Shops

A stream of highly charged particles from the sun is headed straight toward Earth, threatening to plunge cities around the world into darkness and bring the global economy screeching to a halt. This isn't the premise of the latest doomsday thriller. Massive solar storms have happened before - and another one is likely to occur soon, according to Mike Hapgood, a space weather scientist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford, England. Much of the planet's electronic equipment, as well as orbiting satellites, have been built to withstand these periodic geomagnetic storms.

Re "L.A.'s war on shopping carts," Editorial, May 20 I walk to the store to do grocery shopping for the week. Because I cannot possibly get all these groceries on the bus or carry them home, what will the city do for me? Offer free taxi vouchers? If the mayor thinks requiring locking mechanisms on shopping cart wheels will boost his popularity, he should think again and get busy revoking this ordinance. Lori Graham Los Angeles I like shopping at Aldi grocery stores, a German-based chain with many locations in the U.S. You don't have to worry about hitting a shopping cart in the parking lot. How do they do it?

washington -- Mitt Romney twice emphasized his unique business background when he and eight other Republican presidential candidates faced off in a debate last week in Iowa. "I've spent the last, as I've told you, 25 years in the private sector," former Massachusetts Gov. Romney declared at one point. "I understand why jobs come and why jobs go. I've done business in 20 countries."

"Do you need any help out with your groceries today?" Well yes, as a matter of fact. There are three full grocery bags in the cart. And a purse. And a 3-year-old. And that cart is a lifesaver because a person only has two arms. But instead of going all the way to the car or the bus stop, the wheels are locked and the thing won't move. Staring down from a post and mocking shoppers is a snarky sign explaining that the carts will go only so far and then stop at an electronic barrier, and that this confounded new system is somehow there for our protection.

Bob Kahl slips in through a side door of the vast, abandoned hangar and looks at what's left of the assembly plant where he worked for nearly 40 years. He remembers the hum of power tools, the biting aroma of cutting oil, swarms of workers plugging away on a labyrinth of yellow scaffolding. All that's left is a few piles of broken concrete and a sea of colorless dust that coats a Palmdale factory floor the size of two football fields. "Welcome to the birthplace of America's space shuttle fleet," said Kahl, 60, smiling.

A new sign hangs at the corner of 3rd Street and New Hampshire Avenue in Central Los Angeles: Little Bangladesh. Just behind it is a small shopping plaza with a Salvadoran restaurant, a pizza joint, a former Korean cigarette shop and a restaurant that serves teriyaki chicken, burritos and boba drinks. Across the street are more Korean- and Mexican-themed businesses. The nearest store with a clear connection to Bangladesh, Bengal Liquors, is a block away. All told, there are fewer than a dozen shops owned by or catering to Bangladeshis along this working-class commercial strip flanked by apartment buildings.

For most retail stores, staying in business for only a few days would be considered a major flop. But a growing number of merchants are opening shops and abruptly shutting them down soon after -- on purpose. These quickie retail operations -- known as pop-ups -- are showing up throughout Southern California and around the nation, filling in the gaps at recession-battered shopping centers for a fraction of the regular rents. Once limited to seasonal shops and dusty liquidation centers, pop-up stores are now being opened by some of the nation's biggest retailers.

The shops and restaurants along Disney California Adventure's re-themed entrance promenade will pay homage to the Los Angeles that Walt Disney encountered upon his 1923 arrival. When the main esplanade reopens in 2012, Buena Vista Street will reflect the Spanish Revival, Arts & Crafts and Art Deco architecture of the 1920s and '30s-era Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Pasadena and Wilshire Boulevard areas of the city. > Photos: Concept art of Buena Vista Street at Disney California Adventure The names of the Buena Vista Street shops will draw inspiration from Walt Disney's personal history and the animated characters created by his movie studio.

Maurice Irving Glad, the owner of 22 Midas auto repair shops, agreed Monday to pay $1.8 million to settle allegations from the California attorney general's office that his shops charged some customers hundreds of dollars for repairs they didn't need. "For years, Glad ran a bait-and-switch scam, in which he deceptively lured customers into his Midas shops with cheap brake specials, then charged them hundreds of dollars more for unnecessary repairs," Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said in a statement announcing the settlement.

The shops at the World Financial Center, lower Manhattan's new soaring granite and reflective glass office towers, offer high-class merchandise in an elegant setting. Designed by Cesar Pelli and Associates and opened last October, the center has a spacious, peaceful and calm environment. The complex's hub is the Winter Garden, a 120-foot-high, vaulted-steel-and-glass enclosed courtyard, flanked by handsome shops. Additional boutiques line marble-floored corridors and lobbies on the ground and second levels.

The Portland Hop. I know, it sounds like a dance craze in 1937. But really, it's what you do when Southern California gets you down and you need to drink small-batch beer, eat Northwestern locavore meals and see bike commuters in the rain. My wife, daughter and I hit Portland, Ore., for a few days last August. Here's the report. The bed. Once a Days Inn, the Hotel Modera (515 S.W. Clay St.; [503] 484-1084, hotelmodera.com; rooms for two start at about $129 in spring) got a serious upgrade before opening in 2008.

At a new, clean, classically styled barbershop in Culver City, the three young owners sit in the sun coming through their open storefront window talking women, restaurants and booze. Casual and welcoming, the attitude is akin to that of a clubhouse - a community hangout as in times past. It helps that their shop, the Blind Barber, is also a bar. "My grandfather was a very well-dressed and put-together man," said Jeff Laub, 28, one of the partners. "He hung at his barbershop. That's where they talked about women, that's where they played cards, that's where they made deals, that's where it all went down.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Washington has long coveted Peter Bourjos , but the Angels, despite a FoxSports.com report that they've had "preliminary discussions" with the Nationals about a deal, do not seem eager to trade the speedy center fielder. "We constantly field calls about players, but we are not actively shopping Peter Bourjos or looking for a fit for him," Angels General Manager Jerry Dipoto said. "We believe he's an asset to us. " The Angels are not quite sure what to do with that asset.

The Dodgers' new owners will pay $14 million per year to rent the parking lots from an entity half-owned by Frank McCourt, according to land-use documents intended to "facilitate the orderly development" of the property surrounding Dodger Stadium. The potential uses for the property include shops and restaurants, homes and offices, and another sports venue, according to documents obtained Friday by The Times. The documents also discuss the possibility of parking structures on the land.

Word that Wal-Mart is opening a Neighborhood Market in Panorama City is getting a markedly different reception than the criticism heaped on a similar grocery-only store that the retailing giant plans to open in downtown Los Angeles. Residents of the northeast San Fernando Valley have watched as the recession turned once-thriving commercial hubs into vacant storefronts. The Vannord Center, a 90,000-square-foot-center at the corner of busy Van Nuys Boulevard and Nordhoff Street, has been hit particularly hard with more than half of its 30 tenants closing their doors.

Sometimes bigger is better when buying art by committee. At this year's Collectors Committee weekend, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art bought $2.5 million worth of artwork to add to its permanent collection, including two larger-than-life works: a 60-foot-long Robert Rauschenberg screenprint that shows a collage of newspaper articles from 1970, bought for $775,000; and a nearly 10-foot-tall elevator surround that Louis Sullivan designed around...

This city will witness the start of a major redevelopment effort today when ground is broken on the $43-million renovation of the 25-year-old Chula Vista Center shopping mall. The renovation, scheduled for completion in October, 1988, will add 70 shops and about 144,000 square feet of retail space. The center now contains 44 shops and 680,000 square feet. Anchor tenants will be the Broadway, Sears, Roebuck & Co. and J.C. Penney. Officials of the city and the Homart Development Co.

Once upon a time, this was just another quiet village in the Oise Valley north of Paris where people did their shopping the French way. When they wanted bread, they went to the baker. When they wanted milk, they went to the creamery. When they wanted meat, they went to the beef butcher or the horse butcher. And so it was with fish, pastry, wine and so on. After several stops, which always included a ritual handshake with the shopkeeper followed by an exchange of complaints about one's liver problems and other ailments, the shopper had the ingredients for the evening meal.

WASHINGTON - As he pushes to "repeal and replace" President Obama's healthcare law, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has turned to proposals that could alter the way hundreds of millions of Americans get their medical insurance. In public, Romney has only sketched the outlines of a plan, and aides have declined to answer questions about the details. But his public statements and interviews with advisors make clear that Romney has embraced a strategy that in crucial ways is more revolutionary - and potentially more disruptive - than the law Obama signed two years ago. The centerpiece of Romney's plan would overhaul the way most Americans get their health coverage: at work.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Online shopping discounts — Two men have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms after they were convicted of several crimes related to an online shopping club. James A. Sweeney II and Patrick M. Ryan were convicted of numerous charges of grand theft and securities fraud involving a Riverside company called Big Co-Op Inc., which claimed to offer rebates and discounts to online shoppers. Prosecutors had accused the pair of selling worthless private stock in the company, which they claimed was turning huge profits and about to make an initial public offering.