Business Highlights

BATON ROUGE, La. — A state law that would ban sales of violent video games to minors violates free speech rights and cannot be enforced, a judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge James Brady said the state had no right to bar distribution of materials simply because they show violent behavior. Brady issued an injunction, calling the law an "invasion of First Amendment rights” of producers, retailers and the minors who play the games.

"Depictions of violence are entitled to full constitutional protection,” Brady wrote Thursday.

Louisiana is the latest in a string of states, including Minnesota, Illinois, California and Michigan, to have had similar bans blocked in the courts.

Online merchants see green after Pluto’s planetary demotion

LOS ANGELES — Not long after puny Pluto was stripped of its planethood, Janis Robinson started selling $25 "PLUTO IS A PLANET” T-shirts on the Internet.

Robinson, who said she "rolled her eyes” after Pluto got the boot, hopes her buyers will send a message that kicking out the far-out rock is downright goofy.

"I’m always going to think of Pluto as a planet,” said the 45-year-old semi-retiree from San Jose, who insists she’s not peddling shirts on Craigslist for the money. "People who buy this can make a statement that we still believe in Pluto.”

Robinson is hardly alone. Scores of Web-savvy sellers hoping to support Pluto and cash in on its demotion to a "dwarf planet” have bombarded the Internet hawking memorabilia worthy of a presidential candidate, from T-shirts and mugs to bumper stickers and mouse pads.

The International Astronomical Union shook up the solar system Thursday when it declared that Pluto was no longer part of the cosmic club — the first time the solar system was altered since Pluto was spotted in 1930.

Fed Reserve chairman warns against protectionism

JACKSON, Wyo. — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke cautioned lawmakers to avoid the temptation to impose protectionist trade policies as the United States grapples with fierce competition from globalization.

Globalization has shrunk the world and made countries increasingly connected through economic ties. The opportunities for companies to sell their goods to more and more countries can generate wealth and boost living standards. That has benefited some workers, but has hurt those left behind in the changing worldwide economic landscape.

"Further progress in global economic integration should not be taken for granted,” Bernanke told an economics conference that explored the forces of globalization.

Google seeks regulatory exemption for cash flow

WASHINGTON — Search-engine giant Google Inc. has piled up so much cash that it is in danger of being mistaken for an investment fund.

The company, which wants to diversify its investment strategy but doesn’t want to be regulated as a mutual fund, has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to exempt it from regulations that can apply to a company with a lot of marketable securities on its balance sheet.

To that end, the Mountain View, Calif., company made a filing on July 20 to persuade the SEC that it exists not to make investments, but to conduct an "Internet and new media business.”

Google’s most recent quarterly balance sheet listed assets totaling $14.4 billion, including $4 billion in cash and $5.8 billion in marketable securities. Under the Investment Company Act of 1940, a company with more than 40 percent of its assets in certain types of securities is subject to different disclosure and operating rules.

"Google states that it is not in the business of investing, reinvesting, or trading in securities,” the company told the SEC in the filing last month. Google, which reported $1.5 billion in income for 2005, said that about 8 percent of that amount was investment income.

To help make its case, Google told the SEC that it will only invest for "bona fide business purposes” and won’t invest "for short-term speculative purposes.”

In the absence of an exemption, Google disclosed that its executives are authorized to create an investment mix for the company that ensures the 1940 investment-company law won’t apply.

An SEC spokesman declined to discuss whether Google will receive the exemption, and a Google representative didn’t return a call seeking comment.<