Sponsors

J. Paul Reddam might not be the type of businessman for whom people suffering through the recession can bring themselves to root. Reddam, 56, is president of Anaheim-based CashCall, the mortgage refinancing and high-interest personal loan company who critics say has unfairly capitalized upon people's financial woes during the country's economic and employment crisis. But the Sunset Beach resident is also owner of Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another, who could provide horse racing with a huge shot in the arm Saturday with a victory in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico.

WASHINGTON - More than 2,000 people have been freed from prison since 1989 after they were found to have been wrongly convicted of serious crimes, according to a new National Registry of Exonerations compiled by University of Michigan Law School and Northwestern University. Its sponsors say it is by far the largest database of such cases, and they hope it will help reveal why the criminal justice system sometimes misfires, prosecuting and convicting the innocent. "The more we learn about false convictions, the better we'll be at preventing them," said Samuel Gross, a University of Michigan law professor.

Watching Alzheimer's disease steal away the memory, talents and very selves of its victims is hard enough for the people who love them. Now, a new pill formulated by a respected pharmaceutical company and approved by the Food and Drug Administration will do little to help most patients and will bring misery to some, say two medical investigators. The drug, Aricept 23 mg, is no more effective on the whole than the disappointing ones already on the market - but is more likely to cause gastrointestinal problems, wrote Drs. Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz of Dartmouth Medical College in an article published Thursday in the medical journal BMJ. The new formulation was devised to serve commercial objectives, they say, and was approved despite a poor showing in company-sponsored tests.

SACRAMENTO - As state leaders sweat over another possible round of cuts from schools and social services, casino operators are offering officials a cut of the action if they will legalize Internet poker in California. After two years of hearings and study, the proponents - who are also generous political contributors - say the stars may finally be aligning for them. The California Senate leader this year is co-sponsoring legislation that he hopes will put hundreds of millions of dollars into the state treasury.

As Tiger Woods uses silence to deal with the uproar over his alleged infidelities, his sponsors apparently are following suit, quietly not running his ads until the worst is over. Rick Burton, one-time brand manager for Miller beer and former chief marketing officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee, doesn't think this means Tiger is no longer a bulletproof brand. "If a sponsor cuts him loose, that makes it look like the relationship was tenuous to begin with," Burton said Wednesday.

Los Angeles-based entertainment titan AEG has found a sponsor for its new $280-million arena in Shanghai -- Mercedes-Benz. The German auto manufacturer is expected to announce today that it would lend its name to the basketball and entertainment venue under construction on the Huangpu River in one of China's most cosmopolitan cities. The facility is being developed by AEG, the National Basketball Assn. and Oriental Pearl Group, a division of Shanghai Media Entertainment Group.

Tag Heuer, the Swiss luxury watchmaker, still had this block of text on its website Friday night explaining why the company has been associated with Tiger Woods: "His personal obsession with results and perfection, his ability to withstand pressure, to meet expectations and exceed them, but also his love of discipline -- all this makes him a natural partner for the brand." Not anymore. Tag Heuer on Friday joined a growing list of sponsors that are scaling back or dropping their use of the embattled golf superstar, who last week acknowledged infidelity and began an indefinite hiatus from the sport.

Manufacturers Hanover Corp., the nation's sixth-largest bank holding company, seeks its money's worth when it sponsors footraces. Each of the 5,000 companies that sponsor a team in one of the bank's 18 Corporate Challenge races each year is classified as a current customer or a prospective customer, and the prospects are sorted into several grades.

There will be an Acura Classic next year . . . in Carlsbad, not Manhattan Beach. The car manufacturer signed a four-year deal as the title sponsor of the women's tennis event held at the La Costa Resort & Spa, it was announced Monday. This development ends Acura's role of title sponsor of the women's tournament at the Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan Beach. IMG, which has put on the Manhattan Beach event for three years, is searching for a new title sponsor.

Magic Johnson vs. Michael Jordan won't be the only dream matchup in the National Basketball Assn. championship series. How about Pepsi vs. Coke? Kentucky Fried Chicken vs. McDonald's? Nike vs. Converse? Each of these has a marketing deal with either Johnson, the Los Angeles Lakers' superstar, or the Chicago Bulls' Jordan, and they hope to share the glory that their commercial spokesmen figure to net.

The Los Angeles Times won Newspaper of the Year for 2011 among the state's largest daily newspapers and a total of 20 journalism awards as part of the annual Better Newspaper Contest, officials announced Saturday. The Times won first-place awards among newspapers with a circulation of 150,000 or more in the following categories: local government coverage, investigative reporting, sports, and arts and entertainment. The paper also received second prize for design and general excellence in the contest sponsored by the California Newspaper Publishers Assn., a nonprofit trade group.

In the end, the Oscars just couldn't leave Hollywood. After entertaining multiple offers to relocate the event, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Tuesday that it would keep the Academy Awards at the theater at Hollywood & Highland, negotiating a new 20-year deal with the CIM Group, which owns the complex. CIM also announced that Dolby Laboratories had signed on as the new name sponsor for the complex's 3,400-seat theater, taking over from Kodak, which had filed for bankruptcy.

Laurie Tragen-Boykoff rocks on her feet, holding on to a large sign, her hands trembling. The international arrivals ramp at LAX is empty, but that only fuels her anticipation. She's waited 25 years for this. On the sign is a blown-up black-and-white photograph of a somber-faced boy. His name is Nicky Mutoka. Below, in large black letters, the Agoura Hills social worker has written: "NICKY!!! I'M LAURIE. " She lifts the sign, her face disappearing behind it. But she is smiling. In 1987, she began what she saw as a most unlikely pen pal correspondence.

Leaders of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence pledged Tuesday to amend their cybersecurity bill, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act , to address the main concerns raised by civil libertarians and privacy advocates. The revisions are clear improvements, and they show that the committee is trying hard to limit the measure's scope. Nevertheless, the bill still has a fundamental problem : By encouraging network operators to share information with the government about what their customers do online, it threatens to turn ISPs and online service providers into snoops.

In one of the more bizarre instances of auto advertising, a YouTube video that shows an elderly Florida woman crashing her 2004 Toyota Camry through a Publix supermarket, injuring 10 people, is sponsored by Toyota. The video of Saturday's incident was posted earlier this week by Russia Today.  As the Camry shatters the glass door and plows into a baby carriage and shoppers, an advertisement pops up saying, “The following presentation is brought to you by: Toyota moving forward”  with the distinctive Toyota logo inserted into the advertisement.

You're never too old to study abroad, at least not on this summer tour of Bali with a side trip to wildlife viewing in Borneo offered by Glendale Community College . Students of any age enroll in cultural geography and physical anthropology courses to go on the trip. Bali's culture, religion, dance and traditional ceremonies will be the focus of 15 nights in Ubud amid tours and classes led by anthropology and geography professors. Participants also spend two days teaching English to elementary school students as part of the curricula.

Snowboarders are about Smashmouth, baggy pinstripes and the made-for-television mayhem of snowboard cross. Figure skaters are Russian folk songs, sparkling sequins and choreography that leaves little to chance. That cultural divide also has been evident in sponsorship deals brokered by the two camps. Figure skaters glide toward middle-of-the-road brands, including Smuckers, Campbell's and State Farm. Board riders tilt toward Volcom clothing, Burton snowboards and Sony PlayStation.

Watching Alzheimer's disease steal away the memory, talents and very selves of its victims is hard enough for the people who love them. Now, a new pill formulated by a respected pharmaceutical company and approved by the Food and Drug Administration will do little to help most patients and will bring misery to some, say two medical investigators. The drug, Aricept 23 mg, is no more effective on the whole than the disappointing ones already on the market - but is more likely to cause gastrointestinal problems, wrote Drs. Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz of Dartmouth Medical College in an article published Thursday in the medical journal BMJ. The new formulation was devised to serve commercial objectives, they say, and was approved despite a poor showing in company-sponsored tests.

Rush Limbaugh is probably not sweating this one, folks. The critics keep piling on. But the immensely popular talk radio host has the biggest "sponsor" of all on his side: Clear Channel radio network.  Arizona Sen. John McCain, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, and New York's Cardinal Timothy Dolan are among the latest to criticize Limbaugh for calling a Georgetown University student a "slut" and a "prostitute" after she...