AG Announces Charges Against Eight Involved in Turnpike Contract Scheme

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane has announced charges against a former state Senate leader, the former commissioner of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and six others in what Kane called a 'pay to play' scheme where vendors were given turnpike work in exchange for political contributions.

AG Announces Charges Against Eight Involved in Turnpike Contract Scheme

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane has announced charges against a former state Senate leader, the former commissioner of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and six others in what Kane called a "pay to play" scheme where vendors were given turnpike work in exchange for political contributions.

AG Announces Charges Against Eight Involved in Turnpike Contract Scheme

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane has announced charges against a former state Senate leader, the former commissioner of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and six others in what Kane called a "pay to play" scheme where vendors were given turnpike work in exchange for political contributions.

Times Announces Changes in Washington

The New York Times on Wednesday announced a reorganization of its Washington bureau, including the elevation of Carolyn Ryan to bureau chief and the start of two new ventures.

In a memo to the staff, Jill Abramson, the executive editor, said that Ms. Ryan, currently the top political editor, would succeed David Leonhardt, who will head up one of the new initiatives, in a role that combines data with analytical reporting.

Ms. Ryan, 48, was named to her most recent post in May after serving as metro editor since January 2011. Before that she was the metro desk’s political editor and helped oversee the coverage of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s involvement with a high-end prostitution ring; that coverage won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for breaking news reporting. She joined The Times in 2007 from The Boston Globe, where she was deputy managing editor for local news.

In her new role as bureau chief, Ms. Ryan will continue to oversee a team of reporters in New York, along with the Washington bureau.

Mr. Leonhardt, 40, will become managing editor of a new venture that Ms. Abramson said would “be at the nexus of data and news” across a range of subjects, including economics, politics, policy, education and sports. Mr. Leonhardt’s new team is expected to include “reporters, graphics editors, economists, historians and political scientists.”

Before becoming Washington bureau chief in September 2011, Mr. Leonhardt wrote the Economic Scene column for The Times and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2011. Mr. Leonhardt joined The Times in 1999 after working at BusinessWeek and The Washington Post.

The Times is also introducing an early-morning news tip sheet, a digital product about the day’s happenings in Washington that will be supervised by Carl Hulse, currently a deputy in the Washington bureau. The tip sheet is expected to resemble the New York Today report, which provides a roundup of news and events in the New York metropolitan area.

According to the memo, the Washington report will “harvest the best tweets of bureau reporters and aggregate other elements from the Washington news report.” Mr. Hulse will also continue to write for The Times as chief Washington correspondent.

Mr. Hulse, 59, was previously the chief congressional correspondent for The Times. Mr. Hulse joined The Times in 1986 after working for The Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

According to the memo, “existing and new staff” will work on both new ventures. The new positions will be effective on Dec. 15.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 20, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated the name of the column David Leonhardt wrote before becoming the Washington bureau chief. It is the Economic Scene column, not Economic Sense.

NBC Announces Mini-Series on Hillary Clinton

LOS ANGELES — Well in advance of the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Rodham Clinton is a big story.

NBC announced here on Saturday that it was preparing a four-hour mini-series based on the life of Mrs. Clinton and hoped to broadcast it before any possible formal declaration that she was running. That would avoid the possibility of other candidates demanding equal time, said Robert Greenblatt, NBC’s top entertainment executive.

Mr. Greenblatt said NBC bought the project even though it had no script yet, though the deal came with a star attached: Diane Lane, who was nominated for an Academy Award in 2003 for her leading role in the film “Unfaithful.” The Clinton project will be written and directed by Courtney Hunt, who was nominated for an Oscar for writing the film “Frozen River.”

NBC’s release described the project as a mini-series that would “recount Clinton’s life as a wife, politician and cabinet member from 1998 to present.” That would include her run for the presidential nomination in 2008.

The NBC release also said, “The script will begin with Clinton living in the White House as her husband is serving the second of his two terms as president. In the years following, she would eventually become a United States senator, run for president and, ultimately, serve the country as secretary of state.”

Mr. Greenblatt said the project would most likely include aspects that were both critical of Mrs. Clinton and supportive of her.

Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, said the former secretary of state was unaware of the miniseries. He declined comment otherwise.

“We literally just closed the deal,” Mr. Greenblatt, the NBC executive, said. But he said he did not expect her to comment on the project. “I don’t think she will endorse it,” he said.

Michael D. Shear contributed reporting from Washington.

DealBook: Morgan Stanley Announces a Buyback, and Its Shares Rise

Mark Lennihan/Associated PressMorgan Stanley’s headquarters in New York. The firm posted a 42 percent rise in profit and said it would buy back part of its stock.

Morgan Stanley shares rose more than 4 percent on Thursday after the firm announced it planned to buy back a chunk of its own stock.

News that the firm had received approval from the Federal Reserve to repurchase $500 million worth of its stock was good for shareholders, whose stake in the company has been diluted in recent years as the firm issued millions of shares to pay employees. This dilution has weighed on the stock, and it was trading in the teens earlier this year.

The stock rose about 4.4 percent, or $1.16, to close at $27.70, a level it has not hit since 2011. It is the first buyback Morgan Stanley has undertaken since the financial crisis and comes after the firm’s decision to buy the remaining stake of its wealth management business, a move James P. Gorman, the firm’s chairman and chief executive, has heralded as “transformational.”

Morgan Stanley received approval from regulators in June to buy the rest of its wealth management division, a joint venture it formed with Citigroup during the crisis. Since then, the firm has been working to diversify its earnings, moving away from riskier businesses like trading and into wealth management, which offers steady, albeit lower returns. Its ability to purchase all of that division gave it full control of the operation and the full share of the profits.

Mr. Gorman told analysts that the firm was careful to have the wealth management purchase in order — and paid for — before it started spending money on stock buybacks.

The other good news for shareholders was the firm’s second-quarter earnings, which came in slightly ahead of analysts’ expectations.

The firm reported that second-quarter profit applicable to Morgan Stanley’s common shareholders rose 42 percent, to $802 million, or 41 cents a share, compared with $564 million, or 29 cents a share, in the period a year earlier. Overall net income was $980 million, compared with $591 million in the period a year earlier.

The results, however, were affected by two big charges, one related to Morgan Stanley’s credit spreads and the other to its recent purchase of the remaining stake of the wealth management business. Stripping out those charges, the firm had a profit of $872 million, or 45 cents a share. That beat the estimates of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, which had projected a profit of 43 cents a share.

Morgan Stanley’s revenue, excluding those charges, rose to $8.3 billion in the second quarter from $6.6 billion in the period a year earlier.

The results were driven by decent performances in most of its business units, notably wealth management and equity and debt trading. Morgan Stanley is coming off what was a weak second quarter of 2012 and is also enjoying what seems to be a better operating environment for all banks.

Morgan Stanley is the last big financial institution to report second-quarter earnings, and results have been generally strong as lenders seem to be benefiting from a pickup in the American economy. Goldman Sachs, for instance, reported that its net income doubled, beating analysts’ expectations handily.

At Morgan Stanley, wealth management, which is led by Gregory J. Fleming, was a big focus for analysts on the quarterly conference call.

That unit, with 16,321 financial advisers, posted net revenue of $3.5 billion, up more than 10 percent. Its pretax profit margin, a widely watched figure on Wall Street, came in at 18.5 percent. That margin, which previously had been around 17 percent, was higher than the firm’s expectations.

Institutional securities, which houses Morgan Stanley’s banking and trading operations, posted net revenue, excluding the debt charge, of about $4.2 billion, up about 40 percent from a year earlier.

The firm experienced a solid increase in revenue from various segments in this department, including debt and equity underwriting, investment banking, and currency and commodities trading.

The fixed-income sales and trading unit reported that adjusted revenue rose to $1.2 billion from $771 million in the period a year earlier. This year’s performance was slightly below what analysts were hoping for.

In the second quarter, there was a sudden and sharp rise in interest rates after the Federal Reserve indicated it might wind down its bond purchase program, which has helped the economy recover from the financial crisis.

Ruth Porat, the bank’s chief financial officer, told analysts that the firm reduced the risk it was taking trading interest rate products.

While the bank’s second-quarter results were a marked improvement over those in the period a year earlier, the firm is still producing a return on equity, excluding the two charges, of just 5.6 percent. This is up from 2.1 percent in the period a year earlier but still well below what it costs the bank to simply cover its debt expenses and other capital costs. To do that, it needs to achieve a return on equity, an important measure of profitability, of closer to 10 percent.

Warner Brothers Announces New Studio Leadership

LOS ANGELES — Warner Brothers on Monday announced a new leadership team at the studio, while sending employees an e-mail that said Jeff Robinov, who has been president of the motion picture group, “will no longer serve” in that position.

The company’s public announcement said responsibility for the movie group will be divided among Sue Kroll, who will be president of worldwide marketing and international distribution; Greg Silverman, who will be president of creative development and Worldwide Production; and Toby Emmerich, who will continue as president and chief operating officer of New Line Cinema, while adding responsibility for the Warner theater operations.

The new lineup will report directly to Kevin Tsuijihara, who is chief executive of the studio, which also includes an extensive television and home entertainment operation.

The company’s internal e-mail stopped short of saying that Mr. Robinov would leave the company; his departure has been widely expected since Mr. Tsujihara won the chief executive’s post after an internal competition. But associates of Mr. Robinov said last week that he might surface at another Hollywood studio, if he managed to exit contractual arrangements that tie him to Warner.

The shake-up follows the exit of Bruce Rosenblum as the president of Warner’s television group, and leaves Mr. Tsujihara, who took the chief executive’s post in March, replacing Barry Meyer, with a field that is cleared of his former competitors for the top job. He also has a management structure that is spread, in both movies and television, among lieutenants who had been overseeing operations under Mr. Robinov and Mr. Rosenblum.

AG Announces Charges Against Eight Involved in Turnpike Contract Scheme

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane has announced charges against a former state Senate leader, the former commissioner of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and six others in what Kane called a "pay to play" scheme where vendors were given turnpike work in exchange for political contributions.

Genachowski Announces Resignation as F.C.C. Chairman

The resignation on Friday of Julius Genachowski after four years as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission again raises a thorny issue for President Obama: whether it will be possible to get the F.C.C. or Congress to help him fulfill a campaign promise to guarantee that the Internet remains free and open to businesses and users.

Mr. Genachowski, who said on Friday that he would leave the commission “in the near future,” pushed it in the direction of embracing rules against discrimination by Internet service providers in what content they carry or how fast they transmit it, an issue known as net neutrality.

But he has faced opposition on that front from the federal courts and some telecommunications companies, while consumer advocates have complained that Mr. Genachowski was not bold enough in his efforts.

A law school friend of Mr. Obama and an investor in technology and telecommunication start-ups before coming to the F.C.C., Mr. Genachowski set ambitious goals during his tenure and accomplished some of them, including expanding broadband Internet service and beginning to free up additional airwaves for sale to mobile phone companies.

He also successfully opposed the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile, a move that he said “revitalized competition” and “led to more spectrum and more capital” for the wireless industry. But his commission also approved the purchase of NBC Universal by Comcast, angering many consumer groups.

Mr. Genachowski announced no immediate plans, although people close to him said it was more likely he would move to a Washington research institute rather than to a telecommunications company or an industry trade group.

Thanking Mr. Genachowski for his service, Mr. Obama said he “has brought to the Federal Communications Commission a clear focus on spurring innovation, helping our businesses compete in a global economy and helping our country attract the industries and jobs of tomorrow.”

“Because of his leadership,” Mr. Obama added, “we have expanded high-speed Internet access, fueled growth in the mobile sector, and continued to protect the open Internet as a platform for entrepreneurship and free speech.”

No one has emerged as a favorite for the chairmanship, although people in the industry have been talking about Tom Wheeler, a venture capitalist and former head of the wireless and cable industry trade groups, as a possible successor. Other possibilities include two previous Obama appointees: Karen Kornbluh, a former Senate aide to Mr. Obama who is now ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and Lawrence E. Strickling, an assistant Commerce Department secretary who oversees the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

The F.C.C. has never had a female at its head; that has led some people to expect that Mr. Obama will name Mignon Clyburn, the Democratic commissioner with the most seniority, as interim chairwoman. A White House spokeswoman declined to comment on a possible successor.

Mr. Genachowski oversaw the commission during a period of rapid change in technology, characterized by the explosion of smartphones and an increase in the speed of wireless and broadband Internet connections.

He also leaves a number of his highest priorities unfinished, if well under way, at the F.C.C. The agency is in the process of drawing up an ambitious plan to make additional high-value airwaves, or spectrum, available for sale to mobile phone companies for use in wireless broadband Internet service.

The plan hinges on the F.C.C.’s ability to get television broadcasters to voluntarily give up some of their airwaves in exchange for receiving some portion of the sale proceeds, a process known as an incentive auction.

Most broadcasters have strongly resisted that plan and an associated proposal to move stations that do not give up their airways to other frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum. That process, known as repacking, would also vacate bands of airwaves by allowing television broadcast signals to be packed closer together.

The F.C.C. is currently reviewing public and industry comments on its plans for the incentive auction, which it hopes to conduct in 2014. Finalization of those plans will almost certainly await a new chairman, however.

The Internet has thrived over the last four years; technology and telecommunications is one sector of the economy that the recession that began in 2007 left unscathed.

Obama Announces 3 Cabinet Nominations

Mr. Obama introduced Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the president of the Walmart Foundation in Arkansas and a familiar figure in the Democratic administration from her service in the Clinton administration, to be the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Ernest J. Moniz, the director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Energy Initiative, is the president’s choice to take over for Steven Chu at the Energy Department. And Gina McCarthy, the assistant administrator in charge of air and radiation at the Environmental Protection Agency, is the pick to replace the departing administrator, Lisa P. Jackson. All three positions are subject to Senate confirmation.

Ms. McCarthy most likely faces the greatest scrutiny given Republicans’ opposition to Mr. Obama’s environmental and climate policies.

“I hope the Senate will confirm them as soon as possible,” Mr. Obama said as he introduced the three nominees and thanked the current holders of the cabinet posts in the East Room, which was packed with family, friends and administration staff members.

Mr. Obama described Dr. Moniz as “another brilliant scientist” to succeed Dr. Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, at the Energy Department. And for the E.P.A., the president said Ms. McCarthy was well suited with her experience as a state environmental official in both Massachusetts — for former Gov. Mitt Romney — and Connecticut. She has “a reputation as a straight-shooter” who “welcomes different points of view,” he added.

Together, Ms. McCarthy and Dr. Moniz are “going to be making sure that we’re investing in American energy, that we’re doing everything that we can to combat the threat of climate change, that we’re going to be creating jobs and economic opportunity in the first place,” Mr. Obama said, implicitly addressing the criticism, especially from Republicans, that environmental policies inhibit the economy.

The applause that greeted Ms. Burwell as the budget nominee reflected how familiar she remains, having served President Bill Clinton at the budget office, where she was the deputy director, as well as at the Treasury Department and in the White House. In that time, she worked closely with Jacob J. Lew, now Mr. Obama’s Treasury secretary, who recommended Ms. Burwell for the budget director’s job, which he held for both Mr. Clinton and Mr. Obama. Since then, Ms. Burwell has lived far from Washington, first in Washington State during her time leading global development programs for the Gates Foundation and then in Bentonville, Ark., Walmart’s headquarters.

Mr. Obama used his announcement of Ms. Burwell’s nomination to once more address the across-the-board cuts to military and domestic spending, known as sequestration, that took effect on Friday, after he and Congressional Republicans failed to agree on a more deliberate set of deficit reduction actions.

She and the acting budget director, Jeffrey D. Zients, “will do everything in their power to blunt the impact of these cuts on businesses and middle-class families,” the president said. “But eventually a lot of people are going to feel some pain. That’s why we’ve got to keep on working to reduce our deficit in a balanced way.”

Mr. Obama also hinted that he would find another post in his administration for Mr. Zients, a former business executive, who is well respected within the White House. He has been mentioned as a possible nominee to be Mr. Obama’s trade representative or commerce secretary — two of the last cabinet posts that Mr. Obama must fill to complete his second-term team.

“I expect he will continue to serve us well in the future,” Mr. Obama said.

Matthew L. Wald contributed reporting.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: March 4, 2013

An earlier version of this article misspelled in some references the surname of the president’s pick to lead the Energy Department. He is Ernest J. Moniz, not Muniz.

CFPB Announces New Restrictions on Mortgage Servicers

In a rule made final January 17, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau established new protections for homeowners facing foreclosure, imposing sweeping new restrictions on the conduct of mortgage servicers.

ENI Announces Major Gas Find Off Mozambique

Four of the five largest oil and gas discoveries in the world this year have been made off Mozambique, including three earlier finds by Eni, according to the consultants Wood Mackenzie in Edinburgh. These discoveries have the potential to put Mozambique, which previously had little oil and gas production, in the gas-exporting big leagues with countries like Qatar and Australia.

Although Eni is ranked only about eighth among Western oil companies in terms of output, with about 1.7 million barrels a day — about half the size of BP or Royal Dutch Shell — the company is a big natural gas player in Europe. And Eni is emerging as a leader in Mozambique exploration.

The newest finds, from the sixth and seventh wells that Eni has drilled there, add an additional six trillion cubic feet of gas to what the Italian company has already found. That is a large amount of gas but relatively incremental. It raises the total to 68 trillion cubic feet that Eni now says it has found in its Mozambique exploration concession, called Area 4, where Eni has a 70 percent shareholding.

Three other shareholders — Galp Energia of Portugal, Kogas of South Korea and ENH, Mozambique’s national oil company — each hold 10 percent.

The total amount discovered is equivalent to about 12 billion barrels of oil. A high proportion of the gas is likely to be recoverable, Eni said.

According to Eni’s estimates, its share of the Mozambique discoveries so far could be worth around $15 billion.

The Eni finds coincide with an effort by the company’s chief executive, Paolo Scaroni, to focus more on exploration and production, and less on transmission of natural gas in Italy. When you make a business of exploration and are successful, he said, “you make a huge amount of money.”

Eni first found gas in Mozambique last year, closely following a discovery by Anadarko Petroleum of the United States, which right now is Eni’s main competitor in the region.

The two companies are now negotiating with the government on a development plan.

The most profitable market for the Mozambique gas is likely to be exports to Asia as super-cooled liquefied natural gas, or L.N.G., on special ships. The Web site of the Instituto Nacional de Petróleo, the country’s energy regulator, has a presentation that indicates that as many as 10 L.N.G. conversion plants could be built, which would make Mozambique a significant player in the world gas market.

Mr. Scaroni said there could also be a role for an offshore floating L.N.G. conversion plant, a technology that Royal Dutch Shell is now developing for use off western Australia. Shell recently tried to buy Cove Energy, which had a small position in the Mozambique discoveries, but was outbid by Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production.

Eni is not currently a major player in L.N.G. and may need help with the huge capital costs for developing the gas, which Mr. Scaroni put in the “tens of billions” of dollars.

Because Anadarko is not an L.N.G. specialist, either, it is widely thought in the industry that both companies will bring in partners.

Mr. Scaroni said he had been talking to potential partners “but we are fairly reluctant to strike a deal with anybody until we finish our exploration.”

A recent report by Bernstein Research says that Mozambique will be “Eni’s most significant project, although we do not expect production until 2019 at the earliest.”

The gas discoveries off Mozambique are contained in sandstone deposits in what were ancient river canyons, similar to those off West Africa and elsewhere.

What makes the Mozambique discoveries particularly rich is that the sandstone layers containing the gas are thick — as much as 300 meters, or nearly 1,000 feet — indicating sizable reserves.

“Mozambique is a very positive exploration story,” Mansur Mohammed, a Wood Mackenzie analyst, said. “We are talking about an unprecedented high exploration success rate that transformed the outlook for the region.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: December 5, 2012

An earlier version of this article misspelled the first name of ENI’s chief executive. He is Paolo Scaroni, not Paulo.

Eversheds Announces Beijing Plans

By Jessica SeahAll Articles

The Asian Lawyer

September 19, 2012

Beijing
Source: Getty Images

Eversheds has announced plans to open a Beijing office in December.

The London-based firm's new office will focus on inbound and outbound foreign investment.

Eversheds says it is currently seeking to recruit "senior members" to lead its Beijing office. In the meantime, the office will be headed by Asia managing partner Nick Seddon, who will divide his time between Beijing and his current base in Hong Kong.

The firm, which has 2,500 lawyers worldwide, opened its first Asia office in Shanghai in 2006. It established presences in both Hong Kong and Singapore three years later.

Eversheds currently has 38 lawyers in Hong Kong, 12 in Shanghai, and 11 in Singapore.

Eversheds Announces Beijing Plans

By Jessica SeahAll Articles

The Asian Lawyer

September 19, 2012

Beijing
Source: Getty Images

Eversheds has announced plans to open a Beijing office in December.

The London-based firm's new office will focus on inbound and outbound foreign investment.

Eversheds says it is currently seeking to recruit "senior members" to lead its Beijing office. In the meantime, the office will be headed by Asia managing partner Nick Seddon, who will divide his time between Beijing and his current base in Hong Kong.

The firm, which has 2,500 lawyers worldwide, opened its first Asia office in Shanghai in 2006. It established presences in both Hong Kong and Singapore three years later.

Eversheds currently has 38 lawyers in Hong Kong, 12 in Shanghai, and 11 in Singapore.