The first major newspaper endorsement has been issued in the race for New York governor — even before the Republicans pick a candidate.
The New York Daily News has endorsed the Democratic nominee, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, saying that he is far superior to either Republican contender.
"There is no point in taking further stock of the candidates vying for the Republican nomination in next month's primary," the Daily News said. "Rick Lazio and Carl Paladino have been that awful."
Most of the newspaper's editorial was devoted to the Republicans' perceived shortcomings, rather than Cuomo's attributes.
The Daily News charged that Lazio, a former congressman from Long Island, "has thrown substantive ideas to the wind in favor of demagoguery free business cards." And it accused Paladino, a Buffalo developer, of offering "proposals [that] range from ill-informed to illegal."
The editorial also referred to two controversies that dogged Paladino's campaign earlier in the year.
"Paladino is also given to insensitivities that would divide New Yorkers," it said. "He has forwarded racist and pornographic emails, including some using the N-word, and contemptibly compared [Assembly Speaker Sheldon] Silver, an Orthodox Jew, to the anti-Christ and Hitler."
KBR has won two contracts by the Republic of Iraq Ministry of Oil through the South Refineries Co.
KBR will provide licensing and basic engineering services for the construction of fluid catalytic cracking and solvent deasphalting units at the planned grassroots Maissan Refinery in Maissan, Iraq. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Houston-based KBR (NSYE: KBR) plans to license its FCC Technology for an anticipated 47,500 barrels per day FCC unit and its “Rose” technology for a 45,000 barrels per day SDA unit poor credit personal loans.
KBR and ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Co. have formed a joint marketing alliance to work on the FCC unit.
“These awards mark the first wins for KBR’s technology business in Iraq and provide KBR the opportunity to introduce two of its leading refining technologies into an important, emerging market,” Tim Challand, president of KBR Technology, said in a statement.
A new online store launched by the Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU is giving enables students, alumni, family and fans of the J-school a way to wear their pride — literally.
CronkiteStore.com launched at the school this week, offering an array of branded apparel and gifts with the logo of the Cronkite School at Arizona State University. Among the site's offerings are T-shirts; drinkware and gifts; and bags for carrying golf clubs, laptops and books. The online store also is expected to carry items such as Cronkite-branded Nike Dri-FIT shirts.
"The Cronkite Store offers our alumni and students a way to show school pride when they're off campus and even in the workplace," said Kelli Solomkin, director of events and alumni relations payday loan. "For the first time, they can boast being part of the Cronkite School family with clothes and products."
More items, including a section for luxury and seasonal items will be added soon, said Linda Davis, Cronkite's design
director who spearheaded the Cronkite Store project and designed the products.
The Cronkite School has 1,300 students and nearly 8,000 alumni. To shop, go to http://cronkitestore.com.
The dollar turned higher this week as jittery investors flocked to the greenback for its safe-haven appeal amid fears of a global economic slowdown.
For weeks, the dollar had been slipping as investors focused on weak U.S. economic news and improvements abroad. It is now making a comeback as disappointing news out of other regions join center stage.
Bleak outlooks from central banks in Europe, as well as signs of slower growth out of China, have rattled investors and boosted their demand for low-risk investments, including the dollar.
Softer risk appetite has pushed dollar up to a three-week high against the euro — below $1.28 — and the highest level this month against the pound. The dollar index, which tracks the buck against several major rivals, has climbed 3% this week.
Against the yen, also a low-risk currency, the dollar hit a 15-year low.
"It’s come to the market’s attention that the problems for recovery aren’t just in the United States," said Kathy Lien, director of currency research at Global Forex Trading. "Everything is congealing at the same time."
Following the Federal Reserve’s most bearish outlook for the U.S. economy in more than a year, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank also said recovery in the the United Kingdom and through Europe is also losing steam.
China reported industrial output slowed for the fifth consecutive month in July, signaling that growth in the world’s third largest economy is continuing to ease.
"The United States and China, two of the largest contributors of economic growth, are slowing at the same time, and that could sap the global recovery over the next quarter," Lien said.
Though the dollar will push higher in the near term, Lien said it will resume a decline as fears abate.
Southwest, American and American Eagle rank in the bottom half of all U.S.-based airlines in the U.S. Department of Transportation's latest monthly report of on-time arrivals.
Southwest (NYSE: LUV) ranked 10th out of 18 carriers after posting an on-time arrival rate of 78.45 percent in June.
American (NYSE: AMR) ranked 14th, with an on-time arrival rate of 73.76 percent. American Eagle ranked 17th with an on-time arrival rate of 67.89 percent. American Eagle’s rate was followed only by Comair, which had an on-time arrival rate of 64.87 percent.
The top three airlines were Hawaiian, Alaska and US Airways, which reported on-time arrival rates of 93 one hour payday loan.62 percent, 88.94 percent and 83.37 percent, respectively.
For the first six months of the year, Southwest ranked seventh with an on-time arrival rate of 80.58 percent. Meanwhile, American and American Eagle ranked 14th and 17th, respectively, with on-time arrival rates of 77.18 and 74.53 percent, respectively.
These are the glory days of the residential real estate investor. Low prices, rock-bottom interest rates and stable rental markets have created huge buying opportunities.
"It’s awesome right now. I don’t think we’ll ever see another time like this," said Tanya Marchiol of Team Investments, which has operations in about 10 states but focuses mostly on the Phoenix market.
These investors are known to many as vultures because they swoop in and buy "distressed properties" — foreclosures and short sales — cheap. Places like Las Vegas, Phoenix and Miami are popular because home prices there have dropped as much as 70%.
But how they’re investing has changed. In the boom years, they would buy a property and flip it for a quick cash out. Today, they are holding and renting for hefty, steady incomes.
Once they analyzed their decisions based on home-price appreciation, which is very speculative. Now they consider potential rental profits, which is far more stable.
Back then, they flipped often and helped to bid up home prices into a froth. Now, the investors say, they can be a part of stabilizing neighborhoods.
"People are not in it to flip like back in the old economy," said Matt Martinez, an investor and author whose new book, "How to Make Money in Real Estate in the New Economy" comes out next February. "The new economy dictates that you have to have a long time horizon."
Marchiol, for example, does not even factor in home price appreciation for at least a year. After that, she calculates only a 3% annual increase — a return that won’t turn heads of investors who only want to buy low and sell high.
Marchiol just purchased four separate four-plexes in North Phoenix. Three years ago, each four-unit building sold for $310,000; she paid just $70,000 per building. She intends to spend about $64,000 rehabbing the properties, making her total investment $344,000.
In total, she currently owns about 17 rental units. Usually she buys the properties to keep herself, but she also works with a group of investors who are intent on holding them and renting them out. She can spot the deals and then sell to them.
For example, with her North Phoenix buildings, the investors will buy the buildings for $95,000 each. They’ll put 20% down and finance the rest, about $76,000 per building.
At today’s low interest rates, they’ll get a near 5% loan. That yields a payment of about $400 a month. Figure another 10% of the price for property management, 10% for maintenance, an 8% vacancy rate, taxes, insurance and other home ownership expenses, and you’re talking about a monthly nut of roughly $1,300.
Marchiol projects the apartments will rent for $600 a month each, for a total rent roll of $2,400. That gives the owners a profit of $1,100 per month and $13,200 per year — a nearly 70% annual return on investment.
Although conditions are very favorable, investors have to be adaptable because the market is evolving rapidly. In Phoenix it’s changed in just the past six months. Foreclosure auctions are no longer a fertile hunting ground for Marchiol.
"Amateurs have come in and run up the prices," she said. "In 2009 I bought 76 properties at foreclosure auctions, at an average of about 60 cents on the market dollar. This year, I’ve bought four."
Glenn Plantone faces a similar situation in Las Vegas. A veteran real estate broker and investor, he has switched from buying mostly foreclosures and repossessions to short sales almost exclusively. That’s because the inventory of distressed properties available in Vegas is way down, to about a two-week supply.
"The banks make better profits with short sales, so they’re not foreclosing," Plantone said. "They’ve switched staff to processing short sales and they’ve gotten faster at processing them."
He tries to purchase properties for at least 10% less than what he considers to be true market value, then he does some light rehabilitation and sells them to some of the 3,000 buyers he works with.
Since prices have fallen about 70% in some Vegas communities and rents have only declined by about 20%, it’s possible for his investors, who are cash buyers, to make money from the first month the homes are rented.
"We’re getting cash flow (net return on investment) of 12% to 14%," he said.
He doesn’t completely ignore potential profits from home price appreciation because he believes the town is bouncing around the bottom. (Homes already sell for below what it would cost to build new homes.) He does not, however, emphasize that aspect of the investment.
It’s the income from rentals that’s paramount right now.
The beauty of cash flow, of course, is that even if the prices decline another 10% or 20%, the investors should be able to live with that.
"I tell them to plan on holding for five years," he said. "With cash flow, there’s no need to worry about price drops."
Financial services security software firm Perimeter Internetworking Corp. has hired a dozen engineers to establish a research-and-development center at 60 State Street in Boston, the Milford, Conn., company is expected to announce Tuesday.
Perimeter, which does business as Perimeter E-Security, plans to hire eight more in the next 18 to 24 months, said Chief Marketing Officer Kurt Heinemann.
“We’re making it our headquarters for many of our developers, and the core location for what we’re doing in engineering and development,” Heinemann said.
To make the move, Perimeter cut some offshore engineering resources based in India, Heinemann said. The company employs about 300, globally.
Heinemann declined to discuss revenue numbers, but said Perimeter is seeing growth in encrypted e-mail, vulnerability scanning and firewall intrusion defense — especially where regulation requires reporting and backup related to those services.
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