BRIEFCASE QUINN NEW HEAD OF VERDUGO GROUP.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

GLENDALE - Banker and fund-raising veteran John H. Quinn was named president of the Verdugo Hills Hospital Foundation on Monday, effective immediately.

Quinn will be responsible for all fund-raising activities of the 158-bed nonprofit acute-care hospital, including planned giving, major donor development, corporate and foundation philanthropy and annual giving programs.

The Pasadena resident will also oversee the foundation office and help organize programs and events, said foundation board Chairman Annsley Strong.

From 1993-2000, Quinn was president and chief executive officer of the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles Foundation, helping to raise more than $175 million during his tenure.

Most recently, he was president and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles and Inland Empire.

Much of Quinn's career has been spent in the banking industry. He is former president and CEO of Olympic National Bank in Los Angeles and worked for Security Pacific National Bank in various capacities for 18 years.

Rates on T-bills mixed in auction

WASHINGTON - Interest rates on short-term Treasury securities were mixed in Monday's auction.

The Treasury Department sold $16 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.945 percent, unchanged from the previous week. An additional $17 billion was sold in six-month bills at a rate of 1.025 percent, up from 0.980 percent the previous week.

The six-month rate was the highest since June 2, when the rate was 1.095 percent.

Construction rate higher, not flat

WASHINGTON - An error in a government economic report caused spending on construction projects in June to be underestimated. Construction spending rose last month by 0.3 percent as opposed to being flat, the Commerce Department said Monday.

With the correction, construction spending climbed to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $872.5 billion in June, a 0.3 percent increase from May's level. The department had reported on Friday that construction spending was flat at $864.3 billion.

Under the correction, spending on residential projects inched up by 0.1 percent in June to a rate of $448.9 billion. That marked an improvement from the 0.4 percent decline reported Friday.

Red Hat sues SCO over accusations

SAN JOSE - Leading Linux distributor Red Hat Inc. sued the SCO Group Inc. Monday, calling accusations of copyright infringement against the open-source operating system ``unfair and deceptive actions.''

The lawsuit, filed in Delaware federal court, seeks a declaration that Red Hat is not violating SCO's intellectual property and an injunction that would bar SCO from making untrue claims that harm the Linux business.

SCO, which owns key parts of the Unix operating system, claims its code has seeped into Linux. It is seeking $3 billion from International Business Machines Corp. for allegedly transferring Unix code to Linux.

Qwest, Sprint ink wireless accord

DENVER - Debt-laden Qwest Communications International Inc. struck a deal Monday to move its wireless phone customers onto Sprint's national network, allowing it to sell off its related assets while still offering wireless services.

Under the deal with Sprint, Denver-based Qwest will offer Sprint PCS Vision under its own brand by next year to local residential customers and to business customers nationwide. Qwest will handle sales, billing and customer service. The terms of the multiyear deal were not disclosed, but Qwest said it would purchase minutes from Sprint. Pricing plans have not been decided.