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The federal government has become serious about virginity — at least when it comes to olive oil. Propelled by complaints about slippery food purveyors selling low-end product as high-end goods, or olive oils being doctored with cheaper canola, safflower or peanut oils, the U.S. Department of Agriculture this fall will roll out new standards to help ensure that consumers buying "100% extra virgin" olive oil get what they pay for. ...

The Supreme Court wrapped up its term last week after landmark decisions protecting the right to have a gun and the right of corporations to spend freely on elections. But the year's most important moment may have come on the January evening when the justices gathered at the Capitol for President Obama's State of the Union address. They had no warning about what was coming. Obama and his advisors had weighed how to respond to the court's ruling the week before, which gave corporations the same free-spending rights as ordinary Americans.

Only days after federal officials announced that the nation's airlines had collected 33% more revenue this year from checked luggage fees, UPS offered its alternative to the hassle and expense of lugging a suitcase through an airport. The world's largest package delivery service announced last week that it was selling specially designed boxes that resemble suitcases. Passengers can ship the "luggage boxes" to their final destination to avoid the airlines' check-in lines and luggage fees.

Tucked between Sunset and San Vicente boulevards lies a leafy Brentwood neighborhood whose ranch homes, driveway basketball hoops and occasional picket fence are a far cry from the nearby luxe enclaves of Bel-Air and Beverly Park. Yet this tract of upper-middle-class Los Angeles is in the midst of a change — a heightened version of the transformation that has turned other parts of the Westside from neighborhoods that were once merely prosperous into playgrounds for the superrich.

If you can't join 'em, compete against 'em. With top pay cable channels HBO and Showtime and upstart Epix largely refusing to let Netflix stream movies during the long periods that they control the rights, the DVD subscription service is going around them, starting with independent film financing and production company Relativity Media. The two companies have signed a five-year-plus agreement through which Relativity's movies will be distributed via Netflix's Internet streaming service instead of the typical runs on pay-cable channels, which start four to seven months after a DVD release.

One of the hardest parts of Jim Pastor's job is convincing people that he exists: He's a milkman. "The reaction is always the same," Pastor said. "People say, 'Really? A milkman? Like in the old days?' They always have a hard time believing it." Pastor owns a Santa Ana-based delivery service that contracts with Rockview Farms, one of the largest family-owned dairies in Southern California. Each week, Pastor and his team of 14 milkmen drive their refrigerated trucks to more than 4,800 homes along routes in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

If you're among those who think Facebook's definition of friends is hollow, you may not want to read any further. I just stumbled across RentAFriend.com. It offers profiles of more than 167,000 people who are available for a range of platonic social services — workout buddy, museum visits and wingman/wingwoman, to name a few. In exchange, these "friends" receive a fee of from $10 an hour to $150 an hour, which must be paid upfront, in cash. It's not an escort service. Really.

Lonnie David Franklin Jr. was a smalltime crook, but his neighbors didn't worry about a guy who could get you a nice price on a flat-screen TV and who kept a "don't ask, don't tell" supply of car parts stashed behind his spearmint green house. Even if his narrow street in South L.A. was lined with well-kept homes and pruned hedges, the neighborhood was beset with generational poverty and a parade of addicts, dealers and gang-bangers. Franklin had his issues; his encounters with women, in particular, could veer from overtly promiscuous to downright hostile, friends and neighbors said.

It's scary enough that a widely prescribed diabetes drug, Avandia, was shown in new studies this week to pose a substantially greater risk of heart attacks for users. But what should really get consumers freaked is that healthcare experts and federal regulators say this isn't really surprising. When it comes to drug safety, they say, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. "You can improve safety by keeping drugs off the market for more testing," said William Comanor, director of UCLA's Research Program in Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy.

Theirs was a love affair that began in the glow of a candlelit table. It was a white tablecloth and red wine evening. The food was refined, the service impeccable. The private room with the glass door was discreet, but the couple behind it could not go unnoticed. It's been a year and a half since that meal at Equinox, a chic and sleek restaurant a couple of blocks from the White House, in which Barack and Michelle Obama dined on greens with poached apples and pickled watermelon radish, pan-fried Rappahannock oysters, all-natural strip loin steak, crispy bananas and zabaglione gelato.

The words of the Constitution do not change whether they are being applied to immigration or same-sex marriage, or whether the statute is from California, Massachusetts or Arizona. The 10th Amendment is often cited to support the constitutionality of Arizona's immigration law as a matter of "states' rights." That same 10th Amendment is cited to support the unconstitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits federal recognition of Massachusetts' same-sex marriages. To agree with one outcome and not the other can be misconstrued as partisan.

Frances Kuyper, whose passion for cake decorating earned her the nickname the "Cake Lady" and prompted her to open the world's first cake museum, died July 15 in Los Angeles after a lengthy illness. She was 92. For the last dozen years Kuyper had lived at the Hollenbeck Palms retirement home in Boyle Heights and maintained a mini-cake museum in its basement. She opened her first cake museum in a house in Pasadena in 1994. It displayed about 150 cakes — some up to 65 years old and hardened from age. "No, I don't have a mouse or insect problem," she laughed during a 1996 interview.

State regulators Thursday put a brake on actions that the state's biggest utilities can take to shut off electric and natural gas service of residents who fall behind on their bills. The California Public Utilities Commission made existing rules permanent and added new protections to help customers pay their bills and avoid having to put up further credit to retain services. The new rules extend the time for paying off balances and lessen — and sometimes eliminate — requirements to pay new deposits after a disconnection.

Toyota Motor Corp. announced another large recall of autos in the U.S. on Thursday, this time for a steering problem in 373,000 Avalon sedans built for the 2000-2004 model years. The automaker said that because of an improper casting, a component of the steering lock system can crack. When the Avalon is steered hard to the right, there is a chance that the piece will break, locking up the steering wheel and increasing the risk of a crash. There have been six reports of the problem in the U.S., with three accidents but no injuries, said Toyota spokesman Brian Lyons.

Standing amid the shiny bling and baubles in his shop in Los Angeles' jewelry district, David Malek said he knows perfectly well why some people have been pouring money into gold. In a word, fear. "The whole world is under pressure," he said. "It's frightening. Where else are you going to put your money?" That sky-is-falling mentality among skittish investors has pushed the price of gold to stratospheric levels. It closed Thursday at $1,168 an ounce. And with so many people seeking safe harbor in gold, Southern California authorities this week said they're investigating whether a pair of local companies are using false pretenses to steer unwary buyers into costlier purchases.

There's one in nearly every good folk yarn or fairy tale: the mysterious oldster living alone in the woods. In the case of the fact-based and transporting "Get Low," he's a loner who, in an unlikely instance of self-promotion, comes to be known as the Mysterious Hermit of Caleb County, and he's played with unerring understatement by Robert Duvall in one of his finest performances. In lesser hands this Southern saga might have collapsed into whimsical corn, but cinematographer-turned-director Aaron Schneider has fashioned a measured fable, witty and deeply felt, if at times tipping into melodrama.

It's back to square one for the Motion Picture Assn. of America. After months of negotiations with former Nebraska Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey to become head of the movie industry's chief lobbying arm, talks between the two sides broke off, again raising questions about who will become Hollywood's man or woman in Washington. The MPAA declined to elaborate on why the advanced talks suddenly ended Thursday, but people close to the matter said the two sides ultimately had different views of the job. The parties had appeared close to hammering out a lucrative deal worth $1.2 million annually for Kerrey to succeed Dan Glickman, who stepped down as chief executive in January.

Motorola Inc., the U.S. mobile-phone maker, reported second-quarter earnings that beat analysts' estimates, helped by demand for its new line of smart phones powered by Google Inc.'s Android operating system. Profit, excluding some costs, was 9 cents a share, the company said Thursday. Analysts had projected 8 cents on average, according to a survey of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Revenue for the quarter was $5.41 billion, compared with the $5.2 billion estimate. Motorola's Droid X, the company's latest phone powered by the Android system, sold out at Verizon Wireless and Best Buy Co. stores after its debut this month.

The California Cash for Appliances rebate program, which has lagged since launching three months ago, is expanding the list of eligible energy-efficient machines in an attempt to boost interest. Starting Thursday, customers who trade in their old electricity-guzzling machines for new eco-friendly ones can start applying for rebates of $50 for freezers, $100 for dishwashers, $100 to $750 for water heaters and $200 to $1,000 for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.

First, full disclosure: I am the Left Coast representative of the Jewish conspiratorial lobby that Oliver Stone was fretting over in his recent interview with London's Sunday Times. You know, the Jews, whose "domination of the media" prevent Hitler and Stalin from being portrayed "in context." It seems the once and future wunderkind was also frustrated that no one understands that it was the Russians who were damaged more than the Jews during World War II. I think he had the score of 25 million or 30 million to 6 million.