Stores

Until recently, very few people had ever heard of raspberry ketones, the aromatic compounds that give the berries their distinctive smell. Today, health food stores have trouble keeping the capsules or drops of the stuff on their shelves. Almost overnight, an obscure plant compound became the next big thing in weight loss - and all it took was a few words from Dr. Oz. In a February episode of "The Dr. Oz Show," Mehmet Oz told viewers that raspberry ketones were "the No. 1 miracle in a bottle to burn your fat. " Once Oz calls something a "miracle," it doesn't remain obscure for long.

Last summer, when the snowpack in the Sierra was twice its normal depth, rivers raged well into July. That meant many rafting outfitters were forced to turn away, for safety reasons, families with children younger than 8 until it was almost August. This year, if you're looking for a major white-water adrenaline rush, your options will be limited. With the Sierra snowpack at about 50%, rivers will peak for a short time in late May or early June. After that, moderate dam releases from streams mean flows will be mellow enough for parents who want to take their kids rafting, said Steve Merkle of rafting outfitter OARS.

In an age of long commutes, late sports practices, endless workdays and 24/7 television programming, the image of Mom hanging up her dish towel at 7 p.m. and declaring "the kitchen is closed" seems a quaint relic of an earlier era. It also harks back to a thinner America. And that may be no coincidence. A new study, conducted on mice, hints at an unexpected contributor to the nation's epidemic of obesity - and, if later human studies bear it out, a possible way to have our cake and eat it too, with less risk of weight gain and the diseases that come with it. Just eat your cake - or better yet, an apple - earlier.

"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.

The wait for tables is getting longer at Buck's, a popular breakfast spot for the tech elite and a weather vane for the Silicon Valley economy. Here, like everywhere else, Facebook is the talk of the town. "Charles Schwab was in the restaurant the other day, and I asked him to hook me up with some Facebook shares," said Jamis MacNiven, owner of Buck's, in the wealthy suburban enclave of Woodside. "He told me even he can't get Facebook shares. " The new tech boom officially gets underway Friday when Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg rings Nasdaq's opening bell remotely from the company's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, launching the largest initial public offering of stock in Silicon Valley history.

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."

First of three parts Tiffany Lee wanted a car. She was weary of the two-hour bus ride to her job at a UCLA Health System clinic. She hated having to ask friends to drive her 7-year-old son to his asthma treatments. But as a single mother with three children, bad credit and a $27,000-a-year salary, she couldn't find a bank or dealership willing to give her a loan. Then a friend steered her to Repossess Auto Sales in Hawthorne. Another buyer might have balked at the deal she was offered.

CHICAGO - When the White House sent a last-minute invitation for Asif Ali Zardari to attend the two-day NATO summit, they were taking a highly public gamble. Would sharing the spotlight with President Obama and other global leaders induce the Pakistani president to allow vital supplies to reach alliance troops fighting in Afghanistan? But long before the summit ended Monday, the answer was clear: No deal. Zardari's refusal to reopen the supply routes left a diplomatic blot on a summit that NATO sought to cast as the beginning of the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.

Raul Rambo is not in the mental health profession, but there are days -- many of them -- when it sure feels like it. Rambo sells tile. It is not an easy job. At Tile Expo, along Anaheim's stretch of State College Boulevard dubbed the Tile Mile, weighty decisions are made every day. A wrong choice could lead to misery and cost thousands of dollars. Families could be stuck with a hideous hue for decades.

IF it's been a year or two since you've shopped for a mattress, you're in for some surprises. That memory foam bed that once seemed so novel? It's now decidedly mainstream. Latex is the hot material of choice. And that's not all that's changed. Choices are multiplying -- especially on the luxury end -- and prices are too.

In the face of privacy concerns, the Los Angeles Police Department has agreed to change the way it collects information on suspicious activity possibly related to terrorism. The department, after coming under fire from civil liberties and community groups, will no longer hold on to so-called suspicious activity reports that the LAPD's counter-terrorism unit determines are about harmless incidents. Until now, the department stored the innocuous reports in a database for a year.

It's after-hours at the Huntington Meats in the Farmers Market and the canvas curtains are drawn. A dozen students sit on folding chairs circled around the worktable. On it lies splayed a whole hog, fresh from the farm, shaved naked, an apple stuffed in its mouth. Its nose is still a little bloody. Want to know where your meat really comes from? Take a butchery class. Over the next two hours, butchers Jim Cascone, Bob Ore and John Escobedo will take this whole animal and, using just a couple of knives and a band saw, reduce it to the cuts of meat you might recognize from the supermarket meat counter.

Worldwide rights to the Fred Segal name, a moniker that over the last five decades has become a sort of shorthand for the Los Angeles fashion-shopping experience, have been purchased by a New York City firm for an undisclosed sum. Sandow Media, which announced the acquisition, said the deal will allow it to put the iconic red, white and blue Fred Segal logo on merchandise as well as build Fred Segal stores around the world. Not included in the deal are the two brick-and-mortar Fred Segal retail centers — one on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles and one in Santa Monica.

Shoppers appeared more cautious about spending in April as cold weather and fresh concerns about the economy curbed people's urge to shop, prompting worries about a possible slowdown in spending in the summer months. Weak April sales reported by major retailers and jitters about U.S. unemployment data helped push the stock market down Thursday, with the Dow Jones industrial average falling 61.98 points, or 0.47%, to 13,206.59. Retail analysts remained cautiously positive about the coming months, but warned that more bad news about the economy could further dampen consumer spending.

Ascena Retail Group Inc. is venturing into the plus-size women's clothing market by acquiring Charming Shoppes Inc., parent company of Lane Bryant, for about $890 million. The purchase will allow Ascena, the Suffern, N.Y., company that owns Dressbarn and teen clothier Justice, to jump into the growing market for bigger-size women's apparel. Charming also owns the Catherines Plus Sizes and Fashion Bug brands. Ascena will buy Charming for $7.35 a share, a 25% premium over Tuesday's closing price.

The owner of the shoe store chains Payless and Stride Rite is being acquired for about $1.32 billion by a group that includes the owner of Hush Puppies. Collective Brands Inc., which has been looking for a buyer, has agreed to an offer from a group including Hush Puppies owner Wolverine Worldwide Inc. and two private investment firms. The buyer, which also includes Blum Capital Partners and Golden Gate Capital, will pay $21.75 for each Collective Brands share. That is a 5 percent premium to Collective Brands' closing price of $20.77 on Monday.

A tangy, sour, fermented milk drink may not sound like a likely candidate to move from health food stores to mainstream supermarkets, but that's exactly what kefir has done. The beverage is steadily gaining fans convinced of the health benefits -- proponents tout its purported ability to help cure cancer, reduce high cholesterol and treat high blood pressure -- yet the scientific studies to support the claims are still few. Kefir's closest cousin is yogurt, also made by fermenting milk with bacteria.

Could you review red yeast rice? I've started taking it in an attempt to lower my cholesterol and stay off statins. Diana Sherman Oaks The products: Lowly fungi have an amazing ability to create compounds that have strong effects on humans (alcohol, hallucinogens and antibiotics, to name a few). As far back as the Tang dynasty in 800, the Chinese harvested a red extract produced by certain types of fungi growing on rice.

Retail giantTarget Corp., which is already working on stores in Westwood and downtown Los Angeles, announced plans for another smaller-format urban shop at the Beverly Connection shopping center on West 3rd Street near the Beverly Center. California will have four of these urban stores, dubbed CityTargets, with three in Los Angeles and one in San Francisco. The Westwood store, at the Westwood Market Place near UCLA, will open first, in July, followed in October by the downtown Los Angeles store in the Fig at 7th mall.

Perched behind a counter lined with candy jars and plastered with beer ads in her liquor store, Young Ok Lee has been an unlikely sentry of Koreatown for 24 years. Up the street, there are signs of a new, hip Koreatown: A towering glass condominium selling million-dollar units. The sleek nightclub around the corner where bottle service easily runs close to $1,000. The numerous supermarkets, restaurants, bars and coffee shops constantly cropping up in an area not quite three square miles, drawing bustling, young crowds.