Prices

After the success of its "10 for $10" toy program last year, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is expanding its lineup of $10 toys for the holiday season to more than 100 items. The deals are expected to hit store shelves today. The move is the latest in an increasingly heated holiday toy battle as retailers race to attract frugal shoppers. Wal-Mart said it had worked with its suppliers over the last year to offer an assortment of top brands, classic toys and newly released items for $10, including Barbie dolls and Transformers action figures.

They leak, shake, rattle and spark -- and sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The rarest of rare vintage motorcycles, these decades-old machines are challenging to start and difficult to ride. Yet they are becoming more expensive to purchase despite -- and some say because of -- the down economy. For years, ultra-obscure bikes such as a 1936 Crocker Twin or a 1907 Curtiss V-8 were collected by a small handful of moneyed gearheads.

Two years ago, filmmakers would roll into the Sundance Film Festival confident that buyers would be willing to shell out $5 million to acquire their arty works, complete with a promise of a theatrical release. A lot has changed since then. The economy cratered, and dozens of independent films --including Sundance alumni "Hamlet 2" and "The Wackness" -- tanked. It was inevitable that this year's festival would be soft.

The California Milk Advisory Board continues to ply its "Happy Cows" advertising campaign, but there are few happy dairy farmers right now. Frustrated with low milk prices, dairy farmers are selling cows for hamburger meat and threatening to dump milk into sewers. Many are burning through their life savings hoping to survive the slump, and others are exiting the business. Two farmers have killed themselves. The pain is being felt throughout the U.S.

It seemed to be a daunting task when UCLA announced plans to drag the aging and architecturally troublesome Pauley Pavilion into the 21st century. Now comes a seemingly more complex undertaking -- the point system administrators have created to determine the pecking order by which fans get to choose their seats.

In some parts of the country, home prices are back near 2001 levels, and now so is the volume of advertising the TV networks have sold. Buckling under the pressure of a weak advertising market, the broadcast networks have cut prices for commercial time, a rare setback for companies used to commanding ever-higher prices.

Happy hour is getting happier, and that's making restaurants sadder. As the recession drags on, drinkers such as Luis Romero of Anaheim are gravitating to happy hour -- that late-afternoon period when bars and restaurants sell discounted drinks and food to attract customers during what otherwise would be a slow time. "You start watching your pennies a bit more," said Romero as he sipped a $3.

A rare copy of the first comic book featuring Superman has sold for $317,200 in an Internet auction. The previous owner had bought it secondhand for less than a buck. It is one of the highest prices ever paid for a comic book, probably a testament to the volume's rarity and excellent condition, said Stephen Fishler, co-owner of the auction site ComicConnect.com and its sister dealership, Metropolis Collectibles. The winning bid for the 1938 edition of Action Comics No.

With the lure of every song for 99 cents, Apple Inc.'s iTunes upended the retail establishment to become the nation's top music seller in less than six years. But the digital media powerhouse said Tuesday it would follow one of the oldest tenets of capitalism: The more someone wants something, the more you can charge for it. Apple finally bowed to a long-standing recording industry demand and agreed to sell music downloads at three prices -- 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29.

The massive henhouses plopped into a cornfield here resonate with the clucking of hundreds of thousands of birds. Across the U.S., cash registers beep, ringing up eggs for more than $2 a dozen. To Robert Krouse, president of the firm that owns the veritable chicken city, those hens are part of the soundtrack to a golden era of record profit for the egg industry. For consumers, well, let's just say the Easter Bunny shelled out a lot more green this year: Retail egg prices have been increasing at rates not seen in at least 30 years.