Shareholders of Bank of America may have stripped Ken Lewis of his title as chairman, but the man elected to assume oversight of one of the nation’s largest commercial banks is a past supporter who some believe is likely to side with Lewis on key decisions.

William Morris Agency and Endeavor Agency LLC announced plans to merge Monday in a bid to become a powerhouse Hollywood talent agency to rival top competitor, Creative Artists Agency.

Furious shareholders are demanding to know why directors of Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp. paid CEO Aubrey McClendon $112 million last year, bought his personal art collection and co-sponsored his basketball team, even as the company’s stock price tumbled.

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter said today he is leaving the Republican Party and will run for re-election in 2010 as a Democrat, increasing the odds that Democrats will achieve a filibuster-proof majority.

The son of a soldier and nurse from small-town Mississippi, Ken Lewis likes to boast that he has worked since he was 12 years old, selling greeting cards door-to-door and pumping gas.

The newspaper industry is laying off thousands, even as reporters like Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times are cast as heroes in new movies like The Soloist.

Perhaps it’s time to re-release Chooch, an indie comedy that bombed at the box office in 2004.

If Thomas Friedman’s columns for the New York Times sound a tad glum lately, there’s a reason: Besides the world economic meltdown and his employer’s accumulating red ink, his wife’s fortune has all but evaporated.