Tuesday morning headlines

Venturing too far: Nifty LAT story about how a little-known Century City venture capital firm called International Technology University has seen its big-name backers - and we're talking Harvard and a bunch of state pension funds - pull $120 million from the firm. A big reason is that the two partners, Chad Brownstein and Jonah Schnel, solicited political contributions from the businesses they financed, which is a big no-no for VC firms. Steve Westly was among the recipients.

Televisa wants Univision: That's even after losing an auction this summer for the L.A.-based media giant. The NYT, citing unnamed sources, said that a group of investors led by Grupo Televisa - and including Bill Gates's private equity firm - is considering a $13 billion bid for Univision. They had better move quickly: Univision shareholders are supposed to vote in a couple of weeks on the proposed sale to Haim Saban and a bunch of private equity firms.

9/11 inaccuracies: First it was the Democrats riling over ABC's "The Path to 9/11." Then it was American Airlines. Now comes word that a retired FBI agent brought on as an advisor left the production after a month because there were so many inaccuracies. “There were some of the scenes that were total fiction,” Thomas Mr. Nicoletti, a member of the joint terrorism task force, told the NYT. “I told them unless they were changing this, I could not have my name associated with it.” His biggest gripes involved scenes that put people at places they weren’t at and action that was out of chronological order.

Apple day: Expect lots of coverage when Steve Jobs rolls out a new service to download movies - perhaps right into televisions. That's the holy grail for those competing with Netflix, Blockbuster and the current video-on-demand offerings. In addition, he'll introduce a bunch of new iPods and additional download services.

Summer of hell?: Well, not really, as it turns out. WSJ (subscription required) reports that more than 75 percent of all airline flights arrived on time, which was better than last year. But more people got bumped from overbooked flights and complaints about service soared. One curious factoid: Business fell off a bit in August.

Valley homes: August sales in the San Fernando Valley fell 33 percent from a year earlier, while the median price increased 2 percent, to $610,000. Just a reminder: year-ago comparisons can be tricky because 2005's market was quite strong until the fall.

Coke coffee: Not sure about this one. The soft drink giant plans to open mini-cafés in retail stores, offices, fast-food joints and movie theaters that can brew an espresso in 30 seconds. The secret is prepackaging the brews and slipping the packets into a machine. The first stores have opened in Toronto, Oslo and Singapore.

Director's deal: Mike Newell, who directed "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and "Mona Lisa Smile," will develop three dramas through Disney's Touchstone TV, one of which is guaranteed to be picked up to pilot by ABC.

KPCC biztalk: This morning's business chat with Steve Julian (89.3 at 6:55 and 9:55) covers the economic impact of 9/11, August home prices in L.A. County and the opening of H&M stores.