beach

BJ Gallagher: Apple and AT&T: Why Monopolies Make People Mad

July 21, 2010

Steve Jobs says that the iPhone antenna problem “has been blown so out of proportion that it’s incredible.” He seems puzzled and annoyed by the intense anger, frustration, and criticism bombarding him. What he doesn’t understand is that whenever you establish a monopoly, you had better make sure that your product or service is perfect – because any glitches or problems will be magnified by customers’ feelings of being trapped. Twenty years ago, when I was a manager at a large metropolitan newspaper, our advertising clients would angrily tell our sales reps: “If you guys weren’t the only game in town, I’d take my business elsewhere!” Our rival newspaper had gone belly up, leaving us with a monopoly on display advertising. Our ad rates were exorbitant and every year our executives raised them. This infuriated advertisers, who felt trapped by our paper’s monopoly on high-income readers. And whenever there was a typo or mistake in an ad, the client would fume helplessly because his hands were tied. Advertisers bitterly complained that our newspaper was arrogant and didn’t care about customers. Ten years later, after I had left the newspaper to become a management consultant, I came across a different sort of monopoly backlash at a Wilmington, California oil refinery. The people who worked there were highly paid with superb benefits. With its generous compensation and benefits, the refinery had, in effect, established a monopoly on the best workers in the area. You’d think that morale would be high and that people would be happy with their employer – but they weren’t. Rank and file workers complained about favoritism in promotions and overtime assignments. They complained about racism and sexism in disciplinary practices. The higher their seniority, the lower their job satisfaction. The employee relations department was up to its eyeballs in grievances, as well as headaches from the union. Why? Golden handcuffs. Workers felt “trapped” by their high pay and great benefits. Most refinery workers had just a high school education and knew there were no other jobs in the Wilmington/Long Beach/San Pedro area where they could earn such high salaries without a college degree. So whenever employees were unhappy with management or their coworkers, they had no place to go – there were no good job options. Their golden handcuffs made them more unhappy over perceived problems at work. Most companies think that having a monopoly in their field would be a good thing. Who wouldn’t like to have a corner on the market for customers … or workers? But a monopoly can easily backfire, as we see with the Apple/AT&T exclusivity. Anytime you cut off people’s options, you make them mad. This is exactly why iPhone customers are livid about the antenna problem and dropped calls. These may seem like small problems to Steve Jobs, but they feel like big problems to customers who are trapped by the monopoly established by Apple and AT&T. Americans like to vote with their feet – and their wallets. They want companies to compete for their business. They want to be wooed and won. They want choices. Jobs may be right when he says that dropped calls are a problem across the board with all service providers, but that is no consolation to customers who feel frustrated because they can’t take their iPhones to Verizon, Sprint, or T-mobile. Jobs tries to justify himself by pointing out that three million people bought the new G4 iPhones in spite of AT&T’s crappy service. What he fails to realize is that he could have sold four or five million phones (maybe more) if he had let customers choose their own service providers. Jobs defensively asserts that less than one percent of customers complained and less than two percent returned their new iPhones to Apple. But he doesn’t understand that complaints are just the tip of the iceberg: 26 out of 27 unhappy customers will NOT complain, for a variety of reasons (“it’s too much hassle;” “it takes too much time;” “it won’t do any good anyway;” etc.). But we can be sure that these unhappy customers DO complain to their family, friends, and coworkers. They blog and tweet their frustration all over the Internet! They may resign themselves to lousy service for the time being, but they stew in resentment. By shackling his customers to AT&T, Jobs brought this fury on himself. When you establish a monopoly, you’d better make sure you treat your customers even better than before , because you’ve taken away their options. Steve, if you love your customers as much as you say you do, take off their handcuffs. Release them from bondage to AT&T. Let your people go.

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PIMCO Hires Ki Myung Hong as Managing Director and Head of the Firm’s Asia Pacific Region

July 18, 2010

NEWPORT BEACH, CA–(Marketwire – July 18, 2010) –  PIMCO, a leading global investment management firm, announced today that it has hired Ki Myung (Kim) Hong as a Managing Director and Head of the firm’s Asia Pacific region, based in Hong Kong. Mr. Hong will have management oversight responsibility for the firm’s business in the region, including PIMCO’s Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo offices which will report to him. He will also become a member of the Global Operating Committee, and will report to Douglas Hodge, PIMCO’s Chief Operating Officer (who previously served as Head of Asia Pacific).

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Steve Parker: Exclusive First Drive! Nissan’s 2011 Leaf EV

July 16, 2010

We have driven the future, and you can, too, sometime after the beginning of the new year. We took some short road test drives recently and one of the cars we flogged was Nissan’s 2011 Leaf EV. And while Toyota’s Prius gas/electric hybrid has been the Official State Car of Santa Monica for some years now, Leaf is definitely worthy of taking a shot at the title and could well prove successful in its efforts. In fact, the latest Leaf press preview was hosted at the Sheraton Miramar Hotel, smack in the center of the beach town. The challenge to Toyota has been made, and it might get ugly. Turns out all the excitement isn’t so much about the car’s performance, technology, styling or even interior design. It’s the car itself — the fact that it comes to life at a time so many other EVs, hybrids, extended-range hybrids and alternative fuel vehicles are hitting the marketplace. Customers will have a lot of info, maybe too much, to sort through when making their next vehicle choice. It’s bound to be shunned by some of the “holier than thou” who think cars should be banned entirely. But Leaf will be embraced by others, especially the so-called “hyper-milers,” who spend their days coming up with ways to suck even more energy out of every last atom in their batteries. Leaf is, without doubt, a history-making car. In terms of performance Leaf is about what we expected but it’s still, by default, a revolutionary and historic vehicle, the first EV to be mass-produced by a major car company in the “modern era” (post-WWII) and sold worldwide. Weighing in at a hefty 3,500 pounds (the battery pack alone is 600), Leaf will begin its U.S. sales sometime around the end of this year. Nissan announced this past week that Leaf’s on-board battery will be warranted for 8 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first. Nissan, along with Japanese battery-maker NEC, has formed a new corporation specifically to make Leaf’s batteries in Japan. For model year 2013, Nissan has plans to officially open its own dedicated battery-making facility in Tennessee for cars built in the U.S. Using laminated Lithium Ion batteries (Li-Ons for short), these batteries have been highly-developed by Nissan engineers to keep Leaf going for 100 miles after a charge, with a top speed of about 94 miles per hour. Now sit down, listen and learn something. Sorry, just wanted to see if you were still paying attention. There are three different charging methods for Leaf including “portable” charging, which uses a standard 110-volt wall plug-in charger which comes with the car. The portable method takes about 18 to 20 hours to make Leaf’s battery go from 0 to 100 per cent filled. “Installed charging” is the second method. When buying the Leaf, customers can also order an installed home charging unit. This method, using a 220-volt receptacle, takes around 8 hours to fully recharge Leaf. The home unit costs about $2,200, installed, but there are rebates and tax credits which can pay up to $2,000 of the total cost to encourage this option. Now, just as in auto racing, how fast you want to go depends on how much you want to spend, and this next option will be expensive, especially for Nissan and Aerovironment, the company working with Nissan on charger development and installation. “Quick charging” plans call for Leaf’s battery to be charged up to 80 per cent of capacity in only 30 minutes. Nissan engineers envision these quick chargers installed in busy shopping mall and office building parking lots, on major routes between cities ala truck stops and wherever else there might be a burgeoning population of EVs and plug-in hybrids needing a little love from the electric gods. We’ve gone over some of these specs before so let’s get down to it: How is Leaf on the streets? The Leaf we drove delivered about what we expected. The car is very intuitive; Nissan knows what we’re thinking when we get into the driver’s seat. All controls are in familiar places and operate accordingly, though, as on almost all the hybrids we’ve driven so far, there are some gimmicky eco-gauges and -controls that don’t seem altogether necessary (one allows the driver to “build a tree” as their eco-friendly driving style continues and improves for a period of time). The battery is under the car, as near the center as possible to help locate the center of gravity and help with handling. Nissan was smart to do this because they are going to catch a lot of hell for the car’s heft; perhaps Valerie Bertinelli and Jason Alexander can take fellow Jenny Craig clients to meetings and help Leaf lose a little bulk, too. Nissan Leaf interior Our test Leaf was, Nissan told us, about 90 per cent of what the final production version will look, feel and sound like. And the news is good in those areas: the car has an extreme style and much of that comes from use of a wind tunnel to design the car and cut down on that nemesis of EVs, wind noise. For instance, the highly-stylized headlamps with curves and lines that appear to go every which way are functionally manipulating oncoming air so it goes above and below the side mirrors, not right smack into it as on most cars and trucks. Even the radio antennae is specially shaped to cut noise and add to the vortex pushing the car along from the rear. These little things pay off as Leaf is very, very quiet; it’s like the local library. It’s so quiet, Nissan engineers tell us, that they had to engineer-in a certain amount of noise so pedestrians know there’s a car coming their way. We’re not kidding. The interior has a surprising amount of head room and that makes the entire car seem taller and wider than it really is from a passenger’s point of view. It’s a nice visual trick. Both front and rear seats do not offer what we would call “generous” legroom, but by no means would you think you’d be calling the chiropractor after a trip to Las Vegas in any seat on Leaf. You’ll have to go to a dealer to see the instrument panel up close and personal. Words simply can not do it justice. It’s colorful, animated and I understand the next-generation Leaf will come with 3D glasses. Well, it isn’t really that involved, so let’s just say the dash is, uh, “busy”. A single center tunnel mounted joystick-like appendage keeps Leaf in or out of its single forward gear. Leaf uses Nissan’s start system which allows engine start/stop by touching the brake and pushing a dash-mounted button with the key still in your pocket (or pocket book). Fit-and-finish inside and out was better than in most prototypes we’ve seen through the years. And with our test car not being a complete, sale-able Leaf, that bodes well for the car’s quality when it does go into production. As another Nissan engineer told us, “We’re still not through with it yet.” Steering is electrically boosted and was a little light for my tastes. I like to feel more connected to the road. Brakes are four-wheel anti-lock discs and seem up to the job, at least on the streets of Santa Monica. It is a bit surprising, though, the first time in the car, that due to the car’s heavyweight stance, drivers have to hit the brakes harder than they might in their previous compact car to slow or stop Leaf. That ABS braking system also creates battery-charging power through regenerative braking. Leaf gets off the line well as do all EVs and gas/electric hybrids. That’s because electric motors exhibit all their torque instantly, while a gas engine has a “torque curve” which brings the torque up gradually as the revs get higher. So Leaf drivers, like Prius owners before them, know that at the daily “Stop Light Grand Prix” they can take-on and beat just about any other car on the road. For the first 200 feet, at least. The audio system is superior for a car of this size and price (after tax credits and etc.) and allows plugging-in your iPod and all the other latest gizmos. Leaf has everything from 3D nav (not kidding this time) to Bluetooth. Let’s talk price. There are two Leaf models, a base (SV) and a step-up model called SL. Because SL is only $940 more than the SV, it seems the best bargain of the two. The SV is $25,280 while the SL rings the bell at $26,220. For both cars, there is a one-time $7,500 federal tax credit available (do the math yourself; I’m terrible at it), and, in California, the State Air Resources Board makes available another $5,000 tax credit. Your state may also offer similar credits, so check with your local Department of Motor Vehicles before buying an EV or hybrid to see what’s available. And $2,000 of the $2,200 cost of the installed home charger can be deferred; your dealer will fill you in. Similar to what Toyota did when their Prius first went on-sale, Nissan is using the Web to take “reservations” (a $99 “down payment” holds one for you) and let you stay in-touch with Leaf enthusiasts, get the latest news on technical highlights and Leaf availability, etc. Check-out www.NissanUSA.com and cruise around until you find “Leaf”. Finally, there’s an anomaly which not only Nissan but all companies making any kind of plug-in EV or hybrid need to think about: after a car-maker sells 200,000 units of whatever plug-in they’re making, that federal tax credit goes away. It’s almost a given that the new Prius plug-in hybrid and certainly the Leaf plug-in EV will fall victim to this rule. Nissan assures us their top execs are brainstorming to come up with a solution, so the woman who buys a Leaf one day and gets the $7,500 credit finds that her friend who bought one the next day does not get that credit. Nissan’s Leaf, GM’s Volt, Toyota’s plug-in gas/electric hybrid Prius and several other zero- or ultra-low-emission cars are about to go on-sale, all within about a year of each other. It’s an exciting time for those who are fascinated by the technology of these cars as well as their future possibilities, and Leaf will not be the butt of jokes using the words “glorified golf cart,” Leaf is a real car which will generate intense interest among the public worldwide.

Read the full article →

Steve Parker: Exclusive First Drive! Nissan’s 2011 Leaf EV

July 16, 2010

We have driven the future, and you can, too, sometime after the beginning of the new year. We took some short road test drives recently and one of the cars we flogged was Nissan’s 2011 Leaf EV. And while Toyota’s Prius gas/electric hybrid has been the Official State Car of Santa Monica for some years now, Leaf is definitely worthy of taking a shot at the title and could well prove successful in its efforts. In fact, the latest Leaf press preview was hosted at the Sheraton Miramar Hotel, smack in the center of the beach town. The challenge to Toyota has been made, and it might get ugly. Turns out all the excitement isn’t so much about the car’s performance, technology, styling or even interior design. It’s the car itself — the fact that it comes to life at a time so many other EVs, hybrids, extended-range hybrids and alternative fuel vehicles are hitting the marketplace. Customers will have a lot of info, maybe too much, to sort through when making their next vehicle choice. It’s bound to be shunned by some of the “holier than thou” who think cars should be banned entirely. But Leaf will be embraced by others, especially the so-called “hyper-milers,” who spend their days coming up with ways to suck even more energy out of every last atom in their batteries. Leaf is, without doubt, a history-making car. In terms of performance Leaf is about what we expected but it’s still, by default, a revolutionary and historic vehicle, the first EV to be mass-produced by a major car company in the “modern era” (post-WWII) and sold worldwide. Weighing in at a hefty 3,500 pounds (the battery pack alone is 600), Leaf will begin its U.S. sales sometime around the end of this year. Nissan announced this past week that Leaf’s on-board battery will be warranted for 8 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first. Nissan, along with Japanese battery-maker NEC, has formed a new corporation specifically to make Leaf’s batteries in Japan. For model year 2013, Nissan has plans to officially open its own dedicated battery-making facility in Tennessee for cars built in the U.S. Using laminated Lithium Ion batteries (Li-Ons for short), these batteries have been highly-developed by Nissan engineers to keep Leaf going for 100 miles after a charge, with a top speed of about 94 miles per hour. Now sit down, listen and learn something. Sorry, just wanted to see if you were still paying attention. There are three different charging methods for Leaf including “portable” charging, which uses a standard 110-volt wall plug-in charger which comes with the car. The portable method takes about 18 to 20 hours to make Leaf’s battery go from 0 to 100 per cent filled. “Installed charging” is the second method. When buying the Leaf, customers can also order an installed home charging unit. This method, using a 220-volt receptacle, takes around 8 hours to fully recharge Leaf. The home unit costs about $2,200, installed, but there are rebates and tax credits which can pay up to $2,000 of the total cost to encourage this option. Now, just as in auto racing, how fast you want to go depends on how much you want to spend, and this next option will be expensive, especially for Nissan and Aerovironment, the company working with Nissan on charger development and installation. “Quick charging” plans call for Leaf’s battery to be charged up to 80 per cent of capacity in only 30 minutes. Nissan engineers envision these quick chargers installed in busy shopping mall and office building parking lots, on major routes between cities ala truck stops and wherever else there might be a burgeoning population of EVs and plug-in hybrids needing a little love from the electric gods. We’ve gone over some of these specs before so let’s get down to it: How is Leaf on the streets? The Leaf we drove delivered about what we expected. The car is very intuitive; Nissan knows what we’re thinking when we get into the driver’s seat. All controls are in familiar places and operate accordingly, though, as on almost all the hybrids we’ve driven so far, there are some gimmicky eco-gauges and -controls that don’t seem altogether necessary (one allows the driver to “build a tree” as their eco-friendly driving style continues and improves for a period of time). The battery is under the car, as near the center as possible to help locate the center of gravity and help with handling. Nissan was smart to do this because they are going to catch a lot of hell for the car’s heft; perhaps Valerie Bertinelli and Jason Alexander can take fellow Jenny Craig clients to meetings and help Leaf lose a little bulk, too. Nissan Leaf interior Our test Leaf was, Nissan told us, about 90 per cent of what the final production version will look, feel and sound like. And the news is good in those areas: the car has an extreme style and much of that comes from use of a wind tunnel to design the car and cut down on that nemesis of EVs, wind noise. For instance, the highly-stylized headlamps with curves and lines that appear to go every which way are functionally manipulating oncoming air so it goes above and below the side mirrors, not right smack into it as on most cars and trucks. Even the radio antennae is specially shaped to cut noise and add to the vortex pushing the car along from the rear. These little things pay off as Leaf is very, very quiet; it’s like the local library. It’s so quiet, Nissan engineers tell us, that they had to engineer-in a certain amount of noise so pedestrians know there’s a car coming their way. We’re not kidding. The interior has a surprising amount of head room and that makes the entire car seem taller and wider than it really is from a passenger’s point of view. It’s a nice visual trick. Both front and rear seats do not offer what we would call “generous” legroom, but by no means would you think you’d be calling the chiropractor after a trip to Las Vegas in any seat on Leaf. You’ll have to go to a dealer to see the instrument panel up close and personal. Words simply can not do it justice. It’s colorful, animated and I understand the next-generation Leaf will come with 3D glasses. Well, it isn’t really that involved, so let’s just say the dash is, uh, “busy”. A single center tunnel mounted joystick-like appendage keeps Leaf in or out of its single forward gear. Leaf uses Nissan’s start system which allows engine start/stop by touching the brake and pushing a dash-mounted button with the key still in your pocket (or pocket book). Fit-and-finish inside and out was better than in most prototypes we’ve seen through the years. And with our test car not being a complete, sale-able Leaf, that bodes well for the car’s quality when it does go into production. As another Nissan engineer told us, “We’re still not through with it yet.” Steering is electrically boosted and was a little light for my tastes. I like to feel more connected to the road. Brakes are four-wheel anti-lock discs and seem up to the job, at least on the streets of Santa Monica. It is a bit surprising, though, the first time in the car, that due to the car’s heavyweight stance, drivers have to hit the brakes harder than they might in their previous compact car to slow or stop Leaf. That ABS braking system also creates battery-charging power through regenerative braking. Leaf gets off the line well as do all EVs and gas/electric hybrids. That’s because electric motors exhibit all their torque instantly, while a gas engine has a “torque curve” which brings the torque up gradually as the revs get higher. So Leaf drivers, like Prius owners before them, know that at the daily “Stop Light Grand Prix” they can take-on and beat just about any other car on the road. For the first 200 feet, at least. The audio system is superior for a car of this size and price (after tax credits and etc.) and allows plugging-in your iPod and all the other latest gizmos. Leaf has everything from 3D nav (not kidding this time) to Bluetooth. Let’s talk price. There are two Leaf models, a base (SV) and a step-up model called SL. Because SL is only $940 more than the SV, it seems the best bargain of the two. The SV is $25,280 while the SL rings the bell at $26,220. For both cars, there is a one-time $7,500 federal tax credit available (do the math yourself; I’m terrible at it), and, in California, the State Air Resources Board makes available another $5,000 tax credit. Your state may also offer similar credits, so check with your local Department of Motor Vehicles before buying an EV or hybrid to see what’s available. And $2,000 of the $2,200 cost of the installed home charger can be deferred; your dealer will fill you in. Similar to what Toyota did when their Prius first went on-sale, Nissan is using the Web to take “reservations” (a $99 “down payment” holds one for you) and let you stay in-touch with Leaf enthusiasts, get the latest news on technical highlights and Leaf availability, etc. Check-out www.NissanUSA.com and cruise around until you find “Leaf”. Finally, there’s an anomaly which not only Nissan but all companies making any kind of plug-in EV or hybrid need to think about: after a car-maker sells 200,000 units of whatever plug-in they’re making, that federal tax credit goes away. It’s almost a given that the new Prius plug-in hybrid and certainly the Leaf plug-in EV will fall victim to this rule. Nissan assures us their top execs are brainstorming to come up with a solution, so the woman who buys a Leaf one day and gets the $7,500 credit finds that her friend who bought one the next day does not get that credit. Nissan’s Leaf, GM’s Volt, Toyota’s plug-in gas/electric hybrid Prius and several other zero- or ultra-low-emission cars are about to go on-sale, all within about a year of each other. It’s an exciting time for those who are fascinated by the technology of these cars as well as their future possibilities, and Leaf will not be the butt of jokes using the words “glorified golf cart,” Leaf is a real car which will generate intense interest among the public worldwide.

Read the full article →

Steve Parker: Exclusive First Drive! Nissan’s 2011 Leaf EV

July 16, 2010

We have driven the future, and you can, too, sometime after the beginning of the new year. We took some short road test drives recently and one of the cars we flogged was Nissan’s 2011 Leaf EV. And while Toyota’s Prius gas/electric hybrid has been the Official State Car of Santa Monica for some years now, Leaf is definitely worthy of taking a shot at the title and could well prove successful in its efforts. In fact, the latest Leaf press preview was hosted at the Sheraton Miramar Hotel, smack in the center of the beach town. The challenge to Toyota has been made, and it might get ugly. Turns out all the excitement isn’t so much about the car’s performance, technology, styling or even interior design. It’s the car itself — the fact that it comes to life at a time so many other EVs, hybrids, extended-range hybrids and alternative fuel vehicles are hitting the marketplace. Customers will have a lot of info, maybe too much, to sort through when making their next vehicle choice. It’s bound to be shunned by some of the “holier than thou” who think cars should be banned entirely. But Leaf will be embraced by others, especially the so-called “hyper-milers,” who spend their days coming up with ways to suck even more energy out of every last atom in their batteries. Leaf is, without doubt, a history-making car. In terms of performance Leaf is about what we expected but it’s still, by default, a revolutionary and historic vehicle, the first EV to be mass-produced by a major car company in the “modern era” (post-WWII) and sold worldwide. Weighing in at a hefty 3,500 pounds (the battery pack alone is 600), Leaf will begin its U.S. sales sometime around the end of this year. Nissan announced this past week that Leaf’s on-board battery will be warranted for 8 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first. Nissan, along with Japanese battery-maker NEC, has formed a new corporation specifically to make Leaf’s batteries in Japan. For model year 2013, Nissan has plans to officially open its own dedicated battery-making facility in Tennessee for cars built in the U.S. Using laminated Lithium Ion batteries (Li-Ons for short), these batteries have been highly-developed by Nissan engineers to keep Leaf going for 100 miles after a charge, with a top speed of about 94 miles per hour. Now sit down, listen and learn something. Sorry, just wanted to see if you were still paying attention. There are three different charging methods for Leaf including “portable” charging, which uses a standard 110-volt wall plug-in charger which comes with the car. The portable method takes about 18 to 20 hours to make Leaf’s battery go from 0 to 100 per cent filled. “Installed charging” is the second method. When buying the Leaf, customers can also order an installed home charging unit. This method, using a 220-volt receptacle, takes around 8 hours to fully recharge Leaf. The home unit costs about $2,200, installed, but there are rebates and tax credits which can pay up to $2,000 of the total cost to encourage this option. Now, just as in auto racing, how fast you want to go depends on how much you want to spend, and this next option will be expensive, especially for Nissan and Aerovironment, the company working with Nissan on charger development and installation. “Quick charging” plans call for Leaf’s battery to be charged up to 80 per cent of capacity in only 30 minutes. Nissan engineers envision these quick chargers installed in busy shopping mall and office building parking lots, on major routes between cities ala truck stops and wherever else there might be a burgeoning population of EVs and plug-in hybrids needing a little love from the electric gods. We’ve gone over some of these specs before so let’s get down to it: How is Leaf on the streets? The Leaf we drove delivered about what we expected. The car is very intuitive; Nissan knows what we’re thinking when we get into the driver’s seat. All controls are in familiar places and operate accordingly, though, as on almost all the hybrids we’ve driven so far, there are some gimmicky eco-gauges and -controls that don’t seem altogether necessary (one allows the driver to “build a tree” as their eco-friendly driving style continues and improves for a period of time). The battery is under the car, as near the center as possible to help locate the center of gravity and help with handling. Nissan was smart to do this because they are going to catch a lot of hell for the car’s heft; perhaps Valerie Bertinelli and Jason Alexander can take fellow Jenny Craig clients to meetings and help Leaf lose a little bulk, too. Nissan Leaf interior Our test Leaf was, Nissan told us, about 90 per cent of what the final production version will look, feel and sound like. And the news is good in those areas: the car has an extreme style and much of that comes from use of a wind tunnel to design the car and cut down on that nemesis of EVs, wind noise. For instance, the highly-stylized headlamps with curves and lines that appear to go every which way are functionally manipulating oncoming air so it goes above and below the side mirrors, not right smack into it as on most cars and trucks. Even the radio antennae is specially shaped to cut noise and add to the vortex pushing the car along from the rear. These little things pay off as Leaf is very, very quiet; it’s like the local library. It’s so quiet, Nissan engineers tell us, that they had to engineer-in a certain amount of noise so pedestrians know there’s a car coming their way. We’re not kidding. The interior has a surprising amount of head room and that makes the entire car seem taller and wider than it really is from a passenger’s point of view. It’s a nice visual trick. Both front and rear seats do not offer what we would call “generous” legroom, but by no means would you think you’d be calling the chiropractor after a trip to Las Vegas in any seat on Leaf. You’ll have to go to a dealer to see the instrument panel up close and personal. Words simply can not do it justice. It’s colorful, animated and I understand the next-generation Leaf will come with 3D glasses. Well, it isn’t really that involved, so let’s just say the dash is, uh, “busy”. A single center tunnel mounted joystick-like appendage keeps Leaf in or out of its single forward gear. Leaf uses Nissan’s start system which allows engine start/stop by touching the brake and pushing a dash-mounted button with the key still in your pocket (or pocket book). Fit-and-finish inside and out was better than in most prototypes we’ve seen through the years. And with our test car not being a complete, sale-able Leaf, that bodes well for the car’s quality when it does go into production. As another Nissan engineer told us, “We’re still not through with it yet.” Steering is electrically boosted and was a little light for my tastes. I like to feel more connected to the road. Brakes are four-wheel anti-lock discs and seem up to the job, at least on the streets of Santa Monica. It is a bit surprising, though, the first time in the car, that due to the car’s heavyweight stance, drivers have to hit the brakes harder than they might in their previous compact car to slow or stop Leaf. That ABS braking system also creates battery-charging power through regenerative braking. Leaf gets off the line well as do all EVs and gas/electric hybrids. That’s because electric motors exhibit all their torque instantly, while a gas engine has a “torque curve” which brings the torque up gradually as the revs get higher. So Leaf drivers, like Prius owners before them, know that at the daily “Stop Light Grand Prix” they can take-on and beat just about any other car on the road. For the first 200 feet, at least. The audio system is superior for a car of this size and price (after tax credits and etc.) and allows plugging-in your iPod and all the other latest gizmos. Leaf has everything from 3D nav (not kidding this time) to Bluetooth. Let’s talk price. There are two Leaf models, a base (SV) and a step-up model called SL. Because SL is only $940 more than the SV, it seems the best bargain of the two. The SV is $25,280 while the SL rings the bell at $26,220. For both cars, there is a one-time $7,500 federal tax credit available (do the math yourself; I’m terrible at it), and, in California, the State Air Resources Board makes available another $5,000 tax credit. Your state may also offer similar credits, so check with your local Department of Motor Vehicles before buying an EV or hybrid to see what’s available. And $2,000 of the $2,200 cost of the installed home charger can be deferred; your dealer will fill you in. Similar to what Toyota did when their Prius first went on-sale, Nissan is using the Web to take “reservations” (a $99 “down payment” holds one for you) and let you stay in-touch with Leaf enthusiasts, get the latest news on technical highlights and Leaf availability, etc. Check-out www.NissanUSA.com and cruise around until you find “Leaf”. Finally, there’s an anomaly which not only Nissan but all companies making any kind of plug-in EV or hybrid need to think about: after a car-maker sells 200,000 units of whatever plug-in they’re making, that federal tax credit goes away. It’s almost a given that the new Prius plug-in hybrid and certainly the Leaf plug-in EV will fall victim to this rule. Nissan assures us their top execs are brainstorming to come up with a solution, so the woman who buys a Leaf one day and gets the $7,500 credit finds that her friend who bought one the next day does not get that credit. Nissan’s Leaf, GM’s Volt, Toyota’s plug-in gas/electric hybrid Prius and several other zero- or ultra-low-emission cars are about to go on-sale, all within about a year of each other. It’s an exciting time for those who are fascinated by the technology of these cars as well as their future possibilities, and Leaf will not be the butt of jokes using the words “glorified golf cart,” Leaf is a real car which will generate intense interest among the public worldwide.

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Video: Long Beach’s Farrell Discusses Proposed Marijuana Tax: Video

July 9, 2010

July 9 (Bloomberg) — Lori Ann Farrell, director of financial management for the City of Long Beach, California, talks about the city council’s decision to pursue a 5 percent tax on medical marijuana dispensaries to bridge falling revenue from the worst recession since the 1930s. Long Beach’s plan also proposes a 10 percent tax on non-medicinal marijuana sales if a state-wide referendum to legalize limited marijuana possession passes in November. Farrell speaks with Margaret Brennan on Bloomberg Television’s “InBusiness.” (Source: Bloomberg)

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PIMCO Names Kristofer Kraus as Executive Vice President With PIMCO Advisory

July 9, 2010

NEWPORT BEACH, CA–(Marketwire – July 9, 2010) –  PIMCO, a leading provider of global investment solutions, announced today that it has appointed Kristofer Kraus as an Executive Vice President based in the firm’s New York office. Kraus will be responsible for new business development and relationship management for PIMCO Advisory, which provides strategic investment advice and customized services including the valuation, monitoring and liquidation of complex assets and portfolios, drawing on the full resources of PIMCO to deliver independent analysis, execution and customized solutions for a wide range of public and private institutions.

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Bill Singer: Modern-Day Regulation: The Big Broom After the Circus Parade Passes

July 2, 2010

I watched with disgust the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. A city and region were devastated first by a storm and then victimized by a lack of preparation and response. Those in charge of the emergency response seemed little more than political hacks and friends of friends in high places. Clearly, the Gulf Coast region would learn some lessons. Now, amidst the BP oil leak — a calamity of epic proportion — the most charitable characterization of the so-called emergency response is that it is a deer caught in the headlights. You would think that there were some contingency plans on some shelf for this event. You know, maybe someone contemplated that another hurricane could topple an oil rig? Instead, in many ways, we are seeing a redux of the failed response to Katrina. In a time of crisis , those who should have drawn up earlier contingency plans are only now first setting up shop. You just get that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach that everything is ad hoc . Of course, what has been thought out and thought through is how to best spin the bad news. Oh, no doubt about it — private enterprise and government always seem to have that knack for self-preservation. If I see one more self-serving television ad from BP, if I see one more politician in socks and shoes walking on the beach with his shirtsleeves rolled up, I’m going to throw my television remote through my screen. Don’t these idiots get it? Disasters are not wonderful opportunities for a photo-op! Having set in motion the causes of this ecological disaster, BP wants me to thank them for giving folks shovels to clean the beaches? Having failed to timely respond to the leak with an effective containment plan, government officials want me to applaud their televised hearings? I am not a fan of the time-wastin’ speechifyin’, masturbatory roundtablin’, and high-fallutin’ blue-ribbon panels that enervate our government. Sadly, we are saddled with legislators and regulators who belatedly cobble together ineffective solutions for yesterday’s problems, or opt for abject inaction that paves the way for tomorrow’s crises. In the end, we get neither an ounce of prevention nor a pound of cure. E Pluribus Unum has been replaced with Too Little, Too Late . Among the worst examples of institutionalized procrastination is the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). More often than not, my commentaries about the SEC are filled with pointed barbs — sharpened from frustration with the federal regulator’s inability to do its job. Consider my May 2010 blog: LOST: One Securities and Exchange Commission Regulatory Priority . We live in a world of limited resources and we are creatures with a limited time on this planet. We cannot do all things within in our limited lifespans — hence we need to have a sense of both history and a concern for the future. Professional regulators must always be aware of that ticking clock. Among the most difficult challenges facing them is knowing their priorities and allocating the most effective use of their dollars and staff towards preventing fraud and promulgating prophylactic rules. In this day and age, no one should be nominated to the SEC or any regulatory organization if that man or woman doesn’t have their priorities in mind and in order — and each candidate should be vetted on that point. Similarly, for the SEC to announce that it’s unsure of its priorities and needs to form some committee to figure out what’s important and what should be first, smacks of a gross lack of leadership and vision. Sadly, the legacy of the SEC is that too many Madoff-like schemes have flourished while the various commissioners seemed distracted by choosing china patterns. A harsh condemnation, but one that I believe is deserved. Effective leadership sets goals and makes choices. Too often, the SEC delves into the world of metaphysics and foolishly diverts its resources from meaningful prevention and enforcement towards efforts that seem solely calculated to pander to the public. A recent example of such silliness was the sideshow concerning global warming . Not only would the SEC not acknowledge that there was or wasn’t global warming (or climate change, if you prefer), but it wasted countless hours of staff time preparing a report and voting on new regulations. While the SEC’s attention was diverted to posturing over global warming, the “Flash Crash” overwhelmed Wall Street and, as usual, the federal regulator didn’t know what had happened and had no effective contingency plans with which to respond. The result was that Wall Street’s cop was forced to bring out the broom after the circus parade passed us by. The one saving grace of that incident was that the SEC actually moved quickly to institute single-stock circuit breaks, for which I complimented the regulator . On June 30, 2010, during an open meeting of the SEC, Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar gave a speech titled: ” Preventing Investor Harm Should be SEC Priority Number One .” It was with some surprise that I read Commissioner Aguilar’s comments because he offered a superb description of what constitutes effective regulation. Now, if only the astute commissioner could transform his vision into action, and drag his colleagues into the 21st Century! I commend his words to you: Regulatory oversight functions best when we have a regulatory regime that prevents misconduct in the first instance — long before investors can be harmed. If the conduct is not affirmatively prevented, investors are harmed. It’s true that once investors are harmed and lose faith in the integrity of our institutions — irreversible damage has taken place. Enforcement actions are rarely, if ever, able to make investors whole, sufficiently punish all the fraudsters, and prevent a loss of investor trust in these financial institutions and the securities industry as a whole. The best course of action is to prevent the significant harm in the first place. Prophylactic rules, consistent and effective inspections, and strong enforcement must work together to protect investors. Read Commissioner Aguilar’s Entire Speech at: http://sec.gov/news/speech/2010/spch063010laa.htm

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Bill Singer: Modern-Day Regulation: The Big Broom After the Circus Parade Passes

July 2, 2010

I watched with disgust the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. A city and region were devastated first by a storm and then victimized by a lack of preparation and response. Those in charge of the emergency response seemed little more than political hacks and friends of friends in high places. Clearly, the Gulf Coast region would learn some lessons. Now, amidst the BP oil leak — a calamity of epic proportion — the most charitable characterization of the so-called emergency response is that it is a deer caught in the headlights. You would think that there were some contingency plans on some shelf for this event. You know, maybe someone contemplated that another hurricane could topple an oil rig? Instead, in many ways, we are seeing a redux of the failed response to Katrina. In a time of crisis , those who should have drawn up earlier contingency plans are only now first setting up shop. You just get that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach that everything is ad hoc . Of course, what has been thought out and thought through is how to best spin the bad news. Oh, no doubt about it — private enterprise and government always seem to have that knack for self-preservation. If I see one more self-serving television ad from BP, if I see one more politician in socks and shoes walking on the beach with his shirtsleeves rolled up, I’m going to throw my television remote through my screen. Don’t these idiots get it? Disasters are not wonderful opportunities for a photo-op! Having set in motion the causes of this ecological disaster, BP wants me to thank them for giving folks shovels to clean the beaches? Having failed to timely respond to the leak with an effective containment plan, government officials want me to applaud their televised hearings? I am not a fan of the time-wastin’ speechifyin’, masturbatory roundtablin’, and high-fallutin’ blue-ribbon panels that enervate our government. Sadly, we are saddled with legislators and regulators who belatedly cobble together ineffective solutions for yesterday’s problems, or opt for abject inaction that paves the way for tomorrow’s crises. In the end, we get neither an ounce of prevention nor a pound of cure. E Pluribus Unum has been replaced with Too Little, Too Late . Among the worst examples of institutionalized procrastination is the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). More often than not, my commentaries about the SEC are filled with pointed barbs — sharpened from frustration with the federal regulator’s inability to do its job. Consider my May 2010 blog: LOST: One Securities and Exchange Commission Regulatory Priority . We live in a world of limited resources and we are creatures with a limited time on this planet. We cannot do all things within in our limited lifespans — hence we need to have a sense of both history and a concern for the future. Professional regulators must always be aware of that ticking clock. Among the most difficult challenges facing them is knowing their priorities and allocating the most effective use of their dollars and staff towards preventing fraud and promulgating prophylactic rules. In this day and age, no one should be nominated to the SEC or any regulatory organization if that man or woman doesn’t have their priorities in mind and in order — and each candidate should be vetted on that point. Similarly, for the SEC to announce that it’s unsure of its priorities and needs to form some committee to figure out what’s important and what should be first, smacks of a gross lack of leadership and vision. Sadly, the legacy of the SEC is that too many Madoff-like schemes have flourished while the various commissioners seemed distracted by choosing china patterns. A harsh condemnation, but one that I believe is deserved. Effective leadership sets goals and makes choices. Too often, the SEC delves into the world of metaphysics and foolishly diverts its resources from meaningful prevention and enforcement towards efforts that seem solely calculated to pander to the public. A recent example of such silliness was the sideshow concerning global warming . Not only would the SEC not acknowledge that there was or wasn’t global warming (or climate change, if you prefer), but it wasted countless hours of staff time preparing a report and voting on new regulations. While the SEC’s attention was diverted to posturing over global warming, the “Flash Crash” overwhelmed Wall Street and, as usual, the federal regulator didn’t know what had happened and had no effective contingency plans with which to respond. The result was that Wall Street’s cop was forced to bring out the broom after the circus parade passed us by. The one saving grace of that incident was that the SEC actually moved quickly to institute single-stock circuit breaks, for which I complimented the regulator . On June 30, 2010, during an open meeting of the SEC, Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar gave a speech titled: ” Preventing Investor Harm Should be SEC Priority Number One .” It was with some surprise that I read Commissioner Aguilar’s comments because he offered a superb description of what constitutes effective regulation. Now, if only the astute commissioner could transform his vision into action, and drag his colleagues into the 21st Century! I commend his words to you: Regulatory oversight functions best when we have a regulatory regime that prevents misconduct in the first instance — long before investors can be harmed. If the conduct is not affirmatively prevented, investors are harmed. It’s true that once investors are harmed and lose faith in the integrity of our institutions — irreversible damage has taken place. Enforcement actions are rarely, if ever, able to make investors whole, sufficiently punish all the fraudsters, and prevent a loss of investor trust in these financial institutions and the securities industry as a whole. The best course of action is to prevent the significant harm in the first place. Prophylactic rules, consistent and effective inspections, and strong enforcement must work together to protect investors. Read Commissioner Aguilar’s Entire Speech at: http://sec.gov/news/speech/2010/spch063010laa.htm

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Commerce National Bank Announces the Appointment of Jonathan Park, Vice President, SBA Business Development Officer

June 30, 2010

NEWPORT BEACH, CA–(Marketwire – June 30, 2010) –  Commerce National Bank ( OTCBB : CNBF ), a community business bank now in its seventh year of operation, is pleased to announce that Jonathan Park has joined the bank as Vice President, SBA Business Development Officer.

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Commerce National Bank Announces the Appointment of Jonathan Park, Vice President, SBA Business Development Officer

June 30, 2010

NEWPORT BEACH, CA–(Marketwire – June 30, 2010) –  Commerce National Bank ( OTCBB : CNBF ), a community business bank now in its seventh year of operation, is pleased to announce that Jonathan Park has joined the bank as Vice President, SBA Business Development Officer.

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AccuDial(R) Pharmaceutical Appoints Industry Leaders to Board of Directors

June 30, 2010

PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL–(Marketwire – June 30, 2010) –   AccuDial® Pharmaceutical, Inc. announced today the expansion of its board of directors with the appointment of five distinguished industry leaders. With the exciting success of its Children’s AccuDial family of pediatric, over-the-counter (OTC) products, which launched in Canada in January 2010, the private pharmaceutical company is moving forward aggressively in the dynamic global market.

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Beachfront-Property Rights Limited by U.S. Supreme Court in Erosion Case

June 17, 2010

By Greg Stohr June 17 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Florida program that fights erosion by adding sand along the shoreline and creating strips of public beach. The justices unanimously ruled against a group of landowners who contended that the program unconstitutionally takes away their private beaches. The ruling centered on the constitutional protection against the taking of private property without compensation. Justice John Paul Stevens , who owns oceanfront property in Florida, didn’t take part in the ruling. The case is Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, 08-1151. To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net .

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BP Stock Back Up Despite Talk Of Suspending Dividend

June 11, 2010

BP shares have taken a huge hit, falling from 655.4 pence ($9.51) after the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 people and triggered a spill that has sent millions of gallons of oil gushing into the Gulf’s fragile waters. BP has come under heavy pressure from President Barack Obama and his administration to suspend its quarterly dividend, a possibility that initially soured investor sentiment but which some think is now priced into the share value. “We are considering all options on the dividend. But no decision has been made,” BP’s Chief Executive Tony Hayward said in an interview in Friday’s Wall Street Journal. Suspending the dividend would disappoint investors – including millions of British retirees whose pension funds include BP, which used to be the country’s largest company. But it could also deflect some of the intense political heat that BP is feeling in the United States. To deflect a widening trans-Atlantic rift, Prime Minister David Cameron was to discuss the oil spill in a phone call with Obama on Saturday. BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg – who has faced criticism for not being more visible in BP’s response – met Friday with British Treasury chief George Osborne and spoke on the phone with Cameron. Cameron’s office said the prime minister “was frustrated and concerned about the environmental damage caused by the leak but made clear his view that BP is an economically important company in the U.K., U.S. and other countries.” “It is in everyone’s interests that BP continues to be a financially strong and stable company,” Cameron said, according to his office. Osborne said the British government “understand(s) the concerns of the U.S. administration,” but added “the prime minister is also clear that we need constructive solutions and that we remember the economic value BP brings to people in Britain and America.” Svanberg insisted that the company was doing all it could to stop the spill. “We have done everything we can to try to fill the well and we have said we would do everything expected from us in cleaning up the beach, taking care of all the claims and learn from this incident and make deep sea drilling an even safer place,” Svanberg told broadcaster ITN after the Treasury meeting. Thursday’s share turmoil came after U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he would ask BP to compensate energy companies if they have to lay off workers or suffer economically because of a six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling imposed by the Obama administration following Deepwater rig explosion. The chief executive of Britain’s National Association of Pension Funds said Friday that investors might be receptive to a suspension of the dividend to protect the company’s long-term future. Joanne Segars told the BBC that BP’s “long-term” future was far more important. “BP’s current difficulties shouldn’t have an immediate or serious impact on those saving into a pension scheme or on those who have retired,” said Segars, the association’s leader. James Bevan, chief investment officer at CCLA, which manages investments for charities and local governments, said BP could afford to suspend dividends. “BP has always said that its dividend policy will take account of the strength of its balance sheet – BP’s balance sheet is very strong – but also the long-term growth prospects for the company,” Bevan said in a BBC radio interview. “And deferring one or even two dividends would not be inconsistent with taking a long view that ultimately could repay shareholders handsomely.” Some analysts are already predicting a cut in the dividend. Evolution Securities said it expected the current year payout to be 28 cents a share, half of the previous year’s level, but it continued to recommend BP shares as a “buy.” The White House on Thursday released a letter inviting Svanberg and “any appropriate officials from BP” to meet next week with senior administration officials. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who leads the U.S. government response to the crisis, said Obama would join part of that meeting. Obama has yet to meet with any BP official since the explosion. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs did not rule out the possibility of a meeting next week between Obama and Hayward, who is to testify next Thursday at a House Energy subcommittee hearing into the spill. Meanwhile, BP announced a $25 million grant to Florida to support the state’s contingency plan to deal with a leak from a BP well, and the same amount to help the state’s tourist industry. ___ Associated Press writer Jill Lawless also contributed to this story from London.

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Lawmakers Seek to Extend Retirement Income as U.S. Workers Outlive Savings

June 11, 2010

By Margaret Collins June 11 (Bloomberg) — Lawmakers concerned that Americans may outlive their savings are looking at ways to make the money last through retirement. Workers who relied on traditional pensions are now trying to pay for retirement with their 401(k) savings, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. In 1983, 62 percent of workers had only company-funded pensions, while 12 percent had 401(k)s, the center said. In 2007, those numbers were 17 percent and 63 percent, respectively. Most American households at or near retirement “are consumed by fear,” said Anthony Webb, associate director of research at the research nonprofit. “Instead of walking on the beach hand-in-hand in retirement, the reality is that they’re sitting around the kitchen table cutting coupons.” Legislators and regulators are focusing on income guarantees such as annuities to supplement traditional retirement plans. Annuities are insurance products that can provide monthly income for life in exchange for upfront payments. Workers underestimate how much money they’ll need in retirement and how long they’ll live, said Roger Ferguson , chief executive officer and president of TIAA-CREF, whose New York- based firm manages $426 billion of retirement funds for 3.7 million teachers and academic researchers. The life expectancy of a 65-year-old U.S. male is 82, and 85 for a 65-year-old female, according to the Social Security Administration. The average 401(k) account balance as of March 31 was $66,900, according to Boston-based Fidelity Investments, which has 11 million participants. The average monthly Social Security benefit as of April was $1,067. Requests for Comment “It’s going to be quite important for policy makers to turn their attention relatively quickly to the retirement issue as one of, if not the, most important social crisis that remains in America right now,” said Ferguson, a former Federal Reserve vice chairman. A Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing June 16 on the issue follows a request for comment from the U.S. Labor and Treasury departments on retirement security including annuities in plans, and whether regulators should require employers with 401(k)s to offer a lifetime income option or automatically enroll employees who don’t make a selection. “If pension plans can fail, why can’t annuities? Who is guaranteeing them?” Joseph Ortiz, a 34-year-old Chicago construction worker, said in a telephone interview. “At least with a regular 401(k), if something goes horribly wrong you can look at yourself and say ‘I didn’t do my homework.’” The agencies received more than 700 responses , including one from Ortiz. It will likely take months to review them and they may not lead to a regulatory recommendation, Assistant Labor Secretary Phyllis Borzi , who’s scheduled to testify at the hearing, said in a telephone interview. No Mandate The administration has no plans for a mandate, said Jared Bernstein , executive director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class. “We are by no means saying that everybody should have an annuity,” he said in a telephone interview. Participants in 401(k)s generally don’t buy annuities when retiring. Less than 1 percent take them, according to Hewitt Associates, a Lincolnshire, Illinois-based human-resources company. Many retirees lack sufficient funds to purchase annuities large enough to cover their spending, few payments are adjusted for inflation and heirs generally do not receive the benefits at death, according to the Government Accountability Office. Reluctant Employers Employers have been reluctant to adopt them within their retirement plans because of concerns about fees and potential legal liabilities for companies who pick the insurers. There’s also the issue of how workers who switch jobs can transfer the guarantees, said Lori Lucas, defined contribution practice leader for Callan Associates Inc., a San Francisco-based investment-consulting firm. Last year, 4 percent of employers offered a defined contribution retirement plan such as a 401(k) that allowed participants to allocate a portion of contributions to an income guarantee, according to Callan, which surveyed 90 plan sponsors with more than $100 million in assets. That compares with 3 percent in 2008. Insurers and investment managers are trying to address some of these issues as they develop annuities that fit inside 401(k)s, Lucas said. MetLife Inc. and Prudential Financial Inc. , the two largest U.S. insurers, and investment managers BlackRock Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. , are blending income guarantees with target-date 401(k) portfolios, which shift to more conservative assets such as bonds as investors near retirement. Insurer Offerings Prudential has had 401(k) funds with annuities since 2007, attracting 21,000 participants and $333 million in assets as of March, said Mark Foley, vice president of the Newark, New Jersey-based company’s institutional income group. AllianceBernstein Holding LP and Putnam Investments LLC are working on similar products. Pacific Investment Management Co. started funds in November that are suitable for 401(k) plans, offering monthly cash from a Treasury Inflation Protected Securities portfolio for 10 years or 20 years in retirement, said Tom Streiff, the firm’s retirement product manager. Workers’ savings accounts should incorporate an income plan before retirement, said Shlomo Benartzi , a UCLA Anderson School of Management professor who specializes in behavioral finance. Half of retirees in their 80s can’t be responsible for their money decisions because they have some cognitive impairment, Benartzi said. “It’s like a plane without landing gear,” he said. “We guide people in take off and in the air but not when landing.” Savings Alarm One pending bill, introduced in December by Senators Jeff Bingaman , a New Mexico Democrat, Johnny Isakson , a Georgia Republican and Herb Kohl , a Wisconsin Democrat, would require corporate retirement plan sponsors to disclose how much monthly income employees’ portfolios would generate in retirement. Ortiz said he worries about having enough to live on, especially when he looks at his 80-year-old grandmother, who still works as a bank teller and is running out of money. While that’s an alarm to save more, he said, it’s not enough of a reason to have a retirement plan with a guarantee. “How do you know the government’s going to be able to borrow more money next time to rescue an AIG to be able to pay that annuity?” Ortiz said. To contact the reporter on this story: Margaret Collins in New York at mcollins45@bloomberg.net

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Nike Mocks Butt-Toning Shoes That Drive Market-Share Loss

June 3, 2010

By Matt Townsend June 3 (Bloomberg) — Nike Inc.’s Eric Sprunk , vice president of global product and merchandising, ended a speech to investors on innovation with a jab at the “toning shoes” driving sales increases for competitors. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could make a pair of shoes that made your butt smaller, made my gut look smaller, make your muscles look a little bit bigger, just by putting them on and wearing them around and stuff, walking in them?” Sprunk asked his audience at Chelsea Piers in New York on May 5. “Nobody can do that. I was just teasing.” Toning shoes are driving market share gains for Adidas AG’s Reebok unit and Skechers U.S.A. Inc. as Nike’s lead in U.S. women’s athletic footwear shrinks, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its June 7 issue. The Beaverton, Oregon-based company held on to its top spot in the market as its share slipped 7.2 percentage points, to 31 percent, or $412 million, in the first quarter from a year ago, according to researcher SportsOneSource. Reebok’s share more than doubled, to 6.7 percent, or $90.3 million, and Skechers’ share tripled to 17 percent, or $225.7 million, according to SportsOneSource. “Nike spent months watching this thing develop and did nothing about it and now they are paying the price of a missed opportunity,” said Matt Powell, a sports retail analyst at SportsOneSource. ‘Not Convinced’ Toning shoes are designed to simulate the feeling of walking on sand and make wearers stabilize their steps, leading to stronger leg, buttock, back, and abdominal muscles, according to Manhattan Beach, California-based Skechers, maker of the Shape-ups toning shoe. Reebok says its EasyTones generate 28 percent more gluteus maximus muscle activation than a typical walking shoe, and 11 percent more in the hamstring and calves. Both companies cite research and testing they commissioned to back up the claims. John Pagliano, a podiatrist in Long Beach, California, said he gets asked about toning shoes several times a day. While he said the instability in the shoes causes muscles to work harder, he hasn’t seen enough evidence that it can firm wearers’ backsides. “I say I’m not really sure, and I haven’t been convinced by the studies,” said Pagliano, who specializes in athletic injuries. Women’s toners with their $100-plus prices have become a lucrative market in the U.S. A year ago, the top 10 highest- grossing athletic shoes didn’t include any toning shoes or women’s footwear. In a May 16 survey by SportsOneSource, six of the top 10 athletic shoes were toning products: four Shape-ups and two EasyTones. Nike had the four remaining shoes, including a pair of Air Jordans that sell for $150. Eight-fold Increase Toning-shoe sales in the U.S., which totaled $17 million in 2008, increased more than eight-fold, to $145 million, last year when both Reebok and Skechers introduced their models, according to NPD Group. In the first four months of this year, toning-footwear sales skyrocketed to $252 million, 75 percent more than the total for all of 2009. “The explosion of growth in this space in such a short period of time eclipses everything I have witnessed in the industry over the last 25 years,” said Herbert Hainer , chief executive officer of Herzogenaurach, Germany-based Adidas. Reebok may sell 5 million pairs of toning shoes in the U.S. this year, he said. After Reebok ramped up its ads last fall, retailer Foot Locker Inc. said it couldn’t keep up with toning-shoe demand. “The American consumer is always looking for an easy way to lose weight, and this proves it,” Foot Locker Chief Executive Officer Ken Hicks said. ‘Get Our Share’ Nike, the world’s largest athletic shoemaker, wants to lure women thinking of buying toning shoes to its five-year-old Free brand, which sells for $85 a pair and the company says simulates barefoot running to strengthen feet and muscles. It plans new versions this fall. “We’re excited that women are spending money on athletic footwear, and we think we can get our share,” said Charlie Denson , president of the Nike brand. Free can “supply the same kind of benefit to the athlete that maybe some of the others are claiming,” he said. In the quarter ended Feb. 28, footwear was the only segment of Nike’s North American business to post a sales decline, dropping 1 percent, to $1.2 billion, while overall revenue rallied 6.6 percent to $4.73 billion. “They realize it’s definitely a category and they can’t ignore it,” said Chris Svezia , a sporting-goods analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group. “There’s probably pressure from retailers saying, ‘Why not do it?’” To contact the reporter on this story: Matt Townsend in New York at mtownsend9@bloomberg.net .

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Netanyahu Calls Flotilla Raid Criticism Hypocrisy Amid Probe Calls

June 3, 2010

By Gwen Ackerman and Jonathan Ferziger June 3 (Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said criticism of Israel’s raid against a Gaza Strip aid shipment that left nine dead was “hypocrisy,” as international calls for a probe into the incident mounted. “Israel is told it has the right to defend itself, but when we do exercise that right we’re condemned for it,” Netanyahu said in a nationally televised address in Jerusalem. “Israel should not be held to a double standard.” Israel has faced international criticism over the May 31 raid by naval commandos on a flotilla of aid ships, as well as calls for it to lift restrictions on the flow of goods into Gaza. The incident has led to demands for Israel or others to investigate the raid on the ships that headed for Hamas- controlled Gaza in an effort to undermine Israel’s blockade. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters in New York that the blockade was “counter-productive, unsustainable and wrong,” and that it should end “immediately.” Israel “must provide as soon as possible a full and detailed accounting of the events surrounding this incident,” he said. Vice-President Joe Biden said Israel has “an absolute right to deal with its security interest” and a “right to know” what is being transported to Gaza. Biden said he supports a “transparent and open” investigation that is led by the Israelis and has “international participation.” He spoke in an interview on PBS television’s “Charlie Rose Show. Israel isn’t likely to agree to an international probe, said Jonathan Spyer , a political scientist at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. Faulty Intelligence “There is a very strong sense that it is not that something actually wrong took place,” Spyer said in a telephone interview. “Rather, there was a mishap and a strong sense that the army made a mistake based on faulty intelligence. There is not a sense that Israel feels answerable to the world community.” At the same time, Israel has acted to end the crisis. All detained members of the flotilla were expelled yesterday, with the exception of seven people still in the hospital, said Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad. Three aircraft landed in Istanbul carrying 466 passengers and the bodies of nine people killed in the raid, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in comments carried by state-owned news agency Anatolia. Four of the dead have been identified as Turks and the nationality of the others isn’t clear. Nineteen injured people were flown to Ankara and were being given treatment. Supporters Welcome The planes were welcomed by hundreds of supporters and family members at Istanbul’s main airport. Arab foreign ministers meeting in an emergency session in Cairo urged their governments to defy the blockade, Arab League Secretary-General Amre Moussa said. The ministers called on Arab states to “work to provide the people of Gaza with whatever they need regardless of the blockade and using all means,” he told a news conference after a three-hour meeting that ended early today. Netanyahu spoke after the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution to authorize an independent international investigation of the Israeli raid on the flotilla. The U.S., the Netherlands and Italy voted against the measure. “Every Ship’ “Our responsibility is to examine every ship going to Gaza, to stop the weapons and to let other cargo enter,” Netanyahu said yesterday. “If we don’t do that, the result is going to be an Iranian port in Gaza.” The UN Security Council has also called for an investigation. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in an interview yesterday on RTL Radio that any investigation should be overseen by the UN. In the past, Israel refused to participate in a UN panel led by former UN prosecutor and South African judge Richard Goldstone that investigated the 2008 Gaza war. Goldstone’s panel accused Israel and Hamas of war crimes and called on them to investigate the charges. Ban said after meetings with envoys of Israel, Turkey, the U.S., China, Russia and Arab nations that he would take “some time” to decide how an investigation of the raid should be conducted. He said he would “make it as impartial, credible and transparent as possible.” Stop Hamas Israel’s benchmark TA-25 Index was up 0.02 percent at the close in Tel Aviv yesterday. Israel said the Gaza war was meant to stop Hamas and other militant groups from firing rockets into its territory. About 330 rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel since the end of the operation, killing one foreign worker last March, the army said. Alon Liel , former director general of the Foreign Ministry, said that unlike the Gaza probe, where many facts were unknown, photos and video footage of the flotilla incident was readily available on the Internet. “I don’t think it is an inquiry that should bother Israel too much except one thing, the fact that they acted 80 or 90 miles from the beach in international water,” Liel said in a phone interview. “I don’t know if an international inquiry will say Israel did something illegal. This is the soft belly.” Some Israeli opposition lawmakers called on the government to set up an official inquiry into the raid, the daily Haaretz said. A survey of Israeli Jews in the daily Ma’ariv newspaper found that 46.7 percent of those questioned want the government to establish a probe into the incident, while 51.6 percent say there is no need. Israeli Blockade The pro-Palestinian activists were attempting to sail into Gaza, which has been under Israeli blockade since the Islamic Hamas movement took control of the territory in 2007. A seventh ship has sailed for Gaza to try and breach the Israeli blockade. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the U.S. and the European Union. Palestinians, backed by the United Nations and human-rights groups, say the restrictions on food imports and construction materials have created a humanitarian crisis. Israel says it needs to control Gaza’s borders or Hamas will smuggle in material to make rockets and attack its territory. Israel said its soldiers were attacked with knives and clubs after boarding a vessel and seven soldiers were wounded, including by gunfire after activists aboard the ship managed to grab Israeli firearms. Kuwait lawmaker Waleed al-Tabtabai, who was on one of the ships, told reporters on his return home that the “Israelis started firing even before they landed on the ship. They killed two Turks, one was killed by helicopter fire and the other by fire from a ship.” To contact the reporter on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net ; Jonathan Ferziger in Jerusalem at jferziger@bloomberg.net

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Netanyahu Calls Flotilla Raid Criticism Hypocrisy Amid Probe Calls

June 3, 2010

By Gwen Ackerman and Jonathan Ferziger June 3 (Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said criticism of Israel’s raid against a Gaza Strip aid shipment that left nine dead was “hypocrisy,” as international calls for a probe into the incident mounted. “Israel is told it has the right to defend itself, but when we do exercise that right we’re condemned for it,” Netanyahu said in a nationally televised address in Jerusalem. “Israel should not be held to a double standard.” Israel has faced international criticism over the May 31 raid by naval commandos on a flotilla of aid ships, as well as calls for it to lift restrictions on the flow of goods into Gaza. The incident has led to demands for Israel or others to investigate the raid on the ships that headed for Hamas- controlled Gaza in an effort to undermine Israel’s blockade. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters in New York that the blockade was “counter-productive, unsustainable and wrong,” and that it should end “immediately.” Israel “must provide as soon as possible a full and detailed accounting of the events surrounding this incident,” he said. Vice-President Joe Biden said Israel has “an absolute right to deal with its security interest” and a “right to know” what is being transported to Gaza. Biden said he supports a “transparent and open” investigation that is led by the Israelis and has “international participation.” He spoke in an interview on PBS television’s “Charlie Rose Show. Israel isn’t likely to agree to an international probe, said Jonathan Spyer , a political scientist at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. Faulty Intelligence “There is a very strong sense that it is not that something actually wrong took place,” Spyer said in a telephone interview. “Rather, there was a mishap and a strong sense that the army made a mistake based on faulty intelligence. There is not a sense that Israel feels answerable to the world community.” At the same time, Israel has acted to end the crisis. All detained members of the flotilla were expelled yesterday, with the exception of seven people still in the hospital, said Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad. Three aircraft landed in Istanbul carrying 466 passengers and the bodies of nine people killed in the raid, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in comments carried by state-owned news agency Anatolia. Four of the dead have been identified as Turks and the nationality of the others isn’t clear. Nineteen injured people were flown to Ankara and were being given treatment. Supporters Welcome The planes were welcomed by hundreds of supporters and family members at Istanbul’s main airport. Arab foreign ministers meeting in an emergency session in Cairo urged their governments to defy the blockade, Arab League Secretary-General Amre Moussa said. The ministers called on Arab states to “work to provide the people of Gaza with whatever they need regardless of the blockade and using all means,” he told a news conference after a three-hour meeting that ended early today. Netanyahu spoke after the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution to authorize an independent international investigation of the Israeli raid on the flotilla. The U.S., the Netherlands and Italy voted against the measure. “Every Ship’ “Our responsibility is to examine every ship going to Gaza, to stop the weapons and to let other cargo enter,” Netanyahu said yesterday. “If we don’t do that, the result is going to be an Iranian port in Gaza.” The UN Security Council has also called for an investigation. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in an interview yesterday on RTL Radio that any investigation should be overseen by the UN. In the past, Israel refused to participate in a UN panel led by former UN prosecutor and South African judge Richard Goldstone that investigated the 2008 Gaza war. Goldstone’s panel accused Israel and Hamas of war crimes and called on them to investigate the charges. Ban said after meetings with envoys of Israel, Turkey, the U.S., China, Russia and Arab nations that he would take “some time” to decide how an investigation of the raid should be conducted. He said he would “make it as impartial, credible and transparent as possible.” Stop Hamas Israel’s benchmark TA-25 Index was up 0.02 percent at the close in Tel Aviv yesterday. Israel said the Gaza war was meant to stop Hamas and other militant groups from firing rockets into its territory. About 330 rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel since the end of the operation, killing one foreign worker last March, the army said. Alon Liel , former director general of the Foreign Ministry, said that unlike the Gaza probe, where many facts were unknown, photos and video footage of the flotilla incident was readily available on the Internet. “I don’t think it is an inquiry that should bother Israel too much except one thing, the fact that they acted 80 or 90 miles from the beach in international water,” Liel said in a phone interview. “I don’t know if an international inquiry will say Israel did something illegal. This is the soft belly.” Some Israeli opposition lawmakers called on the government to set up an official inquiry into the raid, the daily Haaretz said. A survey of Israeli Jews in the daily Ma’ariv newspaper found that 46.7 percent of those questioned want the government to establish a probe into the incident, while 51.6 percent say there is no need. Israeli Blockade The pro-Palestinian activists were attempting to sail into Gaza, which has been under Israeli blockade since the Islamic Hamas movement took control of the territory in 2007. A seventh ship has sailed for Gaza to try and breach the Israeli blockade. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the U.S. and the European Union. Palestinians, backed by the United Nations and human-rights groups, say the restrictions on food imports and construction materials have created a humanitarian crisis. Israel says it needs to control Gaza’s borders or Hamas will smuggle in material to make rockets and attack its territory. Israel said its soldiers were attacked with knives and clubs after boarding a vessel and seven soldiers were wounded, including by gunfire after activists aboard the ship managed to grab Israeli firearms. Kuwait lawmaker Waleed al-Tabtabai, who was on one of the ships, told reporters on his return home that the “Israelis started firing even before they landed on the ship. They killed two Turks, one was killed by helicopter fire and the other by fire from a ship.” To contact the reporter on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net ; Jonathan Ferziger in Jerusalem at jferziger@bloomberg.net

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Gulf Oil Spill: Best Chance To Stop Leak Won’t Be Ready Until August

May 31, 2010

NEW ORLEANS — The best hope for stopping the flow of oil from the blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico has been compared to hitting a target the size of a dinner plate with a drill more than two miles into the earth, and is anything but a sure bet on the first attempt. Bid after bid has failed to stanch what has already become the nation’s worst-ever spill, and BP PLC is readying another attempt as early as Wednesday, this one a cut-and-cap process to put a lid on the leaking wellhead so oil can be siphoned to the surface. But the best-case scenario of sealing the leak is two relief wells being drilled diagonally into the gushing well – tricky business that won’t be ready until August. “The probability of them hitting it on the very first shot is virtually nil,” said David Rensink, incoming president of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, who spent most of his 39 years in the oil industry in offshore exploration. “If they get it on the first three or four shots they’d be very lucky.” For the bid to succeed, the bore hole must precisely intersect the damaged well. If it misses, BP will have to back up its drill, plug the hole it just created, and try again. The trial-and-error process could take weeks, but it will eventually work, scientists and BP said. Then engineers will then pump mud and cement through pipes to ultimately seal the well. As the drilling reaches deeper into the earth, the process is slowed by building pressure and the increasing distance that well casings must travel before they can be set in place. Still, the three months it could take to finish the relief wells – the first of which started May 2 – is quicker than a typical deep well, which can take four months or longer, said Tad Patzek, chair of the Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department at the University of Texas-Austin. BP already has a good picture of the different layers of sand and rock its drill bits will meet because of the work it did on the blown-out well. On the slim chance the relief well doesn’t work, scientists weren’t sure exactly how much – or how long – the oil would flow. The gusher would continue until the well bore hole collapsed or pressure in the reservoir dropped to a point where oil was no longer pushed to the surface, Patzek said. “I don’t admit the possibility of it not working,” he said. A third well could be drilled if the first two fail. “We don’t know how much oil is down there, and hopefully we’ll never know when the relief wells work,” BP spokesman John Curry said. The company was starting to collect and analyze data on how much oil might be in the reservoir when the rig exploded April 20, he said. BP’s uncertainty statement is reasonable, given they only had drilled one well, according to Doug Rader, an ocean scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund. Two relief wells stopped the world’s worst peacetime spill, from a Mexican rig called Ixtoc 1 that dumped 140 million gallons off the Yucatan Peninsula. That plug took nearly 10 months beginning in the summer of 1979. Drilling technology has vastly improved since then, however. So far, the Gulf oil spill has leaked between 19.7 million and 43 million gallons, according to government estimates. In the meantime, BP is turning to another risky procedure federal officials acknowledge will likely, at least temporarily, cause 20 percent more oil – at least 100,000 gallons a day – to add to the gusher. Using robot submarines, BP plans to cut away the riser pipe this week and place a cap-like containment valve over the blowout preventer. The company hopes it will capture the majority of the oil, sending it to the surface. “If you’ve got to cut that riser, that’s risky. You could take a bad situation and make it worse,” said Ed Overton, a Louisiana State University professor of environmental sciences. The latest attempt to capture the well comes after BP failed to plug the leak Saturday with its top kill, which shot mud and pieces of rubber into the well but couldn’t beat back the pressure of the oil. The location of the spill couldn’t be worse. To the south lies an essential spawning ground for imperiled Atlantic bluefin tuna and sperm whales. To the east and west, coral reefs and the coastal fisheries of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. And to the north, Louisiana’s coastal marshes. More than 125 miles of Louisiana coastline already have been hit with oil. “It’s just killing us by degrees,” said Tulane University ecologist Tom Sherry. It’s an area that historically has been something of a superhighway for hurricanes, too. If a major storm rolls in, the relief well operations would have to be suspended and then re-started, adding more time to the process. Plugging the Ixtoc was also hampered by hurricane season, which begins Tuesday and is predicted to be very active. Three of the worst storms ever to hit the Gulf coast – Betsy in 1965, Camille in 1969 and Katrina in 2005 – all passed over the leak site. On the Gulf coast beaches, tropical weather was far from some tourists’ minds. On Biloxi beach, Paul Dawa and his friend Ezekial Momgeri sipped Coronas after a night gambling at the Hard Rock Casino. Both men, originally from Kenya, drove from Memphis, Tenn., and were chased off the beach by a storm, not oil. “We talked about it and we decided to come down and see for ourselves” whether there was oil, Momgeri said. “There’s no oil here.” Though some tar balls have been found on Mississippi and Alabama barrier islands, oil from the spill has not significantly fouled the shores. Still, the perception that it has soiled white sands and fishing areas threatens to cripple the tourist economy, said Linda Hornsby, executive director of the Mississippi Hotel and Lodging Association “It’s not here. It may never be here. It’s costing a lot of money to counter that perception,” Hornsby said. “First it was cancelations, but that evolved to a decrease in calls and there’s no way to measure that.” Yet there was fear the oil would eventually hit the other Gulf coast states. Hentzel Yucles, of Gulfport, Miss., hung out on the beach with his wife and sons. “Katrina was bad. I know this is a different type of situation, but it’s going to affect everybody,” he said. ___ Associated Press writers Kevin McGill, Ben Nuckols and Greg Bluestein in Covington, La., and Holbrook Mohr in Biloxi, Miss., contributed to this report.

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President Says Oil Spill Is Top Priority as Livelihoods `Wash Up on Beach’

May 28, 2010

By John McCormick May 28 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama said oil spilling from a damaged BP Plc well in the Gulf of Mexico is an “assault on our shores” and said the government’s focus remains plugging the leak and cleaning up environmental damage. “This isn’t just a mess that we’ve got to mop up; people are watching their livelihoods wash up on the beach,” Obama said at a U.S. Coast Guard station in Grand Isle, Louisiana, a barrier island south of New Orleans. “This is our highest priority.” The government response won’t let up even if BP is successful in its latest effort to stop the oil flow, he said. If the so-called top kill technique doesn’t work, the U.S. will continue exploring “any and all” options. The president returned to the Gulf Coast for the second time this month as he sought to blunt criticism of his administration’s response to the spill. The president said there are no “silver bullets” to stop the leak and mitigate the damage. “This is a man-made catastrophe that’s still evolving,” he said. Not every decision “is going to be right the first time out” and Obama said he expects there will continue to be frustration among residents of the coast. Vow to Stay “You will not be abandoned, you will not be left behind,” Obama said in remarks directed at people in the region. He was joined by Governors Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Charlie Crist of Florida and Bob Riley of Alabama. The gushing well has taken center stage in Obama’s presidency, even as he tries to push for an overhaul of the nation’s financial regulations, monitor tensions on the Korean Peninsula and address 9.9 percent unemployment . The president met with Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen , who is overseeing the spill response, and state officials for a briefing on the latest attempts to plug the well and limit environmental damage. BP today was adding golf balls and scraps to the drilling mud it’s pumping into the well to choke off the oil, which threatens the region’s fishing and tourism industries. “Our response will continue with its full force regardless of the outcome of the ‘top kill’ approach,” Obama said. Tour of Beach Obama got a first-hand look at some of the damage from the spill earlier, touring a beach in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, speckled with tar balls formed in the spreading crude oil. Wearing boots and a casual shirt, Obama bent down several times to touch the sand as Allen explained clean-up efforts. Obama said “precious wildlife” makes the area home, “even though you see a whole bunch of oil rigs in the background.” Before the president arrived in Louisiana, environmental activists called for a “military response” to the spill. “What we have found on the ground is that BP is having too much say in what’s happening on the water,” said Aaron Viles, campaign director for the New Orleans-based Gulf Restoration Network . “We need to see a federalized response. There’s just not enough boats and boom on the water.” The floating boom is used to control the spread of the oil spill and protect coastline. “There was clearly no ‘Plan B,’” Viles said. “They are fighting a forest fire with an eye dropper right now.” To contact the reporter on this story: John McCormick in Grand Isle, Louisiana, at jmccormick16@bloomberg.net ;

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Obama Says Oil Spill Is U.S.’s Priority as Livelihoods `Wash Up on Beach’

May 28, 2010

By John McCormick May 28 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama said oil spilling from a damaged BP Plc well in the Gulf of Mexico is an “assault on our shores” and said the government’s focus remains plugging the leak and cleaning up environmental damage. “This isn’t just a mess that we’ve got to mop up; people are watching their livelihoods wash up on the beach,” Obama said at a U.S. Coast Guard station in Grand Isle, Louisiana, a barrier island south of New Orleans. “This is our highest priority.” The government response won’t let up even if BP is successful in its latest effort to stop the oil flow, he said. If the so-called top kill technique doesn’t work, the U.S. will continue exploring “any and all” options. The president returned to the Gulf Coast for the second time this month as he sought to blunt criticism of his administration’s response to the spill. The president said there are no “silver bullets” to stop the leak and mitigate the damage. “This is a man-made catastrophe that’s still evolving,” he said. Not every decision “is going to be right the first time out” and Obama said he expects there will continue to be frustration among residents of the coast. Vow to Stay “You will not be abandoned, you will not be left behind,” Obama said in remarks directed at people in the region. He was joined by Governors Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Charlie Crist of Florida and Bob Riley of Alabama. The gushing well has taken center stage in Obama’s presidency, even as he tries to push for an overhaul of the nation’s financial regulations, monitor tensions on the Korean Peninsula and address 9.9 percent unemployment . The president met with Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen , who is overseeing the spill response, and state officials for a briefing on the latest attempts to plug the well and limit environmental damage. BP today was adding golf balls and scraps to the drilling mud it’s pumping into the well to choke off the oil, which threatens the region’s fishing and tourism industries. “Our response will continue with its full force regardless of the outcome of the ‘top kill’ approach,” Obama said. Tour of Beach Obama got a first-hand look at some of the damage from the spill earlier, touring a beach in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, speckled with tar balls formed in the spreading crude oil. Wearing boots and a casual shirt, Obama bent down several times to touch the sand as Allen explained clean-up efforts. Obama said “precious wildlife” makes the area home, “even though you see a whole bunch of oil rigs in the background.” Before the president arrived in Louisiana, environmental activists called for a “military response” to the spill. “What we have found on the ground is that BP is having too much say in what’s happening on the water,” said Aaron Viles, campaign director for the New Orleans-based Gulf Restoration Network . “We need to see a federalized response. There’s just not enough boats and boom on the water.” The floating boom is used to control the spread of the oil spill and protect coastline. “There was clearly no ‘Plan B,’” Viles said. “They are fighting a forest fire with an eye dropper right now.” To contact the reporter on this story: John McCormick in Grand Isle, Louisiana, at jmccormick16@bloomberg.net ;

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The Forum for Corporate Directors Names Cary Hyden of Latham & Watkins to Its Board of Directors

May 27, 2010

NEWPORT BEACH, CA–(Marketwire – May 27, 2010) –  The Forum for Corporate Directors has named Cary K. Hyden, a partner in the Orange County office of Latham & Watkins LLP, to the board of directors of FCD. Mr. Hyden joins a board comprised of directors and senior executive officers from leading Orange County companies, as well as leaders from several major legal and accounting firms which support these companies and their boards.

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The Forum for Corporate Directors Names Cary Hyden of Latham & Watkins to Its Board of Directors

May 27, 2010

NEWPORT BEACH, CA–(Marketwire – May 27, 2010) –  The Forum for Corporate Directors has named Cary K. Hyden, a partner in the Orange County office of Latham & Watkins LLP, to the board of directors of FCD. Mr. Hyden joins a board comprised of directors and senior executive officers from leading Orange County companies, as well as leaders from several major legal and accounting firms which support these companies and their boards.

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The Forum for Corporate Directors Names Cary Hyden of Latham & Watkins to Its Board of Directors

May 27, 2010

NEWPORT BEACH, CA–(Marketwire – May 27, 2010) –  The Forum for Corporate Directors has named Cary K. Hyden, a partner in the Orange County office of Latham & Watkins LLP, to the board of directors of FCD. Mr. Hyden joins a board comprised of directors and senior executive officers from leading Orange County companies, as well as leaders from several major legal and accounting firms which support these companies and their boards.

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The Forum for Corporate Directors Names Cary Hyden of Latham & Watkins to Its Board of Directors

May 27, 2010

NEWPORT BEACH, CA–(Marketwire – May 27, 2010) –  The Forum for Corporate Directors has named Cary K. Hyden, a partner in the Orange County office of Latham & Watkins LLP, to the board of directors of FCD. Mr. Hyden joins a board comprised of directors and senior executive officers from leading Orange County companies, as well as leaders from several major legal and accounting firms which support these companies and their boards.

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John D. Mazzuto CHARGED: Major Yale Benefactor Part Of $60M NYC Stock Scam

May 26, 2010

NEW YORK — A former bank director built himself a financial fiefdom out of automotive-chemical companies, then plundered it through a series of stock frauds that let him live lavishly even though he’d declared bankruptcy, prosecutors said Tuesday. As CEO of Industrial Enterprises of America Inc., John D. Mazzuto illegally gave stock to friends and relatives, pumped up the share price by making the company look more profitable than it was and lied to investors, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office. The proceeds got him multimillion-dollar houses in the Hamptons and Florida, $500,000 worth of private jet travel and the status of a major benefactor of Yale University’s baseball team, prosecutors said. Mazzuto and James W. Margulies – a Cleveland lawyer who was the company’s finance chief and briefly succeeded Mazzuto as CEO – pleaded not guilty to grand larceny, scheming to defraud and other charges. Together, they’re accused of stealing more than $60 million from the now-bankrupt company. “This was the wholesale looting of a public company for greed and self-enrichment,” District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said. Mazzuto’s attorney didn’t immediately return a call. Margulies’ lawyer declined to comment outside court. Mazzuto, 61, was a managing director for the former Chemical Bank before he started acquiring a series of companies in 2002 to create Industrial Enterprises, prosecutors said. Subsidiaries made antifreeze, windshield-wiper fluid and other car chemicals at plants in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Mazzuto and Margulies began by issuing millions of shares of a type of stock that can legally be given only to employees – and funneling the shares to relatives, associates and shell companies, according to prosecutors. When the stock was sold, money was channeled back to Mazzuto and Margulies or was used to inflate the company’s cash flow and boost its stock price, prosecutors said. The two doctored records to make the influx of cash look like legitimate earnings and used the company’s seeming success to draw in new investors, one of whom ultimately lost $20 million, prosecutors said. They wouldn’t identify the investor. Briefly traded on the NASDAQ exchange, the stock now trades for pennies a share on the over-the-counter bulletin board, an electronic quotation service. Mazzuto filed for personal bankruptcy in 2002 and didn’t emerge for seven years, prosecutors said. Meanwhile, he garnered more than $15 million from the stock scheme, money that bought him a $3 million house he’s since sold in Southampton, N.Y., and his $2.5 million home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., according to prosecutors. He also endowed a baseball coaching post and underwrote a practice field for Yale, his alma mater, which praised his “incredible generosity” in a 2009 item on the team’s website. Prosecutors said he gave the university $1.5 million in Industrial Enterprises stock. The university didn’t immediately return a call. Margulies, 45, gleaned more than $6 million from the scam and used the money for such luxuries as a $350,000 diamond ring for his wife from posh jeweler Harry Winston, prosecutors said. Investors eventually began raising questions and filing lawsuits. Mazzuto and Margulies resigned within about a month of one another in 2008. The company filed for bankruptcy last year, Securities and Exchange Commission and court records show. The new management has cooperated with prosecutors, company lawyer Allen L. Finkelstein said. If convicted, Margulies and Mazzuto could face up to 25 years in prison.

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Steve Parker: Breaking – Formula 1 returns to America!

May 25, 2010

Purpose-built track in Austin, TX will host from 2012 through 2021; as we predicted, with Tony George out of the way of F1 and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, an agreement is finally signed. Courtesy FORMULA1.COM: Formula One World Championship Limited and Formula One Administration Limited (together, the F1 Commercial Rights Holder) and Full Throttle Productions, LP, promoter of the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix™, announce that a historic agreement has been reached for Austin, Texas to serve as the host city of the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix™ for years 2012 through 2021. Ferrari at speed at 2009′s Japan Grand Prix “We are extremely honoured and proud to reach an agreement with the F1 Commercial Rights Holder. We have been diligently working together for several years to bring this great event to Austin, the State of Texas and back to the United States. All parties involved have a great amount of trust and confidence in each other and are committed to establishing the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix™ in Austin, Texas as a prestigious global event,” stated Tavo Hellmund, Managing Partner of Full Throttle Productions, LP. Bernie Ecclestone, President and CEO of the Formula One Group stated: “For the first time in the history of Formula One in the United States, a world-class facility will be purpose-built to host the event. It was thirty years ago that the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix™ was last held on a purpose-built permanent road course circuit in Watkins Glen, NY (1961-1980), which enjoyed great success. Since then, Formula One has been hosted by Long Beach, Las Vegas, Detroit, Dallas and Phoenix all on temporary street circuits. Indianapolis joined the ranks of host cities in 2000 when they added a road course inside the famed oval. Lewis Hamilton won the last Formula 1 United States Grand Prix™ in 2007, signalling the end to eight years at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This however, will be the first time a facility is constructed from the ground up specifically for Formula One in the US.” www.JamesAllenOnF1.com says: “There is a major push to bring the USA under the F1 umbrella. The failure of the USF1 team was an embarrassment, but now it seems that there are efforts to resurrect the idea of an American team and You Tube founder Chad Hurley is still linked with this. Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has a better idea, he believes. He said in an interview today that he dreams of a third Ferrari in the stars and stripes colors.” Comments?

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$800 Million Innkeepers USA Trust Loan Goes into Special Servicing

May 18, 2010

Late last month, a 45-property portfolio owned by Innkeepers USA Trust in Palm Beach, FL, went into special servicing after the hotel owner/manager failed to make certain scheduled monthly interest payments on certain of its debt obligations and said…

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The Perfect Vodka Acquires a Perfect National Sales Director

May 14, 2010

PALM BEACH, FL–(Marketwire – May 14, 2010) –  Legacy Imports announced the immediate appointment of Ernest W. Brodbeck, Sr. , as V.P., National Sales Director for their Perfect 1864 Vodka, a super premium brand that is imported from France.

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Cree LEDs, Ormat Geothermal Power Help Boost Pictet Clean Energy Fund 30%

May 5, 2010

By Randall Hackley May 5 (Bloomberg) — Ask Pictet Clean Energy Fund manager Philippe de Weck where he finds investment value in a world more concerned about the economic recession than reducing emissions and the short answer is in technology pioneers. LEDs, or energy-efficient light-emitting diodes, shine in de Weck’s investment universe as they are “ultimately how we are going to light the world,” he said in an interview at Pictet & Cie’s headquarters in Geneva. “Cree is really at the cutting edge of the LED chip technology.” Cree Inc. , based in Durham, North Carolina, is the fund’s largest holding among LED developers and has more than doubled in the last 12 months as demand grows for lighting that saves on power bills while generating fewer greenhouse-gas emissions. De Weck’s fund has risen 30 percent in the same period, a “respectable” return for a “volatile sector” that beat more than half his peers when adjusted for currency moves, Ben Guest , chief executive officer of the clean-tech investment manager Hazel Capital LLP in London, said in a phone interview. By comparison, the benchmark WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation Index gained 2.3 percent in 12 months, while the SAM Smart Energy Fund advanced 51 percent. De Weck’s performance was held back by Iberdrola Renovables SA , the biggest wind parks owner and his largest holding, which dropped 12 percent. Most clean energy shares have suffered since the United Nations global warming talks stalled in Copenhagen in December and as President Barack Obama ’s administration debates the shape of legislation aimed at cutting U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Fund Holdings De Weck’s favored holdings for his Luxembourg-based mutual fund, which has about $750 million under management, include Clean Energy Fuels Corp., a Seal Beach, California-based operator of natural-gas fuel stations, and Westport Innovations Inc ., a Vancouver developer of natural gas engine technology. “You can really get bang for your buck in terms of cleaning up the energy supply by moving from coal to gas. Or oil to gas,” said de Weck, who is 36. Emissions can be cut in half combusting gas instead of coal and almost half as well for oil. Two of the fund’s better-performing stocks, Westport Innovations and Clean Energy Fuels, “are acknowledging this trend,” he said. Westport shares have surged 58 percent in 2010 while Clean Energy Fuels has advanced 17 percent. “These are companies that by growing their businesses they are contributing to a reduction in the emissions of CO2,” de Weck said. Technology Stocks The stocks de Weck and his team buy are considered best poised to gain from interest among governments and investors seeking growth from technology that limits greenhouse-gas emissions, including carbon capture and storage technologies. The European Union wants 20 percent of its energy to come from renewable sources such as wind and solar in 10 years. Half of the holdings in de Weck’s fund, which started in May 2007 and avoid oil, coal and nuclear power, are from North America with about 36 percent from Europe. He views the U.S. as a “swing factor,” with stimulus-related money not spent last year coming through in 2010 and 2011 for clean energy companies. De Weck favors the U.S. smart-meter company Itron Inc. , China High Speed Transmission Equipment Group and RusHydro. “We have one investment in Russia, RusHydro , which for us it’s very cheap,” de Weck said. “On a megawatt basis, it’s probably the cheapest hydroelectric generator in the world, very attractively valued.” ‘Up Tremendously’ With an investment theme that highlights clean energy, China “was nowhere when we launched this fund, zero. They’ve picked up tremendously,” he said. The Chinese last year installed more wind-farm capacity than in Europe or the U.S. De Weck’s fund attracted about 10 percent in net new money in the first quarter, he said. Also encouraging is the performance of stocks such as Cree, which says its TrueWhite technology uses 85 percent less energy than incandescent systems, he said. Cree benefits from demand for LEDs in TVs and computer backlit displays including Apple Inc. ’s iPad. LEDs also are gaining popularity among financially pressed municipalities for longer-lasting street signs and lights, de Weck said. “The commercial lighting people get that.” Ormat Technologies Inc. is a top holding. “What they do is very simple: They explore and identify sites for geothermal energy. Heat close to the ground. Drill holes, install the equipment. Capture the heat,” he said. Ormat creates “reliable renewable power.” So why invest in clean energy over other sectors? “The drivers here are quite significant: You have long-term issues of energy supply, i.e., we don’t know how long our hydrocarbons last. They aren’t infinite, that’s one thing we know,” he said. With the transition to a lower-carbon environment, de Weck said investing in “clean energy is an area which you can address this.” To contact the reporter on this story: Randall Hackley in Geneva via rhackley@bloomberg.net

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Commerce National Bank Announces the Appointment of Oscar F. Ramirez as Vice President, SBA Underwriter

April 22, 2010

NEWPORT BEACH, CA–(Marketwire – April 22, 2010) –  Commerce National Bank ( OTCBB : CNBF ), a community business bank now in its seventh year of operation, is pleased to announce that Oscar F. Ramirez has joined Commerce National Bank as Vice President, SBA Underwriter.

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Steve Parker: Weekend auto, auto racing shows

April 16, 2010

Join us Saturday at 11am Pacific /2pm Eastern for THE CAR NUT SHOW and Sunday at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern for WORLD RACING ROUNDUP on www.TalkRadioOne.com! It’s just us and it’s all LIVE! Steve Parker’s The Car Nut Show Saturday starting at 5pm Pacific So many recalls and seems like more and more Toyota problems that it’s becoming like ‘the problem of the week’ for some car companies. Sales are still headed upward but is it just a function of all the incentives the car makers are giving away at the dealerships? One problem is that new models are being overlooked in the political atmosphere surrounding the crisis and there’s plenty of good stuff out there! And you bikers will be happy to hear that we’re going to talk motorcycles…with Maria Sanchez, journalist, TV host and confirmed HOG rider. The call-in number is: 213-291-9410. Steve Parker’s World Racing Roundup Sunday starting at 5pm Long Beach Grand Prix weekend – second-largest sporting event in the US (second only to the Indy 500). NASCAR is in Texas, F1 in Shanghai, China and the world of professional drag racing moves to Las Vegas. Lots of action! Speaking of NHRA, legendary racing observer, PR and marketing person and one of the first women ever in the pits at NHRA, Judy Stropus joins us as a very special guest! The call-in number is: 213-291-9410. Join in! Podcasts of the shows are available one-hour-or-so after the live programs’ conclusion. That’s this Saturday at 11am Pacific and 2pm Eastern and Sunday at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern on www.TalkRadioOne.com!

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Dan Dorfman: Mayday!

April 16, 2010

A couple of weeks to go and it’ll be that time of the year again. Time for that old Wall Street saying–Sell in May and go away! But what does it all mean? Does this saying really have any legitimacy? And should you heed these worrisome words? For some thoughts, I rang up Sam Stovall, Standard & Poor’s chief investment strategist, and one of the Street’s leading historians. Actually, there’s a third part to that May saying–and stay away until St. Ledger’s Day, which is a reference to an annual horse race held in the U.K. during mid-September. The significance here, at least for the stock market, is that May is by no means the merry month of May, as the song or nursery rhyme would have you believe. The fact is it’s the year’s tenth worst month, averaging, as measured by the S&P 500, a yearly decline, dating back to 1928, of 0.04%. Further, Stovall tells me, the six-month period, May through October, has underperformed the other six months, November though April, 71% of time since 1945. The chief reason: money managers and traders tend to hang out at the beach during the traditionally slow summer months. My first reminder this year of the May saying came in a recent e-mail from of all places, Amman, Jordan. It was from a HuffPost reader, Caise Hassan, a 36-year-old trader in the U.S. markets and currencies, who took issue with a recent piece I did in which I quoted some money managers who predicted still higher stock prices. He thinks the bulls are on another planet. Hassan, who trades his own money, was born in Chicago (where his Palestinian-born father operated some small clothing stores) and moved to Amman in September of 2009, made a handsome score in 2008. In August of that year he heavily shorted the market (a bet stock prices would fall) with the S&P 500 in the 1260-1270 range. By October of that year, the index fell to about 800. In the process, Hassan tells me, he parlayed about $60,000 into $200,000. Though Wall Street is predominantly bullish, Hassan thinks the market rise is on borrowed time. “We’re within a month of the top, with the Nasdaq probably the first to fall,” he believes. Google and Amazon, he notes, look especially vulnerable. Hassan, who is closing out his long positions, looks for the market to kick off a 20%-25% correction starting next month. By the end of this month, he says, he will start shorting companies with weak earnings. For investors with a 6-12 month horizon, he observes, “I wouldn’t look at stocks until September.” Hassan offers a number of reasons to support his bearish stance. Chief among them: –Excessive bullish sentiment. –Falling dividend yields (now about 2.5% on the Dow). Often when this yield falls below 3%, a major correction has followed). –Bond prices have fallen since mid-March, resulting in higher interest rates, a fundamental killer of stock market rallies. Likewise, says Hassan, interest rates can only go higher from current levels –The VIX (a volatility index). a contrary indicator, is at its lowest level since May of 2008. –The New York Stock Exchange’s advance-decline line (a reference to the number of advancing stocks, versus those that are declining) is showing a divergence from the currently rising stock prices. –Turn of the decade years often seem to be preceded by large 18 month move up, followed by a steep drop that can last two years. For example, the 1998-2000 bull market was followed by a two-year drop. The 1998-1990 bull market (following a crash in October 1987) led to a 12% decline from mid-1990 until the Gulf War. Hassan also raises another development that could impact the market–the possibility of a major war in the Middle East. He notes that Israel is moving defensive missiles near its border with Syria and Lebanon. Further, the Israeli air force has flown over Lebanese air space several times in the past couple of months and the Lebanese government has interpreted this as a provocation for war. There is also palpable outrage across the Middle East, Hassan says, against Israeli policies in Jerusalem’s holy sites and settlements. Stovall, on the other hand, is a bull. For starters, he sees the economy on a roll, with GDP growing 3% this year and 2.9% next year. Further he pegs S&P 500 earnings growth at 37% in 2010 and 20% in 2011. He also points to such other market catalysts as the likelihood of continued low interest rates until after the November election, continued elevated economic and earnings growth projections, a reduced threat of a double-dip recession and expected easing in the value of the greenback into mid-2011. It’s not, though, as Stovall sees it, a case of up, up and away. He figures stocks could get hit by a 5%-10% decline, reflecting that May through October weakness, possibly triggered by corporate earnings guidance weaker than Wall Street expects, threat of a double-digit recession (which S&P doesn’t expect), an additional bailout required by a debt-ridden European country and anything that could trip up China’s growth, which is seen as an engine of optimism. These concerns aside, Stovall sees the S&P 500 (now about 1211) climbing to 1245 by year end. His five favorite stocks, which he believes have the potential to average a 25.6% gain over the next 12 months, all carry the highest five-star S&P rankings. They are State Street Corp., IBM, Adobe Systems, Medtronic and Jacobs Engineering. What do you think? E-mail me at Dandordan@aol.com

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BNC Bancorp Buys South Carolina Lender as U.S. Failures This Year Reach 42

April 9, 2010

By Dakin Campbell April 9 (Bloomberg) — BNC Bancorp , the North Carolina- based lender with $1.6 billion in assets, purchased a Myrtle Beach, South Carolina bank as the number of U.S. bank failures this year climbed to 42. Federal bank regulators closed Beach First National Bank today and named the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver, according to a statement on the FDIC Web site . BNC’s lender, Bank of North Carolina, purchased Beach First and most of its $585.1 million in assets. The collapse cost the FDIC’s deposit- insurance fund $130.3 million. “Beach First’s excellent customer base was a significant attraction to our company in considering this transaction,” BNC Bancorp Chief Executive Officer W. Swope Montgomery Jr. said in a statement. Bank of North Carolina picks up seven branches in the transaction. Lenders are collapsing amid losses on residential and commercial real estate loans. U.S. “problem” banks climbed to the highest level since 1992 in the fourth quarter and FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair warned Feb. 23 that the pace of failures may exceed last year’s total of 140. BNC counts as a board member Charles T. Hagan , husband of Senator Kay Hagan , a North Carolina Democrat. Beach First is the only South Carolina bank to have failed since Oct. 1 2000, the FDIC said. To contact the reporter on this story: Dakin Campbell in San Francisco at dcampbell27@bloomberg.net

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Kathie Lingle: The Three Hottest Innovations in Work-Life Effectiveness

April 8, 2010

Hospital Corporation of America, the Clerk & Comptroller’s Office of Palm Beach County and the U.S. Navy have at least one thing in common: all three are innovators when it comes to responding to the work-life needs of their employees. And because of that, they have been named recipients of the 2010 AWLP Work-Life Innovative Excellence Award. What is work-life innovation and how do we know it when we see it? For the past 15 years, Alliance for Work-Life Progress has dedicated itself to this challenge, defining and measuring what is fresh, new and unique in work-life practice. At its simplest, we define innovation as either a new practice or method, (something we haven’t seen before) or a creative, new application of an existing approach (something we have seen before, but turned on its head in some forward-looking way that provides new direction, inspiration and utility). Additional criteria include evidence of: Reciprocity – Impact on more than one organizational stakeholder, especially the quality of life experienced by employees, their families, and/or communities Positive, measurable impact on business goals and/or outcomes (using a blend of quantitative and qualitative results); clarity of vision that supports the organization’s mission and goals Potential for the initiative to be shared, replicated or disseminated across other organizations Sustainability – evidence that the initiative has been or can be modified/adapted over time based on continuous feedback and evaluation data Let me introduce you to this year’s winners who have met these high standards of work-life innovative excellence. The themes of reciprocity and respect are especially pervasive — these organizations have all established initiatives that work well for employee and employer alike, even, in one case, where the story involves the unwelcome task of laying off a number of highly dedicated public servants. In a year as difficult as this past one, sometimes excellence cannot be described by what you do but how you do it. Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) is being recognized for its “Caring for the Community” program, which engages employees by encouraging their charitable passions. An HCA employee may take up to 24 hours of paid volunteer leave each year. When that employee adds just one more hour of personal time, HCA will contribute $500 to the charitable organization. HCA has even sweetened the pot, making it possible for up to $2,000 of personal and corporate giving to be made to the charity of choice. There is encouragement and even grant money to serve on non-profit boards, as well as using service days as a team-building exercise. With 89% participation, it is having an impact on engagement, not to mention community relations. It’s the latest offering in a long tradition of community involvement by HCA. The Clerk & Comptroller’s Office in Palm Beach County is being recognized for going the extra mile during tough times. The Palm Beach County department was forced to slash millions from its budget and cut its workforce by more than 100 employees. It developed the “We’re All in This Together” transition program, designed to minimize the impact on the careers and financial future of the departing employees while shoring up the morale of the survivors. It included an on-site job fair and transition workshops for separated employees, and cross-training and a recognition program for retained employees. Communication has been maintained with the departed employees, including celebrating their success at locating new jobs, which provides a boost to those who remain. One measure of success has been surprisingly s high marks for the organization in its first post-layoff employee survey. It is hoped that this rare but stellar example of how to say goodbye to good people with the utmost of respect and supportiveness will be emulated by the 66 other Clerk & Comptroller’s offices throughout Florida, who are facing similar tough choices. The U.S. Navy has been facing a shrinking skilled labor market, led by an unacceptably high turnover rate among women, as well as changing generational attitudes about work. Its response has been the development of the “Task Force Life/Work” initiative, leading to greater flexibility and balance between life and work. The program includes career off- and on-ramp options, teleworking, flexible and compressed schedules, and e-mentoring opportunities, positioning the Navy as a “Top 50″ employer. To illustrate the radical nature of the culture change that the Navy has launched with this complex initiative, for the first time in American military history, women will apparently be permitted to work on submarines. What’s especially impressive about what’s going on at the Navy is that each major change proposed requires an act of Congress. Slowly but pervasively, they are serving as a unique work-life advance unit, forging significant policy changes that are not escaping the attention as a role model to the other branches of the military. We are proud to bring their extraordinary efforts to the attention of corporate America as well. Kudos to all three organizations on winning the 2010 Work-Life Innovative Excellence Award, the highest honor granted by Alliance for Work-Life Progress! AWLP, a part of WorldatWork, is dedicated to advancing work-life as a business strategy integrating work, family and community. The awards will be handed out at the annual WorldatWork Total Rewards conference, May 18 in Grapevine, TX. For more information about AWLP’s Work-Life Innovative Excellence Award and previous winners back to 1996, visit www.awlp.org . Another resource is the AWLP/WorldatWork publication Innovative Excellence: Leading Ideas in Work-Life Programs.

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Brown & Brown, Inc. Elects Roy Bridges as Regional President

April 5, 2010

DAYTONA BEACH, FL and TAMPA, FL–(Marketwire – April 5, 2010) – The Board of Directors of Brown & Brown, Inc. ( NYSE : BRO ) today announced that C. Roy Bridges, CIC, has been elected as Regional President responsible for most of the Company’s retail operations in the western United States. Mr. Bridges will continue to have regional oversight responsibility for certain offices in Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.

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Brown & Brown, Inc. Elects Roy Bridges as Regional President

April 5, 2010

DAYTONA BEACH, FL and TAMPA, FL–(Marketwire – April 5, 2010) – The Board of Directors of Brown & Brown, Inc. ( NYSE : BRO ) today announced that C. Roy Bridges, CIC, has been elected as Regional President responsible for most of the Company’s retail operations in the western United States. Mr. Bridges will continue to have regional oversight responsibility for certain offices in Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.

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Briton Sentenced to Jail for Kissing Girlfriend in Dubai to Appeal Ruling

April 4, 2010

By Henry Meyer and Dana El Baltaji April 4 (Bloomberg) — A British resident of Dubai will mount a second appeal of his conviction for kissing a female friend in public after a judge upheld his sentence of a one- month jail term and deportation from the Persian Gulf emirate. The 25-year-old British woman in the case, who was also sentenced to the same jail term and deportation, hasn’t yet decided whether to appeal, Khalaf al-Hosani, the man’s lawyer, told Bloomberg News by phone today. The two remain free on bail. The 24-year-old man, who works in Dubai, and his visiting female friend were convicted Jan. 19 of committing a public sexual act, and their sentence was affirmed by an appeals judge today. The two Britons admit to kissing on the cheek and appearing in public after drinking alcohol. Dubai, which borrowed $109 billion to build itself into a regional tourism and business center, has been seeking to shed its image of a free-and-easy destination for foreigners. A British visitor and her partner earlier this year returned home after being detained in Dubai on charges of illegal extramarital sex when they reported that she was raped. “Dubai markets itself as an international tourism destination,” said Sean Tipton , London-based spokesman for the Association of British Travel Agents . “The danger is if this type of incident becomes a regular occurrence, it could do a lot of damage to Dubai’s reputation among tourists.” Jail and Deportation Under the Islamic laws of the United Arab Emirates, Muslims aren’t allowed to drink alcohol and sexual relations between unmarried men and women are illegal. Intimate contact in public is punishable by jail and deportation. The Britons’ trial followed a complaint lodged by an Emirati woman who said she witnessed them kissing on the lips outside a restaurant in November. Dubai, which is in the second year of recession after suffering the world’s worst property crash, received 800,000 U.K. tourists in 2008, up from 450,000 in 2006, said Tipton. The emirate boasts beaches, all-year sunshine and luxury hotels. “With their economic problems, the last thing they need is a reputation that if you kiss someone on the cheek, you could get arrested,” Tipton said. The sheikhdom is struggling with a culture clash between the tens of thousands of Europeans, Americans and other Westerners who live there, attracted by its warm climate and tax-free lifestyle, and locals who account for less than 20 percent of the population, said Jim Krane , a Cambridge, England- based author who has written about the U.A.E. Flight Attendants Jailed “Westerners go to the beach, scantily clad. You have a mixture of conservative Muslim families and Western singles,” said Krane, author of “City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism.” Last month, two Emirates Airline flight attendants from India were jailed in Dubai for three months for sending each other sexually suggestive text messages. In 2008, two Britons were found guilty of having sex on a beach in Dubai after meeting at an all-you-can-drink champagne brunch. Their prison sentences were suspended and they were deported four months after the incident. “If they want to stay in business, they need to do it carefully,” said Krane. “Dubai is an island of liberalism in a conservative region.” To contact the reporter on this story: Henry Meyer in Dubai at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net .

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Municipalities Sell Least Debt This Year as Yields Touch Five-Month High

April 2, 2010

By Catarina Saraiva April 2 (Bloomberg) — Oregon’s Transportation Department and North Carolina led issuers in the slowest week for municipal debt in 2010, as yields on tax-exempts reached a five-month high. State and local issuers sold about $4.4 billion in debt this week, the smallest amount since the week of Dec. 25, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Yields on most top- rated tax-exempts increased, while the average yield on taxable Build America Bonds dropped. Oregon’s transit agency sold $580.3 million, including $544.7 million in its first issue of the taxable debt. The highway user-tax revenue bonds will help finance its road and bridge improvement program. North Carolina sold $487.7 million of general obligations competitively to help pay for capital projects across the state. “It was a really flat week,” said Terry O’Grady , senior vice president of municipal trading at FMSBonds Inc. in North Miami Beach, Florida. “If supply stays light, then prices can improve from here.” Yields on 10-year tax-exempts held at 3.22 percent yesterday, the highest since October, according to a daily survey by Municipal Market Advisors. Yields on shorter-term maturities of such debt have also increased. Yields on AAA- rated, seven-year debt sank to 2.34 percent March 4, the lowest since December. They have since climbed to 2.59 percent, the highest since November, according to the Concord, Massachusetts- based MMA. The average yield on the Wells Fargo Build America Bond Index dropped 6 basis points to 6.23 percent March 31, after rising to a two-month high of 6.32 percent March 25. First Anniversary “As the markets approach the one-year anniversary of the first issuance, it’s clear that BABs are a big success story for munis,” strategists led by Alan Schankel and Guy LeBas of Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia, said in a note yesterday. The average yield on the Build America Bond index has gained 21 basis points since it was created in August. The 10-year tax- exempts have added 6 basis points. The taxable bonds were created as part of last year’s federal economic stimulus package. Issuers have sold about $91 billion of the debt so far and $26 billion in the first three months of this year, according to Bloomberg data. Following are descriptions of pending sales of municipal debt in the U.S.: ILLINOIS , the second-lowest-rated U.S. state after California, plans to issue $356 million in general obligation taxable debt, including $300 million of Build America Bonds, through a competitive sale as early as next week. The securities are part of $1.056 billion series of bonds that will help rebuild transportation and school infrastructure, according to John Sinsheimer , Illinois director of capital markets. The state will sell the remaining $700 million later this month. Illinois’ general obligation debt has the seventh-lowest investment grade from Fitch Ratings, A-, an A2 from Moody’s Investors Service and an A+ from S&P. (Added April 2) THE CONVENTION CENTER AUTHORITY OF NASHVILLE AND DAVIDSON COUNTY plans to sell $633.3 million in bonds later this month to help fund a new convention center in the capital city. The securities will be backed by tourism tax revenue. The issues will mature from 2019 through 2043. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will market the sale. The bonds are rated Aa3 by Moody’s, A+ by Fitch and A by S&P, the fifth- and sixth-highest investment grades, respectively. (Added April 1) MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, created last year in a merger of state agencies, plans to sell $592.3 million of variable-rate demand obligations to match an interest-rate swap tied to its debt, according to a preliminary official statement. It sold $261.2 million of fixed-rate securities to lower its borrowing costs this week. The bonds were originally sold in 1997 and 1999 by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority to finance Boston’s $14.9 billion “Big Dig,” the largest public works project in U.S. history. The subordinated bonds are secured by turnpike tolls and other revenue, such as state aid, and were rated AA-, fourth-highest, by Fitch on March 16. (Updated April 1) To contact the reporter on this story: Catarina Saraiva in New York at asaraiva5@bloomberg.net

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IPhone-Weary Local TV Broadcasters Fight U.S. Regulators to Keep Airwaves

March 31, 2010

By Kelly Riddell March 31 (Bloomberg) — TV broadcasters are getting ready for a fight over a U.S. government attempt to redistribute airwaves and help wireless carriers cope with a surge in traffic from bandwidth-guzzling devices like the iPhone. Ion Media Networks Inc. , the biggest local TV station owner, and at least three others are resisting a Federal Communications Commission plan to take back spectrum awarded to them by the government and auction it to carriers. About 500 broadcasters went to Capitol Hill this month to lobby members of the House and Senate, and they plan more in the weeks ahead. Ion, Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc. , Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. and LIN TV Corp. say they’re depending on that spectrum so they can offer live TV via mobile phones. The FCC says carriers such as AT&T Inc. need the airwaves more as smartphones like Apple Inc. ’s iPhone cause the amount of data sent through U.S. networks to more than double annually. “Why is the iPhone entitled to more spectrum than local broadcasters?” said Nexstar Chief Executive Officer Perry Sook , whose Irving, Texas-based company owns or provides services to 62 stations. “When the snowstorm hit Washington, did people rush to an iPhone app to find out what was going on? No, they turned to their local broadcasters.” Washington’s biggest snowfall in more than a century may not be enough to sway the FCC. The agency’s plan to improve U.S. broadband Internet services calls for the government to reclaim about 40 percent of broadcasters’ spectrum, which the commission says is possible because it is largely unused now. The government would compensate them with an unspecified share of the auction proceeds, which may total as much as $27 billion, according to Brattle Group in Washington. More Mobile TV The prospect has done little to appease broadcasters. “I applaud the FCC’s goal of wanting a broadband solution for the country, but I personally believe mobile-TV has to be part of that,” Brandon Burgess , CEO of West Palm Beach, Florida-based Ion Media, told a group of reporters this month. His company owns or operates 60 U.S. TV stations. Broadcasters are counting on mobile TV to supplement their audiences and advertising sales. Local TV ad revenue plunged 24 percent last year, to $12 billion, triple the pace of the drop in national network spending, according to data from New York- based ad tracker Kantar Media. The four companies represent 207 of the more than 1,700 TV stations across the U.S. Their concerns reflect broader resistance to the FCC’s plan, said Dennis Wharton , spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters, the Washington-based trade group that represents broadcasters including ABC and NBC. Possible Clash? “I haven’t heard one broadcaster say ‘I’m interested in giving back my spectrum,’” Wharton said. Instead, they’re pushing for the government to give up its own underused airwaves. The opposition sets up a clash with the FCC as the Senate prepares for hearings on the broadband proposal in April. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Feb. 24 that the country’s goal, after falling behind Japan and Korea in land-line broadband service, should be to lead the world in wireless Internet service. Currently there isn’t enough spectrum to meet demand, he has said. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson concurs. He said this month that high-quality wireless Internet service will only be possible with more airwaves. Spokeswoman Claudia Jones declined to comment beyond his remarks, made at the CTIA wireless industry trade show in Las Vegas. “It is clear that we need to make more effective use of broadcast spectrum, and that we need to find a way to put a significant amount of this spectrum to use for mobile broadband,” Steve Largent , CEO of CTIA, said in an e-mailed statement. “The chairman’s approach is a significant step in that direction.” Slicing Up Spectrum The FCC’s plan still needs Congressional approval. In the wake of the NAB’s lobbying, House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher and Senator Olympia Snowe have said they support the broadcasters. The broadcasters probably will ultimately surrender most of the spectrum the FCC seeks, said Rebecca Arbogast , an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus & Co. in Washington. “The writing is pretty clear on the wall,” said Arbogast. “There’s such a tremendous appetite for wireless broadband right now, and it’s less clear that there’s an appetite for traditional broadcasters.” Seizing the broadcasters’ spectrum won’t disrupt existing TV services, the FCC said, and only 10 percent of the U.S. population watches free TV using an antenna. The agency expects to attract “sufficient broadcaster participation,” said Jen Howard , a spokeswoman at the FCC. No Interference U.S. airwaves can transmit everything from television signals and mobile-phone calls to FM radio and military communications. The airwaves are sliced into different frequencies, or bands, for specific uses so your phone call doesn’t interfere with a top-secret spy mission. Today, about 300 megahertz of spectrum has been set aside for free over-the-air television. According to the broadband plan, if no broadcasters come forward, the FCC may raise the fees it charges them and prod broadcasters into condensing some of their channels to clear spectrum for broadband. Broadcasters say they won’t concede easily. “To give up our spectrum, in my way of thinking, puts us out of business,” said Nexstar’s Sook. To contact the reporter on this story: Kelly Riddell in Washington at kriddell1@bloomberg.net .

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Brown & Brown, Inc. Names Thomas E. Riley Chief Acquisitions Officer

March 24, 2010

DAYTONA BEACH, FL and TAMPA, FL–(Marketwire – March 24, 2010) –  J. Powell Brown, President and Chief Executive Officer of Brown & Brown, Inc. ( NYSE : BRO ), today announced that Regional President Thomas E. Riley, CPA, CPCU, CMA, CIC, has been named the Company’s Chief Acquisitions Officer. Effective immediately, Mr. Riley will assume responsibility for mergers and acquisitions activity of the Company and its subsidiaries, and for the supervision of the personnel within the Company who work on acquisition matters. Mr. Riley will continue to have regional oversight responsibility for operations in south Florida and the northeastern United States while assuming additional duties in connection with this promotion.

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PIMCO Announces Promotions

March 24, 2010

NEWPORT BEACH, CA–(Marketwire – March 24, 2010) –  PIMCO is pleased to announce the promotion of 10 to Executive Vice President, 32 to Senior Vice President and 59 to Vice President. ”These PIMCO colleagues have contributed significantly to the firm’s success in serving our clients, and are an important part of its future,” said Mohamed A. El-Erian, CEO and co-CIO of PIMCO. ”Their promotions reflect our confidence in their continued ability to deliver the highest quality investment management services worldwide for our clients.”

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PIMCO Hires Gregory Hazlett and Andrew Hoffmann as Senior Vice Presidents and Strategy Heads in Fund of Funds Group

March 22, 2010

NEWPORT BEACH, CA–(Marketwire – March 22, 2010) –  PIMCO, a leading global investment management firm, announced today that it has hired Gregory Hazlett and Andrew Hoffmann as Senior Vice Presidents and Strategy Heads in the firm’s newly established Fund of Funds group. Both of these new positions are based in the firm’s Newport Beach, California office.

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PIMCO Hires Gregory Hazlett and Andrew Hoffmann as Senior Vice Presidents and Strategy Heads in Fund of Funds Group

March 22, 2010

NEWPORT BEACH, CA–(Marketwire – March 22, 2010) –  PIMCO, a leading global investment management firm, announced today that it has hired Gregory Hazlett and Andrew Hoffmann as Senior Vice Presidents and Strategy Heads in the firm’s newly established Fund of Funds group. Both of these new positions are based in the firm’s Newport Beach, California office.

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Yelp Lawsuits Allege Review Site Engaged In Extortion

March 19, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO — Yelp, one of the most popular Web sites that let people post opinions about restaurants, shops and local services, is being sued by several small businesses that claim they’ve been pressured to advertise on the site in exchange for getting negative reviews squashed. Yelp denies the claims, but exactly what happened may never be clear. And regardless of what happens in court, the lawsuits could taint Yelp’s reputation as a leader in online reviews. Yelp has faced many complaints since it began letting consumers post reviews about local businesses ranging from all-you-can eat buffets to zip line operators six years ago. Often businesses have complained about how reviews on the site – positive or negative – can mysteriously disappear and reappear. But since late February, at least three lawsuits seeking class action status have been filed against the site by a dozen companies, complaining that reviews are manipulated depending on which companies advertise on the site and which ones do not. The first suit, which explicitly alleges Yelp engaged in extortion and attempted extortion, was filed Feb. 23 in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California by Cats & Dogs Animal Hospital in Long Beach, Calif. That lawsuit was amended in March to add nine more companies – some Yelp advertisers, some not. It alleges Yelp sales representatives indicated to businesses that they could alter site listings to help advertisers and harm non-advertisers, and that Yelp has actually done so. The lawsuit began with Cats & Dogs owner Greg Perrault, who said in a court filing that after receiving negative reviews on the site he started getting calls from Yelp, informing him that if he advertised Yelp would hide or lower negative reviews on his page and let him choose the order of the reviews. Perrault said he decided not to advertise, and a week later a negative review that had disappeared from his page reappeared. He also received a second negative review from someone who had previously written one, he said. Yelp refused his request that the reviews be removed, he said. The lawsuit seeks an order barring Yelp from manipulating reviews and forcing the company to return money reaped “by means of its wrongful acts and practices,” along with unspecified damages. At least two similar lawsuits have been filed: One by Christine LaPuasky of D’ames Day Spa in Imperial Beach, Calif., on March 3 in the same district court, and one by Boris Levitt of Renaissance Furniture Restoration in San Francisco on March 12 in San Francisco Superior Court. In an interview, Yelp co-founder and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman said that the businesses suing his company don’t understand how Yelp works. Yelp says some reviews might come and go because it relies on an automated program to weigh reviews and filter out ones that might be untrustworthy, such as a negative review a spa owner might write about a competitor. Yelp says it does nothing to manipulate reviews, aside from allowing advertisers to choose one review they would like to feature at the top of the page about their business. Stoppelman said the automated filter has helped Yelp stay relevant to consumers, even though it frustrates some businesses. Bob Gutgsell, whose San Carlos, Calif.-based Astro Appliance Service is one of the 10 businesses involved in the Cats & Dogs suit, said he does understand how Yelp works, and he doesn’t like it. Gutgsell said that after responding to a negative Yelp review from a customer, he got a call from a sales representative asking him to pay several hundred dollars a month to advertise. Gutgsell said the Yelp representative explained that if he did so Yelp would help him control his good and bad reviews. “The attitude that was conveyed was, `You really need to do this for your business.’ And I felt I really didn’t need to do that for my business,” Gutgsell said. Soon after declining to advertise, he noticed some positive reviews had disappeared from his site profile, he said. Stoppelman countered, however, that his sales reps have “absolutely no ability” to move reviews or remove them from Yelp. Once a sales representative closes an ad deal it is handed over to an account manager who, unlike representatives, is not paid in accordance with the number of deals he or she makes, Stoppelman said. “We would immediately know from our account manager that something was going wrong, or their messaging was off-key, and we simply haven’t found that,” he said. Stoppelman says the lawsuits are suspiciously timed, because Yelp recently got deeper pockets. Yelp got an infusion of venture capital in January, snagging $25 million from Elevation Partners. That values the company at about $475 million and brings its total financing to $56 million. Some plaintiffs said they were unaware that Yelp had just gotten more financing. Ronald Marron, a lawyer for D’ames Day Spa, said he just wants money returned to people who were subject to Yelp’s “unfair business practices and bought advertising as a result.” Yelp has tried to head off problems by making efforts to connect with businesses and educate them about the site. After a rash of complaints early last year, Yelp started allowing businesses to respond publicly to customers’ critiques right on their Yelp pages. Previously businesses could contact reviewers only privately. Yelp also has hired an outreach manager who has met with business owners and business groups. Given that more than 15 million small businesses are indexed on the site, including businesses that have not yet been reviewed by Yelp users, lawsuits from even a dozen businesses don’t seem like very many, said Ray Valdes, a Gartner Inc. analyst. “The question is,” he said, “how many more will come out?”

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Fortune’s Stanley Bing: Are You a Company Person?

March 18, 2010

When I was a kid, there was an entity that everybody pretty much had contempt for. It was a thing called the Company Man. The Company Man was owned by the Company. He dressed the way the Company said to dress. His opinions and his attitudes were shaped by the Company. He was generally faceless, because his face was the face of the Company. Poor dude, we thought. To sell your soul to the Company store like that. Pathetic. So I find it kind of interesting that today everybody I know has devolved to that status. You can’t really call it a Company Man anymore, because that is genderist. I’ll just say that we’re all Company People. I know a fellow who works for Google. He totes around an Android, the phone sold by his company in its store. He loves it. Like everybody else I know, he says “we” when he talks about his firm. He gets really defensive when people say anything against the Goog. My friend Larry works for Satan. I won’t reveal the human form that Satan is taking in his dealings with Larry, but believe me, he’s quite effective. Does Larry mind working for Satan? Not at all. “He’s a really nice guy when you get to know him,” Larry tells me. I believe him. Ted Bundy was charming, too. My pal Danny works in terrestrial radio, a business that has been disrespected by the fad-crazy media but actually produces billions of dollars of profit every year for its proprietors, at good margins. “I got satellite radio in this car I’m renting,” he told me the other day. “It’s pretty good. But I’d never subscribe to it.” I asked him why, if he liked it. “It would be like getting a season ticket to the Yankees,” he said. Danny bleeds Red Sox red. So I knew what he meant. And then there’s me. I have worked for the same company for more than 20 years. I didn’t intend to. I’ve been begging them to put me on the beach for years. But here I still am. Same job, even, only bigger. Same chair, too. Why change it? You know how hard it is to get a comfortable chair? Anyway, lately I find I hate the stuff made by our competitors. I won’t tell you what that is, because homey don’t play that. But I can say that whenever I run into it — on a plane, in a store, in somebody else’s house — I just despise it. If I’m exposed to it, I want to get away from it. If somebody expresses even mild approval of it, I feel like killing them. This Company mentality expands to fill all areas of my working life. Take this blog, for instance. It’s on a specific web destination that is in competition with some others, although competition on the Internet is somewhat weird. People cruise all over the place all day and hit just about everything in the sector in which they have an interest. But still. There are sites that go mano-a-mano against this one. And I loathe them. I wish them ill. I want them to go away. I don’t frequent them. I wish it could be different. My competitors are everywhere. And I hate them. I’m mildly annoyed by people who don’t, in fact. It’s possible we’re all like dogs. We start life looking like ourselves, and after some time we end up looking like our owners. Why not? They’re the ones holding the box of biscuits, I guess.

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Andy Kroll: Ponzi Nation: How Get-Rich-Quick Crime Came to Define an Era

March 14, 2010

Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com . Every great American boom and bust makes and breaks its share of crooks. The past decade — call it the Ponzi Era — has been no different, except for the gargantuan scale of white-collar crime. A vast wave of financial fraud swelled in the first years of the new century.

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Tiger Woods’s Televised Apology Freezes Wall Street Trading: Chart of Day

February 19, 2010

By Michael Patterson and Eric Martin Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) — For a few minutes, Tiger Woods was bigger than Ben S. Bernanke. The CHART OF THE DAY shows that a day after the Federal Reserve chairman and his colleagues raised the rate charged to banks for direct loans, investors took time out from trading to watch Woods apologize for his marital infidelity and “repeated irresponsible behavior.” New York Stock Exchange volume fell to about 1 million shares, the lowest level of the day at the time, in the minute Woods began a televised speech from Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, headquarters of the U.S. PGA Tour. Trading shot to about 6 million when the speech ended, the highest for any period except just after exchanges opened, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Trading on all U.S. bourses declined during the press conference, falling to 456 million shares from an average of 576.8 million during the five previous 15-minute segments, Bloomberg data show. “You couldn’t escape it,” said Michael Nasto , the senior trader at U.S. Global Investors Inc., which manages about $2.5 billion in San Antonio. “It was everywhere. You have one of the best athletes of our time involved in something like this. Every channel you were on had the press conference.” The top player in the World Golf Rankings, the 34-year-old Woods said he would return to the sport that has made him a billionaire but had no timetable. Woods had been on an indefinite break from golf since saying in December that he had been unfaithful to his wife. He hadn’t spoken publicly since a single-vehicle traffic accident outside his home on Nov. 27, which was followed by often lurid media reports detailing extramarital affairs. To contact the reporters on this story: Michael Patterson in London at mpatterson10@bloomberg.net ;m Eric Martin in New York at emartin21@bloomberg.net .

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Tiger Woods Doesn’t Know When He Will Return to Golf

February 19, 2010

By Michael Buteau and Mason Levinson Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) — Tiger Woods said he had no idea when he would return to golf as he apologized for his marital infidelity and “my repeated irresponsible behavior.” Golf’s 14-time major-tournament winner spoke at the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, the headquarters of the U.S. PGA Tour. He didn’t take questions from media members who were among those present, and hugged his mother, Kultida, after the 13 1/2-minute address, Woods’s first public appearance since a one-car accident outside his home on Nov. 27. Woods said he would return to therapy tomorrow. There was no sign of Woods’s wife, Elin. PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem and Executive Vice President Ty Votaw ; and Tiger Woods Foundation President Greg McLaughlin were among about 30 people in the room. “Every one of you has good reason to be critical of me,” Woods, wearing a blue blazer and an open-collared blue shirt, told the group. “I have let you down. I have let down my fans.” Reporters from Bloomberg News, the Associated Press and Reuters were invited. The Golf Writers Association of America boycotted the event. The top player in the World Golf Rankings, the 34-year-old Woods said he would return to the sport that has made him a billionaire but had no timetable. “I will return to golf one day,” Woods said. “I just don’t know when that will be.” Woods said his plan to return to therapy tomorrow was the reason for the timing of today’s announcement. Media reports, including TMZ.com, have said that Woods was enrolled in sex-addiction treatment at a clinic in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Break From Golf Woods had said in a statement in December that he had been unfaithful to his wife, announcing then that he was taking an indefinite break from golf. “The issue involved here was my repeated irresponsible behavior,” he said today. “I was unfaithful, I had affairs, I cheated. What I did was not acceptable, and I am the only person to blame. I stopped living by the core values that I was taught to believe in. I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply. I never thought about who I was hurting, instead I thought only about myself. I ran straight through the boundaries that a married couple should live by. I thought that I could get away with whatever I wanted to.” Woods’s announcement came amid tight security. Everyone in the clubhouse room had to turn off cell phones 15 minutes before Woods was scheduled to speak. Last Tournament Woods hasn’t played a tournament since announcing on Dec. 11 that he’d take an indefinite break from the game to focus his attention on his family. His decision followed the accident outside of his home near Orlando, Florida, that was quickly followed by the publication of often lurid details about his private life. Two days ago, Woods’s agent, Mark Steinberg , announced his client’s intention to apologize for his behavior and address his past and future. Woods previously asked for privacy to deal with his marital issues, while some of his corporate sponsors ended or modified their relationships with him. Accenture Plc , the consulting company that once hailed Woods as the centerpiece of its marketing campaign, and AT&T Inc . dropped the golfer. TAG Heuer, the Swiss watchmaker owned by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA , said it would scale back its use of Woods, who has earned $1 billion in tournament winnings and sponsorships in his career, according to Forbes magazine. Procter & Gamble Co. , based in Cincinnati, said it was phasing him out of its Gillette razor advertising. Woods’s absence has also hit television coverage of U.S. PGA Tour events. Ratings Down Ratings for the first two tournaments of the season, the SBS Championship and Sony Open in Hawaii, fell an average of 27 percent, according to figures provided by the Golf Channel. Television advertising may also have dropped by as much as 40 percent, said Aaron Cohen , chief media negotiating officer at New York-based ad agency Horizon Media Inc. There have been eight PGA Tour events this year without Woods, whose 71 wins on the world’s richest golf circuit rank second to Sam Snead’s 82. Woods won his last tournament, the Australian Masters, on Nov. 15, his first victory in that country. Year-End Awards In December, he was named the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year for the 10th time, after going winless in golf’s four major tournaments for the first time in five years. Two days earlier, he was named Athlete of the Decade by the AP. While Woods failed to capture the Masters Tournament, U.S. Open, British Open or PGA Championship in 2009, he had six victories in 17 PGA Tour events. He also won the season-long FedEx Cup title, which carried a $10 million bonus. Woods is four wins shy of tying Jack Nicklaus’s mark of 18 titles in the four professional majors. He hasn’t missed the Masters, scheduled for April 8-11 in Augusta, Georgia, since 1995, when he was an amateur. This year’s U.S. Open will be played at California’s Pebble Beach Golf Links, where Woods won the 2000 edition by 15 shots. To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Buteau in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, at mbuteau@bloomberg.net ; Mason Levinson in New York at mlevinson@bloomberg.net .

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Commerce National Bank Announces the Appointment of Gloria Miller, Senior Vice President and SBA Department Manager

February 19, 2010

NEWPORT BEACH, CA–(Marketwire – February 19, 2010) – Commerce National Bank ( OTCBB : CNBF ), a community business bank now in its seventh year of operation, is pleased to announce that Gloria Miller has joined Commerce National Bank as Senior Vice President and SBA Lending Department Manager.

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