Corporations

Today's office fashion tip: Conformity is in, iconoclasm is out. Workplace dress and grooming codes, written and unwritten, are growing more stringent. Businesses--from Domino's Pizza to New York taxi fleets to, most recently, the Disneyland Hotel--have cracked down on sartorial freedom, in hopes that a sharper image will translate into profits. Some workers are rebelling.

SACRAMENTO — The California State Teachers' Retirement System will cast its 5.3 million shares of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. against the reelection of the company's board after allegations of bribery in the retailer's Mexican operations. Citing "a breakdown of corporate governance and lack of oversight," Jack Ehnes, chief executive of CalSTRS, made the announcement Tuesday "CalSTRS believes former and current Wal-Mart executives and board members breached their fiduciary responsibilities," Ehnes said.

Former World War II prisoners of war and other activists stepped up their pressure against Japanese corporations in the United States, announcing Tuesday a nationwide class-action lawsuit alleging that the companies brutalized POWs and forced them to perform slave labor in Asia during the war. The lawsuit, part of an escalating U.S. offensive to win reparations for Japanese war crimes, targets five corporate giants: Mitsubishi International Corp., Mitsui & Co. (USA) Inc.

VASHON ISLAND, Wash. - It would be hard to imagine a place further removed from the brash intensity of Occupy Wall Street. This secluded island of fir forests and rolling lavender fields - home to 23 organic farms, a tofu factory and a monastery that markets its own gourmet coffee - has always been a counterculture retreat for those who bike to the sound of different drummers. Yet a continent away - a whole world away, really - from New York, this small island of 11,000 residents has become one of the darlings of the Move your Money campaign, an Occupy effort to hit corporate banking where it hurts: the ledgers.

Jane Buckingham, a slender, blondish woman in a diminutive pearly gray dress and knee-high black boots, clearly has a following. The 39-year-old founder and chief of the Intelligence Group was standing at the podium in a swank conference room at the Sofitel hotel this fall addressing 50 marketers from studios, major game developers, cellphone operators and toy companies.

In a case that could erect new barriers to public access to government information, the Supreme Court this week was asked to hold that corporations have a right to "personal privacy. " Fortunately, justices from across the ideological spectrum appeared skeptical that such a counterintuitive concept could be found either in the law or in a dictionary. At issue is whether the Federal Communications Commission will release information about AT&T under the Freedom of Information Act. That law provides several exemptions, including one for trade secrets and another for information that "could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy" ?

Faced with the option of limitless political spending in a post-Citizens United world, corporations are increasingly choosing to disclose, and in some cases limit, their giving, according to a study released Friday. The report , created by the Center for Political Accountability and the Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, evaluated companies using numerous criteria, including board oversight of political giving, disclosure practices and restrictions on political spending.

Overturning a century-old restriction, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that corporations may spend as much as they want to sway voters in federal elections. In a landmark 5-4 decision, the court's conservative bloc said that corporations have the same right to free speech as individuals and, for that reason, the government may not stop corporations from spending to help their favored candidates. The ruling -- which will presumably apply as well to labor unions and other organizations -- is likely to have an impact on this year's congressional elections.

So President Bush thinks that tax cuts that will most benefit those with the most money (such as corporations) will create more jobs and stimulate the economy (April 25). Why not just dispense with the middleman and allow corporations to tax us directly? Bill Entz Granada Hills

Ideas for safer skies Re "TSA is chatting to boost security," Aug. 18 Why do Americans resist good ideas when they come from somewhere else? Two weeks before the 9/11 attacks, my wife and I traveled through Stockholm's airport. A man in a security uniform asked about our trip and our bags. I never felt safer flying anywhere. I said at the time that it was the most useful screening, and we were treated with respect. I wondered why this was not implemented here; it could have prevented the 9/11 hijackings.

LONDON — Over 60 years, Rupert Murdoch built a media empire using his properties and their profits not just to break down the doors to the British establishment, but also to control it. So Tuesday's scathing declaration by a British parliamentary committee that Murdoch is "not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company" may mark the moment when the once-tamed establishment lost its fear of the country's most powerful...

SAN DIEGO - A Marine sergeant who criticized President Obama on Facebook was notified Wednesday that he is being dismissed from the service with an other-than-honorable discharge. Gary Stein, 26, a nine-year veteran who served in Iraq, will be demoted to lance corporal, and his discharge status will make him ineligible for most federal veterans benefits, after Brig. Gen. Daniel Yoo accepted the unanimous recommendation of an Administrative Separation Board. The panel found that he made disparaging comments about Obama that were detrimental to good order and discipline and violated military law. Civilian lawyers for Stein said they would continue to fight in federal court to prevent Stein from being dismissed or to win his reinstatement.

SACRAMENTO — As the sun set behind Monterey Bay on a cool night last year, dozens of the state's top lawmakers and lobbyists ambled onto the 17th fairway at Pebble Beach for a round of glow-in-the-dark golf. With luminescent balls soaring into the sky, the annual fundraiser known as the Speaker's Cup was in full swing. Lawmakers, labor-union champions and lobbyists gather each year at the storied course to schmooze, show their skill on the links and rejuvenate at a 22,000-square-foot spa. The affair, which typically raises more than $1 million for California Democrats, has been sponsored for more than a decade by telecommunications giant AT&T.

WASHINGTON - Foreign political organizations like the Palestinian Liberation Organization and multinational corporations cannot be sued for the torture or murder of persons abroad, including Americans, under the terms of a 1991 U.S. anti-torture law, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday. Only individual perpetrators of such crimes can be held liable, the court said. The decision is a setback for human rights activists who have sought to extend American law to target inhumane conduct aboard.

Their Occupy-like grievances were familiar as activists staged a day of protests throughout California to oppose income inequality and other issues. Their choice of locations was not. Rather than parks or other public venues, these protesters demonstrated outside the well-tended homes of executives from some of California's largest corporations. The Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, an offshoot of the embattled national group ACORN, organized the protests outside the homes of the well-known, such as Hewlett-Packard chief Meg Whitman in Northern California.

The former Marina del Rey headquarters of automotive legend Carroll Shelby was sold along with two office buildings for $6.5 million. Shelby, once a race car driver, set up shop for his fledgling car company Shelby-American at 1042 Princeton Drive in March 1962, his website said. That year he introduced his first Cobra sports car, and in 1963 a Cobra won the United States Road Racing Championship. The company operated out of a red brick industrial and office complex built in the late 1950s that, according to books on Shelby, had previously been leased by playboy race car driver and entrepreneur Lance Reventlow.

The Supreme Court served notice Friday that it would not let states or state judges casually defy its much-disputed ruling in the Citizens United case that gave corporations a right to spend freely on election campaigns. The justices put on hold enforcement of a Montana election law. But the case could force the high court to reconsider the corporate spending issue if its liberal justices insist on doing so. On Dec. 30, Montana's high court said it was refusing to follow Citizens United as a binding precedent.

If you would rather skip the Christmas party and dazzle your clients with gifts, there are dozens of gift-giving firms eager to take your orders. For gift baskets this year, rattan is out and tapestry-covered hat boxes are in, says Martucci Angiano, a partner in the Creative Concierge in Culver City. She and her three partners have gifts ranging from an $11 box of fudge to a huge $250, 14-karat gold-painted shell filled with crystal champagne glasses and a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne.

You may want to sit down for this one: Americans aren't happy with the U.S. tax system (though 12% of them think it's actually the best one in the world). More than six in 10 Americans say the way the country levies taxes is less than perfect, according to a survey from Rasmussen Reports . More than a quarter aren't sure how they feel. Nearly half think that the average American currently pays out at least 30% of their income in taxes, when most believe the ceiling should be more like 20%. California Gov. Jerry Brown hopes to land a measure on the November ballot that would increase the sales tax and raise the rate for higher earners, with revenue going to schools and to balance the state's budget.

WASHINGTON - As a candidate in 2008, Barack Obama vowed to squelch the role of special interests in financing the party conventions - so he barred corporations and lobbyists from contributing money to this year's national convention in Charlotte, N.C. But even as Democrats tout the three-day event in September as a populist gathering, organizers have found ways to skirt the rules and give corporations and lobbyists a presence at the nominating convention....