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Newsletter: California Inc.: Hollywood is getting ready for its close-up

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Welcome to California Inc., the weekly newsletter of the L.A. Times Business Section.

I’m Business columnist David Lazarus, and here’s a rundown of upcoming stories this week and the highlights of last week.

Tax day — that would be April 18 — is fast approaching. President Trump has yet to reveal his plan to overhaul taxes, but he said at a meeting with retail execs last week that one of his main goals is to make filing returns a whole lot easier. “H&R Block probably won’t be too happy,” Trump said. “Other than H&R Block, I think people are going to love it.” We’ll see.

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LOOKING AHEAD

Hollywood’s big day: Tuesday is the final day for Oscar voting, and on Sunday, the gold statuettes will be handed out at the 89th Academy Awards. Lionsgate is expected to clean up with its Los Angeles musical “La La Land,” which netted a record-tying 14 Oscar nominations. Other best-picture contenders include A24’s “Moonlight,” Fox’s “Hidden Figures” and Paramount’s “Arrival,” each of which scored multiple nominations. Some predict this year’s awards will be heavy on political statements.

Obamacare event: Rep. Tony Cárdenas, a Los Angeles Democrat, will host a town hall Tuesday to discuss Republican plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act. At the meeting, Cárdenas will address questions about the possible elimination of Obamacare. “It’s a chance for me to better understand what problems our community is facing,” he said. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at Cesar E. Chavez Learning Academies in San Fernando.

Fed watch: On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee will release the minutes of its January meeting. They could give an indication of the likelihood of another interest rate increase at the next meeting in March. Consumer prices rose 2.5% in January from a year earlier, the highest rate since March 2012. The data give the Federal Reserve more encouragement to raise interest rates, and economists said the possibility is increasing that it will happen next month.

Electric cars: Tesla Motors will release its fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday. The company has yet to score an annual profit, but given its ambitions and capital requirements, that’s not surprising. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is betting big on the company’s highly anticipated mid-market electric car, the Model 3, scheduled to go into production later this year. Tesla has taken some 373,000 pre-orders for the Model 3, with customers putting down deposits of $1,000 each.

GOP get-together: The California Republican Party holds its spring convention Friday through Sunday in Sacramento. The party recently ripped Democratic leaders over job losses in the state. In a blog post, the GOP pointed to the closure of Los Angeles’ American Apparel and to companies such as Nestle, CKE Restaurants and Toyota that have all shifted operations to other states. It called the Legislature’s response “pathetic.”

THE AGENDA

President Trump is not a fan of the North American Free Trade Agreement, but moving factory jobs home will be a real challenge. Just consider that the most American car in 2016 was a Toyota Camry. It has 75% U.S. and Canadian parts, and just 15% from Japan, exemplifying how the auto industry is an intricate global web of factories, supply chains and international markets. This process started years before NAFTA and accelerated after the 2009 financial crisis.

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STORY LINES

Here are some of the other stories that ran in The Times Business section in recent days that we’re continuing to follow:

Sending a message: When the company behind messaging app Snapchat holds its much-anticipated initial public stock offering in coming weeks, it will offer new shareholders exclusively nonvoting shares, something no company has tried before in a public debut. That’s not the only thing that makes the Snap Inc. IPO notable. It’s also going to put millions of dollars in the pockets of the company’s existing shareholders.

Studio exit: Paramount Pictures Chairman and Chief Executive Brad Grey is expected to step down after more than a decade on the job and years of box office struggles. The news comes just one week after Bob Bakish, chief of parent Viacom, announced a turnaround plan for the media giant, with a particular focus on Paramount’s performance. The studio lost $445 million in the last fiscal year.

Cabinet picks: Wall Street executive Steven Mnuchin was narrowly confirmed by the Senate as Treasury secretary, but the position of Labor secretary remains open. Donald Trump’s choice to head the Department of Labor, Andy Puzder, abruptly withdrew just a day before he was to face a Senate confirmation hearing. Shortly afterward, Trump nominated former Justice Department official R. Alexander Acosta as a replacement.

Bye, PewDiePie: Walt Disney Co.’s Maker Studios severed its ties with PewDiePie, YouTube’s biggest personality, amid backlash over anti-Semitic references in the irreverent comic’s videos. YouTube also took action against PewDiePie — whose real name is Felix Kjellberg — canceling the second season of his reality show, “Scare PewDiePie,” and removing ads from all nine of the videos in question.

Merger trouble: It turns out that merging giant health insurance companies isn’t so easy. Cigna announced it will unilaterally terminate its $54-billion merger agreement with Anthem after a federal judge rejected the deal. Anthem protested, saying Cigna can’t back out on its own. Meanwhile, Aetna and Humana announced a mutual decision to abandon their $37-billion merger agreement.

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WHAT WE’RE READING

And some recent stories from other publications that caught our eye:

Crime watch: India is fascinated with crimes committed by its software engineers, Bloomberg reports. “To read the Indian newspapers regularly is to believe the software engineer is the country’s most cursed figure. Almost every edition carries a gruesome story involving a techie accused of homicide, rape, burglary, blackmail, assault, injury, suicide or another crime.”

Fast car: How does a powerful Tesla model get from zero to 60 mph in just 2.28 seconds? Road and Track reports that the Tesla Model S P100D with Ludicrous mode achieves such “face-melting acceleration” thanks to three factors: big power, all-wheel-drive traction and superior grip. This may be a trend, the magazine predicts: “Even quicker electric cars are coming, provided they can keep their weight down.”

Petroleum power: The Nation reports on the strong political sway of the oil industry in California. Over the past six years, oil companies have spent more than $122 million on campaign contributions and on lobbying to boost production, weaken regulatory agencies and mold energy policy. “Perhaps more than any other special interest, the oil industry has helped reshape California’s political landscape.”

Real opportunity: The rise of the term “fake news” could be profitable for a San Diego software developer named George Bacon, the Dallas News reports. Bacon bought the Web domain www.fakenews.com 11 years ago for $250 but never did anything with it. Now, he’s now looking at selling it for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

SPARE CHANGE

Speaking of fake news, Ron Burgundy probably takes the prize for best bogus broadcaster. But there are plenty of other movies featuring fictional TV news. “Broadcast News” is one of the best, as well as “Up Close and Personal” and, of course, “Groundhog Day.” But the all-time greatest fake-news flick has to be this one.

For the latest money news, go to www.latimes.com/business. Mad props to Scott J. Wilson for helping put this thing together. Until next time, I’ll see you in the Business section.

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