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Lehman Has Plan for Real-Estate Loans
By SUSANNE CRAIG, MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG and MICHAEL CORKERY
August 30, 2008; Page B1
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122005175259784853.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., trying to shore up its balance sheet, has settled on a structure that will allow it to offload billions of dollars in real-estate loans from its books.
The Wall Street firm run by Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld is still hammering out the final details and it isn't clear when a plan will be unveiled. One sticking point: finding financing in this cash-strapped environment for a spinoff or sale of these assets.
In addition to offloading the real-estate assets, Lehman is trying to sell its Neuberger Berman investment-management unit. Ideally, Lehman management would like to announce both transactions at the same time so it can assure investors that it has a bold plan to navigate its way out of the current credit crisis.
For the real-estate assets, Lehman has set up a so-called good bank/bad bank structure. Such a deal is likely to involve a spinoff of the holdings to shareholders as well as an investment by outside investors.
Details of the plan weren't clear. One option may be a "sponsored spin." That would involve bundling some of the troubled assets into a new entity, which would then be spun off to Lehman holders on a tax-free basis. Also, a new investor or group of investors could take a big minority stake in the new company, thus "sponsoring" it.
Lehman, according to one person close to the deal, is expected to provide at least some financing. Lehman was sitting on $40 billion in commercial real estate at the end of the last fiscal quarter and another $24.9 billion in residential assets.
If Lehman goes with this plan, it will differ from the one Merrill Lynch & Co. opted for in August when it sold more than $30 billion in toxic mortgage-related assets at just 22 cents a dollar. That deal was done with just one buyer: private-equity firm Lone Star Funds but Merrill provided financing.
A Lehman announcement will no doubt be a relief to investors who have watched the stock bounce up and down in recent weeks as details of the firm's negotiations for a cash fix have leaked out. Lehman's stock closed at $16.09, up 22 cents, as of 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange composite trading on Friday. Lehman stock has fallen 75% this year, and its market value has slipped to $11 billion.
Lehman had a second-period loss of $2.8 billion, its first loss since going public in 1994, and analysts predict it will lose more than $2 billion this quarter.
Gustav May Hit Gulf Platforms Harder Than Katrina (Update4)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aTGCkh9sCg7g&refer=home
By Jim Polson
Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) --Hurricane Gustav threatens to hurt U.S. oil and natural-gas production and refining more severely than hurricanes Katrina and Rita did three years ago.
Gustav, downgraded to a Category 3 storm by the National Hurricane Center in Miami today, may strengthen to Category 4 later today and will make landfall as a ``major'' hurricane. The storm shut three-quarters of oil output in the region and refineries operated by Valero Energy Corp., ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp.
``This storm will prove to be a worst-case scenario for the production region,'' Jim Rouiller, senior energy meteorologist for Planalytics.com, said yesterday in an e-mailed message. ``This storm will be more dangerous than Katrina.''
As of 10 a.m. New Orleans time, Gustav was about 325 miles (523 kilometers) from the mouth of the Mississippi River. The storm may reach Louisiana as early as midday tomorrow.
BP Plc, Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell Plc led producers in shutting wells and whisking staff ashore. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the nation's largest crude-oil terminal, closed yesterday.
Fields in the Gulf produce 1.3 million barrels a day of oil, about a quarter of U.S. production, and 7.4 billion cubic feet a day of natural gas, 14 percent of the total, government data show. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 closed 95 percent of regional offshore output and, along with Hurricane Rita, idled about 19 percent of U.S. refining capacity.
Gas Pipelines
Sabine Pipe Line LLC began to shut its pipelines and the Henry Hub natural gas connection point in Louisiana after mandatory evacuations were declared. Henry Hub is the pricing point for natural-gas futures contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Exxon Mobil said it's closing its 192,000 barrel-a-day Chalmette, Louisiana, refinery. ConocoPhillips said it began shutting two refineries in Louisiana that together process almost 500,000 barrels a day of crude oil.
Marathon Oil Corp. said it began closing its 256,000-barrel- a-day Garyville, Louisiana, refinery, yesterday. Valero was shutting its St. Charles refinery west of New Orleans and may decide today whether to shut its Port Arthur, Texas, refinery, spokesman Bill Day said in an e-mailed message.
Three Louisiana parishes with refineries have ordered mandatory evacuations.
Market Concern
``The big question for the market is going to be how quickly after Gustav passes will the industry be able to recover and get back online,'' said Andy Lipow, president of Houston-based Lipow Oil Associates LLC.
Enbridge Inc., Canada's largest pipeline company, and its U.S. affiliate closed conduits capable of bringing ashore 6.7 billion cubic feet a day of natural gas. Evacuation of Terrebonne Parish shut 550 million cubic feet a day of gas flow into the 10,500-mile (16,900-kilometer) Transco line to the U.S. northeast, owner Williams Cos. said in a statement.
Exxon Mobil said it shut platforms producing 5,000 barrels of oil and 50 million cubic feet of natural gas. BP said it shut Gulf production and evacuated all staff. Its normal production is equivalent to 290,000 barrels a day from the region. Anadarko Petroleum Corp. said it will close the equivalent of 105,000 barrels a day of production.
Workers Evacuated
Shell said it would shut daily production equivalent to 510,000 barrels of oil yesterday.
Workers from 45 rigs and 223 production platforms were evacuated as of 12:30 p.m. yesterday, the Minerals Management Service said in a statement on its Web site. About 998,000 barrels of daily oil production have been halted in preparation for the storm, as well as 2.75 billion cubic feet of gas.
Crude oil futures on the Nymex fell 13 cents to $115.46 a barrel on Aug. 29 on speculation supplies will be adequate to meet demand after the storm passes. Natural gas futures fell 10.7 cents to $7.943 per million British thermal units.
Most U.S. financial markets are closed until Sept. 2 for the Labor Day holiday. Nymex plans to start electronic trading in energy products at 2:30 p.m. New York time today with trades dated Sept. 2.
The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port shut at 9:30 a.m. local time yesterday. Shipments to customers continue from the port's 53 million barrels of storage on shore, she said.
Katrina, Rita
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 cut supplies for months. About 27 percent of Gulf oil production and 19 percent of gas output was still shut in January 2006, the Minerals Management Service reported.
Rising waters from a Category 4 storm can cut escape routes as early as five hours before landfall, with flooding as much as six miles inland. The coastal storm surge may reach 18 feet, and the winds can rip away roofs and walls of homes, according to the National Hurricane Center.
A Category 5 storm can destroy the roofs of industrial buildings, flatten all trees and homes, and drive a storm surge above 18 feet. Only three Category 5 storms, Andrew in 1992, Camille in 1969, and the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, have made landfall in the U.S. since record-keeping began.
In housing market, ‘hints of a bottom’
Falling prices lure more buyers, but outlook clouded by weak economy
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26408255/
By John W. Schoen
Senior Producer
MSNBC
updated 3:33 p.m. CT, Tues., Aug. 26, 2008
John W. Schoen
Senior Producer
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Though home prices continued to fall in July, there are growing signs that — in some regions at least — the market may be stabilizing as lower prices lure some buyers off the sidelines. But a broad housing recovery faces stiff headwinds in the form of rising unemployment, tighter credit for borrowers and a huge inventory of unsold homes.
The widely watched Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller national home price index fell by a record 15.4 percent during the second quarter compared to the same period a year ago.
Still, the report offered a glimmer of hope that the slide in home prices may be easing: The rate of price drops slowed from May to June, and regional price data showed that nine of the 20 cities tracked by the index posted slight month-to-month gains.
Story continues below ↓
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"If you look at the year-over-year numbers they are still going down but not accelerating to the downside quite as much as they had been in a number of cities,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor’s. “So we are seeing hints of bottoms.”
Other housing news this week also gave reason for cautious optimism. Sales of new homes posted an unexpected gain of 2.4 percent in July, and sales of existing homes rose 3.1 percent, more than expected.
But in both cases, the reports were mixed. Median prices for existing homes are still falling, and the number of unsold homes on the market hit an all-time high.
“The question is 'Where is the economy going?'” said Robert Brusca, chief economist at Fact and Opinion Economics. “If the economy gets weaker, this stability we see in housing will give way and we’ll get traditionally weakness in housing that will come from the economy itself. So we have to be concerned about that."
Even the usually optimistic White House was extremely cautious in its reaction. FACT FILE Regional housing prices
CITY June '08 May-June Apr-May 1-Yr
Index % chg % chg % chg
Atlanta 125.08 0.6 0.5 -8.1
Boston 162.32 1.2 1.0 -5.2
Charlotte 133.64 0.4 1.0 -1.0
Chicago 150.25 0.2 -0.3 -9.5
Cleveland 109.67 0.7 -0.6 -7.3
Dallas 122.38 0.7 1.0 -3.2
Denver 131.64 1.5 1.0 -4.7
Detroit 92.68 -0.1 -1.1 -16.3
Las Vegas 158.51 -1.6 -2.9 -28.6
Los Angeles 195.74 -1.4 -1.9 -25.3
Miami 189.87 -1.7 -3.6 -28.3
Minneapolis 141.50 1.0 0.6 -13.9
New York 194.22 0.2 -0.4 -7.3
Phoenix 153.19 -2.6 -2.5 -27.9
Portland 175.03 -0.3 0.4 -5.8
San Diego 175.37 -1.5 -1.4 -24.2
San Francisco 159.83 -1.8 -1.2 -23.7
Seattle 178.28 -0.2 -0.5 -7.1
Tampa 175.11 -1.1 -0.8 -20.1
Washington 197.39 -0.9 -1.0 -15.7
SOURCE: Standard & Poors/Case-Shiller • Print this
"The data today paint a mixed picture, but it's clear it will still take some time to work through the downturn in housing," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said in Crawford, Texas, where President Bush was spending time at his ranch. "Once housing prices stabilize that will signal a return to a housing industry that can contribute to economic growth."
Like discounted merchandise in a department store, lower home prices should eventually spur sales. Buyers who were priced out of the market during the peak of the housing boom have a better shot at homeownership as prices fall.
The national “affordability index” — which tracks incomes, mortgage rates and home prices —fell a bit in July, meaning houses became a bit less affordable, mainly due to rising mortgage rates. But overall, homes are generally more affordable than they were at the height of the boom.
The recovery in the housing market is being slowed by the availability of credit, now that lenders have substantially tightened up guidelines on approving loans. The supply of mortgage money has also been crimped as the two government-sponsored mortgage finance companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, struggle to cope with mounting losses from foreclosures.
The heavy pace of foreclosures has also been a major force pushing home prices lower, as lenders aggressively price their backlogs of repossessed real estate, hoping to unload them before prices fall further. Once the pace of foreclosures begins leveling off, the pressure on prices will ease.
“I anticipate seeing price support probably sometime in the first or second quarter of next year when the foreclosure market stabilizes back to more normal numbers,” Damian Kassab, CEO of Warren Bank in Clinton, Mich., said on CNBC.
Foreclosure filings continued to rise in July — up 8 percent from June and 55 percent higher than last July. Last month, the White House signed housing legislation designed to head off foreclosures by allowing an estimated 400,000 homeowners swap their mortgages for more affordable loans.
But homeowners can only participate if their lender agrees to take a loss on the loan. Even if the plan works as intended, some 2.8 million U.S. households will either face foreclosure, turn over their homes to their lender or sell the properties for less than their mortgage's value by the end of next year, according to estimates by Moody's Economy.com.
Traders on Weather Watch
Oil Prices Respond
To Bad Forecasts
More Than Politics
By LIAM DENNING
August 29, 2008
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121997119481781939.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news
Who should be feared more, Vladimir or Gustav? Oil traders apparently sweat more about the latter.
The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil had been rising steadily this week as Tropical Storm Gustav gathered strength. Gustav is bearing down on the Gulf of Mexico, which accounts for about 1.4 million barrels a day of oil production, and possibly Louisiana, home to 17% of U.S. refining capacity. Memories of the devastation wreaked on the U.S. oil industry by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 loom large.
Compare that with Russia's recent war in Georgia. Oil bulls usually thrive on the miserable things in life: war, bad weather, strikes. But the threat of pipelines being blown up in Georgia, a key transit country for Caspian energy, did nothing: Oil prices actually fell slightly between the opening of hostilities and the signing of a cease-fire.
In terms of sheer scale, Gustav trumps Georgia. As much as 1.2 million barrels of oil a day can cross Georgia by pipeline or rail, according to the Centre for Global Energy Studies. However, most of that goes through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which was out of action already when the war kicked off and already factored into the oil price. Gustav has the potential to take much more oil suddenly off the market, and damage refineries to boot.
In terms of taking the market's temperature, however, Georgia provides the more accurate measure. Last October, the mere threat of a pipeline in northern Iraq being closed down was cited as a reason for crude oil hitting a record -- despite the pipe being virtually empty. Today, with war in an energy chokepoint provoking yawns from traders, sentiment has clearly turned.
Thursday, all it took was for the International Energy Agency and Energy Department to say they stood ready to release strategic oil stocks to calm the markets: WTI crude fell by more than $2 a barrel.
Falling oil consumption in North America and Europe now sets the agenda. Changing that would require a serious, sustained cut in supply. OPEC could try to achieve this, although the organization might struggle to impose reduced quotas on some of its members. Failing that, there is always the chance of a dreadful winter to lift the bulls' spirits.
Investors May Seek Changes at Daimler
What's next? First Porsche Automobil Holding took advantage of Germany's lax takeover laws to take control of Volkswagen AG -- without shelling out the more than $100 billion it would now cost to buy the company. More recently, Schaeffler Group secured creeping control of tire maker Continental AG using derivatives contracts, which, unlike equity stakes, don't have to be declared in Germany.
Some investors are hoping Daimler AG will be next. After all, despite its stealthy approach, Schaeffler ended up offering Continental investors a 39% premium.
Like Continental, Daimler has no controlling shareholder and a beaten-down stock price. Daimler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche has acknowledged there is no way of knowing if someone is building a stake through derivatives.
But Daimler is in a different league than Continental. For one thing, buying the 36% stake that Schaeffler secured in Continental would cost more than $20 billion at current prices. Though Schaeffler's offer values Continental at €12.1 billion ($17.8 billion), it is expected to end up with a stake of less than 50%. Few auto makers have that kind of cash lying around.
Also, Daimler, whose businesses include buses, trucks and Mercedes-Benz cars, hasn't made major missteps lately -- like Continental's €11 billion acquisition of the Siemens VDO auto-electronics business, just as industry fundamentals began to sour.
More likely for Daimler is another kind of creeping control: activist investors pushing for changes like a partial sale of the truck business. Daimler shares look inviting. Including net debt, the shares trade at 3.7 times this year's expected earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, according to Morgan Stanley. That compares with four times for European peers.
At least one activist shareholder, Cevian Capital, already has jumped into Daimler's back seat with a stake of more than 1%, according to people familiar with the matter.
For now, the Swedish fund seems content with Daimler's aggressive stock-buyback program. But the shares have fallen 48% since October. Should they continue to languish, activists could pressure Dr. Zetsche for something drastic.
Driver Nearly Crushes Rescuers Trying to Recover Another Jumper at 'Suicide' Cliff
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,411501,00.html
British Coastguard crew got the scare of a lifetime Monday when they were attempting to rescue a man who had reportedly jumped from an East Sussex “suicide spot” and narrowly missed being crushed by a car as it drove off the same cliff and crashed on the rocks below, the Daily Mail reported.
The 12-person rescue crew was trying to remove a man’s body that children had spotted in the waves when a Toyota 4x4 plunged 500 feet and landed a few yards away.
The traumatized crew and a helicopter team scrambled to find the driver.
"The chaplaincy at Eastbourne contacted us after some kids said there was a body floating in the water,” Dover Coastguard's rescue center manager, Spike Hughes, told the Daily Mail. "We were preparing to retrieve the body when all of a sudden a car drove off the cliff at the same time.
"We made our way to the car as it was more likely the man in the vehicle would still be alive.
"The tide was in, which made it very difficult. A coastguard helicopter spotted the second man's body in the water. He had been thrown clear of the car.”
Some rescue workers were so shocked by the double suicide they had to receive counseling.
One rescue worker was airlifted to a nearby hospital, suffering minor injuries.
Beachy Head cliff has been an infamous suicide spot for hundreds of years, and sees an average of 20 deaths each year.
Home Prices Drop 15.4% in the Second Quarter
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/economy/home-prices-drop--second-quarter/
NEW YORK--A widely watched housing index shows home prices dropping by the sharpest rate ever in the second quarter.
The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index tumbled a record 15.4% during the quarter.
The monthly indices also clocked in record declines. The 20-city index fell by 15.9% in June compared with a year ago, the largest drop since its inception in 2000. The 10-city index plunged 17%, its biggest decline in its 21-year history.
No city in the Case-Shiller 20-city index saw year-over-year price gains in June, the third straight month that's happened.
However, the rate of home price declines slowed in June from the month before, a possible silver lining, the index creators said.
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the whole thing is good,
#15 especially on topic
http://www.chrismartenson.com/bubbles
Home Sales Probably Held Near Decade Low: U.S. Economy Preview
By Shobhana Chandra
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aFIQ7hT6_220&refer=home
Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Home sales in the U.S. probably teetered near a 10-year low, property values dropped and consumer spending cooled, signaling the economy has taken another turn for the worse, reports this week are projected to show.
A total of 5.435 million new and existing homes were purchased in July at an annual pace, according to the median estimate of economists polled by Bloomberg News. June's 5.39 million rate was the weakest since at least 1999. Spending probably rose 0.3 percent in July, half the prior month's gain.
The real-estate recession will persist into next year as stricter lending rules and higher borrowing costs shackle demand. At the same time, equity is disappearing as home prices fall, and wages aren't keeping up with inflation, depriving Americans of the means to maintain spending, the biggest part of the economy.
``The economy is going down a shaky path,'' said Maxwell Clarke, chief U.S. economist at IDEAGlobal Inc. in New York. ``We're not going to see a rebound in housing anytime soon. Consumers are living hand to mouth, and the outlook for spending is very weak.''
Purchases of new houses dropped 0.9 percent to an annual rate of 525,000, according to the median estimate of economists polled ahead of a Commerce Department report on Aug. 26. March's 513,000 pace was the lowest since 1991.
Resales of existing homes, compiled from closings and reflecting contracts signed weeks or months earlier, will be reported by the National Association of Realtors tomorrow. Purchases gained 1 percent to a 4.91 million annual rate, staying near June's 10-year low, the survey median showed.
Timelier Gauge
While sales of previously owned homes account for about 85 percent of the U.S. market, new-home purchases are considered a timelier indicator because they are based on contract signings.
The slump in demand is keeping property values under pressure. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 metropolitan areas probably fell in June, the survey showed. The figures, due on Aug. 26, would extend a string of declines that began in August 2006.
Consumers, after getting a temporary lift from the government's tax rebates earlier this year, are focusing on buying necessities and hunting for bargains to stretch their paychecks following the jump in food and fuel costs.
Home Depot Inc., the world's largest home-improvement retailer, said second-quarter profit fell 24 percent, its eighth straight quarterly drop. The Atlanta-based company forecast a decline in sales and earnings for the year.
Consumer 'Pressure'
``We continue to see pressure on our market and the consumer,'' Chief Executive Officer Frank Blake said in a statement on Aug. 19.
Commerce Department figures on Aug. 29 will underscore the dimming outlook for consumer spending, according to the Bloomberg survey.
The report is also projected to reinforce concern over inflation. The price gauge tied to spending patterns probably rose 4.5 percent in the year ended July, the biggest 12-month gain since 1991.
The measure that excludes food and energy costs, the one tracked by Federal Reserve policy makers, probably rose 2.4 percent from a year earlier, the biggest gain since February 2007, the survey showed.
Concerns about slower growth and the pickup in prices led Fed policy makers to hold the benchmark interest rate at 2 percent this month. Minutes of the Aug. 5 meeting, to be released Aug. 26, may shed more light on the debate within the central bank about the future direction of rates.
Exports
The one bright spot for the economy remains the narrowing of the trade deficit. A surge in exports caused the economy to grow even faster in the second quarter than previously projected. Revised figures from the Commerce Department, due Aug. 28, may show the economy expanded at a 2.7 percent annual rate from April through June, up from an advance estimate of 1.9 percent issued last month, according to the survey median.
``The data releases this week should illustrate the stark contrast between how well the economy performed in the second quarter and how bad the outlook for the second half of the year is,'' said Paul Ashworth, international economist at Capital Economics Ltd. in London.
Other reports this week may show orders for durables goods stalled in July and confidence among American consumers was little-changed this month from multiyear lows reached earlier this year, even as gasoline prices retreated.
Bloomberg Survey
================================================================
Release Period Prior Median
Indicator Date Value Forecast
================================================================
Exist Homes Mlns 8/25 July 4.86 4.91
Exist Homes MOM% 8/25 June -2.6% 1.0%
Case Shiller Monthly YO 8/26 June -15.8% -16.2%
Case Shiller Monthly In 8/26 June 168.5 167.2
Consumer Conf Index 8/26 Aug. 51.9 53.0
New Home Sales ,000's 8/26 July 530 525
New Home Sales MOM% 8/26 July -0.6% -0.9%
OFHEO HPI MOM% 8/26 June -0.3% -0.4%
OFHEO HPI QOQ% 8/26 #VALUE! -1.3% -1.6%
Durables Orders MOM% 8/27 July 0.8% 0.0%
Durables Ex-Trans MOM% 8/27 July 2.0% -0.6%
GDP Annual QOQ% 8/28 3Q P 1.9% 2.7%
Personal Consump. QOQ% 8/28 3Q P 1.5% 1.6%
GDP Prices QOQ% 8/28 3Q P 1.1% 1.1%
Core PCE Prices QOQ% 8/28 3Q P 2.1% 2.1%
Initial Claims ,000's 8/28 Aug. 23 432 425
Cont. Claims ,000's 8/28 Aug. 16 3362 3380
Pers Inc MOM% 8/29 July 0.1% -0.2%
Pers Spend MOM% 8/29 July 0.6% 0.3%
PCE Deflator YOY% 8/29 July 4.1% 4.5%
Core PCE Prices MOM% 8/29 July 0.3% 0.3%
Core PCE Prices YOY% 8/29 July 2.3% 2.4%
Chicago PM Index 8/29 Aug. 50.8 50.0
U of Mich Conf. Index 8/29 Aug. F 61.7 62.0
=============================================================================
Barbie fishing pole hooks a winner
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26335667/?GT1=43001
The Nooz: Record fish caught with Barbie rod
And other stories you may have missed from around the country
North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission
David Hayes holds the 21-pound, 1-ounce catfish, which was 2 inches longer than his granddaughter Alyssa’s Barbie Doll fishing pole.
Barbie fishing pole hooks a winner
Aug. 22: A North Carolina man reels in a state record channel catfish with his granddaughter's Barbie fishing rod. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown has the story.
msnbc.com
updated 10:49 a.m. CT, Fri., Aug. 22, 2008
WILKES COUNTY, N.C. — A backyard angler has bagged the state’s record channel catfish using a 2½-foot hot pink Barbie Doll rod and reel.
David Hayes caught the record-breaking fish from a private pond while fishing early this month with his granddaughter, Alyssa, 3. The 21-pound, 1-ounce catfish measured 32 inches long — 2 inches longer than the Barbie Doll fishing pole.
“After catching two or three bluegill, Alyssa turns to me and says: ‘Papa, I’ve got to go to the bathroom. Hold my fishing rod,’” Hayes was quoted as saying in a news release from the state Wildlife Resources Commission.
“A few minutes later, the float went under, and I saw the water start boiling up — I knew right then that I had my hands full with that fishing rod.”
It took Hayes about 25 minutes to land the fish, which measured 22½ inches in girth. Hayes said that once he got it to the bank, he was pretty certain his channel cat would exceed the previous state record, an 18-pound, 5-ounce fish caught in August 2007.
The fish was weighed on certified scales at a nearby grocery store, and a fisheries biologist with the Wildlife Resources Commission certified that Hayes was right.
soyelpanto, heck ya I'll go, (hope they dont think I'm just trying to mooch a free lunch LOL) I can see where it would have benifit in regards to comparison from Feb08 visit and I'm a much larger shareholder this time around.
Currently I'm out of state for a couple more weeks then back to H-town and my schedule will be flexable then. Dont forget you have to coordinate this with Steve H.
Sign me up!!
soyelpato
got your trip set up yet?
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=28190775
'Liar loans' threaten to prolong mortgage crisis By ALAN ZIBEL, AP Business Writer
Mon Aug 18, 5:50 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080818/ap_on_bi_ge/liar_loans
In the mortgage industry, they are called "liar loans" — mortgages approved without requiring proof of the borrower's income or assets. The worst of them earn the nickname "ninja loans," short for "no income, no job, and (no) assets."
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The nation's struggling housing market, already awash in subprime foreclosures, is now getting hit with a second wave of losses as homeowners with liar loans default in record numbers. In some parts of the country, the loans are threatening to drag out the mortgage crisis for another two years.
"Those loans are going to perform very badly," said Thomas Lawler, a Virginia housing economist. "They're heavily concentrated in states where home prices are plummeting" such as California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona.
Many homeowners with liar loans are stuck. They can't refinance because housing prices in those markets have nose-dived, and lenders are now demanding full documentation of income and assets.
Losses on liar loans could total $100 billion, according to Moody's Economy.com. That's on top of the $400 billion in expected losses from subprime loans.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the nation's largest buyers and backers of mortgages, lost a combined $3.1 billion between April and June. Half of their credit losses came from sour liar loans, which are officially called Alternative-A loans (Alt-A for short) because they are seen as a step below A-credit, or prime, borrowers.
Many of the lenders that specialized in such loans are now defunct — banks such as American Home Mortgage, Bear Stearns and IndyMac Bank. More lenders may follow.
The mortgage bankers and brokers who survived were more cautious, but acknowledge they too were swept up in the housing hysteria to some extent.
"Everybody drank the Kool-Aid" said David Zugheri, co-founder of Texas-based lender First Houston Mortgage. They knew if they didn't give the borrower the loan they wanted, the borrower "could go down the street and get that loan somewhere else."
The loans were also immensely profitable for the mortgage industry because they carried higher fees and higher interest rates. A broker who signed up a borrower for a liar loan could reap as much as $15,000 in fees for a $300,000 loan. Traditional lending is far less lucrative, netting brokers around $2,000 to $4,000 in fees for a fixed-rate loan.
During the housing boom, liar loans were especially popular among investors seeking to flip properties quickly. They were also commonly paired with "interest only" features that allowed borrowers to pay just the interest on the debt and none of the principal for the first several years.
Even riskier were "pick-a-payment" or option ARM loans — adjustable-rate mortgages that gave borrowers the choice to defer some of their interest payments and add them to the principal.
While some borrowers were aware of their risky features and used them to gamble on their home's value or pull out money for vacations, others like Salvatore Fucile insist they were victims of predatory lending.
Fucile, who is 82, and his wife, Clara, wound up in an option ARM from IndyMac after consolidating two mortgages on their suburban Philadelphia home. Fucile was attracted by the low monthly payments, but says the mortgage broker who signed him up for the loan didn't tell him the principal balance could increase. It has risen about $24,000 to $276,000.
"He put me in a bad position," said Fucile, who fears he will be forced into foreclosure. "He misled me."
IndyMac was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. last month.
FDIC spokesman David Barr declined to discuss the Fuciles' case, but said the agency has temporarily frozen all IndyMac foreclosures and is working on a broad plan to modify mortgages held by the Pasadena, Calif-based bank.
The low monthly payments of liar loans helped many home buyers afford to purchase in areas of the country where prices were skyrocketing. But they also helped drive up prices by allowing people to buy more than they could truly afford. Case in point: about 40 percent of loans made in California and Nevada in 2005 and 2006 were either interest-only or option ARMs, according to First American CoreLogic.
"It was pretty evident that the only thing that was supporting these loans was higher home prices" said Tom LaMalfa, managing director at Wholesale Access, a Columbia, Md.-based mortgage research firm.
Now that prices have fallen, almost 13 percent of borrowers with liar loans were at least two months behind on their payments in May, nearly four times higher than a year earlier, according to First American CoreLogic.
Countrywide Financial Corp., now part of Bank of America Corp., was one of the top providers of liar loans. The company is now is paying the price. More than 12 percent of Countrywide's $25.4 billion in pick-a-payment loans are in default, and 83 percent had little or no documentation, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last week.
Critics say Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which bought or guaranteed liar loans from lenders including Countrywide and IndyMac, should have stuck with traditional 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages.
"I personally think that they ventured beyond their mission," said Richard Smith, a mortgage broker in Chattanooga, Tenn. Because of their decision to back shakier loans, he said, "the home-buying public is going to have to pay."
Fannie and Freddie entered the market for risky loans just as they emerged from accounting scandals. At the time, Wall Street giants such as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. were backing a growing share of ever-riskier loans, and both government-sponsored companies felt pressure to compete.
Freddie Mac wanted "to stay competitive in the market and take steps to preserve market share," spokesman Michael Cosgrove said.
Fannie Mae increased its purchases of liar mortgages "at the requests of many of our customers," according to spokesman Brian Faith.
Both companies also were able to use subprime and liar-loan investments to meet government-set affordable housing goals.
Now Fannie, Freddie and other mortgage investors are reviewing defaulted loans to see if lenders committed fraud. If they find enough evidence, they could force lenders to assume responsibility for losses.
But it's unclear how much money they might recover, especially from lenders that have gone under or been seized by the government.
thx brikk
Airlines push for homegrown jet fuel
Aug 15, 2:52 PM (ET)
By CHRIS KAHN
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080815/D92IT2J01.html
PHOENIX (AP) - With the price of oil still above $100 a barrel, everything from wood chips to chicken fat is being scrutinized as an alternative to traditional fuel. But when it comes to airplanes, finding the right mix poses a special challenge.
"When you're in an airplane, you don't want your fuel to start solidifying," said Robert Dunn, a Department of Agriculture chemical engineer who is studying biodiesel jet fuel.
The airline industry is aggressively pushing for homegrown alternatives to petroleum-based jet fuel, while leaning on customers with a variety of new travel charges to help control a projected $61 billion industrywide fuel expense this year. A number of alternatives to standard jet fuel have been studied for years, though aircraft manufacturers say the challenge is to find ideas that will work now.
Jet engines can be retrofitted to run on hydrogen, for example. But hydrogen does not pack the same punch as traditional jet fuel - kerosene - and would require airlines to buy planes designed with massive tanks. That is a tough choice for cash-strapped carriers, said Billy Glover, managing director of environmental strategy at Boeing Co (BA)mmercial Airplanes.
The best bet right now for non-conventional fuel comes from South Africa, experts said. The country has powered its airline industry for a decade using a coal-based jet fuel blend developed by petrochemicals group Sasol. It's technically a "synthetic" fuel, which means it can be used without altering engines or other aircraft equipment.
A number of U.S. companies are developing a variety of similar synthetics. Airline experts say three companies in particular could provide as much as three million gallons a day of synthetic fuel by 2012: American Clean Coal Fuels of Portland, Ore., Baard Energy in Vancouver, Wash., and Rentech Inc. (RTK) of Los Angeles.
Though significant supplies will not be ready for several years, the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI) - a coalition that includes the Federal Aviation Administration, airline, manufacturing and airport associations - wants to set standards by the end of the year for a 50-percent synthetic jet fuel. CAAFI wants standards for a totally synthetic fuel ready in two years.
Executive Director Richard L. Altman said the push for new fuel standards is meant to show investors that airlines will buy synthetic fuel. Doing so will send needed dollars to energy startups that may one day replace foreign oil, Altman said.
"Nobody will invest unless the fuel is certified," he said. "So we have a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem."
(AP) Chemist Emma Kate Payne displays a fuel sample created from algae at LiveFuels in San Carlos,...
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With more companies investing in alternative energy, the thinking goes, the more synthetic jet fuel eventually becomes available. The more fuel available, the easier it will be for airlines to unshackle themselves from volatile petroleum markets.
Meanwhile, Boeing and Air New Zealand later this year will test a biofuel made from the oil-rich seeds of the jatropha tree, a Mexican plant that grows in warm climates. Other synthetic fuel tests will follow on Continental Airlines and Japan Airlines flights. In February, Boeing partnered with Virgin Atlantic to test a flight that included a biofuel mixture of babassu oil, which comes from a palm tree in northern Brazil, and coconut oil.
"We're looking for something that is so correct in its performance that it can be interchanged with petroleum-based kerosene," Glover said. "From a distribution standpoint, from a technical standpoint, it needs to fit without modifications or special handling."
Many biofuels may create more problems than they solve, however. Using edible feedstocks such as corn and sugar could raise the price of food. And palm trees for babassu and coconut oil could lead to clearing large chunks of rain forest.
These are some of the reasons why algae-based synthetic fuel is getting a lot of attention.
(AP) Charity DeLuca, VP of Research Relations at LiveFuels in San Carlos, Calif., works with different...
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Algae is inedible, and it has a relatively high yield compared with other crops, using less land to produce the same amount of oil.
"It can be grown anywhere you can have a pool of water and expose it to sunlight," said Stanford Seto, an expert in aviation fuels who works with ASTM International, a Pennsyvania-based organization that develops standards for jet fuel.
Investors have pumped almost $84 million into companies developing algae-based fuel so far this year, up from $29 million in all of 2007, according to the Cleantech Group, an industry research firm.
Despite its promise, it will be years before algae biofuel could be sold at a price that would make sense to an airline, said Dave Jones, co-founder of LiveFuels, an algae fuel startup in San Carlos, Calif.
"If anyone is below $50 a gallon, I'd be stunned," he said. "We have a pretty good idea on how to grow algae. The biggest challenge is in the harvesting and how to extract it from the water."
Even if prices come down, most airlines see synthetic fuel as a chance to run a greener airline, not necessarily a cheaper one, said Nancy Young, vice president of environmental affairs for the Air Transport Association.
More fuel sources could temper the effect oil speculation has on gas prices, and they could give carriers fuel at a cost they can count on, she said. But "you aren't going to find a fuel that's pennies on the dollar than what we find today," she said.
For travelers, that means that fewer flight options and charges for checked bags, drinks and other items are here to stay.
"Even if we were to double the volume we were to make in biofuels every year for the next 10 years, we're still looking at maybe this will impact 15 percent of the overall fuel supply," said Brian Fan, Cleantech's senior director of research.
"Realistically, for anything to be happening at scale, enough to actually impact an airline's bottom line, we're years away," Fan said.
OT SageWise the deal fell thru.
NASA halts space suit contract with Texas firm
Aug 15, 7:46 PM (ET)
By STEPHEN SINGER
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080815/D92J1CEO2.html
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - NASA said Friday it terminated its contract with a Houston company selected in June to supply the space agency's next-generation space suit.
NASA said it determined that an unspecified compliance issue required it to halt its contract with Oceaneering International Inc. (OII) (OII), best known for providing deep water services and products to the oil and gas industry.
The agency said its procurement decision will be reconsidered, offering no reason except that the decision was "for the convenience of the government."
The three-phase $745 million contract called for 109 suits, 24 of which will be the lunar suits.
The contract award was protested last month by Exploration Systems & Technology, a joint venture between Hamilton Sundstrand and ILC Dover, two companies that have supplied space suits and components since the 1960s. Exploration Systems & Technology said it did not believe it received adequate information from NASA about why its bid did not win.
In a statement Friday, Exploration Systems & Technology said it is concerned that revisions to the proposal may not correct the "significant errors and deficiencies in the procurement we have protested thus far."
Spokesman Daniel Coulom said Exploration Systems & Technology was told that NASA will address only cost accounting issues. Exploration Systems & Technology instead wants "corrective action" that it said would reduce the risk of additional challenges, promote competition and efficiency in the contracting process.
The space suit, called an EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) suit by NASA, is being developed to protect astronauts during voyages to the International Space Station and surface of the moon, where the space agency hopes to return by 2020.
The challenge to a federal contract is the second in recent months for a United Technologies subsidiary. Hamilton Sundstrand and jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, another business of United Technologies, were the indirect beneficiaries of a challenge to the awarding of a government contract.
Boeing scored a victory in June in its effort to wrest a $35 billion Air Force contract from Northrop Grumman and its European partner. The Government Accountability Office upheld Boeing's protest of the refueling tanker contract and recommended a new competition.
Pratt & Whitney would build the engines for the fleet of nearly 600 tankers and Hamilton Sundstrand would work on the electrical systems
Greenspan Sees Bottom
In Housing, Criticizes Bailout
August 14, 2008; Page A1
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121865515167837815.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news
WASHINGTON -- Alan Greenspan usually surrounds his opinions with caveats and convoluted clauses. But ask his view of the government's response to problems confronting mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and he offers one word: "Bad."
David S. Holloway
Alan Greenspan
In a conversation this week, the former Federal Reserve chairman also said he expects that U.S. house prices, a key factor in the outlook for the economy and financial markets, will begin to stabilize in the first half of next year.
"Home prices in the U.S. are likely to start to stabilize or touch bottom sometime in the first half of 2009," he said in an interview. Tracing a jagged curve with his finger on a tabletop to underscore the difficulty in pinpointing the precise trough, he cautioned that even at a bottom, "prices could continue to drift lower through 2009 and beyond."
A long-time student of housing markets, Mr. Greenspan now works out of a well-windowed, oval-shaped office that is evidence of his fascination with the housing market. His desk, couch, coffee table and conference table are strewn with printouts of spreadsheets and multicolored charts of housing starts, foreclosures and population trends siphoned from government and trade association sources.
An end to the decline in house prices, he explained, matters not only to American homeowners but is "a necessary condition for an end to the current global financial crisis" he said.
"Stable home prices will clarify the level of equity in homes, the ultimate collateral support for much of the financial world's mortgage-backed securities. We won't really know the market value of the asset side of the banking system's balance sheet -- and hence banks' capital -- until then."
At 82 years old, Mr. Greenspan remains sharp and his fascination with the workings of the economy undiminished. But his star no longer shines as brightly as it did when he retired from the Fed in January 2006.
Two Pillars of Data
Mr. Greenspan has been criticized for contributing to today's woes by keeping interest rates too low too long and by regulating too lightly. He has been aggressively defending his record -- in interviews, in op-ed pieces and in a new chapter in his recent book, included in the paperback version to be published next month. Mr. Greenspan attributes the rise in house prices to a historically unusual period in which world markets pushed interest rates down and even sophisticated investors misjudged the risks they were taking.
His views remain widely watched, however. Mr. Greenspan's housing forecast rests on two pillars of data. One is the supply of vacant, single-family homes for sale, both newly completed homes and existing homes owned by investors and lenders. He sees that "excess supply" -- roughly 800,000 units above normal -- diminishing soon. The other is a comparison of the current price of houses -- he prefers the quarterly S&P Case Shiller National Home Price Index because it includes both urban and rural areas -- with the government's estimate of what it costs to rent a single-family house. As other economists do, Mr. Greenspan essentially seeks to gauge when it is rational to own a house and when it is rational to sell the house, invest the money elsewhere and rent an identical house next door.
"It's the imbalance of supply and demand which causes prices to go down, but it's ultimately the valuation process of the use of the commodity...which tells you where the bottom is," Mr. Greenspan said, recalling his days trading copper a half century ago. "For example, the grain markets can have a huge excess of corn or wheat, but the price never goes to zero. It'll stabilize at some level of prices where people are willing to hold the excess inventory. We have little history, but the same thing is surely true in housing as well. We will get to the point where there will be willing holders of vacant single-family dwellings, and that will no longer act to depress the price level."
The collapse in home prices, of course, is a major threat to the stability of Fannie and Freddie. At the Fed, Mr. Greenspan warned for years that the two mortgage giants' business model threatened the nation's financial stability. He acknowledges that a government backstop for the shareholder-owned, government-sponsored enterprises, or GSEs, was unavoidable. Not only are they crucial to the ailing mortgage market now, but the Fed-financed takeover of investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. also made government backing of Fannie and Freddie debt "inevitable," he said. "There's no credible argument for bailing out Bear Stearns and not the GSEs."
His quarrel is with the approach the Bush administration sold to Congress. "They should have wiped out the shareholders, nationalized the institutions with legislation that they are to be reconstituted -- with necessary taxpayer support to make them financially viable -- as five or 10 individual privately held units," which the government would eventually auction off to private investors, he said.
Instead, Congress granted Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson temporary authority to use an unlimited amount of taxpayer money to lend to or invest in the companies. In response to the Greenspan critique, Mr. Paulson's spokeswoman, Michele Davis, said, "This legislation accomplished two important goals -- providing confidence in the immediate term as these institutions play a critical role in weathering the housing correction, and putting in place a new regulator with all the authorities necessary to address systemic risk posed by the GSEs."
QUESTION OF THE DAY
• Vote: Do you agree with Alan Greenspan's forecast for house prices to stabilize in the first half of 2009?But a similar critique has been raised by several other prominent observers. "If they are too big to fail, make them smaller," former Nixon Treasury Secretary George Shultz said. Some say the Paulson approach, even if the government never spends a nickel, entrenches current management and offers shareholders the upside if the government's reassurance allows the companies to weather the current storm. The Treasury hasn't said what conditions it would impose if it offers Fannie and Freddie taxpayer money.
Fear that financial markets would react poorly if the U.S. government nationalized the companies and assumed their approximately $5 trillion debt is unfounded, Mr. Greenspan said. "The law that stipulates that GSEs are not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government is disbelieved. The market believes the government guarantee is there. Foreigners believe the guarantee is there. The only fiscal change is for someone to change the bookkeeping."
Cloudy Crystal Ball
In the past, to be sure, Mr. Greenspan's crystal ball has been cloudy. He didn't foresee the sharp national decline in home prices. Recently released transcripts of Fed meetings do record him warning in November 2002: "It's hard to escape the conclusion that at some point our extraordinary housing boom...cannot continue indefinitely into the future."
Publicly, he was more reassuring. "While local economies may experience significant speculative price imbalances, a national severe price distortion seems most unlikely in the United States, given its size and diversity," he said in October 2004. Eight months later, he said if home prices did decline, that "likely would not have substantial macroeconomic implications." And in a speech in October 2006, nine months after leaving the Fed, he told an audience that, though housing prices were likely to be lower than the year before, "I think the worst of this may well be over." Housing prices, by his preferred gauge, have fallen nearly 19% since then. He says he was referring not to prices but to the downward drag on economic growth from weakening housing construction.
Mr. Greenspan urges the government to avoid tax or other policies that increase the construction of new homes because that would delay the much-desired day when home prices find a bottom.
He did offer one suggestion: "The most effective initiative, though politically difficult, would be a major expansion in quotas for skilled immigrants," he said. The only sustainable way to increase demand for vacant houses is to spur the formation of new households. Admitting more skilled immigrants, who tend to earn enough to buy homes, would accomplish that while paying other dividends to the U.S. economy.
He estimates the number of new households in the U.S. currently is increasing at an annual rate of about 800,000, of whom about one third are immigrants. "Perhaps 150,000 of those are loosely classified as skilled," he said. "A double or tripling of this number would markedly accelerate the absorption of unsold housing inventory for sale -- and hence help stabilize prices."
Write to David Wessel at capital@wsj.com
Housing Rebound in Cleveland Means Bad News for U.S. (Update1)
By Brian Louis and Kathleen M. Howley
http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aguztSyYWfCg&refer=home
Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The good news in the worst housing slump since the Great Depression is that the market in Cleveland is recovering. That's also the bad news.
The Cleveland area led the nation for home price gains in April and May with an 18 percent jump in the lowest price tier of the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index after values fell to levels last seen in 2000. The median home price was $117,500 in the second quarter, 15 percent higher than the prior three months, the National Association of Realtors said in a report today.
A housing revival in this city of 438,000 on the shore of Lake Erie may portend deeper drops in U.S. markets. Prices for entry level homes in Cleveland had to tumble 37 percent from a September 2005 peak to an almost 11-year low in March before enticing first- time buyers. That may be a sign that U.S. markets with the biggest price increases during the 2000 to 2005 boom have much further to fall before stabilizing, said David Blitzer, chairman of Standard & Poor's Index Committee.
``The areas of the country that saw prices go through the roof and then fall into the basement won't be the first ones to see an upturn,'' Blitzer said in an interview. ``It's more likely to come in a place like Cleveland or other Midwestern cities that largely missed the boom.''
Cleveland never experienced the big home-price gains of its coastal counterparts such as New York or San Francisco. Gains were more modest as Cleveland, like other cities in the Midwest, saw jobs in steel, automotive and manufacturing shipped overseas.
Foreclosure Crisis
Prices in the Cleveland area rose an average of 3 percent a year from 2000 to 2005, according to S&P/Case-Shiller data. Prices in the metropolitan New York and Los Angeles areas gained 15 percent and 23 percent, respectively, in that period.
Now that Cleveland is starting to recover, it may be leading other areas of the country on their way to finding a housing bottom, said Robin Dubin, an economics professor at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
``Cleveland was hit first with the foreclosure crisis,'' Dubin said. ``Other communities are just behind Cleveland and they will start to come out of it pretty soon.''
The May S&P/Case-Shiller index put Cleveland's highest priced homes, properties that sold for more than $182,000, back to 2003 prices, and the overall market back to 2002 levels. Minneapolis gained 0.6 percent in May from the prior month, its biggest gain in two years. The latest reading puts home prices in Minnesota's largest city back to 2003.
Price Rollback
``If you look at Cleveland or Minneapolis, they're almost back to where they started,'' said Justin Walters, co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group, a Harrison, New York-based firm that manages money for wealthy investors and provides financial research to institutions. ``Most other parts of the country have a ways to go before they can say that.''
For Los Angeles home prices to reach their 2003 levels it would require another 14 percent decline, on top of the 28 percent tumble since peaking in September 2006, according to S&P data.
Las Vegas prices would have to decline 13 percent to reach 2003 levels, on top of its 31 percent drop since peaking in August 2006. Miami would have to see home prices drop 16 percent to erase the gains of the last five years, in addition to the 31 percent decline since December 2006, the S&P data shows.
``It's going to be like a long slow car crash to work through the housing situation, and we're still in the middle of it,'' said Joseph Veranth, chief investment officer at Dana Investment Advisors, which manages $2.8 billion. ``We think it will go well into 2009.''
Foreclosure Sale
In the Cleveland area, the price declines are bringing buyers back into the real estate market.
Justin Taress, 33, and Ericka Conyer, 30, bought a four- bedroom house this month for $93,000 in Shaker Heights, east of the city. The home was foreclosed on five months ago after the previous owner defaulted on a subprime mortgage, according to real estate records.
Taress said they plan to raise their three children in the beige-colored Colonial-style home after spending about $10,000 on repairs to it.
Buyers like these are helping increase home values beyond Cleveland. Indiana had the fastest U.S. pace of price appreciation in the first quarter, at 1.31 percent, followed by Colorado, at 1 percent, according to the latest government figures available.
Ohio had the third-fastest pace of price appreciation in the U.S. in the first quarter with a 0.97 percent gain, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said.
Small Cities Rebound
The small-city revival is continuing in the current quarter, according to the S&P/Case Shiller study. The index measured a 1 percent month-to-month gain in Denver home prices in May, on the heels of a 0.8 percent increase in April. The index of 20 U.S. cities doesn't include Indiana communities.
The government data shows Nevada tumbled 5 percent in the first quarter, California fell 4.4 percent, and Florida dropped 3.3 percent.
Now that prices have fallen so much in Cleveland, brokers are once again finding the market is busy.
``The banks are motivated to unload now,'' said Linas Muliolis, a broker with Century 21 Homestar, who handled the Taress and Conyer home purchase. ``They have to sell now.''
Cleveland's real estate revival may be tenuous. Foreclosures stemming from job losses and mortgage defaults by people with poor or limited credit histories remain high in a city once derided as ``The Mistake on the Lake.''
Job Losses
The city's job losses, its financial troubles in the 1970s, and the oil-slicked Cuyahoga River catching fire in 1969 eroded its reputation around the country. The unemployment rate in the Cleveland area is 10.1 percent, compared with 5.7 percent for the U.S. The city is home to the second-largest private employer in the state, Cleveland Clinic Health System, according to a March report from the Ohio Department of Development. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, is the largest private employer in the state, according to the report.
Cleveland had 8,735 properties in some stage of foreclosure in the second quarter, or 1 in every 108 households, according to Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac Inc.
``We have more auction sales than Realtor sales,'' said Jim Rokakis, the treasurer for Cuyahoga County, where Cleveland is located.
Still, the foreclosure rate was down 3.7 percent from a year ago in the second quarter, one of only five improvements in RealtyTrac's report of 100 U.S. metropolitan areas. Cleveland ranked No. 26 on the list in the recent quarter, better than the No. 6 position it held for all of 2007.
Pulling in Buyers
``Ultimately what has to happen is you have to have prices reach a level that will pull buyers in,'' said Michelle Girard, senior economist at RBS Greenwich Capital Markets in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Cleveland was founded on the east bank of the Cuyahoga River by Moses Cleaveland, who led the first survey of the area that was finished in 1796, according to ``Ohio History Central,'' a Web site operated by the Ohio Historical Society. An error on the area's first map led to the city being spelled Cleveland, according to the Web site.
Cleveland was close to natural resources such as oil, iron ore and coal, which gave rise to its industrial prominence in the first half of the 20th Century, according to Richard DeKaser, chief economist at National City Corp. in Cleveland.
The area lost jobs as those resources became depleted and manufacturers found it cheaper to make goods elsewhere, DeKaser said. Increased productivity also cut jobs as companies needed fewer workers to produce goods.
Population Flight
The loss of jobs has cut the population by more than half in the last five decades. The city had about 1 million residents in 1950, according to the historical society Web site. Cleveland had the largest numerical decline in population from 2006 to 2007, the Census Bureau said on July 10. It now has about 438,000 residents.
Starting in the 1990s, Cleveland began turning around its reputation with the opening of new sports stadiums and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum downtown. The area's financial services industry also grew and attained national prominence with firms such as National City, KeyCorp and insurer Progressive Corp. Manufacturing also rebounded as the weak dollar boosted demand for products produced in the area, DeKaser said.
Real Revival
George and Bridget Richard are first-time buyers who want to stay in the Cleveland area and are being enticed by newly affordable prices. After looking for more than a year, they're now considering placing an offer on a three-bedroom, three-bath house in North Ridgeville, a suburb of Cleveland.
A few months ago the asking price for the light-blue house, built in 1986, was $213,000. Now it's $189,000. The couple, who are high-school sweethearts, are expecting their first child.
``I'd like to take advantage of the market while it's low, go in, buy a house and just watch the market rise over the next number of years,'' Bridget Richard, 34, a child psychotherapist, said in an interview in the couple's apartment in Strongsville, Ohio.
To contact the reporters on this story: Brian Louis in Chicago at blouis1@bloomberg.net; Kathleen M. Howley in Boston at kmhowley@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: August 14, 2008 11:57 EDT
Over 33,000 buyers signed up for GM electric car By Kevin Krolicki
Tue Aug 12, 6:03 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080812/tc_nm/volt_list_dc_1
DETROIT (Reuters) - In a bid to show the demand for the upcoming all-electric Chevrolet Volt, a proponent of the car has released details of an unofficial waiting list for the vehicle with over 33,000 prospective buyers.
Lyle Dennis, a New York neurologist who has emerged as a prominent enthusiast for the battery-powered car from General Motors Corp (GM.N), has been assembling a list of prospective Volt buyers for over a year through his Web site GM-Volt.com.
On Tuesday, Dennis released details gleaned from the list showing that 33,411 people had signed up to show their intent to buy a Volt when the rechargeable car is released in 2010.
The list shows the highest number of potential Volt buyers in California, Texas, Florida and Michigan. It also includes potential buyers from 46 countries outside the United States.
The average price buyers were willing to pay for the car was $31,261 -- substantially less than the $40,000 GM has said it will cost to build the first-generation of the car equipped with a massive lithium-ion battery pack.
GM has been racing to finish development of the Volt in time for the planned launch as the centerpiece of its effort to break a costly association with gas-guzzling vehicles at a time when truck sales are tumbling and gas prices remain high.
Like most automakers, GM typically keeps its vehicle development programs under tight wraps and shuns publicity.
But with the Volt, GM has taken the opposite approach, actively consulting enthusiasts like Dennis and featuring the concept version of the Volt in high-profile advertising, including a television spot broadcast during the Olympics.
Dennis, who organized a meeting between enthusiasts called the "Volt Nation" and GM executives at the New York Auto Show earlier this year, said he was motivated by a desire to show the Detroit-based automaker that the Volt would have a wide base of buyers from the start.
"If everyone who wanted a Volt could get one, that would be the dream," said Dennis.
GM, which does not expect to make money on the first-generation of the Volt, has said it will ramp up output slowly when production of the plug-in hybrid starts at a Hamtramck, Michigan plant.
A GM spokesman said that the automaker expected an initial shortage for the Volt, similar to the shortages for other hot-selling recent models.
"I don't know if there is any other vehicle or any other technology that has generated this kind of interest because of the state of the market and gas prices," said GM spokesman Dave Darovitz. "We know the demand is going to be there."
Darovitz declined to discuss pricing for the Volt
GM showed off a concept version of the Volt in January 2007 but has retooled the look of the vehicle significantly since then, in part in order to improve its aerodynamics, representatives of the automaker have said.
GM is designing the Volt to run for 40 miles on a lithium-ion battery pack that can be recharged at a standard outlet. The Volt will also capture energy from braking, like a traditional hybrid, and feature an on-board engine that will be used to send power to the battery on longer trips.
GM is racing Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) to bring the first mass-market, plug-in car to the marketplace.
I have heard and think I'm seeing it that penny stocks get sleepy in the summer and wake back up in the winter.
Seems the logical explaination would be everyones playing outdoors more in summer and bored indoors trying to stay warm in the winter. Regardless of that.
What months could be considered Hot vs Cold?
TIA
I hear ya, It apears to be a combination of MM's
DRCO didnt flow enough volume to create an increase of 300K short, obvisouly some other MM's are playing also. I count 6 suspects at that link, to what degree of involvement?
http://www.otcbb.com/asp/tradeact_mv.asp?SearchBy=issue&Issue=dpdw&SortBy=volume&Month=7-1-2008&IMAGE1.x=0&IMAGE1.y=0
I say dont give any of then a single share and sit tight for news. IMO
At this link use Steps 1 and 2
https://www.otcbb.com/asp/OTCE_Short_Interest.asp
you can see how the short interest jumped huge June30 - July15 same time as DRCO gets active.............hummmmmmmm
May 15 70,462
May 30 75,152 + 4,690
Jun 13 118,273 + 43,148
Jun 30 174,675 + 56,402
Jul 15 475,842 + 301,167
$10, $20, $30 Gas?
Must see, unbelievable
Edwards admits to extramarital affair
'I recognized my mistake and I told my wife that I had a liaison'
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26095810?GT1=43001
WASHINGTON - Former U.S. presidential candidate John Edwards, who won nationwide praise and sympathy as he campaigned side-by-side with his cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, admitted in shame Friday he had had an extramarital affair with a woman who produced videos for his campaign.
Acknowledging a sex scandal he had dismissed as "tabloid trash" only last month, Edwards said he had told his wife and family long ago but "I had hoped that it would never become public."
He denied fathering a daughter, born to the woman with whom he had the affair, and offered to be tested to prove it. A former Edwards campaign staff member professes to be the father. The former North Carolina senator, who was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004, confessed to ABC News that he had lied repeatedly about the affair with 42-year-old Rielle Hunter. Hunter's daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter, was born on Feb. 27 this year, and no father's name is given on the birth certificate filed in California.
'Disloyal to my family'
After the story broke Friday, Edwards released a statement that said, "In 2006, I made a serious error in judgment and conducted myself in a way that was disloyal to my family and to my core beliefs. I recognized my mistake, and I told my wife that I had a liaison with another woman, and I asked for her forgiveness. Although I was honest in every painful detail with my family, I did not tell the public."
"With my family, I took responsibility for my actions in 2006, and today I take full responsibility publicly."
Edwards declared his presidential candidacy in December 2006. His wife was at his side that day and campaigned enthusiastically with him and by herself in the months that followed. She announced in March 2007 that her cancer, formerly in remission, had returned and there apparently was no cure.
She and her husband said it was important for the campaign to continue.
Edwards dropped out midway through this year's primaries after it became apparent he could not keep up with front-runners Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. He recently endorsed Obama and has been mentioned as a possible running mate.
He was John Kerry's running mate in 2004 when Kerry lost to President George W. Bush. In his statement, he said, "It is inadequate to say to the people who believed in me that I am sorry, as it is inadequate to say to the people who love me that I am sorry.
"In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic. If you want to beat me up feel free. You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself. I have been stripped bare and will now work with everything I have to help my family and others who need my help."
The National Enquirer first reported on the affair in October 2007, in the run-up to the Democratic primaries, and Edwards denied it.
"The story is false," he told reporters then. "It's completely untrue, ridiculous." He professed his love for his wife, who had an incurable form of cancer, saying, "I've been in love with the same woman for 30-plus years and as anybody who's been around us knows, she's an extraordinary human being, warm, loving, beautiful, sexy and as good a person as I have ever known. So the story's just false."
Last month, the Enquirer carried another story stating that its reporters had accosted Edwards in a Los Angeles hotel where he had met with Hunter after her child's birth. Edwards called it "tabloid trash," but he generally avoided reporters' inquiries, as did his former top aides.
Tabloid was correct
Steve Marcus / Reuters
Former Sen. John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In an interview, scheduled to air on ABC News' "Nightline" Friday night, Edwards said the tabloid was correct when it reported on his meeting with Hunter at the Beverly Hills Hilton last month.
A number of mainstream news organizations had looked into the adultery allegations but had not published or aired stories. But newspapers in Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina , recounted the Enquirer's allegations in prominent articles on Thursday.
The Edwardses have three children — Cate, Jack and Emma Claire. Another son, Wade, died at 16 in a 1996 car accident.
David Bonior, Edwards' campaign manager for his 2008 presidential bid, said he was disappointed and angry at Friday's news.
"Thousands of friends of the senator's and his supporters have put their faith and confidence in him, and he's let them down," said Bonior, a former congressman from Michigan. "They've been betrayed by his action."
Asked whether the affair would damage Edwards' future aspirations in public service, Bonior replied: "You can't lie in politics and expect to have people's confidence."
In 1999, when Edwards was a senator, he said of President Bill Clinton and his affair with Monica Lewinsky:
Slide show
Edwards' public life
Former Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, has faced public and private challenges throughout his life and career.
more photos
"I think this president has shown a remarkable disrespect for his office, for the moral dimensions of leadership, for his friends, for his wife, for his precious daughter. It is breathtaking to me the level to which that disrespect has risen."
In 2006, Edwards' political action committee paid $100,000 in a four-month span to a newly-formed firm run by Hunter, who directed the production of four Web videos showing Edwards in supposedly candid moments as well as in a public speech talking about morality.
The payments from Edwards' One America Committee to Midline Groove Productions LLC started on July 5, 2006, five days after Hunter incorporated the firm in Delaware.
Midline provided "Website/Internet services," according to reports that Edwards' PAC filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Midline's work product consists of four YouTube videos showing Edwards in informal settings as he prepares to make speeches in Storm Lake, Iowa, and Pittsburgh, as gets ready for a television appearance on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and travels in Uganda in 2006.
Edwards' PAC followed the six-figure payment with two smaller payments totaling $14,461, the last on April 1, 2007.
At the time Hunter was compiling the videos in 2006, Edwards was preparing his run for president.
Episode One of the four videos shows a conversation between Edwards and an unseen woman as the two chat aboard a plane about an upcoming speech in Storm Lake, Iowa.
Cutting between clips of the speech and the conversation with the woman, Edwards touches on his standard political themes, declaring that government must do a better job of addressing the great issues of the day, from poverty and education to jobs and the war in Iraq.
"I want to see our party lead on the great moral issues — yes, me a Democrat using that word — the great moral issues that face our country," Edwards tells the crowd. "If we want to live in a moral, honest just America and if we want to live in a moral and just world, we can't wait for somebody else to do it. We have to do it."
Last month, the Enquirer carried another story stating that its reporters had accosted Edwards in a Los Angeles hotel where he had met with Hunter after her child's birth. Edwards called it "tabloid trash," but he generally avoided reporters' inquiries, as did his former top aides.
Tabloid was correct
Steve Marcus / Reuters
Former Sen. John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In an interview, scheduled to air on ABC News' "Nightline" Friday night, Edwards said the tabloid was correct when it reported on his meeting with Hunter at the Beverly Hills Hilton last month.
A number of mainstream news organizations had looked into the adultery allegations but had not published or aired stories. But newspapers in Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina , recounted the Enquirer's allegations in prominent articles on Thursday.
The Edwardses have three children — Cate, Jack and Emma Claire. Another son, Wade, died at 16 in a 1996 car accident.
David Bonior, Edwards' campaign manager for his 2008 presidential bid, said he was disappointed and angry at Friday's news.
"Thousands of friends of the senator's and his supporters have put their faith and confidence in him, and he's let them down," said Bonior, a former congressman from Michigan. "They've been betrayed by his action."
Asked whether the affair would damage Edwards' future aspirations in public service, Bonior replied: "You can't lie in politics and expect to have people's confidence."
In 1999, when Edwards was a senator, he said of President Bill Clinton and his affair with Monica Lewinsky:
Slide show
Edwards' public life
Former Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, has faced public and private challenges throughout his life and career.
more photos
"I think this president has shown a remarkable disrespect for his office, for the moral dimensions of leadership, for his friends, for his wife, for his precious daughter. It is breathtaking to me the level to which that disrespect has risen."
In 2006, Edwards' political action committee paid $100,000 in a four-month span to a newly-formed firm run by Hunter, who directed the production of four Web videos showing Edwards in supposedly candid moments as well as in a public speech talking about morality.
The payments from Edwards' One America Committee to Midline Groove Productions LLC started on July 5, 2006, five days after Hunter incorporated the firm in Delaware.
Midline provided "Website/Internet services," according to reports that Edwards' PAC filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Midline's work product consists of four YouTube videos showing Edwards in informal settings as he prepares to make speeches in Storm Lake, Iowa, and Pittsburgh, as gets ready for a television appearance on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and travels in Uganda in 2006.
Edwards' PAC followed the six-figure payment with two smaller payments totaling $14,461, the last on April 1, 2007.
At the time Hunter was compiling the videos in 2006, Edwards was preparing his run for president.
Episode One of the four videos shows a conversation between Edwards and an unseen woman as the two chat aboard a plane about an upcoming speech in Storm Lake, Iowa.
Cutting between clips of the speech and the conversation with the woman, Edwards touches on his standard political themes, declaring that government must do a better job of addressing the great issues of the day, from poverty and education to jobs and the war in Iraq.
"I want to see our party lead on the great moral issues — yes, me a Democrat using that word — the great moral issues that face our country," Edwards tells the crowd. "If we want to live in a moral, honest just America and if we want to live in a moral and just world, we can't wait for somebody else to do it. We have to do it."
GOP: Lift drilling ban or risk shutdown
Democrats eye budget tie
Sean Lengell (Contact)
Monday, August 4, 2008
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/04/lift-drilling-ban-or-risk-shutdown-gop-warns/
The showdown on Capitol Hill over expanding offshore drilling could lead to a threatened government shutdown when Congress returns from its five-week summer break in early September.
Some Republicans say they are prepared to vote against a resolution to fund the federal government for the 2009 fiscal year unless Democrats agree to lift an offshore drilling moratorium. If the budget resolution fails, many agencies and departments would be denied money to operate and would be forced to close.
"We don't want the government shutdown to be an issue, but the fact is the Democrats are so overconfident that they're willing to talk about a ban and they're willing to talk about raising taxes on gasoline, so this is just pretty incredible," said Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican who is circulating a letter encouraging colleagues to demand that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, strike the drilling moratorium from the budget resolution.
"But I think that once Americans realize that this [drilling] ban will expire unless we pass something, I think there is going to be just an outcry to not vote for anything that had a ban in it."
The congressional drilling moratorium was first enacted in 1982 and has been renewed every year since. It prohibits oil and gas leasing on most of the outer continental shelf - three miles to 200 miles offshore - and expanded oil shale development in the West. The ban is set to expire at the end of September, but Democratic leaders are expected to include a one-year extension in legislation that they will introduce next month to continue funding the government for the 2009 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
The impasse centers on Republican demands that any energy plan include a provision to expand domestic oil drilling to areas currently off-limits, including a wildlife reserve in northern Alaska and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Democrats oppose the idea, saying oil companies already have millions available drilling acres on land they're not using.
"If the Democrats choose to hold the continuation of government operations as a hostage, then as far as I'm concerned, I can't vote for anything that has a ban in it," Mr. DeMint said. "That would just be a betrayal of everything we're talking about as Republicans. And I think that most Republicans are going to feel that way."
Republicans say the ban needs to be lifted to lower gas prices and to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil.
"On October 1, the bans on offshore drilling and oil shale recovery will end, enabling us to finally be able to develop more American energy - unless Democrats actively prohibit exploration," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican who also is circulating letter encouraging House Republicans to pressure House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, to drop the ban.
"I hope that Speaker Pelosi and Democrats in the House and Senate recognize the pain Americans are feeling and will not actively enact legislation to block the development of American energy," he said.
Democratic leaders in both houses of Congress have refused to allow a stand-alone bill on drilling. In protest, Republicans have blocked several Democratic bills in both chambers, saying they will continue to do so unless Democrats agree to a drilling vote.
Democrats control both houses of Congress, but hold only a 51-49 vote advantage in the Senate. A budget resolution may require 60 votes for passage, meaning only 41 opposing votes would be needed to block the measure.
Such a move could be risky for Republicans. In 1995, when House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Georgia Republican, led a shutdown of the federal government in a dispute with President Clinton over the budget, the public turned against Republicans, who blamed the party for the impasse after a threatened delay of Social Security and Medicare checks.
But with public opinion polls showing that most Americans support increased offshore drilling, Republicans are emboldened to challenge Democrats on the issue, and say that Democrats, not Republicans, would be blamed for the consequences of a government shutdown.
"As far as I'm concerned, on October 1 we should be able to begin the leasing process of drilling and mining in both of those areas of American [energy] supply," House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, Missouri Republican, said on C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" show Sunday. "In this environment, where energy is the most important issue and the only thing you're fighting over is whether you allow drilling, we'll have to wait and see. [But] I'd rather be on the side that wanted to go after American energy sources than the side that didn't."
Move Over, Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari!
Electric Sports Car Tesla Roadster Makes "Going Green" Flashy!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/03/earlyshow/main4230793.shtml
not enough
Surgeon Ordered to Pay $795G for Cutting Off Man's Penis
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,376344,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1686084,00.html
New Oil Crisis: An Engineer Shortage
Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2007 By DAVID VON DREHLE
You've heard the reasons for high oil prices: instability in the Middle East, booming demand in China and India, the sagging dollar. Now add another one to the list: Engineers. The world doesn't have enough of them. From Alberta to Azerbaijan, the fervent hunt for new reserves of oil and natural gas is running up against a shortage of experienced oil patch professionals. "We anticipate a 10 to 15% shortfall" in the number of veteran engineers and project managers needed to lead the search for new energy supplies, says Candida Scott, director of cost research at Cambridge Energy Research Associates.
This comes as no surprise to people inside the industry. Membership in the Society of Petroleum Engineers has been graying for most of the past decade. Two-thirds of the membership is over 40. More than half of all oil-field professionals will reach retirement age during the next decade, according to CERA's calculations. Meanwhile, the low oil prices of the 1990s turned many petroleum engineering schools into near ghost towns.
With prices at near record highs, projects to extract hard-to-reach oil and gas are suddenly viable. But only if there are engineers and scientists to design the deep-water platforms, conduct the advanced seismology, route the new pipelines and so on. Complex projects take longer to build and put a premium on experience — at precisely the time that veteran managers and engineers are passing from the ranks.
American companies are responding to the shortage by opening design shops in Southeast Asia, where engineering graduates are more plentiful (though often inexperienced). Still, according to CERA's calculations, the supply of oil-and-gas professionals is stretched to the limit and can't keep pace with the long list of ambitious new projects planned for the next five years.
The brainpower shortage means these projects will cost more and take longer to complete, thus contributing to the high price of energy — great news if you happen to be an aspiring engineer. By graduation day last spring at the Colorado School of Mines, every student completing a petroleum engineering degree had already found a job — and most had their pick of competing offers. Starting salaries for undergraduate degree-holders range from $70,000 to $85,000, according to several sources, while engineers with graduate degrees command six figures. The average salary and benefits package for experienced oil professionals in the U.S. is over $160,000, a survey of SPE members recently found. Last year alone, average salaries rose more than 8%.
"Starting salaries for recent petroleum engineering graduates are the highest of any engineering profession," says Mark Rubin, executive director of the SPE, which has programs to encourage students as young as grade school to set their sights on the energy business. "In addition to the high pay," Rubin continued, "the work is exciting and high-tech — the oil and gas industry uses more computing power and data than any other industry except the military. An engineer sitting in a control room in Houston can steer a drill bit from a platform off the coast of Africa into an area the size of an average bedroom."
The University of Wyoming, which shut down its undergraduate program in petroleum engineering in 1997 due to lack of interest, revived the program last year. [/b[And colleges are clamoring for teaching staff: the Colorado School of Mines website, for example, is advertising for petroleum engineering professors at every level, from first-year assistants to candidates for endowed chairs.
But a shortage years in the making will not be cured overnight. Scott estimates that a young engineer needs eight years of experience to prepare for a lead role on a major project — even more to master deep-sea drilling. New mentoring programs are being developed to try to speed up the seasoning process, but that won't solve a problem that is right here, right now. Says Scott, "A problem the industry has known about for years is coming home to roost."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5862361.html#Intro
June 28, 2008, 11:32PM
THE ENERGY CRISIS
Industry says new tests needed to facilitate debate
Offshore oil and gas projections based on decades-old data
By BRETT CLANTON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
RESOURCES
ENERGY OFFSHORE
Government estimates of recoverable oil and natural gas in the central and western Gulf of Mexico, and in areas now off-limits to drilling including most of the East and West coasts, parts of Alaska and the eastern Gulf of Mexico:
• Total oil
85.9 billion barrels
• Total gas
419.9 trillion cubic feet
• Oil in off-limits areas
18 billion barrels
• Gas in off-limits areas
76 trillion cubic feet
The debate over whether to lift a 27-year-old ban on offshore drilling in most U.S. waters raises a key question that some say hasn't been answered: How much oil and gas is really out there? Estimates are based on data that in some cases haven't been updated in 40 years. Technology used to detect oil and gas resources in rockbeds below the sea floor has improved dramatically since then.
That's why the oil and gas industry argues that the only way to have a fair discussion about opening all or part of the banned areas is to do new surveys, using the latest technology.
"We would think policymakers would want to know what's out there," said Dan Naatz, vice president for natural resources at the Independent Petroleum Association of America, an industry trade group. "Right now, it's a complete black hole."
Randall Luthi, director of the U.S. Minerals Management Service, an arm of the Interior Department charged with overseeing offshore drilling in federal waters, said the ban removes the incentive for companies to perform new seismic surveys.
"Most seismic companies are more than willing to go look at areas, but frankly they want to be able to sell their data to someone," Luthi said. "And as long as those areas are covered by federal moratoria, there's really no market for it."
Opponents of lifting the ban see new testing as the start of a slippery slope that would lead to drilling. And they say it's a waste of money at a time when the U.S. should be investing in ways to break its addiction to oil.
What's more, they question whether it's even worth the effort, given government estimates that say oil companies already have access to nearly 80 percent of all recoverable oil in U.S. offshore regions. The figure comes from a 2006 government study that estimates banned areas contain 18 billion barrels of a total 85.9 billion barrels of oil in all federal waters.
"We're only talking drops in the bucket here as to what they get from areas that are currently off limits," said Jim Presswood, energy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group in Washington.
18 billion barrels?
The issue comes to the fore as record crude oil prices have Americans paying more than $4 a gallon for gasoline and as lawmakers and presidential candidates spar over the best ways to address the energy crisis.
Last week, the House rejected a measure that would have tried to force oil and gas companies to drill on 68 million acres of federal land they have leased but have not begun to develop.
House Democrats had argued that oil companies should use the acres they already control rather than trying to seek more leases in banned areas.
Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, also opposes lifting the offshore drilling ban, saying it would give neither short-term relief from gas prices nor lessen the nation's long-term reliance on oil imports.
But this month, Sen.John McCain of Arizona, the likely Republican nominee, came out in support of lifting the ban, citing high energy prices.
A recent Gallup Poll found that 57 percent of Americans would support drilling in offshore or wilderness areas that are now off-limits, while 41 percent oppose the idea.
Yet some say the debate is largely academic without better understanding what lies beneath.
Through a series of actions beginning in 1982, the federal government has banned offshore drilling along much of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, parts of Alaska and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
Today, those regions are thought to contain about 18 billion barrels of oil and 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, said Luthi, of the Minerals Management Service.
"The caveat on those numbers is that we really don't know," he said in an interview. "We're basing those estimates on numbers that are probably 25 or 30 years old."
Dusting off old reports
As part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Minerals Management Service was required to conduct a "comprehensive inventory and analysis" of the estimated natural gas and oil resources on the Outer Continental Shelf — all the submerged lands in waters managed by the U.S. government — including areas under the ban.
Several months later, the agency filed a report with its estimate but acknowledged it was "highly dependent on the current knowledge base, which has not been updated in 20 to 40 years for certain areas."
"They basically had to go dust off old reports," said Naatz, who believes updated surveys would show greater potential in areas now off-limits.
Advocates of lifting the ban point to the the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil and gas production in the region has exceeded earlier estimates, largely because of knowledge gained through continued exploration and improved technology, said Naatz and others in the industry.
Advances in seismic technology, which uses sound waves to collect data about underground rock formations, have been especially dramatic.
A few decades ago, geologists depended on two-dimensional images to interpret the size, location and characteristics of oil and gas reservoirs. Today, computers and high-tech recording equipment allow scientists to analyze and interpret data using 3-D and even 4-D images that monitor changes in a producing reservoir over time.
Several companies in Houston are on the leading edge of developing such technology.
The advances "can provide significant insight over very old data and could be compared to something like looking at an antique black and white print instead of a high-resolution color photograph," said Timothy L. Wells, president for the Western Hemisphere at CGGVeritas, a French provider of seismic services to the oil and gas industry and with offices in Houston.
Critics say tests disruptive
Improved technology also has allowed oil companies to be more precise when drilling, reducing financial risk and their environmental footprint, said Thomas Scoulios, region manager for North America at WesternGeco, the seismic unit of oil field services giant Schlumberger.
"When you don't know what you're looking at, you end up using a bigger hammer than you might need," he said.
But environmental groups say seismic testing itself can be disruptive to marine wildlife. Beyond that, they say, it's a short-sighted answer to a long-term problem.
"Instead of spending more money and time on more seismic testing and a desperate search for more oil, we should be investing in clean energy alternatives," said Kristina Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Sierra Club.
The Energy Department estimates more access to federal waters would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030.
But Naatz, of the Independent Petroleum Association, said the country has to start somewhere.
"The policy right now is simply to say no," he said, "and we think that's a mistake."
perfect timing. LMAO
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080627/ts_nm/carbon_tax_dc
North America's 1st carbon tax rolls out under fire
By Allan Dowd
Fri Jun 27, 8:57 AM ET
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Civic leader Scott Nelson says he is as worried as anyone about global warming, but that does not make him happy to be one of the first North Americans to pay a carbon tax to curb climate change.
Nelson, mayor of Williams Lake, British Columbia, says record high energy prices mean that the levy, for all its good intentions, could not come at a worst time for residents in his community, a lumber and ranching town about 525 km (340 miles) north of Vancouver.
"The last thing they need now is a tax on top of these soaring prices to add insult to injury," said Nelson, predicting that a taxpayer revolt will eventually scuttle the new tax, which takes effect on July 1.
ENVIRONMENTALIST SAY STAY THE COURSE
Environmentalists acknowledge that the tax is coming at a difficult time, but they want the provincial government to stick with its plan as an example for others.
"I think reversing it would be a huge setback for effective government action on this issue, certainly in Canada and I perhaps in all of North America," said Matthew Bramley of the Pembina Institute, an environmental research group.
Canada's opposition federal Liberal Party is seeking a national carbon tax, but the plan has been panned by Prime Minister Stephen Harper whose Conservative Party this week launched attack ads against it.
The tax's supporters deny that the new tax will hurt the economy, and they say not dealing with the issue will cost the province far more in the long run as it grapples with the impact of climate change.
I guess were not paying enough yet.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/06/27/easolar127.xml
US halts solar energy projects over environment fears
By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles
Last Updated: 8:01pm BST 27/06/2008
The US government is putting a hold on new solar energy projects on public land for two years so it can study the environmental impact of sun-driven plants.
The Bureau of Land Management says the moratorium on solar proposals is needed to determine how a new generation of large-scale projects could affect plants and wildlife on the land it manages.
---------------------------------------------------
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/2/27/113830.shtml
Ted Kennedy Wants Windmills Killed
Self-proclaimed alternative energy proponent Sen. Ted Kennedy has strongly opposed an environmentally friendly "wind farm” off the coast of Massachusetts – and now it appears Kennedy will have his way.
OPEC president Chakib Khelil said on Friday it was illogical and irrational to ask the oil cartel to increase output so as to take the pressure off soaring prices,
Jun 20 08:49 AM US/Eastern
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080620124910.j3mjg7b0&show_article=1
I just want to make sure I didn't miss anything........... but do we know what the new to the scene 5 piece module is for, or is it a surprise yet to be announced?
Floods swamp Iowa town; Drinking water near gone
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080613/D919G5LO1.html
ya its #77 at the link I provided
50,001 shares @ 1.19
http://ih.advfn.com/p.php?pid=trades&cb=1212415076&symbol=NB^DPDW&java_vm=sun&java_vm_ver=1.6.0_06&fp=9.0.124
That was luck but if flippers or scardy pants want to sell I see it as bid support my friend, its all an avg UP for me.
GLTY