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London is swinging again thanks to bride and princess-to-be Kate Middleton. Millions are hanging on her every move — where she shops, where she primps, what she eats and drinks. Although the couple live (part of the time) in a rented farmhouse in North Wales, Middleton and Prince William will likely move to London's Kensington Palace at some point in the future. And Middleton certainly spends a lot of time in London — especially now that the wedding is a month away — mostly in the swish neighborhoods of South Kensington, Chelsea, Knightsbridge and Mayfair, all of which are in close proximity to Hyde Park and the Buckingham and Kensington palaces.

Patriotism isn't easy. Just ask L.A.'s garment makers. Three years after combining their names to create Venley, a company that produces T-shirts and other basics in a downtown Los Angeles factory, onetime fraternity brothers Nick Ventura and Kevin Gressley find manufacturing clothes in the U.S. to be an expensive and frustrating undertaking. Like many other apparel executives in the U.S., the pair pay more than the minimum wage, Ventura said. Sometimes, the same amount of money Venley shells out for locally made fabric gets Wal-Mart Stores Inc. an entire outfit sewed abroad.

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Inc. unveiled a daring overhaul of its mobile operating system to kick off its annual developers conference, where it hopes to show critics that it has lost none of its innovative swagger. In addition to unveiling iOS 7, the company made a blizzard of other product and feature announcements that included upgrades to MacBook laptops and a new streaming radio service. As expected, there were no new iPhones or iPads, which are often announced separately. But the presentation seemed in spirit to also be a rebuttal to critics who contended that Apple had lost its innovative edge in the last year.

LAS VEGAS - If Shinola has any brand resonance these days, it's most likely from the phrase: "You don't know [expletive] from Shinola," a World War II-era insult referencing the shoe polish manufactured by Shinola-Bixby Corp. But the brand is back on the scene and in a big way. Founded in 1907, the original Shinola (pronounced SHINE-ola), has been defunct for decades, but the nostalgic name and trademark rights were plucked out of has-been brand obscurity a few years back and applied to a modern-day range of retro-inspired, made-in-America products, including bicycles, leather journals and now handsome wristwatches that retail from $495 to $725.

Watching Alzheimer's disease steal away the memory, talents and very selves of its victims is hard enough for the people who love them. Now, a new pill formulated by a respected pharmaceutical company and approved by the Food and Drug Administration will do little to help most patients and will bring misery to some, say two medical investigators. The drug, Aricept 23 mg, is no more effective on the whole than the disappointing ones already on the market - but is more likely to cause gastrointestinal problems, wrote Drs. Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz of Dartmouth Medical College in an article published Thursday in the medical journal BMJ. The new formulation was devised to serve commercial objectives, they say, and was approved despite a poor showing in company-sponsored tests.

When you walk into your neighborhood fish market or grocery store, the display case is filled with "fresh" swordfish, "fresh" salmon, "fresh" shrimp, "fresh" petrale sole. But then you take your catch home and find that your "fresh" filet has a frozen center. Or your fork finds mush instead of firm flesh. How long has your dinner been away from the ocean? And what has happened to it since it left the waves behind?

Grooveshark, still evolving in spite of lawsuits by major record companies, is launching a new feature Wednesday that will let users spin virtual records for their circle of friends. Although it's called " Broadcast ," the free feature is more like a group-listening application than a broadcasting platform. When users hit the "Start Broadcasting" button, the music they play on Grooveshark becomes available as a stream to their friends and followers on the site. Virtual DJs can record comments to insert between the tracks, but don't yet have the ability to do voice-overs.

Things seemed simpler this year at the enormous annual trade show for the natural products industry. There was a bit of a back-to-the-old-days vibe among the thousands of things to eat or drink, to use to clean your person or your house, to improve your digestion or your sleep. Consumers say they are too busy to sort through complicated labels and want straightforward products they can trust, according to many of the exhibitors at Natural Products Expo West last weekend at the Anaheim Convention Center.

New tests of 100 "natural" and "organic" soaps, shampoos and other consumer products show that nearly half of them contained a cancer-causing chemical that is a byproduct of petrochemicals used in manufacturing. Many items that tested positive for the carcinogen are well-known brands, including Kiss My Face, Alba, Seventh Generation and Nature's Gate products, sold in retail stores across the nation. The findings of the Organic Consumers Assn.

Cigarette packages will soon carry graphic images warning about the perils of smoking, because the earnest, if understated, written message simply wasn't doing the trick. The new images have already grabbed so much attention, it appears health officials may be on to something. Perhaps this could be a way to fight weight gain. With French fries and potato chips -- and, of course, sweetened drinks -- named this week as culprits in the nation's growing girth, perhaps the same approach should be applied to junk food.

So, there you are in the sunscreen aisle, where the number of products on the shelves is approximately equal to the number of grains of sand on a beach. How to choose? Read the labels. Your decision may still not be easy, but new labeling regulations should help. "The new regulations will make a significant difference," says Latanya Benjamin, a dermatologist at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University. "They standardize the basics of what to look for in a sunscreen.

Re "The rush to label our food," Editorial, May 24 Thank you for your editorial pointing out the fallacy that genetically engineered food is harmful to health. I am glad to get corn that does not become tasteless overnight in the fridge. Those who advocate labeling genetically engineered food argue that people want to know what is in their food. Even a label of "genetically engineered" will not tell anyone what is in the food. As a vegetarian, I am grateful to the scientists who have made it possible for us to have plentiful, wholesome fruits and vegetables, many of which have been genetically engineered.

The Senate Judiciary Committee continued its markup of a bipartisan immigration reform bill Monday, rejecting an amendment by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) that would have barred undocumented immigrants who are merely suspected of belonging to a gang, but not convicted of a crime, from legalizing their status. Deporting immigrants who have serious criminal records makes sense as a matter of public safety. The Times' editorial page has supported such policies. But Grassley's amendment wouldn't have furthered that goal.

Ever squinted to read the directions on a medicine bottle but couldn't make out the small print? California lawmakers have the prescription to solve that problem. The state Senate has approved legislation requiring pharmacists to print specific, important information on prescription labels in at least 12-point type. The bill was the idea of Senate Majority Leader Ellen M. Corbett (D-East Bay), who cited a survey by the state Board of Pharmacy that found 60% of people want larger or bolder print on prescription labels.

In a May 7 Op-Ed article , Richard Greenwald and Michael Hirsch exhort consumers to support the workers who make our clothes rather than the global apparel industry that exploits them with low wages and unsafe working conditions. Yet exactly how we should do this remains unclear. We need to be more specific about our moral responsibility so that the "labels we wear not be stitched in blood. " Should we be faulted for not buying clothes with the "Made in USA" label, for example?

The Senate Judiciary Committee is just beginning its markup of the bipartisan immigration bill, but already opponents and supporters of the sweeping legislation are fighting over which immigrants should be allowed to legalize their status and which should be deported. Clearly it makes sense to refuse legal status to immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes. But some lawmakers, including Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), are backing a provision that goes too far, excluding immigrants who have no criminal history simply because their names appear in a database of gang members or on a gang injunction.

Baidu Inc., China's largest search engine, has struck a deal to license songs from three major record labels, giving music companies a rare victory against piracy in the world's most populous country. Terms of the multiyear deal, announced Tuesday, call for Baidu to pay Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment for each song that is downloaded or streamed through Baidu's new ad-supported music social network, dubbed Ting. Baidu also agreed to pay the labels for songs delivered through its MP3 Search service.

SAG-AFTRA has reached a tentative agreement with the major record labels on a first-ever industrywide contract to cover dancers and performers who work on music videos. The three-year deal with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Walt Disney Co. was reached Friday morning. The negotiations had begun Wednesday. "Our negotiations were productive, resulting in solid gains for SAG-AFTRA members," SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director David White said.

After switching from a major label to go independent, Solange Knowles is returning to a traditional label -- sorta. The singer-songwriter-model has announced that she is starting her own imprint called Saint Records. It will be distributed through Sony. Knowles took to Twitter to make the announcement early Tuesday after reports surfaced that she had signed a deal with Columbia (which is owned by Sony). Saint Records is where “I'll be releasing my full length album, and also future music projects that I'm excited about sharing," she tweeted . RELATED: Interview with Solange Knowles Fans, and critics, have awaited a proper full-length from Knowles since she broke out with her 2012 EP, “True.” Her slow sonic evolution has been a captivating one to watch since she released her 2003 debut of inoffensive pop-R&B.

Jennifer Lopez has inked a deal with RedOne's 2101 Records for her eighth studio album, the label announced Wednesday. Lopez's deal marks the first under the label's new exclusive multiyear worldwide agreement with Capitol Records. The new partnership shouldn't come as a surprise. RedOne, the Moroccan-born producer/songwriter who has crafted smashes for Nicki Minaj, Lady Gaga and Enrique Iglesias, has played a critical role in reviving Lopez's previously lukewarm music career after the multi-hyphenate superstar was dropped from longtime label Sony.  Her massive comeback single, 2011's “On the Floor” was the first of a handful of collaborations between her and RedOne, who executive-produced her last album, “Love?