Thursday morning headlines

Stocks renew slide: Dow is down about 70 points in early trading. There's more not-so-great economic news.

What inflation?: Consumer prices in L.A. only rose a tiny 0.2 percent from April to May and 1.8 percent over the last 12 months. Nationwide, prices actually fell. (OC Register, BLS)

End of free checking: Banks are ready to charge for basic services as a way of making up the lost revenue from new restrictions on credit cards and overdraft transactions. From the WSJ:

Customers will likely be required to pay new monthly maintenance fees on the most basic accounts that don't generate a lot of activity. To avoid a fee, customers will have to maintain certain account balances or frequently use other banking services, such as credit and debit cards, automated teller machines and online accounts. "If you put $1,000 in a checking account and don't do anything with it, it will be hard to get that for free," says Sherief Meleis, a managing director at Novantas LLC, a consulting firm that advises banks.

Tomato glut: California farmers say prices are plunging, the result of additional supplies now available in Florida. A few months ago, prices took off because of the winter freeze. (WSJ)

Jobless bill stalls: Senate Democrats are trimming back provisions on unemployment pay and Medicare fees paid to doctors. They're hoping to appease deficit hawks. (NYT)

Big mortgage scheme: The former chairman of what had been one of the nation's largest mortgage lenders is accused of cheating investors and the federal government out of billions of dollars. From the NYT:

Prosecutors said the fraud would be one of the biggest and most complex to come out of the housing collapse and the government's huge bailout of the banking industry. In essence, they described an elaborate shell game that involved covering up the lender's losses by creating fake mortgages and passing them along to private investors and government agencies.

Unions agree on pension cuts: The proposed rollback, which still must be signed off by the rank and file, would boost the retirement age for new hires and impose higher employee contributions. Unions cutting the deal represent CHP officers and state firefighters, among others. (Sacramento Bee)

Eli Broad agrees to giveaway: The L.A. billionaire and his wife have pledged to give at least 50 percent of their money to philanthropic causes and charities, either while they are alive or at their deaths. It's part of a campaign by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett that's aimed at the very wealthiest Americans and which could potentially raise hundreds of billions of dollars. (Fortune)

Boost in E3 attendance: The big videogame conference at the Convention Center drew 45,000 attendees and nearly 400 exhibitors. That's up from 41,000 attendees and 220 exhibitors last year. (LAT)