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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In brief: Dish to ask FCC for channel access

From Wire Reports

PHILADELPHIA – Dish Network Corp. said Friday it’s planning to file a complaint soon with federal regulators against Comcast Corp. for its refusal to provide access to a sports channel that airs games by the Philadelphia 76ers, Phillies and Flyers.

The satellite TV company asked Comcast last month to let it carry Comcast SportsNet Phildelphia on its lineup, but Comcast declined to do so in a letter sent to Dish on Monday. Comcast developed and owns the regional sports network, as well as the Sixers and Flyers.

Dish said it will complain to the Federal Communications Commission, which in January had closed a loophole that let Comcast and other owners of content block access to certain programming.

NEW YORK – A new lawsuit blames the owners of the New York Mets for letting workers put more than $16 million in 401(k) assets into accounts controlled by jailed financier Bernard Madoff.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Manhattan on Friday. It was brought by the wife of a former employee of Sterling Equities Associates, which owns the Mets.

The lawsuit claims that Sterling Equities and several of its top executives should have known that Madoff was carrying out a massive Ponzi scheme that cost thousands of investors billions of dollars.

WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s 2009 financial disclosure shows that he mostly left his money where it has been: in no-frills annuities, U.S. Treasury securities and mutual funds.

The only exception: He sold a Merrill Lynch mutual fund worth between $1,001 and $15,000.

Bernanke has been in crisis mode for the past three years, engineering vast financial bailouts and making critical decisions about how to wind down the Fed’s economic rescue programs.

Stocks had a fitting end to a choppy July as prices seesawed their way to a narrowly mixed finish. The market still had its best month in a year. The Dow rose 7.1 percent for the month, its best showing since it gained 7.8 percent in July 2009.

• The Walt Disney Co. is selling Miramax Films to a group of investors for $660 million, marking a new phase for a studio that helped launch the career of Quentin Tarantino and push independent movies into the mainstream.

• Chrysler Group LLC said Friday that it will add nearly 900 jobs at a factory in suburban Detroit and spare it from a planned closure. The decision is a show of optimism that consumers will embrace the company’s refurbished midsize sedans.

Chevron’s second-quarter earnings tripled on better refining margins and higher prices for oil and natural gas, the company said Friday. The results easily beat most Wall Street expectations.