Fell

Often film sequels are slam dunks at the box office, a seamless continuation from where a previous hit left off. But as the new installment of the 15-year-old franchise "Men in Black" proves, getting to the big screen isn't always a cakewalk. One of the most troubled productions in recent Hollywood memory, Sony Pictures' latest movie in the Will Smith-Tommy Lee Jones sci-fi-comedy franchise encountered multiple script rewrites, a discontented star and a three-month production shutdown as writers and studio executives scrambled to fix a project that nearly fell apart . By the time it was over, the studio had run up a tab of nearly $250 million - making "Men in Black 3" one of the most expensive releases of the summer.

Retail gasoline prices fell in California and across much of the nation over the last week, while crude oil recovered a little of the previous weeks' losses. The average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline in California fell 3.1 cents to $4.336 a gallon, according to the Energy Department's weekly survey of fuel prices, released Monday. That followed two weeks of increases totaling 28.1 cents a gallon. Last year at this time, a gallon of regular gasoline in California was 12.1 cents cheaper.

New figures from Gallup place President Obama's reelection bid in a precarious gray zone between the one-term exit of presidents like George H.W. Bush, and successful second-term victories like those of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Combining Obama's job approval rating with several evaluations of public sentiment on the economy, Gallup's indicators show that the president is performing better than he was just a year ago, but his numbers are nonetheless lackluster compared with those of his predecessors.

WASHINGTON — Growth in service industries, which make up 90% of the U.S. economy, slowed in April after surging the previous month, according to a leading gauge. The Institute for Supply Management said Thursday that its index of nonmanufacturing businesses fell to 53.5 last month, down from 56 in March. The drop was steeper than economists had been projecting and brought the index to its lowest level since November's 52.6. The April data came after the ISM reported Tuesday that manufacturing jumped in April to a 10-month high.

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.

A Spanish tightrope walker fell 85 feet to her death from a wire in the main square of this southeastern Spanish town, police said Friday. They said Francisca Aragueto Sanchez, 25, who was performing with the West German group Los Bordinis, fell as she was sliding down a cable from a church tower Thursday night.

Circulation continues to drop at U.S. newspapers, though the rate of decline slowed from the previous six-month reporting period. Figures released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations show average weekday circulation fell 8.7% in the six months that ended March 31 compared with the same period a year earlier. Sunday circulation fell 6.5%. That's a slight improvement from April through September of last year, when average weekday circulation dropped 10.6% from a year earlier and Sunday circulation fell 7.5%.

PG&E Corp. said first-quarter profit fell 13% on costs incurred by its Pacific Gas & Electric utility, the state's largest, to repair damage from torrential rain and heavy snow in January. Net income fell to $224 million, or 62 cents a share, from $256 million, or 71 cents, a year earlier, the San Francisco-based company said. The per-share results missed by 4 cents the average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales rose 11% to $3.73 billion. "Earnings were a little light, but the company is sticking to their earnings guidance for this year and next," said Michael Worms, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets in New York.

Mortgage Rates Fall: Rates for 30-year, fixed mortgages fell 0.24 percentage points and adjustable-rate mortgages fell 0.08 percentage points, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. said. The agency, which buys mortgages from lenders and packages them as securities for sale to investors, said interest on fixed-rate loans fell to 10.69% last week, down from 10.93% the week before. Adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 9.28%, down from 9.36%, the agency said.

Target Corp. reported second-quarter profit that fell less than analysts had estimated. In the quarter ended Aug. 1, net income fell to $594 million, or 79 cents a share, from $634 million, or 82 cents a share, a year earlier, Minneapolis-based Target said. Analysts polled a Bloomberg survey estimated profit of 66 cents. Sales fell 2.6% to $15.1 billion, including revenue from Target's credit card business. Retail sales fell 2.7% to $14.6 billion in the quarter ended Aug. 1. Target shares rose $3.11, or 7.6%, to $44.32.

CBRE Group Inc., the world's largest commercial real estate brokerage, turned a profit in the first quarter as U.S. property sales took off. The Los Angeles firm said Tuesday that income from arranging transactions to buy or rent space in offices, warehouses and other commercial properties helped revenue increase 14% from a year earlier to $1.35 billion. Growth was driven primarily by activity in the United States as leasing transactions fell off in Europe and sales slid in Asian markets.

SAN FRANCISCO — The rapid growth of Facebook Inc. showed signs of slowing in the first quarter, potentially cooling investors' fervor just weeks before the company's hotly anticipated initial public stock offering. Facebook generated $1.06 billion in sales, the second quarter in a row sales topped $1 billion. That represented a 45% jump from a year earlier but a 6% decline compared with the fourth quarter. The financial performance, the company's most anemic since at least 2010, fell below analysts' expectations.

East West Bancorp reported a 21% jump in first-quarter earnings, with an increased profit margin on lending and fewer troubled loans. The Pasadena company, the nation's largest Asian American bank, said Tuesday that it earned $68.1 million, or 45 cents a share, compared with $56.1 million, or 37 cents, a year earlier. Revenue, a challenge for many banks as the economy slowly recovers, rose 9.5% to $240.6 million from $219.8 million. The results, which beat Wall Street estimates by 2 cents a share, represented "another solid quarter" for East West, with steady increases in its portfolios of home mortgages and commercial and trade finance loans, RBC Capital Markets analyst Joe Morford said.

Martin Poll, 89, a veteran producer best known for "The Lion in Winter," the Oscar-winning 1968 film that starred Katharine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole, died Saturday in New York. He had pneumonia and kidney failure, according to his son, Jon. Hepburn won a best actress Oscar for her portrayal of Eleanor of Aquitaine. The film was also honored for best musical score and best adapted screenplay. Poll produced a remake for television in 2003 with Glenn Close in the Hepburn role. During a five-decade career, Poll produced a dozen films with stars such as Elizabeth Taylor and Woody Allen.

Death rates from unintentional injuries of children from birth to age 19 fell by nearly 30% in the United States from 2000 through 2009, largely because of a 41% drop in deaths in car crashes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday. That amounts to more than 11,000 children saved during the decade, Dr. Ileana Arias, principal deputy director of the CDC, said in a news conference. "The rate is among the worst of all high-income countries," she said, and the real shame is that most of the deaths "are predictable and preventable.

At this year's Oscars, Philippe Falardeau spotted his idol Steven Spielberg standing alone, firing off a text message. Falardeau panicked. How, the French-Canadian director fretted, could he break the ice and strike up a chat? "I was like, 'What do I do? What am I going to say to this guy?' So I just ran away," Falardeau, 44, recalled recently over breakfast at a Sunset Strip hotel. "I was just too shy. I blew my assignment. " Perhaps. But Falardeau seems to be making the most of an improbable career that was handed to him 20 years ago when he was picked for a TV-show filmmaking contest, and that reached a midlife apogee this year when he earned a foreign language film Oscar nomination for his fourth feature, the bittersweet classroom drama "Monsieur Lazhar.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell this week as lawmakers negotiated an economic stimulus plan to revive the U.S. economy and resuscitate the housing market. The rate fell to 5.16% from 5.25% a week earlier, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said. The rate fell to 4.96% the week of Jan. 15, the lowest on record.

New claims for unemployment benefits fell again last week to 348,000, a new four-year low as the economic recovery continues to accelerate. There were 5,000 fewer people filing jobless claims last week than in the previous week, the Labor Department said Thursday. The moving four-week average, a more reliable gauge than the weekly figures, also decreased by 1,250, to 355,000. The number of claims last week was the lowest since March 2008, when the effects of the just-beginning deep recession began hitting the labor market.

It's March 18, the day of the Honda L.A. Marathon, and I'm about to do something foolish. Again. I was remiss in my training. Instead of seeking professional advice, I devised a do-it-yourself plan to ensure I would finish the race in less than four hours and wound up pushing myself harder than my middle-aged body could tolerate. That led to a derailing injury. I'm just barely better on race day, but I still plan to push it to the wall. Why? Because every runner dreams of finishing a marathon.