Honda Performance Development is gearing up for some competition from Lotus and Chevrolet. The Santa Clarita-based maker of IndyCar racing engines will face challenges from the two manufacturers starting with the 2012 season of open-wheeled racing. The American Honda Motor Co. unit has been the exclusive provider of engines to all drivers in the IndyCar [...]

The City Council has rejected the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power’s plan to scale back rebates to homeowners and small businesses that install solar panels. The rejection came in response to complaints from solar panel installers and environmental groups. The council directed DWP officials to come up with a better way to structure [...]

Matech Corp., an L.A. company with a once-promising technology to detect cracks in bridges, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The Nov. 16 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court came after Matech defaulted on $6 million in stock debentures, and after several investors and service providers had sued and obtained liens against the company. The tiny [...]

When robbers swept into a port-area cargo depot earlier this month and quickly drove off with several shipping containers crammed with goods, it may have seemed like an odd crime. Not so, said investigators. Even though overall crime is down locally, there has been a major exception: cargo theft. About $25 billion worth of goods [...]

An Azusa manufacturing startup has launched its first product: a 3-volt lithium battery the size of a quarter designed to power glasses for 3-D TV – a product already making its way to major retailers. Contour Energy Systems Inc., founded in 2007, announced last week that it had established retail partnerships with Amazon and OneCall [...]

Eureka Moment: I studied scenic and lighting design in college and graduate school and had done quite a bit of work in live entertainment, film and television design work before I began designing architectural lighting. In Hollywood when you need scenery or props you can ask a prop house to build anything you can dream [...]

Question: What can you find at Dodger Stadium, the Hollywood Bowl, the Coliseum, the Rose Bowl and the Greek Theatre? And even at the Taj Mahal and the Beijing “Bird’s Nest” stadium built for the 2008 Olympics? Answer: Waterless urinals in the men’s restrooms designed and manufactured by West L.A. company Falcon Waterfree Technologies. The [...]

Recent surges in cargo volumes have prompted the majority of marine terminals in Southern California’s two major ports to reinstate late-night and weekend operating hours this week. Eleven of the 13 terminals in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will add five weekly off-peak shifts, extending operating hours from 6 p.m. to 3 [...]