Energy

Manny Hamelburg, 68, a retired businessman, had fought prostate cancer for years. First, he tried radiation, then a drug with side effects that nearly killed him, and finally Lupron, a drug that blocks production of testosterone, the hormone that can fuel prostate cancer. The cancer disappeared. But life was miserable. Without normal levels of testosterone, Hamelburg says, he had no energy, and "zero libido for seven years. I was like a eunuch. I was chemically castrated. Sex was just hugs."

SAN JOSE - After a morning of closed-door campaigning here Thursday, President Obama plans to talk about tax credits for clean energy production during a visit to Iowa. As he focuses on his administration's efforts to boost job creation, Obama plans to call on Congress to extend tax credits designed to encourage businesses to invest in clean energy production, senior officials said. Obama is scheduled to make his remarks on a visit to TPI Composites, a global provider of composite wind blades to major turbine manufacturers.

First of three parts Tiffany Lee wanted a car. She was weary of the two-hour bus ride to her job at a UCLA Health System clinic. She hated having to ask friends to drive her 7-year-old son to his asthma treatments. But as a single mother with three children, bad credit and a $27,000-a-year salary, she couldn't find a bank or dealership willing to give her a loan. Then a friend steered her to Repossess Auto Sales in Hawthorne. Another buyer might have balked at the deal she was offered.

That ray of light you see peeking through all the clouds darkening California's future? That's the sun. More specifically, solar power, in which California is the hands-down national leader. The state's installed solar generating capacity of about 1.2 gigawatts - the equivalent of two big conventional power plants and enough to fill the electrical demand from nearly 200,000 homes for a year - easily outstrips the next 10 highest-ranked states. It's also the fastest-growing solar market in the country.

Gasoline prices are keeping up their record-setting ways. California drivers paid an average of $4.358 for a gallon of regular gasoline, up 6.6 cents from a week earlier, the Energy Department said Monday. That's a fresh record high for this time of year and is 48.4 cents above the year-earlier price. Nationally, the average rose 7.2 cents to $3.793, also a record for this week, according to Energy Department statistics. A year earlier, the average U.S. price was 27.3 cents lower.

J. Paul Reddam might not be the type of businessman for whom people suffering through the recession can bring themselves to root. Reddam, 56, is president of Anaheim-based CashCall, the mortgage refinancing and high-interest personal loan company who critics say has unfairly capitalized upon people's financial woes during the country's economic and employment crisis. But the Sunset Beach resident is also owner of Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another, who could provide horse racing with a huge shot in the arm Saturday with a victory in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico.

On bright days, the rooftop of the Anaheim Hilton is so blindingly white that it looks like a mirror positioned directly at the sun. That dazzling glare might just be the greenest thing to happen to the top of a building since solar panels. The white coating deflects nearly 85% of the heat that hits it, reducing the surface temperature by as much as 50 degrees. That means less energy is needed to cool the hotel's interior, cutting air-conditioning costs and carbon emissions.

As warehouses go, there are few like Skechers USA Inc.'s new 1.82-million-square-foot distribution center. This warehouse is so big that it takes half a minute to drive from one end to the other at 60 miles per hour. The setup is so advanced that human hands will hardly touch the cargo as it is unpacked, categorized, stacked and prepared for delivery. The building is so green that it uses prevailing winds for ventilation instead of air conditioning. For its new North American operations warehouse, the nation's No. 2 footwear company chose the Inland Empire's Moreno Valley.

He was one of the creators of the iPod and the iPhone. Now former Apple executive Tony Fadell is trying to bring some of that magic to a gadget that is an afterthought in most homes. Called Nest, it's a smart thermostat geared to the iPhone generation. It's designed to learn homeowners' schedules and surroundings and keep them comfortable while saving them money on energy bills. Nest can also connect to a home Wi-Fi and be remotely controlled with a smartphone, tablet or laptop.

Americans spend billions on hair-care products each year, a remarkable investment for a part of the body with no real function. We clean it, nourish it and style it -- and we definitely mourn its loss. Lots of products and procedures promise to restore thinning or disappearing hair. One especially intriguing option is the HairMax LaserComb, a hand-held laser device that supposedly revives hair follicles.

Two weeks before the Major League Soccer season opened, Jose Domene, 31, Chivas USA's youthful general manager, sat in a rickety school bus on its way to yet another in a series of events to promote a team that had lost its way both on the field and in the community. This year, he pledged, it would no longer be business as usual for his faceless franchise, one that hasn't had a winning season or a playoff appearance since 2009. Thursday he backed those words with action, swinging a pair of major deals that landed his team a dynamic young striker in 19-year-old Juan Agudelo and a rugged central defender in Danny Califf.

Barely two months after the cost of fuel was a white-hot matter in the presidential race, the issue has receded, just as prices have declined across much of the country. AAA reported Monday that the national average price of a gallon of gas has declined for 28 straight days, 21 cents off the recent peak of $3.94. That steady decline is the longest such streak since May 2010. Should it continue another day, it would be the longest since the summer of 2009. On the surface, that's good news for President Obama.

OKLAHOMA CITY - Is it over? It's just the first game in two weeks' worth of them, the earliest hours in a brawl that could last all day, but I know what everyone is thinking, so we might as well ask it. Is this first punch a knockout punch? How on earth can the Lakers peel themselves off the floor to win four of the next six games against an Oklahoma City team that just beat them by 29 points, two dozen sprints, a dozen floor burns, six dunks, five tongue-wagging celebrations, and one glaring Derek Fisher?

UC Santa Barbara, according to old stereotypes, may still conjure up the image of a lush campus by the beach, where students can squeeze in a few hours of surfing after class and live in a nearby neighborhood that is one of the nation's best-known party zones. But in reality, UC Santa Barbara over the last three decades increasingly has become a center of scientific research, and its move in that direction was strengthened Saturday with the announcement of a $50-million private donation to energy efficiency research and engineering programs.

Backers of a Little Tokyo gymnasium Saturday showcased their long-awaited site for an array of basketball, martial arts and art activities that they hope will revitalize the historic heart of Southern California's Japanese American community. Community volunteers laid out a full-sized high school basketball court over the site, a city-owned parking lot on Los Angeles Street near 2nd Street. Then they led youth athletes, first- to ninth-graders, in a basketball clinic, followed by an Okinawan karate demonstration.

SAN FRANCISCO - Dustin Moskovitz, at 27 the world's youngest billionaire, gained fame and fortune after founding Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg. He also gained the "Facebook 15. " He packed on the extra pounds while chowing down on free snacks and guzzling four sodas a day at the social networking giant. Today, Moskovitz is a svelte version of his former self. He runs Asana, a start-up named after the Sanskrit word for traditional yoga sitting positions. That's fitting since the company holds twice weekly group yoga classes at its San Francisco offices.

Brentwood real estate broker Joan Gardner was suffering such excruciating pain with a swollen knee, months after a fall, that she was homebound, depressed and unable to work. Her doctor and orthopedic physical therapist encouraged her to have surgery, but Gardner declined because, "I'm stubborn and vain." Instead, she decided to try something different.

Many building professionals will tell you: The greenest home is the one that's already built. The energy costs of mining raw materials, manufacturing them into construction products and building them into houses far exceeds the "embodied energy" of existing homes. FOR THE RECORD: Home preservation: An article in Saturday's Home section about making green retrofits to historic homes said that many of the homes restored by architect Leo Marmol are in L.A.'s Historic Preservation Overlay Zones; none of them are. The article also said that a Greene & Greene restoration in Claremont had insulated the floors; the floors were air-sealed.

The newly created 44th Congressional District sprawls from San Pedro to Watts and across to South Gate. Its many blue-collar communities have been hard hit by the economic downturn and share a need for jobs, safe and affordable housing, and a representative capable of pushing those priorities in Congress despite the political gridlock that has seized Washington. The two candidates for the job, Janice Hahn and Laura Richardson, are incumbent Democratic members of the House, pitted against each other as a result of redistricting.

At some point, Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro hopes, starting center DeAndre Jordan will become a factor in the first-round playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies. In the first three games, that hasn't been the case. "It's really D.J. gets the first look because he's the starter," Del Negro said. "And then as the game goes on, the matchups and who is playing well and the rhythm of the game, sometimes that dictates a lot of that. " That means that Reggie Evans will get more playing time at center.