PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - April 14

April 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.

* Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), frustrated at federally mandated pay caps, has been plotting for months to get out from under the government's thumb. On Monday, Goldman took fresh steps to break free: It announced, as expected, that it plans to raise $5 billion by selling new common shares to investors, and that it would like to use the money to repay government bailout money received last year.

* U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to tap Fannie Mae (FNM.N) Chief Executive Herb Allison to head the government's $700 billion financial-rescue program, people familiar with the matter say.

* Consumer spending fueled by tax refunds could wear off within a few weeks, posing a challenge to recovery.

* Creditors to Texas financier Tom Hicks's Hicks Sports Group have declared the company in default, a measure that could eventually dislodge the Texas Rangers baseball club and Dallas Stars hockey franchise from his control.

* Oregon sued OppenheimerFunds Inc, charging the New York money manager with understating the risk it took with a bond fund in Oregon's state college-savings plan.

* Chrysler LLC's creditors are planning to make a counteroffer this week to the U.S. Treasury, which originally asked lenders owed about $6.9 billion to accept just $1 billion to keep the auto maker from liquidating.

* Next month, shipping giant AP Moeller-Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) will make a move that would have been unlikely a decade ago. A line of 6,000-container ships that now goes to Southern California will dock in Seattle instead.

* A group of bondholders has ratcheted up the pressure on General Growth Properties Inc GGP.N by asking its trustee to sue the debt-laden mall owner for payment of their past-due bonds.

* Joseph Nacchio, the former chief executive of Qwest Communications International Inc (Q.N), is expected to head to federal prison Tuesday, nearly two years after a judge sentenced him to serve six years for insider trading.

* HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L) plans to put up for sale office buildings in New York and Paris as well as its London headquarters, a move that could raise billions of dollars for the U.K. bank.

* MetLife Inc (MET.N) said Monday that it won't take federal bailout funds, a sign of the life-insurance company's strong position in an industry struggling with huge losses and shaky balance sheets. Genworth Financial Inc (GNW.N), meanwhile, announced late Thursday that it is ineligible to participate in the Treasury's Capital Purchase Plan because it missed a deadline.