Last look at Van Nuys location
WNET and the influence of David Koch
Stocks stay flat: Perhaps the markets are due for a pause. Dow is back up over 12,800, but it's down a few points this morning.
Waiting for the Fed: Two-day meeting concludes with the central bank expected to provide more support for the economy. Just what that support might be is unclear. Announcement and press conference are due later this morning. (AP)
UCLA expects sluggish growth: Don't look for much turnaround in the state's housing market until next year, according to the latest Anderson Forecast. In addition, California's jobless rate, now at 10.8 percent, won't drop into single digits until the the second quarter of next year. (Sacramento Bee)
Peter Thiel opens new venture fund: The billionaire investor has more than $400 million lined up and is looking for start-ups that have already raised some capital and are looking to ramp up. From DealBook:
By standing in the middle of the venture capital spectrum -- between the early stage and pre-I.P.O. stage -- Mr. Thiel and [Ajay] Royan are also making an interesting bet on the market. The early side has been flush with cash, thanks to a glut of new angel investors. The late stage, meanwhile, has benefited from the largesse of investors like Russian billionaire Yuri Milner and venture capital firms hoping to catch companies before they go public. But the middle of this barbell is thin on investors, creating an opportunity for firms like Mithril.
Credit card complaints: Capital One received the most, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, followed by Citigroup, Bank of America, and Chase. American Express had the fewest. (Reuters)
Big housing development planned: Toll Bros. and Shea Homes plan to build more than 2,000 homes and apartments in South OC County's Lake Forest. From the LAT:
"It is the most promising news announced since the bust, and since we have had this very slow turnaround," said Patrick Duffy, principal of MetroIntelligence Real Estate Advisors. "This is the first big announcement of this kind where they are going after the upper-end buyer, so I think there is the assumption that people are going to be able to sell their existing homes and pull out their equity to move up." The 386-acre development site will include 40 acres of open space rising on what Toll Bros. described in its news release as "the last significant portion of the roughly 5,000 acres of land acquired by the Baker and West families in the late 1950s, which has evolved into most of what is today's city of Lake Forest."
Expo Line hits Culver City: The light rail system finally reaches the Westside with the opening of a station near Washington and National boulevards at noon today. The second phase of the line is scheduled to reach downtown Santa Monica by 2016. (LAT)
Burger King goes public - again: The world's No. 2 hamburger chain last traded on the public market between 2006 and 2010. The company was then taken private by an investment group. (AP)