Friday morning headlines

Decent employment news: The U.S. February jobless rate fell to 4.5 percent from 4.6 percent the previous month (that's the L.A. County rate), and total employment rose by 97,000 - slightly better than analysts had been expecting (though still low because cold weather cut into construction jobs). Anyway, the numbers seemed to relieve Wall Street this morning, with the Dow up about 30 points in the first 90 minutes of trading. The employment report has been eagerly awaited (or for some, dreaded) as an indication of what the economy is doing. Problem is, employment data tends to be a lagging indicator, so today's numbers might not reflect what's going on now. NYT

California women gain: They're still making less than their male colleagues, but at least the gap is narrowing. Married women and those in higher-paying jobs seem to do especially well. One explanation is that women workers happen to be concentrated in sectors of the economy that are strong - stuff like health care and education. Last year, the typical gal earned 87 cents for every dollar earned by her guy counterpart, up from 63 cents for every dollar in 1979. San Jose Mercury

Profiting on subprimers: It may seem a little sick to have investors capitalizing on other people's misfortunes (so what else is new?), but here we have Paulson & Co., an $11 billion NY hedge fund, that has been betting on a subprime collapse since last summer. And guess what? Paulson’s Credit Opportunities Funds were up 67 percent for February and about 82 percent for the year to date. Other hedge funds decided to hedge their bets by going short and long on the subprime market. Meanwhile, there's still a lot of chatter this morning about the possibility of New Century Financial having to file for bankruptcy. NYT

Diller/Dow Jones on Web: The NY Post's Keith Kelly reports that Barry Diller will be teaming with Dow Jones to form a personal finance Web site aimed at a younger audience. The WSJ's David Kansas is expected to become the CEO and president of the new operation. No details being offered on the site, but it apparently involves 30 to 40 editorial slots.

Sony imagers leaving: The state of New Mexico is giving Sony Pictures Imageworks a deal they can't turn down, so 100 visual effects workers appear headed there from Culver City. As could be expected, there's the usual drumbeat of concern about how L.A.'s show biz economy is being snatched by cities and states all over the U.S. It should be noted that most of Imageworks' 900-person workforce would stay in Culver City. LAT

Disney love: The Mouse House held its annual meeting and everything was beautiful. At least it was low-key. BW's Ron Grover notes the minimal press coverage for the gathering, this year held in New Orleans - and the lack of rancor, quite a contrast to those bad old days of Michael Eisner. Disney's big announcement was a new animated film to be released in 2009 and set in New Orleans.

What a contrast to the Eisner era, when annual meetings were moved around the country only when shareholders started getting restless and were filled with off-the-cuff comments from the CEO that usually made tons of news. At various times, Eisner mused about starting an Internet portal, launching a cable news channel to compete with CNN, and sized up the competition from animation startups like DreamWorks, launched by former Disney studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg. Of course, the most memorable news toward the end of Eisner's tenure was the bad kind: being met with stony silence from shareholders, the noisy rally calling for his head, and nasty questions about the pay package of former executives. A kiss from a shareholder? In Eisner's dreams.

Higher pump prices: Time for the TV and radio news crews to do those silly interviews with motorists about those gosh darn higher gas prices. The Auto Club's latest survey shows that the average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area is $2.934, which is 11.7 cents higher than last week, 38 cents higher than last month, and 38 cents higher than last year. Gas is now more expensive here than in Hawaii.

King Larry Ellison: The guy has a net worth of $21.5 billion, so what's $200 million for a dozen properties in Malibu? Much of his interest appears to be in the Carbon Beach area, home to Eli Broad, Haim Saban, David Geffen, et al. So far, the Oracle Corp. CEO has submitted plans to the city of Malibu for two new restaurants, including one featuring ultra-high-end Japanese cuisine. From the LAT:

Residents and real estate agents say houses on Carbon Beach, even the few remaining "shacks," would start at $20 million. Courteney Cox and David Arquette recently put their four-bedroom, five-bathroom showcase house, with 80 feet of frontage, on the market for $33.5 million. Ellison's buying binge started in 2003, when he paid $65 million for five adjacent residential properties on Carbon Beach. Next, a couple of restaurants at the beach's western end near the pier caught his eye. According to local scuttlebutt, in early 2004 he paid nearly $30 million for the Pier View Cafe and Cantina and the Windsail. Both have been shuttered since. City officials say Ellison recently bought the Casa Malibu Inn, a beachfront getaway that opened in 1949 and is near the restaurants. In addition, he reportedly purchased a $20-million home in a gated hillside community just west of Malibu Pier.