Wednesday morning headlines

Dole woes: A third bag of Dole spinach has tested positive for E. coli, which puts the Westlake Village-based company at the center of the ongoing FDA investigation. According to the WSJ, (subscription required), four of the five lawsuits prepared by Seattle firm Marler Clark, which handles lots of food-borne illness cases, name Dole Food as a defendant. Aside from a Sept. 15 statement that said it was cooperating with authorities, Dole has been very quiet. A spokesman did note that most of the salad industry moves operations to Yuma, Ariz. for the winter, so the financial repercussions might be cushioned a bit (the FDA is giving the all-clear to spinach grown in states other than California). There's no way of really knowing the financial impact because Dole is privately held.

Dodger playoff tickets: They're getting harder to score. Just 10,000 were put on sale, down from 15,000 when the team was in the playoffs two years ago. Part of the explanation is an increase in season-ticket holders - 26,000 compared with 20,000 in 2004. Those folks get to the head of the line.

Downtown premium?: Well, sort of. Downtown L.A. office tenants are willing to pay a 15 percent premium over comparable space in a suburban market. But L.A. was at the bottom of the list of major cities. For instance, midtown Manhattan tenants were willing to pay a 135 percent premium, Boston tenants 80 percent, Toronto 74 percent and Washington , D.C. 55 percent. Still, L.A.'s premium was more than some had expected. (Sorry, but it's yet another WSJ story that's only available through subscription).

Dan O'Neil, a Los Angeles-based principal with tenant-representation firm Staubach Co., says downtown has become more desirable for companies since the completion of the metro rail system (with its downtown hub), the Staples Center sports arena and significant residential options, as well as the city's commitment to add cultural amenities such as the Grand Avenue project, a $1.8 billion entertainment venue conceived as a new city center. Downtown Los Angeles, Mr. O'Neil said, "has gone from being an 8-to-6, work-only environment to more of a 24-hour, cultural environment."

Mr. O'Neil cautions that landlords are holding back some big blocks of space in hopes of signing blockbuster leases, and that is pushing rates higher on smaller spaces. If those large tenants don't materialize, the landlords will be forced to carve up those blocks into smaller chunks and drop rents. If that happens, the premiums downtown Los Angeles gets over some of its suburban submarkets could dissolve.

Zagat winners: The annual survey of best eateries around town according to diners has most of the usual suspects, with a few oddities. Matsuhisa, Mélisse and Sushi Nozawa are the top-rated - no big surprises there - but under the category of most popular, Cheesecake Factory beats out the more high-toned A.O.C., Spago and Campanile. The Hotel Bel-Air gets the nod for top service. The Daily News lays out all the winners, paying special attention to three Valley restaurants that cracked the top five: Sushi Nozawa (that's the home of the "Sushi Nazi"), Leila's in Oak Park and Saddle Peak Lodge of Calabasas.

School reform ideas: The Valley Economic Alliance lays out nine ideas to improve education, including mayoral intervention, the creation of smaller districts and implementing more personalized school environments. Several other organizations, including the United Way, Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., may be speaking up as well, according to the Daily News. Here's the list:

1. Improved accountability.
2. Charter schools and charter clusters.
3. Small learning communities.
4. Decentralization.
5. Mayoral intervention.
6. Create small, high-performing college-preparatory schools, such as those operated by Green Dot Charter Schools.
7. Create five to 10 college-prep schools for students in the Belmont High attendance area.
8. Provide student funding based on individual needs.
9. Contracting for noneducational services.

Thursday protest: You might want to avoid LAX and surrounding areas tomorrow afternoon, beginning at 4:30. That's when Unite Here expects to shut down Century Boulevard in what it calls "a historic civil disobendience action." The demonstration will center on what the union says are unfair wages at the LAX Hilton. United Here wants to unionize the hotel's 500 workers.

Celebrating the C-17: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited Boeing's C-17 factory to join workers, executives and Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster in celebrating the probable vote by Congress to have more of the cargo planes built. Boeing had been planning to shut down the operation in 2008 because the Pentagon was not ordering more planes. Schwarzenegger made a big push for extending the C-17 program.

Avery losses: A federal court affirmed a favorable jury verdict for 3M Co. in a patent infringement lawsuit against Pasadena-based Avery Dennison Corp. involving pressure-activated adhesives for large commercial graphics.

Industry honor: Who said California wasn't business friendly? The San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership will be awarding the mostly all-commercial Industry with its first City of the Year award. Less than one percent of the city is residential.