Sunday Herald: Business: Business News
The News Review:
- Sunday Herald: Business: Business News
- Carpenters fans campaign to save LA home
- From 2002: Chemical companies say suit not based on sound evidence
- Annual £1,000 licence fee to smoke weed
- Nigeria to pay out oil savings in Naira
Sunday Herald: Business: Business News
Sunday Herald - Feb 18, 2008
The Sunday Herald’s own analysis shows that £18. 35m of serious money - grants of £1m or more - was “offered” to businesses in the old or at least mature economy. With a shortage of big home-grown companies in Scotland to shower with capital, RSA grants are disbursed to large-scale employers regardless of their origins. Thus McLelland cheese, now in the stable of French-owned Lactalis, Pernod Ricard-owned Chivas Regal, various US semiconductor and computer firms and many other foreign-owned or headquartered companies all have equal access to the public purse. The only requirement is that the facility on the receiving end is based in Scotland. However, the majority of businesses offered grants in the April-June quarter are Scottish. As relatively small firms they may not get the lion’s share of the money, but it can still make all the difference.
Carpenters fans campaign to save LA home
Stuff.co.nz - Feb 18, 2008
The modest home and annex in suburban Downey became a magnet for Carpenters fans when it was featured on the cover of their 1973 album Now & Then. It is also the place where Karen Carpenter collapsed in her bedroom before dying of anorexia in 1983 at the age of 32. But the current owners have already torn down the annex that housed a rehearsal studio and have submitted plans to replace the 39-year-old main house, the Los Angeles Times reported. Carpenters fan Jon Konjoyan, 57, is leading a campaign to save the remaining house from destruction. "This house is our version of Graceland," Konjoyan told the newspaper… "They were such a huge American act in the 1970s. So many people loved them. "Jessica Parra, the daughter of the current owners, told the newspaper that her parents had accommodated fans for years, often inviting them inside, but had grown weary of the attention. "In the beginning, we let everybody in. But honestly it became horrible, not only for us but for the neighbourhood," Parra told the newspaper. "People peek in windows and take pictures. They leave flowers on the front porch.
From 2002: Chemical companies say suit not based on sound evidence
Monitor - Feb 18, 2008
The 2,500 plaintiffs either worked for the now-defunct Hayes-Sammons Chemical Co. , or lived in the neighborhoods that surrounded the company’s facilities in South Mission. Hayes-Sammons, a home-grown company, purchased chemical components from a wide variety of major national and international chemical firms and mixed them into potent agricultural pesticides at its South Mission facilities. Plaintiffs contend that their health was damaged by working directly with the chemicals or by contamination from chemical residues carelessly dispersed into neighborhoods surrounding the Hayes-Sammons facilities. In answers filed to the suit, attorneys representing the named chemical companies generally deny any responsibility for contributing to the health ailments that the plaintiffs contend they and their families face. “We (the chemical industry) don’t mind that there are lawsuits. If people are legitimately hurt, they ought to be paid for their damages,” Evans said… One attorney, who did not want to be named, suggested that plaintiff attorneys simply used historical data to find out which companies were making pesticides when Hayes-Sammons was in operation. “I suppose they went to a catalog of chemicals and looked at what products we sold at that time,” the attorney said. “We’ve looked at our sales records and we didn’t sell anything in that area. ” Many of the defendants say they have no idea why they were named in the complaint. In one answer, defendant Maxus Energy, a Dallas-based petroleum producer, argues that the names of the “toxic and hazardous chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, solvents” are not specific and do not include anything made or designed by Maxus Energy. Maxus’ answer to the lawsuit, like many of the other companies’ responses, contends that while the plaintiffs allege negligence, they do not say specifically how or when the negligence occurred or how Maxus may have been responsible. The company also denies ever producing chemicals that could be linked to pesticides mixed by Hayes-Sammons.
Annual £1,000 licence fee to smoke weed
The Spoof - The Spoof (satire) - Feb 18, 2008
Under the proposals anybody caught lighting up without a licence would be fined on a monthly basis until they took out the requisite licence. Bank loan arrangements similar to mortgages could soon help sub-prime smokers realise their pipedreams, the Treasury source added. The bill has been introduced in the Commons ahead of implementation in time for an expected bumper home grown skunk harvest later this year. The story above is a satire or parody.
Nigeria to pay out oil savings in Naira
Nigerian Tribune - Feb 18, 2008
“They will have to hike rates in April if they stick to the original timetable. If they can stagger it over 12 to 24 months that would help control the liquidity implications,” said Michael Kafe, an economist at Morgan Stanley in South Africa. The windfall oil savings were one of the pillars of a home-grown, IMF-backed economic reform programme launched by the previous administration in 2003. Under the policy, Nigeria sets a benchmark oil price in its budget and uses that to calculate projected revenue. Oil income in excess of the budget price is saved in a special account. Adeniyi said the decision to disburse part of the savings in naira, not dollars, was taken some days ago at a long meeting attended by the CBN governor and finance minister. “The change in the reading of the law leaves the authorities with an inflation headache,” said Stephen Bailey-Smith, an economist at Standard Bank in London.