Sales

At hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, cash is changing hands, typically about $45 for an eighth of an ounce. The dispensary owners call it a donation because state law requires their stores to operate as nonprofit collectives. But their critics -- police, the district attorney and the newly elected city attorney -- insist that it's a sale and that marijuana sales remain illegal under state law. The debate turns largely on the interpretation of one sentence in the law, but it touches on one of the biggest concerns about dispensaries in Los Angeles: that the rapid proliferation of stores is being driven by people who are hoping to profit from the so-called Green Rush and who are buying rather than growing much of their cannabis.

Lakers fans aren't letting the recession rein in their parade. Los Angeles sports retailers are reporting record sales as adoring fans snap up championship T-shirts, hats and flags. The outpouring of pride is more than welcome for business owners, who have been fighting a down economy for months. "Winning a championship seems to be curing a lot of people's blues," said Sean Ryan, vice president of merchandise for Anschutz Entertainment Group, owner and operator of Staples Center.

Lee sits on a bar stool in a plexiglass box near a highway offramp in central Taiwan. It's late afternoon and the 29-year-old is dressed in a red negligee, a fake rose planted firmly between her breasts. "I work from noon to midnight, and it's psychologically tiring," she says. "Furthermore," she adds, pointing to her husband a few yards away, "he takes all the money." Before you jump to conclusions, she isn't selling her body. In fact, she's using her body to sell . . .

The building that houses one of Southern California's last remaining cafeteria restaurants is going up for sale. And although the family that owns Clifton's Cafeteria intends to stay open for business, the historic restaurant is facing some serious financial challenges. There was a time when the cafeteria was the undisputed king of Southern California dining. Before World War II, the cheap food and sprawling dining halls brought together strangers to the region and created lasting bonds.

Leave it to brash punk-pop icon Green Day to inject some much-needed life into the U.S. pop charts. The band's latest concept-driven collection for Reprise/Warner Bros., "21st Century Breakdown," which was released off-cycle on a Friday rather than the typical Tuesday, sold 214,000 copies through Sunday, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Blackstone Group, the buyout firm that owns Hilton Hotels Corp., sold a golf resort near Carmel to an investment firm led by John Pritzker for $20 million. Pritzker, the founding partner of San Francisco-based Geolo Capital and son of the late billionaire Hyatt Hotels founder Jay Pritzker, said his company would spend about $25 million to upgrade Carmel Valley Ranch during the next 18 to 24 months. The resort is spread over 400 acres, and Pritzker's plans include room renovations and a spa.

The rights to "Terminator" are up for sale yet again. Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek, who acquired the science-fiction franchise in 2007 for $25 million and produced this year's sequel "Terminator Salvation," are looking to sell the rights as several companies owned by the two producers work their way through Chapter 11 reorganization. Anderson and Kubicek's Halcyon Holding Group has engaged financial advisory firm FTI Capital Advisors, pending approval by U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles, to "evaluate strategic alternatives," according to a statement.

Many irate Circuit City shoppers discovered the hard way this weekend that going-out-of-business sales don't always mean bargain-basement prices. Tensions have been running high at many of the chain's 567 U.S. stores after the electronics retailer announced Friday that it was ceasing operations and would begin liquidation sales the next day. The news that all merchandise would be discounted 10% to 30% drew throngs of customers to stores across the nation over the three-day weekend.

Three Southern California art fairs in January, two of them in one weekend? In this economy? It may defy logic, but business is business. As conceived when the financial outlook was rosier, photo.l.a., an annual marketplace for a kaleidoscopic range of photography, is winding up today at Santa Monica Airport's Barker Hangar. Art LA, a showcase and sales venue for edgy new work, is gearing up for its Jan. 23 to 25 gig, also at Barker Hangar.

The video images were disturbing -- a tiny white kitten singed with the flame from a lighter; a gray cat struggling beneath a woman's spiked heel; pit bulls tearing into a trapped animal. The Supreme Court has often said that freedom of speech includes ugly and foul language. But this fall the justices will be looking at video clips like these to decide whether selling films of dogfights or animal torture is protected from prosecution under the 1st Amendment. The dispute, expected to be heard in early October, has driven a wedge between traditional free-speech advocates and defenders of the humane treatment of animals.