January 2009 Archives

Picture a world with no hoarding

Today's Business Casual column.

This is on top of the previously announced closures.

Starbucks to close 300 stores as profit tumbles

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Starbucks Corp. said Wednesday its fiscal first-quarter profit and sales fell short of Wall Street's forecast. The high-end coffee chain also announced 6,700 new job cuts as a weak economy weighed on sales.

For the three months ended Dec. 28, Seattle-based Starbucks reported net income of $64.3 million, or 9 cents per share, compared with $208 million, or 28 cents per share, a year ago.

Starbucks said store closures and reduced operations would result in a loss of up to 6,000 retail and 700 non-store jobs. The company expects to close 300 underperforming stores.

Along with previously announced cost-saving measures, Starbucks expects the job cuts and closures to help it save $500 million over the next year.

Read the whole story.

The reality is that America's mortgage and financial crises is dragging down the rest of the world. But can America's economy lead the international community back to economic health?

World economy may lose 51 million jobs: U.N. agency

GENEVA (Reuters) - Up to 51 million jobs worldwide could disappear by the end of this year as a result of the economic slowdown that has turned into a global employment crisis, a United Nations agency said on Wednesday.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) said that under its most optimistic scenario, this year would finish with 18 million more unemployed people than at the end of 2007, with a global unemployment rate of 6.1.

More realistically, it said 30 million more people could lose their jobs if financial turmoil persists through 2009, pushing up the world's unemployment to 6.5 percent, compared to 6.0 percent in 2008 and 5.7 percent in 2007.

In the worst-case economic scenario, the Global Employment Trends report said 51 million more jobs could be lost by the end of this year, creating a 7.1 percent global unemployment rate.

"If the recession deepens in 2009, as many forecasters expect, the global jobs crisis will worsen sharply," it said. "We can expect that for many of those who manage to keep a job, earnings and other conditions of employment will deteriorate."

Read the whole story.

The South Bay's housing market continued a steep slide, mirroring statewide and nationwide trends, according to a report released Tuesday.

In December, Home prices fell 22.4 percent in the South Bay, compared to a year earlier. That brought the median home price to $510,000, from $657,500, according to the report by the Los Angeles-based California Association of Realtors.

The median price is the middle figure where half of homes sold for more and half for less.

The South Bay fared better than the county as a whole, which suffered a 32.6 percent drop in price to $320,000, CAR reported.

California's decline in home prices was 41.5 percent, although that figure counted only single-family resale homes.

The poor home price figures were posted despite a robust 84.9 percent rise in the state's home sales, driven largely by foreclosures and short-sales.

In the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale region, home prices dropped 24.68% in November compared to a year earlier, according to a report by First American CoreLogic.

The Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario area saw a drop of 29.19%.

Nationwide, the drop was a less painful 10.6%.

Home prices fell in 35 states, with California leading the way with a 26.9% decline. Nevada saw a drop of 22.8%, Arizona 19%, Florida 18.2% and Rhode Island 13.7%.

This is bad news for the economy since our recession started beccause of the housing market crash.

On the up side, it's good news for renters who want to buy -- if they still have a job.

The Expo Design Center near the South Bay Galleria is closing. Too bad. It's a nice place. It's fun just to walk through there, although it's expensive stuff.

Home Depot to cut 7,000 jobs, close Expo chain

(AP) CHICAGO - Home Depot Inc. plans to eliminate 7,000 jobs while closing four dozen stores under its smaller home improvement brands as the recession continues to batter the nation's housing market. Its shares climbed more than 5 percent in morning trading.

The nation's biggest home improvement retailer said Monday the cuts will affect about 2 percent of its 300,000 workers and cause the Atlanta-based chain to record a $532 million pretax charge, most of which will be recorded in the fourth quarter.

Most of the cuts affect workers at Home Depot's 34 Expo Design Centers, five YardBIRDS, two Design Centers and HD Bath, a bath remodeling business with seven sites.

Those stores will close in the next two months.

Home Depot said its Expo business, which sells everything from throw pillows and sconces to bathtubs and vanities, hasn't performed well financially, even during the recent housing boom. It said the chain has weakened significantly in the current economic environment.

Read the whole story.

Boeing is still recovering from its machinists strike of last year.

Boeing Delays Add To American Capacity Cuts

(Aviation Week) American reported a $340-million net loss for the fourth quarter, and the carrier said it will further cut its capacity for this year, thanks partly to Boeing delivery delays.

Boeing has given American a revised delivery schedule for the 76 737-800s the airline has on order to replace MD-80s. American is now slated to receive 29 737s this year, versus the 36 it was previously expected to take, and 39 in 2010, one less than previously forecast.

Deliveries will begin in the current quarter, and the remaining eight will arrive early in 2011.

American said it will not use MD-80s to backfill the capacity lost due to the lower delivery rate this year. This means it can cut its mainline capacity guidance for this year by another percentage point.

Space Exploration Technologies, the Hawthorne-based developer of low-cost rockets, will donate payload space aboard an upcoming flight to support the Heinlein Trust Microgravity Research Competition.

The competition's winner will place an experimental payload in the microgravity environment of the company's Dragon spacecraft for an extended period of time before returning to Earth.

The South Bay company, also known as SpaceX, plans to to start flying DragonLab missions in 2010.

This week's Business Casual column is about my experience with hypnosis.

I admitted my skepticism to Duncan Tooley before he tried to hypnotize me.

Read the whole column.

Toyota expects to have its first operating loss in 70 years. How many years have GM, Chrysler and Ford been losing money before they did anything this dramatic?

Toyota's Toyoda Said to Plan Replacement of Managers

(Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp., the world's largest automaker, will replace most of its top management later this year as incoming President Akio Toyoda aims to return the automaker to profit, people familiar with the matter said.

Toyoda, who will succeed Katsuaki Watanabe in June, will replace the company's other four executive vice presidents and "many" of the 19 senior managing directors, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the changes haven't yet been announced. Watanabe will become vice chairman.

Toyoda, the 52-year-old grandson of founder Kiichiro Toyoda, will have to stanch the carmaker's sales slump as it forecasts the first operating loss in 71 years. He may curb the expansion strategy that allowed the company to top General Motors Corp. in sales for the first time last year.

Read the whole story.

... then DirecTV has launched a channel for you.

El Segundo-based satellite TV provider DirecTV on Wednesday announced the launch of GMA Life TV, a channel dedicated to the life and style of Filipino women.

The channel delivers daytime and evening programming "tailored to fit the
needs of Filipinas in the United States."

GMA Life TV's daytime programming focuses on "culturally relevant health, beauty, nutrition and personal empowerment topics." Evening shows focus on Filipino dramas.

It's one more slap in the face of GM, which slid to No. 2 amid huge financial losses last year. But with the world economy in recession and car sales anemic, an added prestige Toyota derives from being No. 1 is muted.

A FIRST: Toyota surpasses GM in sales

NEW YORK - Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. sold more cars and trucks last year than General Motors Corp., stripping the Detroit automaker of the No. 1 global sales crown for the first time in 78 years.

GM said Wednesday it sold 8,355,947 cars and trucks around the world in 2008, falling about 616,000 vehicles short of the 8.972 million Toyota announced Tuesday.

GM, which posted an 11 percent drop in global sales for the year, blamed the decline on the steep drop in vehicle demand in its key North American and European markets.

North American sales dropped 21 percent for the year. GM Europe sales fell 6.5 percent, including a 21 percent plunge in the fourth quarter.

Toyota's sales fell 4 percent for the year, marking that automaker's first global sales decline in 10 years.

Read the whole story.

This goes beyond the typical story of a CEO fudging the financial numbers.

Chip Company Suing Ex-CEO

(Los Angeles Business) International Rectifier Corp. has dodged a hostile takeover and weathered an accounting scandal. Now the El Segundo maker of power management chips is going to court with its former chief executive - the son of the company's founder - accusing him of stealing trade secrets.

The tension reached a critical point in September, when International Rectifier filed a federal suit accusing Alexander Lidow of engaging in an ongoing criminal enterprise - also known as a racketeer influenced and corrupt organization, or Rico - by stealing information, intellectual property and technology related to the company's secret research on a superconducting material that could become the future of semiconductor power management technology. A key hearing in the case is scheduled for Feb. 2.

The suit alleges that Lidow devised a plan to steal IR's trade secrets, and then recruited six former IR researchers and sales executives to help him launch a competing company, which is currently using the stolen research to develop its own products from the special material, called gallium nitride.

Read the whole story.

In such a lousy vehicle market, this news is kind of underwhelming.

Toyota Poised to Wrest World's Biggest Automaker Title From GM

(Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. is poised to end General Motors Corp.'s 77-year reign as the world's largest automaker when the U.S. company reports 2008 global sales today.

Figures due about 9 a.m. New York time will complete a preliminary tally of 8.34 million vehicles, 628,000 behind Toyota. The final data will sweep in countries where GM sales totaled fewer than 15,000 units in 2007.

Toyota's conquest underscores GM's plight as it works to pay bills with a federal bailout. The Detroit-based automaker is trying to reduce labor costs, debt, dealers and brands to prove it should be allowed to keep a promised $13.4 billion in loans to help restructure.

"General Motors needs to be smaller -- and smaller by hook or crook," said Alan Baum, director of automotive forecasting for consulting firm Planning Edge in Birmingham, Michigan. "GM had been shrinking voluntarily prior to the economy overtaking their efforts and overwhelming everything."

If it happens in Japan, it may happen here in Torrance.

Report: Toyota to slash temporary workers to zero

TOKYO (AP) -- Toyota Motor Corp. is slashing its temporary workers in Japan to zero later this year to cut costs and production amid a global slump, the Yomiuri newspaper reported Tuesday.

Toyota said nothing has been decided.

The maker of the Lexus luxury car and Prius hybrid said last month that its temporary work force in Japan will be reduced from 6,000 to about 3,000 by March.

Japanese rivals Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. have already said their Japanese temporary workers will be gone over the next few months.

Terminating contracts for temporary workers is the easiest way in Japan to lay off workers because regular workers called "seishain," or "proper company employees," are protected at major companies with lifetime employment.

Like Obama, Toyota's new head has his work cut out for him.

Toyota Names Toyoda President After Annual Sales Drop

(Bloomberg) Toyota Motor Corp., Asia's biggest automaker, named Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the company's founder, as president after reporting the first drop in annual vehicle sales in 10 years.

Toyoda will succeed Katsuaki Watanabe, who will become vice chairman, in June, the automaker said in a statement today. The company's vehicle sales slipped 4 percent to 8.972 million last year, it said separately.

Toyoda, the first member of the founding family in charge since 1995, will inherit a company expecting its first operating loss in 71 years. Still, Toyota may have ended General Motors Corp.'s 77-year run as the world's largest automaker, as the Detroit-based company is on life-support with loans from the U.S. government.

AWR Corp., the El Segundo-based software designer, said Monday that it acquired Simulation Technology and Applied Research Inc., a Mequon, Wis., software company.

Known as STAAR, the firm is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of AWR, and will retain its operations and facilities in Wisconsin and under the continued guidance of STAAR founder John DeFord.

The purchase price was not diclosed.

AWR makes software for companies that produce and engineer electronic chips used in missile systems and consumer electronics.

This news would be more significant if gas prices were at $4 again. But it's still great for the environment.

Toyota plans global electric car launch

DETROIT (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp is planning to roll out its pure electric car based on the FT-EV concept in Japan, Europe and the United States by 2012, a top executive said on Monday.

Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, had announced ahead of the concept's debut this week at the Detroit auto show that it would launch an all-electric car for city commuting in the United States but had not mentioned the other regions.

"We think it would be appropriate for congested, short-distance driving in urban areas," Masatami Takimoto, executive vice president of research and development, told a small group of reporters on the sidelines of the Detroit show.

Global automakers are accelerating plans to electrify their cars through gasoline-electric hybrids, plug-in hybrids and pure electric vehicles to stay competitive as governments around the world tighten emissions and fuel economy standards.

Read the whole story.

Interesting read. I didn't realize how much switching to electric vehicles would cost government. Did you?

Electric cars will need lots of financial support - report

(CNNMoney.com) Electric cars have a big role to play in reducing the world's greenhouse gas emissions, but it's going to cost a lot, according to a new report. It could even push automakers into further trouble.

For electric and hybrid vehicles to achieve their environmental potential, the world's governments will need to step in with high levels of financial support for consumers and industry, according to a report by the Boston Consulting Group, a management consulting firm. And the cost savings in fuel won't be nearly enough to provide the incentive without that government cash.

Electric vehicles could realistically make up a significant fraction of the world's car market in the foreseeable future, but not nearly a majority, according to BCG. "The costs of creating an automotive market dominated by electric and hybrid cars are prohibitively high," said the report.

Under what BCG calls the "most likely" scenario - where oil costs about $150 a barrel and governments enforce existing CO2 regulations - about 11 million hybrid and 3 million electric vehicles will be sold globally in 2020. Even then, they will make up just 28% of those sold in the word's biggest markets.

But even that level of market penetration will require governments in Europe alone to spend about $70 billion in industry support, BCG said. In return, a relatively small amount - about $6 billion - would be saved by switching vehicles from oil-based fuel to electricity.

Read the whole story.

Torrance-based Toyota Motor Sales USA, the carmaker's U.S. sales and marketing headquarters, said Friday it is recalling about 214,500 Lexus vehicles sold in the United States.

On certain 2006 through 2008 model years for the GS300/350, IS250/350 and LS460/460L, Lexus has found that ethanol fuels with a low moisture content can corrode the internal surface of the fuel delivery lines.

Lexus dealers will replace the fuel delivery pipes with newly designed components. No other Lexus or Toyota vehicles are involved in this recall.

Affected Lexus owners will receive notice of the recall in the mail in late January.

For questions, call the Lexus Customer Assistance Center at 800-255-3987.

El Segundo-based Toy maker Mattel Inc. said Friday acquired the rights to the Whac-A-Mole game from Bob's Space Racers Inc.

It also bought Sekkoia SAS, which makes board game Blokus, for undisclosed financial terms.

Mattel didn't disclose the financial terms of the transactions.

"The addition of these fantastic brands reinforces Mattel's commitment to offering games that are both engaging and entertaining for people of all ages," Tim Kilpin, senior vice president of Mattel Brands' Boys, Girls & Games unit, said in a statement.

Torrance area resident Monica Kinnaird specializes in photographing Christian symbolism and special-needs children.

In this week's At Work profile.

This week's new Business Casual column.

With a new president to be sworn in on Tuesday, a heavy burden rests on a certain American's shoulders.

I refer to Hawthorne resident Valerie Hodge, who lost her job on Dec. 28 -- her 57th birthday.

Read the whole column.

The Valero refinery in Wilmington said it will donate $230,000 to Harbor area children's programs.

The groups receiving the funds include the Wilmington YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs of the Los Angeles Harbor, Gang Alternatives Program, Wilmington Friends of the Library, Friends of Banning Museum Park, Westside Long Beach Boys and Girls Club and the Long Beach Symphony Children's Music Education outreach programs to Wilmington.

The funds came from the 2008 Valero Benefit for Children Golf Classic in Texas.

... in 2015. Despite being years away, Toyota's move would be a huge leap forward for alternative-fuel vehicles. On a related note, fellow Japanese automaker Honda already leases hydrogen-run cars to consumers.

Toyota Plans 'Limited' Consumer Sales of Fuel-Cell Cars by 2015

(Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp., hedging its bets on autos powered by alternatives to gasoline, plans to sell hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles to consumers by 2015.

"Limited commercialization begins in 2015 and maybe sooner," spokesman John Hanson said in an interview today, citing comments by Executive Vice President Masatami Takimoto at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The exact timing, sales volume and price haven't been decided, Hanson said.

Hydrogen models would add to the company's technologies to reduce fuel use and pollutant emissions. Toyota, the largest seller of gasoline-electric hybrids, this year plans to lease plug-in Prius hatchbacks that go at least 10 miles solely on electricity and sell all-electric minicars in 2012.

Read the whole story.

I remember this being done a few years ago, and I believe it was Toyota that did it. It's purely symbolic. It won't make a dent in actual sales, just show the public that they have confidence in their own vehicles. It's also good for employee morale at Toyota.

Plus I wonder if managers in general are afraid to lose their jobs, so they make this gesture of loyalty in hopes that the company will reciprocate.

Toyota managers voluntarily buy cars to lift sales

TOKYO (AP) -- Toyota Motor Corp. managers are shopping for new Toyota cars in a voluntary effort to boost sales and show support for the company, an official said Wednesday, as Japan's top automaker battles a global slump.

The move underlines the hard times for Toyota, which stunned Japan by forecasting its first annual operating loss in 70 years for the fiscal year ending March 31.

The proposal was first aired late last month in an in-house letter that goes to about 2,200 middle-rank managers, who form a clublike group, said Toyota spokesman Yuta Kaga.

No one will be forced to buy a car, and they are free to pick any model they want, as long as it's a Toyota, although the request was made again in a Jan. 9 meeting for the managers, he said.

Read the whole story.

Rodolfo Garcia, an assistant manager at a clothing store for young children, said he had expected the holiday shopping season to see weaker sales than usual.
"But we didn't expect it to be so bad," he said.

December sales were about 8 to 10 percent behind the same month a year earlier, Garcia said.

"People were not shopping as much as they did in previous years, even with our promotions," said Garcia, who works at The Children's Place in the South Bay Galleria. "They were really bargain hunting, checking out prices at different stores."

Garcia's problems were the same at retailers nationwide, which suffered the worst holiday season in 40 years. Now retailers face more sales declines in the months ahead as the recession deepens, job losses mount and consumers retrench further.

Retail sales plunged 2.7 percent in December, a record sixth straight monthly fall, and the first annual drop on government records dating to 1992, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Last month's weakness -- more than double what economists had expected -- has extended into the new year with bankruptcy filings, store closings and more layoffs.

Throughout the South Bay, the recession has led to closures at retailers that sell such items as furniture and flowers, clothing and party supplies.

At Riviera Village, the Redondo Beach retail site filled with posh boutique stores two blocks from the beach, several stores were empty with lease signs in the windows after closing in the past few months.

At Wrapsody, a Riviera Village seller of greeting cards, invitations and gifts, owner Wendy Metcalfe saw December sales fall 7 to 8 percent compared to the previous year.

"It wasn't like Christmases of the past. It's definitely a different time," Metcalfe said. "At first, it seemed awful. It got a slow start with Thanksgiving coming so late."

Metcalfe said that a surge in shoppers in the last two weeks before Christmas helped keep her December sales from an even worst performance.

Rick Rotter, manager of Pacific Spas, described December sales as "bad, just very bad."
The seller of spas on Hawthorne Boulevard in Torrance saw a 60 percent drop in sales last month compared to a year earlier, Rotter said.

"This is a high-end luxury ticket," Rotter said. "It's not a necessity, and people are just afraid to let go of money."

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, the El Segundo-based grocery store chain, said it will create 200 jobs over the next two months as the company continues to expand in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada.

That is in addition to the nearly 3,000 jobs the chain created in last year.

Fresh & Easy said it plans to recruit staff from the local neighborhood around a new store "whenever possible." More than half of Fresh & Easy store employees live within four miles of the store where they work, the company said.

Boeing Co. received a $1.1 billion contract from the Department of Defense to support the operation and maintenance of the C-17 Globemaster III, the company said Tuesday.

The award is part of the fiscal year 2009 C-17 Globemaster III Sustainment Partnership, which includes a previous award of $514 million for the first six months of fiscal 2009, and extends the work to September of this year.

Although the C-17 is built in Long Beach, much of the support work is conducted at 10 U.S. Air Force bases and at one base each for the U.K. Royal Air Force, the Canadian Forces and the Royal Australian Air Force.

Pelican Products, the Torrance-based maker of hard plastic cases and durable flashlights, purchased competitor Hardigg Industries for $200 million, the South Bay firm said Tuesday.

The combined company will employ more than 1,500 employees. Pelican Products will operate in 12 countries, have 22 offices globally and maintain six manufacturing locations throughout Europe and North America.

Story is in today's Breeze. The owner told me that her pregnancy wasn't planned for this time, even though they've wanted to have a second child for a while. So she hired a larger number of employees (five) than if she weren't pregnant. She plans to make her work/life balance work, she says.

Business and Pleasure
By Muhammed El-Hasan

When entering the Elleni store in Manhattan Beach for the first time, you may wonder if you had just walked into a women's designer shoe store that also sells gourmet chocolates, or a candy shop with couture footwear on display.

Owner Skylar Tourigny says the store is a shoe store first - even though she sells truffles to appeal to chocolate lovers.

Read the whole story.

Space Exploration Technologies, the Hawthorne-based maker of low-cost rockets, said its Falcon 9 launch vehicle was raised to vertical position on Saturday in Cape Canaveral, Fla., in preparation for the maiden flight later this year.

"This operation was a critical step in validating a variety of system interfaces and launch processes in preparation for the maiden flight of Falcon 9 later this year," the company said in a release Monday.

The Falcon 9 is the largest rocket at the company also known as SpaceX.
In November, SpaceX completed its first successful launch of its smaller Falcon 1 rocket.

If gas prices remain relatively low for another year or two, the Prius will lose much of its glow except among environmentalists.

Toyota unveils 2010 Prius that boasts 50 mpg

(AP) Akihiko Otsuka, Toyota Prius chief engineer, left, and Bob Carter, Toyota division group vice president and general manager, pose next to the 2010 Toyota Prius at the North American International Auto Show Monday, Jan. 12, 2009 in Detroit. (AP Photo/Jerry S. Mendoza) DETROIT - Toyota is looking to keep the Prius in its spot as the top-selling hybrid in the U.S. with the next generation of the iconic fuel-sipper.

The highly anticipated 2010 Prius being unveiled Monday at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit gets an average of 50 miles to the gallon. That's a 4 mpg improvement over the current model, which already is the most fuel-efficient vehicle ranked by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Read the whole story.

This will make the turnaround a little easier.

Oil falls below $38 as investors eye US earnings

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Falling crude demand in the world's largest consuming nation drove oil prices below $38 a barrel Monday as the U.S. enters a corporate earnings season expected to be fraught with bad news.

Economic worries outweighed factors that would normally boost the market -- Mideast tensions, signs that OPEC was implementing large-scale production cuts, the ongoing Gazprom-Ukraine gas dispute and a winter likely to feature the coldest weather in a decade.

"It's amazing what the market's ignoring," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. "That really tells you the story of how bearish this is."

Read the whole story.

Lucky for us, they're not in the South Bay. But the El Segundo satellite facility already had laidoffs last year.

(The Seattle Times) SEATTLE -- Boeing said Friday it will cut its Commercial Airplane work force by about 4,500 people in 2009. The reduction will be made largely through layoffs, though the figure also includes attrition.

"Initial 60-day layoff notices will be issued on Feb. 20, and most layoffs will occur in the second quarter of the year," said Scott Carson, chief executive of Commercial Airplanes in
an internal message to employees Friday morning.

Today's Business Casual Column:

Home may again be just a home

As I started to write my first column of 2009, my thoughts wandered to one of the most curious events of the previous year.

I refer to when an outraged Iraqi journalist threw his size 10 loafers at President George W. Bush's head.

Read the whole column.

The column will return Friday after a two-week hiatus.

As I started to write my first column of 2009, my thoughts wandered to one of the most curious events of the previous year.

Many people have heard the story about how the Barbie was based on an adult novelty doll. But the perversion claims are new.

Barbie's Creator Was a "Sexual Pervert"

(momlogic.com) In "Toy Monster: The Big, Bad World of Mattel," many behind-the-scenes secrets about Barbie's creators are revealed. Apparently Jack Ryan, Barbie's designer, was a "full-blown seventies-style swinger" with "a manic need for sexual gratification." At one time, the Yale-educated Ryan was married to Zsa Zsa Gabor -- he surrounded himself with busty blondes.

His friend Stephen Gnass told the author: "When Jack talked about creating Barbie ... it was like listening to somebody talk about a sexual episode, almost like listening to a sexual pervert." Ew! Jack reportedly patronized "high-class call girls to streetwalkers," including a "very thin and child-like" hooker and "somehow rationalized that he was the only man in her life" until he was diagnosed with gonorrhea.

Read the whole story.

Macy's said Thursday it will close 11 underperforming stores including one in Los Angeles.

Thankfully, the South Bay's four Macy's stores -- three at Del Amo Fashion Center and one at the South Bay Galleria -- will remain open.

The Los Angeles Macy's to close is at the Ernst & Young Plaza (Citicorp Plaza) at 735 S. Figueroa St..

Read the wire story.

Northrop Grumman's two South Bay-based business sectors will combine as part of a larger corporate restructuring to cut costs and streamline the business, the company announced Wednesday.

El Segundo-based Integrated Systems, maker of aircraft such as the Global Hawk, will join with Redondo Beach-based Space Technology, which builds government satellites and develops military lasers.

The combined entity will be known as Aerospace Systems.

Two other Northrop business sectors also will combine. Information Technology and Mission Systems will form the new Information Systems sector. Mission Systems has a facility in Rancho Dominguez near Carson.

"These actions are critical steps in shaping our future," Ronald D. Sugar, Northrop's chairman and CEO, said in a statement Wednesday.

Integrated Systems employs about 13,300, including 4,400 employees in El Segundo and 1,400 in Palmdale. The El Segundo facility includes an assembly line that makes the center and aft fuselage of the F/A-18 Super Hornet.

Space Technology employs about 8,350, with 7,600 working at the Redondo Beach Space Park complex or nearby.

In Rancho Dominguez, the Mission Systems sector employs about 900 people who primarily work on battle command systems.

It is unclear how the reorginazation would impact jobs, a Northrop spokesman said.
"We do anticipate that this reorganization will result in a streamlined organizational structure, but it is premature to identify specific actions, or how this streamlined organizational structure will affect specific staffing levels," spokesman Dan McClain said.

Some stories simply don't need further comment. But seriously, I figure this is just a gimmick to get attention.

Porn kings Larry Flint and Joe Francis go begging for a bailout

(NY DAILY NEWS) Is the porn industry up next for a bailout? If porn titans Joe Francis and Larry Flynt have anything to do with it, it will.

Yes, ladies and gentleman, the titans of pornography are begging for a bailout.

Joe Francis, creator of the "Girl's Gone Wild" video series, and Larry Flynt, founder of Hustler, will ask Congress for a $5 billion bailout, according to TMZ.

Why does the porn industry need a bailout? Because apparently even porn is getting smacked by the recession.

Read the whole story.

And here's a video with "Girls Gone Wild" creator Joe Francis.

Northrop Grumman's two South Bay sectors, Integrated Systems and Space Technology, will be combined to cut costs, the company said Wednesday.

The move affects thousands of local Northrop employees, although it is unclear how many jobs could be lost.

Here's 10 tips for recession-proofing your career, from Cher Murphy PR, a public relations agency with offices in Miami and Virginia:

1. Remain noticeably active on the job. Regardless of what type of field you work in, it is important that you let people see that you are busy. If you look like you aren't doing much, it gives others the idea that you are not needed.

2. Document your contributions. Keep a file of everything that you do to help the company, no matter how small you may think it is. That information can be quite handy later, if you have to defend your position by explaining your contribution to the company.

3. Help make cuts. Many businesses need to make economic cuts right now. Offer a list of ideas that you think can help your company lower their bottom line. They will appreciate your input and the fact that you care enough to help with this issue.

4. Reduce your overhead. If you own a small business, consider taking it home if it can be done there, rather than from a rented space, which could save a great deal of money each month. Also, re-evaluate how you are getting your business name out to the public. Now is the time to utilize public relations, in order to increase brand-name recognition and sales.

5. Don't complain. The last thing your employer wants to hear is you whining about taking on additional tasks or having to be more flexible in order to help them stay afloat. Vent your complaints in the car as you head home, rather than to your employer.

6. Improve your skills. If there is a class, degree, convention, or some other skill-building tool you can undertake or experience, you should do it. It will make you that much more valuable at your current job, and it can help with future ones, as well.

7. Network. While you may have heard it a million times before, it's true that networking can help you in your career. You never know who is going to be instrumental in helping you when you need it most.

8. Switch careers. If you are not happy in the field in which you work, you may want to choose a new path - one that is considered recession-proof. According to Kiplinger, those fields include health care, education (e.g., math, science, bilingual education), security, environmental sciences, globalization, and government positions.

9. Polish resume. Be sure to keep your resume polished and updated, so that if you need it right away (or someone you network with would like to see it), you have it ready to hand over.

10. Stay optimistic. Attitudes are like colds - they are very contagious. Keeping an optimistic attitude will keep you in much better graces than if you bring others down.

When Boeing first bought the El Segundo satellite factory from Hughes, Boeing almost immediately claimed that it overpaid by $1 billion. The facility shed thousands of jobs amid a huge commercial satellite slump.

Today's news on the result of this lawsuit may be the final insult in Boeing's acquisition from Hughes.

Boeing ordered to pay ICO $631M in damages

RESTON, Va. (AP) -- Boeing Co. has been ordered to pay former customer ICO Global Communications Ltd. $631 million in damages after a California court approved a jury verdict against the Chicago-based aerospace company.

The Los Angeles Superior Court backed a jury's decision in October to award $371 million in compensatory damages, and $236 million punitive damages, plus prejudgement interest, ICO said Tuesday.

Boeing will also be required to pay ICO 10 percent interest on the full judgment starting Jan. 2, the company said.

Boeing did not immediately return a call for comment Wednesday morning.

The lawsuit filed by ICO stems from the company's decade-old plan to launch a fleet of satellites that would broadcast video and other services to mobile device users around the world. ICO filed a lawsuit in 2004 seeking $2 billion in damages against Boeing for breach of contract and fraud.

ICO had been under contract with El Segundo, Calif.-based Hughes Electronics Corp. in the mid-1990s to build and launch 12 satellites. Boeing later acquired Hughes in 2000 and inherited the ICO contract, but only finished two satellites.

Alcoa Inc., the Pittsburgh, Pa.-based aluminum maker and a major South Bay employer, said Tuesday that it plans to cut 13,500 jobs from its worldwide operations to deal with the global economic downturn.

The planned downsizing represents 13 percent of Alcoa's worldwide employment.
That is in addition to the elimination of 1,700 contractor positions and a global salary and hiring freeze, the world's third-largest aluminum maker said.

It was unclear how these measures would affect Torrance-based Alcoa Fastening Systems, which has five locations in and around Los Angeles County. About 1,100 people work at the Torrance location and another 300 at a site in Carson.

An Alcoa spokesman could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Ducommun Inc, the Carson-based aerospace subcontractor, said it was awarded follow-on contracts from Boeing co. for AH-64 Apache helicopter main and tail rotor blades. The rotor blades will be used as both original equipment and replacement blades.

Ducommun will perform the work at its Ducommun AeroStructures Inc. subsidiary in Monrovia.

These contracts extend deliveries into 2010, and are in addition to current production on the AH-64 rotor blades.

Ducommun did not give a value for the new contracts.

No obvious local work done. The El Segundo-based Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems makes the radar in Texas. Northrop Grumman does some of the electronic warfare systems, but it doesn't look like any of that is done in the South Bay.

Indian navy agrees to $2.1B deal for Boeing planes

(AP) The Indian navy has agreed to buy eight reconnaissance and anti-submarine planes from Boeing Co. in a $2.1 billion deal that signals the developing nation's drive to upgrade its military hardware.

The first of the aircraft, a variant of the P-8A Poseidon under development for the U.S. Navy, will be delivered within four years, and the remaining seven will be delivered by 2015, the defense unit of Chicago-based Boeing said Tuesday.

India will become Boeing's first international customer for the plane, known as the P-8I, which also is capable of performing search-and-rescue, surveillance and targeting missions, according to the company.

She's an interesting lady. However, she speaks in halting English because she still has a strong Japanese accent.

Torrance woman lives to teach

(Daily Breeze) Yoshiko Kayamori's business career grew out of tragedy and desperation.

The native of Tokyo, Japan, had been living in Torrance with her family when her husband's stomach cancer claimed his life.

That left her a widow with three young sons and feelings of hopelessness and depression.

That was in 1986.

Read the whole story.

Toyota and Honda's US car sales are down for 2008 and December. Let's hope 2009 brings better days.

Toyota Highlights:

- Torrance-based Toyota Motor Sales USA (TMS) today reported year-end sales of 2,217,662 vehicles, a decrease of 15.7% from the same period in 2007.

- Toyota Division recorded year-end sales of 1,957,575 vehicles, down 14.9% from the prior year.

- Lexus reported sales of 260,087 units in 2008, down 21.2% from 2007.

- Toyota reported December sales results of 141,949, a decrease of 36.7% from the same period last year.

"Our New Year's resolution is to shift the focus back to where it belongs, to the consumer," said TMS President Jim Lentz. "The sooner stimulus efforts find their way to where they'll do the most good - into the hands of consumers - the sooner we'll see a turnaround in confidence levels and a return of buyers to the marketplace."

Honda highlights:

- Torrance-based American Honda Motor Co. today reported 2008 annual vehicle sales of 1,428,765, a decrease of 8.2% compared to 2007 results.

- American Honda December sales totaled 86,085, an annual decrease of 34.7%.

- The Honda Division's 2008 annual sales were 1,284,261, a drop of 6.7%
compared to 2007.

- The Acura Division's total year-end sales of 144,504 vehicles represented a decline of 20%.

I'm surprised no one bought this store. It would seem like a comic book fan's dream business. Then again, I don't think comic book fans are known for having mountains of money.

Third Planet Comics & Games vanquished

Not even Superman could rescue Third Planet Comics & Games from this recession.

The popular Torrance comic book and gaming store at 3631 Pacific Coast Highway will shut its doors Monday after about 13 years in business.

"The deciding factor in this decision is that sales have fallen to a level where we can no longer meet our obligations," owner Robert North wrote to customers in an e-mail the day after Christmas.

Read the whole story.

It's understandable that Jobs wouldn't publicly discuss his health since he didn't know what was making him so gaunt. Imagine how investors would have reacted if Jobs had said: "I'm sick but I don't know why."

Steve Jobs has hormone imbalance, will remain CEO

NEW YORK (AP) -- Apple Inc. founder and Chief Executive Steve Jobs, a survivor of pancreatic cancer, said Monday that a hormone imbalance is to blame for the weight loss that has prompted worries about his health.

Jobs, 53, said in a public letter that his thinness had been a mystery even to him and his doctors until a few weeks ago, when "sophisticated blood tests" confirmed that he has "a hormone imbalance that has been `robbing' me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy."

Jobs said he will undergo a "relatively simple" treatment and will remain in charge of Apple.

Read the full story.

This opinion from Andrew Leonard in Salon.com will make some of you happy and others angry. Enjoy.

The economy crumbled

(Salon.com) Of all the economic earthquakes that racked the global economy in 2008, one temblor ranks supreme. Alan Greenspan's declaration to Congress on Oct. 23: "I made a mistake."

In those four words can be heard the crumbling of at least three decades of ideological dominance. Technically speaking, Greenspan was acknowledging that he had misjudged the private sector's ability to manage risk in a largely deregulated environment. After all the carnage on Wall Street in 2008, the conclusion, even to Greenspan, was inescapable: High finance's best and brightest had proved incapable of understanding their own business.

Read the whole story.

Not even Superman could rescue Third Planet Comics & Games from this recession.

The popular Torrance comic book and gaming store will close on Monday after about 13 years in business.

"The deciding factor in this decision is that sales have fallen to a level where we can no longer meet our obligations," owner Robert North wrote to customers in an e-mail the day after Christmas.

In the message, North also wrote that his employees "fought valiantly over this past year" to keep the store in business.

In June of last year, North put the store, at 3631 Pacific Coast Highway, up for sale with an asking price of $130,000, but could not sell the store.

Read the rest of this story in Saturday's Daily Breeze.

The markets may be too optimistic. It looks like it'll be a pretty bad economic year.

Wall Street enjoys upbeat start to 2009

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street started the new year optimistically Friday as investors brushed off a weaker-than-expected report on manufacturing and sent stocks sharply higher. The Dow Jones industrials jumped about 170 points.

The market wasn't spooked by the Institute for Supply Management's report that its manufacturing activity index fell to the lowest level in 28 years in December. The Street's cool reaction extends a pattern that began to emerge after the market touched multiyear lows on Nov. 20.

Economic data have been terrible for months and investors have shown little surprise even as some readings fell well short of economists' already low expectations. During past recessions, the market has recovered ahead of the economy by growing numb to a stream of poor data and looking for signs that the downturn isn't worsening.

Read the whole article.