Ruth Reichl, editor of the now-defunct Gourmet magazine, plans to write a book about what had been the rarified world of Condé Nast.

With consumers not anxious to spend, retailers have been careful about ordering for the holiday season.

The county posted an unemployment rate of 12.7 percent in September, up from 12.2 percent the previous month

NBC profits are up, trouble for Ticketmaster deal, Mattel earnings decline, and Pink's opens in OC.

The federal stimulus program is taking a long time to make any appreciable impact on the economy, in California or anywhere else.

Safeway CEO (parents of Vons) says shoppers are switching from coffee to lattes, and from rotgut wines to the pricier stuff.

With a divorce, there might finally be a chance to get inside the castle, although that will depend on how much the court will be willing to keep unsealed.

Stocks slip under 10,000, CA foreclosures still high, Mattel settles lead claims, and guess who covers the losses at Calpers?

Feature film production was up for the third quarter, television was down, and overall on-location shooting was off 14.3 percent.

Yaay!!! It's the first time in more than a year - Oct. 7, 2008, to be precise (seems a lot longer).

The California pension fund is reviewing fees it paid to an advisory firm run by Al Villalobos, who had served on the Calpers board from 1993 to 1995.

The Times will be trimming the web width of its paper in the coming months. Conversion isn't expected to impact content.

Good earnings news from JPM and Intel, Wall Street bonuses take off, foreclosures will keep climbing through late 2010, and Santa Anita back on the block.

A pretty nutty scene this morning when I pull into the parking lot of the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Santa Monica.

The amazingly skimpy offer - $2 million to $5 million plus liabilities - says plenty about the state of business magazines.

Foreclosures still make up a bulk of Socal sales, though the $500,000-plus range is showing a little more life.

Economist Mark Schniepp predicts that by 2012, Socal home prices will be up 30 percent from their lowest rates recorded earlier this year.

New concerns about the recovery, Disney revamps its stores, bad times in Hawaii, and DVRs improve ratings.

Do you think Letterman "took advantage" of the women on his staff? Is it all right to date an intern? Inquiring minds need to know!

What at the time had been marketed as a "wonder drug" appears to have been deadly for people who mistakenly took gobs of aspirin

Local angle on Nobel winner, new studios expected in Long Beach, KB under investigation, and Fox is looking at Lou Dobbs.

Even in the prissy world of insurance contracts, there are ways of doing the right thing, even when it's not always spelled out in the fine print.

The always perceptive Barbara Ehrenreich takes aim at the positive-thinking culture that surrounds breast cancer patients.

Our own unscientific survey shows a mixed picture - attendance at Hearst Castle is down, but both the visitors' center and the tours were actually pretty full.