Here's how I started the column:

Food stamps have been in the news lately after Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich called Barack Obama the "food stamp president."

Gingrich was taking a swipe at the president by saying Obama's policies were causing people to depend on food stamps. The insult carried an added dig because of the negative connotation of food stamps as a vehicle for mooching off the public dime.

With that thought in mind, I spent part of Thursday morning with John and Rose Bossi, a San Pedro couple who recently became food stamp recipients.

Read more of Business Casual.

(Reuters) - Prices of Mattel Inc toys like Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars have gone up as the company tries to compensate for increasing costs for materials like resin and rising wages in China.

The world's largest toy company, which sees input, labor and transportation costs rising in 2012, said on Tuesday that it had raised prices at a mid-single-digit rate on January 1 with the goal of keeping gross margins at around 50 percent.

Read more on Mattel.

Read about my adventures in owning a restaurant in this week's Business Casual.

Here's an excerpt of the column:

Dressed in a miniskirt, the sales lady was as friendly as could be. She left her cellphone number and told me to call any time for any reason.

She would help us with a problem even if she happened to leave the company for another job. Now that's what I call dedication.

Here's an excerpt from my column on the new business. Obviously, I had to hold back a bit since we're a family newspaper.

Mistress Cyan explained that even dungeons are suffering in these tough economic times, especially if it's a new establishment like hers.

"We are not the type of business that is a necessity. We are more of a luxury," she said. "Instead of spending an hour's time, they'll come in and spend half an hour."

Read all of Business Casual.

Here's SpaceX's announcement.

A Mattel rep tells TheWrap the company does not comment on product rumors, but a series of tweets between Kim Kardashian and the official Twitter account of Barbie suggests Kardashian dolls will be a real thing this year.

"Merry Christmas Barbs @BarbieStyle! Long time no see! What did Ken get you for Christmas? Miss you doll!" Kardashian tweeted on Dec. 25.

Read more on Mattel and Kim Kardashian.

Nov 10 (Reuters) - Boeing Co's defense unit is bracing for the "worst case scenario" -- a trillion-dollar U.S. defense budget reduction over 10 years, the chief executive of the company's Defense Space and Security business said on Thursday.

Speaking on a webcast of a Bank of America Merrill Lynch forum, Dennis Muilenburg said the company must be realistic about the budget outlook.

Read more on Boeing and military spending.

(FloridaToday.com) CAPE CANAVERAL -- SpaceX's next demonstration flight for NASA is likely to slip to next year, the company says.

The launch of a Falcon 9 rocket and unmanned Dragon capsule from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station had been targeted for Nov. 30.

Read more on SpaceX.

(Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge dismissed on Thursday the first scheduled bellwether case in nationwide litigation alleging Toyota Motor Corp made defective vehicles that accelerated unexpectedly.

In the ruling, Judge James Selna said his court lacked jurisdiction over the case, and that the proper forum for it is Utah state court. Selna's court, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Santa Ana, is overseeing hundreds of lawsuits against Toyota for alleged safety defects.

Read more on Toyota.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp is considering shifting production of South Korea-bound Camry autos to the United States from Japan to help lower export costs of the sedan, the Nikkei business daily reported on Monday.

Read more about Toyota's Camry production.