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Examines how the financial problems faced by energy utilities in California affected the investors in the commercial papers issued by the utilities in the United States.

Reports that Enron was betting on the direction of gas and electricity prices, despite denials from the company's top executives. Profits that were gained during the California energy crisis; Profits that coincide with Enron's manipulation of power and natural gas prices in the West; Acknowledgment of betting from several Enron trading officials; Trading practices that are being reviewed by federal and California state investigators; Struggle of Enron to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy; Argument that Enron thought they could beat the system; Information provided by Enron that was misleading.

Reports the delivery of documents to California's attorney general and California state senator by information technology firm Perot Systems, as part of its investigation regarding the coaching for manipulation of power prices.

Reports the purchase of the literary archives of author Susan Sontag by the University of California Library in Los Angeles, California.

Reports that Hearst Corporation has sold `The San Francisco Examiner' newspaper to Ted Fang, owner of a local newspaper in San Francisco, California. Significance of Fang's purchasing deal with Hearst; Competitors of `The San Francisco Chronicle' newspaper; Information on the private lawsuit filed against `The San Francisco Examiner.' INSET: Sold: The Wellspring of William Randolph Hearst's Empire.

Focuses on the opposition raised by Vietnamese-language publishers in Silicon Valley, Santa Clara, California against the publication of `Viet Mercury,' a free Vietnamese-language weekly owned by Knight Ridder. Background on `Viet Mercury'; Comments from De Tran, editor of `Viet Mercury'; Concerns expressed by other publishers.

Reports that Jerry Ceppos, the editor of `The San Jose Mercury News,' on May 11, 1997, acknowledged that a series of articles in 1996 on the rise of crack cocaine in urban America was marred by shortcomings. The publication of the series, `Dark Alliance,' provoking a furor among Afro-American leaders, and prompting federal investigations involving the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). INSET: Excerpts from letter by San Jose editor..

Reports that Stanford Medical Center is quite literally the birthplace of many architects of the computer revolution. Information on Stanford; Information on leading computer companies; Installations information systems in hospitals; Comments; More information.

Reports that "The Los Angeles Times"--after winning five Pulitzer Prizes this year--has been forced by the newspaper's owners, the Tribune Company, to cut newsroom staff. Claim that Tribune executives Jack Fuller and Dennis J. Fitzsimmons told "Times" editor James S. Carroll and managing editor Dean P. Baquet in a recent meeting that the paper must trim staff due to a shortfall in the paper's advertising revenue; Reasons for the fall in ad revenues at the "Times;" Details of the financial performance of the Tribune Company, compared with competitors such as Gannett and E.W. Scripps.

Explains that California and Ohio adopted rules that will require electronic voting machines to produce paper records of votes that voters can verify while New York State is dragging its feet on a similar rule. Many local election officials and voting machine companies are fighting paper records; It is critical that New York Legislature resolve the issue before the June 2004 adjournment; Paper trail will create more work and raise difficult questions if the electronic and paper records do not match.

Editorial. Comments on problems concerning the use of electronic voting machines in the November 2004 elections in the United States. Failure of machine manufacturers to have voting machines properly certified; Problems relating to equipment breakdowns; Recommendation of a voter-verified paper trail, a paper record that the voter can check for accuracy; Need for California secretary of state Kevin Shelley to decide whether the state's electronic voting machines can be used in November 2004; Accusations against manufacturer Diebold.

Reports on a dispute at the University of California at Berkeley, which houses the papers of anarchist Emma Goldman. Background on Goldman's radical causes; Refusal of university officials to allow a fund-raising appeal for the Emma Goldman Papers Project to be mailed; Concerns of officials over Goldman's views on the suppression of free speech and her opposition to war as the U.S. prepares for possible military action against Iraq; Accusations of censorship against the university; Comments of project director Candace S. Falk, university officials and others.

Focuses on the election fight scheduled on 8th November 1994, between The San Francisco Independent and The San Francisco Examiner, on the issue of receiving contract for publishing public notices. Criteria of granting contracts; Details of competition between the two papers; Smear campaign by executives of both papers against each other; Effort of the Committee to Stop the Giveaway, to boost Independent's prospects at polls; Views of Examiner on the issue.

Reports that the United States Government is negotiating to pay a settlement to the estate of former President Richard M. Nixon for his White House papers and records. Who the estate could relinquish the control of the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California to; Where all Presidential papers and other materials seized by the Government in 1994 would be sent.

Armageddon makes for a sexy story. Volatility in the $2.8 trillion United States municipal bond market is real, but the scary tale being spun out of budget-busting states like California involves a lot of literary license. The rockiness of the market lately is shown by the surge in the perceived riskiness of muni bonds. The highest-rated issuers' paper is trading at yields that are 0.5 to 0.8 percentage points higher than at the beginning of November. Meanwhile, investors in mutual funds that buy them withdrew $5.6 billion of their money in the five weeks to Dec. 1, the biggest withdrawal since the financial crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Somewhere high in the snowy, mountainous wilds of Alpine County, Calif., there is a Californian with a piece of paper worth $1,305. This person is not alone. Across the state, 89,000 residents and businesses -- including 2,315 here in San Francisco alone -- are sitting on some $50 million in uncashed i.o.u.'s from the state, a souvenir of California's most recent, but by no means its last, budget crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A federal district court judge in Los Angeles reinstated a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the family of the rapper Notorious B.I.G., reversing an earlier decision to dismiss the case, The Associated Press reported. Judge Florence-Marie Cooper threw out the lawsuit on March 21, ruling that the family had missed a California deadline for bringing a claim against the city and two former police officers. The family appealed, and the judge ruled that federal claims in the case can proceed, according to court papers obtained Thursday. The rapper, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was gunned down in Los Angeles in 1997, at age 24. His killing remains unsolved, and two wrongful-death suits have been filed against the city, claiming that rogue police officers conspired to commit the murder. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reports on the controversies over the proposals made by the California secretary of state, Kevin Shelley on the inclusion of a visible paper trail and other security measures associated with the use of touch-screen voting machines for the November 2004 elections in the U.S. Pros and cons to the proposals among officials and the public in California; Profile on Shelley and his views about touch-screen voting; Implications on the elections and voting practice.

Focuses on a lawsuit filed by Spanish-language television broadcaster Univision Communications in Los Angeles Superior Court to stop Nielsen Media Research from making changes in the way it measures television ratings in Los Angeles, California. Complaint against the switch to the local people meters from the current system of using paper diaries along with meters; Concern about the possible undercounting of black and Hispanic viewers; Urban markets where Nielsen already made the changes.

Reports on the purchase of the paperboard and packaging operations of Temple-Inland Inc. by Georgia-Pacific Corp. in California and Delaware.

Discusses how, under the auspices of the Institute for Multimedia Literacy, many University of Southern California's academic courses are requiring students to complete multimedia term papers. Example of a collaborative report on ancient Troy by University of Southern California students; Background on the institute's creation in 1997; Influence of filmmaker George Lucas; Topic of multimedia sensibilities and techniques; Views of students and administrators.

Reports on the vote of Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors on February 25, 2003 to invest several voting machines that produce paper receipts.

Reports on the decision of the University of California officials in Berkeley to permit the Emma Goldman Papers project to send a fund-raising letter which include quotations from Goldman about war and the suppression of speech.

Reports on a diaper recycling program which aims to reduce the disposable diapers deposited in California landfills each year.

Focuses on 'The Los Angeles Times,' a newspaper in Los Angeles, California. Changes made to the newspaper after its parent company, Times Mirror, was acquired by the Tribune Company; Decline in readership when paper was divided into different regional editions; Decision of Tribune to abandon the regional operations and return to one edition; Role of John S. Carroll as editor and John Puerner as publisher.

Talks about a deal by `The Los Angeles Times' with the Staples Center to share profits from a magazine about the arena. Reaction of the newspaper's employees to the deal; Details on the protest of the employees; Other issues that troubled editors; Profile of Kathryn Downing, publisher of the paper; Information on a letter of apology written by Downing for the staff.

Reports on the released tapes that depict former United States President Richard M. Nixon as anti-Semitic. Details of the conversations; Contents of the Pentagon Papers published by `The New York Times' in 1971; Statement issued by the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace Foundation in Yorba Linda, California; How Nixon showed his penchant for singling out Jews on June 16, 1971.

Reports that the San Diego District Attorney filed papers to dismiss the accusations of willful misconduct made against Mayor Susan Golding in California. Findings of the office of District Attorney Paul Pfingst; Details on the allegations made by a grand jury; Actions taken by the lawyers of Golding.

Focuses on the Union Farm Workers' (UFW) continuation of its fight to represent strawberry pickers in California after losing a vote to the anti-union group, Coastal Berry Farm Workers Committee on July 23, 1998. Board that the UFW plans to file legal papers with in an effort to void the results of the union vote; Remarks by Arturo S. Rodriguez, president of the UFW; Action that was taken against workers loyal to the UFW.

Reports on the news release from the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, of a cure for cancer. More cautious approach by the authors in their scientific paper published in the Cell, a medical journal; Details of the research; Apprehensions of researchers to write in journals; Credibility gap created for the war on cancer and science through unsupported and premature claims.

Opinion. Discusses the series of articles that were published in The San Jose Mercury News, claiming that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in the distributing of crack cocaine in Los Angeles, California. Absence of evidence to support allegations made against the CIA; Importance of the CIA to the American government; When editor of the paper made a public apology for the articles which were proven to be false.

Reports on the joint operating agreement between the two San Francisco (Calif.) newspapers, `San Francisco Examiner' and `San Francisco Chronicle.' Possibility that the split could lead to the death of the weaker paper, the `Examiner'; History of the relationship between the two newspapers; Possibility that the two newspapers could survive.

Focuses on the effects of a bomb threat in Los Angeles International Airport and other airports in California by a self-described anarchist in a letter to the paper, San Francisco Chronicle on June 27, 1995. Denial of the intention in a letter on June 28, 1995; Disruption of flight and mail due to tightened security; Stand of Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Reports on the sale of office items used by the Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee in San Francisco, California.