Local imprint's 'Vision' up for National Book Award - StarNewsOnline.com

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Local imprint's 'Vision' up for National Book Award StarNewsOnline.com One of several small-press releases to be finalists this year, "Binocular Vision" is the first title released by Lookout Books, an imprint of UNCW's Department of Creative Writing. The collection received a front-page notice in The New York Times Book ... and more »

Stormy weather is a shared economic burden - San Antonio Business Journal:

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The Texas Gulf Coast is vitakl to the economyof Texas, with linkages to all regions of the Lone Star Without the key inputs and services providedr by the industrial base located in the prosperity and business activity from the Panhandld to the Rio Grande Valley and from the Big Bend to the Pineyy Woods would be diminished. The coastal area handles the vast majority of watefr shipments for goods produced for exportr throughoutthe state. Moreover, the refined petroleumj and petrochemicals products produced in the area are used extensively in everu portion of Texas and are essential to the viability of manyproduction sectors.
The end resul is that every segment of the state is criticallgy linked to the dynamic Texas Gulf Coast and disruptions in that regionm would be felt across the Over the past few property and casualty insurance rates along the Gulf Coasy have risen sharply and availabilityhas declined. In the wake of expensive hurricanes, insurance companies are significantly adjusting ratea and underwriting criteria in areas considered vulnerable tosimilaer phenomena. The most directly affected area (the Tier 1 Windstormm Coverage Area) includes portions of Harris Counthy and forms a large componenyt of theTexas economy.
By many measures, the regio is responsible (including Harris for almost one-third of all busines s activity inthe state. Decreases in the level of insurance coverage by firms in the Coveragde Area have enormouspotential fallout, both within the directlyy affected region and across the Companies facing sharply rising property and casualty insuranced rates will see competitiveness and profits In addition, some will elect not to purchaser adequate coverage due to a lack of affordability or The consequences of such decision are decidedly negative.
These premium increases and lack of availability woulr contributeto under-insurance, as firms and individuals electt not to pay the much highed premiums. In the event of a major insurance insufficiencies would delay the recovery process and negatively affect not only theimmediatee area, but also the rest of Using the impact assessment systemm maintained by my firm (The ), I recently estimated the effectw on business activity if the Tier 1 Windstorm Coverage Area absorbss the entire premium increase. The losses to the economy includer $5.
89 billion in annual output (real grossd product) and 78,690 Moreover, because high premiums lead to all of Texas is more vulnerable to economicf fallout from acatastrophic storm. In a prioe study in December 2006, we quantified the impact of a major storm on the Texas economhy and found that the ramificationxs across the state wouldbe enormous. We found that if a “Katrina”-levelk storm were to occur, for example, the losses to the states wouldinclude $52.2 billion in output, almost 617,000 permanenty jobs, and nearly $1.8 billion in annual State All parts of the state would be significantlyu affected, with regional losses rangingf from 3.76 percent to 9.
69 percent of aggregats output. Property and casualty insurance is essential toconducting business. It is vital to mitigating risk and, allowing for optimal investment andeconomicc performance. The Tier 1 Windstorm Coverage Area is currently in an environmengt of rapidly escalating property and casualty premiums and shrinking availabilituy fromprivate carriers. Further restrictions on the scopw and adequacy of coverage would exacerbatsthose problems. It is in the interest of all Texan s to ensure that reasonablhy priced property and casualty insurance is available alonvg theGulf Coast. All regions have a stake in seeing that adequatd coverage is maintained at an affordable price.
Efforts to find workable solutions to the proble m of sharply rising rates are worthy of widespread suppor t and essential to the economic vitality of every part ofthe

Jets' defense cannot rest - Boston Globe

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Boston Globe

Jets' defense cannot rest Boston Globe FLORHAM PARK, NJ - The best answer Jets coach Rex Ryan can come up with for the Patriots offense is to drown himself in sarcasm - lots and lots of sarcasm. Wes Welker eating up yards like a riding mower? “Welker only has 40 catches,'' ... and more »

NCO Group adds 300 employees to Lenexa call center - Kansas City Business Journal:

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The company, based in Horsham, Pa., has providedf contract customer service at the Lenexa facility sinceSeptember 2002. The companyg had about 375 employees at the facilitg when it started expandingyin September, spokeswoman Bridgett King said. The company plans to have 1,1009 employees at the Lenexa location, she The company said in a release that it plane tospend $5.6 million on the Lenexsa facility, including the cost of leasintg the office space and reconfiguring it for new employees.
The committeed $420,000 to NCO Group’s Lenexa expansion throug h the Investments in Major Projects and ComprehensivewTraining (IMPACT) program, which allowa the state to issue bonds and recou the costs from revenue generated by the statee payroll taxes on the new jobs created. The providedr technical assistance. NCO provides a variett of business processoutsourcing services. It operates a global network of more than 100operations centers.

Overhaul of Colorado spending rules signed into law - Nashville Business Journal:

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Senate Bill 228 ends the Arveschoug-Bird provision allowing general-funf spending to increase just 6 percent per year and replaceas it with a spending increase limigt equal to 5 percent of personal income Sponsoredby Sen. John D-Colorado Springs, it also sets aside part of the generalp fund for transportation for the first time and increasezthe state's rainy-day reserves, beginninfg in the 2012-13 fiscal year. What that all meanxs is that thegeneral fund, which pays for genera l state services like education, higher educationh and corrections, will no longeer have to shrink permanently when the economy recesses.
Becausw of the current growth limit, programxs that see funds cut durinv downturns are not allowed to recover fullgy when the fiscal environment turnsgood again. . . The new law will not increases overall spending but will assure that money can be directedr where state leaders see thegreatest need, Ritter emphasized. Laws put into placde over the past 12 years direct any revenue over the 6 percent limit mostly toward transportation projects and capital construction, which have no other guaranteed stat e funds.
But even as the Democratic governor haile d the signingas "a great day for progress in the effortzs of so many who have worked to bringingf sensible, modern budgeting to the state of several legislators said there is more to be Sponsoring Rep. Don R-Loveland, said state officials must now look at the conflicts betweebnAmendment 23, the Gallagher Amendment and "that sacrec cow," the Taxpayer's Bill of or TABOR. Marostica was the only membee of his party to support the with other Republicans calling it an end to fiscapl limits and a taking of the only stream of money that had been dedicate to roadsfor years.
Morse addec that an interim committee this year will look at not just how much revenu e the state brings in but wherwe it getsthat money. Questions must be asked if theres are ways to get funding from more stable sources like property taxes and fees ratheer than the volatilesales tax, he "In the late 1400s, very few people believexd the Earth was round. By the early we knew what wasgoing on," Morse said of the need to convince Coloradans that such changer is necessary. "The same thing's going to happen with this bill ... This is a fighyt for the soul of Coloradand it's just beginning.
" Colorado Fiscal Policu Institute analyst Carol Hedges, who helped to craft the said that because future revenuea remain uncertain, no estimates have been made as to how much moneyu higher education and other areas will gain from the bill. next year's general-fund revenue is expected to fall byroughly $700 milliobn from this year, and SB 228 will help budgegt crafters be able to prioritize where that is taken from and how that money is replaced in the Morse said.

AvalonBay gets OK for $65M Balboa project in S.F. - San Francisco Business Times:

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The development, which will include a 28,000-square-footr grocery store, will replace the Kragen auto parts stores and parking lot at 1150Ocean Ave. The 1.8-acred site just south of Phelahn Avenue and abutting the citycollege campus, is the firsrt project approved under the Balboa Park rezoning the Board of Supervisorss adopted in April. AvalonBay Senior Development Directo Meg Spriggs said the company hopes to startf construction onthe two-building complex at the end of 2010 or the firsy quarter of 2011.
Construction would likely take abouf18 months, meaning that the project would open in 2012 at the AvalonBay has been one of San Francisco’s most activ e developers over the past decade, completinf 823 rental units in Mission Bay north, a $400 milliob investment. With that neighborhood mostly built out, AvalonBay has been actively lookin atother neighborhoods, including the city-owned Bloc 8 on Folsom Street. At the Ocean Avenud site, the developer was drawn to the rich publictransit — downtown is a 13-minutr ride from the Balboa Park BART station and proximity of schoolsa including City College, Balboa High School and the privatr school Lick Wilmerding, according to Spriggs.
Given the collegew campus and rich publictransportatiomn options, “there is little to no supply of higher-densitgy rental housing in this part of San Francisco,” said “It’s a great urban infill location and the beauty of it is the bonex are already there. The infrastructure is already there. Therd are tons of little neighborhoods and a nice littlse business district alongOcean Avenue,” said AvalonBay has yet to sign on a grocerhy store to occupy the ground floof of the project. Matt Holmes of the brokerage Retail West has been retained to to leasesthe space.
Peter Waller of Pyatok is the “We have been pleasantly surprised by the levepl of initial interest in the space and we have had severakl meaningful conversationswith retailers,” said Spriggs. AvalonBat started working with the Planning Departmentt in 2005 when the Balboa Park mastedr plan was in itsearly stages. Because they were involved so AvalonBay’s project specific environmental impact report was included in the masterr environmental impact report forthe neighborhood.
“Our goal was to get behinf the plan, design our project collaboratively with the city and the communityu and be in a position to get our projecr approvals as soon as the Balboaa Park plan was said Spriggs. Matt Holmes said the site has attractive densities and attractive demographicds with over 35 percentcollegw graduates. “The demographics are there already, they really are. The designm of the space is They have really built a grearmousetrap there,” he

Debate begins on Obama consumer protection plan - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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That theory is driving PresidentBarack Obama’s call for the creationj of a new office within the federall government — a Consumer Financial Protectionh Agency. It would be dedicated to lookintg out for consumers as theydo mortgage, creditr card and other business with financial institutionxs — as part of a set of proposalzs announced June 17. The proposed agency, part of the most sweepin g financial reform plan since the Great would take on some of the powers currently carried out by other regulators or theFederalp Reserve. But already, that idea is drawingv opposition from some seriouslobbying forces, includinbg the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, the Financiak Services Roundtable and the American Bankers Association. “The ABA is strongly opposed to the proposecd Consumer FinancialProtection Agency. You cannoyt separate consumer protection from otherregulatorh concerns,” ABA President and CEO Ed Yingling said in a Yingling argues that the creatio n of a Consumer Financiall Protection Agency would separate the regulation of banks by other agencies, and the regulation of products, such as mortgages and credit cards, by the new “Banks would be subject to conflicting regulation betweenm safety and soundness and consumer regulation in many he said.
That could squelcnh banks’ ability to make The agency, as envisioned in a drafrt of the newfinancial regulations, woulc have the power to promote clear and conciswe language in agreements between consumers and lenders; forced clearer disclosure of costs and penalties to give consumersa a better idea of what kind of deal they’re actuallyh doing with lenders; and make it toughee for people to sign expensive creditg deals.
The agency would also have the power to make rules for the industrt and to enforce Obama said that the power to lay out new rulewis essential, “so that the bad practices that led to the home mortgagse crisis will be stamped The consumer financial protection agenct Obama is pushing alreadyy has the support of key Democraticv lawmakers. Sen. Chris Dodd, chairman of the Bankintg Committee, called for the creation of such an agencyylast week. The proposal is modeled on pending Financiapl Product Safety Commission legislation introduced last Aprilby Sen. Dick Durbi of Illinois.
In its draft of the new rules, the Obamz administration acknowledges that a hodgepodge of consumere protections were alreadyin place. But it makes the case that thosw regulations failed inrecentr years, contributing to the financial crisis, and that a new regulator is needed. “Most critically in the run-upo to the financial mortgage companies and others outside the purview of bank regulationm exploited that lack of clear accountability by selling mortgages and other products that were overly complicated and unsuiterto borrowers’ financial situation.
Banks and thrifts followef suit, with disastrous results for consumers and the financial the administration writes ina near-final draft copy of its proposeed rules. Obama said in a preparef statement that the creation of such an agenct could protect both bankersand consumers. “This is for this crisis was not just the result of decisionsa made by the mightiest offinancial firms; it was also the resulf of decisions made by ordinaryy Americans to open credit cards, take out home loanws and take on othed financial obligations,” Obama said.
Beyond the consumer the president also called for the Federal Reserve to extenx its role in overseeinbgfinancial institutions, expand the Federal Deposity Insurance Corporation’s ability to break up troubled financia l institutions, and create a council of regulators led by the Treasuruy Secretary to fill in gaps in Theodore Iacobuzio, an analyst in the banking and paymentas practice at TowerGroup, headquarterecd in Needham, Mass., said that as he studiec the proposal draft, he saw a broad role outlinedr for the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, one that went well beyone regulating mortgage products from for instance.
He thinks the agency could play a role in productsa from credit cards to payment cards such as debit cards andprepaid cards. “This new agency would have oversight not only of credir butof payments,” he “It does leave a lot of room for them to get very involveed in the consumer finance business of all kinds really.” It’z part of a processa of change in the finance industry, toward a much more risk-avers e environment than we’ve seen in the and the government, through Obama’s proposals, is acceleratint the pace of that “It will change the character of the financial services business,” Iacobuzio said.
But bankers are goingy to be a tough sell when it come to the extra layerof regulation. The Independent Bankerzs of America (IBA), while praising several of the reforms Obamais proposing, singled out the creatio of a Consumer Financial Protection Agencuy for opposition. The IBA complained in a releasew that such an agency would not have the same viewthat already-existinf banking regulators have. Those regulators already know how to balanc bank safety and soundness with productswfor consumers. A new agency without regar d to safety and soundness could come up with burdensomr regulations that would make it too expensive for banks to offet otherwise beneficial servicesto consumers.