Cost Control

On a recent winter night, while neighbors strung their Baldwin Park homes with Christmas lights, the Lams and their three children sat in front of a television set with rabbit ears sprouting out of the top. Wait a second -- rabbit ears? Is this 1950? No, it's almost 2010, and the Lams are a modern Los Angeles family that, like many in the region, are rediscovering the convenience -- and economics -- of the old-fashioned TV antenna. In the wake of the transition to digital television, Southland viewers are finding they can get nearly three times as many channels as they once could with an antenna.

Yahoo Inc. confirmed Tuesday that it would shut down most operations during Christmas week to save money, but experts said the holiday lull was par for the course in the Silicon Valley. The Internet company is mandating that most of its employees worldwide, except for those responsible for "essential functions" such as customer service, take off work Dec. 25 through Jan. 1. In the U.S., employees can either use vacation time or take unpaid leave. Christmas and New Year's Day will still be paid holidays.

In the latest austerity move in Hollywood, Universal Pictures has asked its three top movie suppliers -- Imagine Entertainment, Working Title and Stuber Productions -- and other production companies it funds to cut overhead and economize to compensate for the tough economic realities of the movie business, according to people close to the situation. Some of the studio's producer contracts will not be renewed when they expire. Others with longer-term agreements, including Imagine, Working Title and Stuber, have agreed to reduce operating costs, watch expenses and find efficiencies in their businesses.

Rochelle Corros is passionate when she speaks about her college major: Recreation and leisure studies is not just fun and games, she says with conviction. Graduates run city and state parks, recreation departments, hospital clinics, theaters and cruise lines. They help keep kids off the streets. So the Cal State Dominguez Hills senior was floored by an August letter from administrators telling her that admissions to the program would be suspended and courses slashed as the campus grappled with steep budget reductions.

Looking to slash payroll costs in a disastrous budget year, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council have thrown their support behind a new union contract that is designed to cut police overtime costs by 83%. The city's elected officials hope the two-year contract with the Los Angeles Police Protective League will reduce overtime costs by $72 million in the next fiscal year, according to a confidential report obtained by...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, unveiling the House's plan for a compromise on healthcare legislation today, said the bill would offer new insurance for tens of millions of Americans and lower costs for those who already have coverage. The plan represents a compromise among various interests in the House, the speaker said. It also will lead to a planned House vote and position House leaders for negotiations with Senate leaders crafting their own plan. "Here we are, for nearly a century -- it's really over a century -- leaders of all political parties . . . have called and fought for healthcare and health insurance reform," said Pelosi (D- San Francisco)

Three years ago, Massachusetts passed the most sweeping healthcare bill in the country, adopting a plan that closely resembles the proposals being considered by Congress. It is a plan that now offers powerful lessons learned for the whole country. The Massachusetts system, like the proposals moving toward votes in the House and Senate, focused on three goals: making medical insurance almost universal, fostering competition through a regulated insurance exchange, and helping low-income workers pay for coverage.

With summer over and vacation travel done for the season, the recession-battered airline industry took stock in the last week or so and found scant signs of improvement. Here's a rundown of the major findings: Pent-up passenger demand and cuts in airline capacity could lead to fare increases of as much as 6% globally and 7% in North America, according to the American Express Global Business Travel Forecast, which was released this week. Ancillary fees -- those charges to check an extra bag, change a flight or order a cocktail, among other costs -- are also expected to inch up, raising the overall cost of a domestic business trip by 1.2% to an average of $1,080, according to the report.

They couldn't have known it at the time, but United Airlines and other U.S. carriers were dealt a lucky break last year when an oil shock made it appear they were headed for bankruptcy. Overseas rivals, who were shielded from stratospheric fuel costs and the collapse of the U.S. dollar at the time, are now months behind the U.S. airline industry in dealing with the aftereffects of the global economic crisis that started as fuel prices fell, analysts said. International carriers such as Germany's Lufthansa and Air France-KLM are starting to lay off workers and trim routes as it becomes evident that lucrative international business flying will continue to be depressed for the foreseeable future.

Fanning out through this city's old neighborhoods, doctors and nurses from a local medical center have adopted a practice that harks back to a bygone era: They're making house calls. Surprising as it may seem, this throwback approach may offer a path toward the elusive goal of providing better medical treatment at lower cost. And although the proposal has generated fewer fireworks than the proposed new government insurance plan, experts say it may help transform the nation's healthcare system.