Renters who are caught up in foreclosures or short sales may get more time to get out before the sheriff shows up to evict them, if a proposed bill gets traction in the Florida Legislature.
HB 125, sponsored by state Rep. Hazelle Rogers, D-Lauderhill, and co-sponsored by state Rep. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, is scheduled to be taken up Tuesday by the Civil Justice & Courts Policy Committee. Its companion bill is SB 854.
Soto, an attorney who is handling more than 250 foreclosure defense cases, said tenants often get served the same paperwork from the bank as the owner, which causes stress and confusion.
“They basically receive a complaint, but it doesn’t tell them their rights, other than that they have to respond,” he said. “They don’t know to not pay the rent or to pay the rent, and their landlord is usually pretty mum.”
However, some worry that the bill could limit owner rights by requiring the owner or lender to give the tenant first right of refusal to buy the property.
“A lease with a tenant has a beginning and an end date,” said Stephen Weiss, VP of business development for Fort Lauderdale-based Foreclosure Response Team, a private company specializing in short sales. “It doesn’t give tenants a right or obligation to own my property. This is hindering and impairing on the value of real estate.”
The bill:
Scott Coloney, president of the Foreclosure Response Team, added that if the tenant is awarded the first right of refusal, it could prolong short sales, which are already long, creating problems for buyers.
However, he did like the provision that requires the lender to give notice.
“It’s one less thing that the landlord has to do,” he said.
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How’s this for a stocking stuffer?
Canadians are generally tightening their purse strings this Christmas shopping season, but some are shelling out a pretty penny for bars of gold.
ScotiaMocatta, the precious metals division of the Bank of Nova Scotia, is enjoying "record sales" of small precious metals products during this holiday season, even though the price of gold continues to trade above $1,100 (U.S.) an ounce.
"By far, the most popular product we are selling is the one-ounce Scotia Gold Bar," said Richard Maskobi, managing director of ScotiaMocatta.
While the retail price for that product fluctuates daily, it is based on the spot price of gold plus a premium to cover other costs such as manufacturing, shipping and storage. On Friday afternoon, the rectangular bar – which has a gold purity of 0.9999 or 24 karats – was selling for about $1,233.90 (Canadian).
ScotiaMocatta does not release specifics about its sales data. Maskobi, however, said sales remain robust during final days before Christmas.
Gold is generally seen as a "safe haven" during financial crises, and demand for the precious metal has been increasing over the past few years.
Earlier this month, gold hit a record above $1,200 (U.S.) an ounce. The price has retreated in recent weeks but consumer demand is not slowing down.
"There isn’t a typical buyer," Maskobi said. "It is varied. Some people are buying a lot of smaller products just as gifts; some people are buying it as (investment) diversification; some people are buying just because they like gold instant personal loans guaranteed."
Scotiabank is one of the world’s largest precious metals dealers. While it is not the only bank selling gold in Canada, it is the only one that does so both through its branches and an online system.
Launched earlier this year, The ScotiaMocatta Precious Metals eStore is currently offering extended holiday hours. Volume is also up at its branches. Said Maskobi: "I know our phone stats are through the roof as well."
Scotiabank is not alone. In November, the U.S. Mint suspended sales of its popular American Eagle one-ounce gold coin after consumers snapped up its entire supply.
While the Royal Canadian Mint has not suspended bullion sales, it has sold out of some gold collector pieces such as two of its "Fine Gold Kilo Coins." One such coin entitled "Toward Confederation (2008)" has a price tag of $49,000 (Canadian). Other gold coins are on back order.
Mint spokesperson Alex Reeves said it is normal for limited edition products to sell out. Still, he notes consumer demand has increased in recent years.
The mint is also recording "much higher" sales but the increase is not necessarily linked to Christmas, Reeves said. Nevertheless, that didn’t stop him from dropping Santa a big hint: "I’d love to find gold bullion coins in my stocking."
AXA Asia Pacific rejected a $10.3 billion bid from parent AXA SA and Australian rival AMP Ltd on Monday, an initial hurdle for the French insurer’s bold ambitions to expand in Asia.
AXA SA, Europe’s second-largest insurer it would raise $3 billion to buy out its Asian assets in a two-stage deal which would see AXA Asia Pacific sold to AMP, then divided on geographical lines with the Australian firm keeping the Australia and New Zealand assets and selling the Asian assets back to AXA SA.
But AXA Asia Pacific’s independent directors rejected the main plank of the deal saying the deal “significantly undervalued” the company.
AXA SA had tried to buy out the minorities in AXA Asia Pacific five years ago but was knocked back.
“They’ve obviously wanted to have at least some of the assets of AXA Asia Pacific for some time. They wanted to do it cheaply before and they’re probably wanting to do it cheaply again,” said Ross Barker, managing director of Australian Foundation Investment Co.
AXA Asia Pacific shares jumped 30 percent on news of the takeover bid, with the market punting on AMP and AXA improving the offer.
AXA SA holds its Asian operations through its stake in Australia-based AXA Asia Pacific Holdings but now wants to own these assets outright, doubling its exposure to Asian life insurance savings, including in China and India.
“The proposal has been received against the backdrop of recent weakness in global financial markets and before the growth of our Asian operations is fully reflected in our profitability,” AXA Asia Pacific Chairman Rick Allert said in a statement.
With the buyout, AMP would buy all of the shares in the Asia Pacific unit, including the parent’s 53 percent stake in a deal worth $10.3 billion, and then sell AXA Asia Pacific’s Asian assets back to the French parent.
“The Asian assets are attractive,” said Mark Daniels, head of Australian equities for Aberdeen Asset Management.
“That’s one of the reasons why you’d hold AXA (Asia Pacific). They’ve got a very good business in Hong Kong and other Asian businesses are coming on track,” Daniels added.
In a separate development, AXA’s 15.6 percent stake in China’s No.4 life insurer, Taikang, attracted foreign and domestic bidders, including Temasek and Blackstone, valuing the holding at more than $1 billion, sources told Reuters.
“A BIT LIGHT”
AMP’s cash-and-shares offer for all of AXA Asia Pacific, the first stage of the deal, implied a bid of A$5.34 per AXA Asia Pacific share, valuing the target firm at A$11.2 billion ($10.3 billion), based on AMP’s closing share price on Friday. AMP is offering a 26 percent premium to AXA’s close on Friday.
AXA’s shares surged 33 percent to close at A$5.70, their highest since the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Reinhard Mohn, who turned his family’s religious publishing company into Bertelsmann AG, one of the world’s largest media conglomerates, died Saturday, the firm announced Sunday.
He was 88.
Mohn and his family were worth $2.5 billion, Forbes magazine estimated in its annual rich list in March, making them the 261st wealthiest family in the world. They own 23% of Bertelsmann, with the rest controlled by a trust Mohn established.
The company owns Random House, publisher of Dan Brown’s "The Lost Symbol," as well as authors ranging from Stephen King and John Grisham to Toni Morrison and John Updike.
It also controls RTL Group, Europe’s largest broadcasting company; magazine publisher Gruner + Jahr, which publishes the German magazine Stern; and Direct Group, a media-marketing firm.
"Bertelsmann mourns the loss of one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our age," Bertelsmann chairman and CEO Hartmut Ostrowski said in the statement announcing the death.
"He embraced his responsibility to society and developed new ideas systematically, and with impressive consistency. Reinhard Mohn’s concept of leadership was based on values like liberty and humanity," Ostrowski said.
"In his over 60 years of active service, Reinhard Mohn built Bertelsmann into an international enterprise, which today employs more than 100,000 people in over 50 different countries," the firm said.
Mohn, the fifth generation of his family to head the company, took over after serving as a German officer in World War II, when he was captured and imprisoned by the Allies.
In 1950, he presided over the publisher’s creation of its own book club, which became the company’s "silver bullet," attracting 3 million members by 1960, according to an official company history.
Bertelsmann expanded into encyclopedia publishing and the music business in the 1960s, and introduced an employee profit-sharing scheme in 1970, earning its head the nickname "Red Mohn."
"Only those enterprises whose employees can identify with their company will be fit to master the challenges of the future, and such an attitude requires material justice," Mohn said at the time, according to the company history.
The company’s other businesses have included Sony BMG and AOL Europe.
Mohn retired in 2001, according to Forbes. His widow, Liz, remains on the firm’s supervisory board.
Stocks slumped Thursday, falling for the second straight session, as a surprise drop in existing home sales and tumbling commodity prices gave investors a reason to sell into a rally that pushed the major gauges to one-year highs.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 41 points, or 0.4%. The S&P 500 (SPX) index fell 10 points, or 1%. The Nasdaq composite (COMP) declined 24 points, or 1.1%.
Declines were broad based, with 2 out of every 3 Dow stocks sliding, including GE (GE, Fortune 500), Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500), Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500), Boeing (BA, Fortune 500), Caterpillar (CAT, Fortune 500), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500) and United Technologies (UTX, Fortune 500).
Stocks gained in the early going after the Labor Department reported that jobless claims fell for the third week in a row. But the market abandoned gains after the housing report. A slide in oil and gold shares on the back of a stronger dollar dragged on commodity stocks.
Stocks slipped Wednesday, falling from almost one-year highs, after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged and essentially maintained its recent economic outlook. A week ago, Fed chief Ben Bernanke said the recession was very likely over, but the labor market still has a long way to go.
In the short term, "there’s not a whole lot of bad news that could derail equities," said Robert Siewert, portfolio manager at Glenmede. "But the rally since March has been the sharpest since the 1930s and it’s not surprising to see occasional pullbacks."
However, Siewert said that longer term, there are a lot of headwinds that could challenge stocks, with 2010 likely a tougher year for equities. He cited challenges including the eventual rising of taxes, the labor market weakness, the still-tight credit market and the struggle of a consumer that chooses to save at the expense of personal spending.
Friday brings government reports on new home sales and durable goods orders, as well as the University of Michigan’s September consumer sentiment index
Housing: Existing home sales fell to a seasonally adjusted 5.1 million unit rate in August from a 5.24 million unit rate in July, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast that sales would rise to a 5.3 million unit rate in the month.
Jobs: A report from the Labor Department showed weekly jobless claims fell for the third week in a row. The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment fell to 530,000 last week from a revised 551,000 in the prior week. Economists thought claims would rise by 5,000.
Continuing claims, a measure of Americans who have been receiving benefits for a week or more, fell to 6,138,000 from 6,261,000 in the previous week. Economists expected a rise.
IPOs return: Shares of A123 Systems (AONE) surged as much as 56.6% from their initial pricing, before trimming the gain to just over 50% at the close. The company, one of a small group of electric-car battery makers, raised $380 million in an initial public offering Wednesday that priced above forecasts. The company trades under the ticker symbol AONE.
A123 was one of 5 companies that went public Thursday, the biggest day for the IPO market since Nov. 15, 2007, when 6 debuted.
Among the other debuts, online pharmacy Vitacost.com (VITC) was little changed Thursday and asset management firm Artio Global Investors (ART) added 4 no fax cash advance.8%.
Two REITs also debuted: Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance (ARI), which fell 7.5% Thursday, and Colony Financial (CLNY), which fell 2.5%.
Three more IPOs are due by the end of the week and eight over the next two weeks. The recharged market could be seen as another indicator that a broader economic recovery is taking hold. Alternately, it could attest to how few financing options are available to companies.
Other company news: Rite Aid (RAD, Fortune 500) reported its ninth consecutive quarterly loss Thursday morning, although the results were not as weak as analysts had expected. However, the drugstore chain also said it would see a wider fiscal-year loss than it initially thought because of falling sales.
Shares fell 12.3%.
Among other movers, Chelsea Therapeutics (CHTP) tumbled 60% after its experimental drug to treat a neurological disorder showed disappointing results in a late-stage trial.
One-year highs: The major indexes ended Tuesday’s session at the highest levels since just after the collapse of Lehman Brothers last September.
Since bottoming at a 12-year low March 9, the S&P 500 has gained 56.8% and the Dow has gained 48.9%, as of Thursday’s close. After hitting a six-year low, the Nasdaq has gained 68%.
The stock advance was driven by signs that the economy is slowly starting to recover — and by extraordinary amounts of fiscal and monetary stimulus.
Despite predictions of a big September selloff, stocks have seen only modest pullbacks that have been met with renewed buying.
Fed: The Federal Reserve said Thursday it was dialing down a pair of emergency programs in the wake of an improving economy. The central bank is cutting back the amount of money available to banks under the Term Auction Facility, a short-term loan program.
The Fed is also pulling back on a program that lets investment banks trade bad debt for safe Treasury debt.
G-20 summit begins: The Group of 20 leading developed and emerging countries are meeting in Pittsburgh to discuss financial reforms in the wake of the global financial market collapse. It is the third such meeting, following earlier events in April and last November.
World markets: Global markets were mostly lower. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 lost 1.2%, while France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX both lost around 1.7%. Asian markets ended lower, with the exception of the Japanese Nikkei.
Currency and commodities: The dollar gained versus the euro and the yen. The greenback has repeatedly hit one-year lows against a basket of currencies over the last few weeks.
A stronger dollar hit dollar-traded commodities, including oil and gold.
U.S. light crude oil for October delivery fell $3.08 to settle at $65.98 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
COMEX gold for December delivery fell $15.50 to settle at $998.90 an ounce. Gold closed at a record high of $1,020.20 last week.
Bonds: Treasury prices rose, lowering the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.38% from 3.41% late Tuesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
As President Obama turns up the heat on health care reform, one new and surprising detail to emerge is his pledge to tackle medical malpractice.
"I don’t believe malpractice reform is a silver bullet, but I have talked to enough doctors to know that defensive medicine may be contributing to unnecessary costs," Obama said Wednesday night.
Obama’s decision to wade into the issue has some insiders scratching their heads, because cutting down on medical malpractice lawsuits is a Republican tenet.
But the president’s idea of reducing health care costs by cutting down on lawsuits isn’t the same as Republicans, who want to cap lawsuit damage awards. Instead, Obama plans to run with an idea left over from his predecessor’s administration and fund pilot projects in states that trumpet patient safety.
In one approach, the Department of Health and Human Services would fund projects aimed at limiting lawsuits by encouraging doctors and clinics to disclose accidents early and apologize to patients when appropriate.
Experts point to the University of Michigan Health Care system as a potential model. Malpractice claims in the system dropped by 55% between 1999 and 2006.
"If we make a mistake, we’ll move quickly to apologize and compensate that patient. But if we didn’t make a mistake, we talk to the patient and explain," said Richard Boothman, chief risk officer for the University of Michigan system.
Politics of malpractice
As the Obama administration knows well, medical malpractice can be a sticky issue. When the discussion centers on lawsuit damages, it pits two deep-pocketed lobbying groups against each other: trial lawyers and big business.
Advocates like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and hospital and doctor groups say that lawsuits, especially frivolous ones, drive up the cost of health care by increasing the cost of doctors’ malpractice insurance.
Trial lawyers counter that limiting their ability to hold doctors and hospitals accountable for mistakes won’t reduce costs.
More neutral agencies like the Congressional Budget Office say that efforts to curb medical malpractice lawsuits can prompt cheaper malpractice insurance premiums but don’t really affect health care spending.
In June, Obama told the American Medical Association that he was not an advocate of lawsuit caps, which he said can "be unfair to people who’ve been wrongfully harmed."
Despite his legal background, Obama hasn’t always sided with lawyers on legislation targeting the court system.
In 2005, he voted with Senate Republicans to pass a law that limited attorneys’ fees in class action suits and shifted most of those cases into federal courts to prevent attorneys from seeking more favorable state-court venues.
On Wednesday, the president made it clear that he brought up medical malpractice as a sign of good will to the "Republican side of the aisle."
That irks some left-leaning Democrats. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., said he didn’t see the need to address the issue, which is often called "tort reform."
"But you know, if the president wants to discuss tort reform — fine. I am not going to die on that hill," Ellison said.
Details and next steps
The next wave of controversy depends on the kinds of medical malpractice pilot projects the Obama administration agrees to fund.
If the projects aim to stop and prevent medical errors and accidents before they happen, the trial lawyers’ lobbying group, the American Association for Justice, is on board. If the measures limit liability, that’s another story.
"If you really want to solve the health care crisis, you need to focus your efforts on saving lives," said Linda Lipsen, the AAJ’s top lobbyist. "That’s where the most cost savings are."
The American Medical Association was more guarded in its reaction, but the doctors lobbying group applauded Obama’s intent to address malpractice lawsuits as a way of cutting health care costs.
An administration official said the types of things they’re looking to fund include two proposals contained in one of the health care reform bills now in Congress.
One resembles what the University of Michigan already does, where hospitals and clinics disclose errors and apologize when at fault. Meanwhile doctors are well-insured against lawsuits.
"I’ve the luxury of saying to our physicians, no matter how big a case is, how bad a case is, ‘You’re completely insured and your personal assets are not at stake,’ " Boothman said. "You can’t ask them them to be totally honest when they have such things at stake."
The other provision would require patients who want to file lawsuits to get a panel of experts or doctors to agree their lawsuit has merit before they go to court.
But if the Obama administration is truly thinking of running with Bush administration ideas, they’ll look at a 2002 Institute of Medicine study aimed at cutting malpractice suits.
That study offered recommendations that have yet to surface in current health care policy discussions.
In one, the federal government would offer backup insurance to provider groups who disclose mistakes and compensate patients for avoidable injuries. But the report also recommended that participating states limit pain and suffering awards.
The other option gave health care providers "immunity," or protection against lawsuits if they agreed to participate in a government-run administrative system that compensated injured patients, mostly based on a formula.
William Sage, a doctor and attorney who advised the Institute of Medicine, said the 2002 recommendations fit well with the president’s pledge, because they attack malpractice lawsuits from the bedside instead of the courtroom.
Sage said he expects that such medical malpractice reforms will go beyond pilot projects and make it into final legislation.
"This year it’s different," said Sage, vice provost for health affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. "We have to have major long-term changes, so malpractice proposals have to appeal more broadly. They have to gain the confidence of a large number of medical physicians and make them think about their work differently without always being afraid of being sued."
There’s a reason consumers are worried about protecting their credit- and debit-card information.
The feds said Monday that one alleged master scammer stole data involving more than 130 million credit cards. In fact, Albert Gonzalez may be responsible for the largest case of identity theft on record, according to federal prosecutors.
Meanwhile, other hackers are working their way into the computer systems of major retailers across the country, experts say.
As the bad guys get savvier, identity theft has become more common. Last year, the number of incidents of identity fraud in the United States increased 22% over 2007, according to the most recent survey by Javelin Strategy & Research.
Identity theft occurs when someone uses your information to open credit cards or bank accounts, write bad checks or take out loans. Victims can be left with countless charges, years of bad credit and endless aggravation.
Some 10 million Americans were victimized in 2008, up from 8.1 million in 2007, Javelin said.
"Let’s face it, these scammers are extremely intelligent people," said Bill Hardekopf, CEO of LowCards.com and author of "The Credit Card Guidebook." But, "there are certain things that you can do to protect yourself."
Stop identify theft before it starts
What can you do to keep it from happening to you?
The most effective weapon against identity theft is to safeguard your personal information: birth date, Social Security number and credit card numbers.
Shredding your mail, using unpredictable passwords and secure networks, keeping careful tabs on your bank statements and monthly bills and monitoring your credit report regularly are the best ways to prevent identity theft.
"The key word vigilance," said Linda Foley, founder of the Identity Theft Resource Center affordable car insurance.
Consumers are entitled to one free credit report a year from each of the three credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Hardekopf recommends staggering the reports so you’ll get one every four months.
To get your report, go to annualcreditreport.com — the official site set up by the three credit bureaus to comply with federal law.
The three major agencies each offer ID protection services for about $15 a month as well. That includes monitoring your credit report and notifying you of any changes plus a few fancy extras.
Equifax’s ID Patrol searches suspected underground Internet trading sites for your personal information and includes identity theft insurance up to $1 million with no deductible.
Other credit monitoring services are available from your bank. Bank of America’s Privacy Assist service costs $12.99 a month for unlimited credit checks. For $9.99 a month, Chase’s Identity Protection will also reimburse up to $100,000 of identity fraud expenses.
But keep in mind, most services can only warn or insure you against ID theft after the fact. Monitoring services can only throw up red flags at the first sign of trouble and help limit losses, which Foley says is "reactive, not proactive."
Even after paying for credit monitoring and insurance, experts agree that no identity theft prevention service is foolproof.
"As a consumer there is only so much you can do," Foley said. "But you can lower your risk somewhat."
Bailed-out insurer AIG again found itself in the crosshairs of bonus rage on Friday over its plans to pay $2.4 million in executive bonuses next week.
But the larger issue is how AIG will deal with its obligation to pay roughly $235 million still owed to employees of its crippled financial products division.
The contentious issue of the bonuses resurfaced late Thursday after The Washington Post reported that AIG was seeking the government’s consent to make a scheduled performance bonus payment of $2.4 million to 43 of its top-ranking executives.
But there’s still the $235 million in retention bonuses owed to about 400 employees of AIG’s Financial Products (FP) division that the company has to deal with. Public furor erupted in March when it was revealed that AIG had paid out $165 million of retention bonuses to those employees.
AIG put the issue before Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration’s pay czar. Feinberg is tasked with reviewing bonuses and retirement packages for the 100 highest-paid executives at AIG (AIG, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), General Motors, GMAC, Chrysler and the now defunct Chrysler Financial.
A source close to the matter said Feinberg will be reviewing both the $2.4 million, as well as the much more controversial $235 million that is scheduled to be paid out to AIG-FP employees next year.
AIG-FP is the division that wrote insurance contracts on shaky derivatives that were at the root of the company’s near-collapse. In September, the government bailed out AIG with funds now worth up to $182 billion.
The $165 million of bonus payments in March was the second installment of a larger, $454 million retention plan for the FP employees. The first — $50 million — was made in 2008, before the company was bailed out by the government.
After the uproar in March, FP employees returned about a third of their bonuses, and a dozen workers resigned. The reaction from the public and Congress consumed AIG, Treasury and Federal Reserve officials, and called into question what to do with the last payment that is scheduled to go out in 2010.
Feinberg only has to review payments that were contracted beginning in 2009, so the $235 million in FP payments — contracted in 2008 — do not officially fall under his purview. Still, a source close to the matter said that AIG wants Feinberg to take a look at those bonuses to make sure the government is completely comfortable with the company’s compensation plan.
Feinberg was also asked to review the $2 cashadvance.4 million in performance bonuses set to be paid out to 43 of AIG’s top executives. That is part of a larger bonus pool of $121 million, the vast majority of which was paid out in March to the company’s most senior executives.
But with pressure mounting from Congress and the Obama administration, AIG restructured its bonus payments for the top 50 executives. The top seven AIG executives opted to forgo their bonuses. The other 43, set to receive $9.6 million in March, took home only half — $4.8 million — in March, and are set to receive $2.4 million July 15 and another $2.4 million Sept. 15.
Experts say asking Feinberg to review the bonuses takes the pressure off of AIG and turns Feinberg into a punching bag for criticism. Outgoing AIG Chief Executive Edward Liddy has said on many occasions that the public outrage about the bonuses has limited the company’s ability to move forward with its plan to repay the government.
"If you have the government OK the plan, it makes AIG look less like they’re flushing taxpayer money down the toilet," said Julie Grandstaff, managing director of insurance consultant StanCorp Investment Advisers. "There’s no way the poor guy who is reviewing all of this can win."
A Treasury spokesman would not comment directly on AIG’s bonuses, but suggested Feinberg can review those payments and the FP bonuses if he chooses, even though they were contracted in 2008, saying, "Mr. Feinberg has broad authority to make sure that compensation at those [seven] firms strikes an appropriate balance."
"Companies will need to convince Mr. Feinberg that they have struck the right balance to discourage excessive risk taking and reward performance for their top executives," the spokesman added.
AIG declined to comment for this article.
Prof. Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel created to oversee the bailout, told CNNMoney.com that AIG’s lack of comment spoke to a larger disconnect between the insurer and the American public.
"If they’re not commenting, that makes me very nervous, because what I would like to hear is ‘no, that report is a mistake,’" Warren said. "Taxpayers are under enormous stress. There’s going to be trouble over this."
– CNNMoney.com senior writer Jennifer Liberto and anchor Poppy Harlow contributed to this report.
The Big Easy is making a big comeback. New Orleans has steadily won back some of the population it lost in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, according to a government report released Wednesday.
New Orleans lost more than half its residents during the deluge. Few large U.S. cities have ever had to cope with a disaster on that scale. Since then, it has been one of the country’s fastest growing cities.
Only a couple of instances can compare. Galveston, Texas, was also devastated by a hurricane in 1900, a storm that remains the most lethal natural disaster in U.S. history with a toll of about 6,000 deaths. And San Francisco was almost leveled by the earthquake and fire of 1906.
New Orleans is now growing rapidly. Its population is up 8.2% in the 12 months that ended July 1, 2008, gaining 23,740 people to 311,853, according to the Census Bureau. That still leaves it well below its pre-storm population of 484,674.
For sheer numerical increase, New York City trumped the birthplace of jazz. During the same 12-month period, Gotham added nearly 53,500 residents, more than any other city. That represented a growth rate of only 0.6%.
Following New York City were Phoenix, which added 33,184 residents (2.1%) to a total of 1,567,924, and Houston, up 33,063 to 2,242,193 (1.5%).
The top percentage winners, after New Orleans, were Round Rock, Texas, part of the Austin metropolitan area, which grew by 8.2% to 104,446; Cary, N.C., which gained 6.9% to 129,545; and Gilbert, Ariz., which swelled by 5% to 216,449.
New York retained its position as the largest U.S. city by far. Its nearly 8.4 million folks crammed into 303 square miles is more than twice the number of people who live in sprawling Los Angeles, the nation’s second biggest city with 3,833,995 people.
Chicago, once the nation’s second city, has fallen nearly a million behind Los Angeles with 2,853,114.
Most old Midwestern and Northeastern cities have shrunk in population since World War II as heavy industry waned in importance to the overall economy online payday loans. Much of the growth in these areas occurred in suburban towns and were not counted in central city population figures.
Meanwhile, many Sun Belt towns exploded with growth as job opportunities in new technology industries proliferated. Northerners, including retirees, also moved south and west, lured by the warmer winters and relaxed life styles.
Among old-line cities, New York has been one of the few to buck this trend. In the years since the last census in 2000, it has gained 355,056 residents, a substantial gain and more than the total number of people who live in St. Louis.
The highest rate of growth since 2000 was reported by McKinney, Texas, which more than doubled to 121,211 from 54,369. Gilbert, Ariz., was second with an 88.7% jump to 216,449.
Few losers
Of the 25 largest cities, only a handful experienced population loss.
Detroit, suffering from the turmoil in the auto industry, fell 0.5% to 912,062. The population of Philadelphia dipped slightly to 1,447,395 from 1.446,631. Baltimore dropped 0.5% to 636,919 and Memphis fell at about the same percentage rate to 660,651.
There have been some changes this year to the 25 largest cities.
For one thing, Denver moved into 24th place with 598,707 residents. It replaced Nashville, which dropped out of the top 25.
In addition, Dallas (1,279,910) edged past San Diego (1,279,329) to eighth place from ninth. San Francisco also moved up to 12th place; its population (808,976) surpassed Jacksonville (807,815).
And Austin (757,688) blew past Columbus (754,885) to 15th. Charlotte (687,456) leapfrogged Memphis (669,651) to 18th and El Paso (613,190) passed Boston (609,023) to 21st.
A federal appeals court upheld a 2-year-old ban on Monsanto Co.’s genetically modified alfalfa in a case a biotech food opponent calls a "turning point" in the regulation of such crops.
The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday leaves Creve Coeur-based Monsanto with two options. It can appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court or hope for regulatory approval after the Agriculture Department completes a comprehensive environmental review.
"The ruling is disappointing, both to our company and the growers," said Garrett Kasper, a Monsanto spokesman.
However, Monsanto said a dissenting opinion by one of the three judges provides a "sound argument" if the case is appealed to the Supreme Court.
Monsanto got regulatory approval for biotech alfalfa in 2005. A year later, two alfalfa-seed farms and a coalition of environmental groups sued the government, challenging the decision to approve the crop without
requiring an environmental impact statement.
The groups cited concerns that conventional and organic alfalfa could be contaminated through cross-pollination, preventing crops from being sold. They also claimed biotech crops have led to overuse of herbicides and given rise to "super weeds" resistant to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup.
A U.S. District Judge in San Francisco issued an injunction that banned the planting of biotech alfalfa after March 30, 2007. By then, more than 260,000 acres of the Roundup Ready alfalfa had been planted payday loans in one hour.
Monsanto intervened on the government’s behalf after the injunction, joined by Forage Genetics Inc., an alfalfa breeder that licensed the technology.
Nationwide, 23 million acres are devoted to growing alfalfa, most of which is used as animal feed.
But biotech opponents say the case is much broader because it marks the first time a thorough environmental review has been required for regulatory approval of a genetically modified crop.
Such a study will help regulators and the public understand any risks associated with crops that are genetically engineered to help farmers ward off weeds and pests, they say.
"This is a major victory for the public, for farmers and for the environment," said George Kimbrell, staff attorney for the Washington-based Center for Food Safety, a plaintiff in the case.
A draft copy of the environmental study on genetically modified alfalfa is expected later this year, according to the Agriculture Department. That will be followed by a public comment period and a final report.
Monsanto is still hopeful for government approval of Roundup Ready alfalfa and believes the results of the environmental impact statement could help with future reviews of new biotech crops.
Meanwhile, a lawsuit challenging the government’s approval of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready sugar beets is pending.
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