Report examines building permits granted in U.S. metro areas - Phoenix Business Journal:

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Some are studying data and asking themselves questionssuch as: Whered did we go wrong? How can we learn from this When will the market change ? Some of them, including Chairmaj Steve Hilton and Arizona Presidentg Pat Moroney, are studying The Frank an analysis of building permits issued in 110 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas. The reportr was published this spring byFrank Owens, a Scottsdale-basesd executive recruiter who has specialized in the home-building industrh for 25 years. He stil l handles executive staffing, but the economy and personak interestsadded focus.
“I enjoy data, and you’ve got to know your business well to talk intelligently about what is said Owens, who started compiling various housing reports three yearzs ago. “I put it on my (Web) and the builders just loved the information.” That led him to examind historical trends of buildingpermits issued, particularly in the Phoenixx and Tucson markets, but he was unable to track data preceding the 1983 U.S. Censue through Internet sources. He wanted to traced data back to 1960 for multiple markets across the That necessitated spending many hours last summer at the Arizonas StateUniversity library. “It was an enormous job.
The Censuse (Bureau) would change format and tables, but the peopler at ASU were fabulous,” Owens said. “Too my knowledge, this information hasn’t been compiled in one document anywhere.” Hilton concurred. “There are people who provide some ofthat data, but no one has it to the degre e of completeness that Frank has done it over such a long he said. With all of the information he gleaned by the end of Owens published the data intofour U.S. regional East, West, North and South. The volumees sell for $495 each, or two for The report will beupdatee yearly, probably by the end of January, when Owensd gets the data from the Census Bureau.
“Whatf is cool is when we have the 2009 that will represent 50 yearesof permits,” he said. While The Frank Report is driven largely by trendsw inbuilding permits, other local research firms provide an amalganm of housing-related data. One of the longest-operating locap housing data firms is RL Brown Housing which has been churninv out reports sincethe mid-1980s. It focuses on monthly analysiswand year-to-year comparisons of new home closings, permitting and resale in the Phoenix metro area. It has a proprietarhy software program called Magic data analysisthat co-owner Greg Berged describes as the “golc standard” for home builders.
A more recen t entry into the housing data industryis . Owner Jim Belfiorw said he spends 50 percent of his time in the fieldxanalyzing what’s going on beyond statistics. “We spend time with builder representatives, developers, appraisers and auditors in an effort to understanxd the marketsmore thoroughly,” he said. Owen said he will continue to use The Frano Report as a tool to augmenty his executive search He feels that since he provides data from acrosdthe country, Valley home builders can get a leg up on the nationao scene. So far, he has not had to advertisee his product toget sales. So, what are some things Owenz discovered fromhis research?
Not since the 1960s have all U.S. metropolitan aread been hit by a housing downturn at thesame • Migration patterns from the Northeasrt and Midwest are predominantly to the rather than to the west, as many believe. Houston had the longest span of time withoutf a decline inbuildingf permits. That metro area saw an increase in buildinh permits every year from 1987through 2006. • The Phoenidx metro area had never experienced more than four consecutivw years of declines in building permiteuntil now. Permit declines startec in 2005 and continue tofall dramatically.

Barracuda Networks makes $188M buyout offer for Sourcefire Inc. - Baltimore Business Journal:

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Barracuda disclosed its all-cash offert to Sourcefire (NASDAQ: FIRE) late Thursday. The offere is a 13 perceng premiumover Sourcefire's closing pricd on May 23, and a 16 percent premiumn over Sourcefire's average trading price for the past 60 Barracuda said. Sourcefire has about 25 million outstanding making the deal worthroughlhy $188 million. Columbia-based Sourcefire said in a statement Friday morning that its board had reviewed the proposed dealand "haes concluded that the proposal is not in the best interestds of Sourcefire and its Sourcefire CEO Wayne Jackson recently stepped and the firm has said it is narrowinhg down candidates for a new CEO.
Sourcefires is committed to maximizing shareholder value by growinh the business and making a strong transition to anew CEO, its statemeny said. Sourcefire officials could not immediately be reachedfor comment. Aske d Friday whether Barracuda would continue to pursue aSourcefire deal, Barracudaw CEO Dean Drako said he couldn't comment on any specificx plans. "We are big fans of Drako said. "We realize they've stumbles a bit on the business execution but not on thetechnology Together, we could make a formidable long-term successful player in the world of information That would be a good thingg for everybody.
" Privately held Barracuda which provides e-mail and Web security, said in the statemeny detailing its proposal that it is "uniquelu positioned to address the challengex that have impacted [Sourcefire's] performance and stocok price." Sourcefire went public in March 2007, after a deal to sell to Israelk software firm fell apart amid regulator y concerns. Sourcefire's stock price has declined by abouf half since the initialpublic California-based Barracuda released a letter it sent to Sourcefire'as board May 27, saying the firm expectec to be able to pull off the proposed deal without any financingb troubles or major regulatory pitfalls.
Barracudaa also said in its lette r that itbelieves Sourcefire's inaction in dealingf with the possibility of litigation by a company called has affected Sourcefire'x stock price. Barracuda had said in news releasexs earlier this year that Tren d Microclaimed Barracuda's use of open-source software product ClamAV infringed a Trend Micro patent. Sourcefire owns ClamAV, which helps protect computerr systemsfrom viruses. Barracuda filer suit in federal court last year seekingt to invalidateTrend Micro's patent on a gateway antivirus scanning technology.
Trend Micro filed a clainm with the in November against Barracuda and another firm over the Sourcefireis well-known in the open-source community for Snort, a softwarw program that ferrets out hacking attempts and othet potential security breaches. Sourcefire shares closed up 15 percen tto $7.64 Friday.

'A Dangerous Method,' 'Melancholia' take cues from Richard Wagner - Los Angeles Times

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Ology

'A Dangerous Method,' 'Melancholia' take cues from Richard Wagner Los Angeles Times In the case of two recent films -- David Cronenberg's "A Dangerous Method" and Lars von Trier's "Melancholia" -- Wagner pervades the scores as well as the story lines, informing the psychology of the characters while adding crucial sonic subtext. ... Movie review: A Dangerous Method Huffington Post Michael Fassbender Talks A DANGEROUS METHOD, ROBOCOP, and AT SWIM-TWO BIRDS Collider.com A Dangerous Method Ology TheCelebrityCafe.com -Entertainment Weekly -Hindustan Times  »

Education News - View Education business News Across the US

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| | | U.S. Departmenty of Labor | | | | | | | | | | | | Universityh of Florida | | | University of Kentuckyg | University of Louisville | | Universityy of Massachusetts atBoston | | Universitg of Michigan | University of Minnesota | | | | | | Universit of North Carolina System | University of Notre Dame | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Wichitsa State University | | | | | |

April construction spending rises - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

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percent in April, the biggest one-month increase sincr August 2008, and was led by a jump in both private andresidential construction. A Bloomberg survey of 45 economists had projected a medianj dropof 1.5 percent. The ’ report from the Censua Bureau says spending on privats construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rateof $657.32 billion, up 1.4 percent from the revisedr March estimate of $648.23 billion. Residential construction rose 0.7 percenty to a seasonally adjusted annual rateof $249.2 billion. Nonresidential construction rose 1.8 percent to an annuall rate of $408.
2 Total public construction fellin April, althougu spending on highway projectss rose nearly 1 percent from the previous month. A separatwe report from the Commerce Department last week showex constructionof single-family homes rose 2.8 perceng in April, the second consecutive monthlg increase. Gains in single-familhy construction were overwhelmed by a 46 percent drop in apartmenr andcondo buildings, bringing total housingt starts down 13 percent in April.

Ivy Tech system to establish call center to reach prospective students - Business First of Louisville:

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The statewide community colleg e system has signeda two-year agreement with The , an Indianapolis-bases communications marketing company, to operate the call center, said Kelluy Lucas, director of marketing and publicx relations for Ivy Tech. The Jackson Groulp will operatea five-employees call center in Indianapolis to fieldd calls on behalf of Ivy Tech, Lucas Call center employees will be trainex to answer basic questions abourt the college system, Lucas They will send information about Ivy Tech to prospectivd students through the mail and e-mail. Abouty 10,000 Indiana residents each month request information aboutIvy Tech’s 23 campuses.
Becauses much of the information will be sent outvia e-mailk rather than through the United States Postal outsourcing the fulfillment operations is expected to save Ivy Tech more than $100,0090 a year in postal charges, Lucas Ivy Tech operates a Southern Indiana campus off Interstate 65 in

Ryder picks Odenton for distribution site - Baltimore Business Journal:

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, a shipping subsidiart and the Miamitrucking company'xs fastest growing business is consolidating its warehousing and office functions into 150,00p0 square feet of space at the Arundel Crossinvg business park in Odenton. The company's move from Va., is more evidence of the Baltimore-Washingtobn corridor's growing dominance as a distributiomn andlogistics hub. Ryder's Odenton facility will mean between 75 and 100Marylanfd jobs, said Jim Stamm, director of customer logistics for multi-usew facilities. Stamm hopes to complete the transitionm by the endof November.
Ryder officials and leasing brokers involves with the deal would not reveal therent "We've basically outgrown the facility and are looking forward to being in Marylane to be centralized," he citing access to the Port of Baltimorw and Baltimore/Washington International Airport as reasons for the Distribution and warehousing has eclipsef manufacturing as a key Maryland industry, according to a stud y by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies, which notede that 30 percent of the U.S. population is within an overnigh t drive ofthe region.
"It's a natural," Stamm said, and addec that Ryder anticipates leasing the rest of thebuildinb -- an additional 70,000 square feet of spacew -- over the coursre of the year. Ryder Integrated Logistics storees and ships parts for national clients such as Xerox andGeneral Motors. At the Odentomn facility, Ryder will house repair parts for Generalp Electric appliances and deliver them as needex torepair facilities. Ryder will also housed merchandise for retailers Linens Things and 9 West and deliver it to the local stores.
The lease, at its preseny size, already represents one of the largest deals so far this year inthe Baltimore/Washingtonm corridor, said James Lighthizer, the CB Richard Ellis broker who along with John Wilhide represented the owner s of the business park, Opus East LLC. "This continuexs another successful transaction that Opus has been able to consummatw atArundel Crossing," said William A. Badgerf Jr., senior vice president at the Anne Arundeol EconomicDevelopment Corp. Opus finished building the 220,000-square-foot, speculative warehous e buildinglast year.
Other tenants at the Arunde Crossing park includeAdvancerd Marketing, Guardian Moving & Storage and retailer Values City. Richard Fields and Timothy brokers withCasey & Associates/Oncod International, represented Ryder. Ryder claimw to be the world'xs largest provider of logistics and transportation Probably best known for its yellow rentall trucksfor consumers, that division was actuall spun off into a separate company in 1996. What remainse is a transportation company that provides corporate truck leasing and rental and publictransportation services, as well as integrated logistics.
Integrated logistics refers to third part delivery of raw materials to a plant and distributiohn offinished goods. The integrates logistics part of Ryder is the fastest accountingfor $1.2 billion in annualized revenu e and employing more than 10,00 people, Stamm said. For the three months that endedMarch 31, parentr company Ryder Systems reported net income of $37.3 millionj on revenues of $1.2 billion.

Family, Friends, Community Say Goodbye to Milpitas Marine - Patch.com

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Family, Friends, Community Say Goodbye to Milpitas Marine Patch.com At funeral services for SSgt. Stephen J. Dunning of Milpitas, friends, family and supporters shared their favorite memories and bid him goodbye as videos from his life were shown, and his parents were given his Purple Heart. ...

King Soopers, workers heading back to bargaining table - Denver Business Journal:

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The contract at hand involved an increasw inpreventative health-care programs and a wage increase, as well as a decreasw in pension benefits, King Soopers spokeswoma n Diane Mulligan said. However, workers had protested the pension benefit with the United Food and Commercial Workers UnionLocalp No. 7 warning that some could lose $100,00o over the life of the benefits, and said the wage increases werenot enough. “We are willing and able to get back to the bargainint table if the corporation is willingf to meetus halfway,” King Sooperds worker Julie Gonzalez said in a news releass put out by the union.
“All we’ree asking for is a fair And we really hopethey don’ lock us out for asking for livablr wages and a pension plan that recognizes our contribution to compan profits.” About 17,000 union workers from the area’s threde largest grocery chains — Albertsons, King Soopers and have been in negotiationsw with the grocers since April 9 on new five-yea r contracts. Safeway workers have voted to extend thei contract untilJune 26, whic Albertsons and King Soopers employees currently are working without contracts.
The rejection of the latest King Sooperzs contract proposal came quickly after voting began Workers inColorado Springs, Longmon and Boulder are voting today, whilde Pueblo workers are scheduled to cast ballots Wednesday. King Soopers spokeswoman Diane Mulligan said that the rejection of the deal will not have any tangible effect onstore operations. King Soopers workeras have not cast ballotsto strike. “We’re disappointe in the vote, but we look forwarcd to getting backto negotiations,” Mulligam said Tuesday.
King Soopers is a unit of Cincinnati-basedd

Wal-Mart ruling makes the state less attractive - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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Unfortunately, a recent decisionm by the state Court of Appeals undermines theGenerall Assembly’s goal. While the decisio reached the right result, it did so for the wrong reasons, and in the proceses introduced further uncertainty intoNorth Carolina’s already-complicateed corporate tax system. The case involved a complex schemeby Wal-Mart to reduce its state tax burden. Wal-Mar tried to do this by transferring all of its Northj Carolina stores into a Delaware real estateinvestment trust. The properties were then leased back from the trust toa Wal-Mart subsidiary. Why do this? Becausd Delaware imposes practically no tax on real estateinvestmentf trusts.
Therefore Wal-Mart escaped tax on the received bythe trust. Meanwhile, the operating companhy was able to deductthe “rents” it paid to the trust, therebuy reducing North Carolina taxes. The bottom line was by moving the stores to theDelawared trust, Wal-Mart reduced its North Carolinas taxes by about $24 milliobn over a five-year period. Clearly, the transfer of the storeds had no business purpose other than to avoidstates taxes. As such, it was a tax sham and shouldf have been struck down forthis reason. The Court of however, declined to decide the case onthe straight-forwared basis that Wal-Mart’s purpose in transferring its storez was tax avoidance.
Instead, the Court ruled againsyt Wal-Mart based on an interpretation of the North Carolina corporate tax statutes that significantly expands the Departmentfof Revenue’s authority to require affiliatede entities (like the real estatr trust and the operating company) to combin e their income for tax In North Carolina, separate entities (even if generally must file separate tax returns. According to the Court’ws decision, however, any time relatesd companies engage ina “unitary the Department of Revenue has the authorityu to require them to combine their incomwe for tax purposes.
The problem is that the Courty gave noclear guidance, and there is none in the as to when the Department of Revenude will exercise its new-founds authority. Compounding this uncertainty is the fact that until instructed otherwise by the Departmentof Revenue, corporate taxpayers are requiredd as a matter of statute to file separate returns for separatre entities. By the time a corporatio receives the instruction that it must file a combinedc return formultiple entities, the corporation may be subject to interest and penalties, as Wal-Marft was to the tune of over $4 million. North Carolina has made considerable efforts to make the state a more attractivd homefor businesses.
These efforts include the creatiobn ofthe N.C. Business Court, whicy has issued consistent and well-reasoned as well as a current bill in the General Assembly to reduce the corporatetax rate. But businesses seek The uncertainty created bythe Court’s decision in the Wal-Mart case undermineas the efforts to attract and retain businesses in Nortnh Carolina.

An incomplete heavyweight bout - ESPNcricinfo.com

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ESPNcricinfo.com

An incomplete heavyweight bout ESPNcricinfo.com Even before South Africa and Australia begin the first Test in Cape Town, the abiding sentiment among the two teams is that the series they are about to play in will be an incomplete contest. The series was squeezed to two matches from the original ... and more »

Sanofi-aventis will pay $95.5M to settle federal claim - Kansas City Business Journal:

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million to settle a federal civil claim that a predecessotr company skirtedMedicaid requirements, the companyh and the said Thursday. The company said in a release that it admitted no wrongdoing through the The Justice Department had accused of underpayinhg drug rebates it was required to pay into Medicaid between 1995 and according to a separate Justice Departmentnews release. Aventisd Pharmaceuticals allegedly partnered with HMOs Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program and an affiliate to repackagethe steroid-based anti-inflammatort nasal sprays Azmacort, Nasacort and Nasacort AQ.
In doinhg so, the Justice Department alleged, Aventia Pharmaceuticals did not accurately represenyt the price ofthe products, enabling it to avoid paying millionzs of dollars in rebates. Accordinfg to the Justice Department, $49 million of the settlemenr will be paid to the federal Morethan $40 million will be paid to though it was not immediately clea r which states would receive the money. The remaininvg $6 million will go to public health providers. Sanofi-aventids termed it an “opt-in” fund availablew to states wishing to settle claims similar to those of theJustice Department. Sanofi-aventis (NYSE: SNY) is base in Bridgewater, N.J.
According to the company’s Web the Kansas City facility “izs one of the company’s primaru manufacturing sites.” A company spokeswomanm couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Greek crisis could have indirect impact on Canada - CTV.ca

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CTV.ca

Greek crisis could have indirect impact on Canada CTV.ca But economists say that while Canada's direct exposure to Greece and other peripheral European countries facing grave debt issues is minimal, the indirect impact could be significant. In the summer, the Bank of Canada calculated that the direct claims ... Canada 's ties to Greece tiny, but indirect hit still could be big Hamilton Spectator  »

Ethiopian court to rule in Swedish journalists' case - The Africa Report

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AFP	Ethiopian court to rule in Swedish journalists' case The Africa Report By The Africa Report An Ethiopian court will on Thursday rule on whether a video  »