BRIEFCASE GAS PRICES DOWN BUT FALLING SLOWLY.Byline: - Staff and Wire Services Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, average gas prices have fallen a few cents from their record highs of two weeks ago, but are still higher than the March average, the Auto Club reported Tuesday. The Southern California average price for regular self-serve unleaded gasoline is $2.128, up 4.3 cents from the March average, but down about 4 cents from record highs set in late March, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the Auto Club's monthly Fuel Gauge Report. Since hitting a record high of $2.18 per gallon on March 21, California's average has fallen 6 cents to $2.12 per gallon for regular unleaded. Diller's USA suing Vivendi Universal Barry Diller's USA Interactive sued Vivendi Universal on Tuesday over a tax dispute, saying the French entertainment company reneged on its partnership agreement with USA to save much-needed cash. USA and Vivendi formed a joint venture, Vivendi Universal Entertainment, last year combining Universal's film, television and theme park properties with USA's cable channels and television production company. Diller recently stepped down as Vivendi chairman. As part of the deal, USA has claimed Vivendi must make annual payments to reimburse USA for taxes that will become due on income it receives from the preferred shares Preferred shares Preferred shares give investors a fixed dividend from the company's earnings and entitle them to be paid before common shareholders. See: Preferred stock. it owns in Vivendi. The unusual arrangement was negotiated in 2001 with Jean-Marie Messier Jean-Marie Messier (born December 13, 1956) is a French businessman who was Chairman and Chief Executive of the multinational media conglomerate Vivendi SA (formerly Vivendi Universal) until 2002. when he was Vivendi Universal chief executive, USA claims. USA also holds a 5.4 percent common stock interest in VUE See HP-VUE. VUE - Visual User Environment: a desktop manager for Unix from Hewlett-Packard. . Vivendi Universal disputed that claim in December, and the two sides have been negotiating since. Hospital operator reports bad news NASHVILLE, Tenn. - HCA HCA, n.pr See acid, hydroxycitric. Inc., the nation's largest hospital operator, warned Tuesday that its first-quarter earnings will fall far below expectations, citing a mild flu season
Shares of HCA dropped to a new 52-week low on the news. The Nashville-based company said it expects to report net income of 81 cents to 83 cents per share Cents per share The amount of a mutual fund's dividend or capital gains distributions that a shareholder will receive for each share owned. next Tuesday, well below the 88-cent consensus among analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call. That number excludes $42 million in gains on the sale of facilities and about $3 million in costs related to the decade-long federal investigation into health care fraud allegations. Including those numbers, HCA said the company's net income is expected to be approximately $465 million to $475 million, or 89 cents to 91 cents per share for the quarter ended March 31. The company owns West Hills Hospital and Medical Center in the West San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. and Los Robles Robles is a common surname in the Spanish language meaning oaks, and may refer to:
Production falls for manufacturers WASHINGTON - Big industry, in a muddled wartime climate, throttled back production in March, highlighting a sore spot for the struggling economy. The Federal Reserve reported Tuesday that output at the nation's factories, mines and utilities fell 0.5 percent, the biggest one-month drop since December and the second month in a row that industrial production went down. The manufacturing sector has been the weakest link hindering the economy's full recovery from below-par growth. At factories, which account for the most industrial output tracked by the Fed, production went down by 0.2 percent in March, on top of a 0.3 percent decline in February. 2 drug firms to pay Medicaid fines Two major pharmaceutical companies have agreed to pay one of the largest Medicaid abuse settlements in U.S. history to resolve allegations that they overcharged the government insurance program for the poor, according to federal investigators and others familiar with the case. Under an agreement negotiated with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston and state Medicaid fraud Medicaid fraud The fraudulent billing of Medicaid by physicians or other health care providers, especially international medical graduates and psychiatrists. See Medicaid. investigators around the country, Bayer AG will pay the government about $250 million, and GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay about $90 million for failing to give the Medicaid program the lowest price charged to any customer, as required by law. |
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