On December 21, the Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, deployed a suite of communications satellites, and, in impressive fashion, came back down to Earth. Using its engines to dull the force of gravity, it survived re-entry and hit its football-field sized landing pad like a Tesla backing into a garage. The Falcon 9's return from the heavens was an early Christmas miracle, courtesy of Elon Musk, one of the world's few celebrity engineers. It is a product of SpaceX, Musk's pioneering private space-travel company based in Hawthorne. He can now add space to the list of fields - from electric cars, to battery power, to credit card payments - that his ventures have conquered. (A similar launch Jan. 17 didn't go quite so well.) Next, Musk hopes to revolutionize long-distance transit. That one may make rocket science look like child's play. For the uninitiated: Hyperloop is - depending on whom you ask - either the name brand or the generic concept behind the next generation of magnetic levitation technology. It's envisioned as either a train or as a set of individual pods that, unlike conventional maglev (which never really caught on, except on a 21-mile line in Shanghai), would run through depressurized tubes. Yes, tubes. As in under the ground. The technology makes intuitive sense. It uses the estimable power of magnetic propulsion while avoiding the mortal enemy of all moving things: air resistance. With potential speeds north of 600 miles per hour, the "hyper" is obvious; whether "loop" refers to the circular tube or to the idea that these things will be encircling us sooner than you can say " California High Speed Rail " is but one of its delightful mysteries.

Sexy-sporty clothing brand American Apparel has long been one of the Los Angeles' most beloved, and most controversial, corporate citizens. It is known for paying decent wages and treating its workers well. When it easily could have outsourced jobs to Asia, it has also resolutely kept its main  factory  in Los Angeles, occupying a muscular, seven-story industrial building on the southeast edge of downtown since 2000. American Apparel has proudly championed social-justice causes, including  immigration reform  and  gay rights ,  and assured consumers that they are buying "sweatshop-free" garments made by well treated workers. They're just the sort of workers who might -  might  - benefit from the forthcoming increase in California's minimum wage. If only they - and every other low-wage worker in Los Angeles - had decent roofs over their heads. Unfortunately, American Apparel, which has suffered through jittery balance sheets and the checkered reputation of founder and former CEO Dov Charney, hasn't made a profit since 2009. The Los Angeles Times distressingly, if unsurprisingly,  reports  that American Apparel now intends to shed 500 of its roughly 4,000 Los Angeles-area jobs.

Coastal California has long been known for harrowing natural hazards: wildfires, drought, floods, the occasional tsunami, and, of course, earthquakes. It has also developed some serious human-made hazards too: chronic poverty, sea level rise, crime, pollution, riots, fragile energy grids, stratospheric housing costs, among others.

In an absurd twist on use of the Tuolomne Tactic, Carlsbad voters have apparently overturned the city council’s decision to adopt a proposed ballot initiative approving a specific plan that would permit developer Rick Caruso to move forward with a shopping center.

The Strategic Growth Council staff is recommending awards of almost $300 million to 25 different projects around the state that promote greenhouse gas emissions reduction and affordable housing, and assist disadvantaged communities. The Council will meet next week to approve the list.

In the second medical marijuana ruling out of the City of Upland in the last week, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled that Upland's ban on mobile medical marijuana dispensaries is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Monday that he has selected Vince Bertoni as the city's new planning director, replacing Michael Lo Grande. Bertoni is currently planning director of Pasadena and a former deputy director in Los Angeles. Bertoni must be confirmed by the L.A. City Council.

Local governments in the Inland Empire won one and lost one in rulings about medical marijuana, both from the same panel of justices on the Fourth District Court of Appeal.

All of sudden, or so it seems, a stadium mania has overtaken California. The dreams, schemes and honest-to-goodness plans for football and baseball stadiums are coming so fast that it’s difficult to keep track of them.

Ever since Gov. Jerry Brown killed redevelopment in 2011, the conventional wisdom has been that eventually he would give it a second life - but only after he was sure the old system was completely dead, in a way that protects the state general fund, and probably after he himself won re-election to a final term.

In the latest court ruling in one of California’s longest-running land-use disputes, an appellate court has upheld a judgment of almost $3 million against a Sebastapol landowner for breaching his contractor with a development company that has been attempting to develop the landowner’s 21 acres for almost 20 years. Both sides have accused the other of a variety of breaches over the years, all associated with getting permits for the property and its development.

Thirty years ago, in his first big majority opinion -- a land-use case from the California coast -- Antonin Scalia found the colorful and irreverent style that came to distinguish his career on the Supreme Court. And with one clean swipe, he knocked William Brennan out of the box and became the intellectual leader of the court.