Business

Angela Braly can't kid me. When the chief executive of gargantuan health insurer WellPoint (parent of Blue Cross of California) went before a congressional subcommittee the other day, she displayed all the smile-through-the-tears pluck of Annie looking to a sunny tomorrow or Scarlett swearing to God she'll never be hungry again. WellPoint didn't really want to jack up health premiums on its customers by as much as 39%, she said -- it had no choice. "We care deeply about our California customers," she said.

Months into its recall crisis, Toyota Motor Corp. launched a counterattack Monday, bringing out a panel of experts to debunk the claims of an academic who says he has found an electronic defect in its vehicles related to sudden acceleration. In a presentation at the company's Torrance operations center, five engineers disputed the findings of Southern Illinois University Carbondale professor David Gilbert, who claims he can produce an electrical fault in Toyota vehicles without its being detected by the vehicles' diagnostic system.

Many film critics -- and awards voters -- have praised "The Hurt Locker's" depiction of the U.S. military in Iraq, often singling out the bomb disposal drama for its authenticity. But as the film emerges as a favorite to win the best picture Oscar, a number of active soldiers and veterans say the film is Hollywood hokum, portraying soldiers as renegades while failing to represent details about combat accurately. The criticism, coming just before Oscar ballots are due Tuesday, highlights the delicate relationship between "The Hurt Locker" and the nation's armed forces.

More than 60 drivers have complained of sudden acceleration incidents despite the fact that their cars were repaired by Toyota Motor Corp. in the current recalls, new data released Thursday show. The latest figure, released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, significantly increases the total number of complaints involving repaired vehicles, which was less than 10 on Tuesday. The new complaints allege several accidents and at least three injuries resulting from runaway unintended acceleration despite the vehicles' undergoing a series of modifications at Toyota dealerships designed to resolve the issue.

The California state attorney general's office said Thursday that it had subpoenaed financial records of California's seven largest health insurance companies as part of an investigation into whether they illegally raised customer premiums and denied payment of legitimate claims. Prosecutors said they sought documents from Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna Health, Blue Shield of California, Cigna, Health Net, Kaiser Permanente and PacifiCare. The subpoenas -- of financial records and other documents -- cover health plans that reimburse doctors and hospitals for their services.

The waiting room of the Beverly Hills surgery clinic was teeming with customers on a recent Saturday, with many of the patients there for the weight-loss operation hawked on freeway billboards, bus placards, and TV and radio commercials across Southern California: 1-800-GET-THIN. But few, if any, were probably aware of the troubled history of the medical suite where they might be waiting to undergo major surgery. Suite 106 at 9001 Wilshire Blvd., currently known as the Beverly Hills Surgery Center, has for years been a business address of TopSurgeons, the sponsors of the ubiquitous marketing campaign for the lap-band -- a surgical implant designed to suppress the appetite of obese patients and normally prescribed for those who are at least 75 to 100 pounds overweight.

Paying for college? You may be able to claim a big tax break, even if you've never before qualified. That's because the Obama administration replaced an old break with a new and improved one -- but only for a limited time. To take advantage of it, you'll have to negotiate the often wacky world of tuition tax write-offs. "There is a smorgasbord of education credits available now," said Bob Meighan, vice president of Turbo Tax in San Diego. "It's mind-boggling." What are the breaks?

Whether it's C-3PO, the fastidious Star Wars droid fluent in 6 million languages, or Star Trek's invisible but convenient "universal translator," the miracle interpreter has been a favorite device of science fiction. But now, on planet Earth, Google Inc. is using its vast computational and intellectual resources to put that futuristic technology directly in the hands of consumers. If you're traveling in Beijing and find yourself hungry for some American cuisine, you can activate the translator on your Google-powered phone, and say, "Where can I find a hamburger?"

Not long ago, people who wanted to generate their own green energy at home had to content themselves with rooftop solar panels. But new technologies -- and hefty government subsidies -- are now allowing homeowners to tap the wind, the Earth and other renewable sources in their own backyards. Call it the green evolution. The cost of heating and cooling with fossil fuels has nowhere to go but up, thanks to rising global demand and increased regulation of carbon emissions.

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday announced a potentially massive recall of salad dressing, chip dip, soup mixes and other foods made with a commonly used food additive that may be contaminated with salmonella. Among the products being taken off store shelves is a potato salad from an Oregon supplier, according to the Oregonian newspaper, that makes products distributed under the Safeway and Wal-Mart brands. Safeway Inc. said Thursday that it was removing its Red Potato Salad with Dill products from its Vons and Pavilions stores, as well as its self-named markets.

Steady as it goes, Federal Reserve policymakers declared in their post-meeting statement Tuesday. They left their benchmark short-term interest rate unchanged in the range of zero to 0.25% and once again pledged to keep it low for an "extended period" -- retaining the phrase they've used for the last year. The central bank continued to sound relatively upbeat about the economy, saying the data it looks at suggest that "economic activity has continued to strengthen and that the labor market is stabilizing."

At a repair shop for airplane propellers near Van Nuys Airport, Keith Hironaka bends over a long metal blade, smoothing its mottled surface and preparing it for inspection. His brother Glenn works a few feet away. Fifteen people depend on Executive Propellers for their jobs, and owner Eissa Shousha figures an additional 60 or so -- wives, children, aging parents -- rely on the salaries he pays and the health insurance he provides. But business is slow, as many owners of small planes have cut back on flying and put off refurbishing their aircraft in the recession.

Embattled commercial landlord Maguire Properties Inc. has sold a Santa Ana office complex for $90 million as part of a long campaign to reduce debt and right itself financially. Buyers Lincoln Property Group and Angelo Gordon & Co. paid cash for the Griffin Towers complex next to the Costa Mesa Freeway, Maguire Properties in Los Angeles said Tuesday. The twin 13-story towers, built in 1987, are 77% leased to such tenants as Corinthian Colleges and engineering firm CH2M Hill Inc. The transaction was the largest office sale in Southern California this year, according to real estate brokerage CB Richard Ellis Inc., which represented Maguire Properties in the deal.

Despite weeks of anticipation since General Motors Co. announced it would keep hundreds of dealers targeted for closure, it is still not clear which showrooms will be granted a reprieve. The automaker is deep in negotiations with some dealers but is not talking to others, according to attorneys and auto industry executives familiar with the discussions. Details have been particularly sketchy because GM and the dealers have signed confidentiality agreements. Dealers don't want customers to know they might close, which could chase away potential buyers of vehicles still on the sales lot, and GM declined to identify dealers, saying it was leaving it up to them to disclose whether they were being reinstated or not. But individuals familiar with the negotiations said GM was starting to make concessions to keep some of the stores open in an attempt to avoid hundreds of arbitration hearings nationwide.

With the public release of its national broadband plan Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission prepared to start the hard work of getting Congress to help the agency implement roughly 200 recommendations. "In every era America must confront the challenge of connecting the nation anew," said Blair Levin, executive director of the FCC's broadband initiative, a yearlong effort to draft the 356-page plan. "If successful, we will transform our country and, as America does when it transforms itself, transform the world."

Southland home prices jumped 10% in February compared with the same month last year as foreclosure sales dropped significantly. San Diego and Orange counties made particularly strong gains. The increase in prices indicates that foreclosure sales are not dominating the market as much as they were a year ago. And it could signal that more traditional buyers -- those with equity in their homes looking to trade up -- are getting back into the game. But the number of homes sold throughout the region was nearly flat, up only 0.8%.

Seeking to be family friendly, Florida may have learned a hard lesson in how not to be Hollywood friendly. The Sunshine state startled the film industry recently when a bill was introduced in the state Legislature that would disqualify movies and TV shows that contained "nontraditional family values" from receiving a supplemental "family friendly" tax credit that's been in effect for a couple of years. The bill, unanimously endorsed last week by a key legislative committee, is part of a larger $75-million incentive program aimed at luring film and entertainment jobs to the state.

Wynn Bloch has always dutifully paid her bills and socked away money for retirement. But in December she defaulted on the mortgage on her Palm Desert home, even though she could afford the payments. Bloch paid $385,000 for the two-bedroom in 2006, when prices were still surging. Comparable homes are now selling in the low-$200,000s. At 66, the retired psychologist doubted she'd see her investment rebound in her lifetime. Plus, she said she was duped into an expensive loan. The way she sees it, big banks that helped fuel the mess all got bailouts while small fry like her are left holding the bag. No more.

With the recent demise of Miramax Films and its possible sale, the specialty label's biggest movie producer, Scott Rudin, is negotiating to end his lucrative production deal with the company's corporate parent, Walt Disney Studios. A prolific producer who supplied Miramax with such movies as Oscar-winner "No Country for Old Men," "The Queen," and "There Will Be Blood," Rudin is in talks to get out of his contract, which still has three years remaining, said a person familiar with the situation.

The bankruptcy of Lehman Bros. in September 2008 is widely seen as the event that kicked the financial meltdown into high gear. So it makes sense that the report released last week by Lehman's bankruptcy examiner should stand as the one indispensable analysis of how Wall Street almost brought the U.S. economy crashing down. The uncompromising report should put to rest the self-serving claims by Lehman's ex-Chairman Richard S. Fuld that the firm was destroyed by rumors, short selling, stock manipulation and an unwarranted loss of confidence by clients and trading partners.