Headlines: Milberg Weiss, Valley, CW

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Class-Action Law Firm Indicted in Fraud Case

A federal grand jury indicted the nation’s best-known class-action law firm, Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman, alleging a 20-year conspiracy to funnel kickbacks to plaintiffs in dozens of securities class-action cases, the Wall Street Journal reports. The indictment, made public in Los Angeles yesterday, could prove fatal to the pioneering plaintiffs firm, long a scourge of big business and a controversial champion of shareholders. In the 40 years since its founding, New York-based Milberg has filed hundreds of securities suits and won billions of dollars for investors, enriching its partners in the process. The 102-page indictment details cases, reaching back more than two decades, in which partners in the firm allegedly conspired to pay clients who agreed to act as lead plaintiffs. This would give Milberg an edge in the scramble to be named lead law firm in a case by providing the firm with a “ready stable” of plaintiffs, the grand jury alleged. The indictment came after the collapse of discussions between the firm and the government about a deferred-prosecution agreement that would have avoided criminal charges





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End Run on Minimum Wage Issue


Stymied in the Legislature, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday called on the all-but-moribund Industrial Welfare Commission to approve a $1 minimum wage increase, a move that had Democrats and Republicans accusing each other of playing politics with the working poor, the Sacramento Be reports. In a petition submitted Thursday, Schwarzenegger asked the commission — which the Legislature de-funded two years ago — to take up his proposal for a two-step minimum wage increase that would raise the bottom-level pay scale from $6.75 to $7.75. The action came after the state Senate’s Labor Committee on March 29 bottled up his minimum pay plan because it didn’t contain an indexing formula Democrats wanted for future increases. The Legislature passed and Schwarzenegger vetoed a $1 minimum wage bill last year that contained the indexing formula, which business groups abhor.





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Valley’s Outlook is Bright


The Greater San Fernando Valley’s economic future remains bright with job growth continuing through at least 2008 and outperforming the rest of Los Angeles County, according to a forecast to be released Friday, the Los Angeles Daily News reports. Last year, Greater Valley businesses from Glendale to Calabasas accounted for 691,441 jobs and the number should grow by 1.6 percent this year, according to the outlook from the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center at California State University, Northridge. The forecast predicts that over the next two years: businesses will add more than 10,700 new jobs this year, 12,300 in 2007 and cool slightly to 10,800 in 2008. And the outflow of jobs from the Valley’s large manufacturing sector should slow but won’t stop.





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CW Unveils Commercials with a Plot Twist


The soon-to-be launched CW network announced Thursday that it was developing a new way to advertise on TV: a hybrid commercial that would use story lines to promote products in three two-minute segments dotted throughout an evening of programming, the Los Angeles Daily News reports. And in keeping with its new name, which borrows the C from CBS Corp. and the W from Warner Bros. Entertainment, the melded network, which debuts in September, has dubbed these new ads “content wraps.” It helps to think of a content wrap as a sandwich. The products that advertisers want to sell are the meat. The mini-programming elements wrapped around them are the bread that holds it all together and , in CW executives’ dreams, at least , makes consumers want to take a bite and keep on eating.





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New CW Network Revives ‘7th Heaven’


Two weeks after its supposed series finale, the family drama “7th Heaven” was revived as part of the first schedule by the fledgling CW network, which combines programming from the WB and UPN. That first schedule melds the wrestling and black-oriented comedies of UPN with the youthful dramas of the WB. It has only two new shows, including a spinoff of the comedy “Girlfriends.” The second life of “7th Heaven” is the new network’s most compelling story. Before the CW was created, the WB announced last fall that the story about the Rev. Eric Camden and his family was being canceled, primarily because it cost too much to make. The decision to bring it back came after the series finale on May 8, which attracted a healthy audience of more than 7 million viewers.





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Smiths Gets Contract for Boeing Brakes


Smiths Aerospace has secured a contract with The Boeing Co. to supply the thrust reverser actuation system for Boeing’s new 747-8 airplane, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reports. The thrust reverser – which acts as a braking system to slow the jet – will be designed and manufactured at Smiths’ Duarte facility. Development and hardware deliveries are expected to begin in the second quarter 2007. Deliveries will take place through 2019.





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