Blog: The Breakdown | 89.3 KPCC

4 subscribers sue Time Warner Cable over Lakers, Dodgers channels

Brian Watt — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:38:46 -0700

Next season, Dodgers games will be shown on a Time Warner Cable channel. Four Time Warner Cable subscribers are suing the cable company over what they claim are higher rates for games the subscribers don't intend to watch.; Credit: Harry How/Getty Images

Four Time Warner Cable (TWC) subscribers have filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against the company. The lawsuit contends the cable company is forcing them to pay higher rates for Los Angeles Lakers broadcasts that they have no interest in watching and will eventually do the same with L.A. Dodgers broadcasts.

"There is no legitimate business, legal, technological or economic reason why TWC cannot offer these Lakers and Dodgers games on a stand-alone channel basis so that only those subscribers who want and are willing to pay for them would do so and those who did not want these channels could 'opt out,'"according to the lawsuit.

Time Warner Cable subscribers Sherry Fischer, Stewart Graham, Todd Crow and Gavin McKiernan filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The lawsuit claims that "according to FCC and other studies 60 percent of the population are not sports enthusiasts and left on their own would not subscribe to pay for the Lakers telecast."

Time Warner Cable declined to comment on the lawsuit.

In 2011, TWC paid $3 billion dollars for the right to televise Lakers games for 20 years then launched TWC SportsNet and TWC Deportes for those broadcasts. The lawsuit contends the added cost passed on to subscribers is $4 dollars per month.

Earlier this year, Time Warner Cable paid a reported $8 billion dollars to broadcast Dodgers games. The lawsuit claims that if the court doesn't intervene, the cable company will pass along another $4 to $5 per month once it launches its channel for Dodgers games in 2014.

"It's crazy," said Maxwell Blecher, the attorney representing the plaintiffs. "You go into a supermarket, and you put whatever you want in the cart and you check out, and that's the way you should buy cable."

The Lakers and Dodgers are also named as defendants in the lawsuit. Both teams declined comment.

Time Warner Cable Complaint

Top 10 most visited theme parks in 2012: Disneyland ranks No. 2

Wendy Lee — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:50:11 -0700

Disneyland in Anaheim was the second most visited theme park in North America in 2012, according to a report by the Themed Entertainment Association and AECOM. One of the most popular rides at Disneyland is "It's A Small World."; Credit: Loren Javier/Flickr Creative Commons

The Walt Disney Co. dominated a list of 2012's most visited North American theme parks, representing six of the top 10 spots, including the Disneyland in Anaheim, which took second place.

In North America, more people visited the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World in Florida, according to the 2012 Theme Index: Global Attractions Attendance Report. Attendance rose 2 percent to 17.5 million people last year, the report said.

Ranking number two was Disneyland in Anaheim. Attendance remained flat at nearly 16 million visitors last year, according to the report.

Several Southern California theme parks also landed in the top 20, including Disney's California Adventure, Universal Studios Hollywood, SeaWorld California, Knott's Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain.

A notable decline in attendance in the top 20 list was at Knott's Berry Farm, the report said. The report explained that Knott's attendance declined 4 percent to 3.5 million visitors last year due to the closure of the water ride, Perilous Plunge, and the redevelopment of that area.

The report was by Burbank-based non-profit Themed Entertainment Association and Los Angeles-based AECOM, a technical and management support services firm.

Top 20 most visited theme parks in North America in 2012

1. Magic Kingdom (Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida)

2. Disneyland (Anaheim)

3. Epcot (Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida)

4. Disney's Animal Kingdom (Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida)

5. Disney's Hollywood Studios (Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida)

6. Universal's Islands of Adventure (Universal Orlando, Florida)

7. Disney's California Adventure (Anaheim)

8. Universal Studios Florida (Universal Orlando, Florida)

9. Universal Studios Hollywood (Universal City)

10. SeaWorld Florida (Orlando, Florida)

11. SeaWorld California (San Diego)

12. Busch Gardens Tampa Bay (Tampa, Florida)

13. Canada's Wonderland (Maple, Ontario, Canada)

14. Knott's Berry Farm (Buena Park)

15. Cedar Point (Sandusky, Ohio)

16. Kings Island (Kings Island, Ohio)

17. Hersheypark (Hershey, Pennsylvania)

18. Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Virginia (Williamsburg, Virginia)

19. Six Flags Magic Mountain (Valencia)

20. SeaWorld San Antonio (San Antonio, Texas)

Source: Themed Entertainment Association and AECOM

How Wal-Mart's sourcing, pricing challenges neighborhoods (poll, photos)

Wendy Lee — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 06:00:33 -0700

A woman shops for produce at a Walmart Neighborhood Market in Santa Maria, Calif. Part of Wal-Mart’s advantage is size—the retailer has about 150 stores that sell groceries in California.; Credit: Grant Slater/KPCC

This story is part of a series on the disruptions to local small businesses expected in the community of Altadena when a new Walmart Neighborhood Market opens next year. To read the rest of the series, check out the links at the end of this story.

Wal-Mart is expanding its grocery business in Southern California, opening smaller stores inside buildings that have been vacant for years. As a result, communities previously untouched by Wal-Mart are trying to compete in a pricing war with the nation’s largest retailer.

Part of Wal-Mart’s advantage is size—the retailer has more than 4,000 stores in the U.S., including 154 locations in California that sell groceries. That equates to a lot of buying power with suppliers, who are willing to cut Wal-Mart a discount in exchange for the larger volume of sales, said USC professor Jenny Schuetz.

Farmers are among the suppliers contracting with Wal-Mart. During peak season, Santa Maria farmer Juan Cisneros delivers 1.5 million to 2.7 million strawberries a day to the retailer, his biggest customer. Half of his roughly 600 acres for strawberries are dedicated to growing three varieties for the company.

“We can get more money because we get a long-term commitment and [that] helps me grow my business so I can make money,” Cisneros said.

Cisneros said he's been selling produce to Wal-Mart directly for two years, allowing him to hire 100 additional workers to deliver more strawberries for the retail giant.

The situation is different in Altadena, where Leticia Vega struggles to keep her small convenience store in business. When her store, Nuevo Poncitlan Meat Market, opened in 1992, it was the only grocery store in the area. But several years ago, a Super King opened across the street and a new Walmart Neighborhood Market opened in March.

“As much as I would want to lower my price, it’s pretty much impossible,” Vega said.

Her market used to sell vegetables like zucchinis, carrots and potatoes, but last spring, Vega took out the produce shelf because she couldn't compete.

"Because they purchase bulk, they may be getting it at 25 cents a pound and I may be getting it at $1.40," Vega said. " I wish I had the power to actually compete, but I don't."

In the past, more farmers sold their fruit to middlemen, who took a cut of the profits. (Story continues below poll window.)

What do you think? Will you or do you shop at Walmart?

But Wal-Mart is so large it can buy half of a farm's entire crop. The farmers cut out the middleman and share the savings with Wal-Mart, which pays less.

USC professor Jenny Schuetz said when it comes to pricing, Wal-Mart is super-sized.

"So they have these big warehouses in central locations and then they can send shipments out from there and the network of distribution centers allows them to serve the entire market area pretty efficiently," Schuetz said.

Wal-Mart said in February that it has more than 40 centers to distribute groceries nationwide.

Strawberries picked one day, in Walmart stores the next day

Workers start at 6 a.m. gathering strawberries in the field at Juan Cisneros' farm, Better Produce. Once loaded, a truck takes the fruit to the farm's cooling facility, where the berries are dropped to a lower temperature. Later, the strawberries are taken to Wal-Mart's distribution center in Riverside. The berries are delivered to Walmart stores in California the next day.

And once the strawberries are inside stores, managers can drop the prices below cost - if they spot competitors selling the berries for less.

Shelly Wallace, who works at the Santa Maria Walmart Neighborhood Market, said every Wednesday she checks the ads of other stores and sends an employee to check shelf prices at those stores.

“We can reset (the price) immediately as soon as we see something that somebody may be competitive with us,” Wallace said. “We can go out within five or ten minutes of looking at the ad and immediately drop the price.”

Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart uses its own team of produce buyers located strategically across the country, like Yolanda Ramirez.

"We can actually go look at the product. We can taste the product. We have that direct relationship rather than have someone fly to Bentonville, to have the conversation with the buyer," Ramirez said. "I'm literally strategically placed three to four hours away from any growing region in California."

Ramirez tracks all the berries Wal-Mart buys from farmers.

She's based in the Valencia office, one of eight global and local buying offices in the U.S.

Ramirez was once a farmer herself. She said dealing directly with chain stores is the only way to make money in the business.

But she said it's hard for small farmers to get their foot in the door.

"So you rely on selling to brokers, wholesalers and you know that when you do that, the product ends up selling to the chains anyway," Ramirez said. "You're just not seeing the end result or the end return."

Ramirez said Wal-Mart pays competitive prices for strawberries, but declined to say exactly what that price may be.

She said Wal-Mart lets the farmers know in advance how much they need. If the berries don't meet the company's quality standards, the farmers' berries will get rejected.

“We will give out, ‘Here’s what we’re going to take in terms of volume for the next eight weeks,’ where a typical chain store might look at you and say, ‘Here’s what I want for the next two weeks,’” Ramirez said.

That system works for farmer Santa Maria farmer Juan Cisneros.

"I know what I'm going to sell and for how much I'm going to sell," Cisneros said. "That's the difference--the long-term comittment."

But sometimes a deal with Wal-Mart can come at a cost, said Charles Fishman, author of "The Wal-Mart Effect." If Cisneros were to lose Wal-Mart's business, he would have to reduce the acres he farms.

"It's always a cheery relationship in the beginning, but Wal-Mart's mission is very closely focused," Fishman said. "Whatever product they are delivering, they want it to be reasonable quality and they want it to be cheap."

Altadena market owner Leticia Vega is making adjustments to compete with the new Walmart Neighborhood Market and its lower prices.

“They’re too big. You can’t compete,” Vega said. “They will wipe you out. People will want to get their money’s worth. Why buy a pound of tomatoes at $1.29 or $1.39, when you can get four pounds for $1?”

Bruce Peterson, a produce consultant and former senior vice president of perishables at Wal-Mart, said Vega can't match Wal-Mart's prices.

"You can't take Wal-Mart head-on with exactly the same thing they do," said Peterson. "If you're going to sell the same zucchini that Wal-Mart sells, it's highly likely they are going to sell it cheaper than you, so sell a different zucchini."

Vega gave up on selling produce at her small Altadena market last spring. She now plans to focus on expanding the sales of her homemade tacos and burritos. But, she'll be competing with another big retail chain nearby - Taco Bell.

E3: SoCal companies to get a boost from new PS4, Xbox One games (photos)

Wendy Lee — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 05:49:54 -0700

Diablo III will be coming to PlayStation 4.; Credit: Mae Ryan/KPCC

When new video game consoles PlayStation 4 and Xbox One get delivered to customers later this year, Southern California video gaming companies will likely see a boost in sales, analysts said.

“When you get more consoles out there, they’ll be more software purchased, which means developers will sell more stuff, they’ll work on more projects, and they’ll get paid more," said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles. "It should be a growth industry, and it looks like it’s positioned to become one soon."

Research firm NPD Group said that last year the nation's video game industry made nearly $7 billion in sales. The top selling game last year was shooting game "Call of Duty: Black Ops II," NPD said.

Woodland Hills-based Infinity Ward is the developer behind the next game in the genre, called "Call of Duty: Ghosts." The game will be released in November for many different consoles, including the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Tina Palacios, a senior community manager at Infinity, says gamers will get an enhanced visual experience on the new consoles. For example, HDR lighting.

“That simulates what your iris does in real life, so if you go into a dark room, your eye adjusts and when you step outside in a bright light it will adjust as well and we’ll do that in the game," she said.

Several Southern California companies marketed their new games at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Downtown LA this week, including Warner Brothers, Disney and Activision.

The three-day event ended Thursday and drew more than 48,000 people.

E3: Sony's PlayStation 4 undercuts price of Microsoft's Xbox One

Wendy Lee — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 17:06:08 -0700

Sony announced at E3 it will sell the Playstation 4 for $399, $100 less than the Xbox One.; Credit: KPCC/Wendy Lee

There’s a battle brewing between Sony and Microsoft at Downtown L.A.’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, known as E-3. Both companies are touting new video gaming machines.—Sony has its PlayStation 4 and Microsoft, its Xbox One. The competition is fierce and Sony has raised the stakes by trying to undercut Microsoft on price.

It's been several years since both companies released new versions of their video game consoles. Sony responded to the situation by announcing on Monday night that it will charge $399 for the Playstation 4, $100 cheaper than Microsoft’s $499 Xbox One.

Jeff Yanick of Riverside is a huge video gamer. The cell phone salesman can only afford to buy one video game console this year, and Sony’s price has him leaning toward the PlayStation 4.

“Right now, the PS4 makes a good case for it, because it’s $100 cheaper and it has a lot of titles that you want,” he said.

Michael Zyda, founding director of USC's GamePipe Laboratory and a professor at USC's computer science department, said the lower price gives Sony an advantage.

“Microsoft is going to have to look at their numbers and look at the competition and say we got to match the competition,” Zyda said.

Microsoft declined to say whether or not it will reduce its prices. The company said in a statement there's a lot of excitement for the Xbox One, pointing to sales on Amazon.com, which nearly sold out of pre-order consoles in less than four hours.

Sony on Monday also highlighted features on the PlayStation 4 that the Xbox doesn’t have. For example, PlayStation 4 doesn’t require gamers to log in online.

Dole Food's CEO makes $1billion buyout bid

AP — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 07:54:03 -0700

Dole Food Company Inc. has evolved from a Hawaiian pineapple purveyor into the world’s largest producer of fresh fruit and vegetables. Dole CEO David Murdock and his family are offering to buy the business. (Photo: Dole Field supervisor Kofi Debrah holds a freshly picked pineapple at the Dole Food Company Inc. plantation in Wahiawa, Hawaii on Jan. 17, 2013. Tim Rue/Bloomberg via Getty Images); Credit: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Dole Food's Chairman and CEO David Murdock and his family are offering to buy the business with a bid that values the entire company at approximately $1.07 billion.

Dole, is a fresh fruit and vegetable company, based in Westlake Village, Calif.

Murdock and other family members are making an unsolicited offer of $12 per share for the shares of the company that they don't already own, an 18 percent premium to Dole's closing price Monday.

Murdock has about a 39.5 percent stake in Dole Food Co., which has about 89.5 million outstanding shares, according to FactSet.

The company said that its board will be meeting over the next several days to create a special committee of independent directors to assess the bid. It said that it is only in the beginning stages of evaluating the offer and that the board has made no decisions about the proposal.

Dole had 2012 revenue from continuing operations of $4.2 billion. In March the company reported a fourth-quarter adjusted loss from continuing operations and revenue that was below Wall Street's expectations. The company earlier this year said it's first quarter 2013 results were in line with expectations.

Last month Dole said it would indefinitely suspend its $200 million share repurchase program and use its cash instead to update its shipping fleet to enhance its growth prospects. The company said that another factor in the suspension of the repurchase plan was the drag on earnings due to recent losses in its strawberry business.

Dole has gone through a lot of major changes recently. It sold its packaged foods and Asia fresh business for $1.69 billion in a deal that closed in April. That allowed Dole to become solely an international commodity produce company, which provides a more narrow focus going forward but makes its earnings more volatile due to the nature of the fruit and vegetable business.

Amazon launches online grocery service in LA

Wendy Lee — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 17:07:55 -0700

AmazonFresh launched in parts of Los Angeles on Monday.; Credit: Flickr/leff

Amazon launched its online grocery service on Monday in parts of Los Angeles, which local businesses say will elevate their profile among local shoppers.

The service, called AmazonFresh, used to be only available in Seattle. Now, shoppers in LA can log onto Amazon, order groceries along with books and electronics, and get it delivered to their homes by dinner or breakfast the next day.

About 30 local businesses have signed up as vendors, including Intelligentsia Coffee, Santa Monica Seafood and Cake Monkey Bakery.

Lisa Olin, owner of Cake Monkey Bakery, said Amazon’s online grocery business will help her North Hollywood business reach more customers. If someone is on Amazon’s website looking for chocolate cake and they are based in LA, they will get a recommendation to buy her cake.

“The advantage here is that Amazon’s marketing is so far reaching,” she said.

Olin said Amazon takes a percentage of the sale but declined to say how much. She said it’s comparable to when she sells her products wholesale to other stores.

Amazon customers will pay to use the grocery service. Customers need to sign up for Amazon Prime membership, which gives customers perks like free shipping for books. That membership can cost $79 a year.

Once customers are part of Amazon Prime, they will receive a free three-month trial of the online grocery service, called AmazonFresh. After the trial ends, it will cost customers $299 a year to continue using AmazonFresh. That membership includes free delivery on orders $35 or more.

Amazon said the online grocery service is available at several LA zip codes, but did not respond to KPCC’s request for a list of those areas.

San Onofre nuclear plant closure will mean hundreds of layoffs

Wendy Lee — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 06:00:27 -0700

Edison announced on June 7th that it is permanently shutting down the San Onofre nuclear power plant.; Credit:

Southern California Edison says its closure of the troubled San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station will force the company to lay off 900 workers in the next few months.

Many San Onofre workers live in Orange and San Diego counties. UC Irvine economics professor Jan Brueckner says those who lose their jobs will cut back on spending.

“Anything a worker patronizes—a restaurant, Wal-Mart, or grocery stores. All retail establishments would be impacted," Brueckner said.

Edison plans to store the spent nuclear fuel at San Onofre, and says it could take decades to decommission the plant.

If the plant completely shuts down, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union—which represents some of the plant's workers—said the job losses could impact 5,500 workers. That number includes roughly 3,000 contract workers, as well as 2,500 union and non-union Edison employees, said Patrick Lavin, business manage/r and financial secretary with IBEW local 47 .

As those workers become unemployed, it will have a negative impact on the economy. But Daren Blomquist, vice president of Irvine-based real estate data firm RealtyTrac, said the plant's closure could boost home prices.

“It will open up the pool of buyers to people who may have been skeptical about living close to a nuclear plant and now they won’t be," Blomquist said.

US employers add 175K jobs, jobless rate up to 7.6 pct

AP — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 05:55:36 -0700

May employment numbers show (Photo: Job seekers arrive at a San Francisco career rair.) ; Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs in May, a gain that shows employers are hiring at a still-modest but steady pace.

The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent from 7.5 percent in April. The increase occurred because more people began looking for work, a healthy sign. About three-quarters found jobs. The rest added to the ranks of the unemployed.

The government revised the job figures for the previous two months. April's gains were lowered to 149,000 from 165,000. March's figure was increased slightly to 142,000 from 138,000. The net loss was 12,000 jobs.

Investors reacted positively in the first minutes after the report was released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. Stock index futures rose.

Employers have added an average of 155,000 jobs in past three months, below the average of 237,000 created from November through February.

The less-than-robust job growth might lead the Federal Reserve to maintain the pace of its monthly bond purchases. The Fed has said it will keep buying bonds at the same rate until the job market improves substantially. The purchases have helped drive down interest rates and boost stock prices.

Stock markets have gyrated in the past two weeks on speculation that the Fed will slow its bond purchases later this year, a step that could increase interest rates and cause stock prices to fall.

The economy "is creating jobs at a reasonable rate," Chris Williamson, chief economist with the financial research firm Markit, said in a note to clients. But he said the Fed will want to see lower unemployment before it considers scaling back its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying program.

"Today's report is perhaps the perfect number for nervous investors," said James Marple, Senior Economist at TD Economics. "It is strong enough to point to continued economic recovery but not so strong as to bring forward expectations of Fed tapering."

Job growth has been steady this year, despite higher taxes and federal spending cuts. Still, some signs in the report suggested that the spending cuts and weaker global growth are weighing on the job market.

Manufacturers cut 8,000 jobs, and the federal government shed 14,000. Both were the third straight month of cuts for those industries.

Average hourly wages ticked up just a penny in May, to $23.89. That was because much of the job growth was in lower-paying industries.

But mild inflation is boosting American's purchasing power. Over the past 12 months, hourly wages have risen 2 percent. Inflation has increased just 1.1 percent in that time.

The economy grew at a solid annual rate of 2.4 percent in the first three months of the year. Consumer spending rose at the fastest pace in more than two years. But economists worry that the steep government spending cuts and higher Social Security taxes might be slowing growth in the April-June quarter to an annual rate of 2 percent or less.

Consumers appeared earlier this year to shrug off the tax increase. But in April, their income failed to grow, and they cut back on spending for the first time in nearly a year. A Social Security tax increase is costing a typical household that earns $50,000 about $1,000 this year. For a household with two high-earners, it's costing up to $4,500.

Cuts in defense spending might have slowed factory output in some areas, according to a Fed report released this week. Factory activity shrank in May for the first time since November, and manufacturers barely added jobs, according to a survey by the Institute for Supply Management.

A separate ISM survey found that service companies grew at a faster pace last month but added few jobs. Service firms have been the main source of job growth in recent months.

Some positive signs of the economy's resilience have emerged. Service companies reported an increase in new orders, the ISM found. That suggests that businesses could expand further in coming months.

And steady gains in home sales and construction are providing support for the economy even as manufacturing weakens.

Report: No 'Great Recovery' for US economy but CA doing well

Brian Watt with Ed Joyce — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 06:57:05 -0700

The UCLA Anderson Forecast Wednesday reports that California has outperformed the nation in job growth during a 12-month period that ended in April. One reason cited is the recovery of the housing market. (Photo: A "for sale" sign stands outside a home in Pasadena, Calif.). ; Credit: David McNew/Getty Images

California continues to lead a nationwide economy that is growing slowly, but that growth is too slow to be considered a real recovery. That’s the latest assessment Wednesday in the UCLA Anderson Forecast.

Recessions like the one the U.S. economy is currently trying to recover from are usually followed by a period of high growth. But Ed Leamer, Director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast, asks "Where is the Great Recovery?”

Leamer writes that in normal times, gross domestic product (GDP)– or the country’s total economic output – grows at about 3 percent. During the first three months of 2013, GDP grew at a rate of 2.4 percent.

"It’s not a recovery. It’s not even normal growth,” Leamer writes. "It’s bad.”

The forecast predicts GDP will edge up to a 3 percent growth rate in 2015. That same year, the report predicts, nationwide unemployment rate will drop to 6.6 percent, but that will be due in part to growing numbers of discouraged workers.

The UCLA Anderson Forecast shows the U.S. housing market is in the early stages of a real recovery. One Anderson economist writes that home prices are rising and housing starts are in the process of nearly tripling, from a historically low 550,000 in 2009 to 1.5 million by 2015. But Anderson Senior Economist David Shulman said the 50-year average for housing starts is 1.47 million.

"So we’re just going a touch above that very long-term average,” Shulman told KPCC. "This is not a very heroic forecast.”

The housing market’s recovery is part of what’s making California "a bright spot” in the U.S. employment picture, according to Anderson economist Jerry Nickelsburg.

"As job gains accumulate, household formation rates increase and the demand for housing, finally, is generating new residential construction," Nickelsburg said.

Nickelsburg expects California’s unemployment rate to average 9.1 percent this year fall to 8.1 percent next year, then to 7.1 percent in 2015.

California's unemployment rate dropped from 9.4 percent to 9 percent in April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in May. The report showed nationwide, employers added 165,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 7.5 percent.

Home prices in Southern California are on the rise

Wendy Lee — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 17:57:55 -0700

Home prices in the LA area increased in April, according to Irvine-based analytics firm CoreLogic. ; Credit: Christopher Okula/KPCC

Home prices in Southern California soared in April, due to a low number of houses for sale and pent-up demand from buyers, according to Irvine-based analytics firm CoreLogic.

Prices for homes in the Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine area grew 20 percent, the firm reported. Meanwhile, home prices in the L.A.-Long Beach-Glendale area rose 19 percent and the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario area saw prices rise 17 percent. The data includes sales of distressed homes.

Nationally, home prices rose 12 percent compared to a year ago, CoreLogic said.

“The pace of the housing market recovery quickened in April as home prices rose across the U.S.,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. Nallathambi said he expects the trend to continue.

CoreLogic predicts that home prices nationally will increase 12.5 percent in May, compared to the same month in 2012.

Wal-Mart launches efforts to increase produce freshness

Wendy Lee — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 16:07:18 -0700

Jennifer Gonzales, manager of the Walmart Neighborhood Market in Altadena, in the store's fresh produce section.; Credit: KPCC/Wendy Lee

Wal-Mart Inc. said Monday it has launched efforts to improve the freshness and quality of the fruit and vegetables at its stores.

The nation’s largest retailer said it plans to work more with local farmers and will ultimately save customers money by cutting out the middlemen. It will also offer employees training on how to handle fruits and vegetables.

Wal-Mart plans to double its locally grown produce sales by December 2015.

"Our fresh produce promise follows recent commitments by the company to make food healthier and healthier food more affordable," said company spokeswoman Danit Marquardt.

Marquardt did not say how much produce it currently buys from local growers or how much that might increase.

Britt Beemer, CEO of America’s Research Group, said he believes Wal-Mart is going after the more affluent customer. As part of Wal-Mart’s campaign, the retailer is offering customers their money back if they believe the produce isn’t fresh.

"They're trying to speak to [affluent customers]," Beemer said. "They get them in their stores already to buy some things, but just don't get them in the stores to buy the produce."

Beemer said some customers have complained Wal-Mart's produce wasn’t as fresh, especially in stores in locations with smaller populations, where items may sit out longer.

He said it is possible Wal-Mart could take away customers from Target with its new initiative. About 45 percent of Target’s customers shop at Wal-Mart, while only 25 percent of Wal-Mart customers shop at Target, he said.

Wal-Mart has more than 150 stores in California that sell groceries.

Taiwan marine transport company extends contract with Port of LA

Wendy Lee — Fri, 31 May 2013 06:33:24 -0700

Cranes pick up containers from cargo ships in the Port of Los Angeles which received 2,180 vessels in 2012. A Taiwan company extended a contract with the Port of L.A. which is expected to bring in an additional $300-$500 million.; Credit: Mae Ryan/KPCC

A Taiwan-based marine transport company extended its contract by nine years with the Port of Los Angeles.

Yang Ming's contract will expire in 2030, bringing in an additional $365 million to $525 million, according to L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office.

"I am happy this agreement will allow the largest most modern ships to call at Yang Ming and provide cargo growth over the next 17 years," Villaraigosa said in a statement. "The Port is an economic driver for our region, and its success translates to jobs here in Los Angeles."

The Port also agreed to invest $122 million in improving the Yang Ming terminal facilities. Those changes include the construction of a new wharf and expansion of the West Basin Intermodal Container Transfer Facility.

The announcement comes as the port continues to face competition from other cities. Stephen Cheung, the Port of L.A.'s director of international development, told KPCC last week that part of the reason why it organized a May trade mission to China is because it can't risk losing its customers to other ports.

“If we wait for the next mayor to basically come up with a full plan, we don’t know whether that’s going to be three months, six months or a year before we can travel," Cheung said. "Meanwhile, other cities are going there on a regular basis to attract business. If they are able to secure a deal before us, there’s a possibility they may move their business elsewhere and not to Los Angeles, so this is something we can’t risk.”

Los Angeles area adds third highest number of construction jobs in the US

Brian Watt — Wed, 29 May 2013 17:14:48 -0700

Construction on Coldwater Canyon Avenue.; Credit: Mary Plummer/KPCC

Los Angeles came in third among metropolitan areas adding the most new construction jobs in the last year, according to the Associated General Contractors of America. The L.A.-Long Beach-Glendale area added 9,400 jobs since April 2012 - a nearly 10 percent increase over last year.

It was beat out by Dallas-Plano-Irving, Tex., with 11,500 jobs, and Houston-Sugarland-Baytown, Tex., both of which added about 11,400 jobs.

"The California Market in general is coming out of a very long economic downturn, and it’s coming out of it very slowly," says Tom Holsman, CEO of the Associated General Contractors of California. "The Los Angeles area is coming out of it better."

Holsman said the bump is due to major infrastructure projects at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, improvements to the 405 freeway, and school construction projects with the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The rebound of the housing market is helping too, according to economist Kimberly Ritter-Martinez of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation.

With the jump in prices, building new homes is becoming more profitable, which encourages new construction, she said. That, she said, has implications beyond the construction industry.

"You’re putting homebuilders back to work, but you’re also creating jobs for people who make appliances and who make flooring and window treatments and home furnishings," Ritter –Martinez said.

Holsman, of Associated General Contractors, said he's seen an increase in both single family and multi-family complex construction.

"If you drive down La Cienega Boulevard or La Brea south of Sunset, you’re going to see construction going up for multi-family dwelling at a pace that you haven’t seen in ten years," Holsman said.

Still, both experts said call that the total number of construction jobs in the L.A. area remains far below its pre-recession peak. Ritter-Martinez said the L.A. area construction market peaked at 157,600 jobs in 2007. In the first 3 months of 2013, the average was 113,800 jobs, about 30 percent down from that high.

UPDATE: Billboard that looked like Hitler comes at bad time for JC Penney (POLL)

Mike Roe and Wendy Lee — Wed, 29 May 2013 15:24:00 -0700

A Culver City billboard from J.C. Penney that some are saying resembles Hitler, especially when blurred as in the image on the right.; Credit: Imgur

Update 3:24 p.m.: The controversy surrounding the image of a teakettle that some say resembles Hitler comes at a bad time for JC Penney. The company is unprofitable and CEO Ron Johnson was fired after he failed to turn the company around. A strategy to reduce the amount of coupons and replace heavily discounted sales with everyday low prices backfired with consumers.

Britt Beemer, CEO of Charleston, S.C.-based America’s Research Group, doesn’t think shoppers will remember the teakettle brouhaha for long.

"If you want to imagine it to look like Hitler you can, but I mean, it just doesn't," Beemer said. "It's a beautiful teakettle. I think it's a big to-do about nothing."

He recently surveyed shoppers on the fires that happened in retail factories in Bangladesh and only about 6 percent of consumers had heard anything about it.

"I'm not sure whether consumers really truly care about where clothes are made and some of the working conditions," he said. "They care, but it's not a story they are going to pay much attention to."

He said if JC Penney focuses on providing great sales to bring consumers back to their stores, shoppers will focus on the sales, rather than some teakettle.

— Wendy Lee

Update 10:58 a.m. While JC Penney pulled down their Culver City billboard that some said showed a kettle resembling Hitler, Culver City's mayor isn't happy.

The city's mayor, Democrat Jeffrey Cooper, expressed outrage at JC Penney over the tea kettle scandal in an email to Mother Jones. “I am disappointed JCPenney actually put the billboard up in the first place and more outraged that they actually attempted to defend it,” Cooper wrote. “As a Jew, I am offended, [and] as an elected official, I am mad that the city I represent is linked to this.”

However, the Anti-Defamation League, which aims to fight anti-Semitism, was more positive. In a response to Mother Jones, they praised JC Penney’s response.

“JCPenney did the right thing by responding to public concerns and removing the tea pot from their product line.” They added, “We take JCPenney at their word that any resemblance to the Nazi dictator was completely unintended.”

Perhaps we should just call this the Teakettle Dome scandal.

— Mike Roe

Previously at 7:51 a.m.: JC Penney has been receiving a lot of attention this week — but probably not for the reasons they’d like. It’s over a tea kettle, advertised on a billboard in Culver City, that some pointed out on social media seemed to resemble… Hitler.

The retailer quickly responded to the growing number of stories, pulling the billboard down Tuesday, ABC7 reports.

JC Penney also responded on their Twitter account to numerous people tweeting about it, saying that they definitely didn’t meant to make it look like, well, Hitler. A sample of JC Penney’s responses (including one to Mia Farrow):

@jaffejuice @adscamgeorge @bobknorpp Certainly not intentional. We would have gone with something cute. Think "puppy dog", not dictator.
— jcpenney (@jcpenney) May 29, 2013

@miafarrow Certainly unintended. If we designed it to look like something, we would have gone with a snowman or something fun :)
— jcpenney (@jcpenney) May 28, 2013

@christinachaey No, seriously, we do have one. You'll have to admit it's kinda cute... twitter.com/jcpenney/statu…
— jcpenney (@jcpenney) May 28, 2013

The item’s notoriety also means that it sold out to all the Internet fans buying it ironically. (We hope they were purchasing it ironically.) They explained this to comedian Patton Oswalt, who’d noted JC Penney was about to sell a ton of them to ironic hipsters:

@pattonoswalt Totally unintentional. But they'll need to grab it in stores since it's sold out online. #SadHipsters
— jcpenney (@jcpenney) May 28, 2013

The Michael Graves Design Bells and Whistles Stainless Steel Tea Kettle’s listing has been pulled from JCPenney.com, but review pages for the item are still up at press time.

One smart-aleck reviewer who is, of course, from Brooklyn:

Does this JC Penney billboard in Culver City look like Hitler?

— Mike Roe