Headlines: Actors Guild, Northrop, Tenet

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Actors Unions, Advertisers Seek Study on Pay

With just over five months left before the expiration of the current labor contract for commercial performers, negotiators for the acting unions and the advertising industry have agreed to seek proposals for a joint study to identify alternate models for compensation in the age of emerging new media, the Los Angeles Daily News reports. The Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the advertising industry’s Joint Policy Committee on Broadcast Talent Union Relations announced Wednesday that they have invited nine consultants from both industry and academia to submit proposals for a study which, if chosen, would be used for consideration during the bargaining process. Both sides are seeking to avoid a repeat of 2000 when commercial actors were locked in a six-month-long strike, one of the longest walkouts in entertainment industry history.






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Heir Apparent at Northrop is Designated


Northrop Grumman Corp. is expected to announce today that Chief Financial Officer Wesley G. Bush will take on the additional role of president, making the 45-year-old the heir apparent at the nation’s third-largest defense contractor, the Los Angeles Times reports. The promotion marks an extraordinary corporate climb for Bush, a boyish-looking executive who was named chief financial officer less than a year ago after serving as the youngest head of a division at the Century City-based company. But Northrop Chairman and Chief Executive Ronald D. Sugar said Wednesday that the promotion doesn’t mean Sugar will be stepping down anytime soon. Sugar, 57, said Bush would help him oversee operations and play a key role in setting the strategic direction of the company.






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Tenet Settles Kickback Charges


With the resolution of criminal charges at Alvarado Hospital Medical Center, parent company Tenet Healthcare is a step closer to a cure for its ailing reputation, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Wall Street analysts said yesterday that resolution of the Alvarado case, which includes the sale or closure of the hospital, clears the way for a larger, “global” settlement of numerous federal and state claims that could cost the nation’s second-largest for-profit hospital chain as much as $2 billion. Among the most punishing outstanding issues are allegations that Dallas-based Tenet reaped as much as $1.6 billion by exploiting a loophole in Medicare’s outlier program, which reimburses hospitals for treating the sickest patients whose care exceeds the agency’s standard rates.






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Tax Windfall Helps State Improve Bond Rating


Rewarding California for its tax windfall, a leading Wall Street credit agency raised the state’s bond rating a notch Wednesday, the Sacramento Bee reported. Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services upgraded California’s bonds to “A-plus” from “A,” saying the billions in unanticipated tax revenue have brightened the state’s outlook. But S & P; said it’s still worried about California’s budget problems and noted that the state still has the second worst rating of any state. Only Louisiana is worse, having seen its rating drop to “A” after Hurricane Katrina. Bond ratings reflect Wall Street’s estimates of a state’s ability to pay its debt. The higher bond rating will likely mean lower borrowing costs as the state contemplates issuing $37 billion in bonds to modernize California’s infrastructure.





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