Calif. Gov. Gray Davis makes state first to pay family workers on leave\nLos Angeles -- Gov. Gray Davis signed a law Monday that makes California the first state to offer workers paid family leave. \nThe law -- financed by an employee payroll tax -- allows workers to take six weeks off to care for a newborn, a newly adopted child or ill family member. Employees will be eligible to receive 55 percent of their wages during their absence, up to a maximum of $728 a week. \n"I don't want Californians to choose between being good parents and good employees," said Davis, a Democrat running for re-election in November. \nSupporters hope the bill will serve as a nationwide model, while business groups denounced it as too costly for employers. \nUnder the new paid-leave program workers will be allowed to start taking time off as of July 1, 2004. \nTwenty-seven other states, including Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Washington, have introduced similar legislation. \nCrude oil prices rise with more Iraq war talk\nOsaka, Japan -- Oil futures shot well above $30 per barrel on Monday because of Iraqi war fears, although analysts said the world\'s top crude producers helped set the stage for even higher prices by refusing last week to increase output in the near future. \n"I think OPEC made a mistake by not raising production this time," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. \nCrude to be delivered in November was up 87 cents at $30.71 on the New York Mercantile Exchange on concerns that President Bush could be getting closer to ordering an attack to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The New York futures price is for a premium-grade oil worth about $2 more than the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' average barrel. \nContending that there is plenty of oil on the market to meet demand, OPEC decided last week to keep production unchanged through the end of the year. \n"We are watching the market closely, but we are not concerned yet," OPEC Secretary-General Alvaro Silva Calderon said on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum in Osaka. \nBanking co. will pay\n$5 million settlement for misleading investors\nNew York -- Salomon Smith Barney agreed to pay a $5 million fine Monday to settle charges it issued misleading research reports encouraging investors to buy stock in a telecommunications company that filed for bankruptcy last year. \nThe self-policing arm of the securities industry also filed a complaint against star telecommunications analyst Jack Grubman and his assistant, Christine Gochuico, for authoring the reports. \nThe reports on Winstar by Salomon, the investment banking division of Citigroup Inc., failed to adequately disclose the risks of investing in shares of the broadband telecommunications service provider, the National Association of Securities Dealers found. \nThe reports consistently praised Winstar and belittled other analysts who were critical of the company, the NASD said in a statement. \nWal-Mart predicts sales to fall on low side of September forecast\nBentonville, Ark., -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, said Monday that sales at stores open at least a year will likely come in at the low end of its forecast for September. \nThe Bentonville, Ark., company had expected an increase of 4 to 6 percent this month. \nThe retailer, which had revenue of $220 billion last year, didn't break down the individual performance of its Wal-Mart and Sam's Club warehouse units as it often does, but said its strongest sales last week came from the West and Midwest.
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