Friday morning headlines

Market slide resumes: More worries about the Obama bank plan - and about the economy. Dow is off about 40 points in early trading.

Bank plan skeptics: Lots of doubts about how and whether the president's proposal to control banking investments will actually work. Many insist that the changes, if adopted, would do little to change the business. From the NYT:

"I am somewhat skeptical about how much the federal government can actually regulate," said John C. Bogle, the founder of Vanguard, the mutual fund giant. "We need to try, but all the lawyers and geniuses on Wall Street are going to figure out ways to get around everything." Indeed, Mr. Obama acknowledged that "an army of industry lobbyists" had already descended on Capitol Hill, but vowed, "If these folks want a fight, it's a fight I'm ready to have."

Prepping MGM bankruptcy?: First round of bids aren't close to covering the $3.7 billion still owed to lenders, so now the struggling movie studio is considering a streamlined "prepackaged" bankruptcy as part of the auction. (WSJ)

Ill-mannered in late night: Watching the Jay-Conan fracas unfold, NYT TV critic Alessandra Stanley concludes that comics are angry, bitter people deep down.

All the comedians have been funny about their plight, but at the moment it's their lack of humor that is the spectacle. Viewers are transfixed like schoolchildren watching their teachers break into a food fight -- delighted, but also disoriented.

NBCU profits tumble: Fourth-quarter operating income was down 30 percent from a year earlier. Revenues fell 3.7 percent. The company, still part of GE, attributed the drop to higher programming costs - kind of ironic considering that the Jay Leno experiment was geared to control programming costs. (The Wrap)

Oxy exploring in Iraq: L.A.-based oil company Occidental Petroleum announces plans to develop the massive, 4-billion-barrel Zubair oil field, a vote of confidence that the Iraqi government will remain stable. From the LAT:

The field, which is near the southern city of Basra, is one of several gigantic oil fields that the country hopes to develop in the coming years. Formal signing agreements are being finalized this month with some of the world's most prominent oil companies. Zubair is huge by oil industry standards, but certainly not the largest of the Iraqi oil fields. Development for the colossal Majnoon field, which holds oil reserves of 12.8 billion barrels has been awarded to a consortium comprising Royal Dutch Shell and Malaysia's Petronas.

Dip in gas prices: An average gallon of regular in the L.A. area is $3.042, down 2.4 cents from last week, according to the Auto Club. Meanwhile, oil prices have been falling to below $76 a barrel.

Socal venture spending gains: Fourth-quarter investments totaled $587.8 million, up from both the previous three months and the year-earlier quarter. San Diego led the region, with $300 million, followed by L.A., at $239.1 million. Among the bigger local deals: Torrance-based Amonix ($40 million), and Thousand Oaks-based Xirrus ($20.1 million). (socalTECH.com)

Misconduct denied: The U.S. attorney's office is accusing former KB Home CEO Bruce Karatz of claiming prosecutorial misconduct in order to block damaging testimony against him. His trial on charges related to backdating stock options gets started next month. From the LAT:

"Defendant has not adduced a scintilla of evidence that the government has actually manipulated or improperly influenced any witness," prosecutors said in the motion. The motion also accused Karatz's attorneys of making unfounded allegations to generate sympathetic news coverage that could influence prospective jurors.

Freedom bankruptcy plan approved: The deal provides about eight times more money for unsecured creditors - including a group of longtime current and former employees - than the media company had originally proposed. Approval by the federal bankruptcy judge means that the parent of the OC Register could be out of bankruptcy by the end of March. From the Register:

The group left out in the cold under this deal is the current owners, including members of the founding Hoiles family and two private equity firms. Under the original plan, they would have gotten a 2 percent share of the company once it emerged from bankruptcy and the option to buy up to 10 percent more. Now they will get nothing.