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NEW YORK (SI.com) -- Beginning in 1998 with injections in his buttocks of Winstrol, a powerful steroid, Barry Bonds took a wide array of performance-enhancing drugs over at least five seasons in a massive doping regimen that grew more sophisticated as the years went on, according to Game of Shadows, a book written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters at the forefront of reporting on the BALCO steroid distribution scandal. (An excerpt of Game of Shadows that details Bonds' steroid use appears exclusively in the March 13 issue of Sports Illustrated, which is available on newsstands beginning on Wednesday. The...

SACRAMENTO — Coming off a losing campaign to curb state spending, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is promoting a statewide public works program that may be financed by a bond sale so large it would dwarf previous state borrowings. The governor hopes to join with Democratic leaders and businesses to address Californians' growing frustration with clogged roadways, polluted water, hospital shortages, overcrowded schools ... Schwarzenegger is seizing an issue with wide bipartisan support in an effort to restore his image as a moderate, although his plan threatens to cause tension with some conservative allies who have long warned against more government borrowing....

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A federal judge has thrown out a $700 million punitive damages award won by the state of California in a lawsuit stemming from the takeover of failed insurer Executive Life by French investors. U.S. District Court Judge A. Howard Matz concluded Tuesday that the state's Department of Insurance was not entitled to receive the $700 million awarded by jurors in July as part of their judgment against French company Artemis SA, according to a summary of the order posted on the court's Web site. "This order addresses only the question of whether plaintiff (Insurance Commissioner) John...

The joylessness of Barry Bonds is immutable now. His return in pursuit of Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron is made of radioactive stuff. His undertaking is hard to embrace. It smacks of wrong. The fun is absent amid the clearing of throats. Bonds now lives in his imaginary bunker to ward off the slings and arrows of the BALCO scandal. He is the victim, of course. He is both the victim of BALCO and an unsympathetic national press that sees his exploits through the lens of race. His is an understandable gambit. What else does he have to play? More...

The state's giveaway sale of Executive Life and the insurer's fat portfolio of junk bonds is the gift that keeps on giving - political headaches, that is. State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, who seized the troubled insurer in 1991 and then approved its sale, desperately wants to deflect the onus for the multibillion-dollar debacle that left tens of thousands of disabled and retired annuitants twisting in the wind. But try as he might to shift the burden onto the French buyers, it appears they will at most cede only a tiny fraction of their huge profits from the transaction. A...

<p>If Michael Milken is feeling nostalgic about the good old days of hostile takeovers and leveraged buyouts, he might consider heading to Tokyo. Junk bonds are suddenly getting big in Japan.</p> <p>With Japanese stocks at their lowest levels in two decades, and the yield on 10-year government bonds well under 1 percent, investors are seeking higher -- and riskier -- returns. That's driving a sizeable increase in junk bond issuance, and the world's second-biggest economy could be better off for it.</p>

U.S. junk bond inflows jump, giving record quarter Friday April 4, 11:50 am ET By Dena Aubin (Recasts lead, adds background, details) NEW YORK, April 4 (Reuters) - Investors' love affair with U.S. junk bonds shows no sign of cooling off as returns barrel higher and the risk of default decreases, prompting a record inflow of cash for the first quarter, new data showed. Funds that invest in the bonds pulled in $1.2 billion in cash in the week ended April 2, the sixth straight week of robust inflows, according to AMG Data Services. The funds, which had pulled in...

<p>Sacramento -- Fueled by California's giant cash shortfall, a third major rating agency on Wall Street will lower the state's creditworthiness, State Treasurer Phil Angelides predicted Thursday.</p> <p>Angelides and top officials from Gov. Gray Davis' administration met with two credit agencies in New York Thursday and will meet with a third today to try to convince them that California has a realistic plan to erase its cash gap.</p>

How did executives obtain such drastically increased compensation over the last 10 years? Why did boards allow it? The answer lies in regulatory and court decisions that have impeded hostile takeovers over the last 12 years. These decisions took away one layer -- a most important one -- from the checks and balances controlling boards' and CEOs' behaviour. The elimination of this layer and its unintended consequences were, in themselves, unintended effects of events in previous years, especially some taking place between 1982 and 1992. Following the Williams Act passed by U.S. Congress in 1968, American states passed so-called "first...

<p>AOL has been through the wringer since announcing its marriage to Time Warner in January 2000. Now its bonds are trading at junk levels.</p> <p>July 9, 2002 -- With its stock already under siege, AOL Time Warner's bonds have sunk to new lows, suddenly trading as though they were junk.</p>

Filed at 3:09 p.m. ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Corp. (T.N) on Wednesday saw its credit ratings, affecting $25 billion of debt, cut to two notches above ``junk'' status by Moody's Investors Service, which said the company faces ``weakened revenue prospects'' and rising competition in its core business. The cut triggers a rise in interest costs for the New York-based long-distance phone company, the nation's largest. AT&T became the latest big telecom in May to suffer a credit rating downgrade. Its largest rival, WorldCom Inc. (WCOM.O), was cut to junk status by all leading U.S. rating agencies, while Qwest...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Adelphia Communications Corp.ADLAE.O said on Friday that it is being investigated by grand juries in two states and it missed $44.7 million of debt and dividend payments, signs that a bankruptcy filing is imminent and amid a possible Nasdaq delisting. "Their actions and disclosure are indicative of a company that plans to file for bankruptcy," said Harold Rivkin, president of H. Rivkin & Co. in Princeton, New Jersey, a distressed debt brokerage that trades Adelphia bonds. "Today's announcement confirms everyone's worst fears. It looks like the whole thing is unraveling." The No. 6 U.S. cable TV...