National Lampoon Launches Broadband Service

National Lampoon on Tuesday announced the launch of a dot-com TV channel, called National Lampoon Toga. The 24-hour, on-demand video service will feature elements of National Lampoon College, the Los Angeles-based entertainment company’s college TV network. Toga will draw from the company’s history of motion pictures, DVD titles and television programming. “Toga will serve as a launch pad for non-traditional, irreverent, rebellious and trendsetting voices,” said Douglas S. Bennett, president of National Lampoon.

Nunez Proposes Smaller Bond Issue


California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, on Tuesday said the state should ask voters to approve $30 billion in public works bonds, less than half of what Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he wanted. Nunez said the governor’s proposal for $68 billion in bonds was “not fiscally prudent” in light of the state’s ongoing budget deficits.

“Super-sizing bond proposals doesn’t make them better,” Nunez said in Sacramento. “Too many things can change in the next decade to commit ourselves to massive spending through 2014.”

Tenet Settles Florida Suit


Tenet Healthcare Corp. will settle a Florida suit into its billing practices. The company, which had been based in Santa Barbara when the issue arose, will pay $7 million to settle the $3 billion suit, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday. Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist had accused Tenet of inflating bills to Medicare for reimbursement. The suit also ends two investigations into Medicaid psychiatric billings. Tenet, now based in Dallas, still operates hospitals in the Los Angeles area.