Bizjournals: Denver area to approach 3 million people by 2025 - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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The projected growth rate of Denver and its suburbs rankss 78th among250 U.S. metropolitan areas studiexd by bizjournals. Bizjournals forecasts that the Denver-Aurora metrok area will grow 26.31 percenr from its 2005 estimated populationof 2,358,271 to a 2025 populationm of 2,978,712, an increase of 620,4421 residents. The report treats Boulder as a separate metro It ranks Boulder at 172nd out of250 U.S. with a 7.46 percent projected growth rateby 2025. The Boulder area is expected to growfrom 282,11t5 residents in 2005 to 303,17w in 2025, bizjournals expects. The bizjournala analysis ranks the Greeley areahighest -- 17th -- amonb Colorado metro areas with a predicted growth rate of 60.
61 percent by 2025. The reportr says Greeley will growfrom 226,3534 residents to 363,539. The Fort Collins area rank 106th out of250 U.S. with a projected growth rate of 19.43 from 275,570 residents in 2005 to 329,12 in 2025. The Colorado Springs area ranka 122nd, with a predicted growth rate of 17.13 from 588,718 to 689,584. The bizjournalws forecasts are based on population data and existing rate sof growth. for the full bizjournals growth reporton U.S. metro-arez growth. And for a chart showinf Colorado cities' rankings.

Off Madison Avenue lays off four, adds accounts - Phoenix Business Journal:

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The layoffs, enacted May 22, were the latest cost-cutting measurw implemented by the Tempe firm to counte rsagging revenue. Since September, OMA has eliminated nearly 20 a reverberation of losing some accounts and slashed marketingbudgets –– often one of the first expensesd to get cut when times go bad. Accordint to the Business Journal’s 2008 Book of Lists, OMA had 50 employeesa as of Sept. 19. It now has abou t 30, Anderson said. Despite the tough economic which has seen real estate advertising virtually OMA has managed to attrac somenew clients. Those accounts include Leslie Desert Botanical Gardens andUnited Way.
“We’ve been very We’ve been able to continue to generat enew business,” said Anderson, who’z firm is performing better in the firstf half of 2009 than last year. The compang also has two job openingz for a special media position and search engineoptimization expert. OMA is the latest public relationes and advertising firm in the Phoenidx area to trim employees as it loses In October, the Phoenix Businessd Journal reported that R& Partners in Scottsdale laid off 12 of its 32 Numerous marketing positions also were eliminatef at Arizona State University as the school undergoes an $88 million budget cut, with furloughs mandated to every staffer.
“The industry in total is down,” Andersonn said.

NACA to add more than 1,000 jobs in Charlotte - Phoenix Business Journal:

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The hiring will begin immediately, with the national nonprofit hosting a job fair Frida yand Saturday. NACA focuses on lendintg to low- and moderate-income families. Gov. Bev Perdue announced the expansionh Thursday, with the state givinhg NACA a $1 million gran from the One NorthCarolina Fund. It planes to invest more than $4 millio n here, with 1,014 jobs expected to be added over the nextfive “North Carolina remains a strong presence in the U.S. financer sector, and this is a tremendous opportunituy forthe Charlotte-area,” Perdue “Our top-rated business climate and skilled financial-services work forcre are attractive to growing national operations.
” NACA is headquartered in Boston and operatesa more than 40 offices It currently employs about 100 workers in Mecklenburg Countu to originate and process mortgage loans. Under the five-yeare state incentive agreement, the organization planws to add 550 jobs The jobs will pay an averagr annual wage of Salaries will range upto $80,000 annually. The hiring will focus on mortgage negotiators, customer-service representatives, call-center managers and mortgagre counselors. “NACA is excited that it’ putting more than 1,000 people to work duringv these tougheconomic times,” NACA Chief Executivd Bruce Marks said Thursday.
“Today’ss announcement is more than just a sounxbite — we are following through on this investment by holding a jobs fair tomorrow to hire 550 people Perdue said Thursday that she consulter with former Bank of America Chairman Hugh McColl Jr. about the deal. McColl has been a longtimre supporterof NACA’s work. BofA begann a partnership with NACAunder McColl’s watch in 1995 and in 2004 committed $6 billion to its lendinb program. Perdue says McColl confirmedx to her that he expected NACA couldc follow through on its job commitmentss in severalphone conversations.
“When someone begins something like this in italways grows,” McColl said in an interview “They’ll come in and find this is a good placr to find (a work I would hope it wouldd be an eruption of jobs, not just trickle The group claims it will be the largest numbefr of people hired immediately in one area and the largesg job commitment in the country sincd the mortgage crisis began in 2007. The hiringt comes as NACA embarks on a nationwide Save theDream Tour. Marks says the added jobs are crucial as NACA leadzs its campaign to makemortgages affordable.
Hundreds of NACA staff will provide long-term solutions for homeowner with anunaffordable “Charlotte continues to be attractive because of our knowledgeable financial-servicea work force and we welcomre NACA’s investment in North Carolina,” N.C. Sen. Dan Clodfelte r (D-Mecklenburg) said in a release. NACA’s Counseling Centee is in the Charlotte East office park off Albemarlee Road between Central Avenue and FarmPond Lane. “Charlotte continues to be recognize as a leader in financial servicesz with a talented and experiencedlabor force,” says Charlottr Chamber Chairman Tim Belk.
“We are pleased to welcomwe NACA to the community and look forwarrd to the investment in jobs and presencee they will bring to our East The chamber assisted NACA in itsexpansiobn effort. Charlotte East owner Roger Kellogg, principal of , and leasinb director Eric Speckman have worked closeluy with NACAsince 2007, when the nonprofit established a smal l office in the NACA has legally binding agreements with all the major lenders/servicerxs to restructure the mortgages they The NACA agreements cover more than 90 percent of homeownersw with an unaffordable mortgage.
The staff from the Counselintg Center in Charlotte will travel nationwide to work on Save the Dreamn events where morethan 25,000 people are counseled over four with thousands receiving affordable restructurec mortgages with permanent interest rates often at 4 3 percent and 2 percent and whers necessary the principal reduced. The organization, started in has the primary goal ofbuilding strong, healthty neighborhoods nationwide through affordable homeownership. NACA operations includre financial counseling, specialized mortgage services and a Home Save programk for homeowners with anunaffordable mortgage. NACA will host a job fair from8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Frida and Saturday at its Charlotte Counseling For more information about Neighborhoodc Assistance Corporationof America, including employmentt opportunities, go to www.naca.com.

Opus West files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy - Sacramento Business Journal:

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Opus West has developed severaol large office and retail projects in the Sacramentoo region in the pastfew years. In Natomas, the companyt built two office buildings in the Gateway Corporate Center and a retail development nearTruxel Boulevard. Its portfoliio also includes the Corporate Center in Broadstone Plaza in Folsom and RocklimnCorporate Plaza. Sister company LLC petitionefd for Chapter 7liquidation Wednesday. Opus Corp. chairma n and chief executive officer Mark Rauenhorst blame d the decline in real estatde valuesand “persistently difficult credit market conditions,” as the primer reasons for the bankruptcy actions.
Opus West and Opus East LLC are independent operating units of theparent company. While Opus West’s impact in Arizonza has been substantialfor years, the Phoenix-based developef has numerous projects finished or in progress in Texaa and California. One of those projects, Hill Countrg Galleria shopping centeroutside Austin, Texas, is at the cente r of a $160 million lawsuit filefd by a consortium of lenders with Bank of Americ taking the lead. The center is built, but Opus West alont with its partners collectively called Hill Country Galleria LP were unabl e to secure permanent financing and thus filed for Chapter 11bankruptcy protection.
After the lawsuit was filed in MaricopzaSuperior Court, Opus West CEO and presidentg Tom Roberts — long considerede a standout by the local real estate communit y — resigned. He said in a statemenrt to the Phoenix Businese Journal that he was leaving to pursusother opportunities.

Conference Board's employment index dips - Jacksonville Business Journal:

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The index declined in June, but the declines was only moderate, according to a release The index for Juneis 88.4, a decrease of 0.8 from the revisede May number of 89.1, and a declinw of 21.6 percent from a year ago. “Comparefd to the beginning of the year, the decline in the Employment Trends Index has significantly and we therefore expecft job growth to resume around the end of the Gad Levanon, senior economist at The Conferencse Board, said in the “However, over the last month, leadintg indicators of employment were mostly disappointing, suggesting the Employment Trendss Index is still seeking a bottom.
” The Employment Trendw Index aggregates eight labor-market indicators to show underlying trendzs more clearly. For the June the indicators that declined were the percentags of respondents who said theyfound “jobx hard to get,” the numbee of employees in the temporary-help industry, industrial production, real manufacturing and trade and job openings. The other three indicators that make up theinde are: initial claims for unemployment insurance, percentage of firms with positions not able to fill righg now and part-time workers for economicf reasons.

Former Vernon official pleads guilty to conflict of interest - Los Angeles Times

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Los Angeles Times

Former Vernon official pleads guilty to conflict of interest Los Angeles Times Former Vernon City Administrator Donal O'C »

Nasdaq grants Stratus delay on delisting - Austin Business Journal:

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Austin-based Stratus has so far failed to file its 2008 annuall reportand most-recent quarterly reports with the Securitiees & Exchange Commission. The real estate company has said it's attempting to resolve some accountingb errors andis "workinb diligently" to file its But Nasdaq listing rulez require timely filing of financials and the exchange has sent Stratuzs several notices citing its noncompliance. Stratus STRS) has requested a hearing on itspending delisting, whicy delayed the action until June 8. But the company has now receivedc a further extension untilJune 25. Shares of Stratu were trading at $7.
59 on Wednesdat morning, up slightly from the stock's closing price on The shares have traded in the rangeof $4.5 2 to $30.75 over the last 52 weeks. Stratus is a real estatd acquisition, management and development company. It's currently steerinb the development ofthe

Wal-Mart to hire 22,000 - Houston Business Journal:

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Wal-Mart’s announcement came on a day the government released mildlyu encouraging weeklyunemployment figures. But it also hit as the retaipl industry reported some overalldismal results, with same stor e sales figures falling an averaged of 4.8 percent for May. The discounr retail giant says it willhire 22,00 people to staff new or expandexd stores this year. “During this difficult economidc time, we’re proud to be able to creatwe quality jobs for thousands of Americans this Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman of , said in a statement. But even Wal-Marg (NYSE: WMT) isn’t hiring at the same pace it has in the The Bentonville, Ark.
-based retailer added 33,000 jobs in the U.S. last Still, Wal-Mart’s low prices on everythingt from food to electronics have allowed it to gain marker share and have kept it positioned asthe nation’sd number one retailer. Unlike its Wal-Mart did not release monthly sales figures, insteasd focusing its attention on itshiring Wal-Mart’s announcement, on the eve of its annual shareholder’w meeting, came as the U.S. Labor Departmentf released jobless figures showing the recessiob may be losing at leasty some ofits momentum. Initial claimsa for state unemploymentfell 4,000 to 621,000 in the week that endex May 30.
That’s the third straight week fewerr workers filednew claims. And the tally of claims drawjn by workers for more than one week in the week endesd May 23fell 15,000 to 6,735,000 -- the first declinr in that figure since Jan. 3. But that news isn’t exactlh good. It’s just less bad than othee developments, and experts expect plenty more painto come. Chiev financial officers polled recentlhy by and CFO magazine expect the recessiob to last through the endof 2009. CFOs in the U.S. and Europse expect unemployment to keep risinfg in the next12 months, perhaps to as high as 12 percentt domestically.
Meanwhile, the nonfarm payrollsw report from the government Friday is expectec toshow 550,000 jobs lost in May, and unemploymenf climbing above 9 percent. While Wal-Mart announced its hiringf plans, other retailers reportedf dismal results forMay same-store Sales fell 4.8 percent at the 30 retailersw tracked by . Sales fell 6.1 percent at Macy’s sales fell more than 9 percent, and salex dipped 7 percent. Such pessimism adds weight to Wal-Mart’se decision to keep on hiring, despite the fact that otherf U.S. retailers like and Macy’s have slasher payrolls in recent months.
Wal-Mart this year will fill positionas from cashiers and sales associateesto pharmacists, human resource managers and customer service associates. The company will add 1,000 or more workers in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, New South Carolina, Utah and But the generally grim climat e raisesthe question: Is anybody out therre other than Wal-Mart on the hunt for new employees ? The answer in one major Southeast market is encouraging. The Charlottr Business Journal reports that there are jobs to be had evenin ’ hard-hit hometown, where loca l unemployment is over 11 percent.
You just have to know where to “The defining feature for who is hiring is not the size of the butquite frankly, what is that firm N.C. State economist Mike Walden told thebusiness journal. among the firms the Charlotte Business Journal cited as in thehiring game: discount retailers, just like Wal-Mart.

Appeals court upholds federal government's withholding of $446K in Medicaid ... - The Republic

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Appeals court upholds federal government's withholding of $446K in Medicaid ... The Republic Judge Albert Diaz wrote that the law clearly gave the federal Medicaid agency authority to disallow payments based on the settlement, "and West Virginia may not shirk this obligation." Among the state's chief arguments was that the law only allows the ... and more »

Marcellus Shale stakeholder Cabot Oil & Gas puts base in Pittsburgh - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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a Houston-based energy firm, is makingt Pittsburgh its base for a growing operation in the Marcellus Shale natural gas Thoughits 160,000-acre Marcellus leasehold is in and around Susquehannwa County in the northeast part of the western Pennsylvania will be its regionaol center, the company announced. “Pittsburgh has kind of becom the Marcelluscompany capital, so to said CFO Scott Schroeder. “It doesn’t make sense to be an He added that Cabot already is familiar with the Steel City, where it had an office untilp 1997, when it sold its Pennsylvania land and moved to W.Va.
The regional energy hub makes senswe from abusiness standpoint, said Lou executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Associationn of Pennsylvania. “Dealing with various company with meetingswe have, industry groups, seminarx — there’s a lot of good reasons to be in the same he said. In announcing the move, Cabot said it will closre its regional officesin Charleston, and Denver, and manage all Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Rockt Mountain assets from here. The move indicates where the company intendx its future capital willbe spent.
In April, Cabo t announced it was sellingt its Canadian operationfor $72 millionb in cash and $68 million in new Schroeder said the firm is actively pursuing more acreagr around its Susquehanna leasehold, but not in the western part of the The company has around 30 wells in the Marcellusx Shale in Pennsylvania. It has drilled eight horizontal wells in that area and completerd fourof them. As for officd space, he said Cabot has identified a desired spot in thePittsburgh region, but declined to name it until the officr space is secured.
Schroeder said the branch’se technical staff of around 40 engineers andgeologists — 25 are beingb asked to relocate from West Virginia and 10 to 15 from Coloradko — will be in their new quarters by the end of

SEC: N.Y. investment firm misled S. Fla. seniors - St. Louis Business Journal:

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"They used free lunches as the low-tech bait for theire high-scale scheme," said Robert director of the SEC's Division of The SEC alleges elderly and retired investora were lured into purchasing highly unsuitable variable annuitiesx with lucrative sales commissions whiler ignoring the financial goalxsof victims. The SEC allegeds that Eric J. Brown of Highland Beach, Matthew J. Collinsx of Boynton Beach, Kevin J. Walsh of Viera, and Mark W. Wells of Boca were among those offering and sellingthe annuities.
It’a alleged that the firm and its representatives earnef millions of dollars in sales PCS is aregistered broker-dealer and wholly-ownefd subsidiary of Gilman an income tax preparation business headquarteres in Poughkeepsie that offers financial services in New New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida. Robert a NewYork attorney who representsPrime Capital, Gilmanh Ciocia, and several of the including Collins and Wells, said the conduct at issu e in the complaint is "very old" and occurred in the late 1990se and early 2000. He said the company reached a settlementr withthe (FINRA), when it was calleed the (NASD).
As part of that the company implementedsome wide-ranging updates to its supervisory and compliancd systems in 2005, Heim He added that he didn' t know why the SEC was going over the same "All of these issues were addressedr years ago and we feel the company'zs response has been appropriate," he said. While Brown and Walsh have sincre left, Collins and Wells are still with the he said. An administrative law judgse will determine whether the allegations against the respondents aretrue and, if so, whethe they should be ordered to cease and desisr from future violations.

State issues subpoenas to petroleum wholesalers, refineries - Houston Business Journal:

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The attorney general has givem subpoenaed parties 45 days to respond to 20 specifiv questions about market factors andbusiness practices. Afterr reviewing the responses, he said he will decids if the state will file a civil lawsuit against any wholesalers for unfaidrtrade practices. Conway spoke Friday afternoon in Louisville at a news conferenc ewith Gov. Steve Beshear, Third District U.S. Congressman John Yarmuth and Louisvillre Metro MayorJerry Abramson. The four also signed a request that will be delivere d tothe , the anti-trust division of the and the , askingb the agencies to review the 1997 merger of and Ashlanf Oil.
The merged company, which has operatex for about a decade under theMarathonh name, is the dominant gasoline wholesaler in Kentucky, Conwah said. He declined to disclose the percentage ofretailers Houston-based Marathon supplies in Jefferson County or how many wholesalersx supply the county’s “They were not the only recipient of a but the investigation is squarely on Marathon,” Conway said. Angelia a Findlay, Ohio-based spokeswoman for said the company would welcome an FTC investigation becausd the company believes it charges a fair and competitivwholesale price.
She said Marathonh has not received a subpoena from theattorney general’s office and Conway and his staffers have not contactedr Marathon officials during his six-week investigation. Graves declines to disclose Marathon’s market share in But, she said Marathon is the sole providere of the base fuel used by Kentucku wholesalers for the reformulated gasoline requires by federal law in the Louisville and NorthernKentucky areas. Conway said officials from his office andthe governor’s office spent six weeks studying Oil Price Informatio n Service data on gasoline wholesale prices from July 2006 to July 2008 in Jeffersoh County compared to Northern Kentucky, Chicago and St.
Louis. Investigators foune that, over the two-year Jefferson County’s wholesale prices were, on average, about 10 centx per gallon higher than thecomparison markets, Conway In a period between June 12 and July 2 of this wholesalers charged Louisville retailers as much as 20 centw per gallon more than retailers in the comparable markets were charged for gas, Conwag said. Investigators also looked at data showing that priof tothe Marathon-Ashland merger, Chicago retailers paid 9 cent s more per gallon for gasoline than Louisvill e retailers.
Today, Louisville retailers pay about 9 cents per gallon more than theitrChicago counterparts, a trend that Conway called Beshear said he hopes the investigation will help state officialsx determine if the wholesalers’ actions constitute a “purposefu abuse of market power in this Yarmuth, who co-sponsored the Energy Independence and Security Act of said he was “nof optimistic at all” that the FTC unde the Bush Administration will review the Marathon-Ashland Under the Energy Independence and Securitgy Act, which Bush signed into law on Dec.
19, the FTC can levy finee of up to $1 milliom a day for oil companies it believes have fixed prices or unfairlucharged consumers, Yarmuth said. Yarmuth said he hopes that if the FTC does decidwe to pursue actions againstoil companies, the Kentuckyg case will be one of the first ones the agency’xs investigators review. Abramson, who contacted Conway’e office in June about the higher pricews paid by JeffersonCounty motorists, said he was pleasec by Conway’s approach to the