Boom

SANTO ANTONIO, Brazil - The wind blows in from the river, mingling with the scent of the day's last meal in the kitchen. The smells of work and home for Valcione da Silva. He sits on a worn bench and watches children play on the floor, laughing. Somewhere outside, a siren begins, long and loud. Da Silva reaches beneath his bench to retrieve two knives, double-edged like daggers. They're not weapons, he says, clattering them together. They're special fishing tools. "Only wood," he says.

State scientists, grappling with an explosion of marijuana growing on the North Coast, recently studied aerial imagery of a small tributary of the Eel River, spawning grounds for endangered coho salmon and other threatened fish. In the remote, 37-square-mile patch of forest, they counted 281 outdoor pot farms and 286 greenhouses, containing an estimated 20,000 plants -- mostly fed by water diverted from creeks or a fork of the Eel. The scientists determined the farms were siphoning roughly 18 million gallons from the watershed every year, largely at the time when the salmon most need it. "That is just one small watershed," said Scott Bauer, the state scientist in charge of the coho recovery on the North Coast for the Department of Fish and Game.

The holiday crunch is on at the mall, and Toys R Us is opening all its stores for 88 straight hours until Christmas Eve. And, for the first time, Macy's is staying open at most stores for 48 hours nonstop the final weekend before Christmas. In the rush to woo shoppers, merchants this year are upping the ante. Banana Republic is giving away six Fiat cars. Kohl's is picking up the tab for a shopper in each of its stores every day until Christmas Eve. And Sport Chalet will have a scuba-diving Santa at some of its stores Saturday.

Sales of government-backed mortgage securities rose in November to the highest level in more than three years, stoked by a refinance boom and a rush by banks to avoid a fee increase from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Nearly $176 billion in bonds backed by fixed-rate home loans were issued in November, up from $132 billion in October and the most since $229 billion in June 2009, MortgageDaily.com reported Monday, citing the data firm eMBS Inc. ...

As the postprandial fatigue of the Thanksgiving meal gives way to the adrenaline rush of the holiday shopping season, those hitting the streets are likely to notice a whole new crop of bricks-and-mortar stores that weren't there during the last candy-cane-colored, ornament-festooned romp through retail's winter wonderland. The bumper crop of boutiques opening in time for holiday shopping or just after the New Year includes newcomers ranging from British brand Joseph opening its first West Coast store (on Robertson Boulevard)

BEAUTY / HOME ACCESSORIES D.L. & Co.: 417 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, (310) 205-0025), dlcompany.com. Candles in enamel apple-shaped boxes, Madame Pompadour candle busts, pocket watches with solid perfume inside, diffusers and curiosities such as dessert plates emblazoned with skulls abound at this Goth-tinged gift emporium, the Van Nuys-based brand's first boutique. Nars Cosmetics Flagship Boutique: 8412 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (310) 623-1730, narscosmetics.com.

Your Christmas roast may cost far more than it did last year, but the soaring price of beef is set to simmer down in 2013, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Retail beef and veal prices are projected to rise 5.5% to 6.5% this year, more than previously estimated, after a scorching summer drought in the Midwest seared through crops used for livestock feed. Next year, the meat will cost consumers 3% to 4% more - but that's less than the USDA previously forecast.

Indoor trampoline parks are springing into action throughout Southern California, along with leaping games of dodge ball, highflying basketball and rigorous calisthenics. Just ask Akory Coates, who lived out his basketball dreams for an hour recently at a Sky Zone trampoline park in Torrance. He jumped, he twirled in the air, his fingertips grazed the rim and he made four baskets. Not an easy feat for a 9-year-old, but a series of trampolines beneath his feet gave him all the lift he needed.

Jimmy Murphy's 1999 play, “The Muesli Belt,” now in its American premiere at Theatre Banshee, deals with the rampant gentrification of an inner-city Dublin neighborhood. Of course, in Ireland as in much of the world, boom times led to a global bust, with the bloodily declawed Celtic Tiger left scrabbling on a mountain of debt. In light of those developments, Murphy's themes now seem dated, and although director Sean Branney elicits lovely performances from his cast, the moral quandaries in the play seem mere niceties, unbalanced by the march of time.

Cyclone Sandy disrupted business activity nationwide as it forced a rare closure of the stock market and left corporate managers bracing for uncertain financial repercussions. The maelstrom battering the Eastern Seaboard could dent the U.S. economy in the short term as businesses grapple with foregone sales that can't be recouped. But it isn't expected to inflict permanent damage and could provide a boost as companies and consumers rebuild. "Economies come back pretty quickly afterward because a lot of money flows into the areas from insurance and the government," said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist with Moody's Analytics.