Warehouse

The USC School of Public Policy is getting a $50-million donation from the charity established by the founder of the Price Club warehouse-style shopping chain, university officials plan to announce Tuesday. The school will be renamed for the late Sol Price, who earned an undergraduate and law degree from USC and went on to success in discount membership retailing and in real estate investments. Price died in 2009 and his wife, Helen, who also graduated from USC, died the year before.

SEATTLE — Amazon.com Inc., addressing issues that have drawn heavy criticism of the company, told shareholders that it planned to improve warehouse conditions and drop its membership in a conservative public-policy organization. More than 100 protesters rallied outside the company's annual shareholders meeting Thursday at the Seattle Art Museum, calling on the Internet retailer to pay more taxes, treat its workers better and drop its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Philadelphia officials said Tuesday that they've opened investigations into the fire at a vacant warehouse that led to the deaths of two firefighters. The investigations are still in the early phase as officials seek to find a cause for the fire, a spokeswoman for Dist. Atty. Seth Williams said by telephone Tuesday. The city is also examining other buildings belonging to the developers who owned the warehouse and similar buildings like the one where the fire started about 3:15 a.m. Monday.

PATTERSON, Calif. - Amazon.com Inc.for years has fought government efforts to tax e-commerce. Now it's poised to pocket millions of dollars in sales taxes paid by California customers. As part of a pact reached last year with state lawmakers, some online retailers agreed to begin collecting sales taxes this fall. About half of the projected $316 million raised in the first full year is expected to come from merchandise sold by Amazon, which is also setting up two California fulfillment centers that will employ at least 1,000 workers each.

L ogistics, the art of bringing socks and TVs and carrots from where they're made to a store near you, is a trillion-dollar industry in the U.S., and continuing to grow. The industry grew 10% in the middle of a deep recession, according to a report last year , and helps companies such as Wal-Mart, Target and Amazon get goods to you in increasingly cheap ways. But the logistics industry may also be driving down standards of living, according to a report out today by Jason Rowe of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, in partnership with New Labor, a workers rights group.

SEATTLE — Amazon.com Inc., addressing issues that have drawn heavy criticism of the company, told shareholders that it planned to improve warehouse conditions and drop its membership in a conservative public-policy organization. More than 100 protesters rallied outside the company's annual shareholders meeting Thursday at the Seattle Art Museum, calling on the Internet retailer to pay more taxes, treat its workers better and drop its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Reporting from San Francisco -- For an organization that wants us all to live more lightly on Mother Earth, Greenpeace sure has a lot of stuff. Cases of humpback whale costumes and a forest-green ambulance marked "Climate Emergency Response. " Inflatable boats and a two-man airship. Handcuffs, 70 purple umbrellas and a climbing wall where protesters train before rappelling down the headquarters of corporate America. Decades worth of props are housed in a fading yellow warehouse half the size of a football field in San Francisco's Dogpatch, an industrial neighborhood squeezed between a freeway and a shipyard.

It's hard to miss a man with a wooden bucket hat on his head, especially if it's adorned with painted leeks. "There are very few fashion statements that haven't been made," said Guy Klender, 37, an actor, "and this is one of them." The handle of the bucket dangled under his chin. The haberdashery (from "Falstaff") wasn't the strangest item for sale at the Los Angeles Opera's first-ever costume sale held Saturday. That distinction would go to the grotesque rubbery costume worn by bass baritone Daniel Okulitch as the title character in "The Fly," the 2008 opera directed by David Cronenberg.

The modern lighting showrooms Artemide and Rezek are staging a one-day warehouse sale today with bargains at up to 80% off. The sale includes discontinued, reconditioned, "as is" showroom samples and production seconds. Reduced items include the popular Tolomeo Micro LED table lamp (now $145, down from $730), as well as the Mezzachimera table lamp shown here (now $175, down from $740). Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Artemide / Rezek warehouse, 4200 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City. Walk-in sales only; no Internet or phone transactions.

Those Argentine blueberries and Colombian roses at your local market probably took a lengthy detour on their way to Southern California. Chances are, they entered the U.S. through Miami International Airport and arrived in California after a cross-country truck trip that took three days. Now, a new refrigerated warehouse just east of Los Angeles International Airport may help the region grab a bigger — and fresher — slice of the business of transporting items with a limited shelf life.

L ogistics, the art of bringing socks and TVs and carrots from where they're made to a store near you, is a trillion-dollar industry in the U.S., and continuing to grow. The industry grew 10% in the middle of a deep recession, according to a report last year , and helps companies such as Wal-Mart, Target and Amazon get goods to you in increasingly cheap ways. But the logistics industry may also be driving down standards of living, according to a report out today by Jason Rowe of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, in partnership with New Labor, a workers rights group.

SAN FRANCISCO — At 11:10 a.m. on the dot, a squad of fresh-faced environmental activists bearing ominous black balloons sashayed into Apple's flagship store on Union Square. Some were dressed like members of a hipster, black-clad cleaning crew. Others plastered outsize decals on the minimalist retail establishment's windows. And anyone taking an Apple device for a test drive Tuesday morning was automatically routed to a Greenpeace website . The store takeover — carried out in sync with actions in New York and Toronto — was part of a global Greenpeace campaign to get technology giants to switch to renewable sources of energy for powering the electricity-hungry information cloud.

Philadelphia officials said Tuesday that they've opened investigations into the fire at a vacant warehouse that led to the deaths of two firefighters. The investigations are still in the early phase as officials seek to find a cause for the fire, a spokeswoman for Dist. Atty. Seth Williams said by telephone Tuesday. The city is also examining other buildings belonging to the developers who owned the warehouse and similar buildings like the one where the fire started about 3:15 a.m. Monday.

SACRAMENTO — A former California wine keeper convicted of destroying more than 4.5 million bottles in a warehouse fire was sentenced to 27 years in prison. A federal judge in Sacramento also ordered Mark Anderson to pay $70.3 million to customers who lost their premium collections in the October 2005 blaze. Anderson, 63, stored the wine for 95 vintners and dozens of private collectors for a fee at the Wine Central warehouse in Vallejo. Prosecutors say he set the fire to cover up the fact that he was embezzling wine for years.

State regulators have fined two warehouse operating companies more than a quarter of a million dollars for allowing unsafe working conditions at four San Bernardino County distribution centers. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health said Wednesday that it issued $256,445 in citations for more than 60 violations found during a recent inspection of warehouses in Chino. Cited were warehouse owner National Distribution Centers and its temporary staffing contractor, Tri State Staffing.

Reporting from San Francisco -- For an organization that wants us all to live more lightly on Mother Earth, Greenpeace sure has a lot of stuff. Cases of humpback whale costumes and a forest-green ambulance marked "Climate Emergency Response. " Inflatable boats and a two-man airship. Handcuffs, 70 purple umbrellas and a climbing wall where protesters train before rappelling down the headquarters of corporate America. Decades worth of props are housed in a fading yellow warehouse half the size of a football field in San Francisco's Dogpatch, an industrial neighborhood squeezed between a freeway and a shipyard.

The owner of a warehouse in Port-au-Prince fired on looters Thursday, killing one person as U.S. forces were called in to calm the situation. "I'm not going to lose anymore," said Alan Francillon, the owner. Looting, which has devastated properties in the port area, is moving into other parts of the capital as civilians, emboldened by the lack of local security from either the feared police force or the army, perform a daily ritual of destruction.

A five-alarm fire destroyed a roofing materials warehouse, forced the evacuation of nearby buildings and injured two warehouse workers, firefighters said. The blaze Tuesday night sent a towering column of smoke over the suburban area between Seattle and Tacoma and knocked out electricity to downtown Auburn.

Those Argentine blueberries and Colombian roses at your local market probably took a lengthy detour on their way to Southern California. Chances are, they entered the U.S. through Miami International Airport and arrived in California after a cross-country truck trip that took three days. Now, a new refrigerated warehouse just east of Los Angeles International Airport may help the region grab a bigger — and fresher — slice of the business of transporting items with a limited shelf life.