THE WEEK THAT WAS...

Wells Fargo boosts payout

Wells Fargo has agreed to boost its payout in a class-action settlement over unauthorized accounts to $142 million, up from the $110 million announced just three weeks ago. The scandalrocked bank agreed to the larger deal after an internal report this month showed that bank off icials knew about unethical sales practices in 2002, years earlier than previously acknowledged.

L.A. County energy option

Southern California Edison customers in Los Angeles County soon will be able to get their electricity from a government-run utility promising lower bills and easier access to clean-energy options. The Board of Supervisors approved the public energy program, which they say will help reduce power bills by as much as 5% below what customers pay the private utility company.

Out, but will he stay down?

Bill O’Reilly has long been an imposing presence in cable news and the so-called culture wars. He helped boost Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Channel into a $1-billion-plus-a-year business. But in the wake of his departure over allegations of sexual harassment, it remains to be seen whether the scandal will mortally wound his reputation or dent his business prospects.

A pay shift in construction

In the span of a few decades, Los Angeles-area construction went from an industry that was two-thirds white, and largely unionized, to one that is overwhelmingly Latino, mostly nonunion and heavily reliant on immigrants. At the same time, the job got less lucrative. American construction workers today make $5 an hour less than they did in the early 1970s, after inflation.