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Herbalife Ltd. said its feud with billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has been more costly than it anticipated, prompting speculation that the company is bracing for potential government investigations. The Los Angeles nutritional products company estimates it will spend $25 million to $40 million this year on legal and advisory fees to defend itself against Ackman's allegations that the company runs a pyramid scheme in which most of its independent salespeople lose money.

SACRAMENTO - Social network sites such as Facebook would be required to remove personal information about minors when asked to do so by their parents under a measure approved by state senators Thursday. Separately, the lawmakers voted to allow misdemeanor rather than felony charges in cases of simple possession of heroin, cocaine and other hard drugs. The two bills were among several sent to the Assembly for consideration. The Internet measure was approved despite opposition from firms including Google, Facebook, Zynga and Tumblr, which called the proposed rules unnecessary, unworkable and in violation of teenagers' free-speech rights.

Fearing lawmakers may fail to pass a package of medical reform bills, a coalition of consumer groups and trial lawyers is mounting a campaign to put before voters an even more ambitious slate of initiatives aimed at curbing prescription drug abuse and holding doctors more accountable for misconduct. About two dozen state and national advocacy groups - including the Consumer Attorneys of California, California Nurses Assn., the Center for Public Interest Law, and Public Citizen - have been organizing privately since December and plan to unveil the campaign at the state Capitol on Thursday.

A pared-down bill that would send sex offenders who repeatedly remove their GPS tracking devices back to state prison cleared its first legislative committee Tuesday, making progress where broader measures failed. In a deal struck with Democratic leaders who seek to protect Gov. Jerry Brown's prison realignment plan, Sen. Ted Lieu amended his GPS-tampering bill to make first offenses punishable by a mandatory 180 days in county jail, the maximum penalty currently on the books. Second offenses would require a year in county jail, and on the third offense, the parolee would be required to be returned to prison.

SACRAMENTO - California's $8-an-hour minimum wage needs to go up, says Watsonville Democratic Assemblyman Luis Alejo. And he may be getting the votes he needs to make it happen. But don't count on it; Alejo has tried this before. Alejo is the author of AB 10, which would give the Golden State its first minimum wage increase since 2008. The bill would raise it 25 cents an hour next year, 50 cents in 2015 and an additional 50 cents to $9.25 an hour in 2016. In 2017 and annually thereafter, hourly pay would be adjusted upward automatically, based on the state's inflation rate.

You know the zombies that pop back to life even after you stab them with a pitchfork? It's the same with smartphones. That's the bitter lesson I learned after returning home from Greenland and getting a $1,106 bill from Sprint for international data roaming, even though data roaming on my iPhone 4S was turned off. How could this zombie data usage happen? And how can I find out if it's happening? Smartphones are the undead of phones. They keep looking for a way to connect to data, even when you don't want them to. Even when you think data service is turned off. The formula is: smartphone + international travel = watch out. I had a BlackBerry before my iPhone and never had a single data charge when traveling internationally.

The heavyweight boxing title aspirations of Riverside's Chris Arreola ended in a bloody mess Saturday night. The hard-punching, clever-talking Arreola, marketed as a great hope to become the first heavyweight champion of Mexican heritage, took a convincing beating from unheralded Bermane Stiverne. The boisterous, diehard Arreola fans in attendance in Ontario's Citizens Business Bank Arena, were they to be realistic, had to leave with the realization that their 32-year-old hero likely had had his last big shot.

SACRAMENTO - California would allow noncitizens to serve on juries under a proposal being considered by state lawmakers, potentially expanding a fundamental obligation of American life to millions more people. The measure, which would apply only to legal residents, would make California the only state to open the jury box to noncitizens who meet all other requirements of service, according to legal experts. The proposal raises the question of what it means to be judged by peers in a state where more than one in seven residents is not a citizen.

WASHINGTON - Congress approved a quick fix Friday to end the flight delays snarling the nation's airports, and President Obama will sign the bill when it reaches the White House, showing how swiftly compromise can be found when powerful interests demand it. The speedy resolution came after airlines and businesses warned of lost earnings, and travelers - including lawmakers leaving the capital for a weeklong recess - complained about the waits....

WASHINGTON - House Republicans announced the first in a series of immigration-related bills that would attempt to reshape the system one piece at a time, a contrast with the comprehensive approach the Senate is pursuing. The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia, was careful Thursday to say the two bills he would unveil this week - and "several" more after that - were simply starting points for debate. The effort does not preclude the broader overhauls being drafted by bipartisan groups in both chambers, he said.