San Fernando Valley Unemployment in the San Fernando Valley rose a tenth of a percent to 10.4 percent in January, according to data from the state Employment Development Department. There were 81,000 jobs lost in Los Angeles County during the month, with retail suffering the largest number at 20,000, largely due to the end of holiday hiring. The entertainment industry, professional and business services, as well as the leisure and hospitality industry also experienced significant losses. As a result, the unemployment rates were driven up by less than one point in Lancaster, Palmdale, Glendale, Burbank, Santa Clarita and other cities within the Business Journal coverage area. Two airports in the greater San Fernando Valley area are scheduled for control-tower closures due to FAA cost-cutting measures. Whiteman Airport in Pacoima and Gen. William J. Fox Airfield in Lancaster will no longer have towers. The two airports don’t serve commercial airlines. At airports without control towers, planes can land and takeoff by pilots communicating on a universal radio frequency, but the process is less efficient. The closures will take place over a four-week period starting April 7. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich has asked CBS Outdoor of New York and Clear Channel Outdoor Holding Inc. of San Antonio, Texas to stop what he called the “billboard wars.” Trutanich filed a court order asking the L.A. Superior Court to shut down nearly 100 digital billboards the companies own in the city. The companies lost an appeal of a lawsuit that required them to take down the billboards, but have stated that they will not remove them without a court order. There are several of the billboards in the greater Valley area, including in Woodland Hills and North Hollywood. Chatsworth Chatsworth microturbine manufacturer Capstone Turbine Corp. has received orders that total five megawatts. The orders came from DTC Soluciones Immobiliarias SA de CV, a distribution partner in Jalisco, Mexico. The largest of the four orders is for a 2.6-megawatt combined cooling, heating and power plant that will be installed at a manufacturing plant in northern Mexico. The Chatsworth firm’s microturbines, which run on natural gas, diesel and other fuels, also have been used for alternative-fuel vehicles, offices, hospitals, colleges and hotels. Conejo Valley Thousand Oaks The fourth location of Stacked: Food Well Built has opened at The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks. The restaurant, owned by Stacked Restaurants LLC of Newport Beach, is known for its tabletop tablet ordering system. The outlet will seat 200 in 4,500 square feet of interior space and two patios. The chain serves American classic fare such as burgers, pizzas and salads. It will also have a full bar. Other locations are in Torrance, San Diego and Cerritos. Agoura Hills A settlement has been reached between Nomadix Inc. and affiliates of telecommunications giant AT&T Inc. Terms of the settlement from the 2009 patent infringement suit were not disclosed, but Nomadix said it included AT&T licensing the company’s patents. The Agoura Hills company makes technology that regulates Internet access in public areas and facilities Wi-Fi service. Nomadix, a subsidiary of DOCOMO InterTouch Pte Ltd., a Singapore company that provides Internet and other services to the hospitality industry, settled a similar lawsuit against Hewlett-Packard Co. in November. Santa Clarita Valley Valencia Mannkind Corp. could raise as much as $50 million through a shelf offering announced last month. The Valencia biotech, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, said it would use the funds for operations, as well as research and development of its primary pipeline drug, an inhaled insulin product called Afrezza. Later this year the company plans to resubmit the drug for approval to the Food and Drug Administration, which requested additional clinical trials in 2011. The company went public in 2004 and is founded by billionaire entrepreneur Alfred Mann, who still retains a majority stake.
Around the Valleys
