Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced a special session of the state legislature to approve a multifaceted incentive package that would ensure Boeing Co. will build its new 777 commercial jet in the state.

Over the last several weeks, rumors have swirled in the aerospace industry about where thousands of workers would build the next-generation version of the plane, dubbed 777X, and its massive carbon fiber wing over the next several decades.  

The special session beginning Thursday centers around approving a plan that guarantees 777 manufacturing will remain in the Puget Sound region.

“If we can do this in the next seven days, we can be certain that Washington’s aerospace future will be as bright as its past,” he said in a statement. “Everyone in Washington has a stake in what we’re doing here.”

Other rumored destinations for manufacturing the twin-aisle jet were Charleston, S.C., where the Boeing builds the 787, and Long Beach, where it builds the C-...

Images of a $350-million sports and entertainment arena planned for the Las Vegas Strip were unveiled Tuesday by developers AEG and MGM Resorts International.

Construction of the previously announced 20,000-seat arena is expected to begin in April, AEG said. Upon completion in early 2016, the arena will be available to host professional basketball and hockey, though it doesn’t have affiliated teams at this point.

The arena is also expected to be used for concerts, boxing, mixed martial arts, family shows, award shows and other major events.

The arena – on par in size with Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles -- is to be the centerpiece of efforts to revitalize Las Vegas Boulevard between the New York-New York and Monte Carlo resorts.

Like many casinos and other entertainment venues in Las Vegas, the yet-to-be-named arena will have a strong focus on VIP features.

The arena will feature a variety of premium seating and hospitality areas for entertaining and private events....

DirecTV, already the largest U.S. satellite television provider, is getting bigger.

The El Segundo company said Tuesday that it gained new customers, reduced churn and increased fees, boosting third-quarter profit and sales past analysts' expectations.

Net income climbed 24% to $699 million, or $1.28 a share, from $565 million, or 90 cents, a year earlier, the company said in a news release. Analysts had predicted earnings of about $1 a share on average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.

Photos: Top 10 Southern California companies

DirecTV, which employs 15,000 people, said it increased revenue per user and reduced the percentage of customers who leave the service. Customers are also paying more for premium programming, warranties and pay-per-view shows.

The company said it added 139,000 U.S. subscribers in the quarter -- the most since 2011 -- and eclipsed 37 million total subscribers. Sales rose 6% to $7.88 billion.

"It shows they have a very solid position at the high...

Never mind jewels and priceless works of art. Thieves are going after one of California’s largest cash crops: walnuts.

In one of the biggest heists to hit the booming industry, bandits made off with 140,000 pounds of walnuts worth $400,000 Sunday in Escalon, a city just north of Modesto.

“It was just brazen,” said Bruce Blodgett, executive director of the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation. “They took a massive amount -- several truck loads. We need to find these folks.”

The nuts were taken from GoldenRiver Orchards, a grower and processor established in 1912. The company declined to comment.

Last month, 12,000 pounds of walnuts worth $50,000 were stolen from a trailer parked on California 99 in Sutter County, north of Sacramento.

“They just opened up the bottom, and picked the walnuts up with buckets, and then brought trailers and vans, and that’s how they took the walnuts,” said grower Jaswant Bains, according to CBS13 Sacramento.

Farme...

Howard took a close look and noticed that the ingredients of various Colgate Total toothpastes are almost identical, yet the prices vary.

He asks: Are those price differences justified?

I put that question to Colgate. No one at the company got back to me.

ASK LAZ: Smart answers to consumer questions

So I took a look myself, and I'd have to say that it doesn't seem like these puppies are that different.

For example, the main ingredient in Total Advanced Whitening toothpaste is water, followed by hydrated silica and glycerin.

The main ingredient in Total Gum Defense is hydrated silica, followed by water and glycerin. The main ingredient of Total Advanced Clean in hydrated silica, followed by water and glycerin.

So what's my advice? Buy the cheapest version of this toothpaste. It's probably as good as any other version.

For more, check out today's Ask Laz video.

If you have a consumer question, email me at asklaz@latimes.com or contact me via Twitter @Davidlaz.

Homeownership in the United States remained flat last quarter, staying at its lowest level in nearly two decades and underscoring the dominant role investors have played in the housing recovery.

The nation’s homeownership rate was 65.1% on a seasonally adjusted level in the third quarter, unchanged from the second quarter, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. Homeownership fell from a 65.3% rate in the third quarter last year. Besides the second quarter of this year, home ownership hasn’t been this low since the last three months of 1995.

QUIZ: How well do you understand the Fed stimulus?

The fact that homeownership has fallen during the housing rebound shows investors have been a major force in sending home prices skyrocketing. Individuals and Wall Street players have descended on the housing market, looking for bargains and cash flow. They have scooped up many lower-priced homes to flip or rent out.

Their presence has made it difficult for many first-time buyers to...

The California Assembly will hold a hearing Wednesday to determine what exactly went wrong with a botched upgrade to the state's unemployment benefits computer system that has left thousands without jobless checks for weeks.

The Times has reported extensively on the problems that began over Labor Day weekend, when the California Employment Development Department launched the update.

A problem occurred when transferring old claims data to the new software, which was designed by Deloitte Consulting, a New York firm with a record of delivering IT projects in California over budget and often with problematic results. 

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The glitch affected as many as 300,000 claims, delaying payments to tens of thousands of unemployed Californians, according to internal emails. The EDD pegs that figure closer to 150,000. 

The agency continues to be plagued by problems related to the software upgrade and is still working to address some of the underlying issues.

Join consumer...

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones says the state health exchange "made a bad decision" by requiring its participating insurers to cancel coverage by Dec. 31 for hundreds of thousands of consumers.

"I don't think it was necessary," Jones said in an interview. "I think people should be given the opportunity to stay in their current plans for another year."

Tuesday, Jones discussed a settlement with Blue Shield of California that will buy some more time for about 80,000 policyholders whose policies are being terminated.

The San Francisco insurer agreed to let those policyholders extend their current coverage until March 31 to resolve regulators' claims it didn't give customers ample warning about the changes.

"This is important because it will allow people with current plans more time to shop and it resolves a defect we discovered," Jones said.

Full coverage: Obamacare rolls out

But Blue Shield said the changing deadlines may confuse customers and lead some people to pay a...

The marketplace, which launched Tuesday on Toms' website just in time for the holidays, features more than 200 products from 30 companies and charities.

Consumers can search the site by cause, region and brand, perusing descriptions and videos explaining each group’s mission.

There are some big names attached. Actress Jessica Alba’s eco-friendly business the Honest Company is featured, as is model Liya Kebede’s effort to help Ethiopian weavers via her organization Lemlem.

Even Movember, the group behind mustache-growing men’s health efforts, is on the site selling clothing and accessories. Sitewide, products range from $5 to $500.

Toms, which says it has donated 10 million pairs of shoes since its founding in 2006, piled millions of dollars into the marketplace project. The company, which...

If American Airlines and US Airways divest themselves from "key" airports, the U.S. Department of Justice may be willing to drop its challenge to a merger plan for the airlines.

That is the word from U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., who said the Justice Department was discussing a potential settlement of a suit the agency filed in August to halt the merger that would create the nation's largest airline.

"What we have tried to focus on is to make sure that any resolution in this case necessarily includes divestitures of facilities at key constrained airports throughout the United States," Holder said during a press conference on an unrelated matter.

News of a potential settlement may have been what sparked a 20% jump in shares Monday of AMR Corp., the parent company of American Airlines.

Holder did not disclose from which airports the Justice Department wanted the airlines to divest themselves of landing and takeoff slots, but the lawsuit noted, for example, that the two airlines...

A report released Tuesday by the National Employment Law Project blames chronic underfunding by the federal government for problems with states' unemployment insurance programs that include extensive backlogs and outdated, unreliable systems.

State unemployment insurance programs, which receive federal funding for administrative costs, were put to the test during the Great Recession, NELP said. Before the recession, about 2.5 million people were collecting unemployment benefits but that figure jumped to 10 million at its peak. 

NELP found that state unemployment programs use technologies that are 26 years old on average and that most state systems rely on antiquated programming languages.

These problems have forced laid-off workers "to navigate extensive backlogs, jammed phone lines and often unreliable online claims systems." That defeats the purpose of the unemployment safety net to provide "efficient claim filing and timely eligibility determinations and payments," the report says.

A deal to sell the Riverside Press-Enterprise to the owner of the Orange County Register may be in jeopardy less than a month after it was announced.
 
On Oct. 10, Aaron Kushner, owner of the Register, said he would buy the Inland Empire’s largest newspaper for $27.25 million, adding it to his fast-growing stable of Southern California dailies.
 
But a new filing by A.H. Belo Corp., the Press-Enterprise’s current owner, casts serious doubts on the deal.
 
Originally slated to close Oct. 15, the sale has been extended to Nov. 15, according to the Monday filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and amended provisions require Kushner to prove that his company, Freedom Communications, is financially solvent and has enough cash to operate the Riverside paper after a transfer.
 
Perhaps most notable is a requirement that Kushner put up $1 million in cash as a "down payment" on the deal. Such a nonrefundable payment, akin to a layaway sale at a discount store, is highly...