Lindsay Lohan is making headlines, and this time it's not for some kind of substance abuse problem or at all related to being obsessed wi The "Mean Girls" actress filed a lawsuit against E*Trade for $100 million, claiming that one of the brokerage's recent television ads featuring a "milkaholic" baby girl named Lindsay is modeled after her and improperly invoked her "likeness, name, characterization, and personality" withou her permission, violating her right to privacy.

The papers were filed on Monday in Nassau County, New York. LiLo is suing for $50 million in compensatory damages and an additional $50 million in exemplary damages. She is also demanding that E*Trade cease runnin the ad.

The ad first aired during the Super Bowl on February 7, and is part of a campaign that features know-it-all toddlers who play the stock market.

Lohan likely takes offense to the "milkaholic" tot due to her past issues with substance abuse. In 2007, she was ordered to spend a day in jail, undergo an alcohol education program, and spend three years on probation after having admitted to drunk driving and cocaine possession.

Five years after Toys 'R' Us went private for $6.6 billion, the retail chain's private equity owners are looking to cash in with an initial public offering this summer. According to the New York Post, Bain Capital, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Vornado Realty are now interviewing investment banks as potential underwriters.

Amongst the investment banks being interviewed are Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase. The objective of the IPO is to issue as much as $1 billion in publicly traded shares, and the cash raised would be used to slim and refinance the toy company's $5 billion debt. Such debt has hampered the investors ability to take profits on Toys 'R' Us.

They are now eying the summer for an IPO, and it looks like Toys 'R' Us is the only retailer planning for an IPO in all of 2010.

The days when you could only get an Apple iPhone if you locked into a two-year contract with AT&T are nearing an end, much to the joy of consumers across the United States. An analyst said today that the iPhone should be available through all US carriers within 18-months.

A report in BusinessWeek cites Tim Horan, a telecommunications analyst at Oppenhiemer & Co. Horan said:

“We believe AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity arrangement with Apple will be expiring by mid-2010. For wireless carriers, customers are demanding the device and they need to remain competitive.”

He believes that "T-Mobile USA Inc. will get the phone this summer, followed by Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp. in the fall, and Clearwire Corp."

KeyCorp reported a net loss of $265 million, or 30 cents a share, for the fourth quarter.

In the year-ago quarter, the Cleveland-based parent of KeyBank had a net loss of $554 million, or $1.13 a share.

Revenue totaled $1.1 billion in the fourth quarter, up from $1 billion a year ago.

“Although this remains a challenging environment, we are encouraged by the continued stabilization in the economy and some positive trends in our fourth quarter results,” said Henry Meyer, CEO of KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY).

For all of 2009, the net loss was $1.63 billion, or $2.34 a share, on revenue of $4.4 billion. This compares to a net loss of $1.51 billion, or $3.36 a share, on revenue of $3.7 billion in 2008.

Google, which began as a search engine based out of a garage, has in the past decade grown to encompass far more than just search queries. It's stepped on the toes of Microsoft when it began to create online applications through it's Google Docs program, and it started moving into Apple's territory when it began dabbling in browsers and touchscreen mobile phones. Google also began work on an alternative operating system - Android - and in the future plans to release netbooks with its OS. Wednesday was a day that both Google and Apple without a doubt declared war on eachother -- Apple revealed that they are strongly considering replacing Google search and apps on their iPhone with Microsoft and Bing offerings, and Google announced that they will be entering the online movie rental business.

Apple and Microsoft battled it out in the computer arena in the 1980s. Microsoft clearly came out on top with a large majority of the world now owning personal computers with Microsoft operating systems. Apple, however, remained a popular alternative to Microsoft, and the two companies have remained bitter rivals.

Tiger Woods isn't the only one suffering financial as a result of his multiple affairs -- shareholders of his sponsors are too. A study Monday revealed that shareholders of sponsors like Nike, AT&T and Gatorade may have lost billions of dollars in the wake of the scandal.

Study author Victor Stango, a professor at the University of California Davis, said:

"Total shareholder losses may exceed several decades' worth of Tiger Woods' personal endorsement income."

In the study, Stango compared the stock prices of nine of Woods' sponsors with competitors and the overal market after the scandal was revealed last month. Investors in three sports-related companies -- Electronic Arts, Gatorade and Nike -- actually fared the worst, experiencing a 4.3% drop in stock value. Accenture, a global management consulting firm, did not experience any measurable ill effects.

On Friday, the US Department of Labor announced that in November unemployment fell to 10 percent as the US lost just 11,000 last month. That news shocked Wall Street, and instantly sent stock futures, the dollar and interest rates surging.

Analysts has been expecting unemployment to rise yet again from October, when the unemployment rate had been at 10.2 percent. They had expected it to hit 10.3 percent. Economists also predicted doom and gloom, estimated that the country would lose 125,000 jobs in November.

The Labor Dept. also revised job loss figures for September and October, indicating that 159,000 fewer jobs were lost between September and November than initially calculated.

The manufacturing and construction industries continued to shrink, but professional services, education and health care posted gains in November.

On Friday, the Labor Department revealed the latest jobs report and the picture was not pretty. Their broadest measure of unemployment and underemployment has reached its highest level in decades, and if their statistics went back so far, it would most certainly be at its highest level since the Great Depression.

One out of every six workers, or 17.5%, were unemployed or underemployed in October 2009. The previous record high was set in December 1982 at 17.1%. WIthout an end in site to our economic woes, the figures could go even higher in the coming months.

That 17.5% figure includes the officiall unemployed, which are those who have looked for work in the last four weeks. It also includes discouraged workers who have looked in the past year, and millions of part-time workers wanting to be full-time.

The official jobless rate is at 10.2% for October, and remains lower than the early 80's peak at 10.8%. But again, this latest figure continues the upward trend, and isup from 9.8% in September 2009. It is highest in those states which had big housing bubles, such as Arizona and California, and those with large manufacturing sectors, including Ohio, South Carolina, Rhode Island, and Oregon.

Since January, first-time homebuyers have been getting tax credits of up to $8,000 as part of an economic stimulus package put into place earlier this year. That program, which left those who are not first-time home buyers out in the cold, was set to expire at the end of November 2009. On Wednesday, the Senate voted to extend and expand the tax credit to include many buyers who already own homes. Now it just needs to get through Congress, where a vote will take place Thursday.

Buyers owning their current homes at least five years will be eligible for tax credits up to $6,500. First-time homebuyers or those who haven't owned a home in the last three years would get up to $8,000. Both groups would have to sign a purchase agreement by April 30, 2010 and close by June 30, 2010 in order to be eligible.

Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia), said, "This is probably the last extension."

Also included in the bill passed in the Senate is a plan to extend unemployment benefits for those without a job for more than a year, and a clause that would allow companies now losing money to recoup taxes paid on profits earned in the previous five years.

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said:

Whether your an entrepreneur, a stock broker, a CEO, salesman or a casual investor in the stock market, you understand the importance of research - researching competitors, trends, consumer reactions, and so on. Keeping tabs on your industry is more than just an expectation, it's an essential ingredient to success. There are so many different publications - magazines, newspapers, journals, and online websites - that advertise themselves and ask you to subscribe, promising you all the secrets of success, but which ones do you really need to read?

Here is a concise list of what we at The Cleveland Leader deem to be the most essential business journals for any Cleveland investor or business person:

Crain's Cleveland Business-
If you are a member of the Cleveland business community or are looking to invest in a Cleveland area business, you'll definitely want to become a subscriber to this weekly publication if you aren't one already. You'll get the local spin and insight that many national publications may not include, or overlook. At a cost of just $1 per week, this is a magazine subscription that you cannot pass up.

Investors Business Daily-