Kirberts finance advice and news

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles Times will slash 250 jobs, including 150 in the newsroom, and trim its published pages by 15 percent in an effort to save money in the face of declining revenues, the newspaper has said on Wednesday.

SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts - Fugitive former hedge fund manager Samuel Israel III drove a motor scooter to a Massachusetts police station on Wednesday and surrendered, ending a nationwide manhunt after he staged his own suicide to avoid a 20-year prison sentence.

RIVERSIDE, California - Mattel Inc Chief Executive Bob Eckert believed morale was at an all-time low and the stock price “wasn’t far behind” when he joined the company in mid-2000, a year before rival MGA Entertainment Inc launched the Bratz doll, he testified on Wednesday in a trial to decide which company owns the hit doll franchise.

NEW YORK - The Dow sank into a bear market on Wednesday as United States stocks fell on growing concerns about the toll that record oil prices are taking on the economy and corporate profits.

NEW YORK - With the Dow sliding into a bear market on Wednesday, the dark days on Wall Street are far from over, amid record oil prices, struggling consumers and the never-ending credit crisis.

CHICAGO - AMR Corp , parent of American Airlines, will reduce its employee headcount by about 8 percent as it cuts capacity to offset record-high fuel prices, the company has said in an internal memo on Wednesday.

DETROIT - General Motors Corp will need to lift as much as $15 billion in cash to shore up liquidity and bankruptcy is “not impossible” if the United States auto market continues to slump, Merrill Lynch has said.

NEW YORK - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc is paying more of employees’ compensation in stock this year, the company has said in a memo sent to employees on Wednesday.