Transfer Of Ownership

A Superior Court judge has refused to block construction of a $130-million Sheraton hotel and office complex across from the Convention Center, and ground breaking for the 500-room hotel and 24-story office tower has been scheduled for May 5. "We don't believe at this point that there will be difficulty with the project proceeding," said David Biggs, project manager for the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency.

Residents at Conejo Creek condominiums are looking to a permanent neighborhood resource center to keep crime down in the 540-unit complex. The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to turn over the current resource center, a two-bedroom condo unit that the city purchased last June for $70,000, to use as a temporary facility. Conejo Creek Homeowners Assn. plans to sell the condo within two months and use the proceeds to build a larger, permanent resource center.

The Federal Communications Commission today approved two major broadcast deals, allowing Capital Cities Communications Inc. to buy the ABC television network and publisher Rupert Murdoch to acquire a chain of independent TV stations. The commission approved the first transfer of ownership of a television network in giving the green light to the $3.5-billion ABC-Capital Cities merger. Australian-born media magnate Murdoch was permitted to buy the chain of television stations from Metromedia Inc.

In a continuing exchange of lawsuits and counter-suits, the owner of Oxnard-based KADY-TV is being sued for libel by the former owner of the station, court documents filed Tuesday show. Former owner Donald Sterling filed the libel suit in Ventura County Superior Court, alleging that a press release that KADY President John Huddy issued concerning their legal battles was purposely and maliciously false.

Boeing Co., the world's biggest aircraft builder, which earlier this week disclosed a top-to-bottom review to weed out products and programs that aren't profitable, said Thursday it plans to sell a Long Beach-based technical services unit to a management buyout team backed by BankAmerica Corp. Terms weren't disclosed. The 150-employee unit, known as McDonnell Douglas Technical Services, provides skilled contract engineers and technicians to U.S. companies, including Boeing.

A jury verdict in favor of former investors in a series of limited partnerships operated by Los Angeles apartment tycoon Alan Casden was upheld by a federal judge, but damages were reduced by $64 million to about $120 million. Casden and his associates at Casden Properties Inc. were found guilty in November of violating federal securities laws and breaching their fiduciary duties.

Employees and listeners of talk station KFI-AM (640) and adult contemporary music outlet KOST-FM (103.5) can rest easy, but not those of R&B oldies station KACE-FM (103.9). The incoming owner of KFI and KOST has "no plans at this time for changes in the stations' programming or personnel," a spokesman for Dallas-based AMFM Inc. said this week. "Those are great stations," spokesman Joseph N. Jaffoni explained.

City Council candidate and former Mayor Jack Kelly has failed to pay $23,615 owed to the previous owners of his weekly newspaper, according to a lawsuit filed Friday. In the suit, filed in West Orange Municipal Court, Jeff Brown and Allison Okada claim that Kelly agreed to purchase their majority interest in the Huntington Beach News for $20,000 last year, has been publisher since then, but has never paid.

A senior bank official told the impeachment trial of Philippine President Joseph Estrada on Tuesday that her boss ordered her to cover up Estrada's ownership of a multimillion-dollar account under a false name. The testimony by Clarissa Ocampo, senior vice president of Equitable PCI Bank, reopened the Senate's trial after a 10-day recess as prosecutors pressed their case that Estrada hid an undeclared fortune in a bank run by a friend.

As a result of an agreement between the city and a local developer, Laguna Niguel now owns a 120-acre park that includes more than 100 acres of open space for hikers, bicycle riders and equestrians. Combined with the adjacent Salt Creek Park, the city's takeover of Chapparosa Community Park provides a total of more than 400 acres of open space and parkland in the area, City Manager Tim Casey said. "We have taken ownership of the 120 acres forever," Casey said.