Bonnie Cooper has seen plenty ofslumpssince she began selling furniture in 1968, but nothing like the scene outside the window of the Ontario sofa store where she now works. Just across the parking lot lies an abandoned Levitz Furniture showroom and warehouse. A mattress store and two smaller furniture shops in the same outdoor shopping center also shut down recently. It’s scary out there,” said Cooper, a saleswoman at Salmo’s Custom Sofa. “I think this is the tip of the iceberg — there’s more to come.” For the full story visit http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-furniture14-2008may14,0,6770934.story

Most Americans see little hope that the economy will improve in the next six months, and many also are decidedly pessimistic about the direction of oil prices and inflation, according to a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll. The views on inflation could become troublesome for the Federal Reserve: If more Americans believe that inflation will worsen there is a risk of those expectations becoming self-fulfilling. The nationwide telephone poll of 2,208 adults, conducted May 1 to 8, found that just 19% of all respondents expected the economy to be in better shape in six months, while 37% expected it to be worse and 40% expected it to be about the same. For the full story visit http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-poll14-2008may14,0,2716686.story

NEW YORK — Walt Disney Co. is trying to get inside the minds of television viewers. The Burbank-based entertainment company, with its profitable ESPN and ABC entertainment networks, said Tuesday that it was developing an “emerging media and advertising research lab” to try to figure out why people watch the shows they do. ABC made the announcement as part of its “upfront” presentation to advertisers in New York to kick off the industry’s springtime television sales season. ESPN entertained advertisers Tuesday morning, and ABC unveiled its fall schedule in the afternoon. The new research center will be based in Austin, Texas, and will test a variety of advertising practices to discern how receptive consumers are to products that are integrated into shows, whether people pay attention to split screens and how they watch programs on mobile devices. Disney hopes to have the center running by November. For the full story visit http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-abc14-2008may14,0,3472001.story

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas I. McKnew dismissed a suit filed by a citizens group challenging an expansion at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center. Community Advocates for Responsible Expansion at Holy Cross objected to the city’s decision to approve the hospital’s $146 million expansion project because no environmental impact report had been conducted, though one was not legally required. The court threw CARE’s suit out, however, because the group failed to meet a filing deadline. But the court’s dismissal does not mean that the litigation process is over for Holy Cross, as CARE may re-file the lawsuit. On May 12, the hospital broke ground on its contested expansion project, scheduled to be completed in 2010.

LANCASTER – Ranch House Quality Meats, a company reportedly selling frozen meat products in the Antelope Valley since last year, has been ordered to stop all its sales by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. The company was ordered to stop selling its products from its warehouse, 311 East Ave. K-8, Suite 113, and by truck, after a May 1 hearing, according to Terrance Powell, bureau director of special operations and planning for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Division of Environmental Health. “They are not supposed to be selling at all,” Powell said. “We are continuing to investigate.” For the full story visit http://www.avpress.com/n/13/0513_s7.hts

Investors are increasingly throwing in the towel on Southern California-based savings-and-loan mortgage lenders IndyMac Bancorp, FirstFed Financial Corp. and Downey Financial Corp. Defaults keep climbing on the nontraditional mortgages made by the companies, and bond buyers still shun securities backed by such loans. The lenders are awash in red ink, and their stocks are down by about half or more since the beginning of the year. The companies — which operate IndyMac Bank, First Federal Bank of California and Downey Savings & Loan — have managed to survive long after nonbank sub-prime lenders such as Ameriquest Mortgage Co. of Orange and New Century Financial Corp. of Irvine melted down more than a year ago. For the full story visit http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-thrifts13-2008may13,0,2776604.story

Walt Disney Co. and McDonald’s Corp., whose supply chain has drawn criticism, quietly released a long-promised report on a pilot project to improve labor conditions in China. The project, involving 10 factories in southern China that make products for McDonald’s restaurants and Disney licensees, tested a new approach for addressing such chronic problems as substandard wages, excessive work hours and few days off. The May 7 report, posted on Disney’s website without a formal announcement from the company, found progress at all the factories, which made footwear, toys and other products. The report’s completion was touted by organizations that worked with the companies to improve global working conditions. The report is silent on whether Disney or McDonald’s plans to implement the new approach more broadly. For the full story visit http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-disney13-2008may13,0,2090152.story

A memorial service will take place May 17 for Danton Burroughs, the grandson of “Tarzan” creator Edgar Rice Burroughs and an officer and director for the firm licensing his grandfather’s stories and characters in the media. Danton Burroughs died at his home in Tarzana on May 1. He was 63. The memorial service takes place at 2 p.m. at the Tarzana Community & Cultural Center, 19130 Ventura Blvd, in Tarzana. Danton Burroughs grew up in Tarzana, attended Reseda High School and graduated from Los Angeles Pierce College. He sold real estate in the early 1970s in the San Fernando Valley and Venice. Danton Burroughs is survived by his wife Linda and daughters Jane and Dejah and brother John Ralston and sister Dian. In lieu of flowers the family suggests donations to the Danton Burroughs’ Memorial Fund at Parkinson’s Resource Organization, 74-090 El Paseo, Suite 102, Palm Desert, CA 92260 or through their website www.parkinsonsresource.org.

Shares of Beverly Hills Bancorp Inc., the holding company for Calabasas-based First Bank of Beverly Hills, shot up 68 percent the day after first-quarter earnings data was released despite mostly negative news. Net income in the first quarter was $1.8 million, or $0.10 per diluted share. That is a 31 percent drop form the net income of $2.6 million, or $0.14 per diluted share, in the same period of 2007. Non-accrual loans, those with principal and interest are unpaid for at least 90 days, increased sharply in the first quarter, jumping to $45 million. Construction loans make up 98 percent of non-accrual loans. BHBI had to set aside an additional $500,000 set aside for loan losses, the company said in its earnings release, and operating expenses increased in the period partially due to the costs of a legal battle with a former loan servicing subsidiary, as well as severance pay and other costs associated with staff cuts. A $300,000 decline in net interest income from 2007 to 2008 further damaged earnings. MarketWatch.com listed the company as one of the 10 worst-performing bank stocks over the past three months.

Kreido Biofuels will move ahead with construction of a biodiesel production plant after receiving necessary permits and approvals. The first stage of the plant at the Port of Wilmington in North Carolina will produce 33 million to 50 million gallons of biodiesel, the company said. Work will begin on the facility once Camarillo-based Kreido obtains $25 million to complete the site work, transfer plant modules from Texas, and initiate plant operations, said company CEO Ben Binninger. “We are targeting to be in a position to start site work within the next few months,” Binninger said. The approvals give Kreido an annual production capacity of 100 million gallons.