Tuesday morning headlines

Market watch: There's more speculation about central banks raising interest rates, which has yields on 10-year Treasuries reaching 5.21 percent - and which is also causing stocks to fall. The Dow is off 83 points after an hour of trading.

Secret life of a CFO: No wonder Wellpoint wanted to keep David Colby's life under wraps. The fired chief financial officer - so respected that he was once considered a candidate for the CEO’s job - had quite a life outside the office. The WSJ stirs the pot with additional women who have had relationships with Colby, including a former Wellpoint employee and two sisters who he supposedly promised to marry (they each thought Colby's affair with the other was over). Colby is separated from his second wife; their divorce has been pending since 2004. Lots of stuff in the Journal story has already been reported, especially his involvement with Rita DiCarlo, who was smart enough to sell the book and movie rights of her life (though Colby's life sounds a lot more interesting). In case you haven't been following this, Colby spent a lot of time in Socal, where he worked for WellPoint before its merger with Anthem Inc.

Mr. Colby's personal life began spilling into the open -- and into his professional life -- in May. Twelve days before Mr. Colby was asked to resign, the company was contacted by Larry Garrison, an author and media-rights broker who lives near a six-bedroom Lake Sherwood, Calif., mansion owned by Mr. Colby and occupied by Ms. DiCarlo. Mr. Garrison said he informed WellPoint's investor-relations executives that he had bought book and movie rights to Ms. DiCarlo's story -- and that he had records of numerous emails and text messages between the two.

Still cheaper gas prices: They're around 15 cents a gallon lower in L.A. than just five weeks ago, with the average price of a gallon of self-serve regular at $3.305, according to the federal government's latest survey. As usual, there are mixed opinions on where prices are headed, though a lot could depend on this summer's hurricane season and how well the nation's refineries hold up. Speaking of which...

Refinery delays: It's another one of those finger pointing exercises. Congress is pressuring the oil industry to use some of their very substantial profits to build or repair refineries. The oil companies say that higher labor and material costs have made the expansion plans way more expensive than expected (remember stockholders and all) and resulted in the cancellation of some projects. From the WSJ:

Years of industry underinvestment have contributed to the current rise. Refiners in past years blamed low fuel prices and poor returns, as well as environmental opposition to major expansion efforts and the cost of keeping up with fuel regulations. In the U.S., no new refinery has been built since 1976. Even today, with prices high, refiners are loath to build new facilities for those environmental and regulatory reasons, as well as concerns that fuel prices might moderate long term. Instead, the industry has invested in expanding or modernizing existing facilities, resulting in gradual output increases. Meanwhile, the big push for new refineries has been in the Middle East and Asia, where demand for fuels is rising much more rapidly than in the U.S. Some of these refineries plan to ship part of their output to the U.S.

VOD coming sooner: That's cable video-on-demand, where Warner Bros. plan to release some of its movies at the same time they come out on DVD. The big plus for studios: They get to keep 60-70 percent of revenues from a VOD rental, compared with 15-20 percent from video-store rentals. The risk, of course, is cannibalizing an existing distribution platform (normally VOD comes out well after the DVD is released. The first test will be July 10 with the release of "The Astronaut Farmer," which took in only about $11 million at the box office. WSJ

S&P raises state outlook: It's gone to "positive" from "stable," the first step towards getting a better credit rating on $50 billion worth of bonds. California's debt is rated A-plus, the fifth-highest of S&P's 10 investment grades. Rating upgrades can mean lower borrowing costs because investors are generally willing to accept lower yields on debt perceived as less risky.

Gross payday: OC bond guru William Gross auctioned off his collection of 19th- and early 20th-century British stamps for $9.1 million. The top item — a reconstructed mint block of 24 of the world’s first stamp, the Penny Black of Britain, issued in 1840 — sold for $1 million. The proceeds were donated to Doctors Without Borders. NYT

Job training effort: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will be announcing a new program aimed to train thousands of low-income students for higher-paying, skilled jobs. The Regional Economic Development Institute is modeled after successful programs in SF and other cities. From the LAT:

Students learned basic skills within the context of a specific job or employer, said Terri Feeley, SF Works' executive director. Those interested in bioscience jobs, for example, learned about ratios and percentages by mixing solutions, she said, while students hoping for a job in construction learned the same math concepts by working with the kinds of calculations builders need to make. These programs are "absolutely worthwhile," Feeley said. They draw companies such as Bank of America because "if they get the right people there's less turnover, and that helps both the employer and the worker."

Lacter on radio: This morning's business chat with KPCC's Kari Moran covers the supermarket contract talks, the new Fresh & Easy markets, and potential development in Long Beach.