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2008 sure to be 'a crummy year' for automakers None - 2008 sure to be 'a crummy year' for automakers DETROIT -- In a year when much seems uncertain, including whether the USA will have a recession, there's no question that 2008 is going to be tough for the auto industry. It's going to be tough on sales, which could hit a decade low. It'll be tough on production, which hasn't been this weak since the recession of 1992. And Paul McCarthy, a director at PricewaterhouseCoopers' Detroit group, thinks it'll be particularly tough on domestic automakers, because in tough times buyers are likely to choose brands they perceive as having the best reputations for quality — typically, Asian brands. "It's going to be a crummy year," says Michael Robinet, vice president of global vehicle forecasts for CSM Worldwide. The only question, he says, is "how crummy it's going to be." Light vehicle sales — almost anything smaller than a commercial delivery van — hit 16.1 million in 2007. Sales have been creeping down since a high of 17.4 million in 2000, and are expected to be somewhere in the mid-15-million range this year. Part of the decline can be blamed on the economy. Consumers, shaken by falling home values and the credit crunch, aren't feeling confident enough to add another large payment into their monthly bills. Add gasoline prices, which have been around $3 a gallon the past year, and consumers are feeling less than rosy about buying new cars. But the other factor affecting sales is the domestic automakers' relatively new strategy to slash production when sales drop, rather than to keep producing and prop up sales by pumping in rebates and low-interest loans. And this time, automakers have decided it's better to forgo sales than to lure huge numbers of buyers with rebates and special deals, analysts say.
Victims of Montana asbestos pollution that killed hundreds take Warren Buffett's railroad to court None - It's been almost 25 years since federal authorities, responding to news reports of deaths and illnesses, descended on the small northwestern Montana town of Libby to clean it up LIBBY, Mont. -- Paul Resch remembers playing baseball as a kid on a field constructed from asbestos-tainted vermiculite, mere yards from railroad tracks where trains kicked up clouds of dust as they hauled the contaminated material from a mountaintop mine through the northwestern Montana town of Libby. He liked to sneak into vermiculite-filled storage bins at an adjacent rail yard, to trap pigeons that he would feed, during long days spent by the tracks along the Kootenai River. Today, Resch, 61, is battling an asbestos-related disease that has severely scarred his left lung. He's easily winded, quickly tires and knows there is no cure for an illness that could suffocate him over time. “At some point, probably everybody got exposed to it,” he said, speaking of asbestos-tainted vermiculite. “There was piles of it along the railroad tracks. ... You would get clouds of dust blowing around downtown.” Almost 25 years after federal authorities responding to news reports of deaths and illnesses descended on Libby, a town of about 3,000 people near the U.S.-Canada border, some asbestos victims and their family members are seeking to hold publicly accountable one of the major corporate players in the tragedy: BNSF Railway. Hundreds of people died and more than 3,000 have been sickened from asbestos exposure in the Libby area, according to researchers and health officials. Texas-based BNSF faces accusations of negligence and wrongful death for failing to control clouds of contaminated dust that used to swirl from the rail yard and settle across Libby’s neighborhoods. The vermiculite was shipped by rail from Libby for use as insulation in homes and businesses across the U.S. The first trial among what attorneys say are hundreds of lawsuits against BNSF for its alleged role polluting the Libby community is scheduled to begin Monday. The railroad — owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. — has denied responsibility in court filings and declined further comment. Resch works at an auto dealership in Libby and his wife is listed as a plaintiff in a pending lawsuit against BNSF in Montana's asbestos claims court. He's uncertain whether his sickness came from the rail yard. The Libby high school track included contaminated vermiculite, as did insulation in the walls and attics of homes he entered during his two decades as a volunteer firefighter. The plaintiffs for the upcoming trial against BNSF, the estates of Joyce Walder and Thomas Wells, lived near the Libby rail yard and moved away decades ago. Both died in 2020 of mesothelioma, a rare lung cancer caused by asbestos that is disproportionately common in Libby. The mine a few miles outside town once produced up to 80% of global vermiculite supplies. It closed in 1990. Nine years later, the Environmental Protection Agency arrived in Libby and a subsequent cleanup has cost an estimated $600 million, with most covered by taxpayer money. It's ongoing, but authorities say asbestos volumes in downtown Libby's air are 100,000 times lower than when the mine was operating. Awareness about the dangers of asbestos grew significantly over the intervening years, and last month the EPA banned the last remaining industrial uses of asbestos in the U.S. The ban did not include the type of asbestos fiber found in Libby or address so-called “legacy” asbestos that's already in homes, schools and businesses. A long-awaited government analysis of the remaining risks is due by Dec. 1. Asbestos doesn’t burn and resists corrosion, making it long lasting in the environment. People who inhale the needle-shaped fibers can develop health problems as many as 40 years after exposure. Health officials expect to grapple with newly diagnosed cases of asbestos disease for decades. The EPA declared the nation’s first ever public health emergency under the Superfund cleanup program in Libby in 2009. The pollution led to civil claims from thousands of people who worked for the mine or the railroad, or who lived in the Libby area. During a yearslong cleanup of the Libby rail yard that began in 2003, crews excavated nearly the entire yard, removing about 18,000 tons of contaminated soil. In 2020, BNSF signed a consent decree with federal authorities resolving its cleanup work in Libby and nearby Troy, plus a 42-mile stretch (68 kilometers) of railroad right-of-way. Last year, BNSF won a federal lawsuit against an asbestos treatment clinic in Libby that a jury found submitted 337 false asbestos claims, making patients eligible for Medicare and other benefits. The judge overseeing the case ordered the Center for Asbestos Related Disease to pay almost $6 million in penalties and damages, forcing the facility into bankruptcy. It continues to operate with reduced staff. Some asbestos victims viewed the case as a ploy to discredit the clinic and undermine lawsuits against the railroad. BNSF said the verdict would deter "future misconduct” by the clinic. In the months leading up to this week's trial, attorneys for BNSF repeatedly tried to deflect blame for people getting sick, including by pointing to the actions of W.R. Grace and Co., which owned the mine from 1963 until it closed. They also questioned whether other asbestos sources could have caused the two plaintiffs’ illnesses and suggested Walder and Wells would have been trespassing on railroad property. U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris blocked BNSF from blaming the conduct of others as a means of escaping liability. And he said the law doesn’t support the notion that trespassing reduces a property owner’s duty not to cause harm. Morris has yet to issue a definitive ruling on another key issue: the railroad’s claim that its obligation to ship goods for paying customers exempts it from liability. The plaintiffs argue the rail yard in downtown Libby — where Resch once played in piles of vermiculite — was used for storage and not just transportation, meaning the railroad is not exempt. Montana's Supreme Court has ruled in a separate case that BNSF and its predecessors were more involved in the mine than simply shipping its product. Mine owner W.R. Grace filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and paid $1.8 billion into an asbestos trust fund to settle future cases. It paid about $270 million to government agencies for environmental damages and cleanup work. The state of Montana was also faulted in Libby, for failing to warn residents about asbestos exposure. It paid settlements totaling $68 million to about 2,000 plaintiffs. BNSF has settled some previous lawsuits for undisclosed amounts, attorneys for plaintiffs said. A second trial against the railroad over the death of a Libby resident is scheduled for May in federal court in Missoula. “I sure hope that they give those folks justice,” Resch said about the upcoming trials. “I mean everybody took part in it as far as corporate America goes.” ___ This story has been corrected to reflect the proper spelling of Warren Buffett's last name. It is Buffett, not Buffet. __ Hanson reported from Helena, Montana.
Following program cuts, new West Virginia University student union says fight is not over None - The West Virginia United Students’ Union is the leading oppositional force against cuts at the state's flagship university Following program cuts, new West Virginia University student union says fight is not over CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Sophomore Christian Adams expected he would be studying Chinese when he enrolled at West Virginia University, with a dream of working in labor or immigration law. He didn’t foresee switching his major to politics, a change he made after West Virginia’s flagship university in September cut its world language department and dozens of other programs in subjects such as English, math and music amid a $45 million budget shortfall. And he certainly didn’t expect to be studying — or teaching fellow students — about community organizing. But the cuts, denounced as “draconian and catastrophic" by the American Federation of Teachers, catalyzed a different kind of education: Adams is co-founder of The West Virginia United Students’ Union. The leading oppositional force against the cuts, the union organized protests, circulated petitions and helped save a handful of teaching positions before 143 faculty and 28 majors ultimately were cut. Disappointed, they say their work is far from done. Led by many first-generation college students and those receiving financial aid in the state with the fewest college graduates, members say they want to usher in a new era of student involvement in university political life. “Really, what it is for WVU is a new era of student politics,” Adams said. The movement is part of a wave of student organizing at U.S. colleges and universities centering around everything from the affordability of higher education and representation to who has access to a diverse array of course offerings and workplace safety concerns. The university in Morgantown had been weighed down financially by enrollment declines, revenue lost during the COVID-19 pandemic and an increasing debt load for new building projects. Other U.S. universities and colleges have faced similar decisions, but WVU's is among the most extreme examples of a flagship university turning to such dramatic cuts, particularly to foreign languages. The union called the move to eliminate 8% of majors and 5% of faculty a failure of university leadership to uphold its mission as a land-grant institution, charged since the 1800s with educating rural students who historically had been excluded from higher education. A quarter of all children in West Virginia live in poverty, and many public K-12 schools don't offer robust language programs at a time when language knowledge is becoming increasingly important in the global jobs market. As the school continues to evaluate its finances, the union plans to keep a close eye on its budget, mobilize against any additional proposed cuts and prepare alternative proposals to keep curriculum and faculty positions in place. Another key goal is monitoring and influencing the school's search for its new president after university head E. Gordon Gee retires next year. Gee, the subject of symbolic motions from a faculty group that expressed no confidence in his leadership, said last year the curriculum cuts came at a time of change in higher education, and that WVU was “leading that change rather than being its victim.” Higher education nationwide has become "arrogant" and “isolated,” he said, warning that without change, schools face “a very bleak future.” Union Assembly of Delegates President and Co-Founder Matthew Kolb, a senior math major, said his group doesn't want a new president who believes running the school as a corporate or business entity is the only option for getting things done properly. “We know, when push comes to shove, the results of that are 143 faculty getting shoved off a cliff with one vote," he said. Adams, a north central West Virginia native who was the first in his family to attend college immediately after high school, said he could transfer to another institution and continue his studies in Chinese. But much of the reason he chose WVU was because of a commitment to the state and a desire to improve its socioeconomic outlook. “A lot of West Virginians feel trapped in West Virginia and feel like they have to leave — not a lot of people choose to stay here," Adams said. “I made the conscious decision to go to WVU to stay here to help improve my state.” The cuts meant reaffirming that commitment, “despite basically being told by my state's flagship university that, ‘Your major is irrelevant, it doesn’t matter, it’s not worth our time or money to teach.’” Student union organizations have existed for hundreds of years worldwide. Commonly associated in the U.S. with on-campus hubs where students access dining halls, club offices and social events, in the United Kingdom the union also takes on the form of a university-independent advocacy arm lobbying at the institutional and national level. Members say they envision the West Virginia United Students’ Union similar to those in the U.K., and it’s a concept they want to help grow. That has meant a lot of work behind the scenes, strategizing to keep students interested and engaged and building relationships with the university campus workers union, student government and other organizations. That work with the union helped keep up student morale as they watched faculty scramble to find new jobs and rewrite curriculum, student Felicia Carrara said. An international studies and Russian studies double major from North Carolina, Carrara said she and many of her peers chose West Virginia University because it was affordable. “The fact that we would now have to pivot to try and find the scholarships and other money to be able to afford an education anywhere else, or just not get a degree at all or get a degree that’s really bare bones. It’s just really disheartening," she said. “When you come to higher ed, you think things are going to be better than they were in high school and in middle school,” she said. “And it’s very sad finding out that they’re not.” Andrew Ross, a senior German and political science double major, will be the last graduate to major in the language. A 31-year-old nontraditional student who transferred to WVU in 2022 after earning an associate's degree, Ross learned about the proposed cuts days after he returned home from a summer program in Germany he attended with the help of a departmental scholarship. Ross, now the student union's assembly of delegates vice president, said the cuts “felt like getting slapped in the face.” The university told him to drop the German major. He's proud of his effort to finish the degree after twists and turns, but it's bittersweet. “In some ways and it makes me sad because I hope there isn’t someone who is still growing up that can’t have this experience — we all deserve it,” he said. “This university isn’t just failing me, it’s failing the state.”
Things to know when the Arkansas Legislature convenes to take up a budget and other issues None - Arkansas lawmakers are meeting at the Capitol for a session that will focus on Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' $6.3 billion proposed budget for the coming year Things to know when the Arkansas Legislature convenes to take up a budget and other issues LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Arkansas lawmakers are convening at the Capitol and their top agenda item is taking up Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' $6.3 billion proposed budget for the coming year. The session also could include efforts to tweak or outright repeal a law dealing with cryptocurrency mining operations. Sanders, a Republican who took office last year, is scheduled to kick off this year's session on Wednesday with an address to members of the House and Senate. “Our preference is to keep it very limited, and that's been our practice” since voters approved annual sessions in 2008, House Speaker Matthew Shepherd said. Here's a look at what to expect during the fiscal session: Sanders last month proposed a budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 that increases state spending by 1.76% over the previous year. Nearly all of the $109 million increase would go toward education and is related to a law Sanders signed last year that created a new school voucher program. “As Governor, I’ve promised to Arkansans to limit the size and growth of government while still investing in areas of greatest need like education and public safety," Sanders said in a statement. "My proposed budget accomplishes this with only a 1.76% increase over last fiscal year, far below the 3% year-over-year increase our state has averaged in the recent past, and my top priority this fiscal session is its passage.” House and Senate leaders have said they think there is support for the budget plan in the majority-Republican Legislature. But Democrats have said they hope to highlight their concerns about the voucher program's costs. “This is the first year of the law. What does this portend for future years?” Senate Minority Leader Greg Leding said. Changes to the cryptocurrency mining law and temporary adjustments to pay plans for state employees are likely to come up, despite a requirement that non-budget bills gain a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate to even be considered in even-numbered years. There has been backlash from some communities to limits enacted last year to local governments' ability to regulate cryptocurrency mines, which are data centers requiring large amounts of computing power and electricity. Sen. Joshua Bryant, a Republican who sponsored the measure last year, said he's working on legislation to address concerns that the limits interfere with addressing complaints about the mines’ noise and impact on the community. Bryant said the legislation also is aimed at preventing Chinese ownership of these facilities. “I just want to try to have good policy and correct the ills of the past," Bryant said. But Republican Sen. Bryan King said he doesn't think those changes go far enough and he is working on legislation to repeal the law. “We're learning so much more that should have been told on the front end” about last year's law, King said. Sanders didn't say whether she would support changes, but spokeswoman Alex Henning said the governor “will continue to protect the safety of Arkansans, fight back against China buying up our land, and encourage Arkansas businesses to be good neighbors.” Sanders has said she also plans to seek temporary changes to the pay plan for state employees. Sanders last month proposed a one-time 3% increase in state employee pay, and raising every state employees’ pay to at least $15 an hour by July 1. The governor has said the changes are needed to make the state more competitive in recruiting employees. The governor has said she would seek a more comprehensive overhaul of the pay plan in the 2025 session. Legislative leaders have said they want to wait to take up another tax cut until later in the fiscal year to look at more reductions. Sanders has signed into law two income tax cuts. “Clearly a supermajority of the Legislature wants to continue cutting taxes, the governor wants to continue to cut income taxes,” Senate President Bart Hester said. “We just want to do it in a continued responsible manner.” The governor's office stopped short of saying whether the governor had agreed to hold off on tax cuts until later. Henning said Sanders would “continue to work with the legislature to look for every opportunity to responsibly phase out the state income tax.”
Hotels where baseball fans can score cool perks, save some money None - Most of the best hotels for baseball fans are located just a block from the nearest baseball stadium, but one unique hotel — the Toronto Marriott City Centre Hotel — is situated inside one With baseball season in full swing, it’s time for fans to make their game-day plans. For those traveling to the game, that can require finding a hotel to serve as a home base. After all, sports and travel go together like peanuts and Cracker Jack. According to an American Express survey conducted in early 2024 of people who travel at least once a year, 58% of respondents said they were interested in traveling for sporting events in 2024, with 67% of millennial and Generation Z respondents citing interest. When it comes to lodging, the best hotels for baseball fans include memorabilia tied to local teams or views of the stadiums. Some offer discounts or promotions centered around the team’s performance. Here are five hotels that are a home run for baseball fans. HILTON BALTIMORE INNER HARBOR — BALTIMORE ORIOLES Located next toOriole Park at Camden Yards, this hotel makes it easy to get inside the ballpark. But you might not even need to buy a ticket to watch the game, as many of the hotel rooms overlook the stadium. If you intend to watch from your room, request a higher floor for a better view. HOTEL COMMONWEALTH — BOSTON RED SOX Multiple rooms within Boston’s Hotel Commonwealth embody the spirit of baseball. For example, the Fenway Park Suite patio features original ballpark seats. Inside, there’s Red Sox memorabilia, including vintage baseball cards and the “6” from the Green Monster scoreboard. The hotel also sells game packages, which include an overnight stay and game tickets. Depending on the package, you’ll get extras such as a signed baseball or a personalized message on the scoreboard during the game. HYATT REGENCY SAN FRANCISCO — SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS The Hyatt Regency San Francisco embraces not just the Giants, but also all the city’s sports teams. Through the end of 2024, the hotel is running a promotion for free valet parking and a room upgrade. Plus, if a San Francisco home team wins, you’ll be treated to two complimentary drinks from the bar in the hotel’s iconic brutalist-style atrium. LIVE! BY LOEWS - ST. LOUIS— ST. LOUIS CARDINALS Located across the street from Busch Stadium and in the heart of Ballpark Village, the Live! by Loews - St. Louis is not only convenient, but its particular location also holds serious Cardinals history. The 216-room hotel sits on the former site of Busch Stadium II, which operated until 2005. TORONTO MARRIOTT CITY CENTRE HOTEL — TORONTO BLUE JAYS Toronto Marriott City Centre Hotel, located within the Rogers Centre, offers a unique viewing experience for Blue Jays fans. Book one of the field-view guest rooms for floor-to-ceiling windows with panoramic views of the field and stadium. You can also watch from the hotel’s restaurant, the Sportsnet Grill, which has giant windows overlooking the field, while the restaurant’s speakers stream the game’s audio. Baseball-inspired menu items include the 24-inch Slugger hot dog. HOW TO SAVE ON HOTELS DURING BASEBALL SEASON The hotel for your next baseball pilgrimage might cost more this year than in previous seasons. According to Hotel Monitor 2024, a forecast from American Express Global Business Travel, a post-pandemic return to in-person meetings and ongoing inflation have contributed to higher hotel prices. Some baseball-centric cities are set to see especially notable price hikes, including Boston, where room rates will jump by 11.3% year over year, the Hotel Monitor report found. If your schedule is flexible, travel later in the baseball season so you’re not competing with summer vacation crowds. Or, consider being flexible in terms of the day of the week. According to a 2023 analysis of MLB ticket sales by ticket reseller TicketCity, midweek games offer the best deals. The report, which looked at ticket sales from 20,000 MLB games from 2014-2022, found that Saturday ticket prices are the most in-demand and the priciest, averaging $78.61. Meanwhile, Wednesday MLB games are the least expensive, averaging $56.19 per ticket. Lower ticket demand may translate to lower rates at nearby hotels catering to sports fans. To save further, consider joining the hotel’s loyalty program (if they have one). These programs can offer an easy way to accrue points toward future stays and sometimes net discounted rates. Higher levels of hotel elite status can unlock room upgrades or free meals. You might also roll the dice with prepaid room rates. Though typically nonrefundable, these rates can lock in lower prices. This article was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet. Sally French is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: sfrench@nerdwallet.com. METHODOLOGY The American Express poll was conducted from Jan. 31 to Feb. 8, 2024, as part of The American Express Travel 2024 Global Travel Trends Report. Online interviews were conducted with 8,029 adults around the world who make at least $50,000 annually and typically travel at least once a year. The margin of sampling error is +/- 2-4 percentage points. Millennials and Generation Z are defined as respondents born between 1981 and 2012. American Express Travel. (March, 2024). “2024 Global Travel Trends Report.” https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/travel/discover/get-inspired/global-travel-trends?extlink=US-Web-GTT-global-travel-trends#the-game RELATED LINK: How to Choose the Best Hotel Rewards Program For You https://bit.ly/nerdwallet-hotel-rewards-program
‘A deeply broken system’: is it time England abandoned council tax? None - Battersea power station offered no prospect of luxury living when Tony Belton became a local councillor in 1971. The coal-fired behemoth was nearing closure after 40 years of belching soot over London, and would spend almost as long in dereliction and blight as a result of false starts at redevelopment. By 1991, most people visiting the area were there for the dogs’ home or council rubbish dump. Squatting pigeons were the power station’s only residents, and steel bracing protected its 48-metre-high brick walls from collapse. “It was largely completely flat, derelict land, almost the total distance of Nine Elms Lane on both sides of the road. It was a desert, really,” says Belton, strolling through the glitzy shopping centre and apartment complex that now fills the old boiler rooms, where penthouses can change hands for more than £30m. “It’s unimaginable. There was nothing here, and certainly no one living here.” However, 1991 is the point in time that the government believes should still be used to determine the council tax paid by Battersea’s new multimillionaire inhabitants – which leaves the residents of some of London’s most expensive homes paying less than does an average household in Blackpool, Stoke-on-Trent or Nottingham. With councils across England in financial crisis after years of central government austerity, calls are growing to reform council tax. Most authorities increased the levy by the maximum allowed 4.99% this month, raising about £2bn and adding about £100 to average household bills. However, local government leaders say this is not enough to prevent more councils from going bust without wholesale reform to a system that has barely changed since its hurried introduction under John Major to replace Margaret Thatcher’s controversial poll tax. “It all gets very silly. New valuations are based on ‘how much would this property have been worth in 1991’, which is a fairly nonsensical discussion,” says John Merry, the deputy mayor of Salford, who chairs the group Key Cities, a cross-party association representing large councils. “Major needed a quick fix to sort out the poll tax debacle. But it’s never changed from the beginning. It’s a ridiculous system.” Council tax bands in England are set using property values on 1 April 1991, ranging from band A, for homes worth up to £40,000, up to £320,001 and above for the highest band, H. The system of funding local government is different across the UK: Northern Ireland has rates instead of council tax. In Scotland, council tax is also based on 1991 property values, but the Holyrood government raised the relative tax rates for bands E to H in 2017. The Welsh government is the only one to have revalued properties – in 2005, using 2003 valuations – and it is now looking at ways to bring the system further up to date. View image in fullscreen Switch House East, part of the high-end residential complex at the power station. Photograph: John Sturrock To police the labyrinthine system, the government’s Valuation Office Agency (VOA) decides which band to apply, employing more than 500 staff in 25 locations dedicated to working out how much things were worth when Chesney Hawkes’s The One and Only was topping the charts. The task is, however, complicated by three decades of construction adding at least 4.5m new homes to England’s housing stock, alongside the conversion of millions of existing buildings for residential use – including Battersea power station and countless factories, shops and barns. In 2022-23 alone, the VOA added about 300,000 properties to the council tax register, and handled almost 50,000 challenges – usually by people trying to save money by moving to a lower band. To get around this, the VOA estimates how much a property might have sold for 33 years ago based on similar homes in the area. And if an area has changed significantly – for example, if it was used for industrial purposes – it looks at the closest similar residential areas. However, the system sets in stone property values that bear little relation to modern Britain after a more-than-quadrupling of average house prices over the past three decades. With even bigger increases in values in London and the south-east, critics say council tax has become a turbocharger of inequality. “It is clearly a deeply broken system. That valuation on 1991 properties is so ridiculously out of date now that it’s almost laughable,” says Stuart Hoddinott, a senior researcher at the Institute for Government thinktank. “Particularly when you have people in relatively low-value properties, who are generally worse off, paying quite a lot as a share of their property value compared with someone in an enormous mansion in London.” Three decades ago, there were only a handful of residential properties surrounding Battersea power station, on a polluted bank of the Thames dominated by abandoned gas works, coal yards and bulldozed factories that once produced anything from cement and chemicals to oil and vinegar. Pimlico and Chelsea, just north of the river, were home to the nearest mansions, in a stark contrast played on by the 1968 film Up the Junction. Belton recalls taking an EU regeneration commissioner to a tower at New Covent Garden market in the 1980s to survey the barren Nine Elms landscape adjacent to the power station: “I was telling him what a fantastic opportunity this is – you could do anything you like. And his response was: ‘Why don’t you give up and move out of London?’” Plans for the building, which features on the cover of Pink Floyd’s album Animals, came and went – ignoring advice from the Duke of Edinburgh to “knock the bloody thing down” – including proposals for a theme park and new stadium for Chelsea FC. Belton was there for them all, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and George Clooney burying a Batman and Robin time capsule at the site in 1997 to mark Warner Bros’ plans for a 32-screen cinema. Every scheme fell apart until 2012, when a Malaysian consortium bought the Grade II*-listed landmark with a view to building luxury flats and shops. It opened in 2022 amid accusations that the development – having had £1.1bn in taxpayer money for an extension of the Northern Line – lacked affordable housing and was a playground for the super-rich. “Most people I know wouldn’t dream of living here. They think it’s built for foreign investors, not ordinary people and Londoners,” Belton says. Despite the lack of any real comparable reference points, VOA valuers did give the power station’s most expensive £8m-plus penthouses the top band H for council tax, in a category that would rank them alongside Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street. However, other luxury flats were put in lower bands, including one that Land Registry records show sold for £3.2m, being in band G – implying a 1991 value of between £160,001 and £320,000. The VOA said it could not comment on specific locations, but added that it could also consider council tax bands already allocated to similar properties, in addition to sales evidence from 1991. Battersea Power Station Development Company said it had shared sales prices and completion dates with the VOA, but was otherwise not involved in the banding decisions. View image in fullscreen The derelict power station and its surroundings in 2006. Photograph: Dan Chung/The Guardian Even in band H, Battersea’s new residents will still pay a tiny fraction of the value of their property in council tax: Wandsworth council, which covers the area including the power station, charges about £2,000 a year for the band – less than 0.03% of the £8m sale price. In comparison, residents of an average-priced home in Hartlepool (£124,000), where average band D council tax is £2,377.61, can expect to pay almost 2% of their property value in council tax. This partly reflects the fact that councils in northern England had a smaller share of top-banded properties in 1991 than the south, where the most expensive homes were. Over time, this has forced councils in the north and Midlands to drive up council tax by more than those in the south to deliver the same increase in funding. “Let’s say we introduced council tax today, with a rate of less than 1% in Westminster and 2% in Wigan. I think people would be up in arms,” says Andrew Dixon, the founder of Fairer Share, a campaign group calling for ministers to scrap council tax and replace it with a proportional property tax. “The bands are so narrow between A and H, and property prices have changed so much, that it ends up as a de facto poll tax.” As the general election looms, neither main party has set out plans to reform council tax. With the banding system having remained untouched for three decades, there are concerns that change could force large numbers of asset-rich but cash-poor homeowners in London and the south-east to sell up, triggering a collapse in property prices. However, critics say leaving it untouched retains a system that is now just as damaging as the poll tax it sought to replace. “The problem has only got worse as huge numbers of councils are struggling financially,” says Dixon. “It’s absurd that council tax is trying to provide important services like social care off 1991 property values, it just makes no sense. It’s neither understandable, nor is it fair.”
Secret home insurance commissions raking in millions for landlords in England and Wales None - Landlords of developments in England and Wales where residents face hefty service charges face calls to disclose millions of pounds in “secret commissions” raked in over the years for arranging buildings insurance. Experts say these hidden commissions, paid to landlords including City investment funds that hold freeholds and managing agents, have been worth tens of millions of pounds a year. The arrangements were made without residents being told and resulted in higher service charges. A broker may arrange a policy for a residential development, but then split tens of thousands of pounds in commission paid by the insurance firm with the property manager or owner of the freehold. The total commission can be as high as 60% of the cost of the premium paid by leaseholders. Pressure on landlords to disclose the scale of commission they collected comes after the Observer reported last weekend on allegations of “widespread service charge abuse” in many developments, including those marketed as affordable. Under new rules introduced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on 31 December last year, insurance firms must provide on request to leaseholders details of any commission paid for policies renewing or starting after that date. The housing secretary, Michael Gove, has pledged to ban the commissions. Neil Holloway, founder of M2 Recovery, an insurance specialist, said it was “disgraceful” that the practice of paying secret commissions to landlords and agents had been allowed to go on for so long. “They have milked it for everything they can,” he said. Liam Spender, 40, a solicitor, uncovered a series of secret insurance commissions after challenging his service charge of about £5,000 a year on his two-bedroom flat in the St David’s Square development in the Isle of Dogs, east London. He found the property manager was required to pass the bulk of the commissions it received for the buildings insurance policy to an investment fund, ARC Time Freehold Income Fund, which ultimately owned the freeholds of the development. Spender alleged in a property tribunal case that between 2018 and 2020 the fund received 85% of the buildings insurance commission of £114,290. The fund conceded to the challenge on these commissions, scrapping an agreed chunk of them before the hearing early last year. Spender said in a statement to the tribunal that he considered that the fund had received £5.2m in building insurance commissions from 2017 to 2020, based on an analysis of the fund’s financial statements. Time investments, which operates the ARC Time Freehold Income Fund, did not respond to a request for comment. Spender is still battling other bills in his disputed service charges and wants other landlords to provide details of commissions they have collected. “Freeholders have seen leaseholders as cash cows they can bleed at will. It’s money for nothing for them,” said Spender. “It’s a wild west, and the laws are treated as optional. There are endless opportunities to exploit service charges because of the secrecy around how the money is spent.” FCA analysis in April last year of 16 firms working on multi-occupancy buildings insurance found commissions of £80.7m over three years and nine months. Its report said: “This amount clearly impacts the premiums paid to insure multi-occupancy buildings, and the level of costs for the leaseholders who often ultimately bear this expense.” Gove said last year that this was “completely unacceptable”. He said commissions reflected “a market that is failing consumers” and now proposes to ban such payments in a bill going through parliament. Ministers are under pressure to help leaseholders, with some annual service charge bills increasing by more than 40% this month. More than 1,000 people across the country are threatening to refuse to pay, with residents complaining they are being ripped off by landlords. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: “Our leasehold and freehold reform bill will create a fair and transparent system for leaseholders by banning building insurance commissions from being paid to freeholders and managing agents. This is part of a wider, ambitious agenda that will strengthen protections for leaseholders and improve their rights.” The FCA said: “We have changed our rules to explicitly require insurance firms to provide policy information to leaseholders including detail of any commission paid. Our rules also prevent firms from proposing or recommending policies based on commission levels.”
From HS2 to the NHS, Britain doesn’t cut costs. Disastrously, it just cuts corners None - As governments across the world assess their responses to four years of successive economic calamities, it is clear the UK’s default reaction – to cut corners and adopt the cheapest route out of a malaise – has many hidden costs. Across the public sector, from warships to NHS computer systems and railways, projects are turned inside out and salami-sliced to a point where few can remember the original concept. Ministers say they are saving money even when it is clear they are spending more – whether incurring higher costs per mile on HS2, installing a “dysfunctional” IT system or building an aircraft carrier that sails with only a fraction of the planes it was designed to support. Ministers even save money by refusing to pay for independent academic reviews of what little does go ahead, which means that, over time, the government finds itself pressing on with little clue about how new projects will work and what benefit they will generate. It is government by instinct and with a blindfold on, leaving a potential future Labour government to inherit a cultural and administrative deficit alongside a huge funding shortfall. That’s not the way the Treasury sees it. Jeremy Hunt, like many of his predecessors, believes the government must put every spending initiative and project through the financial mincer to save the exchequer from imminent bankruptcy. When it comes to recent examples of corner cutting, one small instance can be found in the NHS, where the introduction of GP assistants, sometimes called physician associates, is considered an appropriate answer to a shortage of GPs. These individuals are recruited and fast-tracked to take over the basic duties, and some clinical tasks, previously performed by a doctor. The government is enthusiastic even if many GP practices are wary. There is worse corner cutting in the health service when you consider the way new IT systems are layered on top of previous ones with no money for integration. It means that many hospital departments are fully staffed, but with nurses who have little time to treat patients while they input data into several separate software programmes. A minister should want to know how well a project raises the productivity of workers or increases the scope of what the public sector can do. Yet we know from independent consultants who have worked inside Whitehall that ministerial instinct too often overrules evidence. A Lords review that asked 'are multi-academy trusts the answer?' could not produce any academic evidence that they had improved the skills or wellbeing of children Massive overhauls of public sector activity – switching local authority housing to social housing associations, transferring schools from local authority control to academy trusts – are the subject of discrete research projects or less-than-independent departmental reviews. A recent House of Lords review that asked “are multi-academy trusts the answer?” could not produce any academic evidence that this major shift in education policy over the past 20 years had improved the performance, skills or mental wellbeing of school-age children. Elsewhere, the National Audit Office recently told the Treasury it was dismayed that among £200bn of tax measures, there was little evaluation of those designed to encourage economic growth. “There is no agreed number of reliefs targeted at economic growth, and they are neither monitored as a group nor compared for overall effectiveness,” it said. The conclusion was that tens of billions of pounds had been wasted because it was inconvenient to examine what worked and what didn’t. In Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through, the writer Duncan Weldon describes how British politicians, when tackling crises, used to work for the good of the nation to steady the ship. A less generous view would condemn those politicians for throwing overboard anyone that weighed on government’s ability to maintain an elevated standard of living for the majority. The miners and steelworkers found themselves in this situation in the early 1980s. That’s why a recent report by the IPPR thinktank examining the effects of AI on employment is understandably gloomy. UK governments are notorious for discarding those whose skills no longer fit with incoming technologies. There isn’t the money for retraining or apprenticeships, the politicians say, leaving workers displaced by AI, in all likelihood, to figure things out for themselves. This is Labour’s inheritance. A culture that allows politicians to plough ahead with projects untested by examination and, when they unravel, lets the project be trimmed until its value is largely lost. It is this deficit of rigour that will heap extra costs on future generations – not the borrowing needed to achieve some progress.
NOW: Solar eclipse crosses into U.S. None - We are counting down to the solar eclipse! NBC News' Jay Gray has the latest updates and MSNBC's Chris Jansing speaks with those waiting to see the rare event.April 8, 2024
Biden student debt relief plans 'could move the needle' for young voters None - President Biden is set to announce new plans to provide student debt relief for millions. Meanwhile, former President Trump said earlier that abortion laws should be left to the states. NBC News' Gabe Gutierrez, Mark Murray and former Rep. David Jolly have the latest as the road to November heats up.April 8, 2024
Watch emotional moments as skywatchers view solar eclipse None - A total solar eclipse — nicknamed the Great North American Eclipse for its long path over North America — was visible in the sky over parts of Mexico, 15 U.S. states and eastern Canada. Watch a roundup of stunning moments from the people watching the eclipse, and the eclipse itself.April 8, 2024
Gadi Schwartz reports on eclipse totality from plane above Arkansas None - IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.
'This is magical': Lester Holt and Tom Costello witness totality in Indianapolis None - IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.
'Just amazing!': Solar eclipse watchers go wild as the moment of totality passes over Dallas None - IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.
Thousands pack Indianapolis Motor Speedway to view eclipse None - NBC's Lester Holt is one of the nearly 50,000 people gathered at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where they expect one of the best views of today's total solar eclipse.April 8, 2024
Cosmic yoga, portable toilets: Solar eclipse will deliver 'tourism boom' for economy None - "Eclipse Across America" will air live Monday, April 8, beginning at 2 p.m. ET on ABC, ABC News Live, National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD, Disney+ and Hulu as well as network social media platforms. A fully booked hotel in Maine said it received its first request from a solar eclipse tourist five years ago. A portable toilet vendor in Indiana said it is doing 10 times more business than it usually would at this time of year. A botanical garden in Texas already sold out its eclipse viewing event, warning "walk-ups will not be accepted." A wave of travel to the 15 states in the viewing path of the total solar eclipse, set to take place on April 8, will generate a surge of spending to the tune of at least hundreds of millions of dollars, delivering a windfall for local businesses and a burst of activity for towns suddenly transformed into tourist destinations, some economists told ABC News. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime event," Adam Kamins, senior director of economic research at Moody's Analytics, told ABC News. "It will essentially be a weekend-long tourism boom." In the U.S., the path of totality will begin in Texas and travel upward through midwestern states such as Indiana and Ohio, ultimately reaching the likes of New York, New Hampshire and Maine. As many as four million people will travel to the path of totality for the eclipse, making it the largest travel day of the year, according to research group Great American Eclipse. Travelers will mainly shell out money for gas, lodging and food, generating between $372 million and $1.5 billion in economic activity, Bulent Temel, professor of practice and economics at the University of Texas, San Antonio, told ABC News. Temel examined the spending of a typical tourist during the most recent solar eclipse, in 2017, adjusting for inflation and projecting that visitors this time around would each spend about $244 each. "It's quite significant," Temel said. Rangeley, Maine, a snowy resort destination for stargazers and snow-mobile riders, is home to 1,200 people. The town expects as many as 20,000 visitors for the eclipse, Travis Ferland, owner of the Rangeley Inn and board member at the local chamber of commerce, told ABC News. The Rangeley Inn, which began taking reservations in November, sold out in January. To serve eclipse tourists, the hotel will host a "Coffee & Constellations" discussion leading up to the eclipse and a themed party afterward, replete with a live band. Other activities on offer for eclipse tourists in Rangeley: "Cosmic Yoga," "Total Eclipse Paint Night" and "Night Sky Trivia." Parkside & Main, a local restaurant, has received about 20 calls per day from eclipse visitors as far flung as Washington State, California and Australia, Kash Haley, the part owner of the businesses, told ABC News. "People love their astronomy," Haley said. People watch the Annular Solar Eclipse with using safety glasses in Brownsville, Texas on Oct. 14, 2023. Mike Gonzalez/Anadolu via Getty Images, FILE The restaurant plans to stock 50% more food than it typically would at this time of year, but Haley said he doesn't want to run the risk of purchasing too much and suffering the cost. "For a small business, it's tricky," Haley said. "There's no science behind it." The restaurant has sold themed T-shirts bearing the slogan, "Parkside of the Moon," and an illustration of a fork and knife inside the iconic triangle that appears on the cover of the Pink Floyd album by a similar name. In all, the eclipse is expected to bring more than $24 million in spending to Maine, according to research firm The Perryman Group. The spending in Texas, which Temel estimated could reach more than $600 million, will make it "the most profitable 22 minutes in Texas history," Temel said, referring to the expected duration of the full solar eclipse over the state. In Arkansas, the eclipse could bring nearly $50 million in economic activity, according to a study by Michael Pakko, chief economist and state economic forecaster at the Arkansas Economic Development Institute at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. "It might very well be the biggest single tourism event in the state's history," Pakko told ABC News. Kamins, of Moody's Analytics, said the eclipse would bring a significant, albeit temporary boom for towns and cities along the path of totality. However, he added, the economic benefits will be limited by the lodging and restaurant capacity of the regions involved. Some of the states -- including Arkansas, Ohio and Indiana -- rank among the lowest for their share of the nation's consumer-driven economic output, Kamins added. "Obviously, it's a natural event," Kamins said. "It has no concern for where the tourism infrastructure might be." An unsung feature of that infrastructure: toilets. In Bloomington, Indiana, where local officials expect 300,000 visitors for the eclipse, a portable toilet company called Izzy's Rentals is seeing more customer demand than it ever has in its nearly 20 years of operation, Cindy Lewis, the company's part owner, told ABC News. Izzy's typically rents out about 20 portable toilets on a typical weekend day in April, Lewis said. On the day of the eclipse, she added, the company will rent out 200. In preparation, the family-owned firm added a third employee and expanded its inventory with help from a company in Indianapolis, Lewis said. "To have a big day like this in April is wonderful," Lewis said, while acknowledging some trepidation about the frenzy headed her company's way. "It feels like a big impending storm," Lewis added. "You don't quite know what's coming."
An engine on a Southwest Airlines jet caught fire before taking off from Texas. FAA is investigating None - Federal officials are looking into an engine fire on a Southwest Airlines plane An engine on a Southwest Airlines jet caught fire before taking off from Texas. FAA is investigating DALLAS -- Federal officials are investigating a reported engine fire that forced a Southwest Airlines plane to cancel takeoff and return to the gate at the Lubbock, Texas, airport on Thursday. Southwest said Friday that pilots “received an indication of a possible engine issue,” and the Boeing 737 taxied back to the terminal at Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport. The Lubbock fire department said online that it confirmed there was a fire in one of the two engines that needed to be extinguished. The Federal Aviation Administration said it was investigating the incident. The flight was headed to Las Vegas with 154 passengers and crew of six on board, Southwest said. The airline flew in a replacement plane from Dallas to complete the trip later Thursday night. The plane was a Boeing 737-800, an older model than the 737 Max. The engines are made by CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric and France's Safran S.A.
Taiwan Semi, Spirit Airlines rise; Paramount Global, Occidental Petroleum fall, Monday, 4/8/2024 None - Stocks that traded heavily or had substantial price changes on Monday: Taiwan Semi, Spirit Airlines rise; Paramount Global, Occidental Petroleum fall The Associated Press By The Associated Press NEW YORK -- Stocks that traded heavily or had substantial price changes on Monday: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., up $1.43 to $142.79. The White House pledged to provide up to $6.6 billion for the chipmaker to expand facilities in Arizona. Apartment Income REIT Corp., up $7.03 to $38.38. The real estate investment trust agreed to be acquired by Blackstone for $39.12 a share in cash. Paramount Global, down 91 cents to $11.06. Controlling shareholder Shari Redstone could net $2 billion in cash in a buyout deal reportedly being discussed for the owner of CBS. JPMorgan Chase & Co., up $1.03 to $198.48. CEO Jamie Dimon's annual shareholder letter said he continues to expect the U.S. economy to grow this year. Model N Inc., up $2.73 to $29.82. The Silicon Valley software company agreed to be acquired for $30 a share in cash by Vista Equity Partners. Perion Network Ltd., down $8.61 to $12.50. The digital advertising company cut its full-year sales and profit forecasts, citing a drop in search ads on Microsoft's Bing search engine. Spirit Airlines, Inc., up 29 cents to $4.72. The discount airline is deferring deliveries of aircraft from Airbus and plans to furlough 260 pilots effective Sept. 1. Occidental Petroleum Corp., down 52 cents to $68.73. Energy companies fell along with crude oil prices.
How major US stock indexes fared Thursday, 4/4/2024 None - U.S. stocks slumped after a Federal Reserve official raised the possibility of delivering none of the cuts to interest rates this year that Wall Street has been banking on, if inflation worsens How major US stock indexes fared Thursday, 4/4/2024 The Associated Press By The Associated Press U.S. stocks slumped after a Federal Reserve official raised the possibility of delivering none of the cuts to interest rates this year that Wall Street has been banking on, if inflation worsens. The S & P 500 dropped 1.2% Thursday for its worst day since February. It erased an earlier gain of nearly 1% that had brought it to the cusp of its record. The Dow swung 1.4% lower, and the Nasdaq composite lost 1.4%. Markets were already unsettled before Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari expressed concern about inflation. Friday’s U.S. jobs report could shake the market further. Oil prices jumped, and Treasury yields sank. On Thursday: The S & P 500 fell 64.28 points, or 1.2%, to 5,147.21. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 530.16 points, or 1.4%, to 38,596.98. The Nasdaq composite fell 228.38 points, or 1.4%, to 16,049.08. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 22.38 points, or 1.1%, to 2,053.80. For the week: The S & P 500 is down 107.14 points, or 2%. The Dow is down 1,210.39 points, or 3%. The Nasdaq is down 330.38 points, or 2%. The Russell 2000 is down 70.72 points, or 3.3%. For the year: The S & P 500 is up 377.38 points, or 7.9%. The Dow is up 907.44 points, or 2.4%. The Nasdaq is up 1,037.73 points, or 6.9%. The Russell 2000 is up 26.75 points, or 1.3%. ___ An earlier version of this item reported erroneously that the S & P 500 fell 1% Thursday.
ASEAN finance leaders end meetings in Laos, pointing to challenges from geopolitics, volatile prices None - Southest Asian finance ministers and central bank governors have ended meetings in the Laotian city of Luang Prabang citing progress in building stronger regional institutions, but also noting serious challenges due to geopolitical tensions and volatil... LUANG PRABANG, Laos -- Southeast Asian economies are gaining ground as tourism and exports recover from the shocks of the pandemic, but geopolitical tensions and volatile commodity prices still pose serious risks, regional financial leaders said Friday. Laos’ Finance Minister Santiphab Phomvihane read out a joint statement following meetings among finance ministers at a hotel in the Laotian city of Luang Prabang, a UNESCO heritage site, but he made no other remarks and took no questions. Estimates for economic growth in members of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations vary but are generally near a robust 5% for 2024. “Nevertheless, there are still challenges due to adverse financial spillovers from geopolitical tensions, volatility in global commodity prices,” Phomvihane said, also pointing to climate change, aging populations and rapid development of digitalization as key factors for the region. He did not elaborate, but the repercussions of the war in Ukraine and tensions between Washington and Beijing are among the geopolitical risks that have impacted trade and global commodity prices in recent years, trickling down to the smaller ASEAN economies that depend heavily on trade with China. ASEAN members also include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. East-Timor is seeking to join. As ASEAN's most economically challenged economy, excluding its strife-torn neighbor Myanmar, Laos has time to prepare for the aging of its youthful population of about 7.5 million. Some of its neighbors are growing old before they become affluent. The government reckons it is in a demographic sweet spot with a couple of decades to prepare. But it faces a raft of other troubles, with massive foreign debt, a weakening currency and inflation running at about 25%. In terms of U.S. dollars Laos' economy is shrinking due to the devaluation of its currency, the kip. However, in local currency terms it grew at a 3.7% rate last year and is forecast to expand at a 4% rate in 2024. “Things are normalizing,” said Winfried F. Wicklein, director general for Southeast Asia for the Asian Development Bank. But the country is deemed to be in debt distress, with payment obligations exceeding $1 billion a year and total borrowing amounting to about 125% of its economy, with half owed to China. Chinese financial institutions are believed to have rescheduled payments for about $2 billion in those debts since 2020, helping Laos to avoid an outright default and relieving some pressure on the economy. “Large chunks of debt repayments owed to China are being pushed into the future with little transparency around the interest and repayment process for this,” said Keith Barney, a professor at Australia National University's Crawford School of Public Policy and who has been researching Laos for more than 20 years. “The Lao economy is facing serious problems and it’s hard to see an immediately apparent exit route”," he said. “Laos’s debt problems are narrowing its future pathways for economic growth in different ways.” Still, Laos has acknowledged the seriousness of its debt quandary, allowing the public release of a report by the International Monetary Fund last year that minced no words in outlining urgent actions it said were needed to repair the country's finances, Wicklein noted. “They realize they have a problem and are open to help. They are inviting you to the kitchen and it means a lot,” he said. On the sidelines of the ASEAN meetings this week, Laos signed agreements on launching cross-border payments using QR codes, among other incremental steps aimed at integrating its finances and economy into those of its bigger and richer neighbors. There were no big statements on climate-related issues as the officials met surrounded by forests obscured by thick smoke from hill fires and burning of fields and waste, a seasonal problem that Laos shares with its ASEAN neighbors. But such meetings allow top financial officials to collaborate in sharing lessons they have learned as they plot strategies on curbing carbon emissions. “It's a long way to go, but everybody is committed to the same direction,” Wicklein said. Wicklein pointed to a 600 megawatt monsoon wind power project that will allow Laos to export electricity to neighboring Vietnam as an example of increasing investments in the energy sector beyond Laos' huge hydroelectric power sector. “These megadeals have a demonstrable effect,” he said.