Students are leaving college with an average of $27,000 in student loan debt, according to the  Institute for College Access & Success.

Millennials say debt stalls retirement savings

More than half of millennials -- 54% -- surveyed by a Wells Fargo & Co. retirement unit said their "biggest financial concern currently" was longer-term debt, mainly student and credit card debt.

With the cost of college continuing to rise, about 64% of the 22- to 32-year-olds surveyed said they paid for school with loans. And 42% of the millennials said their debt was "overwhelming," twice the rate of baby boomers who were surveyed for comparison.

The $1 trillion in outstanding student debt and low wages in the weak economy are causing the latest rounds of college graduates to put away less money for retirement. More than half of the young adults surveyed said they hadn’t begun planning for retirement.

They find themselves stymied in putting money away for retirement because of their collective $1 trillion in outstanding student debt and the typically low wages they’re earning in the weak economy. Still, nearly two-thirds, or 61%, of the young adults considered themselves...

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Memorial Day travel expected to drop slightly for SoCal residents [video chat]

Are staycations coming back into fashion?

The number of Southern Californians expected to travel at least 50 miles for the Memorial Day weekend will drop about 2.1% compared with last year.

The annual forecast by the Auto Club of Southern California concluded that about 60,000 fewer Southern Californians will travel for the three-day weekend, compared with last year, with the biggest drop coming among air travelers.

Live chat: Join travel reporter Hugo Martin here at 3:30 Pacific

That will bring the total number of vacationers leaving home for the weekend to 2.53 million.

The number of Southern Californians traveling by air will drop 12.5%. The number of travelers by car, 2.17 million, should stay about the same as last year, the Auto Club said.

The Auto Club forecast is based on economic research by Colorado-based IHS Global Insight.

The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the Los Angeles and Long Beach metropolitan area has dropped about 9 cents in the past week to $4.08 but...

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Zsa Zsa Gabor's home was priced at $14.9 million.

Zsa Zsa Gabor's home sells for $11 million

Zsa Zsa Gabor's longtime Bel-Air estate has sold for $11 million in a court-approved deal that will enable the ailing actress to remain in the home for three years.

The French Regency-style mansion, used as the setting of the Liberace biopic “Behind the Candelabra,” sits on a 1-acre-plus gated promontory with views of downtown Los Angeles, Santa Catalina Island and the ocean.

The 28-room home, built in 1955, has a formal sitting room with an antique French fireplace, an oversized dining room with city views, a butler's pantry off the kitchen, six bedrooms and seven bathrooms in 8,878 square feet of living space.

Grandest pool around? Malibu has it

Former residents include Howard Hughes and Elvis Presley. Gabor bought the house in 1973 for $280,000.

Her scores of TV and film appearances include a starring role in "Moulin Rouge" (1952) and guest appearances on "The Hollywood Squares" in the 1960s and '70s and "The New Hollywood Squares" in the '80s.

Roger Perry of Rodeo...

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Ellen DeGeneres, left, and actress Portia de Rossi are adding a 13-acre estate in Montecito to their list of Southern California properties. Above, they attend the premiere of Netflix's "Arrested Development" Season 4 at the Chinese Theatre.

Ellen DeGeneres drops millions on Montecito mansion

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi have bought a 13-acre estate in Montecito that had been listed at $26.5 million. The purchase price has not yet appeared in the public record.

The restored Tuscan-style villa and gardens has undergone years and “millions and millions” of dollars in reconstruction work under the care of its earlier owner, architect and designer John Saladino.

The two-story villa was built in the late 1920s from locally quarried stone. The property is entered through wrought-iron gates. A quarter-mile driveway winds through olive and eucalyptus trees.

Downstairs, the villa includes an 800-square-foot living room, a dining room and a library/media room. The state-of-the-art kitchen adjoins a breakfast room that opens to gardens with 30-foot Italian cypresses and a mature olive tree.

Grandest pool around? Malibu has it

The master bedroom and bathroom -- with under-floor heating -- and a second en suite bedroom are also downstairs; three more en suite bedrooms...

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Exxon has been accused of anti-gay hiring bias by an LGBT workers advocacy group.

Advocacy group accuses Exxon of anti-gay hiring practices

Consider two fictitious female job candidates with nearly identical resumes, both vying for an administrative assistant position, one with better grades and a history of volunteering for a gay rights group.

At oil and gas giant ExxonMobil, hiring managers allegedly chased after the less qualified prospect while ignoring the applicant linked to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, according to a charge filed against the company Wednesday.

The complaint from nonprofit LGBT worker advocacy group Freedom to Work and law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, filed in the Illinois Department of Human Rights, accuses Exxon of discrimination based on sexual orientation.  

The so-called paired resume test is a tactic that has been used for decades, said Peter Romer-Friedman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.

The methodology mirrors a 2011 Harvard University study that found that LGBT candidates were 40% less likely than their heterosexual peers to land job interviews, he said.

Top 10...

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The Federal Reserve Building in Washington.

Some Fed officials open to start tapering stimulus as soon as June

WASHINGTON -- Some Federal Reserve officials said they were willing to start ratcheting back the central bank's stimulus program as early as June if the economic recovery strengthened further, according to minutes from their policy meeting three week ago.

Wednesday's release of the minutes from the April 30-May 1 meeting helped roil financial markets already trying to digest earlier comments by Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke about the controversial bond-buying program.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped into negative territory shortly after the minutes were released. It had initially jumped as Bernanke began his testimony to a congressional committee, then dropped, rose again and began trending down as investors tried to figure out what signals Bernanke was sending about the stimulus efforts.

The minutes offer a more detailed view into the views of the policymaking Federal Open Market Committee than its short monthly statement, though they are vague on many details.

"A number of...

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The Pabst brewery in Milwaukee in 1996. Pabst Blue Ribbon, aka PBR, has found new life with hipsters.

Quiz: How much do you know about classic beer brands?

Years, even decades later, classic beer jingles and slogans live on in our heads. Don Draper could take a lesson from some of these classic beer advertising lines.

How much do you know about beer advertising? Test your knowledge and see how deep these slogans have burrowed into your brain.

 

After you take this quiz, try your hand at more more business-related quizzes by clicking here.

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Patrons line the bar at Ham and Eggs Tavern, a former diner that is now a canned beer bar. Sub-premium beers such as Pabst Blue Ribbon are leading a surge in beer prices at U.S. bars and restaurants, a researcher says.

Hipsters driving up price of beer, researcher says

Here’s another reason to be annoyed at hipsters: They’re driving up the price of beer.

A recent study has found that the price of low- and mid-range beers has been climbing at U.S. bars and restaurants. And the guy who oversaw the study for Massachusetts-based research firm Restaurant Sciences said he thinks the popularity of Pabst Blue Ribbon could be the cause.

“While all the attention has been on craft beers, the price of mainstay brands in the mid-price tier have risen more dramatically,” Research Sciences President Chuck Ellis said.

Quiz: Remember these beer ads?

Pabst Blue Ribbon, a low-cost beer that has become a popular choice of the bearded, skinny-jeans wearing crowd, is a key reason the price of sub-premium beers has climbed 6.8% in the last seven months, Ellis told the New York Daily News.

"I believe the single biggest driver in sub-premium beer price increases is indeed specifically PBR," Ellis said. "It has become quite fashionable."

Ellis reached that...

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Christian Slater buys estate in Florida

Actor Christian Slater buys Florida home for $2.2 million

Actor Christian Slater has purchased a home in Coconut Grove, Fla., for $2.2 million.

Called Villa Dolce Far Niente and built in 1928, the estate centers on a Spanish-style home with four bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms and 2,971 square feet of living space.

Features include an eat-in kitchen with marble floors, arched mahogany French doors, a misted patio area and a swimming pool.

Slater, who went house-hunting with fiancee Brittany Lopez, got his start at age 7 on the soap opera “The Edge of Night.”

The 43-year-old actor stars in this year’s films “The Power of Few” and “Assassins Run.” Other film credits include “Interview With the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles” (1994), “True Romance” (1993) and “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” (1991).

Grandest pool around? Malibu has it

He and Lopez are planning a backyard wedding in July.

The property previously sold in 2011 for $1.8 million.

Taylor Corey of Coldwell Banker&...

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World Nutella Day lives on after founder speaks with parent company Ferrero.

World Nutella Day survives after Ferrero reaches out to superfan

Devotees of Nutella hazelnut chocolate spread can call off the riots -- the brand’s Italian parent Ferrero says it reached a peaceful understanding with the superfan founder of World Nutella Day, an annual appreciation event that the company tried to shut down.

Nutella aficionados worldwide were shocked when, on May 16, Sara Rosso posted a note online that she had received a cease-and-desist demand from Ferrero’s lawyers.

Rosso, an American blogger living in Italy who launched World Nutella Day in 2007, wrote that she would darken the website for the unofficial Feb. 5 holiday along with all social media promotion on May 25 in response to the legal challenge.

Supporters bristled at what they perceived to be an attack on the high priestess of the sweet treat. Some said they returned Nutella products they had already bought, while others threatened to boycott the creamy spread.

“Nutella…more nuts in company management than in every jar. Idiots,” wrote Tim...

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Workers build a home in Rancho Santa Fe.

U.S. home sales rise in April

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes increased in April, hitting their highest level in nearly four years and signaling that the housing market continued its rebound last month.

Home sales increased 0.6% from the prior month and were up 9.7% from April 2012 to hit a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million units. It was the highest pace for home sales since November 2009 but nevertheless remained muted due to low inventory, the National Assn. of Realtors reported Wednesday.

Photos: Top 10 Southern California companies

“The robust housing market recovery is occurring in spite of tight access to credit and limited inventory,” real estate group chief economist Lawrence Yun said in a news release. “Without these frictions, existing-home sales easily would be well above the 5-million unit pace.”

Sales have risen year-over-year for 22 consecutive months. Home prices have shown 14 consecutive months of annual increases.

The median home price for all types of U....

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Target's earnings disappointed in the first quarter. The retailer lowered its full-year forecast.

Target earnings disappoint, retailer cuts full-year forecast

Target Corp., like many other retail rivals, was laid low in its first fiscal quarter by cold spring temperatures that discouraged seasonal shopping and caused the chain to underperform by even its own metrics.

The Minneapolis company said sales at stores open more than a year declined 0.6% in the three months ended May 4. That’s after the retailer in April amended an earlier forecast of a gain as high as 2% and began predicting flat sales.

Target hasn’t experienced a same-store sales decline since 2009. Chief Executive Gregg Steinhafel, in a statement, said the “softer-than-expected sales” came largely in “apparel and other seasonal and weather-sensitive categories” in the chain’s 1,832 stores.

In its first quarter, Target began expanding into Canada, opening 24 stores out of the 124 it hopes to launch by the end of the year.

The chain said net income for the period was $498 million, or 77 cents a share, down from its profit of $697 million,...

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