With a motto that urges visitors to indulge, the Los Angeles County Fair has recorded a estimated 5% increase in attendance in the first 13 days of the annual event.

Between Aug. 31 and Sept. 12, the fair drew more than 550,000 visitors, officials said. The event at the Fairplex in Pomona ends Sept. 30. (The fair is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.)

Because of the hot temperatures recently, fair officials say attendance is spiking later in the evening.

“What we are seeing is that the L.A. County Fair has become an evening event for guests," said spokeswoman Michelle DeMott. "We’ve seen tremendous bumps in attendance after 5 p.m.”

The fair has long featured high-caloric, deep-fried snack foods. But this year the fair is proudly promoting the gut-busting offerings with radio ads that proclaim "Tell your diet to stick it" and "Instead of worrying about gluten, be a glutton!"

New this year at the fair is a 2-pound beef rib on a 17-inch bone, deep-fried cookie dough, deep-fried...

-- Home improvement chain Home Depot Inc. will close its remaining seven big-box stores in China after a slowdown in the country's economy depressed sales.

The retailer will continue to operate two specialty stores in Tianjin, China, and concentrate efforts on expanding its online business. About 850 jobs will be cut, the company said Friday.

Home Depot stepped into China six years ago after acquiring a small, locally grown chain of stores called the Home Way. “We've learned a great deal over the last six years in China," Home Depot Chief Executive Frank Blake said in a statement. "Our new approach leverages that experience and reflects our continuing interest in providing value to Chinese customers, as well as our shareholders.”

-- Electronics giant Best Buy Co. is moving 2,000 workers in charge of loss prevention into its sales force to combat falling sales.

Company spokeswoman Kelly Groehler told Bloomberg that workers who normally greet shoppers as they enter and check...

SACRAMENTO -- Whole Foods Market, the upscale seller of organic products and other "natural" foods, has endorsed a California initiative that would require the labeling of genetically engineered food ingredients.

The Austin, Texas, company said it's backing Proposition 37 on the November ballot "because it has long believed its customers have the right to know how their food is produced."

That "right to know" is the main argument for the measure, which has strong support from farmers, processors and sellers of organic foods and opposition from biotech companies, grocery manufacturers and the soft drink industry.

The grocery industry contends that genetically engineered foods are healthful and no different nutritionally than organic fruit, vegetables and grains.

Opponents so far have raised about $25 million to fight Proposition 37, while supporters reported $3.5 million as of Sept. 1, according to Maplight.org, a nonpartisan voter information service.

Whole Foods' endorsement of Proposition...

Another sign of rising food prices, this one unrelated to corn costs: The price of sushi in New York City rose so much this year that its raw fish and rice is now more expensive than in Los Angeles.

The price of the Japanese cuisine gained an average of 10% in the Big Apple, according to the Sushinomics Cost-of-Living Index compiled by Bloomberg. The data are based on prices for spicy tuna and California rolls in restaurants in 25 major metropolitan areas.

New York City landed the highest score of 132.98, which means that its prices are 32.98% higher than the nationwide average. Los Angeles was next at 127.68, followed by San Francisco at 119.22.

Dallas and Sacramento round out the top five. New Orleans, with a 79.98 score, is the cheapest big city in which to chow down on sushi.

In July, another popular but controversial food-based index – the Big Mac index calculated by the Economist – found that a Big Mac sells for $4.33 in America but costs just $2.13 in Hong Kong and $7.92...

The global economy may still be teetering but that is not stopping people from traveling abroad.

With a record 467 million tourists traveling internationally in the first six months of the year, the United Nations World Tourism Organization predicts the number will reach 1 billion tourists by the end of the year.

In 2011, the number of tourists traveling outside of their home country reached 990 million. The United Nations World Tourism Organization Secretary-General Taleb Rifai forecast this week during the Global Tourism Economy Forum in Macao that the number would reach 1 billion.

"Amid the current economic uncertainty, tourism is one of the few economic sectors in the world growing strongly," he said.

The number of international tourists worldwide grew by 5% between January and June, compared with the same period in 2011, according to the organization.

Most of the growth came from Asia, where Japanese tourism has rebounded from last year's earthquake and China's growing middle class are...

The number of Americans without bank accounts is rising, with 10 million households lacking last year, up from 9 million in 2009.

That’s 8.2% of U.S. households, or 17 million adults who are categorized as "unbanked," according to a report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Nearly three in 10 households don’t have a savings account, while 10% don’t have a checking account.

Factor in all the additional people who are underbanked, and 28.3% of all households are conducting some or all of their financial transactions outside the mainstream banking system.

In the West, more than a quarter of households fit the description, relying on options such as prepaid cards, pawn shops, check-cashing operations, payday loans and more.

They're most likely to be non-Asian minorities or households that are lower-income, young, unemployed or less-educated, according to the report. More than half of unbanked households have never had a bank account, including nearly 15% of Hispanic...

Politics -- I get it. Really. You say what you've got to say to score points with voters.

But when it comes to getting the economy up and running again, does it really help to pretend that you've never attended a single economics class or that you have no clue about how things actually work?

I'm thinking about the responses from Republicans to news that the Federal Reserve will step up its economic-stimulus efforts with a plan to buy $40 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities.

The idea is that this will stabilize the housing market, which virtually all economists agree is key to helping the overall economy regain its footing.

The GOP, however, is spinning this as an "ineffective" move that only underlines what a crappy job President Obama has been doing.

"The Federal Reserve's announcement of a third round of quantitative easing is further confirmation that President Obama's policies have not worked," says Lanhee Chen, policy director for the campaign of Republican candidate Mitt...

SACRAMENTO -- Amazon.com shoppers, desperate to grab some extra savings online, are rushing to beat a midnight deadline for avoiding payment of the California sales tax.

After years of controversy, the world's largest online retailer is to begin collecting state and local sales taxes Saturday on California purchases.

Depending on where you live, sales tax ranges from 7.25% to 9.75%

"Definitely stocking up ... can't beat 8 or 9% savings," tweeted Patrick Chen, who identified himself as an Internet game developer.

New tax revenues to state and local governments, generated just by Amazon, are expected to be as high as $100 million during the first year, California tax officials said. The total from all Internet sellers could reach $317 million for the fiscal year that began July 1, they said.

Both Amazon and the state tax collector, who have been at loggerheads for years over the issue of Internet...

When he’s not plugging Dos Equis beer, the “most interesting man in the world” has an after-hours gig: stumping for Barack Obama’s reelection.

Actor Jonathan Goldsmith, who portrays the brew company’s mysterious and supremely accomplished spokesman, is hosting a fund-raiser for the president Tuesday in Burlington, Vt., according to the Political Party Time blog.

Tickets start at $20 and run up to $500. Vermont Speaker of the House Shap Smith will also attend.

If Dos Equis ads are to be believed, the 73-year-old Goldsmith has some great party tricks up his sleeve, including acing the Rorschach test, demonstrating his left and right-handedness and showing off the German shepherd he taught to bark in Spanish.

But the bearded Don Juan has to compete with other pitchmen with stakes in the election. Papa John’s Chief Executive John Schnatter recently hosted a private fundraiser for Mitt Romney at his Kentucky mansion.

No word on when Old Spice stud Isiah...