Spokeswoman

CKE Restaurants Inc., the parent company of fast-food chain Carl's Jr., is in "very early" talks about moving its headquarters from Carpinteria in Santa Barbara County to Texas, company spokeswoman Beth Mansfield said. CKE President Andy Puzder has been on a media blitz this week through the Lone Star State, where he has been promoting the chain in connection with the Super Bowl on Sunday. In an interview with the Dallas Morning News, Puzder said he would meet with Texas Gov. Rick Perry to discuss a move.

Its prices were low. But in the end, the downtown Los Angeles used-goods shop simply wasn't used enough. That's the reasoning behind the planned closure Friday of the 35-year-old Goodwill Store at 235 S. Broadway. "The downtown store is actually in the lower-to-middle range in terms of volume of business," said Sasha Itzikman, director of marketing for Goodwill Industries of Southern California. Nonetheless, countless downtown loft apartments and business offices have been outfitted with quirky artwork and inexpensive furnishings since the store opened in 1975.

Charging U.S. bottle manufacturer Owens- Illinois with worker exploitation and environmental damage, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announced plans to confiscate the local unit of the company, the 200th nationalization of a private firm this year. The seizure comes as Venezuela suffers through a sinking economy and the continent's highest inflation rate. Some experts blame the conditions in part on the inefficiency caused by Chavez's takeovers of private industry, an element of his so-called 21st century socialism program.

Allstate Corp. has sued Toyota Motor Corp. over sudden-acceleration-related claims it has paid, alleging that the accidents were caused by vehicle defects. The suit, filed Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, seeks $3 million in compensation for about 270 claims that the insurance giant has paid out since January 2007. It charges that "certain of Toyota's cars and trucks have a defect that causes sudden uncontrolled acceleration to speeds of up to 100 miles per hour or more," as well as "defective electronics and the absence of a fail-safe, such as a brake-to-idle override system.

Even in the world of diplomacy, there are times when language has to be clear and unmistakable – like after a flag is mistakenly displayed in a way to imply there is a state of war. The Philippine flag was displayed upside down behind President Benigno Aquino III when he met with President Obama and other leaders of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations on Friday. “This was an honest mistake,” Rebecca Thompson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy, said in a statement posted on the Official Gazette, edited by the Philippine president’s office.

Rahm Emanuel hasn't decided whether to leave his job at the White House and run for mayor of Chicago, but he's fending off the suggestion that he expects to just waltz into City Hall. "Rahm doesn't believe that anyone can be anointed or handed this election," says a spokeswoman for Emanuel, the former Chicago-area congressman who now serves as President Obama's chief of staff. "Only the people of Chicago will choose who should be their mayor. " In the jockeying for position since Mayor Richard M. Daley announced he won't seek reelection, a couple of prominent Chicagoans raised questions about the status of "front-runners," a label that arguably applies to Emanuel.

The contingent of National Guard troops scheduled for deployment next month at the California- Mexico border will be smaller and more narrowly focused than past missions, aiming at front-line deterrence rather than building fences and roads, according to federal officials. The 224 California National Guard members are part of President Obama's move to bolster enforcement efforts along the entire U.S-Mexico border, first announced in May. Most of the 1,200 National Guard troops heading to the frontier, about 550, are going to Arizona, the major illegal immigration corridor into the U.S. The California contingent will be posted at strategic areas across San Diego County and will drive U.S. Border Patrol vehicles, using binoculars and night-vision goggles to spot incursions and report them to federal agents, according to Kim Holman, a National Guard spokeswoman.

USC's athletic program has a new lineup from the one that produced enough rules violations to prompt major penalties from the NCAA. Football coach Pete Carroll is gone. Heisman Trophy-winning tailback Reggie Bush and his position coach, Todd McNair, are too. So is men's basketball coach Tim Floyd and his star guard, O.J. Mayo. And on Tuesday, Mike Garrett joined the list. Max Nikias announced that his first move as incoming university president would be to replace the longtime athletic director with former Trojans quarterback Pat Haden.

In what could be the first televised political attack to center on Facebook and online privacy, California attorney general candidate Kamala Harris is accusing Chris Kelly, one of her opponents in the race for the Democratic nomination, of "designing the Facebook privacy policy condemned across the country." "Chris Kelly released your private information," the ad's voice-over says, with solemn music in the background. The ad debuted in the Los Angeles television market Thursday.

Since taking office in 2005, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has sat courtside next to movie mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg at three Lakers games at Staples Center. He has cheered alongside Tommy Lasorda and Dodgers owner Frank McCourt in the owner's box at Dodger Stadium. Rarely has he missed an awards show: the Academy Awards, the Grammys, the Emmys and the BET Awards —anywhere there was a red carpet in Los Angeles, odds were Villaraigosa was photographed standing on it. It's no surprise that the mayor attends many of the city's premier sporting and cultural events.