Customers

At least four people were injured Sunday afternoon after a man crashed into a San Jose Walmart, exited the vehicle, picked up a blunt object from inside the store and began to assault customers, police said. The man drove a red two-door car between 10 and 20 feet into the store on the east side of the city about 11:15 a.m., said Officer Albert Morales, of the San Jose Police Department. Authorities have not released the identity of the man. One of the customers suffered a serious injury and was taken to a local hospital.

The young inmates in a Los Angeles County juvenile detention facility are an ocean apart from the most powerful man in the world's largest church. But this week, they were linked in an Easter Week rite of healing and humility 2 millennia old. Pope Francis chose to celebrate Holy Thursday by sinking to his knees to wash and kiss the feet of a dozen youth inmates in an Italian juvenile jail - breaking from the tradition of performing that ritual with priests in the ornate cathedrals of Rome.

Experian Automotive on Tuesday announced that Ford Motor Co. took the top spot in customer loyalty during the fourth quarter of 2012 for the first time since the same period a year earlier. During the fourth quarter, Experian Automotive said, 47.9% of the customers who owned a Ford  vehicle returned to buy another Ford or Lincoln vehicle. General Motors had the second-highest customer loyalty ranking at 47.7%, followed by Toyota Motor Corporation at 46.9%. “Customer loyalty will always be a very important barometer of automotive sales success,” said Jeffrey Anderson, director of consulting and analytics for Experian Automotive.

Maybe they slowly grew on me. Or maybe it was the sheer sugar rush -- from testing close to 75 dozen chicks -- but I'll admit it. I've grown fond of Peeps. For most of us, an Easter basket simply isn't complete without a box of Peeps. The colorful marshmallow candy brand is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, and the popular chicks are to Easter what candy corn is to Halloween and candy canes are to Christmas. Of course, Peeps are probably just as famous for what people do with them, and I'm not just talking about fluorescent-tinted s'mores or a post-apocalyptic trip in the microwave.

Lululemon Athletica's recall of its too-sheer black yoga pants will cause trouble far into next year, the company said Thursday as it reported fourth-quarter and full-year fiscal earnings. Already, the issue -- dubbed “Pantsgate” by some on social media --  is inflaming customers claiming to have been mistreated by company associates while trying to return pants without enough rear-end coverage. Lululemon Addict, a fan site for the brand , posted tales this week of Lululemon sales associates demanding that customers put on the pants and then bend over to determine whether the clothing was see-through enough to warrant a refund.

Imagine a service that allows you to see your favorite acts in concert without ever leaving your home, let alone changing out of your pajamas. Stageit, a Los Angeles-based online company, does just that. The two-year-old service allows performers to play from just about any location with paying fans watching the show and even interacting with the artists between numbers. Think Skype meets pay-per-view. R&B-pop singer JoJo recently put on a show from her vocal coach's Leimert Park living room.

At least eight big providers of mortgage customer service have failed to properly track and resolve serious complaints about servicing fraud, according to an audit of Freddie Mac, the home finance giant that has been propped up by the government since the financial crisis. Freddie Mac needs to enhance its oversight of the servicers by testing their performance and establishing fines for noncompliance, the audit says. The Los Angeles Times was provided with an embargoed copy of the audit report, to be released Thursday.

Because of a long and confusing customs process to visit the U.S., 43% of overseas visitors said they would recommend others to avoid a trip to America. That was one of the conclusions from a survey of 1,200 overseas visitors, commissioned by the U.S. Travel Assn., a trade group for the nation's travel industry. The organization has long advocated that the federal government improve the visa process to make it faster and easier for foreign travelers to visit the U.S. Spending by international tourists traveling to and visiting the U.S. reached a record $168.1 billion in 2012, an increase of about 9% from the previous year, according to federal statistics.

Re "Ratepayers shafted in San Onofre fiasco," Column, March 13 In criticizing Southern California Edison for continuing to charge customers to operate the offline San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, Michael Hiltzik demonstrated a misunderstanding of how California's regulated utilities set their rates. Delivering reliable electric service 24/7 requires building and maintaining a massive infrastructure of power plants, transmission lines and distribution networks. To operate San Onofre, capital is secured from shareholders and borrowed from credit markets.

Butterfly Bakery Inc. notes on its website that all of its goodies are "made with 100% love. " Federal regulators say that recipe also includes plenty of sugar - even in food advertised as "sugar-free. " U.S. District Court Judge Dennis M. Cavanaugh approved a consent decree of permanent injunction against the Clifton, N.J., business this month, shutting down its operations until the bakery complies with U.S. Food and Drug Administration labeling requirements. FDA and state officials tested muffins and snack cakes from Butterfly over several years and found that many were misbranded, the FDA said this week.