Spending

California has failed to spend $455 million in federal safe-drinking-water funds and isn't adequately managing the program that administers the money, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials said. "Nearly half a billion dollars that could be actively used today is being held and basically parked," said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA regional administrator. Blumenfeld's office on Friday sent a notice of noncompliance to the California Department of Public Health, warning that if the state doesn't take corrective action within 60 days, the EPA may suspend grant payments to the program.

California's economic recovery continued to outpace the nation's in March as its unemployment rate fell to 9.4%, the lowest in more than four years for the Golden State. The state increased its payrolls by 25,500 jobs and pushed down the jobless rate from 9.6% in February, according to data released Friday by the state Employment Development Department. But the economic picture was not all rosy. Although jobs were added because of a rising housing market and continued consumer spending, 14,900 people dropped out of the workforce, mirroring a national trend of job seekers who become discouraged and give up looking for work.

Marketers say they plan to increase spending on online brand advertising in a new report that comes just weeks before the major digital distributors are preparing to woo Madison Avenue in a series of advertising presentations. The new 2013 Online Advertising Performance Report, produced jointly by the CMO Council and the Nielsen Co.'s Vizu, a unit that specializes in measuring online ad effectiveness, found that advertisers are changing how they view the medium. Though they once used online primarily for direct response, marketers who responded to this year's survey said they plan to allocate more of their digital dollars to brand advertising that's used to promote a company, product or service.

Hoping to improve its tarnished image, Carnival Cruise Lines plans to spend $300 million to add an extra generator in each ship and upgrade fire-suppression systems in response to the high-profile malfunctions that hobbled the Carnival Triumph this year. Carnival's investment comes in response to an engine fire in February that cut most of the power to the Triumph, which had to be towed from the Gulf of Mexico while frustrated passengers contended with nonfunctioning kitchens, bathrooms, air conditioning and elevators.

Los Angeles County prosecutors have closed an investigation into the spending habits of West Hollywood Councilman John Duran, whose charges on a city-issued credit card were the focus of a nearly two-year probe. Deputy Dist. Atty. Max Huntsman said criminal charges will not be filed against Duran, who charged dozens of meals to his city expense account, spending more than $7,000 at local restaurants over three years. There was "no evidence available to contradict the claim of city officials that they were conducting public business during these meals," Huntsman wrote in a letter Thursday to a person who filed a complaint against members of the City Council.

Los Angeles County officials overseeing the nation's largest local government unveiled a budget proposal Monday that they said marks the beginning of an emergence from years of austerity. The $24.7-billion spending plan calls for no major cuts and does not include a deficit for the first time since 2008. County officials said they expect to see the fiscal situation continue to improve as the housing and labor markets recover, boosting tax revenue and reducing demand for social services.

The L.A. County Museum of Art has signaled its commitment to African art by paying $1 million for a 3-foot-high "Gwan" sculpture of a mother and infant, believed to help ensure healthy childbirth by the Bamana peoples of Mali. "It's one of the oldest surviving wood sculptures of Africa and probably the oldest Gwan figure in existence," said Polly Nooter Roberts, a curator of African art at LACMA and professor at UCLA. According to carbon dating, the piece was made between 1432 and 1644, earlier than Gwan figures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Military spending fell last year in the United States and across western and central Europe, but surged in Russia, China, the Middle East and North Africa, according to new figures released by a research group based in Sweden. The changes “may be the beginning of a shift in the balance of world military spending from the rich Western countries to emerging nations,” Sam Perlo-Freeman of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said in a statement announcing the report Monday.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Facebook billionaire and tech mogul Sean Parker has a staff of hundreds and is spending millions to create a whimsical backdrop for his fairy-tale wedding in Big Sur to Alexandra Lenas, a source tells us. The total price tag could climb as high as $10 million, the person said. Nearly $9 million alone is going to building faux ruins, waterfalls, bridges and a gated cottage in Big Sur, according to TMZ.com. The stone dance floor in the woods surrounding the Ventana Inn & Spa will set the 34-year-old back $350,000.

Out with the Courtyard by Marriott , in with the DoubleTree by Hilton . That's pretty much what happened with the hotel at 13480 Maxella Ave. in Marina del Rey. It opened in late March under the new name Hotel MdR Marina del Rey (so nice they named it twice?). What's new is the upgraded decor of the 277 rooms and suites, but more changes are yet to come, according to a Hilton Worldwide announcement. Hilton, which has partnered with Channel West Group and Arris Investment LLC in this venture, plans to spend $7 million to give the building the DoubleTree treatment.