The Desert Sun from Palm Springs, California • Page 35

ThcBesertSun Thursday, June 21, 2007 Section wta Your Generosity Improves the Lives of Coachella Valley Residents Youth Care Healthcare Family Emergency Care Tee for two today online Check out the valley's best listing of tee times thedesertsun.com 31 United Way of Hi Desert P.O. Box 1990 Palm Springs, CA 92263-1990 760.323.2731 www.unitedwayofthedesert.org business editor Kakie Urch phone 778-4650 fax 778-4654 FOR CIRCULATION ASSISTANCE PHONE 322-5555 fT I'" 1 I 1U" mmu -J 1 1 lite JUU NIL JJ lira VALLEYBUSINESS rfe far Alius, losing MWRiS Chamber has $5 Power tickets Reduced price tickets are being sold to Palm Springs Power Baseball's game Friday celebrating Indian Wells Chamber of Commerce Night. The game starts at 7:05 p.m. in Palm Springs Stadium, 1901 E. Baristo.

Tickets costing $5 can be purchased at the Indian Wells Chamber of Commerce, 45-200 Club Drive, Suite from 1 0 a.m. to 4 p.m., and at the event. Information: 360-2990. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS largest plane leasing company, the biggest customer for the 787 the first commercial jet made of light, sturdy, carbon-fiber composites instead of aluminum with 74 firm orders. ILFC originally ordered 16 A3 50s, but those are on hold following the redesign.

Udvar-Hazy, who hinted Tuesday that ILFC would order more Dreamliners in the coming months, planned to meet with Airbus co-Chief Executive Louis Gallois to discuss progress on the A350. Even Airbus' newest whose deal for 22 A350s worth $3.2 billion at list prices confirms an earlier commitment to buy the planes signed in March, has already ordered 22 Dreamliners. battle against the Dreamliner to win customers in the lucrative commercial medium-sized long-range jet market since it was forced into an expensive redesign of the aircraft by unhappy customers resulting in the extra-wide-body, or XWB, model. The changes have pushed back the first delivery date of the plane until 2013, years behind the first delivery of Boeing's 787 due in May 2008, which is now sold out for delivery until 2013. The most vocal of the critics was Stephen Udvar-Hazy, chief executive of Los Angeles-based International Lease Finance the launch customer for the A3 50 which on Tuesday signed a deal with Boeing for 50 more Dreamliners.

That deal made ILFC, the world's By Jane Wardeix AP BUSINESS WRITER LE B0URGET, France Airbus racked up more orders for its A350 XWB aircraft on Wednesday, striking back a day after U.S. rival Boeing Co. snagged the troubled jet's original launch customer for its own 787 Dreamliner. In announcements timed to make a splash at the weeklong Paris Air Show, Airbus signed up Russian airline Aeroflot in a firm deal for 22 of the revamped aircraft and received commitments from India's Kingfisher Airlines and Libya's Afriqiyah Airways to buy another 56. The deals disclosed.

Wednesday add to a big order from Qatar Airways earlier in the week for 80 of the planes, taking the total firm orders This computer image provided by Airbus Wednesday shows an A350 bearing the colors of Aeroflot for the A350 XWB so far to 127. However, despite the flurry of deals at the fair in Le Bourget, north of Paris, that is still far behind the 634 orders for Boeing's Dreamliner. Airbus has been fighting an uphill Ribbon cutting planned for Friday The Rancho Mirage Chamber of Commerce will conduct a grand opening ribbon cutting ceremony at Clubhouse Coffee on Friday. It begins at 4 p.m. Clubhouse Coffee, located in the Pavilions Shopping Center, 36-101 Bob Hope Drive, Suit.

G-2, is a specialty coffee beverage retailer that serves a gourmet selection of breakfast and lunch Panini sandwiches, Italian sodas and crisp salads. Fresh baked pastries are delivered daily from a local, award-winning bakery. Information: 328-6868. Lawyer. Conrad Black stubborn but innocent' Numbered signs on Hwy.lll can stay Emblems meant to guide tourists to the valley's key landmarks BUSINESSBRIEFS By Debra Gruszecki THE DESERT SUN The case of cross-street confusion in the Coachella Valley has been solved.

State traffic control officials affirmed that the numbered signs dotting Highway's 111 path from No. 1 in Palm Springs to No. 94 in Indio passed its two-year pilot period. It means the signs can remain affixed to city street signal poles for Closing arguments continue in fraud case against fallen media mogul By Mike Robinson THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CHICAGO Conrad Black's defense attorney made a final emotional appeal to jurors Wednesday, urging them to understand that the fallen media magnate "is a little bit of a stubborn man but an innocent man." "These last few days have been long ones for Conrad and his family," Edward M. Genson said during closing arguments for the once powerful chief executive of the Hollinger newspaper empire, now on trial for racketeering and" fraud.

Genson called on the middle-class Chicago jury to avoid any bias against Black merely because he has money. He told jurors to ignore as irrelevant Black's frequent flights of elaborate and high-flown rhetoric and instead see him as "a brilliant entrepreneur" who had "done good things for Hollinger" and was himself the victim of investors who wanted to take over the company. Hollinger, which once ran hundreds of community newspapers across the United States and Canada as well as the Chicago Sun-Times, the Toronto-based National Post, The Daily Telegraph and the Jerusalem Post, has SPENCER GREEN, 1HE ASSOCIATED PRESS Conrad Black and his wife, Barbara Amiel Black, arrive at the federal courthouse on Tuesday in Chicago. easier navigation through the valley. "It's been a 20-year journey," said La Quinta Coun-cilwoman Terry Henderson, who was a major proponent Tourists and out-of-town residents now will likely see numbers prominently displayed in brochures, pamphlets, maps and ads for hotels, restaurants, shopping venues, landmarks and attractions.

It means sign No. 2 will always be the marker for Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. Wal-Mart to sell prepaid debit cards NEW YORK Wal-Mart, furthering a lucrative push to offer financial services to its customers, will sell prepaid Visa debit cards that would allow millions of low-income shoppers who don't have bank accounts to keep up with an increasingly cashless society. Wal-Mart is following other retailers who hope to tap into a large pool of consumers who deal mostly in cash, but want the convenience of plastic. As the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart would be able to reach an enormous number of those consumers.

Three months after dropping a bid for a bank license, the world's largest retailer said Wednesday it will add hundreds of in-store centers to bundle the financial services it already offers, such as payroll check cashing and money transfers. The number of so-called MoneyCenters will rise from about 225 now to 1,000 by the, end of 2008 and should continue growing. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has more than 3,300 discount stores and supercenters in the United States. News Corp.

wants to trade for Yahoo LONDON Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is discussing swapping social networking Web site MySpace for a 25 percent stake in Yahoo The Times newspaper reported Wednesday. The Times, which is owned by News said its parent was looking for exposure in a larger Internet-based business such as Yahoo. News Corp. spent $580 million to buy MySpace in 2005.

A Yahoo spokeswoman declined to comment Wednesday. A News Corp. spokesman did not return a call Wednesday. Yahoo shares rose 3 cents to $27.66 Wednesday while News stock price fell 8 cents to $23.60. Based on Wednesday's trading, Yahoo had i market value of about $37 billion.

That indicates News Corp. believes MySpace is now worth more than $10 billion, based on a 25 percent stake in Yahoo. Yahoo has been losing out to Google whose shares have increased six-fold in value since 2004 while Yahoo's share price has dipped. Henderson: "We'll all be able to get together to say, 'OK, it's working. Now what do we want them to look turn for agreements that Hollinger would not compete with the new owners.

Most of the money went to Hollinger International but millions were paid to Black, Boultbee, Atkinson and F. David Radler, the company's No. 2 who has already pleaded guilty and was the government's star witness. Prosecutors say all of the money should have gone to Hollinger International shareholders. Black says he did not negotiate most of the noncompete deals and had no idea there was anything illegal about them if there ever was.

largely been broken up. All of the large papers except the Sun-Times have been sold and the company has changed its name to Sun-Times Media Group. Black is accused, along with former Hollinger International vice presidents John Boultbee and Peter Atkinson, and former corporate counsel Mark Kipnis, of swindling the media company out of more than $60 million. Numerous Hollinger-owned community newspapers in the U.S. and Canada were sold starting in 1 998 and large sums were paid in re No.

50 leads the way to Rancho Mirage's Library Way. And No. 89 puts drivers at the doorstep of Indio Fashion Mall. And as Patrick Ciccone of Manhattan peered at a map outside the Palm Springs Official Visitors Center on Wednesday to find mid-century modern homes to tour, he said he thought a number system is a good Please see SIGNS, E2 Race for top ratings not slowing for local stations MORRISBESCHLOSS Nary a day goes by that columnist Morris Beschloss says he is not asked about what is the latest hot stock in which to invest KESQ anchors (from left) sports director Paul Cicala, news anchors Tamara Damante and John White and weather forecaster Ginger Jeffries. He says he believes the global energy sector presents the greatest growth opportunities for the long-term pull.

I yr- 1 i i throughout the day," Allen said. "I'm particularly pleased with the ratings for the morning newscasts, which have never been better. And the Fox news at 10 p.m. has continued to be strong," Allen said. Dianne Downey, general manager of local NBC affiliate KMIR-TV, Channel 6, points to key demographic numbers, particularlv the coveted 25-to-54 age group.

"The audience in this market has once again chosen our station as their favorite at 1 1 o'clock, 6 o'clock and 5 o'clock," Downey said. "And we're gaining a lot of momentum in the morning." Some general managers contend demographics are the key measure as opposed to household ratings because people, not households, do the buying of advertisers' goods. By Michael Perrault THE DESERT SUN A hard-fought horse race pitting long-established local television stations and relative newcomers isn't "showing any sign of slowing, according to May's Nielsen ratings. General managers at ABC, CBS and NBC local affiliates point to different Nielsen rating numbers and other indicators to illustrate how their respective news teams and programming are outpacing the competition. Bob Allen, general manager of local ABC affiliate KESQ, Channel 3, points to overall household ratings and share numbers that indicate KESQ's newscast came out on top among the Coachella Valley's English-speaking television stations in most time slots.

"I'm really pleased with the latest ratings because our newscasts won in household ratings and share virtually Never have the opportunities looked so good for the energy investor and so glum for the consumer, he says. Read more on E2 PHOTO COURTESY OF KESQ CORRECTIONS station race to win over viewers at 11 p.m., Evans said. "I'm extremely happy with our (newscast) product," Evans said. "We won the Southwest Emmv for best Please see RATINGS, E5 SP, Channel 2, noted that its newscasts recently won two Emmy awards. And although KMIR edged out KPSP in the latest ratings (after previously beating out NBC), there's still a relatively close three- Counting households also gives KESQ an edge because about 17 percent of its viewers are in Yucca Valley and other areas outside the Coachella Valley.

Bill Evans, general manager of local CBS affiliate KP- We correct errors of fact promptly and courteously. If you have a correction or clarification, please call Managing Editor Rick Green at 778-4637 or rlck.greenthedesertsun.eom ui.