BUSINESS BRIEFS
Star-Bulletin owner in deal for San Diego daily
Advertiser Staff and News Services
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SAN DIEGO — A private equity firm that includes Honolulu Star-Bulletin owner David H. Black is buying the San Diego Union-Tribune for an undisclosed price, the newspaper announced.
Copley Press Inc. agreed to sell the dominant newspaper in the nation's eighth-largest city to Platinum Equity, based in Beverly Hills, the newspaper reported on its Web site. Copley put the newspaper up for sale in July.
Platinum said its team includes Black, whose company, Black Press Ltd. of Canada, owns dozens of community newspapers, mostly in western Canada, and has expanded in the United States with acquisitions of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 2000 and the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal in 2006. Black's role was not specified.
"The Union-Tribune is a premier media property in an outstanding market," Black said in a statement Wednesday.
JOBLESS FILINGS STILL SETTING RECORDS
WASHINGTON — New jobless claims fell more than expected last week, but continuing claims set a record for the eighth straight week and few economists expect the labor market to improve anytime soon.The Labor Department said yesterday that initial requests for unemployment insurance dropped to a seasonally adjusted 646,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 658,000. That was better than analysts' expectations.
But continuing claims jumped 185,000 to a seasonally adjusted 5.47 million, another record and more than the roughly 5.33 million that economists expected.
FINANCING RESCUE FOR AUTO PARTS
WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department will pump up to $5 billion in financing into troubled auto parts suppliers to try to prevent an industry collapse that could undermine the government's efforts to restructure General Motors and Chrysler.The funds, announced yesterday, will be made available from the government's Troubled Assets Relief Program, a financial entity similar to a revolving credit line.
Large suppliers will be eligible for financing on auto parts they have shipped to the Detroit carmakers but have not yet been paid for.
General Motors Corp., Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Co. will have the option of using the program and designating the companies that need financing, giving them a large role in determining which parts suppliers will survive.
JUDGES CONSIDER MADOFF RELEASE
NEW YORK — An appeals court considering whether Bernard Madoff should remain jailed pending sentencing grilled lawyers for both sides yesterday, pointing out to prosecutors that Madoff could have fled the country before his massive Ponzi scheme was uncovered.The judges were equally skeptical about arguments by Madoff defense lawyer Ira Sorkin.
One judge suggested Madoff is sneaky, noting that nearly all of his property is in his wife's name and that he mailed jewelry to relatives and friends over the holidays even though he was under a court order not to move any assets.
OIL PRICES SURGE 7% ON MERC
NEW YORK — A weakened dollar and evidence that OPEC has significantly slowed production sent oil prices soaring to new highs for the year yesterday.Benchmark crude for April delivery surged $3.47, or 7 percent, to settle at $51.61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Oil prices hit $52.25 earlier in the day, a price last seen Dec. 1.
Crude prices have increased 11.6 percent since the OPEC ministers met in Vienna on Sunday.
