Friday morning headlines

Down market: The Fed's decision to raise the discount rate hasn't much to do with consumers and businesses, but some on Wall Street will consider it unsettling news. Dow is down about 30 points in early trading.

Candys leave Bev Hills: The mega-wealthy developers/brothers are being forced to hand over an eight-acre site - the old Robinsons-May property next to the Beverly Hilton - to settle a $365.5 million loan that's in default. From Bloomberg:

Project Lotus LLC, controlled by Candy's CPC Group, will transfer 9900 Wilshire [Friday] to a group of lenders led by Mexico's Banco Inbursa SA, said a person involved with the deal who asked not to be named because the information is confidential. An Inbursa spokesman, who declined to be identified because of company policy, confirmed the arrangement. CPC and Iceland's Kaupthing Bank acquired the property in May 2007 from New Pacific Realty Corp. for $500 million, a record at the time for a development site with no approval for zoning variances. The price was 15 times more than what New Pacific paid three years earlier.

Jaime McCourt wants more: She's accusing her estranged husband Frank of trying to understate his net worth by hundreds of millions of dollars. Earlier, Frank claimed he was in a tight financial position, but Jaime now alleges that Frank wants to sell a share of the team. From the WSJ:

In Thursday's court filing, Ms. McCourt said that her husband's personal financial statement as of Sept. 30, 2008 showed his net worth at $834.9 million. However, a follow-up personal financial statement showed that as of last June 30, Mr. McCourt's net worth had dropped to $163.4 million. Ms. McCourt's filing contends that the second financial statement was prepared after the couple separated and its results were "fabricated" through "blatant balance sheet manipulations" to show a much lower level of wealth. Ms. McCourt's filing contended that the "net equity value" of the assets of Mr. McCourt's enterprises was in excess of $2 billion.

Another housing plan: The White House will be releasing $1.5 billion from bank bailout funds to help struggling homeowners in California and four other states. Money will be made available to state housing agencies. (NYT)

Delinquences down: The percentage of homeowners who missed one payment on their home fell in the fourth quarter from the previous three months, but more borrowers were at least three months behind. (AP)

No to digital billboards: Well, three of them anyway - the West Los Angeles Area Planning Commission ruled that city officials erred when they issued permits for the electronic billboards. Homeowners had been up in arms. (LAT)

Tomato scandal: A federal grand jury has accused a member of one of the state's most powerful farming families of directing a scheme to quash competition and sell tomato products at inflated prices. From the LAT:

Among other things, prosecutors alleged that Salyer, SK Foods' onetime chief executive, organized and led a conspiracy to use more than $330,000 in bribes from 1998 to 2008 to subvert competition and get deals to sell his company's tomato paste, peppers and other products to Kraft Foods Inc., Safeway Inc., Frito-Lay North America Inc. and Gerber Products Co., among others. Salyer, 54, was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Feb. 5 after he got off a plane from Switzerland.

Zenith Insurance sold: A Canadian company, Fairfax Financial Holdings, is purchasing the Woodland Hills-based insurer that specializes in workers compensation. Purchase price is $1.4 billion cash. About 80 per cent of Zenith's business is in California and Florida. (Globe and Mail)

LAX falls flat: The latest ranking from J.D. Power places Los Angeles International next to last among 20 major U.S. airports, just above Newark and below Miami. The top-ranking airports were Detroit, Denver and Minneapolis. Among small airports, John Wayne and Bob Hope were also near the bottom.

Variety not for sale: Owner Reed Elsevier will hold onto the Hollywood trade paper after all. Earlier reports indicated that the publication was being shopped around. (Folio)