Friday morning notables

Stocks still up: The Dow was up another 24 points in the first two hours of trading as the chatter will now begin about the index only being 100 points from 14,000.

Black found guilty: The former CEO of Hollinger International Inc. was found guilty in a Chicago courtroom of mail fraud and concealing documents from an official proceeding, but a jury acquitted him of wire fraud, racketeering and several other counts. Wait for the appeals on this one.

Drug use at Broadcom?: First, the feds were looking into stock-options backdating at the OC-based chipmaker. Now, they're poking around into more tawdry areas involving the company's chipmaker, Henry T. Nicholas III. Early this week, several FBI agents showed up at Nicholas's home in Newport Coast with subpoenas. Some of the allegations first popped up earlier this year in a civil lawsuit filed by Kenji Kato, a former personal assistant and bodyguard to Nicholas (an attorney for Nicholas denies the allegations in the lawsuit). From the WSJ:

In his suit, Mr. Kato claims he started to work as an independent contractor for Mr. Nicholas in 1999, and helped arrange many aspects of the executive's life, including visits to rock concerts and sporting events. Mr. Kato alleges a descent into heavy drug use by his former boss. At times, he claims, Mr. Nicholas would stay up for days at a time, fueled by multiple substances. In later years Mr. Nicholas was such a heavy drug user, Mr. Kato alleges in court filings, that his behavior was often "erratic" and he was "regularly confused." Mr. Kato also alleges the Broadcom chief spiked the drinks of clients without their consent. "I would see him put powdered ecstasy pills into the drinks of his customers," Mr. Kato claims in a court declaration. "Other times, when we were at tradeshows in Las Vegas, it was normal for Nick to request and send prostitutes to his customers to entertain them," Mr. Kato states in the declaration. He and his lawyer declined to name the Broadcom customers who allegedly used prostitutes or who unknowingly ingested drugs.

Judge turns down bias claim: Universal's decision to ax an African American assistant director of the movie "2 Fast 2 Furious" was not racially based. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had alleged that Frank Davis was unfairly terminated in 2002, but U.S. District Judge Gary Allen Feess didn't see it. "When the evidence is viewed in its entirety free of any preconceived notions, it simply does not support any claim that Davis' termination was the result of anything other than poor job performance," Feess wrote. (LAT)