• Yesterday’s police raid and seizure of “boxes and bags of evidence” made for a very bad 420 for three weed shops on Venice Boardwalk operated by Kush Dr., LLC. [KTLA]
• Two acclaimed journalists, Oscar-nominated Restrepo director Tim Hetherington and Pulitzer Prize-nominated photographer Chris Hondros, killed in Libya in fight [HuffPo]
• With Steve Soboroff vouching for him, Frank McCourt clings to the Dodgers despite MLB Commissioner Bud Selig’s announcement to appoint a trustee. [LATimes]
• Theodora Richards, daughter of the legendary Keith, gets a prettyyy prettyyyyy prettyyyy sweet deal in court for possession of weed and hydrocodone charges. [TMZ]
• Good morning, everyone. Simon van Kempen of “Real Housewives of NYC” has just dropped a single. Enjoy your day. [PE]

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James Woolery, a partner at Cravath, has been named co-head of North American mergers and acquisitions, alongside Chris Ventresca. [Bloomberg]

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There are a couple of downcast reports today on what appears to be continued weakness in fourth quarter PC shipments, weakness that could hurt Intel (INTC).
First, Chris Danely with JP Morgan, who maintains a Neutral rating on Intel shares, writes that his colleague in Asia, Alvin Kwock, has observed lower-than-expected [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore today raised his price target on Apple (AAPL) to $410 from a prior $375, on higher revenue and EPS estimates, writing that his “checks” at over 50 Apple retails stores during the holidays, as well as stores of partners, such as AT&T (T), indicated long [...]

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“I’m 44 years old, my plan is to be a billionaire by 50, which these days, that’s very doable,” the actor, recovery drug addict and born again Christian who told Daily Intel’s Chris Rovzar. “And once I achieve that goal, my plan would be to be the George Soros for Jesus.”

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Nokia (NOK) continues to clean house.
Reuters’s Chris Borowski and Tarmo Virki this morning report the company will cut 800 jobs in Finland, out of a previously announced 1,800 worldwide, though the company is still hoping to find jobs for some of those employees in other parts of the company.

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

Piper Jaffray’s Chris Larsen this morning offered his bull case on AT&T (T) shares, writing that he expects a dividend hike and a share repurchase this month, on the order of 300 million to 400 million in shares.
AT&T’s wireless business is doing just fine, in Larsen’s view, and is “set [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore this morning raised his rating on EMC (EMC) to Buy from Hold, with a new target of $25, up from $20.
“We completed a series of checks which suggests storage demand remains solid and a top spending priority as datacenter upgrades continue,” he writes in a [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

After months of speculation, Oracle (ORCL) founder and CEO Larry Ellison appears close to buying the Golden State Warriors basketball team from current owner Chris Cohan, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The story is sourced to “sources close to the negotiations.”
The Chron says sources “vary greatly” on what Ellison [...]

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A lot of people on Wall Street have expressed issues with the Chris Dodd’s little proposed bank-reform bill. That’s fine, and House Minority Leader John Boehner doesn’t begrudge them their concerns. He doesn’t much like the thing either, and everyone should fight it tooth and nail. But if he may, Boehner would like to offer some advice for any bankers trying to get their way. Stop being such pussies. Don’t take shit, prisoners or no for an answer.

“Don’t let those little punk staffers take advantage of you and stand up for yourselves,” Boehner said. “All of us are hearing from our friends and constituents on lack of credit, you can’t get a loan, the more your government takes and taxes, the more regulations you have to comply with the more cost you have there and less amount you are going to have available to loan to customers.”

Boehner’s comments come as bankers prepare to descend upon Capitol Hill to press for changes to the bank-reform legislation, which they wouldn’t support in its present form. Boehner said he urged bankers not to be shy when meeting with the lawmaker staff members and to send a message that new regulations and taxes translates to into banks having less available for lending.

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker