A little noticed provision of the Senate's sweeping financial service reform bill would over-ride a major Supreme Court ruling that bars individuals from suing so-called secondary actors in a securities fraud case.

The provision comes on the heels of a bill proposed by Senator Arlen Spector that would have the same effect.

It's official: 2009 was a disaster for private equity.

 This was confirmed by a new report from Dow Jones, which counted 331 funds raising $95.8 billion last year, down 68 percent from the $299.9 billion raised by 508 funds in 2008. This made 2009 the worst year for fundraising since 2003.

The recent restatements from three puny companies-one of which faces possible delisting from Nasdaq-could reignite the debate over whether microcap companies should be required to comply with a key provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act as well as highlight a showdown between the SEC and the White House and Congress.

We're talking about Section 404b of the sweeping 2002 governance legislation, which requires companies to report to the public about the effectiveness of their internal control over financial reporting. The smallest public companies with a public float below $75 million have been given four extensions to design, implement and document these internal controls before their auditors are required to attest to the effectiveness of these controls. Opponents had been whining that complying with Section 404b would be too costly for the smallest companies and drive many of them to list their shares overseas.  Alas, this never happened.

Employers beware: Hiring illegals could cost you big-time. This is the message sent from a recent agreement between Pilgrim's Pride and the federal government.

So, is the economy turning around? The skeptics-and there are always skeptics-say no, insisting the recent growth and positive economic signals are the result of inventory restocking and the stimulus bill. Once these factors are exhausted, we'll suffer a second dip in the decline, they argue.

Never mind that a majority of the stimulus funds haven't yet been spent on stimulating the economy, but this is a topic for another discussion.

UTStarcom Inc. has run afoul with regulators yet again.

 This time the maker of telecom products agreed to pay $3 million for bribing people in China. Half of the penalty is going to the Department of Justice and the other half to the Securities and Exchange Commission.