Steel

You look fat in that. Of course I'll be late. Your baby reminds me of Gollum's uncle. This is what the 2013 Subaru BRZ might say if it could talk. The all-new, rear-wheel-drive sports car starts at $26,265, and boy is it honest - perhaps more so than any other car on the market today, save for its mechanical twin, the Scion FR-S. The two were jointly developed by Subaru and Scion's parent company, Toyota, with both assembled by Subaru in Japan. The question about the BRZ is, can you handle the honesty?

The once-famed Steel Pier on the long-faded Atlantic City Boardwalk will invest more than $100 million on new amusement rides and entertainment venues after scrapping plans to revive its centerpiece diving horse act amid an outcry by animal rights activists. PHOTOS: New rides at Steel Pier in Atlantic City Located across from Donald Trump's Taj Mahal casino on the New Jersey shore, the 1,000-foot-long amusement pier will add 11 rides, an arcade, nightclub, museum and ballroom during a four-year expansion project.

As warehouses go, there are few like Skechers USA Inc.'s new 1.82-million-square-foot distribution center. This warehouse is so big that it takes half a minute to drive from one end to the other at 60 miles per hour. The setup is so advanced that human hands will hardly touch the cargo as it is unpacked, categorized, stacked and prepared for delivery. The building is so green that it uses prevailing winds for ventilation instead of air conditioning. For its new North American operations warehouse, the nation's No. 2 footwear company chose the Inland Empire's Moreno Valley.

Actress and historic home renovator Diane Keaton has listed a live-work town house in downtown Los Angeles for lease at $2,800 a month. She recently bought the condominium for $570,000. The three-level unit in a Arts District building dating to 1906 features exposed brick walls and steel beams, skylights, clerestory windows, wide-plank wood floors, vaulted ceilings, a patio, a rooftop terrace and an open floor plan. The 1,285-square-feet of living space contains two bedrooms and 21/2 bathrooms.

A mini-backlash is brewing against stainless-steel appliances, and it's not necessarily being driven by the price of stainless steel, which has risen as much as 60% in the last year. The cheaper faux stainless appliances -- made from aluminum or even plastic painted to mimic their popular and pricey siblings -- are being sought out by people who want the high-end look without the drawbacks.

USX to Raise Steel Prices: The nation's largest steelmaker announced much-anticipated price hikes for sheet steel, reflecting the strong market outlook for steel. USX-U.S. Steel Group said that beginning in January, it will raise prices by $30 a ton for all sheet products, as well as on the base price of all plate products, including carbon and high-strength low-alloy. Sheet steel, by far the largest steel market, is used in automobiles and appliances.

The rescue of the American auto industry was Vice President Joe Biden's opening argument as he began making the case for the president's reelection here today. In remarks at a local United Auto Workers union hall, Biden hailed the "courageous" action Obama took to save American automakers General Motors and Chrysler - and hundreds of thousands of jobs with them. The approach favored by Republicans, Biden said, is "sort of a cautionary tale" for how they'd manage the economy at large.

"What we wanted was a very light box that feels bigger than it is." Architect Sarah Graham was standing on the terrace of the graceful indoor-outdoor house she and her architect husband, Mark Angelil, finished in 1993. Anchored on a steep hillside of Beachwood Canyon, the 1,700-square-foot house combines a wood frame embedded with steel columns and a corrugated steel cantilevered "floating roof" that allows afternoon sun to flood the house with light.

The U.S. International Trade Commission has ruled that a surge of subsidized Chinese steel has harmed or threatens to harm the U.S. industry, in one of the largest-ever trade cases involving the two countries. The volume of steel pipes imported from China more than tripled between 2006 and 2008, rising from $632 million to $2.6 billion, according to the Commerce Department. The ruling means that the United States can collect duties on the Chinese imports. "This is great news for the U.S. steel industry," said Roger Schagrin, attorney for the U.S. steelmakers and the United Steelworkers union.

Modern steel buildings have long been considered among the most sturdy in the event of a major earthquake. But a model of a massive quake in Southern California has sparked debate among scientists and engineers over whether these structures are more vulnerable than previously thought. The Great Southern California ShakeOut, the nation's largest quake drill, suggested that about five high-rise steel buildings in the region would collapse in the modeled magnitude 7.8 quake.

Queen Latifah, Alfre Woodard, Phylicia Rashad and Jill Scott will star in a black version of "Steel Magnolias," the play by Robert Harling that was turned into a movie in 1989 with Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine and Julia Roberts. The project begins filming in Atlanta next month and will air later this year on Lifetime, the cable channel said Monday. It's been given a contemporary adaptation by Sally Robinson and will be directed by Kenny Leon, who directed the Broadway revival of "A Raisin in the Sun" in 2004 and the TV version that was done for ABC in 2008.

The rescue of the American auto industry was Vice President Joe Biden's opening argument as he began making the case for the president's reelection here today. In remarks at a local United Auto Workers union hall, Biden hailed the "courageous" action Obama took to save American automakers General Motors and Chrysler - and hundreds of thousands of jobs with them. The approach favored by Republicans, Biden said, is "sort of a cautionary tale" for how they'd manage the economy at large.

Set on a ridge in the Hollywood Hills, the Michael Gantert Residence takes full advantage of its dramatic viewpoint. The cantilevered steel-and-glass house, built in the early '80s, was one of the last designed by Case Study architect Pierre Koenig. Location: 6431 La Punta Drive, Los Angeles 90068 Asking price: $1.895 million Previously sold: In 2005 for $1.63 million Architect: Pierre Koenig House size: Three bedrooms, 21/2 bathrooms, 1,994 square feet Lot size: 7,400 square feet Features: Open-plan living, dining and kitchen area, floor-to-ceiling windows, laundry room, three-space carport, gated road About the area: Last year, 259 existing single-family homes sold in the 90068 ZIP Code at a median price of $850,000, according to DataQuick.

I'm a mutt fancier myself -- or "multicultural canines," as my dogs prefer -- but like millions of other lovers of canines of all kinds, I'll be tuning in Monday to watch the Westminster Kennel Club dog show , the 136th. There's at least one hot California dog in the running, a wire fox terrier nicknamed Eira. She's four years old, and she belongs to breederTorie Steele of Malibu. Eira took Best in Show at the National Dog Show on Thanksgiving, and Steele hopes she will become only the third dog to win the canine double-crown, the National Dog Show and Westminster.

"50/50" Summit, $26.99; Blu-ray, $30.49 The title of the dramedy refers to the odds of survival faced by young public-radio producer Adam Learner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) after he's diagnosed with cancer. Adam tries to lean on a therapist (Anna Kendrick) and his best friend (Seth Rogen) for support, but because they're all from a generation trained to respond to situations with aloofness, timidity and/or snark, they're unprepared for potential tragedy. Will Reiser's script — based on his own experiences — is a little too shaggy, and director Jonathan Levine doesn't help matters by letting his cast improvise so freely.

As Mitt Romney defends his record running a private equity firm, he frequently points to a fast-growing Indiana steel company, financed in part by Bain Capital, that now employs 6,000 workers. What Romney doesn't mention is that Steel Dynamics also received generous tax breaks and other subsidies provided by the state of Indiana and the residents of DeKalb County, where the company's first mill was built. The story of Bain and Steel Dynamics illustrates how Romney, during his business career, made avid use of public-private partnerships, something that many conservatives consider to be "corporate welfare.

The e-mail from an executive at Ford Motor Co. was blunt and direct. "I do not have any interest in pursuing anything," the official wrote one of the company's parts developers in Escondido earlier this year, as the auto industry was sliding into an historic meltdown. That was how tiny KVA Stainless Inc., a 5-year-old start-up working to develop lightweight, gas-saving stainless-steel components for Ford, got dumped and how it found a new direction on the shop floor. The e-mail presented a challenge for KVA founder Ed McCrink, an 88-year-old entrepreneur whose long career included developing other steel businesses and a smoke alarm company.

Pounding surf and corrosive sea air have stymied efforts for years to erect a sturdy fence at the westernmost edge of the U.S.-Mexico border. Now, the U.S. Border Patrol is trying again, with a $4.3-million project that would extend a nearly quarter-mile barrier 300 feet into the Pacific Ocean and remake one of the more scenic spots on the border. When completed early next year, a steel fence 18 feet tall will replace a teetering, gap-riddled barrier that did little to discourage people from crossing back and forth on a wide beach linking Tijuana and Imperial Beach.

It hides on a busy boulevard in plain sight. It occupies a few feet of cyclone fence, a stitch of weary sidewalk, and part of a beam supporting a bridge that stretches across the freeway near Griffith Park. Rows of dried flowers cling to the fence. Beside the flowers, a stream of police tape forms the phrase Never Forget . Glued to the beam, well above the sidewalk for all to see, is a sheet of blue steel proclaiming five numbers: 37029. FOR THE RECORD: Officer memorial: An article about a memorial to a fallen LAPD officer in the Nov. 20 Section A included a headline that made a reference to the officer's badge number.