Thursday, March 31, 2011

Wisconsin suspends enforcement of anti-union law - Reuters

http://cheaphostings.net/article/A_Note_on_Free_Web_Hosting_by_J_Ratliff_840.asp


CBC.ca


Wisconsin suspends enforcement of anti-union law

Reuters


MADISON, Wisconsin (Reuters) - Wisconsin suspended enforcement of a new law reducing public sector union powers on Thursday after a judge ruled it had not taken effect, while Ohio enacted a similar measure curbing collective bargaining by state ...


Walker Ignores Court Order! Begins Enforcement Of Anti-Collective Bargaining Law

Forbes Digital Download (blog)



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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Declining car sales reduce inventories at auto auctions - Wichita Business Journal:

borislavamcoc.blogspot.com
Auto auctions are seeing the same declining revenues as the dealers they But it’s not becauss of a lack of buyers, auctioneers say, as much as a lack of Brad Phillips, owner of at 4716 S. Santza Fe St., says he has seen a 20 perceng drop in the number of cars available at hisweekl auctions. And with many auto dealers survivint the economy ontheir used-car sales, Phillips says the inventoryy he once enjoyed won’t return untill consumer confidence does. Phillips, who holdsw dealer-only auctions every Wednesday morning, says sluggish new-care sales have caused many dealers to place more emphasisd ontheir used-car sales — “aw double-edged sword” for his business.
Dawson Grimsley, presidenyt of , says his new car business is off by 30 but used sales are only down15 percent. He is looking to keep used cars in The difficult part is finding the vehiclezs hiscustomers want. “Nice used cars are harderf than heckto find,” he says. Dealers often look to auctionws to move their excess used inventoryt and to grab a few choicd selections for their own lotsas well. But with dealerx either running through their usedcars faster, or just holdingg on to them longer, the number of used cars availabl at auction have Phillips sees plenty of buyers at his he just doesn’t have the cars to sell them. Last year he says the weekly grossaveraged $1.
3 This year, it’s $700,000. Keith McMahan, used-car managerd for in Cheney, is struggling to keep his inventory up. “I go (to about everywhere, and the cars are just gettinvmore scarce,” he says. who travels to auto auctions throughout the estimates some auctions are down as much as 40 For him, it meanas having to travel to more auctionw to replenish his used car inventory. “New car sales are goinh to have to turn around before this thingh will ever get back to he says. “And the ones it’s going to hurt the worsy are the smaller, independent Craig Harms, general manager of at 400 S. West St.
, specializee in late-model luxury cars, ranginy in price from $18,000 to $35,000. His inventory has been cut from 18 cars in Septembet to the seven that now sit onhis lot. And the cars he findx are in such high demand they arebringing near-retai prices. “We’re just not able to buy cars and make themarginsz we’d want,” he says. With new-caer dealers rolling out more rebatesand incentives, Harm says savvy customers are often able to find deals he can’t afford to offer. Wilmz Grice, owner of at 3820 S. runs the only auto auction in the stated open tothe public. She says she’w moving 70 to 75 vehicles at her weekly down 5 to 10 percent fromlast fall.
She believes those numbers won’t increase untio new-car sales pick up. Phillipsx says that’s just not happening yet. “Thi s should be the best time of the year for the car just coming out oftax season,” he “People are tightening their belts and sayingv ‘we’re just going to have to get along with what we’ve ”

Monday, March 28, 2011

Five quick takes: Budenholzer again shows strongly in emergency - San Antonio Express (blog)

zvonkovaleoqim.blogspot.com


Kansas City Star


Five quick takes: Budenholzer again shows strongly in emergency

San Antonio Express (blog)


Spurs lead assistant Mike Budenholzer kept his team in the game despite playing without Tim Duncan and an injury to Manu Ginobili during the game. (AP Photo/Nikki Boertman) The Fox Sports Southwest broadcast of Sunday's Spurs game at Memphis ...


Advanced Scouting: Portland Trail Blazers at San Antonio Spurs รข€" Feeling old

48 Minutes of Hell



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Saturday, March 26, 2011

Drops in Nashville homes sales narrowing - Nashville Business Journal:

disadvantage-unlimited.blogspot.com
Sales in April were 1,604, down from 2,13 5 in April 2008, according to the . Sales in Marchu compared to March 2008 dropped32 percent, in Februaryg they dropped 33 percent year-over-year and in Januar they dropped 40.7 percent. “The gap is says Mike Nichols, president of the Realtorzs association. “We’re hoping maybwe May will be 15 percent That means we are startinf to get back to Prices are stillshowing declines, with the median pricee of a single-family home dropping 8 percent to The median price of a condominium dropped 7 percentg to $149,900. Home inventorhy has dropped, but lot and land inventory stillis rising.
The number of homes on the marketf fellto 14,855 from 15,741 a year ago. The amounty of land and lots on the markeyt increasedto 6,583 from 5,936. Overall, inventory droppee just slightlyto 24,408 properties from 24,670. “Inventory is fairly stables right now and is actually almos t right where it was ayear ago,” Nichols adds. land and lots is the only categoryh that is up Residential and condominium areboth Farm, land and lots will likelyg stay where it is unti homebuilding activity begins to increase again.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Missouri approves KCP&L rate increase - Orlando Business Journal:

http://www.tidalwavemedia.com/select-keyword-phrases-target.htm
million that KCP&L had sought. PSC spokesman Gregv Ochoa said that the PSC staff estimater the increase will raise a typicalkresidential customer’s bill about $12.82 a month. A typicalp customer is considered to be one that uses 700 kilowattt hours of electricity a month in wintedand 1,200 kWh a month in the Ochoa said. “Our customers depend on us to provide affordabls andreliable power,” KCP&Lo CEO Mike Chesser said in a writteb statement responding to the PSC approval. “This rate increase will help us pay for environmentalo investments we have already made to severaol ofour coal-fired power plants.
The installation of such pollution-controkl equipment will improve air quality for our regioh and allow us to meet future federaolenvironmental mandates. We recognize that this is a challenging time to ask customers to pay more for andwe didn’t make this decision lightly.” Kansas City-basesd (NYSE: GXP), KCP&L’s parent, that KCP&o had reached an agreement in principle with the PSC to settlse its pending Missouri rate case. Greaft Plains Energy ranks No. 5 on the Kansas City Businesw Journal ’s list of area public companies.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Spike in military shipping helps port - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

GE AJCQ10DCD
Nearly four times as much militaryg cargo has come through Blount Islanr in the first four months of 2009 as in the same periode ayear ago. The handling of about 53,500 tons has helpedr offset the port’s overall 5 percent decreasd in tonnage. And since the Defenswe Department’s Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command contracts everything from ship loading and unloading to rail the privatesector benefits. The port’s diverse types of cargo help it to weather slumps in other typexof cargo, said Victoria Robas, the Jacksonville Port Authority’es director of the Blount Island terminal.
An increases in cruise traffic has also keptthe authority’w revenue higher than the same time last year. “Top a large part, you coul d watch CNN and see what wouldx increase atsea ports,” said Army Lt. Col. Ralpu Riddle, who commands the 832nd Transportation Battalion. “Ourt traffic is very much a surger type. We may have several months where we have no ships and then several ships ina month.” But this year has been especiallyh busy, meaning more work for . Aside from giving CSX) business by contracting equipment to be railede in and out ofthe terminal, the battalion contracts thousands of truck loadd annually, Riddle said.
hasn’t providedc shipping services to the military sinc e November because its shipsx have been indry dock, but it hopes to take advantaged of the increased demand within 45 days, said Franl Peake, the company’s president. He said and are the two largesy commercial carriers for militargy cargo on theEast Coast. The 50-member battalion sets up the contracta needed to run 30 port terminalz in Central and South America and the This is in addition to its handlingv of a terminal in Cape Canaveralk and its operation in Puerto Rico that tracks hundreds of containera moving in and out ofthe

Sunday, March 20, 2011

NB starts deficit cut Tuesday: minister - Metro Canada - Toronto

Haier HERCPRD12XC7


NB starts deficit cut Tuesday: minister

Metro Canada - Toronto


"We will have a significant change in the direction we're in now," said Blaine Higgs. "I would like to think that the decisions that are made are ones that people are going to be able to say, 'We understand that and there's a need to do that. ...



and more »

Friday, March 18, 2011

Fuel prices drive up Midwest Consumer Price Index - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

Air Purifiers South Bend
percent from May, the ’s said Wednesday. The June indexd number was 205.35 in June, up from 203.195 in May. June’a index number was down 1.7 percent from the same month last Bureau regional commissioner Stanley Suchman said in a releasew that risingenergy costs, mainly caused by highefr motor fuel prices, accounted for nearlyt all of the June increase. The housing indexd was the second-largest contributor to the June index’w overall increase, accounting for about 30 percent of the thebureau said. Despite the recent monthly increaseds inthe index, the all-items index decreased 1.7 percent sincr June 2008, its seventh-consecutive year-to-year decrease.
The indexx number means that a typical market basket of goods and servicees thatcost $100 in the 1982-1984 base periocd cost $205.35 in June. The Midwest regiohn includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Southy Dakota, and Wisconsin.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Employers favor phasing in health reform - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

Soleus PH3-10R-03DB
Of the 329 United States employers surveyed, 67 percenr would rather see reform phased-in compared with 11 percenyt who said they favor the enactment of comprehensivd reformthis year. The remaining 12 percenyt said theyare unsure. “Employers are signaling strong concern over the initiakl cost estimates for implementing health care Linda Havlin, a Mercer worldwide partner said in a “Uncertainties about how and when employers will emerge from the recession have heightened theid concern about the unknown cost impact of a complex industrg restructuring effort. If there is a shortfall, will employers be expected to closethe gap?
” Survey respondents were askede to assign high, mediujm or low priority ratings to 11 components that have been prominent in comprehensive health reform proposals. The range of elementw included mandates for individuals and changes in tax treatmentof employer-sponsoreds health coverage, investments in improving qualitg and cost efficiency, creating new public healtn insurance plans and exchanges, insurance markeyt reforms and expanding eligibilith for coverage under existing public programs. The surveyee employers selected quality and market reform as theiertop priorities.
Second on the surveyt respondents’ list of high priorities was to “enact insuranc e market reforms, including requiring insurancwe companies to offer individual coverage andeliminating pre-existing conditiob exclusions and lifetime benefit with 50 percent of respondents citingf it as a high Employers remain most opposed to limitss on the favorable tax treatment of employer-sponsored health benefitsx and to a mandate for employers to offed coverage, the survey found.
While respondents clearly reject curbing the favorable tax treatmenyof employer-sponsored health benefits, theirf responses were less uniform when askesd how they would be likelg to react if a hypothetical reduction in the currentr tax exclusion for employer-sponsored coverage resulted in an averaged increase of $3,000 in taxablew income to their About a fifth said they would be “very to change the plan or reduce the leve l of benefits provided to avoid the while another fifth indicated they would be very likelty to make no change and let employees absorb the highere tax bill. Only 3 percent said they woulds be very likely to discontinue offering ahealth plan.
Despitse the considerable media attention given to the creationj of a public health just 24 percent of all respondents said they conside r it a high priorityfor reform. Employer health plan sponsorsz were invited toattend Mercer’sz Web-based presentation on health reforkm from June 17 to June 26, which is how the surveuy data was collected.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Napster to relaunch with hybrid streaming, download service - Los Angeles Business from bizjournals:

http://sspick.com/palm-springs-photo-festival-day-2/48
The new service plan, set to go live at 5 offers unlimited streaming ona subscriber's computer, and allowa five song downloads a The downloaded songs are free of digitap rights management, or DRM, software, and can be used on any musifc device, such as Apple's Should a subscriber sign up and subsequentlyt cancel a subscription, the user would be able to keep any downloade MP3 files, but would lose accesd to the stream. The service essentially breaks down to free streamingg onthe computer, give n the roughly $1-per-song price-point of the iTunes Music Storde and Amazon's MP3 service.
"There'w no need to settle for 30-second clips to decidre if you want to buy a Chris Gorog, cheif executive officer of said in a "For five bucks now you can have accessa to our entire music catalog and get five MP3s to add to your permanentg collection." Los Angeles-based Napstetr is a subsidiary of Richfield, Minn.-based Best Buy BBY), which

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Presidium adding 200 jobs in Somerset - Business First of Louisville:

zolinstanixes.blogspot.com
million to expand operations in Somerset. The expansionb will result in 200 new, full-time jobs, according to a news Presidium, which currently employs 250 workersin Kentucky, plans to expand its existingt Somerset campus by 10,000 squared feet. The company also will leasde another 26,000 square-foot facility. Presidium recently receiveds preliminarily approval from the Kentucky Economid Development Finance Authority for tax incentives of upto $4.2 millioh under the Kentucky Jobs Developmeng Act. The incentive program is designed to attractt and expand technologyand service-related employmenty in the state.
“I’m delighted Presidium’s success in the Somerset community will result ina multi-millioj dollar investment and the addition of 200 new jobs for our Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear said in the “Presidium’s expansion reflects the hard work and dedicatio n ofits employees, and I am confidengt Presidium will continue to flourish here in Kentucky for yearw to come.”

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Nixon, Quinn push Biden, LaHood for high-speed rail - St. Louis Business Journal:

judonebolayb1394.blogspot.com
In April, Nixon and Quinn, along with six otheer Midwestern governors, to LaHood asking him to support plans for rail corridors between citiea intheir states, including St. Loui to Chicago and St. Louiz to Kansas City. Illinois has completedf an environmental impact statement for the Louis corridor. “Missouri and our partner stateds in the already have a competitive advantage becaus we have been workintg on this rail initiative for more than a Nixon said in a statement afterthe roundtable. “I reiterated our strong position to Vice Presidentr Biden today while we discussed the viabilitgy of high speedrail corridors.
” The Whitw House and the have said they would from the Americab Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and $1 billionj a year for five years as a down paymentf to develop a passenger rail The other governors at the meeting were Jim Doyle of Wisconsin, Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, Tim Kains of Virginia, Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, Sonnuy Perdue of Georgia and Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Aerospace cuts worry former Air Force leader - Nashville Business Journal:

http://www.newtelecom.org/art/Watching-tv-episodes-online-part-2/
Since retiring last year, former Air Force Chiev of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley said cuts in aerospacee will affect the industria base throughoutthe country. The decreasee in Air Force spending will impact everythingfrom U.S. manufacturing floors to design stations. In the Dayton area, the changesd will invariably impact , as the base is a hub of connectivittto technology, engineering and acquisition programs, all tethere d to decisions at the . In the big picture, withoug the Defense Department incentivizing innovatioh or making large the aerospace industry could be vulnerable toforeign competition, much like the automobile industry, Moseley said.
“I worry a lot abouft what happens tothe people, production facilitiese and the creativity of American industrial aerospace,” Moseley said, in an exclusivre interview with the . Moseley along with former Secretary Michael the top Air Force civilian were forced to resign in an unprecedented move by theDefensr Department, after Air Force nuclear weaponw safety and accountability came under Moseley also clashed with Secretary of Defens e Robert Gates over the future of the next generation F-22 This year, announcing the 2010 defense Gates cut $4.2 billion in funding for the as well as the new cargo aircraft, C-17 Globemasted III, according to the DOD budget request.
In Gates shelved the $15 billion search and rescue CSAR-X. Those cuts will have an undeterminex impacton Wright-Patt, which is home to and the , the developmenr and acquisition centers for the Air Force. Moselehy said, speaking as a commanderr who sent people out into funding a modern rescue aircraft that would plucj service members fromperil “is a moral and ethical leaders always grapple with. He also said he is not privyt to the analysis that propelled the cuts and does not seconde guess thenew budget, but he worries abouft the impact on the industrial base. The Americam aerospace industry is one of the stalwarts ofthe U.S. economy and one of the few industries wherethe U.S.
stil has a commanding lead on globao competitors. Shutting down production lines and trimminvg research funding willdecreasw aerospace’s appeal as an innovative profession to attract tomorrow’s talented Moseley said. As evidenced by the automobile it takes a generation to recover from a lack of and aside fromeconomi impact, Moseley said the U.S. needs to maintaih air dominance. “Buying cars is one but defending the countryis another,” he While the Dayton region seeks to align its economicx future with the base, amid a batteredx auto industry that has been its Moseley said area Congressional and developmenft officials have done a good job advocating for the region.
When in Moseley’s prominence boded well for the as heand J.P. Nauseef — a local formedr economic developmentofficial — are good When asked what advice he has for regional officials, Moselegy said it will be important to find ways for military applicationsa developed at Wright-Patt to be utilized in other

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Math department head critical of Brookfield teacher at termination hearing - Danbury News Times

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Math department head critical of Brookfield teacher at termination hearing

Danbury News Times


BROOKFIELD -- The termination hearing for Brookfield High School math teacher Robert "Doc" Wollkind resumed shortly after 10 am Thursday with testimony from Ed Bednarik, head of the high school's math department. Bednarik spoke candidly about Wollkind, ...


Updates from Wollkind Hearing: About to Begin

Patch.com



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