Monday morning headlines

Stocks edge lower: Week starts off slowly - Dow is down about 20 points in early trading.

Southwest buys AirTran: The $1.4-billion purchase gives the discount carrier access to Atlanta and a greater presence to NY's LaGuardia and Boston's Logan. (NYT)

Unilever buys Alberto-Culver: The maker of Dove soap will be adding the maker of VO5 hair-care products to its arsenal. Purchase price is $3.7 billion. (Bloomberg)

Stanley Chais dies: He was the Bev Hills money manager who allegedly steered hundreds of millions of dollars of investor money to Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Chais, who was 84, had been facing an SEC lawsuit. From the LAT:

The SEC had accused Chais of telling clients that he was investing the money himself, but instead giving it all to Madoff. He also was accused of delivering false account statements to investors to disguise how the money was invested. Chais' attorney, Eugene Licker, has maintained that Chais had no idea that Madoff was operating a Ponzi scheme.

Comcast COO becomes NBC CEO: Steve Burke will succeed Jeff Zucker once the cable company takes control of the entertainment giant. From The Wrap:

Burke won't suffer sycophants among the chief lieutenants whom he will tap in the coming weeks, say his confidants and business associates inside and outside of Comcast. Nor will loose lips, lack of candor, back-stabbing or sugar-coating of problems be tolerated. Straightforward business practices, accountability with fairness, mutual respect and prudent risk-taking will be the order of the day, these people insist. In short, at a time of wrenching transformation in media, the success of the Comcast-NBCU marriage will depend all the more on Burke's ability to exorcise a troubling corporate culture at NBC Universal.

Arrest in Donald Bren scam: Moundir Kamil is suspected of stealing the identity of the OC billionaire, along with a $1.4 million federal tax refund check made out to Bren earlier this year. From the OC Business Journal:

Kamil is alleged to have set up a series of bank accounts under Bren's name at the Cerritos branch of Pasadena-based East West Bank, according to a complaint filed in federal court in Los Angeles. Kamil was arraigned earlier this month in Los Angeles and charged with felony bank fraud. Bail was set at $50,000, according to court records.

Polling on propositions: Measures that would legalize dope and allow a budget to be approved by a simple majority have small leads; an initiative to shelve the state's landmark greenhouse gas emissions reduction law is losing. (Capitol Alert)

Is there a budget deal?: Legislative leaders were hoping to announce an agreement today.

City shelves streamlining plan: So much for overhauling the permitting process - the so-called 12-to-2 plan is history and a consultant is being brought on to find new ways of eliminating L.A.'s notorious red tape. From the Business Journal:

The plan came in response to mounting frustration from businesses, business leaders and developers over the time it takes to get permits. In some cases, it took more than two years to get standard permits for a convenience store or construction of a small apartment building. But resistance from some city department heads, a lack of leadership and the sheer complexity of dealing with so many departments and getting so many development approvals doomed the initiative.

Apple gets the most attention: Pew study finds that 15.1 percent of all tech articles were primary about the company. That's followed by Google, at 11.4 percent. (NYT)