newsmakers

August 30, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

newsmakers

Bullock marks 5th anniversary of Katrina

NEW ORLEANS

Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock has returned to a New Orleans high school she adopted after Hurricane Katrina to help open a health clinic there.

Bullock’s appearance Sunday coincided with the fifth anniversary of the storm that devastated coastal Louisiana and Mississippi. She joined a host of politicians, educators and school supporters for the clinic’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The free, full-service medical and dental clinic is scheduled to open in the fall. It is yet another place Bullock has left her mark at Warren Easton Charter High School. She’s previously donated money to help restore Easton, which is the city’s oldest public high school.

The school was swamped when Katrina and the subsequent flooding swept up to nine feet of water into its buildings.

Disney, Time Warner make progress on fees

NEW YORK

Walt Disney Co. and Time Warner Cable Inc. said Sunday that they have made “significant progress” in resolving their issues over programming fees with less than a week left to renew a pact that feeds TV channels like ESPN into American households.

Both companies have agreed to pull marketing campaigns that they had launched this past summer aimed at persuading public opinion to their side, The Wall Street Journal reported online Sunday. They now expect to reach a deal without “blacking out any TV networks,” the paper said, citing unnamed people familiar with the talks.

The Disney-Time Warner Cable feud marks the latest scuffle between subscription television providers and media companies that own the TV networks they distribute into consumers’ homes.

As the recession forced businesses to cut budgets for TV advertising — traditionally the main source of revenue for broadcast stations — television networks started asking for a higher fee per subscriber.