April 3 - April 9, 2011

Friday, Apr. 8
Government shutdown is averted, but no one comes off looking very good.
CNN is reporting that negotiators are focusing on a proposal to keep the place running for three more days.
A source says the company is on track to lose as much as $10 million a year. Nonsense, says owner.
The deal that seems to drag out forever is finally getting done.
In separate deals worked out with the city's Ethics Commission, they'll pay a combined $13,300.
Whoever is handling the estate is asking $1.88 million for the 2-bedroom, 2.5-bath unit at The Wilshire building.
Cutting back on beer sales, which everyone knows is largely to blame for the increasing unruliness, would eat into Dodger revenues.
Prospects on this thing have been bouncing around for several hours.
Oil and gas keep rising, pension woes were ignored by local government, possible freeze on health care contributions, and Saudi prince withdraws mega-mansion plan.
Thursday, Apr. 7
Nobody has the foggiest idea of how the business side of marijuana legalization would play out.
Once more, there's no ability or interest in anticipating trouble - just reacting to it.
March was a lousy month for California's coffers, with total receipts coming in at $370 million below estimates.
City Controller Wendy Greuel found that the utility was more lucky than good in securing 20 percent of the city's power needs from renewable energy last year. "The DWP only achieved a 20 percent renewable energy portfolio due to abnormally cool temperatures and higher than expected wind at department-owned wind farms," Greuel said in a letter accompanying the audit. From the LAT: Standing next to Greuel at a morning news conference, DWP General Manager Ron...
The federal suit alleges that the firm misrepresented its size and poor financial condition.
The state has 140,000 federal workers, although it's unclear how many of them would be considered essential to the workings of the nation.
Emptier shopping malls, bleak prospect for Borders, Google is coming to Bev Hills, and a new home for THR.
Wednesday, Apr. 6
More folks figure that homes have become affordable, which should lower demand.
Shows that Republicans are not at all satisfied with the usual suspects, and that a dark horse could still easily emerge.
Wow, this will create quite a stir: The measure would eliminate guaranteed pensions for all new hires except for police officers.
The L.A. County supervisor wants no part of an arrangement that would compel MTA contractors to use union labor.
Which airports are relatively cheap or relatively expensive to fly out of?
No date set for the final show, though Beck's contract with Fox ends in December.
Howard Schultz, speaking at the Drucker Business Forum, says that tighter state and local budgets require companies to do more.
A proposal to slash almost $6 trillion from the federal budget is likely to stir up some interest.
Boeing miscalculated on cracks, Dish Network wins Blockbuster, McCourt asks commissioner to approve loan, and Sofitel scraps helipad plan.
Tuesday, Apr. 5
This week's biz chat looks at how executive pay is on the rise again and why women business owners have a tough time expanding their operations
Kind of a neat 1:38, so long as you're not in the middle of the mess.
Feature films were down 5.3 percent in the first quarter, television down 3.7 percent, and commercials up 2.4 percent, according to FilmLA. Overall location shooting was actually up 4.7 percent, but only because of gains in smaller areas like music videos. Just seems like a sluggish stretch - commercials are coming off 18 months of strong activity, TV reality shows are off a bit, features are weak across the board. From press release: "The latest...
The deadlock comes on the same day that the Republicans proposed a long-term budget plan that would involve $5.8 trillion in cuts over 10 years.
The power coming out of this baby would only be rivaled by the Saturn V that went to the moon.
Healthy economy? No. Healthier than generally assumed? Apparently so.
GOP plan to balance the budget, American begins LAX-Shanghai service, KB Home reports another loss, and Chase keeps expanding in California.
Monday, Apr. 4
The carrier is making $271 million worth of improvements that will include additional gates and a baggage screening system.
Most likely it's just a pause, considering that oil rose again today.
The L.A. developer originally offered $6 million for the Golden Key Hotel and wound up paying more than $16 million.
No doubt everything that Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to do during his years in Sacramento.
The subsurface cracks are similar to the ones found on the aircraft that split open on Friday.
Certainly among the biggest initial public offerings to be announced this year.
Southwest cancels more flights, AirTran tops in quality, Disney to break ground in Shanghai, and fire sale for Sheen concert tickets.
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