
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Tech scion David Ellison’s months-long quest to win control of Paramount Global moved closer to the finish line Sunday, in a deal that marks a new chapter for the long-struggling media company and parent of one of Hollywood’s oldest movie studios. Paramount Global board members on Sunday approved the bid by Ellison’s Skydance Media and
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Dear Liz: I have four daughters, now in their late 30s and early 40s. When they were very young, I started investing for them. As they began to earn their own money, I started Roth IRAs for them as well. A decade ago, due to an unexpected divorce, a 30-day escrow and a move, I
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Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore spent an unexpected Fourth of July aboard the International Space Station — but it was hardly a patriotic display of engineering prowess. The two NASA astronauts docked with the orbiting lab June 6 for what was supposed to be an eight-day mission, but their return home may be delayed
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Beginning this month, California businesses will be required to have plans in place to prevent violence in the workplace. Senate Bill 553, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last fall, requires that employers develop plans to protect workplaces from foreseeable threats of violence, which can range from bullying and harassment to active shooter and hostage situations.
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Hollywood knows a flop when it sees one. So it’s hardly surprising that some of the industry’s biggest luminaries are engaged in a collective act of hand-wringing over President Biden’s weak performance during last week’s presidential debate against former President Trump. Hollywood backers, including those who previously wrote large checks, are feeling skittish about Biden’s
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I had just started my master’s degree in artificial intelligence when a classmate asked if I’d heard of Amazon, a new online bookstore where you could order basically any book in the world and have it shipped to your front door. Feeling all the excitement of a middle school book fair flooding back, I entered
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Audiences are going bananas for Universal Pictures’ and Illumination’s “Despicable Me 4.” The latest installment in the popular family film franchise opened to $27 million Wednesday at the domestic box office, according to estimates from a studio source and measurement firm Comscore. That number is expected to rise to roughly $120 million by the end
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Just after Thanksgiving 2021, Dr. Anthony Fauci visited a high school in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C. His goal was to promote the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in a primarily Black community, where vaccine rates were lower than in the rest of the capital. Fauci was joined by Barack Obama — the fifth of
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Two of the biggest luxury department store chains in the country are joining forces, with a boost from Amazon. The owner of Saks Fifth Avenue has agreed to buy rival Neiman Marcus Group for $2.65 billion, according to a Wall Street Journal report, which cited people familiar with the matter. Amazon.com Inc. and Salesforce Inc.
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The storied Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, which was long considered one of the region’s top classical music venues, is for sale after being owned by a local church for the last two decades. Harvest Rock Church is asking $45 million for the 1,200-seat auditorium near the Old Pasadena district that has also hosted jazz greats
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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday said it is putting off a ruling for now on whether social media laws adopted by Florida and Texas violate the 1st Amendment. Instead, the justices sent those cases back to lower courts to consider how those laws would apply in specific situations. Speaking for the unanimous court, Justice
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Second only to the Supreme Court’s ruling Monday on when presidents are immune from criminal prosecution, the biggest case of the court’s recently completed session involved the age-old conflict between judges and government regulators. The case concerned a 40-year-old precedent known as “Chevron deference.” That doctrine held that when a federal law is ambiguous, the
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The crew members union IATSE released a summary over the weekend of its new tentative agreement with the top Hollywood studios, including terms related to pay, pension and health benefits, working conditions, streaming residuals and artificial intelligence. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers arrived at
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CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA, Calif. — People call it “The Pit.” It’s a massive, unsightly hole in the ground — the site of a construction project in downtown Carmel-by-the-Sea whose previous owners ran out of money six years ago, leaving behind nothing but concrete, rebar and hard feelings. In 2020, The Pit was purchased by Patrice Pastor, a billionaire
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A red phone sits on Palmer Luckey’s desk at the Costa Mesa headquarters of his military tech company, Anduril Industries. The phone is a genuine article from the U.S. nuclear command, once connected to the network that led to the bunkers dug into the Rockies west of Colorado Springs that could order up the apocalypse.
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The day “Barbie” hit theaters in July, Mattel Chief Executive Ynon Kreiz was in New York City visiting his oldest daughter and the pair decided to walk to a nearby theater for some real-time market research. Kreiz, who had been the driving force behind the decision to bring Mattel’s iconic doll to life on the
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For decades, gun control policy in the U.S. has been virtually untouchable — except through efforts to make America’s gun culture deadlier, raising the toll of innocent victims. Two recent developments suggest that the ground may finally be shifting toward rationality. One is an “advisory” from Surgeon General Vivek Murthy identifying firearm violence as a
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WASHINGTON — In a major victory for business, the Supreme Court on Friday gave judges more power to block new regulations if they are not explicitly authorized by federal law. The court’s conservative majority overturned a 40-year-old rule that said judges should defer to agencies and their regulations if the law is not clear. The vote
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State Farm General is seeking to dramatically increase residential insurance rates for millions of Californians, a move that would deepen the state’s ongoing crisis over housing coverage. In two filings with the state’s Department of Insurance on Thursday signaling financial trouble for the insurance giant, State Farm disclosed it is seeking a 30% rate increase
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By the numbers, the overall U.S. economy may look good, but down at the street level the view is a lot grimmer and grittier. The surge in interest rates imposed by the Federal Reserve to slow inflation has closed like an acrid cloud over would-be homeowners, car buyers, growing families, and businesses new and old,
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SACRAMENTO — The California state Senate on Thursday passed legislation aimed at helping the news industry by imposing a new tax on some of the biggest tech companies in the world. Senate Bill 1327 would tax Amazon, Meta and Google for the data they collect from users and pump the money from this “data extraction mitigation
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Film and TV crew members have reached a tentative contract deal with the major Hollywood studios after months of bargaining, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced Tuesday night. The resolution arrived before the current contract’s expiration date, finally permitting the entertainment industry to breathe
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Some people just have a knack, even a skill, for placing themselves at the center of obnoxious public business deals. But few have proved as adroit at the practice as Martin Shkreli. Remember him? Shkreli’s first foray into public notice came in 2015, when he jacked up the price of a 60-year-old drug to a
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Known for art house films, Oscar contenders and prestige horror flicks, indie studio A24 has landed a new round of funding led by venture capital firm Thrive Capital. The studio declined to disclose the size of the funding round. But the capital raise increased the company’s valuation to about $3.5 billion, up 40% from its
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SACRAMENTO — California news publishers and Big Tech companies appear to be inching toward compromise on a controversial bill that would require Google and huge social media platforms to pay news outlets for the articles they distribute. After stalling last year, Assembly Bill 886 cleared a critical hurdle Tuesday when it passed the state Senate Judiciary
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There’s good news and bad news about a legal settlement that New York state just reached with the giant health insurer UnitedHealth over its denial of contraception coverage for a member, which violated state law. The good news is that UnitedHealth got caught and has been ordered to reimburse the member — and all others
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To boldly go where no man has gone before. That’s the mission of the USS Enterprise — and arguably the aim of a $1-million prize being offered through a foundation created to honor the father of the “Star Trek” franchise. The Roddenberry Foundation — named for Gene Roddenberry — announced Tuesday that this year’s biennial
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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to put new limits on Congress’ power to tax wealth that is not paid out in annual dividends. In a setback for anti-tax conservatives, the justices upheld a provision of a 2017 tax law that imposed a one-time levy on the profits of foreign corporations whose shares were
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Gene Seroka has been executive director of the Port of Los Angeles since 2014. The seaport moves more cargo containers than any other in the nation. It has handled as many as 10 million containers in a year. Minus holidays, that works out to about 29,000 a day. Any one of them could hold 48,000
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MoviePass, the infamous cinema subscription service that crashed and burned in 2020, has secured a new investor amid an ambitious comeback attempt. The New York-based company announced Thursday that it had landed an investment from Forecast Labs, a venture group owned by Comcast. MoviePass did not disclose the amount invested or other financial terms. The
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In a surprisingly strong economic report, California employers stepped up their hiring in May and the statewide unemployment rate dropped for the first time since the summer of 2022, the government reported Friday. Employers in the state added 43,700 jobs last month across a broad spectrum of industries, breaking from the recent pattern of lagging
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The former Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, which helped lead an economic revival on a historic stretch of Broadway a decade ago, has reopened as a minimal-service operation akin to Airbnb, following a strategy that has become increasingly common for struggling hotels in recent years. Now called Stile Downtown Los Angeles by Kasa, the
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Artificial intelligence is “exciting,” but guardrails must be put in place to protect labor, intellectual property and ethics, NBCUniversal Studio Group Chairman Donna Langley said Friday at an entertainment industry law conference. During a wide-ranging, on-stage conversation at the UCLA Entertainment Symposium, the media chief emphasized that first, “the labor piece of it has to
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For more than a decade, with only a few interruptions, Apple held the title of the world’s most valuable company, becoming the first to top $3 trillion in market capitalization — mostly due to the iPhone, a device millions of investors use daily. Recently, Apple was overtaken by Microsoft, and this week there was briefly
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Relief is on the horizon for California fast-food workers operating hot kitchen appliances, logistics workers in vast inland warehouses that lack cooling equipment and others laboring in hot indoor settings as a state agency Thursday approved new workplace protections against excessive heat. A standards board at the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health voted
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Thursday marks the beginning of summer, but early wildfires have already scorched the outskirts of L.A. and the Bay Area. Many California homeowners find themselves more vulnerable than ever as major insurers abandon areas threatened by climate change-fueled fires. Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara have responded with efforts to ease regulations
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Six Republican governors in the Deep South want their constituents to know that they’re looking out for them. That’s why they issued a joint statement earlier this year condemning the organizing campaign launched by the United Auto Workers at auto plants across the region. “As governors, we have a responsibility to our constituents to speak
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Will Packer knows that diversity in movies is good business. The producer has become a standout in Hollywood, making films with mostly Black casts that cater to an underserved audience — and that audience has rewarded him for it. His 2017 film “Girls Trip,” starring Tiffany Haddish, Regina Hall, Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett Smith,
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California has fined Amazon nearly $6 million for violating a law meant to protect warehouse workers from misuse of production quotas, state officials announced Tuesday. The $5.9 million in penalties, which were issued last month, stem from demands that the behemoth e-commerce company placed on thousands of workers at two of its Inland Empire fulfillment
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No one who has followed the career of that famously self-effacing and modest business leader Elon Musk could have expected him to boast openly about having secured approval from Tesla shareholders for two important initiatives: moving the company’s state of incorporation to Texas from Delaware, and “ratifying” his massive 2018 compensation package after it was
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With inflation and rising theme park costs, more Disney park visitors are going into debt to pay for their trips, according to a recent survey. Twenty-four percent of Disney theme park attendees have taken on debt for a trip, up from 18% in 2022, concluded a survey by financial firm Lending Tree, which queried about
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A special Florida district that governs Walt Disney World Resort has voted unanimously to approve the company’s plans for expansion, officially ending the years-long feud between the House of Mouse and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District voted Wednesday in favor of Walt Disney Co.’s proposal to expand its theme park
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The union representing nurses at Riverside Community Hospital has been ordered to pay more than $6 million to the hospital for the fallout from a 2020 strike. The unusual financial penalty was imposed by an arbitrator who found the 10-day work stoppage during the pandemic violated the terms of the labor agreement signed by HCA
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Eggs of the spotted lanternfly, an invasive species that’s wreaked havoc on crops across more than a dozen states, were recently discovered on a metal art installation that was headed to Sonoma County, one of California’s most esteemed wine regions. The discovery of the infamous bug’s eggs represents the first time the insect has been
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California regulators Wednesday disclosed which areas of the state insurers will have to cover if they want to take advantage of financial incentives intended to resolve the homeowners’ insurance crisis. In Los Angeles County, those areas include ZIP Codes in the Santa Monica Mountains, the San Gabriel Mountains and parts of the Santa Clarita Valley,
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The fast-food industry has been wringing its hands over the devastating impact on its business from California’s new minimum wage law for its workers. Their raw figures certainly seems to bear that out. A full-page ad recently placed in USA Today by the California Business and Industrial Alliance asserted that nearly 10,000 fast-food jobs had
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Lynn Conway was the bravest person I ever knew. It wasn’t merely her struggle to make her way in the male-dominated computer engineering world of the 1960s and 1970s. It was that she did so, with spectacular success, while contending with her own psyche, her family and her bosses at IBM to complete her transgender
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The paper published by the respected British Medical Journal earlier this month was eye-opening, to say the least. It questioned why excess deaths in Western countries remained unusually elevated during the COVID-19 pandemic even after vaccines were introduced in 2021. The implication seemed clear: Rather than reducing cases and deaths, the COVID vaccines had fueled
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A California law classifying Uber and other ride-hail and delivery drivers as employees rather than independent contractors is constitutional, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday. The effect of the decision on the companies’ operations and the broader gig economy in California wasn’t immediately clear, given ongoing litigation over a subsequent, voter-backed proposition
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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Justice Department to weigh in on whether the climate change lawsuits filed by California and two dozen other cities and states should be blocked. At issue is whether greenhouse gas emissions are a matter controlled only by federal law, or if states can play a role. The
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From left, Susan Minato, Ada Briceño and Kurt Petersen, photographed at the Los Angeles Times in El Segundo on Nov. 8. As top executives who share a leadership post, Unite Here Local 11 co-presidents Ada Briceño, Susan Minato and Kurt Petersen aim to present a united front as they steer the politically powerful union representing
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Dear Liz: I recently found out that my ex lent one of her former bosses $2,500 to get his brother out of jail on bond. My ex took the money out of a joint account that I had opened with the inheritance I got when my dad died. It’s now been four years and I
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Fresh off the resounding success of “Barbie,” Mattel is partnering with Universal Pictures to develop another live-action film based on its top-selling dolls. The El Segundo-based toy company and the studio giant announced Wednesday that they are joining forces for “Monster High,” a big-screen feature inspired by the fashionable, plastic descendants of classic creatures. Universal
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TikTok is investigating a cyberattack targeting “a number of high-profile” accounts, including media outlet CNN and celebrity Paris Hilton. The social media giant said this week in a statement that it is in direct contact with “affected account owners to restore access, if needed,” and has taken measures to prevent future incidents. In particular, a
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HSINCHU, Taiwan — Build the technology of the future. Protect the nation from attack. Buy a sports car. These were some of the rewards of working in the semiconductor industry, 200 high school students learned at a recent daylong recruiting event for one of Taiwan’s top engineering schools. “Taiwan doesn’t have many natural resources,” Morris Ker,
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SpaceX launched its Starship spacecraft into orbit Thursday in a largely successful test flight that moved the company a step closer to its ultimate goal of transporting astronauts to the moon and, someday, Mars. Stacked on a Super Heavy rocket, the Starship capsule blasted off at 5:50 a.m. Pacific time from the company’s Boca Chica,
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The woman who allegedly inspired the serial stalker character at the center of Netflix’s hit miniseries “Baby Reindeer” has sued the streaming giant for negligence and defamation. Fiona Harvey filed a $170-million complaint Thursday in United States district court in California, alleging that Netflix and “Baby Reindeer” creator Richard Gadd told “brutal lies” about her
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Peter J. Hotez is one of America’s most prominent vaccine experts. A professor at Baylor College of Medicine, he’s also co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development, which has developed and licensed a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine that has been distributed widely in the third world. He’s also among our most prominent
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BLOOMINGTON, Calif. — Benjamin and Christine Granillo bought their 2.25-acre property in San Bernardino County four decades ago. They built their home by hand and surrounded it with a lush grove of avocado, orange and lemon trees. “We thought we’d be here for the rest of our life,” Christine Granillo, 77, said as she tended
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Ever since the Supreme Court upended reproductive health rights in its 2022 Dobbs decision, antiabortion activists have been trying to make the case that the decision won’t have the dire effect on women and their families that its critics foresaw. They’ve been wrong, as has been demonstrated by the rising tide of incidents in which
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Ava DuVernay and Netflix have settled a defamation lawsuit filed by a former New York City prosecutor who disapproved of her portrayal in the acclaimed limited series “When They See Us.” Defendants Netflix and DuVernay released a joint statement Tuesday with the plaintiff, Linda Fairstein, outlining the terms of the settlement. As part of the
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Warner Bros. Discovery is raising the cost of ad-free subscriptions to its streaming platform, Max. The New York-based entertainment behemoth announced Tuesday that the price of its monthly ad-free plan has increased by $1 to $16.99, while its annual ad-free rate has gone up by $20 to $169.99. Its monthly premium ad-free plan also has
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Could that slice of Kroger brand carb-conscious bread really contain only 30 calories? The answer, according to a new lawsuit filed by a pair of California prosecutors, is no. In the civil suit against the supermarket chain, which owns around 300 Ralphs and Food 4 Less stores in the state, the district attorneys from Santa
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Rubio’s Coastal Grill, a fast-casual Mexican restaurant based in Carlsbad, has abruptly closed 48 stores in California, citing the rising cost of doing business in the state. The company did not elaborate on the closures, which came Friday and stunned workers, but it came two months after the state’s $20 an hour minimum wage took
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Dear Liz: I’m setting up accounts post-divorce, while learning personal finance on the fly. Is it “safe” or advisable to have all of my larger accounts — IRAs, 401(k), cash management — with the same institution, or should I spread them around? I have smaller checking and savings accounts with a good credit union. Answer:
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One person died and two others were injured in a car-to-car shooting in downtown Los Angeles early Sunday, with the gunman apparently popping up through the sunroof of one vehicle and firing at people seated in another car, police said. The shooting occurred a few minutes after midnight near the intersection of Maple Avenue and
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In the end, veteran investor Nelson Peltz came away with a big win in his battle with the Walt Disney Co. Peltz’s Trian Fund Management sold its Disney shares after Peltz lost his hard-fought campaign to join the Burbank entertainment giant’s board of directors and exert influence over the Magic Kingdom. Last month, Disney shareholders
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The rollout for Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” movie was not so flawless, according the head of AMC Theatres, which distributed the concert film. Adam Aron, chief executive of the nation’s largest theater chain, told Variety in an interview published last week that the company’s distribution deal with the musician nearly fell through after news of the project
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Claims of wage theft filed by California workers are routinely left in limbo for years by state investigators who are facing a massive backlog of cases, according to a recent audit of the California Labor Commissioner’s office. As a result of the sluggish pace, workers are left waiting years to receive money they may be
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When Beyond Meat went public in 2019 in an initial stock offering that saw its shares nearly triple in price, it seemed to confirm that plant-based meats had arrived. The food technology, capable of converting beans into something approaching meat in taste and appearance, caught the imagination of the public, restaurant chefs and media alike.
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Trader Joe’s is ramping up its pace of expansion, with plans to open two dozen new grocery stores around the country, including eight in Southern California. The SoCal stores will be in South Pasadena, Northridge, Sherman Oaks, Santa Clarita, Murrieta, Mission Viejo, Poway and Santee. Opening dates have yet to be announced. Nakia Rohde, a
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More Californians may be able to file their federal tax returns directly to the IRS online for free next year through a new program that federal officials pledged Thursday to expand significantly in 2025. After a trial run in California and 11 other states, the IRS’ Direct File program will be made available to all
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A bill backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom that is intended to halt more exits from California’s troubled homeowners insurance market by speeding up reviews of proposed rate hikes drew sharp criticism Wednesday from an influential consumer group. The administration this week released the draft of a bill Newsom proposed this month that he said would
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As growing numbers of countertop cutters in California suffer from an incurable and deadly lung disease, lawmakers are seeking to clamp down on which businesses can legally perform such work. Health officials have tied the rise in silicosis to the surging popularity of engineered stone, an artificial product that can be much higher in silica
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Dozens of recently closed 99 Cents Only stores across the Southland could reopen with another bargain retailer’s logo outside: Dollar Tree. The Chesapeake, Va.-based company, which operates hundreds of Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores in California, reportedly made a bid on about 100 recently shuttered locations of 99 Cents Only, which announced last month
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Free and fair elections, the foundation of our democracy, face an unprecedented array of threats as the next one approaches. While some of these threats are well-known, others go largely unnoticed, with potentially serious consequences. Among the latter is a dangerous attempt to persuade one of our financial regulators to essentially authorize gambling on election
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The U.S. Department of Justice’s effort to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster has been a long time coming, following years of complaints from concertgoers who say they’ve been squeezed by exorbitant prices and hidden fees when trying to buy passes to see Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and other music megastars. Ever since the government cleared
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A moon shot to make Southern California an international leader in the “blue economy” is taking shape in San Pedro as a $30-million renovation of three historic waterfront warehouses nears completion. AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles, as the complex is known, is home to sea-centered businesses such as the headquarters of explorer Robert
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When Warner Bros. film executive Jeff Goldstein saw the huge sand dunes and expansive desert vistas of Denis Villeneuve’s first “Dune” movie, he thought to himself, “This was made for Imax.” Same went for the sandworm sequences of the sequel, “Dune: Part Two,” a box office hit for the studio earlier this year that pulled
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Casey Hogan had no idea her new address would be so frustrating. But soon after moving into a granny flat in Van Nuys three years ago, she realized that the fraction in her house number — think: 101 ½ Main St. — was going to be particularly inconvenient in an era of constant deliveries. Her
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Money, as we all know, is the mother’s milk of politics in America. It can look even more nourishing if you can manufacture it yourself. That’s surely what accounts for the solicitude that the cryptocurrency industry has been receiving from Congress. The House on Wednesday passed a bill reducing regulation of crypto, despite ample evidence
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Stubbornly high inflation and interest rates are taking an increasing toll in California as the state experiences rising unemployment and slowing wage gains. And those feeling it the hardest: the largest and perhaps most budget-minded generation of them all. Millennials, those roughly 28 to 43 years old, are generally thought to be more averse to
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The almost 10-month-old strike that initially involved roughly 60 hotels and more than 15,000 workers in Los Angeles and Orange counties is nearing its end. In late April, the powerful hospitality union Unite Here Local 11 announced it had reached tentative contract agreements with 12 Southern California hotels. And on Friday, Unite Here Local 11
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Endeavor Chief Executive Ari Emanuel this week called for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ouster and denounced his leadership following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. The Hollywood power player made the remarks during the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s gala in Beverly Hills, where he accepted the Jewish organization’s Humanitarian Award, its highest honor. “This is a
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Paramount Global and Charter Communications have agreed to a new distribution deal for Paramount’s CBS network and cable channels, easing a concern that had threatened to complicate the media company’s sale talks. The last three-year contract covering CBS and Paramount’s 25 cable networks expired April 30, but the two sides continued negotiations, sparing Charter’s Spectrum
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For eight years, Lancaster resident Pablo Scipione and his attorneys pushed for compensation the 46-year-old independent contractor said he was owed due to a workplace accident in early 2016. In that accident, he slipped, fell and suffered a microfracture to his foot, according to his lawsuit, but that was only the start of his troubles.
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After years of delays, Boeing’s Starliner capsule was set to take off early this month with two astronauts aboard — and now the flight to the International Space Station has been put on hold indefinitely following a series of setbacks. The original May 6 launch was scuttled hours before takeoff due to a balky rocket
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Red Lobster, the seafood chain whose cheddar biscuits and bottomless shrimp specials have long captivated the American palate and pocketbook, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sunday. The behemoth of casual dining, which abruptly shuttered dozens of locations last week, has floundered in recent years, beset by managerial missteps, the impact of a sale to
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Walt Disney Co.-owned computer animation studio Pixar is laying off 14% of its staff, as it cuts back on the number of streaming series it produces. The layoffs, which will affect about 175 employees, were signaled as far back as January. Reports then suggested that the studio could cut up to 20% of its staff.
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California’s Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday on the constitutionality of Proposition 22, the voter-approved law that classified drivers working in the gig economy as independent contractors rather than full-fledged employees. The court must decide whether the law, which Uber, Lyft, Doordash and other app-based delivery companies pushed with a $200-million campaign in 2020, unlawfully
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A bill that would allow Amsterdam-style cannabis cafes in California passed the state Assembly Monday afternoon on a 49-4 vote and is headed to the Senate. But even if the Legislature’s upper chamber approves AB 1775, legalization remains far from a sure thing. Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a prior iteration of the bill in October,
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When OpenAI debuted its new voice assistant technology this month, it immediately drew comparisons to the 2013 Spike Jonze sci-fi film “Her.” As it turns out, the likeness may have been too close for comfort. OpenAI on Monday said it is pausing the use of one of the voices featured as a new option for
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Anyone who cares about the importance of science in the making of government policy had to be deeply dispirited by the hearing into the origins of COVID-19 staged by a Republican-led House subcommittee on May 1. The sole witness at the hearing, and its target, was Peter Daszak, the head of EcoHealth Alliance, a nongovernmental
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California posted another month of anemic job growth in April, keeping the state’s unemployment rate the highest in the country, 5.3%, the government reported Friday. Statewide, employers added a net of just 5,200 jobs in April, down from 18,200 in March, according to California’s Employment Development Department. Nationwide, employers added 175,000 jobs in April and
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Disneyland Resort employees who portray costumed characters such as Mickey Mouse or Cinderella have voted to unionize under the Actors’ Equity Assn. The unit, which consists of 1,700 people, voted 953 in favor of unionization and 258 against, Actors’ Equity said Saturday night on the social media platform X. Of the votes tallied, 79% were
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A New Mexico judge is weighing whether to dismiss involuntary manslaughter charges against Alec Baldwin for his alleged role in the 2021 shooting death of the “Rust” movie cinematographer. Baldwin’s attorneys argued during a court hearing Friday that special prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey had abused her power by allegedly withholding “significant evidence,” including witnesses favorable
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In an effort to stave off bankruptcy, electric-vehicle maker Fisker Inc. is closing its Manhattan Beach headquarters and has secured a $3.5-million lifeline as it continues to explore an acquisition or other strategic alternative. The troubled company, which had about 300 employees in the 72,000-square-foot offices at the end of March, is moving its remaining
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Sony Music Group is sending letters to 700 artificial intelligence developers and music streaming services warning them to not use its artists’ music to train generative AI tools without its permission. The company — one of the three largest recorded music firms — said it is explicitly opting out of the use of its music
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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the U.S. consumer protection agency that was created under President Obama and congressional Democrats to protect Americans from financial scams. By a 7-2 vote, the justices rejected a constitutional claim brought by a coalition of payday lenders who had won before a panel of three Trump appointees on
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Although California has some of the toughest labor laws in the country, a new study has found workers routinely suffer violations while on the job. A team of researchers from UC San Francisco and Harvard University earlier this year surveyed 980 California workers at dozens of the state’s largest retail, food and other service sector
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The anguished wails have gone forth from millions of tormented teenagers across the land of the free and the home of the brave. Who, these teenagers cry, can save us? I can, Frank McCourt said. In Los Angeles, the name rings a bell. McCourt is the former Dodgers owner who took the team into bankruptcy
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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Dozens of protesters blocked the entrance of Google’s developer conference in Mountain View, Calif., for roughly 90 minutes on Tuesday, demanding that the tech giant drop its work with the Israeli government amid the country’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The protest group, which accuses Israel of committing genocide against
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The days of an interactive, almost-human virtual assistant could be coming sooner than you think. Tech company OpenAI has unveiled the latest update to ChatGPT, which now includes a voice mode that allows users to communicate more conversationally with the AI system. In a video posted Monday on X by OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman,
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The Wonderful Co. is escalating its battle against unionization of its job sites, looking to halt a new state law intended to streamline the farmworker unionization process. The move comes two months after the United Farm Workers utilized the provision to become the collective bargaining representative for employees of the company’s massive grapevine nursery in
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Lionsgate Television is developing a scripted series based on the real-life gambling scandal involving Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter. The show will follow Ohtani’s story — his meteoric rise in the MLB, his 10-year, $700-million contract with the Dodgers and the devastating news that his interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, had allegedly stolen $17 million from him
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Journalists at LAist have been offered buyouts ahead of a potential round of layoffs at the local public radio station that broadcasts under the call sign KPCC-FM (89.3). Kristen Muller, chief content officer at LAist, informed donors by email on Thursday that the company is pursuing a “voluntary buyout program for current employees” in an
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PHOENIX — Aaron McDonald thinks back to when he came to Maricopa County nearly 20 years ago as a young ironworker hoping to get work building a new football stadium. Driving in from Wyoming for the first time, he was struck by the overwhelming desert expanse that surrounded Phoenix. Today, those sweeping vistas are dotted with
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Christmas could be coming early for Netflix. The NFL is considering a bid from the streaming behemoth for two football games to be played on Dec. 25, which falls on a Wednesday this year. The games would be the first major professional league sports events carried by the streaming giant. An NFL representative had no
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In April, Heritage Auctions heralded the discovery of the original model of the U.S.S. Enterprise, the iconic starship that whooshed through the stars in the opening credits of the 1960s TV series “Star Trek” but had mysteriously disappeared around 45 years ago. The auction house, known for its dazzling sales of movie and television props
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The Sriracha shortage panic has returned. In what’s become a dreaded tradition in recent years, fans of the beloved spicy chili sauce just got more bad news: The California company that popularized the condiment known for its distinctive fiery red color has halted production until after Labor Day. Last week, Huy Fong Foods, which is
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A federal grand jury this week indicted Andrew Wiederhorn, the former chief executive of the company that owns the Fatburger and Johnny Rockets restaurant chains, on federal charges alleging a $47-million “sham loan” scheme. Wiederhorn, the current controlling shareholder of the publicly traded Fat Brands Inc., is accused of concealing millions of dollars in reportable
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With the federal government poised to slash subsidies for internet service, L.A. County has started work on a wireless broadband network that will deliver high-speed connections for as little as $25 a month. The county announced this week that it had signed a contract with WeLink of Lehi, Utah, to build the network and offer
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