Friday morning headlines

Stocks wavering after Bernanke's speech:. The Dow is actually peeking into plus territory after a big early-session drop. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke offered no new initiatives to stimulate the economy, but did point to the Fed's September meeting.

Growth revised downward: Second-quarter GDP grew at an annual 1 percent pace, compared with the already bad previous estimate of 1.3 percent. It's another sign that the economy slowed down in the April-June period to nearly stall speed. (AP)

Consumer sentiment falls in August: The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's index was actually a little better than the preliminary reading, but it's still way down - not a big surprise given the circus in Washington early this month. (Reuters)

Gas prices inch higher: Despite the sharp drop in oil, an average gallon of regular in the L.A. area rose 2.6 cents, to $3.731, according to the Auto Club, which cites refinery outages in Socal and Washington.

More threats from AEG: The would-be developer of a downtown stadium complex insists that the legislature approve a measure that would limit legal challenges to the project. Otherwise, an AEG executive says, "we would have to reevaluate the path forward from here." From the LAT:

The idea of custom legislation requiring binding arbitration for one billionaire's project drew opposition from David Pettit, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Our view is we have a legal system for everybody in California," Pettit said. "Just because you are a rich stadium developer, you don't get your own legal system."

State hearing on stadium plan: Sen. Kevin De Leon will be chairing the session, which begins at 10 a.m. at the Ronald Reagan State Building auditorium. The hearing will include an examination of land use and environmental concerns.

Roski considers alternatives to stadium: The billionaire developer has talked to City of Industry officials about what would happen to the 600 acres of land in case the NFL chooses another stadium locale. From the Star-News:

About a month ago, Roski expressed renewed interest in developing the site without a stadium, [Industry Mayor Dave Perez] said. And city officials gave him the OK, Perez said. "He asked us if we have a problem with going back to the original plan," Perez said. "He's looking at retail again."

Legislation to bypass Amazon referendum: Talk about sneaky - but possibly effective. State lawmakers want to avoid a ballot effort to overturn the state's Internet sales tax law. From the LAT:

In a bit of legislative legerdemain, the state Senate Appropriations Committee took the language of that law, tweaked it and put it into a so-called urgency bill. As an urgency bill, the legislation, should it pass, would nullify the existing law, invalidating Amazon's voter petition, and the new law would be immune from a referendum. Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, apparently was blindsided by the maneuver. It would not comment.

Bad weekend to travel back east: Hurricane Irene could create real problems for the airlines. JetBlue has canceled 882 flights from tomorrow through Aug. 29, and the other carriers are likely to follow. (Bloomberg)