JPMorgan won

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The move will leave a gaping holein Seattle’sw commercial real estate market. WaMu has leased at five downtownoffice buildings, including its formerr headquarters, Washington Mutual Tower. WaMu leases about 543,000 squares feet and subleases an additional accordingto Seattle-based Flinn Fergusonm Corporate Real Estate. JPMorgab (NYSE: JPM) will move all of WaMu’s remaining employees and those on its transition team toWaMu Center, the 42-storyy high-rise tower that Washington Mutuap built in partnership with the Seattld Art Museum. WaMu occupies 900,000 square feet in the JPMorgan had three months afterits Sept.
25 purchaser of WaMu to make a decision abouytthe company’s leases. Those leases will now be turnex over to the Federal DepositInsurance Corp. (FDIC) In the case of Washingtonh Mutual Tower, owner Wright Runstad & Co. has workedx out a deal in which JPMorgajassumed WaMu’s lease on 180,000 square feet of space and then immediatelyu turned it back over to Wrightr Runstad, said Greg Johnson, presidenr of Wright Runstad. That move prevented the space from beingt turned over to the FDIC and allowed JPMorgab to continue to leaseabout 7,000 squars feet in the tower that’ds used for a WaMu branch.
WaMu’s spaced was also 70 percent subleased, so it allowed those tenantse to remain in the buildingwithouyt disruption, said Johnson. “We had three parties that came out as good as they coulrd have in abad situation,” said referring to his company, JPMorgan and the sublease and all employees will be moved by Marchb 24, said Tom Kelly, spokesmam for JPMorgan. Kelly was unsure how many employees will be WaMuemployed 4,200 people in downtowm Seattle but JPMorgan is cuttinb 3,400 of those jobs. Some of those employees will stay longedr with the company on itstransitionh team.

Funding Defense Through a Yearlong Continuing Resolution Is “a Disaster” - Heritage.org

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Funding Defense Through a Yearlong Continuing Resolution Is “a Disaster” Heritage.org A yearlong freeze on defense is significantly below levels that are needed to meet current national security requirements. A defense spending freeze is ... and more »

Litigation up, but law firms advise some against pursuing claims - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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While some law firm practice groups are scramblinbg to drum up litigation continues to providde a steady if not increasinglyt busywork load. “In this period of economi downturn, there has been a greatf deal of disruptions among contractingparties and, as a we’ve seen an increase in breach of contracrt between sophisticated parties,” said Petedr Carter, a partner and business litigator with in “The other disruptions are claimsx relating to partnerships or other businesses that may have failede as a result of the economy.
” Litigation in the financial-servicew industry, unsurprisingly, has picked up, said Todd co-chairman of the litigation group at in Minneapolis. One development is that financial-servicse companies are suing borrowers whose collateral has dropped beloqw the levels set out in theloan agreement, Wind For example, if a business takes out a loan and uses real estate as the collateral, and the value of the real estate has fallen below what is laid out in the loan lenders are sometimes bringing claims againsgt the borrower for breaking the “In the past, it was unusual to declarse default on that basis alone,” Wind Another area litigation lawyers are askef about often is employment law, Wind said.
With many companied laying people off, the incidence of potential discriminatioh claimscould increase. “Companies are lookinyg harder at performance, and employees are concerned abouttpotential discrimination,” he said. The rough economy also is affectinh how law firms work withtheir clients. Whiler in the past, law firms may have takemn on any litigious client that comes the recession has made them ask questionw about whether their clients can afford to engagse in potentiallylengthy proceedings. “Unlike past recessions, which didn’ t seem to affect law firms as law firms are going to makesure there’s adequat e resources to pay for Wind said.
Intellectual propertyh is an area oflitigation that’s relatively unaffected by economic swings, said David Allgeyer, chairma of the litigation department at in However, Allgeyer is noticing an increase in the number of patent smaller cases of patent infringement. Traditionally, most patenyt cases settle out of but Allgeyer said more and more clientz want to pursuetheir claims. “People seem to be thinkin they want to staythe course, or at leasrt they don’t settle as quickly,” Allgeyerr said. One economic issue plaguinyg the litigation field in Minnesota is what Carterd calledthe “crisis of for the judicial branch.
With funding for staff and clerks cut, judgez can’t move cases as quickly as they’d “There are certain days when filings can’tt be made; there is some delay associated with litigatiohn in thestate courts,” Carter said. “The courts have been hit and it impactsbusiness

Salaries for Niagara County teachers - Austin Business Journal:

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for an explanation of theser listings. • Barker -- Start: $36,972 Median: $55,718 (13). Peak: $84,673 • Lewiston-Porter -- Start: $40,971 (6). Median: $58,397 (7). Peak: $78,732 • Lockport -- Start: $37,112 (27). Median: $54,769 Peak: $81,257 (32). • Newfanre -- Start: $37,392 (25). Median: $48,318 (48). Peak: $83,824 • Niagara Falls -- Start: $42,2656 (1). Median: $57,372 Peak: $83,469 (22). • Niagara-Wheatfield -- Start: $41,428 (4). Median: $56,131 (12). $83,901 (18). • North Tonawanda -- $41,214 (5). Median: $62,049 (2). Peak: $83,375 • Royalton-Hartland -- Start: $34,557 Median: $48,413 (46). Peak: $78,008 (46).
Starpoint -- Start: $38,517 (14). Median: $49,966 (31). Peak: $82,721 • Wilson -- Start: $35,3021 (50). Median: $50,293 (27). Peak: $84,926 (15). to proceedr to the salary charf for teachers in theSouthernh Tier.

American Financial drops two insurance lines - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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The downtown-based company’s unit said it will exit the guaranteedc auto protection and excess wear and tear auto insurance liness of its Premier Lease and LoanServicese unit. Both insurance lines provide protection for losse involvingleased autos. Great American will continur to offer otherauto products, such as collateral protection and contingent and excess liability. The compant decided that its capital and other resources could be used more profitablgy in other parts ofthe business. It also evaluater the business climate and the risksd and opportunities tied to staying in thosedbusiness lines, said Diane a company spokeswoman.
Steve Tosh resigned as presiden of Premier Lease and Loan along with the decisio to drop those two Weidner said. He resigned as of May 20, but he stilk stay on as a consultant until the transactions regarding renewal rights are completed. Great American reached a deal with to sell renewakl rights for the two discontinued insurance The way those renewal rights are finalized will determin the impact onlocal jobs, Weidner said. “We’re working througb a lot of details,” she said. “There will be no immediatee impact to the work And the impact will be smalp relative to theentire company.” The company employse 7,400, including about 2,600 locally.

Retail occupancy hits record loss in Q1 - Dallas Business Journal:

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president of . Retail center occupancy includews the occupancy rates of neighborhoodd andcommunity centers, strip centers and regional malls. Roddy’ds latest survey indicates that in the first quartert retailcenter out-migration hit 1.3 million net square feet, and the D/FW area’s overall occupancy level hoverede at 84.33 percent, which is down from 85.97 percent during the first quarter of last year. The current occupancyy level is significantly lower thanthe D-FW area’d peak retail occupancy rate of 89.58 which was reached in the first quarter of 2005, according to Roddy Information Services.
On a submarker basis, the areas making the biggestg losers list in terms of retail occupancy were North Richland Hills with an occupancyg rateof 73.97 percent, followedx by mid-Arlington (69.11 percent); East Plano (78.15 Far North Dallas (80.60%); and Benbrook The submarkets that experienced the most gains in terms of occupancyg included Southwest Fort Worth with a rate of 90.50 percent; Duncanville/Cedar Hill Northwest Tarrant County (76.31%); Farmer’s Branch (85.89%); and Richardsoj (83.64%). The average rental rate for D-FW retail centers hit its highesyt pointat $17 to $16.90 per square foot durinh the first quarter of this year.
“During this real estate I have seen the averagr rental rate for retaip centers in the Metro slip downward for a quarter and then rise back up in the following said Roddy. “However, this time, with the current economifc conditions, I do not expect to see this type of recovery in the next This time, I expect the averagwe rent will continue to adjus t slightly downward.”

Stadium deal faces injunction attempt - Charlotte Business Journal:

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Grace Solares and Elvis Cruz, who filed suit in filed an emergency motion Monday in an efforr to stop the sale of the bonds A copy of the temporary injunction motiob provided by the plaintiffs alleges the county is exceeding its constitutiona l tax and spending powers by issuinbg bonds tied to the professionalsports tax/tourist development tax. As a resulg of the motion and to avoidd a cloud that could affect the interesty rate onthe bonds, the county has pushe back the bond sale dates, Miami-Dade spokeswoman Vick Mallette said. However, the closing date for all the bondsa remainsJuly 14.
The county had alread y planned to push back the bond closinv date due to a request chang on how some financing fees are paidto , whichg has provided the county with a letted of credit for the project. Wachovia’s letter of credift is for two years atapproximatelhy $100 million. The Wachovia change would require an amendmeng to the bond ordinance that allowed the countgy to issue Professional Sports Franchise Tax and Touristg DevelopmentTax bonds. County commissioners will get a chance to considef the change at a special meetinvon Friday. A public hearing and second readinhg is scheduled forJune 30.
If county commissioneras approve theWachovia change, the threes parties would have until mid-July to closre on financing, instead of the end of June. Miami-Dade Countgy and the parties also will be given untilJuly 15, instead of July 1, to pull out of the The change would not impact the projected financing expenditures the county commission already has reviewed, according to a statementy from County Manager George Burgess. “Our confidencs in the project and its underlying funding plan has not he said in a statementon Monday.
On Friday, Burgess also wantas to make “minor technicalo corrections” to the county deed that conveys two parcelxs to the city of Miami for thestadiuk garage. Burgess also is working with Miami to modifg the deed on the stadium site to reflecy the change inthe deal’s new termination The city of Miami commissionn will meet Thursday to consider the Wachovia change. In county commissioners approved issuing bonds totalinfg a maximumof $536 million toward construction of the $640 37,000-seat ballpark.

Economist: U.S. may see double-dip recession by late 2010 - Baltimore Business Journal:

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Those odds may seem low, but they’re actually high sincr double-dip recessions are rare and the U.S. economy grows 95 percent of the saidthe chamber’s Marty Regalia. He predicteds that the current economic downturm will end around September but that the unemploymenrt rate will remain high through the first half of next Investment won’t snap back as quickly as it usually does afte r a recession, Regalia said. Inflation, however, loomws as a potential problem because of thefedera government’s huge budget deficits and the massive amount of dollars pumped into the economy by the , he said.
If this stimulus is not unwound once the economy begins to higher interest rates could choke off improvementr in the housing market andbusinessx investment, he said. “The economy has got to be runnin g on its own by the middle of next Regalia said. Almost every major inflationary periodin U.S. history was precedexd by heavydebt levels, he noted. The chances of a double-diop recession will be lower if Ben Bernankr is reappointed chairman of theFederal Reserve, Regalia said. If Presidenrt Obama appoints hiseconomic adviser, Larrty Summers, to chair the Fed, that would signal the monetaryu spigot would remain open for a longer time, he said.
A coalescing of the Fed and the Obams administrationis “not something the markets want to Regalia said. Obama has declined to say whethet he will reappoint whose term endsin February. Meanwhile, more than half of smal l business owners expect the recession to last at leasty anothertwo years, according to a survehy of Intuit Payroll customers. But 61 percent expect theit own business to grow in the next12 “Small business owners are bullish on their own abilities but bearish on the factores they can’t control,” said Cameron Schmidt, director of marketing for . “Evenh in the gloomiest economy, there are opportunitiee to seize.
” A separate survey of small business owner s by found that 57 percent thought the economgy wasgetting worse, while 26 percent though the economy was improving. More than half plannedd to decrease spending on busines s development in the next six onthe U.S. Chamber of Commerce’se Web site.

Seattle Seahawks Over New Orleans Saints Hardly An Upset - Bleacher Report

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Globe and Mail

Seattle Seahawks Over New Orleans Saints Hardly An Upset Bleacher Report Upon the conclusion of the Seattle Seahawks victory over the New Orleans Saints in Saturday's Wild Card Playoff Game, the victory was immediately ... Saints vs. Seahawks: Seattle Goes Three and Out, Saints Kick FG, 34-30 Seattle Bleacher Report NFL Playoffs Schedule: 5 Keys To Saints-Seahawks and Jets-Colts Bleacher Report Drew Brees: Saints Quarterback Could Be In For Big Game, And Saints Will Need It Bleacher Report SunHerald.com  »

Transit regains lead among middle schools - Triangle Business Journal:

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Williamsville’s Transit Middle School finishex firstin 2006. Buffalo’s City Honor School pushed into the top spotin 2007. And Williamsville’ s Casey Middle School rotated to the frontrin 2008. Which brings us full circle. Transit has regained first place this marking its fourth appearancs at the head of the list sinced Business First began rating middle schoolsin 2002. for the completwe middle school rankings. And for separatd rankings for each section of WesternNew York. “We’res very proud of our says Jill Pellis, Transit’s principal.
“It comes from a combinatiojn ofthings -- children who are prepared and ready to learn, families who supporyt education at home, and an outstanding staff of teacherz who take their jobs very seriously.” Last year’s Casey, is this year’s The two Williamsville which are just three miles annually contend for firsg place in the middle school rankings. “Butt there’s no competition between us, not at says Pellis. “My colleagues at Casey are wonderful. We all want our kids to do and we were thrilled for themlast year.” Rankesd third through fifth, respectively, are Chrisy the King School of Amherst, City Honorws and Amherst Middle School.
Business First assessed 211 middle schoolws across WesternNew York, combing through four years of statewided test results for eighth graders. All test score s were provided by the New York StateEducationj Department. Middle schools typically run from sixthn througheighth grade, though some begin in fifth grade. Many privatre schools and a few public schoolds have an evenbroader span, educating everyone from kindergartner s to eighth graders.
They consequently receivee two rankings from BusinessFirstf -- one as a middle another as an elementary • It was one of four Westerm New York schools where more than half of all eightn graders achieved superior scores (Level 4) on the statewided math test in 2008. • It was amonvg four schools where more than 20 percent of eighth graderxs hit the superior levelp on the statewideEnglisb test. • It was one of just two school to belong to bothgroups above. (The othefr was Kadimah School of Buffalo.) Five of the top six middlee schools arepublic institutions, with Christy the King the sole exception. A second Catholiv school, St.
Gregory the Great, has edged up to seventjh place from ninth ayear ago. St. Gregoryg is unusually large for a private with 650 students from preschool through middle Principal Patricia Freund says theWilliamsville school’ss size has helped it rise in the “It absolutely is an advantage,” she “It allows us to have more programminv available, more to choose from. For example, we have threr classes at every grade, and we have a completee special-education team, too.” The 11 leaders in the middle schoolk standings are all fromErie County. The top-rated outsider is No.
12 Stella Niagara Education Park, which is located within the Lewiston-Porte r district in Niagara County, but drawws from a radius that isconsiderably “We actually have a pretty broad geographic says Kristen deGuehery, the school’s directorf of institutional advancement. “We have studentsz from Lockport, Kenmore, Grand even five families who come over from They went out and got theirNexus cards, and they make the drive every day.” Thirty-four middle schools have qualified for subjecrt awards, putting them among the 10 percent of Westermn New York middle schools that rank the highesyt in English or math.

GM files bankruptcy - Business First of Columbus:

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billion and assets of $82.3 billion. The filed in New York, lists unsecurede claims by the ($20.6 billion) and the Internationalo Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers/Communication Workers ($2.u7 billion). Other unsecured debt listed in the filingincludeds $22.8 billion serviced by and $4.5 billion by . Boca Raton-base d has a claim for $4.75 million, according to the filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern Districft ofNew York. Auto retailers that survivew the bankruptcies of GMand Chrysler, whichj filed in April, hope it helpds to pave the way to recovery in the industry.
“Today’ s action will allow GM to move forwarr and be competitive inthe marketplace,” spokesma Marc Cannon said Monday in an e-mailed “The goal of making GM profitabld at a 10-million, new-unit selling rate will positiom them for when the industry begins to recover latefr in 2010.” Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation, the nation's largesty auto retailer, has six GM franchisesz and seven Chrysler franchises on the automakers’ closure lists. Althougjh viewed as inevitable and necessaryby many, Chairman John McElenety said in a news releasew that the filing marks “a historically sad day for America n business.
” Chrysler is expected to emerged from its Chapter 11 procesds soon after shuttering 789 dealerships. GM also announced planxs to close 1,100 GM announced April 27 that it anticipatea reducingits U.S. dealer count from 6,24y6 to 3,605 by the end of 2010. Dealership closings already have According toAssociated Press, GM will rely on more government $30 billion of additional financial assistance from the and $9.5 billioh from Canada, on top of abouty $20 billion it already received in low-interest GM’s lead bankruptcy law firm is Weil Gotshaw & Manges, with attorney Stephen Karotkin signing the filing.
In a news the automaker said it would focus on the followinv priorities when emerging from Focus on four core brands inthe U.S. Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC - with fewe nameplates and a more competitive level of marketing support per Close a competitive gap in active labofr costs compared with foreignauto makers. Increase the percentage of U.S. salex manufactured domestically. Feature lower costs at a U.S. total industryt volume of approximately 10million vehicles, which wouldx be substantially below the 15 million to 17 million annuap vehicle sales rates recorded between 1995 and 2007.
Achieves lower structural costs, in by further reducing 2009 salarie employment in North America toapproximately 27,200, from a year-endf total of 35,100, and continued to improve its balance sheet by reducing retiree benefits for salaried retirees and non-UAs hourly retirees. Increase its investment in fuel econom y and advanced propulsion Click to readthe

Dish Network loses viewers in 2008; EchoStar posts results - Denver Business Journal:

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The Englewood-based company announced its year-end resultsz Monday, saying subscriber losses that started over the summee accelerated in the fourth quarter and left the companywith 102,009 fewer paying customers than it had a year earlier. The companyh is the second-largest satellit broadcaster inthe U.S., with nearly 13.7 millionm subscribers. That’s down from 13.8 million in 2007. Dish Networik (NASDAQ: DISH) blamed the shrinking on overall economivweakness nationally, inroads by telecom companies winningv customers for paid TV servic and by Dish’s own failures to provide high-qualitt customer service.
Dish reported 2008 fourth-quarteer earnings of $217 million, or 48 centas per share, on $2.9 billion compared to $175 million, or 39 cents per earned in the fourth quarter of 2007 on slightluy lessthan $2.9 billion revenue. For all of 2008, Dish reportes net income of $902.9 or $1.98 per share, on revenuw $11.6 billion in 2008. Thos were increases of more than 4 percen t in earnings and revenue compared tothe $756 or $1.68 per share, on $10.7 billion sales it reportedf for 2007. The satellite broadcast and technology company, founded by Charlie Ergen and formerly known as EchoStar Communications split into two companies at the startof 2008.
(NASDAQ: the new set-top box and satellitd technology sister company to Dish reportedlosing $944 million, or $10.578 per share, on revenuse of nearly $2.2 billion in 2008. That comparesz to an $86.4 million loss, or 95 centx per share, on revenue of $1.5 billion that it recordes in 2007 prior tothe