Qantas Airways said on Monday it is eliminating 500 jobs by merging maintenance facilities to save up to A$100 million ($98.4 million) annually, as high fuel costs and weak demand take a toll on airline profits.

Qantas, which is emerging from a costly industrial dispute, said in statement it will stop heavy maintenance in Tullamarine in Melbourne and concentrate on centers in Brisbane and Avalon, resulting in the job cuts. It had, in February, flagged another 500 job cuts for the group.

The latest move will save it A$70 million to A$100 million a year but will result in one-off costs of A$50 million, and takes estimated costs of an overhaul plan for the second half of fiscal 2012 to between A$250 million and A$260 million, it said.

The Ferry-Morse Seed Co. said Monday it will lay off 199 workers throughout the United States, including at its White City operations near Medford.

The company told state officials it will eventually close its plant.

Ferry-Morse, based in Fulton, Ky., is laying off half of its workers nationally after its May 18 sale to Seed Holdings.

The White City location had been the company’s first West Coast plant, opening in June 2009. Ferry-Morse had leased a 100,000-square-foot structure and quickly hired 25 full-time and 75 seasonal workers.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co., the publisher of authors from Mark Twain to J.R.R. Tolkien, sought bankruptcy protection to eliminate more than $3 billion in debt.

The company, based in Boston, listed $2.68 billion in assets and $3.53 billion in debt in Chapter 11 documents filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. More than 20 affiliates also entered bankruptcy, including Broderbund LLC and Classroom Connect Inc.

“The global financial crisis over the past several years has negatively affected” Houghton Mifflin’s financial performance, in a business that “depends largely on state and local funding” for the schoolbook market, said William Bayers, company general counsel, in court papers.

He cited “recession-driven decreases” and “purchase deferrals” by the states and a “lack of anticipated federal stimulus support” for “substantial revenue decline.”

The filing comes as traditional print-book publishing faces growing competition from e-books. Sales of adult paperbacks and hardcover books fell 18 percent from 2010 to 2011, according to the Association of American Publishers. Borders Group Inc., the second-largest U.S. bookstore chain, filed for bankruptcy in February 2011.

The 189 layoffs at BioScrip’s 2791 Charter St. facility will begin on June 25 and be complete by Aug. 6, according to a notice the Elmsford, N.Y.-based company filed with the state. Layoffs include 30 patient care consultants, 26 pharmacists and a dozen insurance verification specialists, among others.

Ponzio said that the company is going to “repurpose” its Columbus facility and will employ about 70 workers in its remaining Columbus business once layoffs are finished. The company will continue to run its pharmacy benefits-manager business, which supplies oral drugs in 90-day supplies, and its infusion business out of the Columbus facility.

BioScrip is considering opening a second distribution center in Columbus among other plans, he said.

American Eagle Airlines is cutting management in a move similar to that recently undertaken by sister carrier American Airlines.

The regional carrier has targeted $7 million in annual management and support staff labor savings as part of parent company AMR Corp.’s bankruptcy restructuring. The latest cuts are an attempt to reach a goal of 10% management and support staff cuts, American Eagle CEO Dan Garton says in an internal letter to employees.

Eagle is eliminating up to 100 non-union management and support staff positions, although the exact number remains unclear. Some of the positions currently are unfilled and simply will be eliminated, and Eagle expects attrition to account for some more of the losses, but employees will be cut under this initiative.

As part of the restructuring, the carrier’s safety organization will now report to Chief Operating Officer Fred Cleveland. Ed Criner, who had overseen safety, is retiring.

Dave Brown, VP in charge of airport services, also is stepping down, and job cuts are now being implemented in operations, finance and human resources. Changes in the company’s information technology department are expected to follow.

The 10% reduction target includes a 15% decrease in top management positions, Garton’s letter says. These cuts are beginning now, with further reductions expected soon.

AMR had set a goal of a 20% reduction of management and support staff for its American Airlines division to be completed by the end of the summer.

Renesas Electronics Corp. plans to cut about 6,000 jobs, or about 15% of its workforce, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported in its Tuesday morning edition.

The Japanese firm, which employs about 42,000 people, also plans to raise about Y50 billion in fresh capital, the paper said.

The Yomiuri report said that Renesas aims to smoothly implement the job cuts through measures such as voluntary retirement.

The company's shares fell 10% yesterday in trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange after Goldman Sachs downgraded the company's stock rating to Sell.

Traffic congestion dropped 30% last year from 2010 in the USA's 100 largest metropolitan areas, driven largely by higher gas prices and a spotty economic recovery, according to a new study by a Washington-state firm that tracks traffic flows.

That was the largest drop since the nation plunged into recession in December 2007.

Of the 100 most populous metro areas, 70 saw declines in traffic congestion while just 30 had increases, says Jim Bak, co-author of the 2011 U.S. Traffic Scorecard for Kirkland, Wash.-based INRIX.

That was a reversal of what happened in 2010, when 70 had increases in congestion and 30 had declines. Tampa had the biggest increase in congestion, and Minneapolis the biggest drop.

"We're experiencing a stop-and-go economy right now," Bak says. "The data indicate the country may be experiencing the jobless recovery economists warned of during the recession."

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-05-22/traffic-congestion-down/55120930/1

China can now bypass Wall Street when buying U.S. government debt and go straight to the U.S. Treasury, in what is the Treasury's first-ever direct relationship with a foreign government, according to documents.

The relationship means the People's Bank of China buys U.S. debt using a different method than any other central bank in the world.

The other central banks, including the Bank of Japan, which has a large appetite for Treasuries, place orders for U.S. debt with major Wall Street banks designated by the government as primary dealers. Those dealers then bid on their behalf at Treasury auctions.

China, which holds $1.17 trillion in U.S. Treasuries, still buys some Treasuries through primary dealers, but since June 2011, that route hasn't been necessary.

The documents viewed by Reuters show the U.S. Treasury Department has given the People's Bank of China a direct computer link to its auction system, which the Chinese first used to buy two-year notes in late June 2011.

China can now participate in auctions without placing bids through primary dealers. If it wants to sell, however, it still has to go through the market.

The change was not announced publicly or in any message to primary dealers.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/21/us-usa-treasuries-china-idUSBRE84K11720120521

Facebook shares fell more than 13 percent, falling below its $38 price of its initial public offering, in the social network's second day of trading as a public company.

Meanwhile, the NASDAQ exchange continued to defend itself regarding the IPO's delay on Friday.

The company's shares [FB 33.62 -4.6118 (-12.06%) ] last traded down more than 13 percent. The stock had previously closed 0.6 percent higher on Friday.

Investors and technology industry watchers are closely tracking the Menlo Park, Calif., company's shares. The world's largest social network was one of the most anticipated initial public stock offerings ever, and now serves as a bellwether for other social media companies.

China's Dalian Wanda Group and AMC Entertainment announced Monday a $2.6 billion deal to take over the U.S. theater group, forming the world's largest cinema chain, according to a new release on the deal.

The move is the latest in a raft of deals between U.S. entertainment companies and Chinese firms, linking the world's largest theater market with the world's fastest growing.

"This acquisition will help make Wanda a truly global cinema owner, with theatres and technology that enhance the movie-going experience for audiences in the world's two largest movie markets," said Wang Jianlin, chairman and president of Wanda.

Wanda, a private company that previously operated solely in China, generates $16.7 billion in annual revenue from its commercial development and entertainment businesses, the company said. The group owns 86 theaters with 730 screens in China.

"As the film and exhibition business continues its global expansion, the time has never been more opportune to welcome the enthusiastic support of our new owners," said Gerry Lopez, chief executive officer and president of AMC.

AMC operates 346 multiplex theaters, largely in North America, with a total of 5,034 screens. Headquarters of AMC, a privately held company, will remain in the Kansas City area and day-to-day operations, including the process for film programming, will remain unchanged, the release said.

In a deal last February, China agreed to increase the quota of 20 foreign films per year -- most of them from the U.S. -- to add an additional 14 IMAX or 3D films each year, and nearly doubled the cut foreign film companies can take from Chinese box office to 25%.

Robert Greifeld, chief executive of Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., on Sunday acknowledged design problems with Nasdaq's technology after the exchange operator was widely seen as bungling the landmark listing of shares of Facebook Inc. FB +0.61% on Friday.

Mr. Greifeld said in an interview with reporters that problems with order cancellations interfered with the initial public offering process. Tests Nasdaq had conducted ahead of the highly anticipated offering failed to detect the problems, he said.

"This was not our finest hour," he said, telling reporters Nasdaq's board met Saturday to consider the Facebook offering. Nasdaq plans to make changes to the IPO auction process given the Facebook troubles.

Mr. Greifeld said the exchange is "humbly embarrassed" by the technical problems, but that it remains confident it will continue to gain market share in handling IPOs.

Overall, Mr. Greifeld said, the first day of trading in Facebook stock was "successful." He said that withdrawing the IPO "never came into" consideration.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052702304019404577416500155524694-lMyQjAxMTAyMDIwMDEyNDAyWj.html

French ski brand CoreUPT has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company, which was founded by four-time freeskiing world champion Guerlain Chicherit, has until July 16 to find a new source of capital to sustain its operations.

Failure to find a new investor or other source of capital by July 16 would downgrade CoreUPT's status to Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which calls for the liquidation and redistribution of the brand and its assets. "We have two ways [to go]," said CoreUPT General Manager Pierre Gjurasevic, "the first being a capital increase from a new investor, or for the second, a handover of the brand."

"For now they are very bad outcomes," said Gjurasevic. "It's not very comfortable but we work hard and I'm sure we will find a solution in a few weeks." According to Gjurasevic, CoreUPT is already in talks with 10 different potential investors from the United Kingdom, the U.S., Russia and France.

FTS International has announced a total of 127 job cuts at its Shreveport and Longview locations.

FTS International, formerly known as Frac Tech (FTSI – www.ftsi.com), is an onshore oil and natural gas well stimulation services provider.

The reduction in force at FTSI involves 89 employees at its Shreveport operations location and 38 employees at its Longview operations location.

In a statement released Friday afternoon, a company spokesperson said, "Although this reduction in force affected only a tiny percentage of our total workforce of more than 4,000 people, we do regret that current market conditions have resulted in this impact on people and communities in northeast Louisiana and east Texas," FTSI Corporate Communications Director Pam Percival said. "The reality is that the continuing low price of natural gas has caused a slow-down in gas well drilling and completions work in the area of the Haynesville Shale. FTSI has been moving its completions equipment and personnel to work in areas where more wells are being drilled, such as the Eagle Ford Shale in south Texas and the Permian Basin area of west Texas. We will continue to operate in the Haynesville area as long as there is a demand for our services. FTSI is also looking at utilizing workers in other areas to help minimize the effects of this market downturn.

Employment at FTSI's Shreveport operations district now stands at 166, with 115 people employed at FTSI's Longview operations district.

More than 170 employees will be laid off from Kmart stores in Hollywood and Pembroke Pines by the end of the summer as Sears Holding Corp. turns the stores into liquidation centers.

About 80 employees from the Kmart store at 651 S. 60th Ave., Hollywood, and 91 workers from the store at 10501 Pines Blvd., Pembroke Pines, will face layoffs near the end of July, said a worker adjustment and retraining notification issued on May 18.

The stores will remain open, but operate as liquidation centers, which function similar to outlet stores, said Kimberly Freely, company spokeswoman. The stores will sell only specialty items and last-chance apparel. The hours of the stores will be cut to 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., so the number of staff will drop significantly, Freely said.

Slightly less than 200 positions have been cut from Westinghouse Electric Co. nationwide, primarily at its corporate headquarters in Cranberry Township.

There were about 170 voluntary buyouts and 28 layoffs across the non-technical workforce at the nuclear energy company. The cuts were in human resources, communications, finance, quality and other jobs that support the major business units, said Westinghouse spokesman Scott Shaw.

Shengdatech Inc. (SDTHQ.PK) reported Friday that it has filed a Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization and proposed Disclosure Statement with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nevada.

The company said that the Bankruptcy Court has set June 25, 2012 as the hearing date on the adequacy of the Disclosure Statement. Assuming the Disclosure Statement is approved on June 25, 2012, the Company is targeting August 30, 2012 for confirmation of the Plan.

Chrysler is recalling nearly 87,000 Jeep Wranglers in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere due to a risk of fires.

The recall affects only Wranglers from the 2010 model year that have automatic transmissions and were built before July 14, 2010.

The recall was announced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on its website.

It says debris can get caught between a plate that protects the transmission and the catalytic converter, causing a fire. A catalytic converter is part of the exhaust system and uses heat and precious metals to control pollution.

Chrysler spokesman Eric Mayne says the recall affects about 68,000 Wranglers in the U.S., 6,000 in Canada, 1,500 in Mexico and about 11,000 in other countries.

Chrysler knows of at least 14 complaints of fires caused by the problem with 2010 Wranglers.

The company says it doesn't know of any injuries. It says debris can get trapped when the SUVs are driven off-road or through tall brush.

Ailing law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf is considering a bankruptcy filing as new debtholders take a more aggressive track, shifting away from earlier attempts at an out-of-court liquidation, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday.

The majority of Dewey's partners have quit as a result of concerns about compensation, and $225 million in bank loans and bond debt.

Buyers of distressed debt who have acquired Dewey's debt at a discount on the secondary market are more open to seeing the firm wound down in bankruptcy court rather than out of it, said the person, who requested anonymity because the information was not public.

With the emergence of new creditors, Dewey on Tuesday replaced restructuring adviser Development Specialists Inc. (DSI) with competitor Zolfo Cooper. Joff Mitchell, a senior managing director at Zolfo, is now Dewey's chief restructuring officer, two people familiar with the situation said.

Bill Brandt, chief executive of DSI, confirmed that his firm's involvement in the matter was coming to an end.

"Our firm is transitioning out," Brandt said. "We've been replaced by Zolfo at the insistence of the debt holders. It now becomes a creditor-driven case."

China’s economic growth is being propelled forward by the growing rate of Chinese corporations using pirated software, according to a recent report from the Business Software Alliance.

Published on Tuesday, the report concluded that for every personal computer legitimately sold in China in 2011, there was approximately $8.89 of legal software being used. This is in comparison to the $120 of legal software for every legitimately sold personal computer in the U.S. that year.

Robert Holleyman, president and CEO of the Business Software Alliance, told The Daily Caller that the benefits to businesses currently using unlicensed software in China for the productivity of their business far outweighs any cost or penalty businesses face due to the lack of a enforcement.

Businesses in China have a close relationship with the government, and the massive profits gained from using the software allows them to make larger investments.

“The problem in that is that China has not yet utilized transparent, world-class practices in businesses to manage software,” Holleyman told TheDC.

While the U.S. is applying significant pressure on the Chinese government to reform how piracy is enforced, it will continue to fall short due to the the lack of a “sheriff in town” to install and enforce practices that would produce measurable results, Holleyman said.

China is, however, only a part of the growing problem for U.S. software companies. The problem is global, but is particularly symptomatic of emerging economies. The global piracy rate “hovered” at 42 percent, but in 2011, the value of unlicensed software increased from the year before — $58.8 billion in pirated software used across the world — to $63.4 billion.

Silver Legacy will declare chapter-11 bankruptcy.

Silver Legacy officials announced the decision in an open letter to the community Thursday evening.

The letter says the company is voluntarily filing for chapter-11 to restructure its mortgage notes which became due in March.

Company officials are stressing they are not going out of business or closing its doors. They will continue to operate normally throughout the process.

The United States Postal Service announced today it will close 48 mail processing and distribution centers this summer, cutting 13,000 jobs.

The Shallowford Road center was marked for closure earlier this year, but won’t close this summer.

But the life of the center and its more than 250 jobs is likely short. The Postal Service plans to close an additional 92 centers by February 2014, then another 89 by the end of 2014.

When all 229 centers have been closed, about 28,000 post jobs across the country will be eliminated, saving the service $2.1 billion annually.

Published reports say Hewlett-Packard is poised to eliminate up to 30,000 jobs to help offset dwindling demand for personal computers as more people connect to the Internet on smartphones and tablets.

Bloomberg News says HP is mulling 25,000 job cuts. All Things D, a technology blog, estimates the purge will jettison 30,000 jobs. Both reports cited unnamed people familiar with HP's plans.

Hewlett-Packard Co. declined to comment Thursday.

The Palo Alto, California, company ended its last fiscal year with nearly 350,000 employees. Based on that, HP is considering a 7 to 9 percent decrease in its workforce.

Analysts estimate a payroll reduction of that size would save HP more than $1 billion annually.

The job cuts could be announced next Wednesday, when HP is scheduled to report its quarterly earnings.

A study commissioned by Sen. Tom Coburn is casting doubt on whether taxpayers' $18 billion annual investment in federal jobs training programs is paying off.

"The vast majority of money we spend in job training doesn't go to job training, it goes to employ people in those job training federal programs," Coburn told Fox News.

The 2011 Government Accountability Office study he commissioned, which examined programs in fiscal year 2009, found an overlapping and duplicative maze of 47 federal jobs programs run by nine agencies. Some were rife with mismanagement, waste, fraud, abuse and corruption.

The study found:

Some job training participants spent their days sitting on a bus.
Some were trained for jobs that didn't exist.
Others were paid to sit through educational sessions about jobs they already had.
High school students were knowingly exposed to the cancer-causing agent asbestos as part of a job training program.
Funds were misspent to pay a contractor for ghost employees and to purchase video games.
Job training administrators spent federal funds on extravagant meals and bonuses for themselves.
In one state, workforce agency employees took more than 100 gambling trips to casinos mostly during work hours.

Coburn’s criticism comes in the heat of a presidential campaign in which President Obama has made funding job training programs a priority. He showcased one program last month at Lorain County Community College in the key swing state of Ohio.

Staples Inc., the Framingham-based office supply giant, announced today that it has cut 500 jobs worldwide following first-quarter net income dropping 6 percent to $187 million, according to press reports.

About 200 of the cuts were in North America, the remainder in Europe and Australia, reports stated. No information was provided on how many cuts took place in Massachusetts. Staples employs roughly 88,000 worldwide.

“In North America we continue to build momentum in categories beyond office supplies while trends in our international business remain soft,” said Ron Sargent, Staples’ chairman and chief executive officer, in a press release. “Our plans remain on track to grow both sales and earnings during 2012.”

It's no secret that HP is considering layoffs and soon.

Meg Whitman has even publicly hinted at them. Question is, how many employees will be axed?

One source at HP claims the job cuts are going to be massive.

While this is just one source, we know that tension inside the company is running high and so is the rumor mill.

Here's what our source told us:

Layoffs are going to be significant. At least, they'll be bigger than what Whitman has said so far. She's said that layoffs would NOT be "broad-based" at least in China (whatever that means), but she didn't say anything about the rest of the worldwide workforce.

Our source said HP wants to trim its workforce by 10%-15%. Given that HP has 320,000 employees, a 10% reduction would be 32,000 workers gone. However, that would include an early retirement program. We'd guess that this would include attrition, too, where new hires don't come in when employees leave. That number sounds high and we don't expect HP to promise it next week, because HP will also want to shift some jobs offshore. So, HP's total workforce numbers won't reflect all of the cuts.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/source-hp-layoffs-are-going-to-be-huge-2012-5

Hostess Brands Inc. has warned states nationwide that it may close its operations and lay off all employees this summer.

In Connecticut, the company has notified the state that it may lay off all 187 workers and close its five locations by July 6, including 57 employees at the 23 Thompson Road operation in East Windsor.

The filing, known as a WARN or Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice, says operations also could end at operations in the Uncasville section of Montville, 36 employees; Norwich, two workers; Cheshire, 42 employees, and Bridgeport, 50 workers.

Hostess, the maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread, filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Court protection from creditors in January. It sent the WARN notices last week to all states where it has operations, employing 18,500 workers, company spokesman Erik Halvorson said.

The notices were “to alert employees that a sale or wind down of the company is possible,” he said.

J.C. Penney Co Inc (JCP) shares plunged nearly 20 percent on Wednesday, their worst decline ever, wiping away $1.43 billion in market value a day after the retailer shocked Wall Street with a much worse-than-expected drop in sales and by scrapping its dividend.

A number of leading Wall Street firms also lowered their price targets on the company.

Penney shares closed down $6.57 at $26.75 on the New York Stock Exchange. The decline was the worst percentage decline since the company listed its shares on the exchange in 1929, according to Center for Research in Security Prices at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

The move pushed the stock well below the $30.11 closing price on June 13, the day before it named Apple Inc (AAPL) retail store head Ron Johnson as chief executive.

The NBC Investigative Unit has raised questions about two grants totaling nearly $1.5 million dollars distributed to the University of California San Francisco. The money was part of the federal stimulus program and went to studies into the erectile dysfunction of overweight middle aged men and the accurate reporting of someone's sexual history.

This is part of our ongoing series of investigations by the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit into who got federal stimulus dollars, and why some projects did not break ground more than two years after receiving the grant.

The Investigative Unit looked closely at the federal government's decision to spend nearly $1.5 million dollars of taxpayer money, money that came here to California. Grant number 1R01HD056950-01A2 was among the thousands of grants funded, receiving $1.2 million dollars. This grant studied how to improve the accuracy of how people responded to questions about their sexual history.

"If you honestly report on your sexual activity and number of partners?" Scott Amey with asked with a sigh. "That's a good one."

Amey is the general council for POGO, the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington D.C. nonpartisan non-profit government watchdog group. During our interview with an NBC crew he tried to explain why the government used that many tax dollars to improve self reports about high risk sexual behavior.

"I don't think most tax payers would think that would be a justified spending of stimulus money to conduct a sex study over fixing bridges and roads that are crumbling every day," Amey added.

Read more: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Stimulus-Grants-Fund-Erectile-Dysfunction-And-Sexual-Habits-Studies-151195105.html

Political leaders in Athens were due to discuss an emergency government Wednesday to deal with a possible run on banks as it emerged Greeks withdrew almost $900 million in a single day, fearing their country could crash out of the euro currency by the end of the week.

An interim government would take the country through to new elections on June 17, triggered by the collapse on Tuesday of talks to form a coalition between winners of the inconclusive May 6 election.

Greeks are withdrawing euros from banks, apparently afraid of the prospect of rapid devaluation if the country leaves the European single currency and returns to the drachma.

W.V.S.V. Holdings LLC, which owns more than 10,000 acres in Arizona it valued at more than $120 million, sought bankruptcy protection in federal court, according to a court filing.

W.V.S.V. listed assets of $120 million against debt of $57.4 million in Chapter 11 documents filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Phoenix.

Assets of the Tempe, Arizona-based company consist of three tracts of vacant land in Buckeye, Arizona, planned for “future development,” court papers show.

The case is In re W.V.S.V. Holdings LLC, 12-10598, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Arizona (Phoenix).

T-Mobile is informing employees of "a series of organizational changes," a spokeswoman said.

A net loss of about 900 jobs will result. But even more jobs are likely affected by the changes, which include layoffs and shifts to outsource more work.

These layoffs are a major blow to the largest remaining wireless company in the Seattle area after a series of mergers over the last two decades.

The industry took off after McCaw Cellular established the first national cell network in the 1980s. It was sold to AT&T in 1994, and the cluster spawned other carriers that became T-Mobile.

Sony DADC Americas, which announced earlier this year that it would close its CD distribution center in Fishers, says it plans about 226 layoffs from the plant beginning in July.

Sony has said the distribution center will close by September. The distribution work done in Fishers for the big three CD makers — EMI Music, Universal Music and Sony -- will be moved to Anderson Merchandisers, which operates a distribution plant in Franklin.

In the required notification to the state Department of Workforce Development, dated May 11, Sony officials said the layoffs would begin around July 15.

Three things are apparent from President Obama's annual financial disclosure statement, released today:

He is a wealthy man, with assets of as much as $10 million.

He has a hefty stake in JP Morgan Chase, the megabank that just made a bad $2 billion bet. Obama has an account worth between $500,000 and $1 million.

Despite the nation's $15.6 trillion debt, he is a believer in government paper. More than half his assets are in Treasury bills and notes.

Read more: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2012/05/obama-worth-as-much-as-10-million/1#.T7LkP7X3uM8

Stocks faded in the final hour of trading Tuesday to finish lower after a transcript from the Greek meeting showed deposits leaving the nation's banking system and after the Greece's leaders failed to agree on a coalition government.

The S&P 500 closed at 3-month lows, while the Dow logged its ninth loss in the last 10 sessions. Major averages are on pace for their biggest monthly losses since last September.

According to a transcript, Greek depositors recently withdrew 700 million euros from the nation's local banks, said President Karolos Papoulias, though the exact timing of the transfer was unclear.

Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/id/47428134

Former president Bill Clinton told attendees at the Peter G. Peterson Fiscal Summit in Washington, D.C., today that President Obama’s proposal to raise taxes on the rich will not be enough to close the deficit and that middle-class taxes may also have to be raised.

“This is just me now, I’m not speaking for the White House—I think you could tax me at 100 percent and you wouldn’t balance the budget,” Clinton said, according to Politico’s account. “We are all going to have to contribute to this, and if middle class people’s wages were going up again, and we had some growth to the economy, I don’t think they would object to going back to tax rates when I was president.”

Clinton’s comments are sure to provoke a response from Republicans who argue that President Obama may increase taxes for all or even propose a value-added tax in a more flexible second term.

President Obama has said he wants to raise taxes only on the incomes, capital gains, and dividends of the wealthy. However, observers such as Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist have pointed out that similar promises by Democrats to limit tax increases have not been kept.

Read more: http://freebeacon.com/bubbas-hot-mic-moment/

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) has been considered America’s fastest growing sport, quickly becoming a national phenomenon. But a new economic study shows even NASCAR’s powerful engines haven’t been able to keep up with the Obama-era economy.
NASCAR

The study, from the pro-market think tank Public Notice and Race Fans 4 Freedom, finds that the economic downturn of the last several years has directly affected how NASCAR fans watch and enjoy their sport. Since 2009, race attendance per year has fallen below 4 million people, and the number has been declining severely as the unemployment rate has skyrocketed. The cost of attending—with higher gas prices, less disposable income, and diminished financial security—has increased.

According to the study, the value of the sport, too, is threatened by the poor economy, with the stock prices of racing team companies plummeting in the last five years and sponsors pulling back on funding cars. “The days of $25 million sponsorship deals appears to be over for the time being, sending teams scrambling for support,” the study reads. The result is a less competitive field with fewer racers.

“At the end of the day, these numbers really hit NASCAR fans’ quality of life,” says Liz Dyar, the founder of Race Fans 4 Freedom. Dyar adds that with nearly 75 million fans across the country, the NASCAR nation is a “great snapshot” of the country as a whole—and that with plenty of those fans in swing states like Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida, their views on the economy could impact the election.

Read more: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obamas-economy-wrecking-nascar_644485.html

Tad Walgreen dressed in a suit and boasted to his Cisco Systems interviewer about his leadership qualities and passion for international business. But he's not sure any of it made an impact.

The Rollins College international business student interviewed for a sales position last fall in front of the indifferent eye of his computer's Web camera. The second part of the interview process, a two-minute video he had to upload to YouTube, also left him feeling "uncomfortable."

"It's definitely not for me," said Walgreen, 23, who did not get the job. "Not only did it seem a bit theatrical, which is not my forte, but I couldn't see the interviewer's reaction. I didn't like that."

More employers are turning to video résumés and interviews on Skype, YouTube and similar videoconferencing services to gauge a candidate. They say the high-tech approach can save them money and help sort through scores of candidates more quickly.

Read more: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-05-14/business/os-skype-youtube-interviews-20120514_1_interviews-employers-candidates

Colgan Air has notified the Texas Workforce Commission that it plans to lay off 174 employees at its facility in Houston July 1, but its Albany maintenance base could operate as late as Dec. 1. That's when Colgan expects to end flying the Q400 turboprops that are maintained here.

Colgan, a unit of Memphis-based Pinnacle Airlines Corp., employs about 50 people at the Albany International Airport.

Pinnacle filed for Chapter 11 reorganization April 1 and plans to return its Q400 turboprops that are maintained in Albany to creditors after it concludes flying them by Dec. 1.

FirstMerit Corp. is eliminating 338 positions and closing eight Northeast Ohio branches as part of a concerted effort to save money.

The positions are being cut as the Akron-based bank is eliminating all assistant branch manager jobs, increasing teller flexibility, eliminating redundant regional leadership posts and combining retail call support centers.

The moves were outlined by FirstMerit Chairman and CEO Paul Greig at an investor conference in London early Tuesday.

Home Depot reported weaker-than-expected quarterly sales as a warm winter prompted many homeowners to take up renovation projects earlier than usual this year, sending shares of the world's largest home improvement chain down more than 4 percent.

Joshua Mandelman made $454,000 in a single year as a student-loan debt collector -- more than twice the pay of the U.S. secretary of education.

His boss, Richard Boyle, chief executive officer of Educational Credit Management Corp., received $1.1 million in 2010, including commuting expenses from his ranch in New Mexico. Five other managers each took home more than $400,000.

ECMC, a Minnesota nonprofit group, owes its success to an 18-year-old agreement with the U.S. government. The company charges fees to borrowers and earns commissions from taxpayers -- totaling as much as 31 percent -- when it collects on defaulted student loans. Those rich rewards, which are approved by Congress, are sparking criticism that ECMC and similar collection agencies are reaping a bonanza from former students' pain.

Gov. Jerry Brown released a plan to close California's rapidly growing deficit by switching state offices to a four-day week, slashing welfare benefits and healthcare for the poor and relying on a variety of short-term fixes — all in the hopes that voters will give the state some breathing room by raising taxes in November.

The governor, who unveiled his revised budget proposal in the Capitol on Monday, is facing a nearly $16-billion budget gap, far larger than the $9.2 billion he predicted in January. He warned that the deficit could grow significantly if voters reject his proposed ballot measure to raise the state sales tax and income levies on the wealthy.

That would trigger additional cuts, including reductions in public education equivalent to lopping three weeks off the school year, he said.

"I'm linking these serious budget reductions … with a plea to the voters: Please increase taxes temporarily," Brown said at a morning news conference.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-state-budget-20120515,0,1532582.story

Realizing that Obama's reelection is in serious jeopardy, the President's campaign today released a two-minute ad slamming Mitt Romney for layoffs made at a company controlled by Bain Capital. The ad is built around interviews with former steelworkers at GST Steel, a mill in Kansas City, who were laid off as the company collapsed in the wake of a downturn in the steel market. The ad is certainly gripping and emotional. It is also, however, completely wrong.

The company was shut down in 2001. Romney left Bain in 1999, long before the plant closing, to run Winter Olympics. Two years is an eternity in the business world. Blaming Romney for decisions made two years after the left the company is at best disingenuous.

However, there was a political power-player serving as a director of Bain at the time of the company's bankruptcy and layoffs--Jonathan Lavine. Lavine joined Bain in 1993. He is currently Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer. He is also a major bundler for Barack Obama, raising between $100-200k for the his reelection. While we don't know the specific role Lavine had in decisions regarding the bankrupt company, he certainly had more influence than someone who had left Bain two years before.

Perhaps Obama should use some of Lavine's donations to help the steelworkers featured in his ad.

If you thought the half-billion-dollar, stimulus-funded Solyndra solar company bust was a taxpayer nightmare, just wait. If you thought the botched Fast and Furious border gun-smuggling surveillance operation was a national security nightmare, hold on. Right on the heels of those two blood-boilers comes yet another alleged pay-for-play racket from the most ethical administration ever.

Welcome to LightSquared. It's a toxic mix of venture socialism (to borrow GOP Sen. Jim DeMint's apt phrase), campaign finance influence-peddling and perilous corner-cutting all rolled into one.

The current "fix" LightSquared proposes to address the interference problems is a costly, conceptual pipe dream that could require massive retrofitting of millions of handheld GPS devices. GPS expert Eric Gakstatter scoffs: "I've been pretty open-minded about LightSquared proposing a solution, but this really insults our intelligence. (A)s we've seen previously with LightSquared, it's not about finding a practical solution for the GPS user community; it's all about selling an idea to the FCC. The problem is that the FCC doesn't have to live with LightSquared's half-baked 'solution'; we do."

So, what's greasing LightSquared's skids? Hint: It used to be known as "Skyterra." In 2005, Obama put $50,000 into the speculative firm -- raising eyebrows even among his water-carriers at The New York Times. The paper noted that Skyterra's principal backers at the time of the investment included four Obama "friends and donors who had raised more than $150,000 for his political committees."

One of those pals who urged him to buy stock in Skyterra was George Haywood, a major Skyterra investor and campaign donor who chipped in nearly $50,000 to Obama's campaigns and to his political action committee along with his wife.

Coincidentally, Obama bought his Skyterra stock the very same day the FCC "ruled in favor of the company's effort to create a nationwide wireless network by combining satellites and land-based communications systems." The Times reported that immediately after that morning ruling, "Tejas Securities, a regional brokerage in Texas that handled investment banking for Skyterra, issued a research report speculating that Skyterra stock could triple in value."

Coincidentally, Tejas and its chairman, John J. Gorman, were also major backers of Obama -- flying him in a private plane for political rallies and pitching in more than $150,000 for his campaign coffers since 2004. Obama sold his stock at a loss in November 2005, but his political relationship with the company was cemented. In 2009, shady billionaire hedge-fund manager Philip Falcone -- whose firm Harbinger Capital Partners is reportedly under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for market manipulation abuses -- acquired Skyterra.

Coincidentally, Falcone, his wife and LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja have contributed nearly $100,000 between them to the Democratic Party during critical White House meeting periods and negotiations over LightSquared's regulatory fate.

Oh, and coincidentally, there's $6 billion earmarked for a "public safety broadband corporation" buried in the Obama jobs proposal just as LightSquared pushes into that market, too.

It's all just one strange quirk of timing, Team Obama shrugs. Except, as we all should know by now: There are no coincidences in Chicago on the Potomac. Just an endless avalanche of quids, quos and taxpayer woes.

Read the whole story here: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=46338

Unable to reach a deal with its lenders, upstart wireless carrier LightSquared filed for bankruptcy Monday.

The move has been widely expected, since the company's options for appeasing its creditors were running out. LightSquared's lenders claim that it has been in default on its debt since its $9 billion partnership with Sprint Nextel dissolved in March.

LightSquared's principal backer, hedge fund Harbinger Capital Management, had already twice staved off bankruptcy by receiving short-term waivers from its creditors. The last such deal, struck two weeks ago, was reached after Harbinger founder Philip Falcone agreed to leave LightSquared's board in the near future.

But the lenders continued trying to wrestle control of the company away from Falcone and Harbinger, and an agreement that would have granted another waiver extension could not be reached before a Monday deadline.

The Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection documents were filed in New York's Southern District Court in New York.

In total the ratings agency has downgraded 26 banks.

The outlook is negative.

Here are the three reasons for the downgrade:

1.) Increasingly adverse operating conditions, with Italy's economy back in recession and government austerity reducing near-term economic demand;

2.) Mounting asset-quality challenges and weakened net profits, as problem loans and loan-loss provisions are rising; and

3.) Restricted access to market funding which, if persistent, will exert added pressure on banks to reduce assets, posing risks to their franchises and earnings.

First-class travel. Six-figure salaries for half the 132 officers and staffers. Plenty of plum jobs for family members.

Life is good at the top of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers.

The union, with its headquarters in Kansas City, Kan., represents about 59,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada who make and repair boilers, fit pipes and work on ships and power plants. The recession has hit their trade hard, reducing union membership.

At the same time, the president’s salary has surged 67 percent in the past six years, not counting a recent raise. Add in travel and some other expenses, and Newton B. Jones received more than $600,000 last year, putting him at the absolute top of the presidents of the dozen biggest unions in the country.

Many relatives of union officers also ride the payroll.

Totaling the pay to just the families of Jones and two other executives, the union and its affiliates gave them more than $2 million in annual salary, according to the most recent financial reports filed by the organizations.

“This is one of the more egregious examples of money flowing like crazy that I’ve ever seen,” said Nathan Mehrens, a former U.S. Labor Department lawyer and now general counsel for Americans for Limited Government, a conservative watchdog group.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/05/13/148607/hefty-salaries-perks-for-union.html

If California starts building a 130-mile segment of high-speed rail late this year as planned, it will enter into a risky race against a deadline set up under federal law.

The bullet train track through the Central Valley would cost $6 billion and have to be completed by September 2017, or else potentially lose some of its federal funding. It would mean spending as much as $3.5 million every calendar day, holidays and weekends included — the fastest rate of transportation construction known in U.S. history, according to industry and academic experts.

Over four years, the California High-Speed Rail Authority would need as many as 120 permits, mostly from a tangle of government regulatory agencies not known to rush their business. It would need to acquire about 1,100 parcels of land, many from powerful agriculture interests that have already threatened to sue. And it would need to assemble five teams of contractors with giant workforces positioned from Fresno to Bakersfield, moving millions of tons of gravel, steel rail and heavy equipment across the valley.

Even if the authority avoids any delays, its ability to complete the first construction section on time will require a breakneck pace of activity.

"It is a very aggressive plan," said Manuel Garcia, associate director at the Construction Industry Institute affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin. "It does appear that it will be a challenge."

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bullet-risks-20120514,0,4603595.story

After more than a week of controversy, it looks like Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson will step down from his position.

According to AllThingsD's Kara Swisher, multiple sources say that the company will cite "personal reasons" for Thompson's departure.

However, it's also likely that the former PayPal president is quitting the company because of a resume discrepancy brought to light late last week by hedge fund Third Point, a Yahoo investor whose founder and CEO Daniel Loeb wrote that Thompson had "embellished his academic credentials."

In a letter addressed to the Yahoo board on May 3, Loeb pointed out that Thompson's CV said he earned an accounting and computer science degree from Stonehill College, when in fact he had obtained only an accounting degree. Yahoo initially said the inconsistency was an "inadvertent error," Reuters reported. The Yahoo board said it would investigate the matter, and Thompson issued an apology to employees.

Ally Financial Inc.'s mortgage division known as ResCap is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The government-owned lender had been weighing a bankruptcy filing for Residential Capital LLC for some time, as the division has been burdened by old, souring loans.

Ally, which was formerly the financing arm of General Motors Co., says it is also exploring strategic options for all of its international operations, which includes auto finance, insurance and banking and deposit operations in Canada, Mexico, Europe, the U.K. and South America.

The company also said Monday that it has paid about $5.5 billion to the Treasury Department and, with its new announcements, expects to return at least another third of the investment. Ally received government rescue packages worth more than $16 billion.

Detroit-based Ally anticipates taking an approximately $1.3 billion charge in the second quarter related to the ResCap filing.

California's budget deficit has swelled to a projected $16 billion — much larger than had been predicted just months ago — and will force severe cuts to schools and public safety if voters fail to approve tax increases in November, Gov. Jerry Brown said Saturday.

The Democratic governor said the shortfall grew from $9.2 billion in January in part because tax collections have not come in as high as expected and the economy isn't growing as fast as hoped for. The deficit has also risen because lawsuits and federal requirements have blocked billions of dollars in state cuts.

"This means we will have to go much farther and make cuts far greater than I asked for at the beginning of the year," Brown said in an online video. "But we can't fill this hole with cuts alone without doing severe damage to our schools. That's why I'm bypassing the gridlock and asking you, the people of California, to approve a plan that avoids cuts to schools and public safety."

Brown did not release details of the newly calculated deficit Saturday, but he is expected to lay out a revised spending plan Monday. The new plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1 hinges in large part on voters approving higher taxes.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-05-13/california-16-billion-shortfall/54927448/1

U.S. lawmakers have been unusually silent about federal regulators' decision to allow a Chinese bank to take over 13 bank branches in New York and California, suggesting that they think American banks have much to gain.

Members of both parties usually relish the chance to bash China on everything from government subsidies to the yuan's exchange rate. Yet Wednesday's decision by the Federal Reserve to certify a Chinese bank acquisition for the first time was met by near-universal silence.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/asia-pacific/227035-lawmakers-largely-silent-on-chinese-takeover-of-us-bank-branches

Putting pressure on Congress to approve parts of his latest economic stimulus plan, President Obama urged Americans Saturday to push lawmakers to approve his multibillion-dollar “to-do list” for creating jobs.

“Each of the ideas on this list will help create jobs and build a stronger economy right now,” Mr. Obama said in his weekly address. “Let’s push Congress to do the right thing. Let’s keep moving this country forward together.”

The president’s list includes an expanded program to help homeowners refinance their mortgages, a proposal to give small businesses tax breaks for hiring more workers, a program that would help veterans find jobs, and an extension of tax credits for clean-energy companies.

He lobbied for the refinancing plan Friday in a speech in Reno, Nev. – a state that ranks second in the nation in mortgage foreclosures.

All told, the proposals on the president’s list could cost up to $34.7 billion: They are part of a more comprehensive $447 billion jobs package that Congress mostly has resisted.

Mr. Obama didn’t discuss in his address the cost of his proposals or how to pay for them. The refinancing plan, for example, would likely include a fee charged to homeowners.

The president often uses his weekly address to sum up major actions he took during the week, but Mr. Obama made no mention Saturday of the biggest headline he generated – his announcement that he now supports same-sex marriage.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/12/obama-pushes-billion-dollar-stimulus-plan/

More than 200,000 long-term jobless Americans will lose their unemployment checks this week, when eight states roll off the federal extended benefits program.

Nearly half of them live in California, and the rest reside in Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Colorado, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Texas.

The federal extended benefits program has provided the jobless with up to 20 weeks of unemployment checks after they've run through their state and their federal emergency benefits, which together last up to 79 weeks.

But the extended benefits program is expiring throughout the country as the economy improves. To be eligible for these benefits, a state must show that its unemployment rate is at least 10% higher than it was in at least one of the past three years.

A ConAgra Foods Inc. plant in Batesville is to lay off between 230 and 250 workers in July when it moves frozen dinner preparation from the facility to Missouri, the company said Friday.

ConAgra gave notice to the workers on Thursday, with the cuts affecting hourly workers and some managers.

Batesville Mayor Rick Elumbaugh said he knew ConAgra was planning an announcement.

"Last week they called me and said they'd be visiting with me. My fear was that they would be closing," Elumbaugh told the Batesville Daily Guard reports (http://is.gd/WOrv97 ). "Anytime we have 220 workers lose their jobs, plus 13 supervisors or administrators, it does affect our community."

Read more: http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/e32b1025c5514a778950e820fe1d1213/AR--ConAgra-Layoffs-Batesville/

Of the 13.3 million Americans who were unemployed in the first quarter of 2012, a staggering 29.5% have been out of work for 52 weeks or more (the official definition of long-term unemployment). As the Pew Charitable Trusts point out, that works out to roughly 3.9 million people, or more than the population of Oregon.

James Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute blog has posted a devastating graph depicting the spike in long-term unemployment since President Barack Obama took office.

Since 1967, the previous 1983 high for long-term unemployment rate was less than half what it is today under Barack Obama.

Economists say high long-term unemployment rates are especially dangerous. As time out of work increases, a worker's skills and knowledge of new technologies grow rusty, making them less attractive to employers and therefore less likely to re-enter the workforce. As Ingrid Schroeder, director of the Pew Fiscal Analysis Initiative at the Pew Charitable Trusts explains:

"When you look at the overall long-term unemployment rate in early 2008, it was about 9.5 percent. And when you look at where we are today, at 29.5 percent, you expect it to be worse [than where it was at the beginning of the recession], but it's more than triple where it was at the beginning of the Great Recession."

See graph and read more: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/11/devastating-graph-reveals-obamas-unemployment-economy

Sony Corp. racked up a record annual loss of 457 billion yen ($5.7 billion) in its fourth straight year of red ink as the once-glorious maker of the Walkman and PlayStation struggles toward a turnaround under a new president.

The electronics and entertainment company, which also makes "Spider-Man" movies, reported Thursday a loss of 255 billion yen ($3.2 billion) for the January-March period — its fifth straight quarterly net loss to round out a fiscal year that was the worst in its 66-year corporate history.

The latest red ink was worse than 1995, which followed Sony's ambitious but disastrous purchase of Hollywood studio Columbia Pictures.

Sony shares, valued at around $15 billion or just 3 percent of rival Apple Inc, this week slipped to a quarter century low.

Sony's recent troubles were worsened by factory and supplier damage in northeastern Japan, ravaged by the earthquake and tsunami last year. Sony also suffered production disruptions from the flooding in Thailand.

Quarterly sales inched up 1.2 percent on-year to 1.6 trillion yen ($20 billion). Annual sales plunged nearly 10 percent to 6.5 trillion yen ($81 billion).

Read more: http://marketday.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/10/11631777-sony-posts-record-annual-loss-of-57-billion

A Fort Worth medical institute found by a state agency to have misled students about training and job prospects has filed for bankruptcy, leaving students with dim prospects of getting refunds.

The institute is run by a woman describing herself as a medical doctor who has spent time in prison for tax evasion and has a history of deception, according to court records and medical board documents from Iowa and Ohio.

In bankruptcy filings, Diagnostic Medical Institute, at 6213 Oakmont Blvd., lists assets of less than $50,000 and says it owes up to $100,000, primarily to students.

The institute's president, Mumtaz Farash, could not be reached, for comment, and her Arlington bankruptcy attorney did not respond to a message left at his office.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/05/09/3949346/fort-worth-medical-institute-files.html

For years, digital music start-ups have faced two persistent, and frequently intertwined, dangers: record company lawsuits and bankruptcy.

The latest casualty is MP3tunes, a cloud-music service that has been engaged in a long and costly lawsuit with EMI. On Thursday, the company announced that it had filed for bankruptcy in federal court in San Diego. In court papers, it listed $7,800 in assets and $2.1 million in liabilities.

MP3tunes was founded by Michael Robertson, an entrepreneur who in the 1990s was one of the first to turn digital music into a big business, with MP3.com. As a longtime combatant against big record companies, he has also been involved in cases that have helped shape the legal landscape of online music, even if not all of his companies have not survived in the process.

MP3.com, which was founded in 1997 and went public two years later, was successfully sued by the record companies for copyright infringement; it was eventually sold to Universal and effectively shut down. (The site is now owned by CBS Radio and used for song promotions.) The case was an early test of the limits of online locker services, which give users access to music or other media from any device connected to the Internet.

Read more: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/digital-notes-dogged-by-lawsuits-mp3tunes-files-for-bankruptcy/

Cox Enterprises has filed paperwork with the Georgia Department of Labor indicating that it will lay off 102 employees from its Atlanta Journal Constitution home delivery distribution center in Smyrna.

In a letter sent to GDOL, a representative from Cox Enterprises said it “plans to outsource its home delivery distribution” beginning July 16. The distribution center is located in south Smyrna at 5000 Highland Parkway.

Andy McDill, a Cox Enterprises media representative, explained the reason for the layoffs.

“In an effort to streamline our operations and circulation and distribution operation expenses we’ve made the business decision to outsource all our home delivery operations,” she said. “I don’t have the exact number on me, but I want to emphasize that this change has no impact on the content or the service that we’re providing to our subscribers and advertisers.”

McDill said employees currently employed at the home delivery distribution center will have the option to apply for jobs that they qualify for at the AJC.

He did not know how many of the distribution center’s employees were from Cobb County. The most recent preliminary unemployment rate for Smyrna was 8.5 percent for March 2012.

The GDOL layoff log also listed 150 AJC layoffs in Kennesaw, the location of the paper's north Cobb distribution center.

49% of Americans say they aren't contributing to any retirement plan, according to a new survey conducted by LIMRA, a trade association for the financial services industry.

"The findings from this survey were disturbing, given that people will increasingly need to rely on their personal savings to make ends meet in retirement," said Matthew Drinkwater, associate managing director at LIMRA's retirement research division.

People ages 18 to 34 are the least likely to be saving, with 56% reporting that they are not currently contributing to a retirement plan like an IRA or a 401(k).

"In order to have the adequate savings necessary to meet their financial needs in retirement -- which could last 20 or more years -- it is critical that these individuals begin saving systematically early in their working years," Drinkwater said.

Don't let debt weigh down your retirement

Nearly half of consumers said they aren't planning to contribute to an IRA because they can't afford to, and only a quarter of Americans have worked with a financial professional to plan for retirement, the survey found.

The study was conducted in April, and LIMRA surveyed 2,697 Americans.

Eduardo Saverin, the billionaire co- founder of Facebook Inc. (FB), renounced his U.S. citizenship before an initial public offering that values the social network at as much as $96 billion, a move that may reduce his tax bill.

Facebook plans to raise as much as $11.8 billion through the IPO, the biggest in history for an Internet company. Saverin’s stake is about 4 percent, according to the website Who Owns Facebook. At the high end of the IPO valuation, that would be worth about $3.84 billion. His holdings aren’t listed in Facebook’s regulatory filings.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-11/facebook-co-founder-saverin-gives-up-u-s-citizenship-before-ipo.html

About 22 percent of California’s eighth-graders tested on a national science test passed, ranking the Golden State among the worst in the nation, according to figures released Thursday.

Scores from the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the Nation’s Report Card, show that too few students have the skills that could lead to careers in the field, educators said.

Nationally, 31 percent of eighth-graders who were tested scored proficient or advanced. Both the national and state scores improved slightly over scores from two years ago, the last time the test was administered.

The state ranked 47th, only above Mississippi, Alabama and the District of Columbia, in a tie with Hawaii. But many local educators call into question the significance of the results, saying that the small sample size and other factors can skew the results.

About 120,000 U.S. students were tested in the exams administered last school year, including about 14,000 of California’s 470,000 eighth-graders. Scores were not broken down beyond the state level. In Orange County, fewer than 100 students typically take the test each year.

“The sample sizes for these tests are generally somewhat small to make any real sense out of them,” county Superintendent William Habermehl said. “Also, most of these students tested in California come from large urban districts, so it’s not always an accurate representation.”

Other standardized tests administered nationally, like the SAT, ACT and Advanced Placement, consistently show students in Orange County outscoring their peers in the state and nationally. California’s rankings on those tests are also generally higher than they were for Thursday's Report Card scores.

The science exams are part of a national testing program mandated by Congress. The program also tests fourth-, eighth- and twelfth-graders students in math, reading and other subjects.

Read more: http://www.ocregister.com/news/students-353581-state-scores.html

"It was a house of cards and it collapsed in the most destructive, worst crisis that we’ve seen since the Great Depression," Obama said. "And sometimes people forget the magnitude of it. You know, you saw some of that in the video that was shown. Sometimes I forget."

Mitt Romney's press secretary, Andrea Saul, responds: "It’s not surprising that a president who forgot to create jobs, forgot to cut the debt, and forgot to change Washington has now admitted that he’s forgotten about the recession. In fact, it seems that the President has forgotten that he’s been in office for the last three-and-a-half years. In November, the American people won’t forget."

Procter & Gamble will move its beauty, skin, cosmetics and personal-care unit from Cincinnati to Singapore, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing an internal memo. The division is departing U.S. shores because Asia is the fastest-growing beauty market in the world, the newspaper noted. Beauty products made up roughly one-quarter of the company's sales last year. As a result of the move, P&G PG +0.71% will lose Virginia Drosos, group president of the unit, who will retire later this year.

The Labor Department every month publishes the nation's unemployment rate, which is now hovering at roughly 8 percent after peaking at more than 10 percent in 2009.

But is that decline a result of thousands of Americans going back to work -- or thousands throwing in the towel on the job hunt?

The answer lies in the numbers.

If the percentage of adult Americans in the labor force -- that being the total number of people who are employed or looking for work -- were the same as it was during the end of the Bush administration, the April jobless rate would be at 11.1 percent.

That's 3 percentage points higher than the 8.1 percent reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this month.

The agency’s official monthly unemployment number is calculated by dividing the number of unemployed into the number of working-age Americans who either have a job or are looking for one.

However, a statistic known as the "labor force participation rate" is key. That's the percentage of the adult population that is employed or looking for work -- in other words, the labor force. The lower the number, the worse the employment situation.

And it's a figure that's been trending steadily downward over the past decade. The lower number reflects a startling reality -- a smaller share of the working-age population is looking for work.

It was 67.3 percent when George W. Bush took office in 2001, and down to 65.5 percent when President Obama took office in 2009.

The rate was all the way down to 58.4 percent in April 2011 and, after increasing slightly, returned last month again to 58.4 percent, according to the federal government.

When potential workers give up that job hunt, the official unemployment number tends to improve. This helps explain how the economy added just 115,00 jobs from March to April while the unemployment rate went from 8.2 percent to 8.1 percent. Yet over the same period, 342,000 job seekers stopped looking for work.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/10/jobless-rate-could-be-as-high-as-111-percent/

A cash-strapped New York town has had to cancel Fourth of July fireworks and is appealing for donations to save its celebration of America's birthday.

New Rochelle town officials say the Independence Day display costs $75,000, and was eliminated from the city's 2012 budget, along with the Memorial Day parade and Thanksgiving parade, which both cost $30,000 to put on.

The costs for those parades include $10,000 for the event and $20,000 for police, fire and emergency service support, the town said.

New Rochelle has asked for donations to help save the holiday celebrations, and so far, enough money has been collected to hold the Memorial Day parade.

Funding for the Thanksgiving parade is also coming in, officials said, but the news for July 4 is bleak.

"Should funds not be raised, this event unfortunately will remain canceled," the town said.

Read more: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/New-Rochelle-Fireworks-Canceled-Budget-Memorial-Day-Thanksgiving-150768045.html

324,000 women dropped out of the nation’s civilian labor force in March and April as the number of women not in the labor force hit an all-time historical high of 53,321,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The civilian labor force consists of all people in the United States 16 years or older who are not in the military, a prison, or another institution such as a nursing home or mental hospital and who either have a job or are unemployed but have actively sought work in the previous four weeks and are currently available to work.

The civilian labor force is a subset of what BLS calls the civilian noninstitutional population, which includes all people in the country 16 or older who are not in the military, a prison, or another institution such as a nursing home or mental hospital.

This year (in both January and April), only 57.6 percent of the women in the civilian noninstitutional population were in the labor force. That is the lowest rate of labor force participation by American women since April 1993, according to historical data maintained by BLS.

Read more: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/324000-women-dropped-out-labor-force-last-two-months-number-women-not-labor-force-hits

A Troy life-jacket business, backed by key local investors, has filed for bankruptcy—but also says it will be acquired by the sister of the CEO.

Float-Tech Inc., located in downtown Troy, seeks to remain open and operating while seeing the acquisition through and paying off debt, according to court papers filed May 4.

Float-Tech reported $337,000 in assets and $2.1 million in debt. Attorneys for the company appeared in bankruptcy court Monday, urging federal judges to quickly approve Flow-Tech's reorganization plan and the proposed acquisition by FT Systems Inc., of New Hampshire.

The applause has died for the San Antonio Opera, which this week filed its expected liquidation bankruptcy filing. The move came several months after the organization canceled its last two performances for the current season.

The 16-year-old opera listed assets of just $1,500 in office equipment and furniture and debts of $893,677, mainly to season-ticket holders, musicians and numerous San Antonio businesses.

Among the creditors in the filing is famed tenor Plácido Domingo, who is listed as being owed $50,500. Domingo performed with the San Antonio Opera Orchestra last June at the AT&T Center.

San Antonio Opera founder Mark Richter, who left the organization in November, said Wednesday he had no comment on its demise and bankruptcy. But he did comment on some of the listed debts.

“The great, great majority of (Domingo's) fee was paid,” Richter said without disclosing the overall fee. The $50,500 debt “was just a fraction of it.”

Richter himself is listed as a creditor for his $23,000 severance pay. “I wish I had it,” he said with a short laugh.

Another creditor, Mexican orchestra conductor Enrique Patrón de Rueda, is listed as being owed $16,325. “That was for contracts for events that never happened,” Richter said. “It's not like Enrique conducted and wasn't paid. That didn't happen. ... A lot of (the debts) are like this.”

The vast majority of the creditors are season-ticket holders, with debts in the hundreds and thousands of dollars. One listing: “(Ex-) Mayor and Mrs. Phil Hardberger,” for $1,000 in tickets. Another: “Congressman Charlie Gonzalez,” for $507.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/article/S-A-Opera-files-for-bankruptcy-3546458.php

Jobs in London's finance sector will slump to their lowest level for 16 years as the euro zone crisis is predicted to cause over 25,000 layoffs in 2012.

That would push the number of jobs lost in the City of London since the top of the financial boom in 2007 to 100,000, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said.

The economics consultancy revised its forecast for the average number of London finance jobs for 2012 down to 255,000, the lowest level since the first quarter of 1996, from a prediction of 288,000 made six months ago. Many of the forecast additional layoffs have already taken place, it said.

Its analysis showed there were an average of 280,350 financial services jobs in London in 2011.

Additional cuts were down to the impact of the euro zone crisis on banks, despite interventions in the past few months by the European Central Bank (ECB) to provide easy cash to lenders, the CEBR said.

Lenders were hit hard last year by euro zone troubles, which dented trading revenues, while regulations are also squeezing profits and causing firms to cut staff. Major banks in the United States, Europe and Asia announced plans for more than 130,000 job cuts last year, according to a Reuters tally.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/09/london-finance-jobs-idUSL5E8G92Z820120509

The Federal Reserve gave three state-owned Chinese banks its stamp of approval Thursday to expand their presence in the United States.

The central bank accepted an application from Industrial and Commerce Bank of China Ltd. (IDCBY) (ICBC), along with China Investment Corporation and Central Huijin Investment, to become bank holding companies by purchasing up to an 80% stake in New York-based Bank of East Asia U.S.A.

The approval marks the first time the Fed has allowed any large Chinese bank to purchase a U.S. bank, and it could boost merger and acquisition activity "as Chinese banks may look to acquire regional banks in order to establish a U.S. footprint," said Guggenheim senior policy analyst Jaret Seiberg, in a research note.

ICBC entered into an agreement with the Bank of East Asia in January 2011, and has been waiting for the Fed's okay.

The United States on Wednesday opened its banking market to ICBC, China's biggest bank, for the first time clearing a takeover of a US bank by a Chinese state-controlled company.

Just days after high-level US-China economic talks in Beijing, the Federal Reserve approved an application from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to buy a majority stake in the US subsidiary of Bank of East Asia.

The transaction will make ICBC the first Chinese state-controlled bank to acquire retail bank branches in the United States.

ICBC has been the most aggressive of China's "big four" banks in expanding overseas.

According to the Fed the bank has total assets of roughly $2.5 trillion.

It will buy up to 80 percent of the US unit of the Hong Kong-based Bank of East Asia, which operates 13 branches in New York and California.

CleanPower Inc., a Wauwatosa-based janitorial services provider for workplaces, has notified state of Wisconsin officials that it may have to lay off up to 48 employees if the company does not win an extension of a state contract to provide cleaning services for state buildings.

CleanPower said in a mass layoff notice filed with the state Department of Workforce Development that the state of Wisconsin said it would temporarily extend its contract for services with the company until June 30. The state then began to take bids for the work and a decision has yet to be made. The layoffs could begin July 1, pending the state's decision.

CleanPower is filing the notice under the state's Wisconsin Business Closing Law only as a contingency. The law requires 60-days notice of any mass layoff.

The workers all work at state facilities in Madison. The company said that it will try to find other employment within the company for affected employees.

Two Maryland employers have warned state labor officials of layoffs that could affect nearly 400 workers.

Saks Fifth Avenue said it would terminate a third of its workforce, or 223 employees, at its Aberdeen distribution and order fulfillment center starting in late May, the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation said Tuesday.

More than 100 workers at the Norwood call center for Cincinnati Bell learned today that they are losing their jobs.

The locally owned telecommunications company sent out a press release just after noon on Wednesday which reads, "Cincinnati Bell today announced its intent to expand an existing relationship with its customer care and call center technology services vendor." Officials with the Communication Workers of America, the union representing the workers, identifies the vendor as Startek, which is located in the Philippines.

CWA representatives told Local 12 that 137 workers were given notice today. They were told they would be off the payroll by the end of this year.

The union says it is stunned by the announcement because they finalized a contract earlier this year that they believed addressed the needs of the company and cost-cutting measures

CWA says Startek has indicated it may be willing to interview some of the laid off workers but will not say whether they will be hired on.

Once the layoffs are complete, there will be 50 customer service representatives left at the Norwood call center.

Yacht-maker Silverton Marine Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this week in Trenton, months after suspending its boat-building operations in February.

The company made powerboats along the Maurice River but had suffered from poor sales during the recession, said the company’s New York bankruptcy lawyer, Robert Hirsh.

Filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy gives companies protection from creditors while they reorganize or sell assets.

“The goal is to restructure Silverton,” Hirsh said. “The company is looking at various options right now, a stand-alone restructuring plan or alternative restructuring including a sale. The goal is to maximize value to creditors.”

Danish airline Cimber Sterling said on Thursday it has declared bankruptcy after its owners decided not to continue their financial support of the company.

"Because of this the board of directors has decided to declare the company bankrupt," the company said in a statement.

In August last year, Mansvell Enterprises Ltd, an investment vehicle of Ukrainian businessman Igor Kolomoisky, offered to buy out minority shareholders in the airline for 1.50 crowns per share.

The offer for minority shares followed Mansvell's acquisition of a 70.8 percent stake in Cimber through a directed share issue on Aug. 1.

Hawker Beechcraft Inc., the private- jet maker owned by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Onex Corp., sought bankruptcy protection after agreeing to a restructuring plan that will reduce debt by about $2.5 billion.

Hawker, bought for $3.3 billion in 2007, listed more than $1 billion in assets and debt in Chapter 11 documents filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. The company reported net losses totaling more than $900 million in the past two years as U.S. military contracts and plane sales declined.

"Restructuring our balance sheet and recapitalizing the company in partnership with our debtholders will dramatically improve Hawker Beechcraft's ability to compete in a rapidly changing environment," Steve Miller, Hawker's chief executive officer, said today in a statement.

Hawker, based in Wichita, Kansas, said today it reached an agreement with a "significant" number of its senior secured lenders and senior bondholders on a financial restructuring plan that will eliminate about $2.5 billion in debt and about $125 million a year in cash interest expenses.

The Tennessee Valley Authority announced Friday that it lost $94 million in the last quarter as electricity sales slumped during an unusually warm winter and it faces an over-budget project to finish building a nuclear reactor in Tennessee.

TVA officials said they would seek to cut fewer than 1,000 positions in an effort to trim spending.

The electric supplier brought in nearly $2.6 billion in revenue during the three-month period ending in March, a drop of more than 12 percent compared to the same period last year, according to federal filings. Power sales were down about 7 percent for the quarter.