Stocks fall in eurozone as U.S. jobs report adds to investor worries

On Monday, Asia's stock market took a tumble, and markets in the European Union followed suit with falls of their own.

The reason for the beating taken by the foreign markets centered largely on fears that the U.S. is sliding back into a recession after a Friday report that the nation added no new jobs in August and kept its unemployment steady 9.1%. Another factor is worry over the ongoing European debt crisis, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Reactionary market declines could be seen across Europe on Labor Day as the U.S. stock market was closed. Germany's DAX index fell 5.28%, France's CAC 40 fell 4.73%, the FTSE 100 in London fell 3.58%, and the Euro Stoxx 50 fell 5.11%.

Retail sales across the 17-nation eurozone saw a surprise increase in July, but a report on the E.U.'s services sector released Monday revealed a slowdown across Europe for the fifth consecutive month, the AP said.

"The purchasing managers' index for the eurozone showed the services sector was still growing -- unlike the manufacturing sector -- but only barely," the AP said. "That will add pressure on the European Central Bank to keep interest rates on hold when it meets this week."

The souring economic situations in Asia, Europe and the U.S. are leaving investors with "so much uncertainty, so much fear, that investors don't know what to do," David Kotok, chairman and chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors, told the AP. "I don't remember the last time stocks were so cheap and nobody wanted them."

More evidence of investor worries were evident as well.

"The difference in interest rates between the Greek and benchmark German 10-year bonds, known as the spread, spiraled to new records on Monday, topping 17.3 percentage points," the AP said. "Yields on the Greek bonds were above 18%."

President Obama is set to give a major speech Thursday night in which he is expected to lay out proposals seeking to spark job creation. Obama previewed his speech in Detroit on Monday, saying the Republican Party will be publicly held accountable if its members don't support his job-creation plans.

From Monday's slumps in Asia and Europe, it's clear that investors on those continents will be watching to see whether Obama and U.S. lawmakers can turn the tide and stave off another recession.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

twitter.com/nateog

Photo: Traders in Frankfurt, Germany. Credit: Michael Probst / Associated Press

Online poker executive Bradley Franzen pleads not guilty

Bradley Franzen, one of 11 executives charged in a crackdown against the three largest poker websites open to U.S. players, pleaded not guilty to related charges.

Franzen, 41, of Illinois, was released on $200,000 bail after turning himself in to the FBI in New York on Monday, according to the Associated Press.

The 11 people -- three of whom were the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker --  were charged Friday with bank fraud, money laundering and violating gambling laws. The government also is seeking to recover $3 billion from the companies.

Franzen has been pegged as one in a group of highly paid "payment processors" who lied to banks about the nature of the financial transactions, the AP said, noting that the charges he faces could carry a sentence of 85 years in prison if he's convicted.

Federal prosecutors charged Franzen with nine counts, according to a Bloomberg report, alleging that he created fake companies and websites to disguise payments to the three poker companies and conspired to violate the Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. They also allege money laundering and conspiring to commit bank and wire fraud.

Franzen isn't the only one to deny taking part in illegal activities related to online poker.

On Friday, Full Tilt Poker defended itself and its chief executive, Raymond Bitar, saying online poker was "a game of skill enjoyed by millions of people" and despite the FBI's actions, it remained committed to preserving the rights of poker fans "to play the game they love online."

Full Tilt said it believes online poker is legal, saying its view was "a position also taken by some of the best legal minds in the United States."

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

twitter.com/nateog

Photo: Aaron Kanter plays multiple Web poker games simultaneously in a 2005 photo. After qualifying online, he won $2 million at a Las Vegas event. Credit: Steve Yeater / Associated Press

Former American Apparel employee accuses CEO Dov Charney of sexual assault in lawsuit

Dov Charney, American Apparel Inc.'s embattled chief executive, has been sued by a former employee who says he sexually assaulted her "during what she believed to be a hiring interview" at his home.

Charney declined to comment on the suit filed by Kimbra Lo in L.A. County Superior Court on Wednesday. The complaint marks the second suit filed this month accusing him of sexual assault.

DOCUMENT: Read the suit

The complaint says Charney began sending Lo "sexual text messages" in July 2010, and that he called her and said "he was masturbating on the phone while they spoke."

According to the suit, Lo ignored his calls and messages until Charney offered her a modeling and photography job in December, inviting her to meet him in his home to discuss the position.

After she arrived, Charney, wearing only a towel, "violently kissed her" and forced her to perform sexual acts, the suit alleges.

Afterward, Lo's mother called Charney and told the company founder and majority owner to stay away from her daughter, "whereupon Charney begged forgiveness and admitted he had a problem," according to the suit, which was first reported by the New York Times.

Three other women filed the suit along with Lo, saying in the court document that American Apparel improperly forced them to sign confidential arbitration agreements with the company before they would be hired, and that the company had initiated arbitration proceedings with them, but details as to what dispute the arbitration matters were dealing with weren't made public.

Earlier this month, former American Apparel employee Irene Morales sued Charney in New York state court, saying he had attempted to force her to perform oral sex on him  in his New York apartment in 2008, when she was 18, and sexually harassed her for months, including demanding that she send him explicit photographs, e-mails and text messages.

American Apparel has said in court papers that Morales sued "after making a number of extortion-like threats to expose the company to a threatened avalanche of litigation and negative publicity." The company has asked the court to send her case to confidential arbitration.

In recent years, Charney has been named a defendant in several sexual harassment suits, but none has gone to trial. American Apparel's board of directors has publicly stood behind him. The company has said in court papers that Charney seeks to foster a "sexually charged workplace" in an effort to stimulate creativity.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

twitter.com/nateog

Photo: Dov Charney, chairman and chief executive officer of American Apparel, in a company retail store in New York on Thursday, July 29, 2010. Credit: Keith Bedford/Bloomberg

Apple iPhones reportedly fumble daylight saving time switch

The iPhone is a marvel of modern technology -- it can stream movies, edit video and even turn your voice into an R&B singer. Apparently, though, it has trouble telling time.

When daylight saving time kicked in Sunday, some Apple iPhones reportedly failed to jump ahead an hour and catch up.

Venting their frustrations on Twitter, some users complained that their phones fell back or ahead an hour or two over the weekend.

Erin Wormsbecker, a Twitter user from Vancouver, wrote:

I wish the clock on my #iPhone would stop paying games and fix itself!

Apple officials were unavailable for comment Sunday afternoon to address the reports. But, problems with an iPhone clock aren't particularly new for owners of the popular smart phone.

In January, some iPhone owners complained that the switch from 2010 to 2011 caused malfunctioning alarms for a run of about three days and daylight-saving-related problems also took place in November.

Another Tweeter, identifying herself as Dolores from Arizona (where there is no daylight saving time), also complained of clock problems, stating:

My iPhone was trippin this mornin. It set my clock an hr ahead, but I live in az

A Twitter user and iPhone owner named Jim Bass was dismayed his iPhone's clock actually worked Sunday morning, tweeting:

I have to admit that I was surprised when my iPhone alarm clock actually worked this morning. Set 2 other alarms just in case

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

twitter.com/nateog

Photo: Customers browse Apple iPhones at the company's Sanlitun store in Beijing.

Credit: Nelson Ching / Bloomberg

Bank of America's online banking down due to bad 'weekend service updates' [Updated]

Bank of America's online banking services were down the majority of Tuesday, leaving many customers to do their banking at a branch in person, by phone or by ATM.

Taking the blame for the online banking outage was on a problematic weekend service update, according to Tara Burke, a Bank of America spokeswoman, who spoke with The Times' Technology Blog about the service outage.

"We've been experiencing some intermittent service disruption throughout the day," Burke said. "This is not the result of any hacking or malware or anything like that. This is not an attack on Bank of America."

Burke wouldn't go into further detail about what exactly the problem with the weekend service update was. She did say that customer data had not been affected by the service disruptions and that Bank of America was working on restoring service as soon as possible.

[Updated: Burke said Bank of America has restored online banking services for California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and North Carolina.

The bank is still working on getting access back up for the rest of its customers, she said.]

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

twitter.com/nateog

Image: A screenshot of Bank of America's homepage, notifying users of online banking services being unavailable. Credit: Bank of America

West Covina man sentenced to prison for Ponzi scheme

A West Covina man was sentenced Monday to 11 years and three months in federal prison for running a Ponzi scheme that brought in about $4 million from more than 107 victims.

Ruben Gonzalez, 34, was also ordered to pay $2,200,771 in restitution to his victims, whom he lured into his investment scheme by promising “guaranteed” annual interest rates as high as 120%, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles.

Gonzalez, who is a Mexican national, was sentenced by United States District Judge Percy Anderson. He was arrested in October 2009 after the FBI searched his West Covina business, New Golden Investments Group, also known as NGI Group, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Gonzalez was indicted in May, and on Sept. 17 he pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud, one count of money laundering and one count of misuse of a Social Security number, the statement said.

He admitted to advertising his investment scheme in Spanish-language newspapers and on Spanish radio stations, targeting the Southern California Latino community, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Gonzalez told investors their money would be used in real estate developments, commodities such as gold and silver and a gold mine in Mexico, it said.

But instead, he used the majority of newer investors' money to make payments to other investors, the U.S. attorney's office said. Gonzalez also admitted to taking more than $400,000 of investors' money for himself.

-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

L.A. Auto Show: Lotus to build its own engine for 2012 IndyCar season

Lotus announced at the L.A. Auto Show that it is, for the first time, building an engine of its own for IndyCar racing.

The English builder of exotic sports cars has been in Indy racing a long time. But in the past, their efforts in IndyCars have been powered by the likes of Ford and, more recently, Honda.

In 2012, that changes, Lotus said Thursday afternoon.

Lotus played up its racing heritage in announcing that it will build its own engine to compete in the IZOD IndyCar Series against motors from Chevrolet and Honda.

The automaker brought out IndyCar legend Parnelli Jones for a few words and a photo-op alongside a 2010 model Lotus IndyCar (which has a Honda engine) painted in the company's signature green and yellow.

"I believe our heritage is all about motorsports," said Dany Bahar, Group Lotus' chief executive. "We believe our world cars should have a connection with motorsports.... We take racing seriously, and we don't want to just put a sticker on a car."

Lotus will also develop its own aerodynamic kit for IndyCars running its engine, Bahar said. Specifications for the IndyCar engine, which is in development, will be released at a later date.

The company has participated in many types of racing since its founding in 1952, having competed in Formula 1 racing, the annual 24-Hours of Le Mans endurance race in France and the World Rally Championship, despite never having built its own engine for an IndyCar.

Racing in a Lotus chassis with a Ford engine, Jim Clark won the 1965 Indianapolis 500. Jones, that year, got second place in another Lotus/Ford IndyCar.

"Lotus is a renowned name in racing, with a long association with some of the greatest names of motorsports," said Randy Bernard, IndyCar's chief executive. "We're honored Lotus has chosen to serve as an engine manufacturer."

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Photo: Photographers take pictures of racer car driver Parnelli Jones, IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard, Group Lotus CEO Dany Bahar and two others as they stand behind a Lotus IZOD IndyCar Series race car at the L.A. Auto Show on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

L.A. Auto Show: Mayor Villaraigosa promises to make L.A. homes electric car-ready in under seven days

The city of Los Angeles will be able to make homes electric-car ready in less than a week, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in a speech Thursday morning at the L.A. Auto Show.

"To make it easy and convenient, we're streamlining the process to get set-up with home charging kits in under seven days, from permit to plug-in," Villaraigosa said.

The ability to get chargers installed in L.A. homes quickly and easily is a key factor in making the city the "electric car capital of the world," he said.

PHOTO GALLERY: LA Auto Show concept cars

"Manufacturers here today have made it clear: The Los Angeles region is an early launch market for electric vehicle deployment," Villaraigosa said. "So, today, we're making it clear as well. We will be ready."

Villaraigosa said getting chargers into home will compliment EV chargers already installed in public places such as the Los Angeles Convention Center and L.A. International Airport.

Many more public chargers will be installed throughout the city over the next two years, Villaraigosa said, though he did not provide details on how many and where.

The process of getting electric vehicle chargers into homes is handled by the L.A. Department of Water and Power and the Department of Building and Safety and includes issuing permits for the chargers, inspecting a home to make sure its electrical system can support a charger and meter installations.

Villaraigosa said DWP will launch a customer service phone line Dec. 1 for Angelenos looking to make their homes electric-vehicle ready. The EV Customer Connect line, as the mayor called it, can be reached at (800) 342-5397.

Permits for home electric-vehicle chargers can be obtained at https://www.permitla.org and the city will inspect the installation within 24 hours of request, the mayor said.

Once installation of the EV charger is complete, the DWP will install a new meter in a customer's home. 

The DWP will also offer a discount energy rate of 2.5 cents per kilowatt hour for those who charge their electric vehicles overnight, Villaraigosa said.

Southern California Edison also plans to offer electric car owners discounts on the power they use to charge their vehicles.

Los Angeles has an advantage over every other city in the U.S. to quickly embrace electric vehicles, Deputy Mayor Austin Beutner said. Beutner is also the interim general manager of the DWP.

"We're the only city in this country that owns our utility and can control our permitting apparatus to make it happen, and our pledge today is to make it happen within a week," Beutner said. "This is the single most important thing we can do as a city to enable the auto industry of the future, which is the electric vehicle."

To prepare for the advent of electric vehicles, the DPW has upgraded about half of its nearly 15,000 transformers and about 40% of its power poles, he said in an earlier interview with The Times.

“The long-term consequence of this is pretty positive. Every combustion engine car we can take off the road is a good thing,” Beutner said.

Also, Los Angeles will use federal dollars to provide up to a $2,500 subsidy to pay for up to 5,000 residents in install home charging stations.

Beutner said proof of the city's support for the auto industry can be found in the opening or expansion of five dealerships in Los Angeles over the last five months: Chrysler and BYD downtown, two dealerships in the Valley and one in Mid-City.

"Dealers are the single largest contributor of sales tax revenue to the city, which is the single largest component of our general fund, in excess of $250 million," he said. "In addition, they pay over $600 million in wages to our community. It's a vital industry and its an industry we have to support."

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles and Jerry Hirsch

Photo: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa sits in the Chevrolet Volt electric plug-in hybrid, among a throng of photogrophers, at the L.A. Auto Show. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

Internet-connected electronics fueling more rentals, less buying, in home entertainment

Consumer spending on home entertainment dropped about 4% though the first nine months of 2010  compared with the same period last year, according to data from the BTIG Research firm.

The reason? More people are using consumer electronics items such as Internet-connected televisions and Blu-Ray players to rent entertainment media instead of buying it.

Such electronics allow consumers to access streaming and rental services such as Netflix, which has bitten into sales of boxed media, the research firm said.

The third quarter of the year saw particularly high declines, the firm said. Sales of disc-based media such as high-definition Blu-Ray disc movies and standard-definition DVDs, as well as digital download purchases, dropped 11% in the third quarter of the year, compared with a 5% drop during the first six  months of 2010, BTIG said.

In addition to Netflix, rental kiosks such as Redbox and video on demand from cable and satellite providers are seeing rapid growth, BTIG said. Spending on rentals from kiosks rose 55% over the first nine months of 2010, the firm said.

That too means more rentals and fewer purchases, but also fewer rentals from brick-and-mortar rental stores such as Blockbuster. Brick-and-mortar rental sales were down about 31.4% over the first nine months of 2010, year over year, BTIG said.

Chart: Consumer spending on home entertainment. Credit: BTIG Research.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Nike's retail expansion: 15th California store open and 250 to 300 new stores planned globally

Nike Inc. has set in motion a plan to expand its global retail foothold by opening 250 to 300 new stores over the next five years.

That expansion includes a Nike Factory Store that opened at the Citadel Outlets in Los Angeles on Tuesday. The new store is Nike's 15th factory store in California. Nike currently has 155 factory stores open in the U.S.

Nike's expansion plan calls for a mix of discount-minded Nike Factory Stores in outlet malls and Niketown stores, which sell newer and exclusive items and are often found in upscale shopping centers, according to a statement from Nike.

The Citadel Outlets store is one of five Nike Factory Stores being opened this year across the U.S., said Jeff Nichols, general manager of North American Nike Factory Stores. The other four opened in Alabama, Washington, North Carolina and Utah, he said.

"The global plan is to open hundreds of new stores over the next five years, but for the factory stores, our plan is to open about five a year in the U.S.," Nichols said.

The Citadel Outlets store is Nike's first two-story factory store, he said.

"The biggest difference in the Los Angeles store, versus any other factory store, is that we'll have an entire floor devoted to women and youth athletes," Nichols said. "We're open next to an H&M, which is a two-story store, and the location provided us with a unique opportunity to have a two-story factory store that we've never really had before."

Consumers won't find the latest Nike sneakers or Air Jordans at the Nike Factory Store. Instead, the factory stores sell products left over from past seasons at prices discounted from when the items first arrived in other retail stores. The factory stores stock casual clothing, as well as products for sports such as running, training, soccer and basketball.

Niketown stores focus on selling newer footwear and apparel. Select Niketown stores, such as one in New York near Central Park, feature NIKEiD studios, where consumers can choose custom colors and materials on shoes made to order.

As a part of Nike's increased retail efforts, the company recently remodeled a Niketown location in London, expanding it to 42,000 square feet and adding a NIKEiD studio. The London Niketown store spans four floors and is the company's largest.

The Citadel Outlets Nike Factory Store will be pretty big too, measuring 17,624 square feet -- much larger than the average Nike outlet store, which is about 10,000 square feet, Nichols said.

Nike is holding grand-opening events at the Citadel Outlets factory store Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with door prizes, gift card giveaways and an autograph and question-and-answer session with Lisa Leslie, a former player for the Los Angeles Sparks women's basketball team and Olympic gold medalist.

-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles