The Inbox: November 1, 2013

Although Halloween has come and gone, you can continue to celebrate Dia De Los Muertos with us here at Suits By Suits; we recommend sipping a nice anejo tequila while catching up on this week's news.  (Hey, it beats legions of candy-seekers dressed as "Angry Birds," no?)

• The biggest news of the week comes from yesterday's news that the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill to protect antitrust whistleblowers; the full text of the proposed bill can be found here.  We'll analyze the provisions of the proposed legislation in the coming days, but in the meanwhile, you might brush up by reading our past library of posts on whistleblowers.
• Scott Norris, former executive vice president for San Diego County Credit Union, has filed a wrongful termination claim against his former employer, alleging that he was retaliatorily discharged after blowing the whistle on the bank's alleged failure to correct thousands of errors in the processing of loan payments.  SDCCU denied the allegations without further comment.  We'll be watching, of course.
• Way back in March of this year, our colleague Bill Schreiner wrote two excellent articles (part one, part two) on the unfortunate situation involving Jerry Sandusky and Penn State.  This week, we learned that Penn State has agreed to pay nearly $60 million to the 26 known victims of Sandusky's sexual abuse.
• Fallout continues in the forthcoming merger between #2-ranked office-supply company Office Depot with #3-ranked OfficeMax; this week, we learned that neither company's incumbent CEOs -- Office Depot's Neil Austrian and OfficeMax's Ravi Saligram -- intend to submit their names for consideration to helm the combined company.  Instead, both will collect lucrative (and already-controversial) golden parachutes; $15 to $16 million for Austrian and $13.5 million for Saligram, according to the Orlando Sun-Sentinel.
• Presumably in light of the ongoing controversy over such packages, SunPower's CEO, Thomas H. Werner, has requested that the company amend his Employment Agreement to reduce his severance benefit package in the event of termination.  Under the terms of the amended agreement, Werner would receive two years' base salary (reduced from three), two times his annual bonus (reduced from three) and two years' worth of subsidized health care benefits (also reduced from three).  Might this be the wave of the future as executives try to tamp down on potential outrage over golden parachutes?  Only time will tell.

• The Inbox