Contracts

Poor planning, weak oversight and greed combined to soak U.S. taxpayers and undermine American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, government watchdogs tell a new commission examining waste and corruption in wartime contracts. Since 2003, the Pentagon, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development have paid contractors more than $100 billion for goods and services to support war operations and rebuilding.

A consulting firm that warned Los Angeles officials last fall that a solar energy measure on the March 3 ballot was "extremely risky" sent an apology to the city's Department of Water and Power weeks later, voicing alarm that its comments may cause it to lose out on a city contract. P.A. Consulting Group privately warned the City Council's top policy advisor that the DWP might have to impose major rate hikes to implement the solar proposal, which later became Measure B.

Manny Ramirez might not be signed by the start of spring training after all. Ramirez's agent, Scott Boras, on Wednesday clarified a statement he made last week about his expectation that his client would be signed by the time camp opened. "When I talk about the start of spring training, I talk about when the games begin," he said. Players will start reporting to the Dodgers' camp on Feb. 14. Their first scheduled Cactus League game isn't until Feb. 25.

Terrence Payne's 48-year-old family grocery store was lost in a blaze of urban rage. A bid to rebuild it was strangled by red tape. A subsequent consulting operation struggled against closed doors. Some people might have taken the hint and decided that they weren't meant to be their own boss. Instead, Payne tried again.

Although much of the entertainment industry has focused on the civil war inside the Screen Actors Guild, another powerful Hollywood union is wrestling with its own internal conflict over a proposed contract with the studios.

Manny doesn't do losers. Full seasons in the major leagues: 15. Teams with a losing record: 0. So put the Dodgers down for a winning record this season, but don't put down your deposit for playoff tickets just yet. Manny Ramirez guarantees the Dodgers a potent offense, but a potent offense by itself guarantees the Dodgers nothing. Ramirez can pitch in, but the Dodgers still have to pitch.

A union representing more than 35,000 film and TV workers has approved a new three-year contract, fending off a vigorous opposition campaign by dissidents who accused their leaders of selling them short at the bargaining table. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees said Friday that the contract, which was largely modeled on similar agreements negotiated by other Hollywood unions, was unanimously endorsed by all 15 Hollywood local groups.

Because of lax oversight, undeserving firms collected millions in federal contracts from an $8-billion government program designated for small businesses in poor neighborhoods, congressional investigators charge.

After weeks of back-channel talks, Hollywood's biggest actors union and the major studios appear to have broken their logjam and could be close to striking a deal on a contract, according to people close to the situation. The agreement would come as a breakthrough for the Screen Actors Guild, whose members have been working without a contract for nine months as various attempts at negotiations with the studios collapsed.

For Hollywood actors, the third act was anticlimactic. After a year of warring with studios, another union and even among themselves, Hollywood's actors finally reached an accord Friday for a new labor contract, signaling an end to a costly drama that roiled the entertainment industry just as it tumbled into the worst economic downturn in decades.