Rise

Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III didn't throw at the scouting combine -- he will do that at his campus pro day -- but he wowed NFL teams with his blistering-fast 4.41-second 40-yard dash. Maybe his socks had something to do with it. Griffin, you see, is an avid collector of all kinds of socks. You might remember the Superman ones he wore at the Heisman Trophy ceremony, complete with dangling capes. On his first full day at the combine, he wore a pair depicting the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

First-time claims for unemployment benefits rose by 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 362,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. The larger-than-expected increase followed a drop in claims the previous week, when 342,000 filed initial jobless claims. The Labor Department's less volatile measure of jobless claims, a four-week moving average, was 360,750, an increase of 8,000 from the previous week's revised average of 352,750. Investors will get a stronger read on the labor market on March 8, when the federal government releases its report on unemployment in February.

Think the bedbugs are biting? You're not alone. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency say the pest that was oh-so last century is making a big comeback in the United States as well as other countries. There's currently no bedbug hotline to record the extent of the bug's return, but federal agencies suspect the rise of pesticide-resistant bedbugs and increase in international travel may have led to the latest invasion.   Cities like Chicago are feeling the pinch.

The voice gushed with excitement, making it a phone message worth saving. "'Mom, I'm traded to the Sparks!' " Noelle Quinn exclaimed after learning she was leaving the Minnesota Lynx and heading home to L.A. Her mom, Golden Quinn, a Sparks season-ticket holder since the WNBA's inception, has listened to the message a dozen times. "It's her dream come true," the elder Quinn said. "It's a joy to see the sparkle in her eye and her laughter. It's a moment of joy we continue to celebrate."

U.S. housing and factory data on Thursday showed the economy still gaining strength in December but at a pace unlikely to cause the Federal Reserve to rethink its stimulus program. Economists said they expected Friday's reading of gross domestic product to show the world's biggest economy picking up speed, albeit short of the pace needed to bring down unemployment significantly. The National Assn. of Realtors said its pending home sales index, based on contracts signed in December, rose 2% to 93.7.

There are a few things we should go over on the G.I. Joe front before you lock and load for the nearly two hours of supersonic warfare that is Stephen Sommers' "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra." First the plot, and this will probably surprise you: Well-equipped bad guys want to take over the world; well-equipped good guys fight back. Cool futuristic machines, weapons and CGI make for lots of excellent exploding and imploding everywhere. You guess who wins. Next. Don't call them G.I. Joes.

According to a new report, U.S. workers could see an increase in pay despite a lagging labor market and an uncertain economic outlook. The human resource consulting firm Mercer says base pay is expected to rise an average of 2.9% in 2013, up slightly from 2.7% in 2012 and 2011 and 2.3% in 2010. The forecast indicates a steadily increasing trend in base pay, the report said. “Base pay is still the most important element of the employment deal," Mercer executive Catherine Hartmann said.

The effect of climate change is anything but hypothetical to retired Colombian naval officer German Alfonso. Just ask him about the time his neighborhood in this historic coastal city became an island. For five years, Alfonso, 74, has watched tides rise higher and higher in the Boca Grande section of Cartagena. This month, tides briefly inundated the only mainland connection to his neighborhood, a converted sandbar where about 60 high-rise condo and hotel towers have been built in the last decade or so. "Before, people thought it a normal phenomenon.

A high-rise office building on Bunker Hill in downtown Los Angeles has been acquired by CBRE Global Investors, an affiliate of L.A. real estate brokerage CBRE Group Inc. CBRE Global bought 400 S. Hope St., a 26-story tower at the southeast corner of Hope and 4th streets. The price of the sale by New York investors Tishman Speyer and BlackRock Inc. was not disclosed, but downtown real estate experts familiar with the property valued it at $236 million. The 700,000-square-foot building was completed in 1982 to be the headquarters of law firm O'Melveny and Myers.

DreamWorks Animation may end up losing nearly $100 million on its recent holiday release "Rise of the Guardians. " That's the sobering prediction of Lazard Capital Markets analyst Barton Crockett.  In a research note on Wednesday, Crockett said he expects the Glendale-based studio will take a $96 million write-down on "Rise of the Guardians," which has been a rare box office flop for DreamWorks. 'Rise of the Guardians,' which cost about $145 million to make, has generated $261 million in global box office ticket sales since its debut in late November, well below that of a typical DreamWorks Animation movie.  The movie -- about a group of folk heroes, including the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, who join forces to protect children from an evil nemesis -- has yet to open in New Zealand, Poland, Turkey and Japan.