Business highlights from 2016

It’s been more than a decade since a handful of ambitious entrepreneurs saw their plans to provide global telecommunications service through massive satellite constellations blow up, doomed by runaway costs.

For investors, 2016 was a year to bet big on America — and ignore almost everything else.

For food shoppers, 2016 was a back-to-the-future experience, with retail prices deflating for the first time since Lyndon Johnson was president.

For decades, from Kodak to Polaroid to GoPro, companies have marketed cameras by touting features such as focal length, image size and memory space.

A teary-eyed Mala Sharma felt vindicated as she stood outside a school for impoverished children in India.

American Airlines Flight 998 from Orlando, Fla., landed at Los Angeles International Airport at 8:19 a.m. on a cloudy Tuesday morning, carrying 181 passengers.

At least one participant at the upcoming presidential inauguration will care more about how clearly the speeches will be heard than about anything said that day.

In Santa Ana, not long ago, on a tired commercial stretch west of downtown, stood a church, a burnt-out motel and something harder to see: one key to alleviating the region’s housing crisis.

Every holiday season, there’s a must-have toy — a Hatchimal or Tickle Me Elmo that kids covet and frantic parents will do anything to find.

When Stone Brewing released in 1997 its well-known Arrogant Bastard Ale, it was a hoppy revolt against an American beer market defined by bland corporate lagers.

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Six workers at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center say management tried to keep them from speaking out about possible patient infections and unsafe working conditions by asking them to sign confidentiality agreements.

In the new movie “The Great Wall,” Matt Damon helps Chinese warriors defend their country against fearsome monsters attacking the famous landmark.

CalPERS on Monday rejected its staff’s recommendation to again invest in tobacco stocks and instead widened the ban on tobacco investments for the nation’s largest public pension fund.

Brake Parts Inc. had manufactured brake calipers at a factory in the Central Valley community of Chowchilla for nearly 30 years, but a company executive said pressure was growing to reduce costs as competitors moved their factory work to Mexico.

Hollywood is headed toward another record year at the box office thanks to a lineup of blockbuster films, from the private lives of pets to foul-mouthed superheroes.

Viewed optimistically, it looks like Kyle Kazan’s investment fund got an unbelievable deal when it loaned $2 million to Bud and Bloom.

Uber said it will continue to operate its self-driving cars in San Francisco despite demands from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to cease its program or face legal action.

The private group that oversees physician training in the United States has proposed rolling back rules so that young doctors just out of medical school can work shifts as long as 28 hours.

There are few things more important to Amazon than delivery.

Facebook is introducing new policies to stem the flow of fake news, including partnering with third-party fact-checkers to flag fabricated articles in a seeming admission that humans still play a vital role in policing the world’s biggest social network.

Uber became the dominant ride-hailing company in the U.S. by operating under the principle that it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

Yahoo said Wednesday that hackers stole data that could be connected to more than 1 billion accounts — believed to be the most users affected in a single breach.

A slowly improving economy and the possibility of higher inflation from President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed policies led Federal Reserve officials on Wednesday to hike interest rates for the first time in a year and signal three more small increases for 2017.

Wells Fargo & Co. was sanctioned Tuesday by federal regulators who determined the bank has not done enough to ensure it could continue operating smoothly and without a taxpayer bailout after a bankruptcy.

Amelia Su-Lin Crawford stood near the corner of the expansive ballroom and handed out coupons to children’s clothing store Little T’s Boutique.

Since election day, Ellen Komp of cannabis advocacy group California NORML said she’s received at least a dozen emails and calls from employees asking whether marijuana is now exempted from employer drug tests.

It’s never been easier to launch a wildly profitable online media empire.

Rico Johnson says that when he was growing up, he never had to worry about having clothes or getting three meals a day.

When smartwatch maker Pebble Technology Corp. went up against Apple and Google last year, industry insiders described it as a battle between David and Goliath.

Last month, California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones ordered more than $100 million in refunds for nearly 2 million State Farm policy owners, alleging the company charged excessive rates for its homeowners and renters insurance.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the broad reach of insider trading laws, ruling that family and friends of corporate insiders can be prosecuted for profiting on secret stock tips even if they don’t pay money or other compensation for the information.

A Christmas tree shortage could have many Southern California shoppers feeling the holiday blues.

Horizon Pharma charges more than $2,000 for a month’s supply of a prescription pain reliever that is the combination of two cheap drugs available separately over the counter.

When the ultra-hip Moxy Hotel opens in San Diego next year, the rooms will be stocked with the usual amenities — an alarm clock, hair dryer, writing desk and flat-screen TV.

When Skechers started building a colossal distribution center in Moreno Valley six years ago, backers promised a wave of new jobs.

Your credit card may start winking at you soon in an effort to keep your data safe.

Near the border of South Los Angeles and Culver City, developers Frederick and Laurie Samitaur Smith plan on making a statement.

Two years ago on Black Friday, Justin Blankenship and his wife woke up at 4 a.m. to drive to Bed Bath & Beyond.

Dave Smith couldn’t believe his luck.

Since President-elect Donald Trump’s surprising election victory this month, financial markets have sent a forceful message that the era of super-low interest rates is coming to a close.

As the recovery from the Great Recession continues, job growth is solid and the labor force is growing at close to its fastest pace since 2000 because more unemployed workers are coming off the sidelines.

An atypical alliance between President Obama and pro-business Republicans built momentum for the largest global trade agreement in history.

Choosing our favorites among the more than 1,000 cars at the Los Angeles Auto Show was no easy task.

A federal regulator has tightened restrictions on Wells Fargo & Co., requiring it to get approval to replace or hire new executives and make other changes, in the latest fallout over the San Francisco bank’s fake-accounts scandal.

Fake news isn’t disappearing from Facebook anytime soon.

Visitors to the upcoming Los Angeles Auto Show will see supercars, hoverboards, self-propelling luggage and all manner of new transportation options.

Southern California’s signature and controversial adult entertainment industry may return home after the defeat of a measure that would have mandated condoms on adult film sets statewide.

Michael Smith is not used to stretching a paycheck.

When the Weather Channel’s carriage contract came up for renewal nearly three years ago, DirecTV’s chief content officer demanded the small network slash its programming fees by 75%.

As a caregiver, Sadie Hodge frequently buys groceries for her elderly and immobile patients.

Cannabis will be taxed more than tobacco, marketed like wine, funded like the riskiest of start-ups and grown under bank-like security.

Thanksgiving Day is around the corner, and that means the launch of the holiday shopping season — or does it?

Hillary Clinton was the choice of nearly every American newspaper editorial board. It didn’t matter.

As an experienced voice actor in video games, Sunil Malhotra has exerted his vocal cords to the breaking point while performing blood-curdling screams and monster grunts for numerous titles including the popular “Diablo” and “X-Men” series.

Google cut power usage in its data centers by several percentage points earlier this year by trusting artificially intelligent software originally designed to beat 1980s-era Atari video games.

Buying and selling greenhouses in the Salinas Valley was never going to be the stuff of a reality TV show.

On Century Boulevard near Los Angeles International Airport, travelers can pick among 14 hotels, ranging from budget lodging to a stylish three-diamond inn.

Public opinion polls and political pundits suggest a tightening race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but the way the business community is acting, the election is over.

When the U.S.

Ryan Kavanaugh’s plan to turn around his struggling mini-studio Relativity Media is on shaky ground.

Forget about tax plans and spending programs, trade deals and regulatory reform.

In an effort to boost the sale of low-emissions vehicles, California is again tweaking its rebate program for buyers of all-electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel-cell cars.

Like some kind of 21st century Willy Wonka, audacious entrepreneur Elon Musk chose a prime spot on the Universal Studios Hollywood backlot tour to unveil his latest attempt to energize an industry — roofs that generate solar power but look like no other.

Bay Area resident Joseph Dougherty landed a new job in Los Angeles and needed an apartment fast.

Therese Tucker tried studying business and art.

Paula Schwartz of West Los Angeles says Obamacare has helped her afford medical coverage while she cares for her aging mother.

Nearly two decades ago, Shigetaka Kurita was given the task of designing simple pictographs that could replace Japanese words for the growing number of cellphone users communicating with text messages.

Qualcomm Inc. boomed in the last decade as its powerful chips helped make smartphones common across the globe.

Casino operators know there are no gamblers quite like the Chinese.

The country will choose a new president on Nov. 8, and no one is more eager for that day than the TV executives who do business with the NFL.

Volkswagen took a big step toward trying to fix its tattered reputation Tuesday as a federal judge formally approved a $14.7-billion settlement of the automaker’s emissions cheating case.

Virgil Chis knows all about the loss of American factory jobs.

SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk answered questions about his plans to send humans to Mars in a Reddit Ask Me Anything session Sunday afternoon that prompted thousands of reader comments.

Spike Feresten is one of the funniest TV writers alive, with comedy credits stretching from “SNL” to “Late Night With David Letterman” to “Seinfeld,” where his “Soup Nazi” episode became one of the landmark moments in that long-running series.

Stephanie Palermo wasn’t interested in living in a “smart home” outfitted with web-connected appliances controlled remotely by phone or computer.

Facebook and Snapchat have overtaken the home pages of Yahoo and Google as the front door to the Internet for hundreds of millions of people.

As fast-casual restaurants conquer the nation, it’s no longer hard to find better burgers, artisanal burritos or upscale pizza.

When it comes to inflation, the price might not always be right, and that has consequences for the nation’s economy and the pocketbooks of average Americans.

When methane started leaking out of a well at the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility outside Los Angeles last October, noxious fumes blanketed the nearby Porter Ranch neighborhood for months.

The classic line about financial markets is that they can deal with good news and they can deal with bad news, but they just can’t handle uncertainty.

After hearing all the hype about tiny homes — the TV shows, lifestyle websites and magazine photo spreads — Lee Saenz decided that building the dinky dwellings would make a great part of his second career.

The ubiquitous Ferraris and Bentleys and Lamborghinis of Beverly Hills may soon be sharing the road with a new form of auto exotica: robot cars.

South Koreans sometimes call their country the Republic of Samsung, and they’re only half-joking.

Melissa Carbone quit her high-paying marketing job eight years ago and invested her life savings into something extremely scary: She launched a haunted hayride attraction in the heart of Los Angeles.

Samsung Electronics Co. asked retailers Monday to halt the sale of replacement models of a popular smartphone, extending the unwanted spotlight on the world’s most popular phone maker.

They’re known for bouncing around jobs, delaying marriage and holing up in their parents’ basements.

There’s less love these days for Tony the Tiger, Cap’n Crunch and Lucky the Leprechaun.

For Estela Slikker, life as a personal banker at a Chase branch in the East San Francisco Bay city of Martinez wasn’t easy.

With its egg-free recipe, Just Mayo had become a darling of vegans, a hot investment for Silicon Valley venture capitalists and an avatar for alternatives to industrial agriculture.

The era of monthly payroll gains of at least 200,000 appears to be over after the Labor Department reported on Friday that job growth was lackluster again in September, but economists said that’s a good thing.

A public awareness campaign last year did little to deter the growing number of rogue drones flying near wildfires and forcing firefighters to ground their own aircraft.

It has been a wild year for the people who choreograph the flow of goods in and out of U.S. ports.

Even as turmoil in insurance markets nationwide fuels renewed election-year attacks on the Affordable Care Act, California is emerging as a clear illustration of what the law can achieve.

Los Angeles County plans to require hospitals to begin reporting when patients are infected with a certain superbug so lethal that it can kill half its victims, health officials said Thursday.

For years, Los Angeles’ tech industry has been waiting for its big day: image-sharing app Snapchat’s initial public offering.

By Thursday, Theranos had scrubbed its website of its list of blood-testing “wellness centers” and the glowing reviews by patients praising its minimally invasive method.

The Supreme Court showed little enthusiasm Wednesday for cutting back on the government’s power to prosecute people who profit from trading stocks based on inside information.

Recalling the childhood fun she had at summer camp, Ciji McBride has decided to go back to the outdoors.

Yahoo Inc. reportedly built a program allowing the U.S. government to scan millions of customers’ emails for a specific phrase last year, raising questions in the tech industry about why Yahoo didn’t fight the demand.

Americans who use a fast-expanding array of prepaid cards for everyday transactions such as shopping, withdrawing money from ATMs and receiving pay or government benefits are getting new federal protections.

Meet the new cable company. Same as the old cable company.

It’s easy to imagine a future where products as mundane as toasters and window blinds will be connected to the Internet and controlled by software.

The intrigue of the Netflix drama “House of Cards” soon might pale next to the turmoil brewing over whether consumers should pay a tax to watch Netflix and other video streaming services.

Many thousands of Californians are dying every year from infections they caught while in hospitals.

Volkswagen has agreed to pay its U.S. dealers up to $1.2 billion to compensate them for losses suffered as a result of the company’s emissions cheating scandal, according to a settlement agreement filed Friday in federal court in San Francisco.

Blake Waltrip wants just five minutes with every California consumer who dumped milk for almond, soy or other dairy substitutes.

Che Voigt believes his company has solved problems that have plagued the working world since the advent of typing.

A big auto dealer group in Los Angeles has been doing the “yo-yo” on car customers for years, according to the U.S.

The Supreme Court agreed Thursday to decide whether The Slants, an Asian American rock band from Portland, Ore., can trademark its name despite the government’s objection that it is an offensive term.

Shirley Zhang knows she can get a perfectly reliable Chinese dumpling from a restaurant chain such as Din Tai Fung.

American Apparel’s incoming chief executive is a lawyer with a background in mergers and acquisitions and little retail experience — yet another sign that the troubled retailer may be heading for a sale soon.

SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk envisions a fleet of 1,000 spaceships embarking en masse for Mars, establishing a self-sustaining colony of as many as 1 million people and turning humans into a multiplanetary species within 40 to 100 years.

A paparazzi photograph of Snapchat Chief Executive Evan Spiegel prematurely revealed the Los Angeles company’s first piece of consumer electronics: a pair of video camera sunglasses.

With the impending late-2016 arrival of the Chevrolet Bolt EV and the expected late-2017 arrival of the Tesla Model 3, affordable long-range battery electric vehicles are an option for increasing numbers of American drivers.

Trucking paid for Scott Spindola to take a road trip down the coast of Spain, climb halfway up Machu Picchu, and sample a Costa Rican beach for two weeks.

Outraged senators castigated Wells Fargo & Co.

An Orange County developer is proposing one of the most ambitious developments of the current real estate boom in downtown Los Angeles — a massive mixed-use complex with twin towers soaring 58 stories that would dramatically remake the largely low-rise Arts District.

When Combatant Gentlemen opened its first permanent location in Santa Monica Place in July, the store had many elegant touches: a sleek design, spacious fitting rooms, even an on-site tailor.

For many wine sophisticates, “Southern California wine” is an oxymoron.

A group of senators on Thursday requested a federal investigation into whether Wells Fargo & Co. violated labor laws after allegations the bank failed to pay overtime to tellers and other employees who worked late nights and weekends to meet aggressive sales quotas.

Like many mall owners, Irvine Co. recently got troubling news: A big tenant at its Irvine Spectrum Center, a Macy’s department store, would close in early 2016.

Federal Reserve policymakers held off on an interest rate increase Wednesday with a rare level of dissent amid some lackluster economic data but signaled a rate hike is coming before the end of the year.

To fast-track to a future where cars drive themselves, the freewheeling tech world and the historically buttoned-up auto industry joined forces to develop autonomous vehicles.

GoPro Inc., known for its rugged camcorder for outdoor adventurers, has unveiled a compact drone designed to record people’s treks from above.

The presidential election was exactly four weeks away and Federal Reserve policymakers were wrestling with the potential political blowback of lowering a key interest rate to stimulate the economy.

For the last five years, top shipping companies pushed forward with fat investments in more and bigger vessels, even as signs of trouble piled up.

In October, a Newport Beach investor purchased a run-down 109-year-old Craftsman home on 30th Street in the South Los Angeles neighborhood of Jefferson Park.

Cup Noodles became a staple in college dorms because of its cost and convenience.

SpaceX has a good reason to get back on the launch pad as soon as possible.

Parked outside a warehouse by the Allegheny River was Uber’s vision of the future: 14 Ford Fusions, each mounted with conspicuous cameras, antennae and sensors.

The economic recovery is finally providing relief to America’s long-running problem of stagnant middle-class incomes.

Wells Fargo & Co. said Tuesday that it would eliminate all sales goals for credit cards, checking accounts and other retail banking products as the financial giant tries to repair its image following a $185-million settlement over aggressive sales tactics.

Chevrolet has announced an EPA-approved range of 238 miles for its all-new, all-electric Bolt EV.

The for-profit college boom has gone bust.

The $185 million that Wells Fargo agreed to pay Thursday to settle government allegations over its overbearing sales practices is one big figure.

Thousands of electric cars are on the road, with many more set to join them over the next few years.

In response to growing complaints of racial bias among its users, Airbnb will beef up its nondiscrimination policy, do more to diversify its own workforce and offer implicit-bias training to its hosts, according to a report released Thursday after a three-month review by the company.

When the Sony Walkman went on sale in 1979, music was stored on a cassette tape, power came from AA batteries and sound traveled through headphones plugged into a 3.5-mm audio jack.

Anne Krieghoff thought her husband, Darryl, was out of his mind in 1991 when he suggested they buy a tiny, ramshackle homestead cabin in the Yucca Valley.

Leon Wiggins II was looking forward to the start of classes next week as he closed in on a degree in ITT Technical Institute in Torrance and what he hoped would be a future in cybersecurity.

A Valencia drugmaker that has tried to convince diabetics to inhale rather than inject their insulin is working on a product that will make a similar pitch to a new group of patients: severe allergy sufferers who rely on Mylan Pharmaceuticals’ pricey EpiPen.

For millions of Americans, a reminder of the economic damage of the Great Recession has arrived every week or two for years — in their paychecks.

If you deal in cars and rockets, you’re going to have crashes and blasts.

William Santana Li imagines a future where robots will keep Americans safe.

An unmanned SpaceX rocket, topped by an Israeli satellite, was being prepped for a test firing Thursday morning at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida when something went wrong.

There are no golf carts or carefully manicured putting greens left at the twice-bankrupt Malibu Golf Club.

At least eight pharmaceutical companies sell a decades-old drug that treats gallstones, but the competition has done little to keep its price down.

William Wang, founder and chairman of TV maker Vizio Inc., had receded into the background at the Irvine company in recent years.

Southern California is losing another manufacturing stalwart.

Marc Elliott didn’t know he’d become a player in the financial world until he received an unexpected email from a friend.

When graphic designers at children’s tablet and app maker Fuhu Inc. put up a Christmas tree with wacky ornaments for the holidays, an executive ripped them off and trashed them.

Winston Yan stood atop the largest real estate project of its kind in downtown Los Angeles, a monstrous patchwork of glass and concrete next to the 110 Freeway, and marveled at the bustle of workers, construction vehicles and cranes 38 stories below.

Enrique Zarate, 19, had spent just a year in college when he landed an apprenticeship at a new BMW facility in San Luis Potosí, Mexico.

At mutual fund giant Capital Group, investment managers study stocks, looking to buy when they’re underpriced and sell when they’re overpriced.

Space junk is getting worse. Could the answer be smart plastic wrap?

The robot cars aren’t coming. The robot cars are here.

When the Summer Olympics end Sunday, the clock starts ticking for medal winners hoping to cash in on their glory.

Gawker, the embattled gossip website, is shutting down next week after 14 years in operation.

Michael Udall earned three years’ worth of tuition and a hefty medal when his college video game team won a national tournament in April.

This fall, an unusual vessel will begin sea trials off the coast of California.

Recent decisions by giant health insurers to pull back from Obamacare exchanges across the country could make this fall’s enrollment period crucial to the program that has helped millions of people gain health coverage.

Struggling retailer American Apparel is eyeing a move out of its downtown Los Angeles manufacturing facility for a lower-wage part of the country, according to two sources familiar with the company.

Patients who gained health coverage through the Affordable Care Act are filling significantly more prescriptions while paying less for their drugs, according to a new study that credits the health law and adds to evidence of its benefits for previously uninsured Americans and those with chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure.

You’re out on the town. You hail a taxi with an app.

Tech entrepreneur Bobby Lo had no quick retort on stage when a high-profile venture capitalist denounced an idea he’d spent four years devising.

For years, insurance provider Health Net Inc. used illegal severance agreements to try to keep departing employees from talking to state and federal officials about company violations, the U.S.

Intel is diving head-first into virtual reality, announcing Tuesday at its annual developers forum in San Francisco that it is working on its own headset, collaborating with Microsoft to bring the medium to PCs, and opening a studio in Los Angeles focused on virtual reality content.

Venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar made a bold promise two years ago as he sought funding for his new Los Angeles company, Hyperloop Technologies Inc.

At the Olympics in Rio de Janiero, athletes from around the world are posting tweets, photos and observations between training and competing.

Here’s a little reality check on the current presidential campaign and promises by both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to bring back jobs from overseas.

If you’re wondering about Elon Musk’s latest vision for Tesla, think Apple.

Monday’s system-wide computer outage at Delta Air Lines continues to disrupt travel, with the cancellation of more than 2,100 flights and the delay of many more since the snafu began.

When Joshua Schwandt stayed at the Queen Mary several years ago, he loved the Art Deco woodwork and the way the Observation Bar oozed an old-timey feel.

An investment industry trade group is trying to kill a California bill that would make retirement savings accounts an almost universal benefit for workers in the state, saying that plan will be more expensive than lawmakers anticipate and could ultimately cost taxpayers.

If John Hanke, chief executive of “Pokemon Go” creator Niantic Labs, had his way, gamers would wear Internet-connected contact lenses, spend big at businesses promoted in his games and clean up neighborhood parks.

Vizio Inc. puts more trust into third-party contractors than many television companies.

After a week of 10-hour days folding and packaging clothing, Jesus Francisco Moreno walked out of the factory in downtown Los Angeles on a recent Monday afternoon to collect his $450 in wages.

Lunar exploration and mining firm Moon Express has become the first private company to receive government approval to land on the moon, possibly providing another boost for the commercial space industry.

With his latest move, Elon Musk is challenging Wall Street to determine whether merging two of his high-flying but unprofitable companies will help bolster their performance or double their risk.

Uber’s abrupt decision to sell its China operations to chief rival Didi Chuxing on Monday adds to a growing list of U.S. technology firms that have failed to flourish in the world’s second largest economy.

Uber’s rapid rise from small start-up to $62.5-billion tech giant is often chalked up to its unmatched bullishness, its penchant to win at all costs.

Walt Disney Co. may be developing an interest in your feet.

When foreign investors believed that they’d been snookered by an L.A. attorney-turned-money manager, they sued him and his firm, trying to get their money back.

In the top of the first inning of Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game this month, Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant clubbed a home run off the left field scoreboard at San Diego’s Petco Park.

“How many of you would like to make at least a million dollars a year?”

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is taking its first step toward reining in debt collectors, releasing an early outline of rules aimed at preventing them from harassing consumers and trying to collect debts that don’t exist.

For decades, the FICO score has been the dominant metric for deciding whether a borrower is creditworthy.

Lifting a cloud of regulatory uncertainty hanging over the future of Uber and its competitors in China, the government on Thursday legalized app-based ride-hailing services, but announced new licensing requirements and other rules.

Los Angeles has long attracted wealthy individuals willing to spend millions of dollars for a sprawling estate in the chaparral hills above the city or along its fabled coast.

With its $4.8-billion acquisition of Yahoo, Verizon has snatched up an Internet pioneer with a massive audience.

As television maker Vizio Inc. prepared to go public late last year, fears about the Chinese economy turned the stock market sour.

On a lonely mountain plain half an hour east of Reno, off a street named Electric Avenue, Tesla Motors Co. is building a massive battery plant called Gigafactory 1.

To help ease California’s housing crisis, Gov.

In mid-August of last year, warning signs at the Seattle headquarters of Nordstrom Inc. first became apparent.