Industry News

LONDON (ShareCast) - The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will announce the largest fine in its history on Friday, $87m in penalties against the oil giant BP for failing to correct safety problems identified after a 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers at its Texas City, Tex. refinery, says the NY Times.

Obama administration officials expect new reports Friday to show that the government's fiscal stimulus program helped create or save about 650,000 jobs, a figure officials are prepared to tout as a significant sign of stimulus success, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Adding another blow to what is becoming an increasingly grim industry, the magazine publisher Time Inc. is expected to announce next week that it will cut $100m in costs and make significant layoffs. Time Inc., publisher of magazines including Time, Fortune and People, is coordinating its announcement with the third-quarter earnings report of its parent, Time Warner (NYSE: TWX - news) , sources said, according to the NY Times.

The Obama administration on Thursday ran into scepticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, as well as a key regulator, as it pushed for broad new powers to monitor risks throughout the financial system and to wind down large, troubled financial firms whose failure could endanger the economy, reports the Washington Post (NYSE: WPO - news) .

US financial groups with operations in London are increasingly concerned that British regulators' tough stance on pay could create a two-tier system in which UK bankers' bonuses are smaller and spread over a longer period than those of American colleagues, says the Financial Times.

Federal product-safety regulators said Thursday that their sampling of Chinese drywall emits higher concentrations of sulfur gases and strontium than US-made product, but found no evidence so far that the emissions were to blame for health problems and metal corrosion reported by at least 1,900 U.S. homeowners, writes the Wall Street Journal.

The shift to digital from physical books will ultimately hurt traditional bricks-and-mortar book sellers, analysts said on the heels of Barnes & Noble (NYSE: NE - news) , the largest US bookstore chain, launching a new e-reader, reports the Chicago Tribune.

Boeing (NYSE: BA - news) 's decision to open a second assembly line for its 787 jetliner in South Carolina is another blow for organized labor, experts say, signaling that major manufacturers are increasingly willing to look for non-union workforces during a time of economic stress, according to the Washington Post.

California wrapped up a sale of $3.5bn in tax-free bonds Thursday after trimming yields slightly from initial expectations as investors bid aggressively for the debt, says the LA Times.

The lawyer tracking down money lost in what authorities say was a massive Ponzi scheme run by R. Allen Stanford says he hopes to gain control of more than $1.5bn that would be then returned to jilted investors, writes USA Today.

Officials at the Washington-based Hogan & Hartson law firm and London-based Lovells said Thursday that they are discussing a possible merger, a move that would make the combined entity one of the largest law firms in the world, with 2,500 lawyers and 40 offices, reports the Washington Post.

A politically connected Beverly Hills financial firm and three current or former executives were indicted Thursday on charges that they defrauded government agencies across the country by rigging bids to invest the proceeds of municipal bond offerings. The nine-count indictment, issued by a federal grand jury and filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, accuses CDR Financial Products of steering business to investment firms that paid it kickbacks, says the LA Times.

Cox Communications is expected to command close to a billion dollars for the Travel Channel, people close to the bidding war for the channel said, according to the NY Times.