Restraint of Trade

Auto insurance could become too expensive for some Californians if George Joseph, chairman of insurer Mercury General Corp., gets his way. He's proposed an initiative for the June 2012 ballot that would reward longtime insured drivers but could ultimately...

When it comes to the crime-based fiction that long has played such an important role in the literary life of Los Angeles, we're living through what amounts to a golden age. The dark ecstasies of James Ellroy, Michael Connelly's artful probing of the...

Bono has something to say about Mexico's drug war too. U2 packed Mexico City's Aztec Stadium for three shows ending Sunday, and didn't shy away from addressing the country's brutal drug violence, which has killed more than 34,000 people since President...

Is the U.S.-backed drug war in Mexico working? By almost any account or any measure, the answer is no....

Netflix won't have the online movie subscription business to itself for long. Two of the biggest players in DVD sales and rentals, kiosk company Redbox and online retailer Amazon.com, have told Hollywood studios that they are looking to launch streaming.....

Full text and commentary on the president's latest speech on the economy....

Can music subscriptions thrive in the digital age? Opinions differ....

A ballot initiative in California that would permit possession, production and taxation of small amounts of marijuana for personal use would do little to curtail the profits of violent drug-trafficking cartels in Mexico, according to a new study...

The owner of a Catalina Island scuba diving business accused of price fixing has agreed to pay a settlement of $6,500, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office announced Wednesday. Robert S. Kennedy, who owns Scuba Luv Inc., was accused......

It's located in the shadow of a freeway, behind a row of industrial-size windows on the corner of 1st and Cummings streets in eastern Los Angeles: Libros Schmibros, a new lending library. If it's open, you'll find proprietor David Kipen......

As we reported last week, automation is coming to jobs of last resort, such as those in retail, replacing checkout clerks with machines and gas station attendants with vending machines. Now some economists worry that it might replace high-skilled jobs.......

First anniversaries are traditionally celebrated with gifts of paper, and so it is with the first anniversary of the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare. Supporters and opponents alike are observing the occasion...