BRIEFCASE.

Byline: --Staff and Wire Services

Reprographics buys T-Square

GLENDALE -- Glendale-based American Reprographics Co. announced Wednesday the acquisition of privately held T-Square Reprographics, a provider of reproduction and document management services headquartered in Miami.

Terms were not disclosed.

T-Square Reprographics, founded in 1924, has five locations and is the oldest and largest reprographics firm based in Miami.

The company offers services primarily to architectural, engineering and construction companies in South Florida. The firm's revenues in 2005 were about $12 million.

Veteran executive joins Countrywide

CALABASAS -- Countrywide Insurance Group announced Wednesday that insurance industry veteran Myron Hendry has joined the organization as executive vice president and chief operations officer.

Hendry is responsible for overseeing central operations, claims and information technology as the organization expands its personal lines and commercial brokerage insurance business and grows its positions in various lender-placed insurance business segments.

Hendry has more than three decades of experience in the insurance industry and an extensive background in multiple lines of business, such as personal, commercial, life, health and accident insurance.

Stock selloff puts Dow loss at 316

NEW YORK -- Stocks dropped Wednesday, extending investors' losses for the third straight session and pushing the Dow Jones industrial average below 11,000 for the first time since March 9.

The Dow has lost more than 316 points this week; the selloff has also wiped out the Nasdaq composite index's gains for the year and put the Standard & Poor's 500 index less than 8 points away from its Dec. 31 close.

With little economic data or corporate news to move stocks, traders were left to decide whether the week's tumble was a buying opportunity or a harbinger of worse days ahead. Stocks spent most the day higher, but the advance-decline line was narrow and the market turned negative in late afternoon.

Guidant letter included warning

BOSTON -- Newly unsealed court documents show Guidant Corp. drafted a letter warning doctors of a dangerous electrical malfunction in some of its devices designed to restore a normal heartbeat, but the letter was never sent.

Instead, the company issued a more routine and less-targeted ``product update'' after learning of a short-circuiting problem that had occurred in some units of two defibrillator models -- a flaw that could prevent a device from delivering a potentially lifesaving shock to the heart.

The documents, unsealed over Guidant's objection in a product liability lawsuit in Texas, also show Guidant officials who devised the company's communications strategy worried about creating ``undue alarm'' about the electrical problem, fearing it could lead to surgeries to remove the potentially faulty devices -- procedures that might carry more risk than leaving the devices in.

H&R Block sees quarterly setback

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- H&R Block Inc. said Wednesday that fourth-quarter earnings fell 4.5 percent as the company began restructuring its mortgage business and settled class-action litigation surrounding its use of refund-anticipation loans.

For the three quarters ending April 30, the nation's largest tax preparer reported earnings of $587.5 million, or $1.77 per share, compared with $614.9 million, or $1.83 per share, during the same period a year ago.

The results included an after-tax charge of $6.4 million, or 2 cents per share, to cover restructuring the mortgage business. Excluding the charge, H&R Block had earnings of $1.79 per share, meeting the expectations of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Fraud allegations target Buca trio

MINNEAPOLIS -- The former chief executive and two other former executives at the restaurant chain Buca Inc. were charged with criminal fraud for allegedly using company money for personal expenses, including tens of thousands of dollars spent at strip clubs.

Also Wednesday, federal regulators filed civil fraud charges against the two of those executives, accusing them of accounting fraud at the struggling company, which operates 104 Italian restaurants in 28 states under the names Buca di Beppo and Vinny T's. A fourth former executive was charged in the SEC's case, but not in the criminal case.

Federal prosecutors charged former CEO Joseph P. Micatrotto with wire fraud in connection with $65,000 of Buca money allegedly used to pay a debt from a failed restaurant he owned.