Bugle Boy Industries

Marking the end of several years of robust growth, employment in Southern California's garment industry has fallen sharply this year amid a flight of sewing work to Mexico and cheaper competition from Asian imports. New payroll data from employers indicate that the state's previous monthly job tallies overestimated apparel manufacturing employment by about 13,100 jobs.

As companies try to keep business travel spending in check, corporate travel policies are becoming increasingly restrictive, according to an American Express survey released this week. The biennial survey of more than 1,700 companies shows that although two-thirds have increased their travel budgets, they are spending less per employee. Travel and entertainment "is the third-largest controllable expense behind salaries and data-processing costs.

Sender Hart visited California from his home in Israel in 1975 and, even though he spoke no English, decided to move here. After several short-lived business ventures, Hart used his savings to start a specialty retail apparel company in 1984. Hart's Sweats & Surf Inc. grew rapidly. Today it has 48 shops, most of them in California, that sell sweat shirts and sweat pants and trendy beachwear in a variety of colors and styles.

Los Angeles' middle class, deeply shaken by last year's riots, worried about personal safety and anxious about the city's economic future, has seized control of City Hall. For Mayor-elect Richard Riordan, the beneficiary of last Tuesday's uprising, dealing with an upsurge of middle-class anger--perhaps even more than coping with the crisis in South-Central--may prove his most critical challenge.

When WellPoint Health Networks' recent merger killed its plans to build a high-profile, $180-million office development and bring with it an estimated 7,200 jobs, business leaders worried anew about the county's economic health. Today, while still lamenting the loss of the Blue Cross subsidiary, officials vow to continue resuscitating the area's flagging economy.

At its annual meeting today in Los Angeles, BankAmerica Corp. is likely to tell stockholders that in the 13 months since it absorbed Security Pacific Corp., it has met the daunting task of merging the two banks' sprawling operations. BankAmerica is almost finished with the mechanics of the blockbuster merger, which increased the bank's already dominant role in the West and left it poised to eventually create a coast-to-coast branch network.

As a teen growing up in Los Angeles, South Korean-born Tom Kagy would run to the newsstand every week and flip through Time and Newsweek with one objective: to find articles about other Asians. "I was desperately looking for some sign that it's OK to be an Asian American," Kagy says. "And that you can be successful, you can be accepted." Rarely did Kagy see any confirmation in the mainstream media that Asians even existed in the U.S., let alone that they did anything laudable.

The strongest evidence of damage from the Asian economic crisis emerged last week in the form of a record U.S. trade deficit, but the shipping world didn't need to be told: It has been turned on its head by Asia's woes. Much as U-Haul trailers from Los Angeles stacked up in Seattle during the early 1990s flight from California, thousands of empty shipping containers are piling up at Long Beach, Los Angeles and other West Coast ports because of plummeting Asian demand for U.S.

1. State Government Becomes New Power Player: California formally entered the electricity-buying business when Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation that authorizes the state to sell up to $10 billion in revenue bonds. The bonds--representing about $300 in debt for every Californian--will pay for electricity that the investor-owned utilities can no longer afford to buy for their customers.