Quality Control

A former quality control manager for a Teledyne Inc. unit has accused the large Los Angeles defense contractor of firing him illegally because he refused to falsify test results on sensitive electronic equipment that is extensively used by the U.S. military. In a related matter, the government has compelled a Teledyne division to suspend shipments of critical electronic equipment to the military after the equipment failed during testing, according to government documents obtained by the Times.

What's good for General Motors is good for nursing home patients. That is what UCLA gerontologist John F. Schnelle learned when he applied quality control techniques from factory assembly lines to nursing homes. His methods involve keeping detailed computerized records on patient mobility, nursing home noise levels and incontinence so corrective action can be taken as soon as any deviation from norms is spotted. "That's exactly what they do at General Motors," he said.

John Morrissey found out about ISO 9000 two years ago when his prime-contractor customers sent him letters telling him to get ISO-compliant if he wanted to do more business with them. David Goodreau discovered that his Burbank machine shop needs ISO 9000 certification to do business with big companies outside his customary defense work.

It is the fastest-growing "alternative" in a nation increasingly enchanted with unconventional and unproven treatments. A million or more Americans have lately tried St. John's wort, an herbal remedy for depression with 1998 retail sales estimated at $400 million--up 3,900% since 1995.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday filed civil insider trading charges against a former Orange County stockbroker and an ex-employee of a Torrance printing plant in the wake of the 1988 Business Week magazine insider trading scandal. In the fifth insider trading lawsuit to result from the scandal, the SEC sued Brian J. Callahan, formerly a broker in the Anaheim office of Prudential-Bache Securities, and William N.

Once a week, Steven Pearson and Michael Meier strap on helmets, jump off a mountain and try to fly like birds. The two run Wills Wing Inc. in Orange, the world's biggest manufacturer of hang gliders. Pearson, 56, the company's president, and Meier, 62, its chief financial officer, also are part of a team of pilots that flies every glider. Test flight days can be grueling, lasting as long as 12 hours in the San Bernardino Mountains. They fly even when temperatures top 100 degrees because skipping a week is not an option.

Political movements like the tea party may come and go, but the pot party seems to get stronger with every national election, putting the federal government in an increasingly untenable position. To date, more than one-third of the states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana, at least for medical purposes, and, according to Americans for Safe Access, eight other states are considering bills to do the same. As a result, we're getting close to the point where half the country will have legalized a drug designated a Schedule 1 controlled substance by the federal government, meaning it has no known medical uses and is as dangerous as heroin.

Los Angeles-based Alpha Therapeutic Corp., a blood products unit of Japan's Green Cross Corp., agreed to hire an outside consultant and beef up its quality control practices in a consent decree with U.S. regulators to be filed in federal court. The Food and Drug Administration said it and the Justice Department pursued the decree after inspectors repeatedly found problems with the company's manufacturing standards and testing procedures.