California: March 2, 2001

The Santa Monica City Council voted against Minneapolis-based Target Corp.’s plan to open a 125,000-square-foot store in the heart of the fashionable beach community’s crowded downtown area; opponents said the store would create unacceptable levels of traffic congestion; supporters countered that upscale, boutique-loving West Siders were too snobby to welcome bargain-hunting Target customers... Menomonee, Wis.-based Kohl’s Corp. is one of the retail chains looking to expand into the lucrative California market (for more about another, see the article about Delia’s* Corp. here); other chains reputed to be eyeing the Golden State include Euro retailer Hennes & Mauritz, famous for its eyebrow-raising lingerie ad campaigns...Eight Southern California shopping centers owned by Santa Monica-based Macerich Company have added portable defibrillators and oxygen equipment to their security centers and trained their security and management people in the use of the life-saving equipment; the shopping centers are: Santa Monica Place, Westside Pavillion, Villa Marina and Panorama Mall, all in the Los Angeles area; Lakewood Center, Los Cerritos Center and Stonewood Center, all in the Long Beach area, and Pacific View, in Ventura County; up to 100,000 of the 250,000 sudden-cardiac-arrest deaths that occur nationally every year could be prevented by widespread availability of the defibrillators, according to the American Heart Association.