CALIFORNIA

'Better burger' chains like Five Guys and fast, fresh alternative restaurants like Chipotle are winning customers, and hurting Chili's, Applebee's and Ruby Tuesday in the process.

Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) said it will cut about 1,500 jobs at the Aeronautics unit in a move to curb costs and offer better priced products to customers. Added to the costs, President Barack Obama's goal of reducing defense spending by $400 million is also a burden on Lockheed Martin.

The top after-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: Blackboard, Dendreon, Approach Resources, Smith & Wesson Holding, and FSI International. The top after-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: AMC Networks, Photronics, Xyratex, Globe Specialty Metals, and Investors Real Estate Trust.

Royal fashion icon Kate Middleton's fashion choice for her eleven-day royal tour of California and Canada has been a hot topic of discussion in the last few weeks.

Check out the latest pictures of Prince William and Kate Middleton from their first joint overseas tour as man and wife.

Half of Myspace's employee base is gone after the social network is sold from News Corp. to Specific Media.

BART has agreed to pay $1.3 million Tuesday to Wanda Johnson, the mother of victim Oscar Grant III, who was shot in the back by a transit agency police officer two and a half years ago, to settle her civil case against it and the officers involved.

Giant online retailer Amazon.com has ended its relationship with some 10,000 internet business partners while Overstock also severed a couple hundred business relationship in California, in order to avoid state taxes that Gov. Jerry Brown signed.

Amazon has ended affiliate relationships in California over a new state law requiring online retailers to collect sales tax there.

A new California law requires Internet retailers like Amazon to collect sales tax on sales of products to California residents.

In this new feature, IBTimes Books provides a handy roundup of what authors are saying out there in the Twitterverse. Today, Margaret Atwood is working away on the third Madd Addam book, and Paulo Coelho is warning about attacks by mediocres.

As e-books ascend in the years to come, what will be done with our paper books? What should be done with them?

It may be hard to believe, but scientists are asking for the public’s help in finding one of the largest fish in the ocean.

Amazon.com Inc warned its 10,000-plus California sales affiliates on Wednesday that it may be forced to sever ties with them should the state begin taxing their online sales.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NASDAQ:NWS) sold Myspace to ad network Specific Media for $35 million, a far cry from its 2007 valuation of $12 billion, and the $100 million News Corp was expecting from the sale.

Samsung has asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to ban imports of Apple's products including iPhones, iPads and iPods.

Beaches in America saw the second-highest number of closing and advisory days in 2010, highest in more than two decades, as pollution continues to plague beach waters across the country, a report released on Wednesday said.

One man's opinion on why the Supreme Court should be applauded for the ruling against California's violent video game law.

Chinese NBA star Yao Ming has led a PSA campaign to create awareness about the need to prohibit shark finning

Pippa Middleton, the sporty young sister of Britain's Duchess of Cambridge, made an appearance Wednesday at Wimbledon on the arm of her sometime boyfriend, Alex Loudon.

California passed its budget on time, something that is a rarity in the state, and on paper it closes a $9.6 billion deficit. But both Democrats and Republicans criticized the final outcome, whose deficit-ending dimension assumes that economic growth will accelerate.