Succession

Good news for the daughter of Britain's Prince William and Catherine Middleton (if they have one): One day she can be queen. Leaders of the 16 countries that recognize the British monarch as head of state have agreed that a firstborn daughter ought to be able to ascend the throne even if she has younger brothers. The proposed change to the rule of royal succession that has prevailed for centuries will now make its way through the legal process of all the countries ruled by Queen Elizabeth II, among them Australia, Canada and a number of small island nations (Britain included)

When historians of such things seek the moment the U.S. Olympic Committee found a way to forge the agreement Thursday that put the U.S. back in the game as a potential Olympic Games host, they need look no further than Oct. 7, 2009. It was five days after Chicago had suffered a humiliating first-round loss in the International Olympic Committee vote for host of the 2016 Summer Olympics. There quickly followed calls for heads in the USOC leadership to roll. It was the day USOC Chairman Larry Probst got so angry about being called out by some of his constituents, including athletes and the heads of the national sports federations, that he vowed to show them.

Could this be an episode of "Family Feud," New York style? The contestants: Clintons, Kennedys and Cuomos, America's most famous Democratic dynasties. The prize they're sniffing around: a U.S. Senate seat, soon to be vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton. This week, Caroline Kennedy made it clear that she, like Andrew Cuomo, wants Clinton's spot after the senator ascends to secretary of State.

High-end outdoor clothier and gear maker Patagonia Inc. is out to prove that a company can generate strong sales while being nearly fanatical about environmental concerns. The Ventura company was the first major clothier to make fleece jackets out of recycled bottles. Nearly a third of the power for its headquarters and adjoining child-care center comes from solar. And it donates 1% of its sales to environmental causes. With Patagonia being a privately held company, its finances are not public, but it says it's riding a growth curve.

Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes, readying a management succession plan at Warner Bros., has asked studio Chairman and Chief Executive Barry Meyer to remain on board for an additional two years and named three top executives to a newly formed Office of the President. Under the realignment, studio President and Chief Operating Officer Alan Horn, who has been in his job 11 years, will step down in April — eight months earlier than planned — and become a consultant until Meyer retires in December 2013.

They are a desert king and a military officer-turned-president. Drive through their capitals and their images glow from billboards and painted walls, old men with their eyes fixed everywhere, even as whispers grow about who will rise to replace them. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak are in their 80s, durable U.S. allies whose governments have crushed political dissent at home while playing leading roles across the Middle East. But these days, talk of succession reverberates as Washington, as well as Riyadh and Cairo, plans to navigate an era without two of the region's dominant personalities.

A shareholder proposal to force tech giant Apple Inc. to publicly release a succession plan for ailing Chief Executive Steve Jobs has gotten the backing of Institutional Shareholder Services, a firm considered to be one of the most influential investor advisors. The shareholder proposal was submitted in August by the Central Laborers' Pension Fund, which owns Apple shares. Jobs, who co-founded the company and is considered key to its enormous success, has had a series of health problems and underwent a liver transplant in 2009.

In order to preserve more family-owned firms, Steven Rabago has launched a new division that helps multi-generational companies grapple with issues such as succession plans. Rabago, the founder of National Corporate Finance, a Newport Beach investment banking firm, opened Next Generation Leaders, which helps family-owned concerns figure out how to keep the business in the family. Succession planning is thorny, with most family-owned firms falling apart by the third generation.

Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes, who is finalizing a management succession plan at the media giant's Warner Bros. film studio, said Friday that his decision would involve the input of the studio's chairman and CEO, Barry Meyer, and its president and chief operating officer, Alan Horn. "This has been a very successful management team, and how we approach succession is a three-way decision between Barry, Alan and me," Bewkes said in a phone interview. "Under Barry and Alan's leadership, there's been a fantastic level of performance for a decade in theatrical movies, TV series and home video, so naturally their views on how we execute the business going forward for the next generation is very important.

Franklin Resources Inc., the biggest publicly traded money manager by market value, Tuesday promoted four executives to a new office of the president, paving the way for succession at the family-run firm. Among those promoted were two sons of Chairman Charles B. Johnson, 66. Chuck Johnson, 43, is president of Templeton Worldwide Inc. and Greg Johnson, 38, is president of Franklin Templeton Distributors Inc. The others were Martin Flanagan, 39, chief financial officer, and Allen J.

When it comes time to trade in your frequent-flier reward points for seats on an airplane, low-cost airlines do the best job of getting you in the air. That was the conclusion of a study released last week by IdeaWorks, a Wisconsin consultant to the airline industry. In March, IdeaWorks submitted nearly 7,000 booking requests through the frequent-flier websites of 23 airlines. Seats were requested for the airline's most popular routes in June through October. The study had a 93.5% success rate of finding available seats on low-cost airlines around the world, including U.S. carriers such as Southwest Airlines, AirTran Airways and JetBlue Airways.

Clayton Christensen achieves the difficult feat of being at once imposing and humble. When I visited him last autumn at Harvard Business School, he laid out with quiet authority his latest thoughts on disruptive technology, the concept that justly made him famous in the mid-1990s. But he also took time to chat about his son's college basketball team, a poster of which hangs on one wall of an office full of family photos and memorabilia. Although he places great value on his family and faith — he is a devout Mormon — his research and teaching have dominated his public story.

By the stats, Jordan High School in Watts is an abysmal failure: Only 3% of its students are proficient in math and only 11% in English. More than half the students drop out between ninth and 12th grades. And almost 20% of those who make it through fail the state exam they need to graduate. Even its physical plant is wretched. On last year's "Safe School Inspection," Jordan rated poor in every category, from fire safety to vermin infestation. But this year, the struggling school is the scene of a high-stakes experiment.

There's an unflashy clarity to the documentary "Bill W. " that suits its subject. William G. Wilson, the "stinking rotten drunk" who had an epiphany and co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935, was a Vermont Yankee whose life's work was predicated on humility and service. Today's celebrity rehab news cycle would likely displease him; a true believer in the value of anonymity, he turned down an honorary degree from Yale and a cover story in Time (which later placed him in the top 20 "Heroes and Icons" of the 20th century)

What's so funny about the TV networks' new fall schedules? Everything - or at least that's the hope of programmers who unveiled their new lineups to advertisers this week in New York and have gone cuckoo for comedy in a way not seen in at least 15 years. Reversing their lament from a few seasons ago that sitcoms were suffering from a creative and ratings drought, the networks are now whipping up a cloudburst of hoped-for laughs that will rain across flat screens, laptops and tablets come September.

BALTIMORE — In the midst of the greatest time of his professional life, horse trainer Doug O'Neill is being followed around by an asterisk. Reporters want to know about his Kentucky Derby-winning horse, I'll Have Another. They want to know about O'Neill himself — how he got started, who he is, what he thinks about any number of topics. They want to know about young jockey Mario Gutierrez, who should have been way too green to ride the kind of race he did at Churchill Downs. They want to know about owner J. Paul Reddam, who made his money in the loan business and who named the horse by reprising a scene at home, where he sits on the couch, eats a cookie and requests another one from his wife.

President Bush has formalized the line of succession at several key federal agencies in case a Cabinet secretary is killed or incapacitated, a housekeeping task with fresh meaning after Sept. 11. With no fanfare, Bush signed a series of executive orders in the last week that mandate a lengthy list of officials and the order in which they would take control of their Cabinet agencies. The orders don't affect the succession for the presidency, officials said.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is suspending plans to submit legislation to revise Japan's imperial succession law to allow a woman on the throne, Kyodo News agency reported. The decision followed the Imperial Household Agency's announcement this week that Princess Kiko is pregnant, Kyodo said, quoting an unidentified government source. Koizumi had been pushing to revise the male-only succession law because of the royal family's lack of male heirs.

For the last half-century, space flight has been the domain of the world's superpowers. All that is set to change as soon as Saturday when SpaceX, the private rocket company in Hawthorne, will attempt to launch a spaceship with cargo into orbit and three days later dock it with the International Space Station. If successful, the mission could mean a major shift in the way the U.S. government handles space exploration. Instead of keeping space travel a closely guarded government function, NASA has already begun hiring privately funded start-up companies for spacecraft development and is moving toward eventually outsourcing NASA space missions.

SAN ANTONIO -- Chris Paul doesn't want to add any more pressure to the Clippers' bench just because they will be facing a San Antonio Spurs bench that is one of the best in the NBA. The Clippers' bench bailed out them at Memphis in Game 7 of the first-round series. The Clippers go 10 deep off their bench, the Spurs are just as deep, playing with 10 quality players. And San Antonio has Manu Ginobili , one of the best sixth men in the game. "It's very important for our bench to play well, but at the same time, it's up to us starters to get off to a good start," Paul said.