PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - July 14

July 14 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

* U.S. government officials are in advanced talks about providing some kind of aid to CIT Group Inc CIT.N, one of the country's primary lenders to small and midsize businesses.

* Steven Rattner is leaving the Obama administration after serving as the chief architect of the bailouts of GM GMGMQ.PK and Chrysler. He will be replaced by Ron Bloom.

* General Motors Corp's GMGMQ.PK vice chairman is weighing bringing back the 40-year-old Chevy Caprice nameplate, applying it to the G8 performance sedan from its soon-to-be discontinued Pontiac brand.

* Fortress Investment Group LLC's (FIG.N) talks to refinance a critical $1.5 billion loan are complicated by the company also being one of the lenders.

* Disgraced lawyer Marc Dreier was sentenced to 20 years in prison after admitting to a scheme to sell $700 million in fake promissory notes and to steal client funds.

* Barry Sternlicht's Starwood Capital Group, a private-equity firm specializing in real-estate investments, is bidding on assets of Corus Bankshares Inc CORS.O, according to people familiar with the matter.

* The European Commission has proposed giving banking supervisors more power over pay at financial institutions, including the ability to force changes to compensation practices and levy fines.

* Leaders of five nations from Austria to Turkey signed a breakthrough agreement to transit natural gas through their countries in the European Union's planned Nabucco pipeline project aimed at reducing the EU's dependence on Russia.

* Convicted swindler Bernard Madoff was transferred to a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina, where he will serve his 150-year sentence.

* Dell Inc (DELL.O) said a tough technology market and high component prices will lower its profit margins for its current quarter, deflating investors' hopes for a quick turnaround in the struggling personal-computer industry.

* The U.S. federal budget deficit broke through the $1 trillion mark in June, potentially complicating the Obama administration's efforts to revive the economy and enact its longer-term policy agenda.

* Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd's chief executive, Steve Ridgway, acknowledged being involved in an alleged price-fixing cartel with British Airways PLC (BAY.L) after his name was identified in court.

* The effort to pass a health-care overhaul is being frustrated by divisions among U.S. Democrats over a wide range of issues, from how to pay for the measure to its impacts on small business and rural areas. The House is expected to release a bill Tuesday.

* Novartis (NOVN.VX) and the Institute for OneWorld Health, a nonprofit group, will announce this week a partnership to discover drugs for a type of diarrhea that kills 1.6 million children each year in the developing world.

* U.S. President Barack Obama named an Alabama family physician as surgeon general, tapping a doctor known for treating patients who can't pay at a time when his administration is seeking to overhaul the country's health-care system.