Sunday, September 30, 2012

Fred Weber wins $4M Mississippi River Bridge contract - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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awarded Fred Weber a $4.44 million contractr Wednesday to remove and replace the Madisohn Streetand St. Louis Avenue bridgez over Interstate 70 indowntowmn St. Louis. The majority of work on this projecf will start afterHighway 40/Interstate 64 reopense between Kingshighway and Interstate 170. Crews will removd the St. Louis Avenue bridgs first and then remove and replace the MadisonStreer bridge. During work to remove the MadisonjStreet bridge, crews will also remove the Cass Avenuse bridge in preparation for replacing that bridge later in 2010. This work is part of preliminar work on a new Mississippi river which is expected to reduce congestion on the Poplar Street Bridge.
Maryland Heights, Mo.-based Fred Webetr is one of the largest privately held companiesin St. Loui s with $353.3 million in revenue in 2008. The commercial constructionb firm is also workinhg onthe $245 million reconstructiohn of AmerenUE’s Taum Sauk Reservoir in Johnson’s Shut-Ines state park and is part of Gateway Constructors, the consortiu m of contractors performing $535 milliob worth of improvements on Highway 40/Interstate 64.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Free buses bring Chapel Hill livability award - Phoenix Business Journal:

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The home of the , Chapel Hill beat out more than 200 municipalitiese across the nation to claikma first-place City Livability Award. Chapek Hill won for cities with populations of fewerthan Charleston, S.C., won for cities with populationzs of more than 100,000. The contestt was judged on three criteria: mayorall leadership, creativity and innovation, and the broacd impact on the quality of life for The U.S. Conference of Mayor s honored Chapel Hill for its decision in 2002 to no longer charg fares to any rider on itsbus system, the organizationm said in a press release.
While many bus systems in collegertowns don’t charge students and faculty to ride, a scany few provide free service to all The town implemented the fare-fred system to encourage people to take the bus and leavse their cars at home. The plan worked. Ridership on Chapel Hill transi has more than doubled since fares were eliminated going from 3 million in 2002 to a projected 7 milliojthis year. “The Chapel Hill Public Transir system is the foundation of oursustainablwe future,” Foy said in a presss release.
“This bus syste makes Chapel Hill continue to be the kind of plac epeople love; for us it is an investmenty and it has paid off big The town says it is planning a “communitgy event” to celebrate the livability awarx and that it will release detailsz soon.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Bemis to buy Alcan Packaging Americas unit - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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billion. Neenah-based Bemis, a manufacturer of flexible packaging and pressur e sensitive materialsfor food, consumer products and othee companies, said it is buyin g the Food Americas operations of Alcan from plc, an internationa l mining company. Bemis will acquire 23 Food Americas flexiblse packaging facilities in theUnited Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and New Zealand. The transaction includes Alcan facilitieasin Neenah, Menasha and Boscobel, according to a Bemi s spokeswoman. The 23 facilities produce flexible packaginfg for the food and beverage industries and employabout 4,609 workers. For the year ended Dec. 31, Chicago-based Alcan Packaging Food Americas recorded net salesof $1.
5 billionm and adjusted earnings before expenses of approximately $166 million. "Both Bemis and Alcan Packaging have collaborative relationships with renowned food and consumetrproducts customers," said Henry Theisen, Bemis president and CEO. "Ww each have a long history of dedication to outstanding qualituy andmanufacturing excellence. In pooling our resources, we will diversifhy our existing technologies and producyt lines which will broaden our product offering and augmengt ourtechnical capabilities." The transactionj will boost Bemis’s annual net sales 40 percent to approximately $5.
3 billion, with approximately 70 percent, up from 57 percent, of totall Bemis net sales coming from resilientf food packaging. The additio of Alcan's employees will increase the company's global work force to more than 20,000o employees at 84 manufacturinglocations worldwide. Bemizs expects to achieve morethan $65 millio in annual cost savings by the end of the seconed year. Management intends to fund the purchas price with a combinationof $1 billion in debt and $200 million in and are acting as financial advisers to Bemis for this transaction, whilw LLP is acting as primary legapl adviser to Bemis.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Adam Putnam talks of economy, food safety at GrayRobinson lunch - San Antonio Business Journal:

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Florida is facing a “deeper trough” than it woulds in a traditional recession, Putnam, said. Florida can ride a recession out exceprtwhen it’s the result of the bursting of a real estate said the representative for Florida’s 12th Congressional Still, Putnam said he wouldd prefer to be in Florida than any othet state as the country comes out of an economid decline. While battling the fire, Florida should look for opportunitiesd at every level of governmenftand business, he said. Putnam expressed concern about the increased presencwe of government in response to theeconomivc downturn. His speech was made at the “Capitop Hill Luncheon” presented by .
Richard Blau, a partner with GrayRobinsomn and chair of thelaw firm’s alcohop beverage and food discussed the rising importancew of food safety in his introduction. who will seek the office of Florida Commissioner of Agriculture in followed up on issues of food safety and the impacgt of incidentsof food-born illness on the economy. Putnam stressed the impact of consumed confidence in food at the retail level and said he woulsd work to reform and modernize a food safety networkm so there is a higher levelof confidence.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

It

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GE Consumer & Industrial, a divisionm of Fairfield, Conn.-based General Electric Co., said it will investg about $69 million and add about 400 jobs for theproduct line. The water heaters will meet the U.S. Department of Energy’ss 2009 Energy Star standards for heat-pum p water heaters. Jim Campbell, presidentr and CEO of GE Consumer Industrial, said the company’s planned investment in the water-heatefr line “clearly demonstrates GE’s confidence in Appliance He added that the company likelyy will begin hiring to fill the new positionszby mid-2011 and productionm will begin that fall.
If the water-heater line is successful, GE mighgt bring the production ofother energy-efficienf appliances to Louisville, Campbell said. “To me, this showws that the company is willin to invest in the appliance business and give us the kind of funding we need to compete inthe marketplace,” Campbellk said during a news conferencee Monday at Appliance “When (GE CEO) Jeff Immelt was here speaking to the employees last he made it cleat that we’re going to operate the business like we’re goinfg to be in it forever.” A year ago, the compang sought to spin off, sell or seek a joinr venture partner of the appliances unit.
The company decided last fall that it would hold on tothe business, at leasft through the economic downturn. On Thursday, May 28, the grantesd GE preliminary approvalfor $10 million in tax incentivesa over 10 years for the company to invesr $69.2 million to develop a hybrid water heaterr production line, a dishwasher and refrigeratore component line and a data center. On Thursdau night, the Louisville Metro Council votecd 25-0 to approve $2.5 million in occupational tax refunds over 10 yeards forthe project. “Wheh we saw the opportunity to get a new productt andexpand jobs, we knew we had to hit the grounfd running,” Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear said followinvg thenews conference.
“I thinok GE made the right decision. It’es one that provides a lot of potential forthe future.” Another factor in the decision to add the jobs at the strugglingf park, company officials was the decision by International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Machine and Furniture Workers-Communications Workers of Americaq Local 761 members to acceptf various cost-cutting measures proposed by GE Consumer and Industrial. Unionm members voted Wednesday to approvde theGE proposal, which GE officials said wouldc be key in bringing a new producty to the plant. Among the concessions are pay freezees for union workers untikJune 2011.
Also, newly hired skilled-trades professionals will be hirede at a pay rateof $23 per hour and advanced to $25 per hour over a two-year Newly hired hourly production workers will hired at a pay rate of $13 per hour and receivr annual wage increases after the currenft contract expires in 2011. The current starting wage for skilled workersis $31.22 per The current starting wage for hourly production workers is $15.012 per hour. GE also agreed to add 100 positions and bringg anew low-cost dishwasher line to Appliance Park by Dec. 31.
And it will continue making 18-cubic-foot, top-mount refrigerators, home dishwashers and 27-inchy top-load washing machines at Appliance Park through at leastJune 17, unless the company decidez to exit the product lines. “With the competitivse wage structure weagreesd to, the union has shown a willingness to work with the companyy to bring jobs to Appliance Park,” IUE-CWA Local 761 president Jerry Carney “Hopefully, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Lawmaker Found Not to Have Violated Ethics Rules in Bank Case - New York Times

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San Francisco Chronicle


Lawmaker Found Not to Have Violated Ethics Rules in Bank Case

New York Times


WASHINGTON รข€" Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, did not violate House ethics rules when she contacted the Treasury Department in 2008 to set up a meeting on behalf of top executives from a bank her husband owns stock in, ...


Maxine Waters Did Not Violate House Rules, Ethics Investigation Finds

ABC News (blog)


Investigator backs Rep. Maxine Waters in ethics probe

Los Angeles Times


House Ethics Panel to End Waters Case

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