Big Fine for Unocal Spill
In what is believed to be the largest environmental settlement in California history, Unocal Corp. has agreed to pay $43.8 million in fines for leaking a petroleum product along the Central California coast.
El Segundo-based Unocal has also agreed to excavate the beach and replace 15 to 20 homes in the town of Avila Beach, which is near an underground pipeline that leaked huge quantities of a refined oil product called diluent over the course of four decades.
The chemical contaminated the ocean, beaches, a river and ground water in the vicinity of Unocal’s Guadalupe Oil Field in San Luis Obispo County.
Disney Hall Goal Met
A key fund-raising goal that will allow construction on the Disney Concert Hall to begin on schedule in April 1999 has been met.
With the $20 million in new donations announced last week, total commitments for the downtown venue now total $196 million, 95 percent of the total needed. Fund raisers beat an L.A. County-imposed deadline to reach that sum by five months.
SunAmerica Inc. Chairman Eli Broad also announced last week that he is stepping down from his position as chairman of the Walt Disney Concert Hall Oversight Board, the main fund-raising group behind the effort. He will be replaced by former First Interstate Bancorp Chairman William E.B. Siart.
Stronger L.A. Mayor Proposed
L.A.’s Elected Charter Reform Commission has approved a plan to give the office of mayor considerably more power.
The commission, whose reform proposals will be submitted to voters next year, has proposed enhancing mayoral power in 16 areas. Among the new powers approved by the commission would be the ability to fire general managers and commissioners without City Council approval, to control city litigation and to create and oversee a city Department of Finance.
Most of the commission’s proposals have the support of Mayor Richard Riordan, who is an advocate of a stronger L.A. mayor although he himself won’t benefit because, if approved by the voters, the changes would likely come near the end of his term.
Disney Earnings Dip
Walt Disney Co.’s machine fell out of gear during the company’s third quarter, when it reported the first drop in earnings for some time.
Net income fell to $415 million (20 cents a share) compared to a pro forma $425 million (21 cents a share) for third-quarter 1997.
The culprit was Disney’s creative content business, meaning its films, TV shows, home videos and other entertainment content, which reported a 57 percent drop in operating profit. Disney films have had a bad year at the box office and its home videos have proved disappointing.
Disney’s stock price fell 81 cents the day its earnings were announced, although many analysts believe the company will rally thanks to its powerful international brand name.
High Marks for UCLA Hospital
The UCLA Medical Center was named the No. 5 hospital in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s annual honor roll.
The magazine ranks hospitals in 16 specialties, then calculates its honor roll using a point system based on those rankings. The only other California hospital to make the list was the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, which ranked No. 10.
In addition to its overall fifth-place ranking, UCLA was named the top hospital in the nation in one specialty geriatrics.
Software Piracy at LAUSD
The Los Angeles Unified School District has agreed to a $4.8 million settlement with an association of software manufacturers after evidence of widespread software piracy by teachers and administrators was discovered.
The Washington, D.C.-based Software Business Alliance, founded by software giants like Microsoft Corp. to combat theft of intellectual property, alleged in a lawsuit that the West Valley Occupational Center in Woodland Hills used nearly 1,400 copies of pirated software and implied that the problem was widespread throughout the school district.
As part of the settlement, the LAUSD agreed to pay the alliance $300,000 and form an eight-member team to seek out pirated software and replace it. The task is a daunting one, because the team will be charged with searching nearly 62,000 computers within the district.
Legal Woes for WellPoint
WellPoint Health Networks Inc. suffered a setback last week in its three-year-old dispute with nearly a third of its participating physicians, when a Superior Court judge ordered the company to submit to arbitration with all the doctors as a group.
About 13,000 physicians are claiming Woodland Hills-based WellPoint broke its contract with them by paying less than promised. WellPoint was attempting to force all the doctors to enter arbitration individually, but San Francisco County Superior Court Judge David A. Garcia ruled that they could compel arbitration as a group.
Oil Company Swap
Occidental Petroleum Corp. has agreed to swap some oil and gas holdings with companies of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group.
Under the agreements reached last week, Los Angeles-based Occidental will exchange its entities holding oil and gas interests in the Philippines and Malaysia for Shell’s oil and gas holdings in Yemen and Colombia. The exchange is part of a strategy by Occidental to focus is business on fewer but larger operations in the Middle East, Latin America and the U.S.
As a result of the trades, Occidental’s net oil production will increase immediately by about 15 percent, or 46,000 barrels a day, according to company officials. To make up for the difference in the values of the properties, Shell will also receive an unspecified cash payment.
Shiny Quarter for SunAmerica
It was a very bright third quarter for SunAmerica Inc., which reported a 38 percent rise in earnings as sales more than doubled.
The Century City-based financial services company reported third-quarter earnings of $141.2 million (65 cents a share), compared with $102.2 million (50 cents) in the year-earlier period.
SunAmerica got a boost from Wall Street, whose growth has prompted more Americans to save for retirement. That fact, plus a big increase in foreign sales, boosted third-quarter revenues to $2.6 billion, up from $1.1 billion in the same quarter last year.
Compiled by Dan Turner
