Independent Spending on Race for Mayor Sets L.A. Record
The record for independent spending in an L.A. mayor’s race was shattered Wednesday when the state teachers union said it would spend $500,000 on TV ads to help elect Antonio Villaraigosa, and other unions indicated they would spend hundreds of thousands more to help James Hahn, the Los Angeles Times reported. The financial commitment by the state teachers union pushed the amount in the mayor’s race to more than $2.3 million, brushing past the previous record, $1.5 million spent on behalf of the two men in the 2001 runoff. The independent spending is on top of the millions being raised and spent by Villaraigosa and Hahn for their campaigns.
Tribune, Sony Television to Jointly Develop Shows
Tribune Co. and Sony Corp.’s Sony Pictures Television said they have formed a partnership to develop and produce syndicated shows for Tribune’s 26 television stations, including KTLA (Channel 5). The agreement provides an outlet for shows produced by Culver City-based Sony Television, the last major TV studio not affiliated with a broadcast network, the Los Angeles Times reported. Tribune will air at least one daytime series the companies would develop, beginning in fall 2006. Tribune, which owns the L.A. Times, and Sony will split costs and profits from the shows they jointly produce.
LAUSD Skimps on PCs for Kids
Public schools in California provide fewer computers for students, on average, than schools in nearly every other state and the supply in Los Angeles is especially skimpy, raising concerns that graduates won’t be prepared for the high-tech work force, a report released today says. Each instructional computer in a California public school is shared by an average of five students, compared with the national ratio of 3.8 students, says the report by Education Week. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest public-schools system with 718,000 students, the ratio is roughly six students per computer, the Daily News of Los Angeles reported.
WellPoint Unit Dealing With Botched Bills
A little more than a week before it is slated to meet with state regulators, WellPoint Inc. is wrestling with a billing snafu in which almost 47,000 of its California customers were charged premiums in April that were as much as five times too high, the Los Angeles Times reported. WellPoint’s Blue Cross of California subsidiary said this week the overcharges were accidental and that all of the wrongly collected money had been returned. The problem was described as a technical issue that was identified and rectified as quickly as possible, a Blue Cross spokesman said.
Treasury May Resume Sales of 30-Year Bonds
The U.S. stopped selling the long-term securities in 2001, but now needs to finance record deficits but now the 30-year Treasury bond may be making a comeback. The Bush administration on Wednesday said it was seriously considering bringing them back as the government faces the need to finance record budget deficits. Bond traders hailed the announcement, saying the action was overdue and would provide investors with a fresh supply of long-term bonds, the Associated Press reported. The price of existing 30-year bonds, which continue to be traded, plunged Wednesday after the announcement.
Utility Gains Eroded in Quarter
The parent companies of California’s largest natural gas and electricity utilities said Wednesday that solid utility earnings were eroded by a number of factors. San Diego-based Sempra Energy, owner of Southern California Gas Co. and San Diego Gas & Electric Co., said first-quarter profit rose 13 percent as a tax-related gain more than offset a drop in earnings from commodities trading. San Francisco-based PG & E; Corp., parent of Pacific Gas & Electric Co., said quarterly net income fell but operating earnings rose. Both companies reaffirmed their outlooks for the year, Bloomberg News reported.
