Tuesday morning headlines

Wall Street extends gains: Maybe things aren't so bad after all. Dow is up about 70 points.

Geithner says U.S. will avoid default crisis: A bipartisan group led by Vice President Joe Biden has made "a lot of progress," according to the Treasury Secretary, and he expects the final deal to include a down payment of spending overhauls, as well as a debt cap. From the WSJ:

On the U.S. economic front, Mr. Geithner said there is a broad consensus for $4 trillion to $5 trillion in savings over the coming decade, though Mr. Geithner cautioned that that could not come entirely from spending cuts. "We're meeting every day the remainder of this week. We're making a lot of progress in fleshing out the shape of a down payment with this broader framework of constraints--a debt cap and enforcement mechanisms. We're getting closer but we need to make some progress this week," Mr. Geithner said.

Bracing for McCourt lawsuit: If Major League Baseball seizes control of the team at the end of the month, he's not likely to go quietly. McCourt has divided franchise assets into a series of separate companies. From the WSJ:

The team was put into a holding company known as The McCourt Broderick Limited Partnership. The stadium is held by an entity known as LA Real Estate LLC. The land is held by Blue Landco LLC. Dodgers Tickets LLC controls the team's ticket-selling operations. The latter company made two deals in 2005 and 2007 to borrow a total of $367 million against future ticket sales. The first $10 million in ticket sales each year goes to pay down debt on the interest-only loans, with Mr. McCourt using the additional ticket revenues to pay for team expenses. A person familiar with Mr. McCourt's thinking said he plans to argue that Major League Baseball can only make a claim on the team itself, and not on his other properties or companies connected to the franchise.

Pay decision could come today: State Controller John Chiang must determine whether to resume paying legislators. The state docks legislative pay each day lawmakers have not sent the governor a budget, but no one expected the governor to veto that budget plan. (Sacramento Bee).

Feinstein has only a slight edge: California voters are inclined to support the Democratic senator for reelection by a 43 percent to 39 percent margin, according to the Field Poll. That four-point margin is her smallest ever in a pre-election year. (Sacramento Bee)

New rules to speed up union elections: The National Labor Relations Board proposes that employers, employees and unions receive information sooner. From the NYT:

Unions have long complained that it takes too many weeks from when they petition for an election to when a secret-ballot election is held, saying that gives management too much time to mount an aggressive campaign with videos and one-and-one sessions with workers. According to the N.L.R.B., the average amount of time it took from petition to election in 2008 was 57 days.

Trouble looms for Socal executive: Confirmation hearings today for former Edison International CEO John Bryson, who will face a tough road in becoming Commerce Secretary. From the LAT:

Nearly all Senate Republicans have vowed to block his confirmation unless the White House advances three pending free trade deals. Another Republican, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, has promised to hold up the nomination until Obama speaks out against a National Labor Relations Board complaint that accuses Boeing Co. of building a non-union assembly plant in his state in retaliation for union strikes. Bryson had served on Boeing's board before recently stepping down because of his nomination. But on top of those problems, Bryson himself has drawn surprisingly vocal opposition from several Republicans. They object to some of his environmental views and his role more than 40 years ago in co-founding an organization they despise, the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Anthem Blue Cross settles suit: The California health insurer has agreed to limit rate increases for 122,000 policyholders who will also be able to switch plans without having their medical histories reviewed. (LAT)

How many have company-sponsored health insurance?: Just 45 percent, down from 49 percent three years ago - and 16.6 percent have no health coverage, up from 14.8 percent in 2008, (OC Register)