Microsoft Corp. communicated with members of Congress and their aides about its antitrust case, but did not disclose the contacts to the trial judge who requested information about the company’s lobbying in the case. Microsoft said this week it decided to disclose only contacts with executive branch officials in the required court filings, following the example of AT&T when it settled its landmark antitrust case in the 1980s. The company reported to the court that its lone contacts with federal employees included Justice Department lawyers and two federal mediators hired to assist settlement talks. Legal experts, however, questioned whether the omission of congressional contacts violated the law.
The White House revealed on Thursday that Enron Corp., an energy firm closely tied to President Bush, sought the administration’s help shortly before collapsing with the life savings of many workers. In a separate disclosure, the company’s auditors said they had destroyed many Enron documents. In the rapid swirl of events, each one raising questions about potential conflicts of interest, Attorney General John Ashcroft disqualified himself from the criminal inquiry into Enron’s conduct. The company donated thousands of dollars to Ashcroft’s Senate campaign in 2000. Bush, whose own political career has benefited from Enron contributions, pledged to aggressively pursue the investigation into whether the Texas-based firm defrauded investors by concealing vital information about its finances.
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits dropped during the first week of the new year, suggesting the huge wave of layoffs triggered by the recession and the terrorist attacks may be abating. The Labor Department reported Thursday that new claims for unemployment benefits fell by 58,000 last week to 395,000, the lowest level in three weeks. This improvement, which came after two weeks of big increases, was about four times the 14,000 decline that many private economists had been forecasting.
A surge in sales of high-profit sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks fueled by zero- and low-interest finance offers will result in higher-than-expected fourth quarter earnings for General Motors Corp., the automaker’s chief financial officer said Thursday. When GM’s fourth quarter financial statement is released Wednesday, GM vice chairman and CFO John Devine expects it will show earnings of about 60 cents a share, 10 cents more than the company’s earlier predictions. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call estimated GM would report a fourth-quarter profit of 54 cents a share and full-year earnings of $3.16 a share.
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