THE DIGEST – A ROUNDUP OF SAN FERNANDO VALLEY NEWS Valley Unemployment at Record Level Unemployment claims in the San Fernando Valley are higher than they have been in five years, according to statistics released by Cal State Northridge economists. Active state unemployment insurance claims in the San Fernando Valley, the number of people receiving regular benefits, rose 3.6 percent to 21,523 in October, up from 20,518 during September. The October tally is nearly 56 percent above the same month last year, when 13,633 people in the Valley were receiving benefits. CSUN economics professor Daniel Blake, director of the university’s San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center, said active unemployment claims in the Valley have been above 20,000 every month since June. Before June, the last time Valley claims topped 20,000 was May 1996. After falling to a 10-year low of just 13,526 active claims in November 2000, the Valley’s numbers rose monthly until hitting a seven-year high of 22,773 in July 2001. The numbers declined in August (21,677) and September (20,518) before rising again in October. CBCom Affiliate Buys in China CBCom Inc. of Encino, through its strategic partner in the People’s Republic of China, Beijing Chinet Information Technology Co. Ltd., has purchased Far East Communications Company, a networking and communications system integrator. The terms of the purchase agreement signed on Dec. 10 stipulate that CHINET acquires a 90-percent interest in Far East Communications. CBCom Inc., through its relationship with CHINET, will derive 80 percent of the income. Emmy President to Depart The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced that President Jim Chabin will leave his position when his three-year contract expires in April. A committee of elected officers and TV executives appointed by academy Chairman Bryce Zabel decided not to renew Chabin’s contract. The change comes shortly after the Emmy Awards postponements and relocation of the ceremony to a smaller venue where fewer tickets could be sold. Income from the awards, the group’s primary source of revenue, fell $1.6 million below pre-Sept. 11 expectations.