Succession

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.

CHICAGO - Mike Trout was picked off first on a stolen-base attempt and thrown out at second in the third inning Saturday night. Albert Pujols reached in the fifth when Chicago first baseman Adam Dunn dropped his popup in shallow right field, but Pujols overran first and was tagged out on Dunn's backdoor throw to pitcher Jose Quintana. This has become an all-too-common occurrence for the Angels, who are traditionally among baseball's most aggressive and successful baserunning teams but have looked lost on the bases at times in 2013.

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.

WASHINGTON - Seeking to ensure his landmark healthcare law is successfully implemented, President Obama is reprising his 2012 election strategy in hopes of enrolling millions of uninsured Americans in health plans this fall. The new campaign, whose outcome could largely shape the president's legacy, is targeting young people, Latinos and women - groups that were crucial to Obama's victory in November. It will rely on some of the same tools that the reelection campaign pioneered for voter turnout, including extensive use of social media, mobilization of volunteers and data-driven outreach.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

The financial crisis fueled anger with the world's "takers" - those people who "like to get more than they give," in author Adam Grant's pithy definition. Everyone is searching for a sustainable formula for recovery that not only curbs damaging self-interest but also promotes a meaningful alternative. Here it is. Grant's new book, "Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success," published by Viking, is perfectly timed and beautifully weighted. An organizational psychologist, Grant crushes the assumption that me-first takers always reach the top of the ladder.

So cool were the UC Irvine Anteaters, even when top-ranked and top-seeded Brigham Young had three set points and seemed poised to generate some momentum Saturday night in the NCAA men's volleyball championship match at Pauley Pavilion. Even when BYU had a 24-21 lead in the third set, the Anteaters were smiling and patting one another on the back. Maybe they knew something. By scoring the final five points of the match, UC Irvine beat the Cougars, 25-23, 25-22, 26-24, to become the first team since UCLA in 1996 to successfully defend an NCAA men's volleyball title.

Before the bulldozers arrived last June, Malibu Lagoon was a fully grown habitat for egrets, voles and tidewater gobies, studded with sycamore trees and clusters of tule reeds. Today, the lagoon's islands appear almost barren, covered by a sea of tiny red and blue plastic flags marking young plants just taking root. Depending on whom you talk to, the lagoon has been restored - or ruined. On Friday, bureaucrats, biologists and birders will descend on the state beach at the mouth of Malibu Creek for the ribbon cutting to mark what state officials are calling "the long and successful journey toward restoration.

ST. LOUIS - Can a playoff matchup be familiar but strikingly different at the same time? The Kings will start their defense of the Stanley Cup on Tuesday against the Blues, the team they swept out of the second round of the playoffs last spring. Like last season, the Blues have the better seeding and home-ice advantage at the Scottrade Center. The core of both teams is essentially the same too. The differences, though, are significant. This time, the Kings will begin with a championship to their credit and the knowledge of what it takes to win probably the most grueling postseason tournament in professional sports.

Robin Van Persie had a number in mind when he jumped from Arsenal to Manchester United last summer. And it wasn't the $70 million his new four-year contract was worth. After wearing uniform No. 9 with the Dutch national team and 10 and 11 during his nine years with Arsenal, Van Persie put some thought into his uniform choice before deciding to take his talents to Old Trafford, home of the 19-time English Premier League champions. "I took the No. 20 shirt," he said at his introductory news conference in August, "because I'm here to win a 20th title with United.

Nearly seven years ago, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa launched a program to plant 1 million trees. Since then, the city has planted more than 400,000 trees - in fact, 407,000 and counting. So is the program a success or a failure? As Villaraigosa prepares to leave office, should we be thrilled to have 400,000 trees we otherwise wouldn't have had, or should we be disappointed that his campaign promise has gone less than half fulfilled? And here's another question: Should we care?

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.

David G. Schmidt's career at Ducommun Inc. came to an abrupt end Feb. 26, when he resigned the company presidency after just 363 days in the job. The public explanation was that Schmidt left because of differences in business philosophy with his boss, Wallace W. Booth, Ducommun's autocratic chairman and chief executive. The dispute, however, was deeper and far more personal than that. The issue was who would succeed Booth as chairman--and when.

In his new biography, "Farther and Wilder: The Lost Weekends and Literary Dreams of Charles Jackson," Blake Bailey explores the tormented life of the author of "The Lost Weekend" - the once-celebrated 1944 novel that led to the Oscar-winning film - and his plunge into literary obscurity. The Portsmouth, Va.-based biographer has also written extensive books about John Cheever, winning a National Book Critics Circle Award, and of Richard Yates, for which Bailey was a finalist for the honor.

When it comes to trendsetters, Thomas Hudnut will go down in history as the high school educator who proved students could excel in academics and athletics at the same time. As the headmaster when Studio City Harvard High School merged with the Westlake School for Girls in 1989 to become Harvard-Westlake, he decided to launch an all-out effort "to be as much like Stanford as we possibly could. " Sports was used to gain exposure and inspire a whole different element of students to consider Harvard-Westlake, known for its academic excellence.