Local San Diego News From Around The County

KB Home said Thursday it has agreed to buy 664 home sites in Southern California and plans to use some of the land parcels to open eight new communities this year.

A judge has ordered two former Northern California investment advisers to stand trial on charges that they swindled people out of more than $200 million in a Ponzi scheme.

The government said Thursday that airlines virtually wiped out three-hour tarmac delays in April before huge fines for holding passengers on the runway went into effect.

Washington Mutual Inc. has agreed to meet with shareholders seeking information in the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a judge threatened to reconsider her decision denying the appointment of an independent examiner in the case.

A federal judge says she is not getting involved in whether an insurer should pay for jailed Texas financier R. Allen Stanford's latest criminal defense team.

Major business events and economic events scheduled for Friday:

A U.S. appeals court in Philadelphia has heard arguments on whether schools can discipline students for lewd, harassing or simply juvenile Internet speech posted off-campus.

Irish drugmaker Elan Corp. said Thursday it agreed on a new fixed-term employment pact under which CEO Kelly Martin will stay in his role until May 1, 2012.

BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward says the company should know in 12 to 24 hours whether its latest effort will contain the Gulf oil spill, though he conceded the attempt is risky.

South Carolina efforts to ban texting while driving, legalize charity raffles, and yank driving privileges from teen dropouts are among bills likely dead for the year as the legislative session drew to a close Thursday.

EXPANSION TREND: The U.S. service sector grew in May for the fifth consecutive month, according to the Institute for Supply Management, a group of purchasing executives.

Some of the flashier spoils of disbarred attorney Scott Rothstein's massive Ponzi scheme have sold for $5.8 million at an auction in Fort Lauderdale.

BP CEO concedes that latest effort to contain Gulf oil spill is risky.

Here is how May revenue at stores open at least a year compared with revenue a year earlier for selected retailers in four key sectors: discount, drug and clothing chains and department stores.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says the Obama administration's new investments in rural America will help reverse the economic decline of small towns.

The Obama administration is blocking all new offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, a day after regulators approved a new permit for drilling in shallow water.

Clergy seem an unlikely group to be facing a retirement security crisis.

Imax Corp. said Thursday it struck a deal to install two more of its jump screens with Chinese movie theater operator Stellar Investment Co.

A look at economic developments and activity in major stock markets around the world Thursday:

A large Canadian pension fund says it will vote against Magna International's proposal to eliminate the company's dual-class share structure because it will unfairly dilute the value of the fund's holdings.