PRESS DIGEST - New York Times business news - Sept 6

Sept 6 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in The New York Times business pages on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

* The unexpectedly deep plunge in home sales this summer is likely to force the Obama administration to choose between future homeowners and current ones, a predicament officials had been eager to avoid.

* Craigslist, by shutting off its "adult services" section and slapping a "censored" label in its place, may be engaging in a high-stakes stunt to influence public opinion, some analysts say.

* In one of the stranger twists in recent pop-music history, a musical remake of a local news clip transcended YouTube fame and reached the Billboard Hot 100 chart in August.

* Mark V. Hurd, who was forced to resign as Hewlett-Packard Co's (HPQ.N) top executive last month after an investigation into a sexual harassment charge found that he had manipulated his expenses, is in talks with Oracle Corp (ORCL.O) about a top executive position there

* Now, because of technology that can pinpoint what people online are viewing and commenting on, how much time they spend with an article and even how much money an article makes in advertising revenue, newspapers can make more scientific decisions about allocating their ever scarcer resources.

* Donald L. Kohn, former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, who retired last week after 40 years at the central bank, says that the economy is in "a slow slog out of a very deep hole," and that the Fed should consider additional stimulus unless the recovery shows signs of "decent progress."

* The film "Kick-Ass" fell short in its opening weekend, and bloggers wrote it off as a flop. Never mind that this $15 million film went on to sell almost $100 million in tickets.

* As people across the nation try to eradicate bedbugs from the crevices of their homes, a battle is being waged online among pest control companies over whose ad will be the first one most people see as they race to the Internet to learn about these insidious pests.

* Steven P. Jobs of Apple Inc (AAPL.O) may be hoping his latest attempt at Apple TV will catch on as the iPod did. However, for now at least, it provides little because users can rent shows from just two networks.

* Even as Europe's sovereign debt crisis intensified early this year, banks continued to load up on debt from Greece and other countries with the most acute fiscal problems, according to a report released on Sunday.

* A Spanish association representing victims of a plane crash and their families has filed complaints in two Spanish courts seeking to block the channel Telecinco from showing the film, "Vuelo IL 8714," a dramatization based on the crash during takeoff of a Spanair jet headed from Madrid to the Canary Islands on Aug. 20, 2008, killing 154 people.