ON THE COVER

BANKS Washington Mutual has a big marketing challenge to keep its local customers after closing two major banks in L.A.

DEMOCRATS City officials are going to great lengths to bring the Democratic National Convention to Los Angeles.

VACATION L.A.’s corporate chieftains are treating themselves to some luxurious and adventurous R & R; this summer.

UP FRONT

NEW MEDIA Hollywood and Silicon Valley are getting increasingly tight. 3

FRANCHISE Patricia Williams has made her inner-city McDonald’s restaurants thrive. 3

INSURANCE L.A. companies are beefing up their insurance policies after recent court rulings on sexual harassment. 3

REAL ESTATE Real estate experts make their predictions for the second half of the year. 4

IPO Initial public offerings were down in L.A. for the first half. 5

BOEING Feasibility studies are being done for a possible Boeing 737 assembly plant in Long Beach. 6

RODEO Another independent merchant sells out on Rodeo Drive. 6

GOLF Marketers are shelling out big bucks to sponsor the U.S. Senior Open at the Riviera Country Club. 7

GROOMING Business is booming for bathroom attendants. 8

CONTRACTS The Los Angeles City Council is looking at reducing the number of private contracts in favor of city workers. 9

CRENSHAW Merchants in the Santa Barbara Plaza say they will be pushed out by a new redevelopment project. 10

MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY

CO-PRODUCTIONS Joint ventures between large studios like DreamWorks and Paramount are here to stay. 11

JARGON The new-media industry has a wacky lingo of its own. 11

Columns & features Tech Talk 11, Advertising & P.R. 12, Computers 13

SMALL BUSINESS

PHOTOEDIT A stock photography company went from a converted bedroom to a $1.5 million business. 14

Columns & features Weekly briefing 14, Entrepreneur’s Notebook 15, Ask Lorraine 16

PEOPLE

LINDA MAY Residential real estate broker to moguls and movie stars. 17

Columns & features Newsmakers 18

INVESTMENTS & FINANCE

CORPORATE FOCUS IHOP Corp. 34

Columns & features Wall Street West 35, Econowatch 35, LABJ 100 36, Jane Bryant Quinn 37

REAL ESTATE

Columns & features Real Estate briefs 38

SPECIAL REPORT,WHO’S WHO HEALTH CARE

OVERVIEW Top managed care executives talk about running an HMO. 22

EXECUTIVES With the climate heating up in managed care, HMOs are looking for a new breed of executive. 23

COUNTY Steve Escoboza has had a tough run starting L.A. County’s first HMO. 25

MINI-PROFILES L.A.’s Top 15 managed care executives. 26-31