After investigating a fire that broke out on Boeing Co.’s 787 Dreamliner passenger jet, the National Transportation Safety Board said backup protections in the aircraft’s lithium ion batteries and electronics systems have failed.

Speaking to reporters Thursday from Washington, NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman said the agency hasn’t reached a conclusion on the cause of the fire that occurred in Boston on Jan. 7. But she added that the redundant safety systems installed by Boeing did not work.

The announcement comes after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded the jet Jan. 16 after an emergency landing by All Nippon Airways due to a second apparent fire involving lithium ion batteries.

"These events should not happen," Hersman said. "As far as design of the aircraft, there are multiple systems to protect against a battery event like this. Those systems did not work as intended."

FULL COVERAGE: Boeing's troubled Dreamliner

Hersman said the agency has "all hands on...

Unions may be declining in most of the country, but California and a few other states in the West are bucking the trend.

California added more than 100,000 union member last year, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and 18.4% of the state’s workers are represented by a union.

The growth comes as low-wage workers such as janitors and fast-food workers try to organize, and as healthcare employees, a booming sector in California, join unions. 

Join us for a live video chat at 2:30 p.m. Pacific

Employees are typically hesitant to join unions during a recession because they’re most concerned about keeping their jobs. But the California Nurses Union was one of many in the state that was able to add members last year, and has added them for the last few years.

We’ll talk to an organizer from the nurses’s union about why nurses are organizing now, and about some of the challenges of organizing in a down economy. We’ll also talk to labor...

City National Corp.'s fourth-quarter earnings rose 8% on strong growth in lending, but the profit was squeezed by low interest rates, leaving lower results than Wall Street expected. 

The Los Angeles-based parent of City National Bank earned $47.2 million, 87 cents a share, compared with $43.9 million, 82 cents a share, in the fourth quarter of 2011. Analysts had expected $1 a share, according to Thompson Financial.

Quarterly revenue rose 5% year-over-year to $303.6 million, slightly higher than the analyst consensus.

City National Corp. is the largest bank based in Southern California as measured by assets, which reached $28.6 billion at the end of 2012 -- up 21% from the fourth quarter of 2011.

"2012 was a very strong year of growth in earnings, assets, clients and capabilities," said City National's president and chief executive, Russell Goldsmith. "Net income and revenue were up significantly, loan production set new records, deposits grew at double-digit rates, credit quality...

A congressman from Massachusetts raised questions Thursday about how the Walt Disney Co. will use information it collects when if offers parkgoers new wristbands embedded with computer chips.

Edward J. Markey (D-Mass), co-chairman of a congressional panel on privacy, wrote to Walt Disney Co. Chairman Robert Iger, asking what information the park will collect with the so-called MagicBand and how it will be used.

“Widespread use of MagicBand bracelets by park guests could dramatically increase the personal data Disney can collect about its guests,” he said, adding that he is particularly concerned at the prospect of Disney collecting information about children.

Disney announced recently that it plans to unveil this spring at Walt Disney World in Orlando a wristband embedded with radio frequency identification chips (RFID). A unique code in each chip lets parkgoers pay to enter the park, check into Disney hotels and buy food and souvenirs, among other things.

Disney officials...

San Bernardino County and two of its cities abandoned a plan that would use eminent domain to seize troubled mortgages and write down debt for homeowners.

A Joint Powers Authority that the county and the cities formed last year to study the idea voted unanimously on Thursday to shelve the proposal. Greg Devereaux, county chief executive and chairman of the authority, said the group decided to give up on the idea due to a lack of public support.

“We are taking that off the table," Devereaux said Thursday.

The board did vote to begin searching for other plans from outside contractors that would help underwater homeowners in the county and the two cities, Ontario and Fontana. The authority was created  to consider the eminent domain plan proposed by the San Francisco investment firm Mortgage Resolution Partners.

The decision by the authority comes as a blow to the idea, given that it first caught national attention in hard-hit San Bernardino. Eminent domain is usually used to seize...

WASHINGTON -- President Obama nominated Mary Jo White to be the new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying her track record as a hard-nosed prosecutor means she won't be easily intimidated as Wall Street's new top watchdog.

"You don't want to mess with Mary Jo," Obama said Thursday during a White House appearance with White.

Obama also announced he the renomination of Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a position he has held since a controversial recess appointment last year.

Flanked by White and Cordray, Obama said they would play key roles in protecting "consumers and our financial system from the kinds of abuse that nearly brought the economy to its knees."

"It's not enough to change the law," Obama said in touting the 2010 overhaul of financial regulations. "We also need cops on the beat to enforce the law."

White would be the permanent replacement for Mary Schapiro, who resigned as SEC chairwoman in December. Obama temporarily...

Retail prices for tomatoes may double if a trade agreement between the U.S. and Mexico ends, according to a study released Thursday by a tomato importing group.

The possible price hike is the result of a brewing trade war between Florida tomato growers who accuse their Mexican counterparts of “dumping,” or selling their tomatoes below fair market value.   

U.S. growers, represented by the Florida Tomato Exchange, have been lobbying to end a 17-year-old trade agreement between the U.S. and Mexico, which sets a minimum price for tomatoes.

According to the study, released by the Fresh Produce Assn. of the Americas, prices for various tomato varieties will rise between December and May if Mexican imports are excluded from the U.S. market.  

Grocery shoppers will be hit with sticker shock when picking out various tomatoes, the study reports.

The price of hothouse round tomatoes, for instance, is projected to rise from $2.02 per pound to almost $4 a pound. Roma tomatoes would...

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is seeking to repeal a Medicare-pricing provision in the recent "fiscal cliff" deal that benefits biotech giant Amgen Inc.

U.S. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) filed legislation this week to eliminate the exemption for a class of drugs, including Amgen's Sensipar, that are used by kidney dialysis patients.

The fiscal-cliff legislation approved earlier this month excluded these oral medications from Medicare price controls for an additional two years.

"Amgen managed to get a $500-million paragraph in the fiscal-cliff bill and virtually no one in Congress was aware of it," Welch said. "It's a taxpayer ripoff and comes at a really bad time when we're trying to control healthcare costs. Amgen should not be allowed to turn Medicare into a profit center."

The Thousand Oaks company said it supports the two-year delay so patient care isn't disrupted while federal officials examine concerns raised in a 2011 report by the Government Accountability Office.

"We...

California gasoline prices have quietly crept close to their record for this time of year. But there are some positive signs for the state's motorists in the fuel supply numbers.

After most recently bottoming out at the not so low price of $3.522 on Dec. 24, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in California has been mostly on the rise.

The current average for the state is $3.651 a gallon, up nearly 13 cents, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. That's also just 6.6 cents a gallon short of the state's record for Jan. 24 of $3.717.

Photos: The gas miser list

But there are some indications that the state's fuel situation is better than it was at this time last year.

Then, all it took was a power outage at a refinery in Washington State (last February) to send West Coast and California gasoline prices well above $4 a gallon.

California's refinery output of the state's expensive blend of gasoline is running close to 2012 levels at slightly more than 5.8 million barrels a...

McDonald’s, one of the largest single buyers of fish in the country, said all of its Filet-O-Fish sandwiches and Fish McBites snacks will be made of Alaskan Pollack sustainably fished in the wild.

And the company is willing to pay to prove it.

The fast-food giant will pay annual fees and royalties to the Marine Stewardship Council for the right to slap the group’s so-called ecolabel on its product packaging in its 14,000 stores nationwide.

Mega-retailers such as Wal-Mart, Whole Foods and Walgreens already carry products bearing the blue label. But McDonald’s said it will be the first national restaurant chain to do so, starting in February.

The Marine Stewardship Council awards the label to seafood products that meet its standards on fish stock health, fishery impact on the surrounding ecosystem and fishery management system.

Restaurant chains such as McDonald’s, Burger King and Carl’s Jr. have recently declared their dedication to more conscientious food...

Thailand’s transgender residents are displeased with Swedish furniture retailer Ikea because of a new ad they say is “disparaging” and “disrespectful” to their way of life.

The commercial — titled “Luem Aeb,” or “Forgot to Deceive” — began running on YouTube and Bangkok’s BTS Skytrain system in late December.

In the ad, a middle-aged man shops in an Ikea store with his long-haired, willowy, minidress-wearing partner. The partner is chatting in a sweet, high voice when she suddenly lets out a low-pitched exclamation upon seeing the discount section.

Eventually, when the partner starts shouldering some heavy boxes, the man turns tail and runs.

In Thailand, transgender or effeminate gay men are often referred to as kathoey, or ladyboys.

In an open letter to Ikea, the Thai Transgender Alliance lambasted the ad as “a parody of a weirdo” that “perpetuates a misunderstanding of transgenderism as a...