Real Estate Daily News Buzz September 17, 2014

Reserve & White house Real Estate Daily NewsReal Estate Daily News Buzz is designed to give news snippets to readers that our (yet to be award winning) editors thought you could use to start your day. They come from various business perspectives, real estate, government, the Fed, local news, and the stock markets to save you time. Here you will find the headlines and what the news buzz for the day will be.

On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial average gained 100.83, or 0.6%, to close at 17,131.97. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index climbed 14.85 points, or 0.8%, to 1,998.98. The NASDAQ composite rose 33.86 points, or 0.8%, to 4,552.76.

Benchmark U.S. crude rose $1.96 to close at $94.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, rose $1.17 to close at $99.05 on the ICE Futures exchange in London. Wholesale gasoline rose 2.8 cents to close at $2.559 a gallon. Heating oil rose 1.6 cents to close at $2.756 a gallon. Natural gas rose 6.4 cents to close at $3.995 per 1,000 cubic feet.

ALIBABA RISK: CHINA’S RISE LEAVES OUT INVESTORS

WASHINGTON (AP) — American investors are clamouring to buy a stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, which is launching what may prove the biggest initial public stock offering ever. But history is stacked against them. China’s explosive economic rise has delivered virtually nothing to most stock investors. When Chinese companies have listed stocks on American markets, their shares have lost an average 1 per cent a year for the next three years, compared with an average 7 per cent annual gain for other U.S. IPOs, according to research by Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida.

BIG CITIES TAKE AIM AT RPESCRIPTION PAINKILLERS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some of the nation’s largest cities are ratcheting up their criticism of prescription painkillers, blaming the industry for a wave of addiction and overdoses that have ravaged their communities and busted local budgets. The heightened rhetoric comes as Chicago tries to recover millions in health care costs from opioid drugmakers, alleging that companies deliberately misled the public about the risks of their drugs. It’s a legal strategy that could be attractive to other cash-strapped cities, but one that experts say will face hurdles in court. On Tuesday, health commissioners from Chicago, New York and Boston came to Washington to lobby Congress and the White House on efforts to combat prescription opioid abuse, which is blamed for 17,000 deaths per year — more than three times as many as either heroin or cocaine.

US TOBACCO GROWERS BRACE FOR TOUGHER COMPETITION

DANVILLE, Va. (AP) — Starting next month, America’s remaining tobacco growers will be totally exposed to the laws of supply and demand. The very last buyout checks, totalling about $916.5 million, go out in October to about 425,000 tobacco farmers and landowners. They’re the last holdovers from a price-support and quota system that had guaranteed minimum prices for most of the 20th century, sustaining a way of life that began 400 years ago in Virginia, when the leaf became the chief cash crop of the Jamestown colony. Cigarette makers will have paid $10 billion to compensate growers for surrendering their quotas. Growers got another $5 billion from the companies as part of their 1998 settlement of state lawsuits over smoking-related health care costs. When the last checks are cashed, surviving growers will be on their own, forced to find profits in a tremendously competitive global market. But those who remain in the business are thriving right now: Many are producing more leaf than they have in years, and enjoying higher prices as well.

A CLOSER LOOK: YOUR (online) LIFE AFTER DEATH

NEW YORK (AP) — Sure, you have a lot to do today — laundry, bills, dinner — but it’s never too early to start planning for your digital afterlife, the fate of your numerous online accounts once you shed this mortal coil. Facebook, Google, Twitter and other sites have different policies on dealing with dead users. Some states are also considering laws that would automatically give loved ones access to, though not control of, their dead relative’s digital accounts, unless otherwise specified. Unless you take action, you might not like the outcome: Would you want to give your spouse automatic access to your email correspondences? Should parents automatically be able to browse through a deceased child’s online dating profile?

HOUSE PANEL: SAFETY AGENCY MISHANDLED GM RECALL

WASHINGTON (AP) — The agency responsible for safety on the nation’s roads was years late in detecting a deadly problem with General Motors cars and lacks the expertise to oversee increasingly complex vehicles, congressional Republicans charged in a report Tuesday. The report by a House committee’s GOP majority raised serious questions about the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s ability to keep the public safe, and came as the Senate convened a hearing on the safety agency’s shortcomings. Safety regulators should have discovered GM’s faulty ignition switches seven years before the company recalled 2.6 million cars to fix the deadly problem, the report concluded. It also said the agency didn’t understand how air bags worked, lacked accountability and failed to share information internally.

HOW THE FED’S GUIDANCE ON RATES HAS EVOLVED

WASHINGTON (AP) — “Extended period.” 6.5% unemployment. “Considerable time.” Every six weeks or so, after the Federal Reserve holds a policy meeting, it issues a statement containing guidance to the financial world on when it might raise interest rates. It’s a moment of great expectation for investors and economists. The language the Fed has used has steadily evolved since it cut its benchmark short-term rate to a record low in 2008. On Wednesday, after the Fed’s latest meeting ends, it may or may not retain its most recent guidance: That it expects to keep its short-term rate near zero for a “considerable time” after it stops buying Treasurys and mortgage bonds. Those purchases are set to end in November.

US CEOs LESS OPTIMISTIC ABOUT HIRING, SPENDING

WASHINGTON (AP) — Optimism among chief executives at the largest U.S. companies fell in the July-September quarter after reaching a two-year high in the previous quarter. The Business Roundtable said Tuesday that its CEO outlook index fell to 86.4 in the third quarter, down from 95.4 in the April-June period. Fewer CEOs expect to hire in the next six months: Just 34% plan to add jobs, down from 43%. And only 39% plan to boost their capital spending, down from 44%. Nearly three-quarters of the chief executives expect higher sales, the same as in the second quarter. Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T Inc. and chairman of the Roundtable, blamed the decline of the index on Congress’ failure to extend temporary tax breaks that encourage research and development and investment spending.

POVERTY RATE DROPS FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) — The poverty rate in the United States has dropped for the first time since 2006, bringing a bit of encouraging news about the nation’s economy as President Barack Obama and Congress gear up for midterm elections. The Census Bureau, in its annual look at poverty in the United States, said that the poverty rate in 2013 was 14.5%, down from 15% in 2012. The decrease in the poverty rate was attributed to the growth in year-round employment by 2.8 million jobs in the United States, government officials said. White House officials cheered the positive information in the census release.

PG&E OFFICIALS LEAVE POSTS OVER IMPROPER EMAILS

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Emails showing California regulators and Pacific Gas & Electric Co. appearing to negotiate which judge would be assigned to hear one of the utility’s rate cases led the state’s top regulator to remove himself from two PG&E cases and four senior officials on both sides to resign. The emails released Monday show the commission ultimately assigned to the case a judge for whom PG&E had expressed a preference, rather than another judge who the utility said “has a history of being very hard on us.” California Public Utilities Commission president Michael Peevey, who was included in part of the January email exchange, cited the email exchange in removing himself from involvement in that rate case and in another, bigger case pending before the commission involving PG&E, California’s largest utility.

AzDRE ISSUES CEASE & DESIST TO ANC PROPERTIES

PHOENIX – On September 15, 2014, the Department of Real Estate issued a Cease and Desist order directing Kimberly Lepore and A.N.C. Properties LLC to immediately cease and desist from engaging in any rental and/or leasing activity, as defined by A.R.S. §32-2101 et seq., and Property Management activity as defined by A.R.S. §32-2171 et seq., in any capacity whatsoever, directly or indirectly within the State of Arizona, without first complying with all applicable laws and rules. The order can be viewed through the Department’s website Click Here.

AzDRE ISSUES CEASE & DESIST TO MOHAVE INEGRITY REAL ESTATE

 

PHOENIX – On September 15, 2014, the Department of Real Estate issued a Cease and Desist order directing Debra Suzanne Sixta and Mohave Integrity Real Estate Services LLC dba Mohave Integrity Real Estate Services to immediately cease and desist from engaging in any rental and/or leasing activity, as defined by A.R.S. §32-2101 et seq., and Property Management activity as defined by A.R.S. §32-2171 et seq., in any capacity whatsoever, directly or indirectly within the State of Arizona, without first complying with all applicable laws and rules. The order can be viewed through the Department’s website Click Here.

TUCSON ENTERS CONTRACT FOR PRIVATE MANAGEMENT OF TCC

TUCSON – The City of Tucson has signed the final contract with SMG for management of the Tucson Convention Center (TCC). The contract runs from Oct. 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015. The contract can be extended with 10 one-year renewals at the City’s sole discretion. SMG will be paid a fixed annual fee of $135,000, with annual increases consistent with the Consumer Price Index – not to exceed two percent in one year. SMG also is eligible for an incentive fee not to exceed the annual fixed fee amount, if certain conditions are met. SMG is a global leader in convention center management and currently operates properties throughout the southwest. Several TCC employees have accepted jobs with SMG, while others accepted other jobs in the City. For those who haven’t accepted jobs, the City’s Human Resources Department will continue to work with them to find other civil service positions.
SMG: https://bit.ly/XcEBWH
TCC: https://1.usa.gov/1kJJBs2

TUCSON’S BABY ELEPHANT TO GET NAMES FOR VOTE THURSDAY

TUCSON – After weeks of calling her “Tucson’s Big Baby,” the Reid Park Zoo is getting close to naming the elephant calf born Aug. 20, on Tucson’s birthday. The Zoo has come up with two names. Find out how you can vote for your favorite in the video link below.
Watch a Tucson 12 video about the naming process: https://bit.ly/1ARmSkO
Zoo Cams: https://bit.ly/1ohe29b
Baby Elephant FAQ: https://bit.ly/1spPUoo
Reid Park Zoo Flickr page: https://bit.ly/1pUzdCG
Reid Park Zoo Twitter: https://bit.ly/1rol9Ep
Reid Park Zoo Facebook: https://on.fb.me/1tpk10T

COMMUNITY INVITED TO HELP DESIGN ALL-AGES PLAYGROUND

TUCSON – The City of Tucson, Lend a Hand Senior Assistance, and Humana Inc. will join organizers from KaBOOM! (a national non-profit organization that has built more than 2,300 playgrounds) tomorrow to begin design plans for a one-of-a-kind, multi-generational playground. The customized playground, funded primarily by Humana, will be created with personal drawings and other input from local community members, including children and seniors. The existing playground at La Madera Park, 2700 E. La Madera Drive, is in need of replacement, as it is outdated and contains some unusable components. Organizers say the community will come together to design senior-focused and adult elements, including fitness stations and walking paths to promote good posture, balance, and flexibility. There also will be traditional, kid-friendly equipment to create a multi-generational space. The design meetings will be held tomorrow at JP Industries, 2851 N. Country Club Road. Child-focused design talks will run from 4:15 p.m. – 5:15 p.m., with adult volunteers helping in the process from 5:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Read the news release: https://1.usa.gov/1qcac1E
KaBOOM: https://bit.ly/1pig0Xh