Business

On June 22, 2004, Rudolph W. Giuliani made a bold promise in the fight against terrorism. The former New York mayor told reporters that his newest business venture, called Bio-ONE, would swiftly eliminate deadly anthrax from a tabloid newspaper office. The site still stood padlocked, more than 2 1/2 years after the worst biological terrorism attack in U.S. history. "You will see me walk through those doors," pledged Giuliani, who is now seeking the Republican presidential nomination.

Jed Matzke sets out each day to guide love-struck couples to happily ever after. It's not as romantic as it sounds. The first stop in Las Vegas for brides and grooms is the Clark County Marriage Bureau, at the corner of Clark and 3rd, down the street from a bail bondsman and the county jail. Matzke hangs out six days a week at the Pit, as some call the corner, smoking Marlboros, sucking Werther's candies, waiting for his shot.

One young mother from Tillamook gathers her five children and drives two scenic miles to go beachcombing at a quaint hideaway off U.S. Highway 101. Another young Tillamook mother slips into a skimpy, form-fitting black gown and steers to the same town to dance for tips at the only exotic club on the northern Oregon coast. They, along with strip-club patrons, visiting families, longtime residents and retirees, mix it up in this quiet community.

James Hatano looks across the floor of the sprawling Southern California Flower Market and acknowledges that he is one of the last links to a bygone age of flower selling in Los Angeles. Hatano, 81, grows poppies, sunflowers, baby's breath and delphiniums on a small rented farm in Rancho Palos Verdes and sells them from a stall at the market. Recalling fondly how Japanese farmers founded the market in 1913, he can't miss the stunning transformation around him.

Mohammed Jabiry charts the progress of Iraq through the colors of its walls. Institutional white is soooooo Saddam Hussein, Jabiry said Sunday, pointing to the colorful squares on a sample chart from Modern Paint Industries, a state-run enterprise. Nowadays, juicy-fruit colors such as clementine orange and jasmine yellow are growing popular, a sign not only of Iraqis' changing tastes but perhaps of their brighter mood, said Jabiry, who is Modern Paint's chief engineer.

Sometimes, what happens in Vegas can stay in Los Angeles. Or, more specifically, in a vacant industrial building in Sylmar. That will be the new home of a 25-year-old Calabasas business named Drapes 4 Show Inc., which has made linens for Air Force One, swanky hotels, exclusive celebrity weddings and Hollywood movie sets. The company had been leaving for Las Vegas, where many of its products are used, because it couldn't find a suitable site for growth.

The "aging in place" movement is fueled by changes throughout society. Services linked to retirement communities -- official or otherwise -- are not the only options for older Americans who want to remain in their homes. Networks of services: Across the nation, business people are forming networks, called Aging in Place Councils, in various cities to link seniors to services.

The owner of a fluff-and-fold laundry in a small western Oregon town couldn't be happier that tons of mud, rocks, snow and fir trees sloughed off a hillside one day in January. No one was hurt when the landslide took out the Union Pacific Railroad's main track through the Cascades south of Eugene, but it has severed a key rail link between Los Angeles and Seattle. The slide spans 3,000 feet.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan named an influential group of civic leaders 15 years ago to streamline what was said to be a tortuous city permitting process that made Los Angeles seem almost hostile to business. Many of the 83 proposals, however, ended up on a shelf collecting dust. Now, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has pledged to fix the same problems and dozens of others believed to impede investment.

As California business leaders bristle at vows by lawmakers to close the budget gap with new corporate taxes, the good people of Nevada see a Golden State opportunity. In a series of advertisements in newspapers and business journals that portray California in cartoons, the Nevada Development Authority is trying to lure California enterprises across the state line. "Doing your part to carry the un-Bear-able load?"