Business news for Mon, 17 Dec 2007 & with word california. 7 news.

SAN FRANCISCO - The California Public Employees' Retirement System will sell more than $20 billion in stocks and bonds as the largest U.

DETROIT - Michigan and Ohio share something with Florida and California - some of the nation's highest rates of foreclosed homes and delinquent mortgages.

Michigan and Ohio share something with Florida and California - some of the nation's highest rates of foreclosed homes and delinquent mortgages. But the reasons for their woes are as different as their climates.

A mortgage-relief plan being pushed by the government is supposed to help debt-laden homeowners across America. But it's creating dashed hopes and fresh tensions in this city that mushroomed during the subprime-lending boom.

Silicon Valley has become synonymous with solar technologies these days as California moves to corner a market considered, in many respects, integral to our long-term battle against climate change.

NASA has identified Earth's sunniest spots, which could guide strategy for developing alternative energy. Southern California is sunny, the French Riviera is sunny, but NASA says the middle of the Pacific Ocean and the Sahara Desert in Niger are the sunniest places -- and the information could be worth money.

While a series of apparel and footwear businesses have opened local design studios here recently, footwear maker American Sporting Goods Corp. will shut its Southeast Portland design center by the end of 2007.