We used to make a big deal out of Casual Fridays at work.  But now that we're entering the dog days of summer, is anyone dressing up?

Mark Austin Thomas: Business analyst Mark Lacter, dare I ask what you're wearing?

Mark Lacter: This is radio for a reason, Mark!  And certainly, don't ask that question at the L.A. Daily Journal newspaper, which recently issued a memo that laid down the law on what's not considered appropriate attire.  As in, no jeans, no sneakers (except for messengers), no sandals or flip-flops, no halter tops, no spaghetti straps, no tee-shirts.  Also, no shorts, leggings, or exercise pants.  And, if you don't measure up, you may be sent home to change clothes - without pay for the time you've missed.  Now, to be fair, the Daily Journal is a legal newspaper, and law firms - along with the courts - remain kind of a bastion for traditional business attire.

Thomas: And that means jackets and ties for men...?

Lacter: ...and skirt suits and business dresses for women.  It's the same deal for many offices in New York and Chicago.  Matter of fact, dressing down is still not especially popular in many parts of the country, according to a new survey I came across.  More than half of the respondents say it suggests an employee doesn't have respect for the workplace.  In other words, not a team player.

Thomas: But L.A. has this huge creative community where jeans and tee-shirts are almost part of the uniform.

Lacter: Yeah, the only people wearing suits at these places are the high-level executives who are actually called "suits."  This has been true in Hollywood for years, but now you're seeing it with the growth of tech companies.  Imagine how confusing it must be for an attorney who wears the standard business uniform, and who has one of these companies as his client.  And, maybe that's the point - there is no single workplace culture, even within the companies themselves.

Thomas: Is being comfortable just not on the radar at these places?

Lacter: Well, not to pick on the Daily Journal, but so what if someone who is stuck in front of a computer all day wants to be a little more comfortable in jeans?  Will the world as we know it come to a halt?  You know, the workplace is far different than it was even 10 years ago.  People are doing their jobs in all sorts of ways, whether it's working from home, or as independent contractors.  And, this is really all about common sense - so, maybe it's time the stick-in the-muds realized as much.

Thomas: Attire aside, how is the workplace itself changing?

Lacter: Some of those downtown law firms have been cutting back, which means that they don't need as much space.  Not every attorney needs a giant office.  Same with the downtown accounting firms - when folks do go to work, the office may include a fancy kitchen, a ping pong table, workstations that double as treadmills, a place to do yoga or even to take a nap.

Thomas: All this is supposed to boost productivity...

Lacter: ...which it probably does, though you do have to wonder whether having a yoga room really enhances output, or is just a way of keeping employees from not taking a job somewhere else.  My favorite perk, and I say that facetiously, is the office kegerator, which not only seems like a dumb idea, but a great way for a company to get sued if somebody has one too many.

Thomas: Quickly Mark, any news in the dispute between CBS and Time Warner Cable?

Lacter: Not good news.  Time Warner Cable offered what it said were two possible solutions to the standoff, but CBS has came back and called it a sham.  Time Warner Cable subscribers have been without CBS programming since Friday, which is already going on longer than analysts had first expected.  The fight is over re-transmission fees - the amount of money that a programmer receives from a distributor- in this case, Time Warner Cable.  CBS apparently wants a big increase, and Time Warner Cable doesn't want to pay.

Mark Lacter is a contributing writer for Los Angeles Magazine and writes the business blog at LA Observed.com.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

When you look at fast growing private companies in the U.S., you need look no further than a small city next to Los Angeles International Airport.

Steve Julian: Business analyst Mark Lacter, tell us about the company that's based in El Segundo.

Mark Lacter: It's called Fuhu, Steve - that might ring a bell with some parents because Fuhu is the maker of the Nabi.  The Nabi is an Android tablet for kids, and it's a very cool device that mimics a lot of the capabilities of regular tablet, including the ability to play games and get onto the Web (with controls that parents are able to set up).  Last year, they sold 1.2 million Nabis, and that helped push the El Segundo company to the very top of Inc. magazine's list of fastest-growing businesses.  That's number one on a list of 5,000 companies, with a three-year growth rate of 42,148 percent.  Or, to put it another way, company revenue was $279,000 in 2009; it was almost $118 million in 2012.  Now, by the standards of an Apple or a Samsung, those are still not huge numbers -

Julian: - and maybe that explains why there's been relatively little media coverage of this company.

Lacter: It might also explain why local tech companies in general get short shrift.  Many of them are quite successful, but they're often on the small side, and they're also privately held as opposed to publicly-traded on a stock exchange.  That's one big difference from Silicon Valley, which has so many huge public corporations: Apple, Intel, HP.  L.A. County has only six Fortune 500 companies, and not a single one devoted solely to technology.  In Silicon Valley, there are 22 in the Fortune 500.

Julian: And yet, the L.A. economy has more than held its own without those large corporations.

Lacter: Matter of fact, the accounting firm PriceWaterhouse studied more than two dozen cities around the world to determine where it was easiest to do business (that's based on factors like access to labor), and what they found - somewhat surprisingly - was that L.A. ranked ahead of both San Francisco and Tokyo.  And, you can see evidence of that with the increase in venture capital money coming into all parts of L.A.  Now, it's important to keep an eye on all these up-and-coming companies because these businesses are helping generate higher-wage jobs.  And, for an area with a still-high unemployment rate - still over 10 percent in some places -- that's a big deal.

Julian: Speaking of companies, does anyone want to buy the L.A. Times?

Lacter: The answer is yes - most recently, the controlling owner of the Dodgers, Mark Walter, said he was interested in both the Times and the Chicago Tribune (though there's no way to know whether there are actual discussions taking place).  You also have several local groups, including one that involves billionaire Eli Broad, that have been interested to one degree or another.  But what was thought would be a fairly straightforward auction process has turned enormously complicated.  It's now to the point where the Tribune board has decided spin off the papers into a separate business, and that process will take until next year to complete and could preclude any sales for quite some time after that.

Julian: So, it's Limbo-land for the Times for who knows how long.

Lacter: Steve, it's not that Tribune really wants to keep the newspapers.  But, selling them off presents huge tax implications.  Also, there are assets that the potential buyers thought would be part of the package - assets that include real estate - that Tribune wants to hold onto.  So, what's left to sell are just the newspapers themselves, and frankly, they're among the least valuable properties.

Julian: Now, last week came word that the billionaire Koch brothers, who were believed to be interested in the Tribune properties, decided not to pursue a deal...

Lacter: ...that's right, they don't consider the Times or the other dailies to be economically viable.  You might recall a bit of an outcry over the prospect of having the Kochs, who are staunch conservatives, becoming the owners of these papers.  So, they're out of the picture.  But for the L.A. Times, it's really the worst of all worlds: no new owner and no vision for recasting the paper, at least in the near term.

Mark Lacter writes for Los Angeles Magazine and pens the business blog at LA Observed.com.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

It's late October, which means  more and more stores are decorating for Christmas. 

Steve Julian:  Business analyst Mark Lacter, whatever happened to "better late than never?" 

Mark Lacter: Steve, retailers never want to sell late because it often means having to reduce the price. They're looking to start out as soon as possible - these last three months represent their biggest payday of the year. And here in California people do seem to be buying stuff - consumer spending has been up for 14 consecutive quarters, going back to the spring of 2009, and taxable sales are up almost 5 percent from the peak levels before the recession. Another good sign is Chapman University's index of consumer sentiment, which is at its highest level since the beginning of the recession in late 2007. All these indicators explain why the state economy is generally outpacing the rest of the nation.

Julian: There has to be a "but" in here someplace…

 Lacter: The "but" is that only 60 percent of the jobs lost during the downturn have been recovered, and the unemployment rate in many parts of the state, including L.A. County, is still at or above 10 percent, which isn't what you'd call a healthy economy. And that's why holiday shopping this year could end up being sort of hit and miss. Folks who have well-paying jobs and a bunch of their money in the stock market - and Southern California has its share of both - those folks will probably be spending good amounts. 

Julian: Are there geographic tell-tale signs?

Lacter: The closer to the coast you go, the more spending there's likely to be. But it's a different story if you're feeling vulnerable about your job or in the amount of savings you have in the bank. So you have retailers once again coming up with ways of reaching as many budget-conscious folks as possible, as early as possible. The most obvious move is opening their stores on Thanksgiving night - Macy's is the latest of the chains to get a head start on Black Friday (Target, Kohl's, Walmart and J.C. Penney will also be open). Another strategy is matching your prices with the prices on Amazon and other online retailers - also, retailers will use mobile apps and arrange in-store pickup of online purchases. All told, expect holiday sales to run 3 percent ahead of last year, with the L.A. area likely to be a bit higher. Decent, but not great.

 Julian: What's the message to consumers now: buy or not buy?

 Lacter: Well, we'll start with the good news - gasoline prices are at their lowest level since the beginning of the year, with an average gallon of regular in the L.A. area running $3.75, according to the Auto Club. And barring any refinery fires or international catastrophes, the numbers might keep falling into November and December, which could incentivize consumers to buy a little more at the shopping malls. Here's some more good news - the L.A. area has seen a huge drop in the number of homeowners who are underwater, which happens when the value of a property is less than the amount that's owed on the property. This of course was a big problem during the recession, but over the last year the median home values have gone up between 20 percent and 30 percent. 

 Julian: And if your equity is positive instead of negative, you'll probably feel more confident about spending. 

 Lacter: That's right. But there are also deterrents to spending - as has been reported, a few hundred thousand Californians lose their individual health care policies by the end of the year because their plans don't meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. Policyholders will be stuck in many cases with a premium increase, possibly a big increase. Now it's possible that in the long run these folks will be better off with a more inclusive plan that results in lower out-of-pocket expenses. But it'a hard to ignore the sticker shock of having to shell out, say, $250 a month instead of $100.

 Julian: There goes the holiday list...

 Lacter: For those folks, yes. And even though L.A. consumers do a good job of separating their feelings about Washington with their desire to spend, the economy is bound to slow down a little. So Steve, just don't count on that $9,000 fur vest I was going to get you for Christmas. Sorry about that…

Mark Lacter writes for Los Angeles Magazine and pens the business blog at LA Observed.com.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Police say TSA agent Gerardo Hernandez was shot and killed last Friday at the base of the escalators of LAX Terminal 3, and not at the checkpoint gates.  Paul Ciancia is accused of killing Hernandez and wounding several others.  Ciancia remains hospitalized in critical condition.

Steve Julian: Business analyst Mark Lacter, how did the airlines respond to shooting and its aftermath?

Mark Lacter: Generally pretty well, Steve, considering that the airport was effectively closed for several hours on Friday, and most of Terminal 3 was out of commission until Saturday afternoon.  You know, there's always this precarious balance in operating airlines and airports, even in the best of circumstances.  Just so many flights coming in and going out, and so many thousands people using the facility at any given time - and it really doesn't take much to upset the balance.  So, when you have something horrific take place and you see all those travelers stranded outside the terminals, the ripple effects are enormous - not just at LAX but all over the country.

Julian: More than a thousand flights were either canceled or delayed on Friday.

Lacter: And, there was a further complication because the airlines flying out of Terminal 3 are not the legacy carriers like United, American, and Delta that have all kinds of resources, but smaller operations with less flexibility.  It's not like there's an empty aircraft just sitting in a hangar waiting to take passengers wherever they want to go.  Actually, the airlines have gotten better at arranging re-bookings when there's a snowstorm or some other emergency that gives them advance warning.  But obviously, there was no advance warning last Friday, so the carriers needed to improvise in handling passengers whose flights were cancelled.

Julian: What did they do?

Lacter: One step was waiving the fees normally charged to re-book flights (and that's gotten to be a pretty penny).  Another was waiving the difference in the price of the original ticket and the re-booked ticket.  But, the policies varied according to the airline, and we heard about travelers not receiving hotel or food vouchers, or having to buy a brand new ticket on another airline if they wanted to avoid the wait - and that can be expensive.  Which raises another issue: planes tend to be completely full these days because airlines have been cutting back on the number of flights.  And that can be a problem if you're taking a route that doesn't have too many flights in the first place.  So, it gets really complicated.

Julian: Why do you think we haven't we heard more horror stories from passengers?

Lacter: Well, look at the cities that the airlines in Terminal 3 fly to - New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas.  They're all served by several other carriers.  L.A. to New York, in particular, is one of the busiest routes in the world, which means that it's also one of the most competitive.  So, even if your flight was cancelled, there's a good chance you'd be able to find space by Saturday (which is normally a slower day for air travel).  This is a big reason, in general, why people like LAX.

Julian: Why don't other local airports handle more of the load?

Lacter: You might remember a few years ago local officials were promoting something called "regionalization" - the idea was that as LAX maxed out on the number of passengers it was allowed to handle each year, then other airports would make up the difference - places like Ontario, Bob Hope in Burbank, and John Wayne in Orange County.

Julian: Right, and they talked about easing traffic congestion by spreading around the flights.

Lacter: Well, regionalization never happened because, first of all, passenger levels at L.A. International didn't come close to maxing out.  But, more importantly, because the airlines decided that using LAX was more efficient for everything from handling baggage to arranging international connections.  So, through the first nine months of the year, passenger traffic at LAX is up 4.2 percent from a year earlier, while at Ontario traffic was down 9.3 percent.  And, we've seen that John Wayne, Bob Hope, and Long Beach are all struggling.  Of course, the challenge at a busy place like LAX is making it as safe as possible, and that will no doubt become a priority in the weeks ahead.

Mark Lacter writes for Los Angeles Magazine and pens the business blog at LA Observed.com.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Flash App+ is a Google Chrome extension that has a description of "This extension configures your Default Search to Flash App+ (searchpowerapp.com)".

This article was published first at Remove the Flash App+ Chrome Extension

Visits to the Smithsonian's National Zoo just became a little bit sweeter with the arrival of a new honeybee colony. With a hive made of glass in the Zoo's Pollinarium and full access to the outdoors, these bees are showing off the wondrous ways of their world.

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Nearly 60 million years ago rainforests prospered at temperatures that were 3-5 degrees higher and at atmospheric carbon dioxide levels 2.5 times today’s levels.

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For the first time researchers from the Smithsonian, South Dakota State University and the University of Nebraska described the immature stages of the switchgrass moth, first collected in Denver in 1910.

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Recently a team of scientists working at the Smithsonian’s Tropical Research Institute in Panama, decided to try and learn for the first time just which body parts the gliding ant C. atratus uses to steer as they glide.

The post Gliding ants steer with hind legs as they fly backwards, scientists learn appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Md., and the Alaska Sea Grant Program of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, were recently identified as the […]

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Now the Global Plants Initiativeis catapulting biodiversity research to a new level by sharing these historic plant collections in a massive online database of high-resolution scans.

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Smithsonian plant physiologist Bert Drake has studied one wetland's response to climate change for more than two decades. He gives a tour of the field experiment and explains some of the findings.

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“Orchids: A View from the East,” a joint exhibition by Smithsonian Gardens and the U.S. Botanic Garden, opens at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History […]

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Candy Feller, senior ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Md., will lead an effort to track more than 100 miles of Florida mangrove forests that are encroaching on salt marshes to the north.

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These opportunistic plants quickly fill-in the gap taking advantage of the increased light coming through the tree canopy and the fresh soil at the fallen tree’s turned-up roots.

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The chief appeal of The Anatomy of Palms is some 800 color photographs that document the extent of palm anatomical diversity.

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Recent botanical exploration efforts in the rugged Marquesas Islands (French Polynesia) have increased the known flora of the archipelago by an impressive 20 percent. Field research and collecting in conjunction with the Vascular Flora of the Marquesas Islands and Flore de la Polynesie française projects have yielded 62 new species of ferns and flowering plants bringing the total native species to 360, of which 18 are newly described and illustrated in a special issue of PhytoKeys.

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A new study shows that as climate change enhances tree growth in tropical forests, the resulting increase in litterfall could stimulate soil micro-organisms leading to a release of stored soil carbon.

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The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center has created NEMESIS--National Estuarine and Marine Exotic Species Information System--an online public database that provides key information about the non-native marine species throughout the United States.

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The move enhances coordination efforts for the 46-plot research network, which partners with more than 75 institutions in 21 countries.

The post Global forest science research center moves from Harvard to the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Invasive European earthworms could prevent roughly half a North American forest’s orchid seeds from even germinating, ecologists from Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and Johns Hopkins […]

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Non-native plant species pose a significant threat to the natural ecosystems of the United States. Many of these invasive plants are escapees from gardens and […]

The post Escape of the invasives: Top six invasive plant species in the United States appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Phragmites australis, the common reed, has been a component of North American marshes for thousands of years. However, a novel genetic lineage, Phragmites australis australis, […]

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How do you diagnose a sick stream? Count its insects, according to Smithsonian biologist Don Weller.

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A joint Harvard-Smithsonian study released today in the journal PLOS ONE reveals how much — and how little — Northeastern forests have changed after centuries of intensive […]

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Shallow-water seagrasses can’t survive without enough light. And fish, shrimp, crabs and other creatures we rely on for food can’t survive without seagrasses. Smithsonian biologist […]

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Trees put on weight faster and faster as they grow older, according to a new study in the journal Nature. The finding that most trees’ […]

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Do you enjoy Tequila? Then you need to raise your glass to the pollinating bats that helped to make it! Here at Smithsonian Science we […]

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Scientists have long known that in the tropics shade-grown coffee plantations provide critical habitat for migratory and resident birds. Now a new survey conducted in […]

The post Shade-grown coffee plantations are mammal friendly as well, study shows appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

On March 26, 1912, a donation from Japan arrived in Washington, D.C.―3,020 ornamental cherry trees, sparking one of the biggest springtime annual attractions in the […]

The post Washington, D.C.’s Cherry Trees are Very Good at Planning for the Future appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

“When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters,” once a tagline of the American Lung Association, today it might easily describe what is happening in many […]

The post Gasping for air: nutrients, warming trigger ocean oxygen deficit appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Pollinators like butterflies, bees, beetles, flies, and moths help to pollinate almost 80 percent of the world’s flowering plants, one benefit of which is providing […]

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On crime scene investigation shows, forensic scientists use remnants of genetic material to solve mysteries in a matter of hours. Researchers at the Smithsonian Environmental […]

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Invasive species have become a problem in marine environments around the world, and the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries are no exception. Non-native species of […]

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Ubiquitous as they may be today, the origin of the Christmas tree is unknown to most. The tradition of decorating a tree, usually an evergreen […]

The post Agustín Stahl: Scientist Who Introduced the “Arbol de Navidad” (Christmas Tree) to Puerto Rico appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

New results from a long-term Smithsonian study are providing strong evidence of the dramatic impact high numbers of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are having upon […]

The post Deer Discovery: Invasive Plants Get Boost from too Many Deer appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

During the course of a year, a western gorilla in the Lossi Forest of Northern Congo stuffs its face with a profusion of fruit, including figs, […]

The post Gorillas Aren’t Tricked By a Faux Sugary Fruit Thanks to a Mutation appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Living trees can rot from the inside out, leaving only a hollowed trunk. Wood rot in living trees can cause overestimates of global carbon pools, […]

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Caribbean coral reefs have become biologically and economically degraded habitats. The relative weight of the big factors in this ecological catastrophe–pollution, overfishing, warming and ocean […]

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The Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation offers a range of compelling residential, hands-on, interdisciplinary programs in conservation biology for undergraduate and graduate students and professionals at […]

The post Field Research: Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Muted moans of sadness punctuated the pandemonium that engulfed the Smithsonian’s National Zoo over the weekend as throngs of well-wishing visitors flooded through the Zoo’s […]

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Finding a mouse in your morning coffee might give you an unwelcome jolt, but there’s a strong connection between small mammals, birds and the plantations […]

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What might lure someone away from the sunny beaches and lush forests of Brazil to the concrete jungle of Washington, D.C.? For wood anatomist Marcelo […]

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Earth Day is coming up, and this year, the Smithsonian has a different take on it. It has invited more than 150 scientists, thought leaders, […]

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If you’ve seen the movie Jurassic Park, you know that amber played a significant role in rebuilding a lost world: A mosquito trapped within its […]

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Zebra mussels in the Great Lakes, lionfish in the Atlantic and pythons in the Everglades: Large creatures like these generally draw the spotlight when talking […]

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Ninety Limosa harlequin frogs (Atelopus limosus) bred in human care are braving the elements of the wild after Smithsonian scientists sent them out into the […]

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