BRIEFCASE.

Byline: -- Staff and Wire Services

Ride changes can be heard

A judge ruled Monday that a jury can hear about changes The Walt Disney Co. made to the ``Indiana Jones Adventure'' following a woman's death from a ruptured brain aneurysm, which her family contends was triggered by the Disneyland attraction that she rode on her honeymoon.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James R. Dunn issued his ruling as trial approaches in the case brought by the estate of Cristina Moreno of Spain in September 2001.

According to the suit, the 23-year-old Barcelona woman complained of a severe headache after riding the Indiana Jones Adventure on June 25, 2000. She was hospitalized that evening after losing consciousness and was found to have brain hemorrhaging. She died Sept. 1.

Her family's complaint alleges Disney decided to ``push the envelope to the extreme'' in designing the attraction, creating a ride that is ``fast, turbulent, combining the ups and downs of a roller coaster with jarring jumps, drops and unpredictable movements.''

Attorneys for Disney maintain the attraction is safe and that the woman's death was unrelated to the ride, which opened in March 1995 and is still part of the park's Adventureland.

Calpine wants to make payment

WASHINGTON -- Calpine Corp. is asking the judge overseeing its bankruptcy reorganization to allow it to make a $100 million payment to holders of its second-lien debt.

The San Jose-based energy company has been operating under Chapter 11 protection from creditors through the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan since December 2005.

According to court papers filed Friday, Calpine has until Dec. 31 to agree on a schedule for paying the holders of its second-lien debt, which consists of about $3.7 billion in notes and loans with varying maturity dates.

To do this, Calpine wants the bankruptcy judge to alter the rules governing how it can use its cash collateral.

The federal Bankruptcy Code considers cash collateral to be any cash, stocks, bonds, property titles, bank accounts or other cash equivalents that a company can use to fund its business with the permission of creditors or the order of a judge.

Its current cash-collateral agreement allowed Calpine to pay second-lien-debt holders $78 million in 2006. Court papers said any payments made beyond Dec. 31 would have to be agreed upon by the company, the official committee of secured creditors in its Chapter 11 case and a separate panel representing second-lien holders' interests.

Krispy Kreme to report net loss

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Executives at Krispy Kreme Doughnuts told federal regulators on Monday its sales were down nearly 10 percent from a year ago, partially due to closing some of its signature stores where donuts are made on site.

While a formal quarterly earnings report has been delayed, the company told the Securities and Exchange Commission it expects to report revenues of about $117 million for the fiscal quarter that ended Oct. 29, down from $129 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

The company also said it expects to report a net loss for the quarter and that its results continue to be hurt by costs rising from assorted legal and regulatory concerns. The company has not reported quarterly earnings on time for more than two years now.

A long-delayed annual report for fiscal 2006 that the company released at the end of October showed sales had dropped more than 18 percent in each of the last two years.

DuPont to cut 1,500 employees

PHILADELPHIA -- Facing sharp competition and market share erosion in its once-unassailable cornseed business, DuPont Co. says it will cut about 10 percent of its workforce, or 1,500 employees, in its agriculture and nutrition division.

The cuts will save the Wilmington, Del., company about $100 million a year and the money will be plowed back into developing new high-yielding and biotech cornseeds.

The company's Pioneer Hi-Bred seed operation, a centerpiece of its effort to restructure into a biotech company and out of old-line petrochemicals, has been losing cornseed market share to Monsanto Corp. in the last five years.

Treasury interest bill rates mixed

WASHINGTON -- Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in Monday's auction, with six-month bills rising and three-month bills falling to the lowest level in two months.

The Treasury Department auctioned $18 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 4.800 percent, down from 4.870 percent last week. Another $16 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 4.865 percent, up from 4.840 percent last week.

The three-month rate was the lowest since three-month bills averaged 4.765 percent on Oct. 2. The six-month rate was the highest since these bills averaged 4.935 percent on Nov. 27.