Top 10 Stories / Nov. 20-24

1 Power Generators Blamed for State Woes: A study commissioned by Southern California Edison found evidence that power plant owners and electricity resellers have been withholding electricity from the market to drive up prices. Power plant owners said they have been operating their properties responsibly and have not been profiteering. The California Public Utilities Commission separately urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to look harder for evidence of market abuse so that FERC can order refunds of some of the record electricity charges Californians paid last summer. The PUC estimated that state electricity users were overcharged by more than $4 billion for power in recent months.

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2 Employees Block Company Move to Mexico: A few dozen immigrant production workers achieved what years of wrangling by labor leaders and anti-globalization activists have not: They stopped a factory from moving to Mexico. A federal judge sided with the newly unionized workers, handing down an astonishing preliminary injunction that prevents a small Gardena jewelry manufacturer, Quadrtech Corp., from going through with a planned relocation to Tijuana. The injunction, which was sought by the National Labor Relations Board, will remain in effect until the NLRB rules on dozens of charges filed by the union, a process that could take years. The most serious is an allegation that business owner Vladimir Reil planned his move to avoid dealing with the Communications Workers of America, the union that represents the minimum-wage workers.

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3 NHTSA Opens Probe of Goodyear Tires: A federal safety agency opened a preliminary investigation into Goodyear light-truck tires that could experience “sudden and catastrophic” failure on the road. The investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration involves about 27 million Load Range E tires manufactured from 1991 to 1999, about half of which are still on the road, according to Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. The tires were sold under different brands and sizes for large sport-utility vehicles and vans, trailers and even some small buses. The agency’s investigation comes in the wake of recent reports in The Times that the Goodyear Load Range E tires had tread-separation failures similar to those that led to the recall of 6.5 million Firestone tires this summer. Moreover, Goodyear has been quietly replacing thousands of failed tires for more than four years at no charge for customers who complain, The Times reported.

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4 Clinics Close as KPC Collapses: KPC Medical Management, the largest for-profit medical group in Southern California, started closing its clinics, disrupting care for 300,000 patients. The collapse of KPC came after months of effort by state regulators and others to shore up the doctor-group management company in the first real test of the state’s new regulatory system for managed care. The Anaheim-based company has been losing money since it bought the majority of failed MedPartners’ Southern California clinics last year. So many medical groups have gone out of business or filed for bankruptcy protection during the last two years that it won’t be easy for the doctors employed by KPC to find new groups to join--and their patients might have to permanently switch to new physicians.

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5 EMusic’s Search Technology Stirs Critics: Online music retailer EMusic Inc. introduced a new technology that critics called an invasive software weapon unleashed on Napster users. The company said the software program, which searches through consumers’ computers and flags digital music files that it believes are pirated, is a last-resort effort to educate the public about the seriousness of online piracy. Among other things, the EMusic program could result in Napster users being expelled from the song-swapping service and their Internet provider. Privacy experts and industry analysts were stunned at EMusic’s aggressive approach, saying that its automated program underscores the inherent struggle between protecting copyrights and personal privacy in cyberspace. EMusic officials contend that, simply by joining Napster, users forfeit their right to privacy.

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6 Daimler Shakes Up Chrysler Management: The new German management at Chrysler, dispatched by DaimlerChrysler to fix its struggling U.S. unit, placed itself more firmly behind the wheel by forcing out three American executives. Axed were Chief Administrative Officer Kathleen Oswald, one of the auto industry’s highest-ranking female executives; Theodor Cunningham, Chrysler’s executive vice president of global sales and marketing; and Antonio Cervone, head of Chrysler’s global communications, the auto maker said. With DaimlerChrysler Chairman Juergen Schrempp at Chrysler’s suburban Detroit headquarters to smooth the transition, Dieter Zetsche took over as president and chief executive from James Holden, who was forced out Nov. 17. The changes come amid rumors that strong measures will be used to push Chrysler into profitability, including white-collar layoffs or unpaid leaves of absence and plant closures.

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7 AOL, Time Warner Set EarthLink Deal: Hoping to satisfy the demands of federal regulators, America Online Inc. and Time Warner Inc. reached an agreement with one of AOL’s chief rivals, EarthLink Network Inc., that will allow EarthLink to provide high-speed Internet access on Time Warner’s cable lines. The deal was reached after officials at the Federal Trade Commission raised antitrust concerns about the pending AOL-Time Warner merger. Regulators said they wanted the companies to sign a contract with a competing Internet provider to ensure that Time Warner cable customers will have a choice of carriers. AOL hopes to close the merger by January.

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8 Quaker Oats Abandoned by a Third Suitor: French food group Danone abruptly pulled out of the bidding for Quaker Oats Co., leaving the U.S. cereals group without a suitor. News that Danone had given up interest came just 24 hours after it announced it wanted to buy Chicago-based Quaker. That made Danone the third suitor to flirt with Quaker over the last month, and the third to walk away without a match. The world’s two biggest soft drink companies, Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc., both failed to seal a deal--Coca-Cola’s board got cold feet and Pepsi’s bid was rejected, reportedly for being pitched too low. Quaker is not considered desperate for a deal.

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9 Ticketmaster Units Reunite: Ticketmaster Corp. and its Web-based cousin, Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch, agreed to reunite in a $605-million stock deal. The online and offline versions of the nation’s No. 1 ticket seller were split apart more than two years ago by Barry Diller, whose USA Networks owned both companies. Ticketmaster Online then merged with CitySearch, a Pasadena company that operates city guides for the Web. After Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch buys Ticketmaster for 52 million shares of its Class B stock, USA Networks will own 68% of the combined company.

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10 More Genetically Altered Corn Found: The pest-repelling protein found in StarLink corn was discovered in another variety of corn not sold under the StarLink name, suggesting that the genetically modified corn, which is not approved for human consumption, may have spread farther than officials initially thought. Tests by Aventis CropScience of Research Triangle Park, N.C., developer of the pest-resistant corn, show that Cry9C, a natural insecticide suspected of being an allergen to humans, was found in samples of hybrid corn seed produced by Slate, Iowa-based Garst Seed Co. in 1998. Garst confirmed the findings and said the protein has not yet been found in samples taken of 1999 and 2000 seeds.

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* These and additional stories from the last week are available at https://www.latimes.com/business.

* Please see Monday’s Business section for a preview of the week’s events.