Trucks

There wasn't much to like about Facebook's first day as a public company. The social media giant's stock rose by mere pennies in its initial public offering. The shares closed at $38.23, barely above the $38 IPO price. The performance fell far short of the grandiose expectations of Wall Street and Silicon Valley, and raised questions about whether the company's stock will be the sure bet many had counted on. "There was all this pressure and hype and attention with all eyes on Facebook — and the starlet tripped on the red carpet," said Max Wolff, an analyst at GreenCrest Capital Management in New York.

LA JOLLA - From Florenz Ziegfeld's synchronized showgirls toAndrew Lloyd Webber's roller-skating actors to aSpider-Man who flies, musical theater has often encouraged dance and movement extravaganzas. So imagine the anxiety of the team putting together the new musical, "Hands on a Hardbody," which has its premiere Saturday at the La Jolla Playhouse. The story's 10 characters are tied - figuratively - to a Nissan pickup truck. How do you take that reality and turn it into a show-stopping number?

His friends believed that Raul O. Martinez had lost his mind. Martinez had a plan to sell soft-shell tacos out of a renovated ice cream truck on the streets of East Los Angeles. "How will you sell those kinds of tacos?" he was asked. Despite the skepticism, Martinez, his wife and father at his side, parked the truck next to an East Los Angeles bar on a summer night in 1974. Martinez sold $70 worth of tacos that first night and soon afterward was selling $150 an evening.

With a caffeine headache and 60 bucks in my britches, I head out to the pony rides on a Friday night - to glittery, improbable Hollywood Park, now officially Betfair Hollywood Park. The Inglewood track's spring-summer semester has just started, and on Friday evenings it has what amounts to a horse-racing revival: a little wagering, a few food trucks, followed by a live concert reasonably priced. It's easy to see why these Friday night festivities are such a hit with young people like us. "I love ponies," the little guy says.

There is no mistaking what Francisco Galvez sells. Painted across the front of his catering truck, in big red letters, is the word TACOS , and that says it all . Every weekend evening, Friday through Monday, Galvez and his wife Elvia serve up steaming soft tacos to the mostly Latino patrons of a neighborhood nightclub on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood. On a good night, Galvez's Tacos don Paco rings up $300 in sales.

Although FedEx Corp. was built on a cargo airline, its trucking business is now a big-time moneymaker and a tough competitor for its chief rival, United Parcel Service Inc. But the shipping giant's trucking division, FedEx Ground Package System Inc., is embroiled in a growing labor fight that could raise operating costs by millions and lead to an overhaul of its workforce.

In a step toward eliminating smoke-belching trucks and transit buses from the road, Detroit Diesel Corp. has built the first methanol-powered engine for heavy duty vehicles that meet new, tougher California emission standards, the company said Friday.

Food trucks aren't a new thing to Eric Rivera. But when the native Angeleno heard of a new mobile food court opening downtown, he drove all the way from Downey to try it out. "I'll be back," Rivera, 41, said after feasting on a pulled-pork taco. His dining room was a 30-foot table with plastic chairs set up near four food trucks parked in front of the loading docks off Traction Avenue and South Alameda Street. Portable food courts are the latest trend in the Twitter-fueled gourmet food truck craze, eliminating the need for the typical cat-and-mouse chases around town.

California transportation officials say that a new truck expressway is needed to handle an expected post-recession trade boom at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation's busiest seaport complex. But the neighborhood that has already borne the brunt of port pollution is setting up a legal roadblock to stop it. "There are at least 21 days to 28 days a year when the air is so bad here that we do not let the children go outside to play," said Elva Carrillo, who helps her husband, Alfred, run a small private school affiliated with his Apostolic Faith Church in Wilmington, just 750 feet from the proposed truck expressway.

Express mail giant FedEx Corp. is preparing to roll out the first of four new all-electric delivery trucks in Los Angeles next month, but Chief Executive Frederick W. Smith said there were still significant barriers to bringing large numbers of zero-emission and low-emission commercial vehicles into service quickly in the U.S. "We would like to significantly expand the number of vehicles we have in this category," Smith said. "But the capital costs are 50% higher than regular vehicles.

Ah, the glamour of being an Olympic medalist. It is an overcast Wednesday morning in Newhall. The parking lot at the Oak Tree Gun Club is already filling up and the greatest competitive female gunslinger in the history of the good ol' USA is being put through the paces by a photographer. Our modern-day Annie Oakley stands on a square of dirt, next to a field of gravel and facing a scraggly hill. A sign warns of rattlesnakes in the area, and Kim Rhode laughs and says, "Almost sat on one here.

The American Trucking Assn. said that it expects the industry to haul more freight than it did last year, but it added that the pace of growth would probably be slower than it was in 2010 and 2011. The association is the nation's biggest trade organization for the trucking industry, with affiliates in each of the 50 states. In 2010 and 2011, freight tonnage grew by 5.8%, but this year the Trucking Assn. is expecting growth of slightly less than 3%. Bob Costello, chief economist for the ATA said that the trucking industry's performance during the first quarter "was reflective of an economy that is growing, but growing moderately.

Beetles and Rogues are for chicks, 911s and F-series trucks are for dudes. That's the finding of TrueCar.com's study of new-vehicle buying preferences by gender. "Female car buyers really gravitated toward smaller, more fuel-efficient cars and crossovers," said Kristen Andersson, a TrueCar analyst. "It was the complete opposite for male buyers, who preferred either a fast and sporty vehicle with distinctive curb appeal or a big vehicle, like a large truck or SUV. " The Volvo S40 had the highest percentage of women buyers, 57.9%.

Madison Richardson had no clue that Los Angeles was burning. On April 29, 1992, the head and neck surgeon was touring the Griffith Park Equestrian Center with polo-playing friends from India. A colleague paged him. Could Richardson rush to Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood to help care for a young truck driver who was near death after a beating? Oh, and, by the way, had Richardson been watching TV? No? Then find one and turn it on. What Richardson saw reminded him instantly of the chaos he witnessed during the Watts riots in 1965 and the Washington, D.C., riots in 1968.

General Motors Co. plans to bury the Chevrolet Avalanche. The automaker said the 2013 model year will be the last for the truck, which features unique styling that incorporates a mid-size truck bed and interior seating for five. It was meant to be a light-duty pickup truck that could tow, haul and still transport a family. "More than 580,000 Avalanches have been sold since its introduction in 2001, and Avalanche has won major awards and recognitions throughout its run," said Mark Clawson, Avalanche marketing manager.

WASHINGTON — More than 21/2 years after the fatal crash of a Lexus in suburban San Diego led to the recall of millions of Toyota vehicles, federal regulators are taking their most significant step to prevent future vehicles from accelerating out of control. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration formally proposed a requirement Thursday that automakers include a brake-throttle override system in all their passenger cars and light trucks to help drivers regain control when a vehicle accelerates suddenly.

Mayor Bradley has a point, but then so does the trucking industry. Both sides keep overlooking the common-sense solution! I drive the freeways (40 miles a day) during peak hours. A large percentage of the trucks and truck-caused accidents are not local pickup and delivery trucks! They are long-haul trucks (carrying hay, chickens, wine, etc.). Restrict freeway access during peak hours to local trucks and issue them plates/decals or permits--whatever works best. The trucks could still use the freeways making deliveries and pickups.

Re "Anger in La Cañada after rig accident," April 3 If there is a "No Trucks" sign posted at the northern end of the Angeles Forest Highway, why was the truck that crashed in La Canada Flintridge, killing two, on that road? I've driven trucks for many years, and I've always thought that the reason the runaway- truck escape lane at the south end of the mountains was abandoned was because the state had closed that route to trucks, except for local deliveries. As far as the signs are concerned, no means no -- and there's no debate.

Agriculture exporters would like to see a heavy truck corridor created in California that would run from the state's Central Valley to San Pedro Bay to reduce their shipping costs and boost exports through Long Beach and Los Angeles. Peter Friedmann, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Agriculture Transportation Coalition, floated the idea this week at the Pulse of the Ports international trade conference sponsored by the Port of Long Beach. Friedmann said future economic growth in the U.S. would rely more on the growth of exports, including those supplied by the nation's farmers.