Finance and Economic

The University of Hawaii Board of Regents approved on Monday construction of the world’s largest telescope atop Mauna Kea on the Big Island.

The unanimous vote, required because UH is leasing the land from the state, clears the way for project developers to file for a building permit with the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

The telescope will be able to collect nine times more area, have a spatial resolution 12 times sharper and provide up to 100 times the image clarity of the most powerful telescopes currently in existence, according to the project’s website. Scientists hope the telescope will in part provide insight into the physics of the universe’s early formation as well as massive black holes.

A joint project between the University of California, the California Institute of Technology and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy, the project has attracted excitement within the scientific community, but also controversy.

Some Native Hawaiians argue that it will disrupt sacred land. Kealoha Tiscotti of Mauna Kea Aina Hou said the telescope threatens Native Hawaiian burial grounds and important ceremonial land.

“It’s a huge footprint,” Tiscotti said in reference to the size of the proposed telescope low rate payday loans.

Conservation groups, including Kahea: The Hawaiian Environmental Alliance, also have expressed concern over the disruption of the ecosystem.

Marti Townsend, program director for Kahea, said her organization plans to continue protesting the telescope and will register opposition with the DLNR when the building permit is filed.

The project’s directors say they have reached out to the community, meeting with Native Hawaiians, local schools, labor unions and local officials.

“We believe this partnership will benefit the Big Island and Hawaii in so many ways, with jobs, the economy, work-force development, education, the environment, culture and, of course, science,” said Henry Yang, chairman of the project’s board of directors, in a prepared statement. “The world-class stature of astronomical education and research of the University of Hawaii on all its campuses statewide will benefit, and discoveries made by this telescope will benefit not only the international science community, but all of humankind.”

The proposed telescope is projected to begin operations in 2018.

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Two Phoenix companies have been selected for the 2010 Inner City 100, a list of the fastest-growing inner-city businesses in the U.S. compiled by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City and Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

The program recognizes successful inner city companies and their CEOs as role models for entrepreneurship, innovative business practices and job creation in America’s urban communities.

The two Phoenix companies selected are Auction Systems Auctioneers and Appraisers (No. 27) and Meyer and Lundahl Manufacturing Co. (No. 67).

The rankings were announced at an awards dinner on Wednesday in Boston bad credit pay day loans.

“The Inner City 100 winning companies exemplify America’s remarkable potential and the road to future economic recovery,” Mary Kay Leonard, president and CEO of ICIC. “These extraordinary companies demonstrate the market possibilities that exist within our inner cities. If we can leverage these possibilities, we can create jobs, income and wealth for local residents and produce the next chapter of American innovation and opportunity.”

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Home sales in Sacramento rose significantly in March compared to the previous month, according to data released Thursday from analyst MDA DataQuick. The firm tracks sales of all types of homes, single-family homes, attached condos and new homes.

Sales increased 41 percent in the four-county Sacramento area from February, but remained at virtually the same level as March last year.

The median sales price in Sacramento county stood at $173,000, a 4.8 percent increase from a year ago. Prices in Yolo County were also higher, by 4,6 percent to $250,000 no faxing pay day loans. But the median price in El Dorado County was down 10 percent to $306,000 and was down 11.8 percent in Placer County to $317,000, DataQuick said.

On Wednesday, Sacramento-based analyst Trendgraphix reported a similar spike in existing home sales from February, which the company attributed to expiring tax credits.

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Accounting firm Watkins Meegan LLC has hired the managing partner of Sturn Wagner Lombardo & Co. LLC, a dissolving Annapolis accounting and consulting firm.

Kurt Sturn, founder of Sturn Wagner Lobardo, will join Bethesda-based Watkins Meegan Jan. 1 and will bring his entire book of business and five to 10 other professional employees with him, said Sean Roddy, chief operating officer of Watkins Meegan, which already has an Annapolis office with about 15 employees.

The deal is part of a new acquisition strategy for Watkins Meegan, the second-largest locally-based accounting firm in the Washington area with about 240 employees and four offices.

“We’re hoping to double over the next five years,” Roddy said.

Over the last five years, the firm has grown its staff 33 percent, according to the Washington Business Journal list of accounting firms — all of it organic.

The firm also is talking to a few potential acquisition targets, Roddy said.

With the current deal, Sturn approached Watkins Meegan, saying he and his partners were going in different directions and were thinking about dissolving, Roddy said.

The firm signed a deal with Sturn last week and is still in negotiations to bring on some of the other accountants that worked under him.

“I am both proud and confident that this merger brings together the best and brightest to serve the Annapolis business community and provide it with the resources of exceptionally trained professionals,” Sturn said in a statement.

Sturn Wagner Lobardo was founded in 1990 and began dissolving several weeks ago. As of a couple of years ago, it had about 33 accountants, though that has been reduced to about 20, Roddy said.

It has offices in Annapolis, Baltimore and Washington, according to its Web site.

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More doctors are dropping their private practices, choosing to go to work behind bars treating murderers, rapists and other hardened criminals.

Better pay, better hours, retirement benefits and free malpractice insurance are just a few of the reasons why physicians are picking prisoners over civilian patients.

In 2009, private contractor Prison Health Services (PHS) saw a 77% increase over 2008 in the number of respondents applying for job opportunities.

At the University of Massachusetts Medical School, this year 22 of 150 new students chose the correctional health care clerkship as their first choice, more than double the typical response.

"Students are looking for an employer who offers flexible work hours and a steady paycheck. Correctional health care offers both," said Dr. Michelle Staples-Horne, medical director for the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice, adding that doctors who have stayed with a government agency long enough also benefit from pension plans.

Typically a salaried job with steady work hours, correctional physicians can earn starting salaries of around $140,000, according to Staples-Horne, roughly the same as the average school loan for graduating med students.

A dangerous job?

Dr. Kurt Johnson dumped his practice and became a jailhouse doctor in November. Johnson operated a solo practice in Laramie, Wyo., for six years. Two years ago he started working part time for Brentwood, Tenn.-based PHS, a division of America Service Group (ASGR), which provides doctors, nurses and other health care professionals to detention centers around the country.

"I never thought of correctional health care as a career. It wasn’t even on my radar in [medical school] training," said Johnson, now a regional medical director for PHS.

At his private practice he had to cram in dozens of patients daily, sometimes for only five minutes, just to earn enough to cover his overhead expenses.

He was constantly filing insurance paperwork, and malpractice insurance was eating into his income.

With correctional health care, Johnson has a steady paycheck of about $175,000 — roughly 20% more than he made in private practice.

"Since I was a PHS employee, my malpractice insurance was covered through them. I felt like they had my back," he said.

But he’s still getting used to the sound of the prison doors slamming shut. "It’s an impressive sound. It gives me goose bumps at times wired payday loan."

He has treated death row inmates. "It’s intimidating," he admits, but says he’s never felt physically threatened by his patients.

Staples-Horne agrees that doctors typically didn’t consider prison to be an ideal or safe setting to practice medicine. She admits that there is risk, but points out that most doctors don’t have the benefit of high security that prisons provide.

"Doctors are often safer in this setting than in an emergency room when you don’t know any thing about the person coming in," she said. "You don’t know if they have a weapon, if they are violent or aggressive."

Doctors say the medical problems affecting inmates can range from simple ailments to serious, chronic problems such as drug and alcohol addiction, heart disease, cancer and AIDS.

Health care on the inside

Dr. Ryan Herrington is a regional medical director with Correctional Medical Services, a St. Louis-based contracted health care provider.

Herrington, a general physician, closed his private practice in Ohio and started working full time in the prison system in April. Anecdotally, Herrington said there is growing interest among doctors seeking opportunity in the corrections environment.

He feels he now has "the financial stability that was harder to attain in private practice."

But Herrington said his own interest in public health also influenced his decision. "These patients have problems that are complex," Herrington said. "They have gone through a tremendous period of time with no health care prior to incarceration."

PHS’s Dr. Johnson is mostly happy with his decision. His prison work allows him to spend more time with his wife and three children. In fact, he credits his patients for making him a better doctor.

"I’m trying to make this a career," said Johnson. "So I’ve also honed my BS detector quite a bit. Now I know when they’re trying to get one over me."

Are you stuck in a lousy 401(k) plan at work but want help maximizing your retirement savings? Send us an email at makeover@moneymail.com. For the CNNMoney.com Comment Policy, click here.
 

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Bank of America pledged Monday to increase its lending to small and medium sized businesses by $5 billion next year. The announcement immediately followed a White House meeting at which President Obama pressured the nation’s biggest bailed-out banks to start reinvesting in the rest of the economy.

"Bank of America is determined to do our part to help the economy grow next year and reduce unemployment by making every good loan we can make," CEO Ken Lewis said in a statement.

Lewis acknowledged the key role that small businesses play in creating jobs, calling them the "lifeblood" of the U.S. economy. "Our improved financial condition and our optimism about the economy will allow us to step up lending to support these clients," he said.

Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), based in Charlotte, N.C., is currently the second largest small business lender in the U.S., behind only Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500), according to reports filed to the Treasury Department. Bank of America ended September with $41.9 billion in small business loans outstanding. That tally includes credit lines, credit cards, traditional loans and other financing.

But like most other big banks, Bank of America has pared back its lending through the recession. Since April, when top banks began submitting monthly reports on their small business lending, Bank of America has shaved its outstanding loan balance by 5%, or $2.2 billion.

Bank of America also cut back drastically this year on its lending through the Small Business Administration’s flagship loan program. SBA lending represents a small sliver of all small business lending, but it’s an important indicator of trends in the broader credit market.

Bank of America made 308 SBA-backed loans, totaling $17.6 million, in the SBA’s 2009 fiscal year, which ended in September. That’s a 90% drop from the bank’s year-earlier lending, when Bank of America made 3,354 loans, totaling $121.4 million.

Bank of America has struggled this year with big losses in its small business loan portfolio.

Last fall, as the Wall Street crisis turned critical in the wake of Lehman Brothers’ collapse, CEO Ken Lewis famously referred to the bank’s small business portfolio as a "damn disaster." In the first nine months of this year, Bank of America wrote off $2 guaranteed payday loans.2 billion in small business lending as bad debt, a default rate of almost 16%. By comparison, the bank’s charge-off rate on commercial loans to larger companies was just 1%.

But the bank’s executives have recently taken a more optimistic tone. "We think we are close to the peak in small businesses losses," CFO Joe Price told analysts in October.

Obama turns up the heat: The next set of Treasury reports are due later this week, with updates on October lending from the 22 biggest recipients of government bailout funds. In previous six months, those banks cut their small business lending by a cumulative total of $10.5 billion.

In his Monday meeting with the chief executives of 12 of the nation’s largest banks, President Obama emphasized the "extraordinary assistance" the financial industry received from taxpayers.

"We expect some results," Obama told the bankers. "I’m getting too many letters from small businesses who explain that they are credit worthy, and banks that they’ve had a long-term relationship with are still having problems giving them loans."

Banking industry representatives point to rising default rates, and say they’re having trouble finding creditworthy small business borrowers. Obama is unimpressed by that excuse.

"I urged these institutions here today to go back and take a third and fourth look about how they are operating when it comes to small business and medium-sized business lending," Obama said after his meeting.

All of the participating banks said they would be willing to institute a policy of "second looks" at loans that had thus far been rejected, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a press briefing after Obama’s meeting.

So far, despite multiple attempts by Washington policymakers to revive the small business lending market, bank vaults have stayed slammed shut. The White House is trying yet again to change that.

"I think that the bully pulpit can be a powerful thing," Gibbs said. 

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Nokia on Wednesday bolstered its smartphone line-up to better compete with Apple and put a price on the new laptop leading its foray into the fiercely-competitive netbook market.

The handset announcements, the latest moves by the Finnish firm to match Apple’s innovation in a sector switching focus to services and software, left some analysts unimpressed.

“Nokia has major challenges on developing user experience, and we might have to wait for a significant improvement until the second half of next year,” said Jari Honko, analyst with eQ Bank in Helsinki.

Nokia unveiled three new phone models and said its new Booklet 3G will go on sale for about 575 euros ($820).

Nokia has seen its profit margins drop over the last few quarters as handset demand has slumped, and analysts have worried that entering the PC industry, where margins are traditionally razor-thin, could further depress earnings.

But Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi said Nokia had no choice.

“Nokia had to do it. You see more and more PC guys getting into the mobile operators’ shelves. It’s kind of the counterattack, it’s not just defensive,” Milanesi said.

With the move into laptops, Nokia is crossing the border between two converging industries from the opposite direction to Mac-maker Apple, which entered the phone industry in 2007 with the iPhone.

Nokia will face new rivals like HP, Dell and Acer and some commentators said the market could be too tough to crack.

At the same time Nokia’s history has been marked by major steps from one industry to another. In the early 1990s it sold most of its units, including rubber cables and home electronics, to focus on telecommunications.

Nokia said its new top-end N900 phone will sell for 500 euros. The phone, which has computer-like functions, is the Finnish firm’s first phone to use Linux software. The unveiling of the phone last Thursday helped to lift its shares 11 percent for the week.

PUTTING NOKIA MAPS TO FACEBOOK

Nokia has been looking for business opportunities in offering services like music downloads or games to cell phone users as the handset market matures, but so far its offerings have had limited traction.

Nokia also on Wednesday announced a long-awaited deal with social networking website Facebook that will link Nokia Maps to Facebook, and allow people to update their location and status directly via a Nokia Ovi account.

The first phone to support the service will be the N97 mini, which will start shipping to retailers in October. 

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Elizabeth Cowie chose to step away from teaching nutrition at Fontbonne University this year to become the store nutritionist at Sappington Farmers’ Market. The change in her audience has been the sharpest difference.

Cowie conducts store tours by appointment, giving shoppers meal ideas and introducing them to special products. She also shares strategies on how to save money by adding shelf life to fruits and vegetable bought fresh at the store.

She is also facilitating a program the grocery recently began that fights childhood obesity by delivering locally grown fruits and veggies to area day-care centers.

While she does miss the eager students whom she formerly lectured, Cowie said her new audiences have been receptive to her message to buy local produce.

What’s the most common question you get/expect to get?

Gluten-free is big. Probably the next most is just helping people find product that is local and sustainable. They want help (identifying products) that are from the metro area and (I tell) them why those would be a better choice as opposed to another product.

How do you prepare yourself to be a store nutritionist?

I don’t know that I prepared myself, I just kind of dove in. The inspiration for eating more eco-friendly was a personal thing that started probably a few years back when I read the book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life" (by Barbara Kingsolver, with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver). That was just so inspirational to me. I’ve always eaten well and educated people to eat well, but this took it a step further where you’re not just eating healthily but you’re also eating for a bigger cause — to help the environment. That was moving to me.

What advice do you give in economic times like these when its cheaper to eat unhealthy and where poverty and unhealthy eating can go hand in hand?

It’s in our advantage to help people save money by eating healthy. Some of the sizes (of our fruits and vegetables) are bigger so (consumers) can get a lot more bang for their buck payday advance. Then I can help them on how to process and store it, freeze it or maybe even can it.

I’ve only been here a couple of months, but that’s one thing I’d love to talk about with more people. (She will soon start a blog on the store’s website). I would love to see more people who think they can only get fresh produce in the summer realize we’ve got fresh produce well into the fall; it’s just going to be different seasonal produce. A lot of those keep well into the winter.

How do health fads affect your job and what the store carries?

It is my duty to educate consumers on the best choices. Those choices always go back to the same foundation — lots of fruits and vegetables, lots of whole grain and eating as close to the earth as possible.

Fads come and go, some are dangerous, unhealthy and temporary. … I just keep leading them back to the principles. There’s not any (fad) right now. The biggest trend — and I hope is not a temporary thing —is eating more eco-friendly. I’m thrilled that’s happening. It’s only going to do good. Thankfully the low-carb, low-fat diets seem to be taking a back seat right now.

Are there certain foods you’re going to try help the store sell?

We’re trying to add more local products. … We need more whole grain options, such as whole wheat pizza crusts, whole grain graham crackers. Some options that are healthy for kids are what I’m focusing on outside the store and for the store too. We have plenty but want to keep finding more.

The other thing we’re working on is denoting what items are local and also ones that are high-fructose corn syrup-free and gluten-free. We’re coming up with a labeling system that helps to identify those products clearly.

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Mattel Inc, the world’s top toymaker, posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit as it cut costs to make up for a dearth of toys based on summer movies and the impact of foreign exchange.

While both Mattel and rival Hasbro Inc are battling lower demand in the recession, Hasbro is ahead in the movie-based segment this year with toys linked to summer films such as “Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen” and “G.I. Joe - The Rise of the Cobra.”

Net profit for Mattel, the owner of Hot Wheels and Barbie, rose to $21.5 million, or 6 cents a share, in the second quarter from $11.8 million, or 3 cents a share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average expected 1 cent per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Sales fell 19 percent to $898.2 million, Mattel said. The impact of currency exchange rates accounted for 5 percentage points of the decline.

Worldwide Barbie sales fell 15 percent, hurt mostly by lower overseas sales, the company said.

Mattel has taken elaborate steps — from hosting a fashion show in New York to opening a six-story flagship store in Shanghai — to stoke demand for its iconic Barbie doll, which marks its 50th year in 2009 100% approval payday loans.

The El Segundo, California-based company has cut 1,000 jobs, shaved corporate travel expenses and taken steps to trim advertising and distribution costs in past months as it tries to offset weak demand for toys.

In the past quarter, it cut roughly $91 million of costs in areas such as administration and advertising.

Besides reducing capital spending, Mattel has said it must cut the number of toys it makes to be successful in 2009.

It has said it would rather wait to make toys after determining consumers’ preferences than end up with unwanted products. Even toy retailers have restricted the number of toys on their store shelves to dodge excess inventory and deep discounts.

(Reporting by Aarthi Sivaraman; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and John Wallace)

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Colombia’s central bank cut its benchmark rate by the smallest amount in five months in a bid to spur growth without sparking inflation, and said it doesn’t see additional rate changes in the “near future.”

The seven-member board, led by bank chief Jose Dario Uribe, reduce the interbank rate by half a point to 4.5 percent, matching expectations of 24 of 31 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Four analysts expected no change, one saw a 0.75- point cut and two expected a quarter-point cut.

Latin America’s fifth-biggest economy shrank for the first time since 1999 in the fourth quarter of 2008 and a report next week may show that gross domestic product contracted again in the first quarter. The slump has cooled consumer spending and slowed inflation to within the bank’s target range, giving policy makers room to continue their longest rate-cutting cycle in more than six years.

“A good part of the effect of the rate reductions on the economy will be seen in the coming quarters, and with the information available to us up to now, we don’t expect changes to the benchmark rate in the near future,” bank chief Uribe said today at the central bank in Bogota after the rate announcement.

The government has reduced its official economic growth forecast for 2009 twice, from 5 percent in October to 0.5 percent now, and may cut it further once first-quarter GDP data is released later this month.

‘Fine Tuning’

Policy makers expect to see the effect of lower interest rates on the economy in the quarters ahead, as the economy recovers and inflation continues to fall toward their target, the bank said in a statement after the rate announcement.

“The central bank said very clearly it considers the current level already expansionary,” said Jimena Zuniga, Latin America economist at Barclays Capital in New York. “What we’re seeing now is fine tuning rather than shock therapy.”

Finance Minister Oscar Ivan Zuluaga, who is also president of the bank’s board, on June 16 said the economy is expected to improve in the second half and that GDP may expand 2.5 percent in 2010.

“Given the green shoots we’re observing in the global market and the up-tick in commodities, these suggest the economy will enjoy some tailwinds going forward,” said Zuniga, who expected the half-point reduction today.

Target

The economy saw record growth through 2007 when GDP expanded 7.5 percent, a three-decade high. President Alvaro Uribe’s improvements in security created a boom in consumer spending, construction and industrial output.

That in turn sparked annual inflation last year that hit 7 guaranteed approval payday loans no teletrack.7 percent, its highest in eight years. The central bank raised rates 16 times to bring prices under control.

Zuluaga said inflation should end this year at 5 percent and end 2010 at 4 percent. The board targets inflation this year of 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent. It has missed its annual target two years in a row.

After pushing the benchmark rate up to 10 percent last year, policy makers kept it at that level — the highest since August 2001 — until half-point cuts in December and January.

Before today, the bank trimmed the rate by a full point at each of the last four monthly meetings.

‘Time Lag’

Now, after seven straight rate cuts, bank chief Uribe has cautioned against keeping rates low for too long, saying that by encouraging borrowing policy makers run the risk of fueling inflation.

“We have to take into consideration the time lag in the effects of the central bank’s decisions,” said Mario Nigrinis, an economist at BBVA Colombia. “If they are lowered too much, then they will need to be raised later and that creates market instability.”

Policy makers may signal that they will pause after today’s cut or say that the easing cycle is coming to an end, Rafael de la Fuente, chief Latin American economist at BNP Paribas SA in New York, wrote in a report ahead of the meeting.

“The bank has to consider 2010 inflation,” Nigrinis said.

Colombia’s consumer prices rose 0.01 percent in May from the previous month and the annual inflation rate eased to 4.77 percent from 5.73 percent in April.

Still, Camila Estrada, chief analyst at Banco de Credito de Colombia SA, thinks the economy still needs help.

Exports, industrial output and retail sales are weak and the economy expanded just 2.5 percent in 2008 as the global economic slump choked bank lending and sapped consumer confidence, she said.

Retail sales fell 7.1 percent in April from the year- earlier period, while industrial output fell 14.5 percent in April from a year earlier, the biggest decline in a decade, the national statistics agency said yesterday.

Bank chief Uribe said that output has “hit bottom,” in comments to reporters in Bogota today.

“The need for monetary stimulus hasn’t finished yet,” said Estrada, who sees the bank cutting the rate to 4 percent this year. “The economy remains in poor shape.”

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