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glaringly missing from the summary was mention of $15 million in fees paid by Burkle's Yucaipa Global Opportunities Fund since 2002

Speaker Mop & Glo made headlines for her call to investigate opponents of the Ground Zero mosque, but there was something else about her remarks that should have raised your hackles: “There is no question there is a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some. And I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded,” she said. “How is this being ginned up that here we are talking about Treasure Island, something we’ve been working on for decades, something of great interest to our community as we...

Just in time for the 2008 presidential race, a certified "Friend of Bill" is bidding to acquire the Tribune Company, which owns the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. As reported in this New York Times article , FOB Ronald W. Burkle and Eli Broad sumbitted their bid yesterday to Tribune management. According to his Wikipedia entry: Burkle is a well-known political contributor and longtime Democratic fundraiser. He supported the Black Panthers in the Sixties. Burkle has supported California State Treasurer Phil Angelides and employed former San Francisco Mayor Willie BrownBurkle is a close friend of former President Bill...

NEW YORK -- For months, former New York Post scribe Jared Paul Stern was at the center of unseemly accusations that he tried to shake down billionaire Ronald Burkle in exchange for good press in the newspaper's gossip pages. Now Stern has fired back in a lawsuit filed Thursday against Burkle, the Post's archrival Daily News _ even former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, whom Stern accuses of attacking him in an effort to suppress negative stories about themselves. Represented by a longtime critic of the Clintons, Stern alleges the defendants defamed and inflicted emotional distress on...

Dissident group says will continue efforts for sale or breakup of company... Tribune Co. shares gained ground Tuesday, rising as the media company that's been working to revamp operations amid shareholder unrest announced the results of a Dutch tender auction. Analysts said any gains could prove short lived, however. Chicago-based Tribune Co said that about 45 million, or 15%, of its common shares were tendered and that it expects to buy the shares at a price of $32.50 each. The number of shares tendered came in 8 million short of the maximum that the company had initially authorized in the...

As Governor Gray Davis begins his 2nd term, he faces a host of problems. One in particular that is likely to be among his greatest challenges - yet to date has received limited attention -- is reform of the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS). CalPERS is the nation's largest pension fund. In keeping with what Smart Money described as "the nation's most formidable force in shareholder activism," it has a reputation of being an international corporate governance watchdog, using its weighty economic clout to impose its will on large and small companies alike. Yet due to the Davis...