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$1 billion Calif. solar project faces problems
Sacramento Bee - Found 9 hours agoThe Los Angeles Times reports ( http://lat.ms/wrtgOD) the $1 billion Genesis Solar Energy Project ... Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't wantPlan to tap solar power at Vikas Bhawan, secretariat - Times of India$1 billion Calif. solar project faces problems - San Jose Mercury NewsGreen agenda: latest ‘green’ vehicles on show in Chicago - Yahoo! SingaporeTexas Instruments Unveils New Solar kits [Manufacturing Close - Up] - TMC NetExplore AllNorth Queensland Register

More thoughts on the Padres TV deal
So I seen the response from other bloggers and internet commenters after jbox posted his thing about Garfinkel trying to rebut the Bob Nightengale $70 million a year TV contract, and I thought I should probably comment since lots of people make underlying snide remarks about our bias towards this FO.

The Star's editorial | Mayor's budget plan charts bold course for KC
Sly James promised to be a bold leader as Kansas City’s mayor. Good news: So far, he’s sticking to that pledge.Last week James announced a $1 billion plan that would be financed by higher property taxes to rebuild aging infrastructure — streets, bridges and sidewalks — and to tear down dangerous buildings while preparing urban ... (more)

The Republicans in Michigan are getting it done. Why can't Obama?
American Thinker - Found 10 hours agoSenate balanced a $1.5 billion deficit and added $255 million to the State's rainy day fund.For his encore, in the second year he isn't just...Public safety gets boost in budget plan - Alpena NewsExplore All

Women need confident friends
CNN - Found 10 hours ago70 million users and no business model to profits reaching $1 billion on $3.7 billion in revenue in ... don't have parity, wrote that women weren'tLetters: Letters: A Facebook Executive, and the Barriers Ahead - New York TimesConfident friends matter - CNNHow to have more Sheryl Sandbergs - CNNSheryl Sandberg, Facebook's No. 2, on mission to lift women in ... - St. Petersburg TimesExplore AllCNN

MF Brokerage Has $1.6 billion Shortfall to Pay Commodity Claims
BusinessWeek - Found 22 hours agoThe trustee has returned about $3.9 billion that was frozen in customer accounts, and has $1.4 billion left as a reserve, Giddens said...MF Global trustee sees shortfall of $1.6 billion - Mainichi Daily NewsMF Global trustee sees $1.6 billion claims gap - Chicago TribuneMF Global trustee says at least $1.6B missing - Taiwan News OnlineMF Global trustee sees shortfall of $1.6 billion - San Jose Mercury NewsExplore AllInternational Business Times

Timeline: Foreclosure-abuse deal
On Thursday, 49 states reached a $25 billion deal with the nation's biggest mortgage lenders over foreclosure abuses that occurred after the housing bubble burst.Here's a timeline of the notable events leading up to the agreement:October 2010JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Ally Financial, PNC Financial and an arm of Goldman Sachs temporarily suspend foreclosures after evidence surfaces that their employees or outside lawyers signed foreclosure documents without reading them or filed inaccurate paperwork. Federal and state regulators being investigating the mortgage lenders.November 2010he Congressional Oversight Panel says in a report that lawsuits over the flawed foreclosure documents could cost banks billions of dollars, disrupt federal programs aimed at keeping people in their homes and further weaken the housing market.December 2010Courts in several states, including California, Arizona and New York, invalidate mortgages and block banks from foreclosing on homes.January 2011Homeowners across the U.S. begin filing class action lawsuits against major banks, accusing banks of illegally foreclosing on them with faulty documents.March 2011David Stern's law firm in Plantation Fla., which at one point handled tens of thousands of foreclosures each year, shuts down amid an investigation into robo-signing and other questionable practices.April 2011The federal government orders 16 of the nation's largest mortgage lenders and servicers to reimburse homeowners who were improperly foreclosed on. Government regulators also direct the financial firms to hire auditors to determine how many homeowners could have avoided foreclosure in 2009 and 2010.July 2011County officials in Massachusetts, North Carolina and Michigan say they have received thousands of mortgage documents with questionable signatures since the fall of 2010, suggesting robo-signing is still widespread. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley says she will not sign any settlement that releases the banks from future mortgage-related lawsuits.August 2011New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is removed from a top role in negotiations with banks after being accused by the states' lead negotiator of trying to "undermine" the settlement. Schneiderman subsequently says he won't sign a deal.September 2011California Attorney General Kamala Harris says she will not agree to a settlement in which bank officials receive legal immunity. Counties across the United States discover that illegal or questionable mortgage paperwork taints tens of thousands of property deeds dating back to 1998.November 2011Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto's office indicts two Las Vegas title officers on charges of directing a massive robo-signing scheme involving tens of thousands of fraudulent foreclosure documents. Nevada has led the nation in foreclosures.December 2011Massachusetts sues five major banks over deceptive foreclosure practices.January 2012The nation's five largest mortgage lenders agree to reduce mortgages for nearly 1 million homeowners as part of a proposed settlement with states. California and Delaware officials refuse to sign the deal. New York doesn't object outright. Schneiderman is asked to lead a federal task force investigating the mortgage-backed securities that contributed to the 2008 financial crisis.February 2012Forty-nine states agree to a $25 billion deal with the nation's five largest mortgage lenders. Under the agreement, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial will reduce loans for nearly 1 million households that owe more than their homes are worth. They will also send checks of $2,000 to about 750,000 Americans who were improperly foreclosed upon. The banks will have three years to fulfill the terms of the deal. Oklahoma reaches its own agreement with lenders.

Siemens, Samsung May Vie for $21 billion Russian Rail Link
BusinessWeek - Found 21 hours ago1:40 AM EST By (Updates with Finmeccanica ... 10 (Bloomberg) -- Siemens AG and Samsung C&T Corp. ... project from 626 billion rubles ($21 ...Siemens, Alstom vie for $21b Russian rail link - The Gulf TodayExplore All

Southern's nuke plant permit avoids tsunami lessons
The chief regulator's dissent in a vote that approved the first U.S. permit in 34 years to build a nuclear reactor is fueling a debate over safety as the first anniversary of Japan's nuclear disaster nears.The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted 4-1 yesterday to approve the plan of Southern Co. of Atlanta to build and operate two reactors at its Vogtle plant near Augusta, Georgia. The agency issued a permit today, NRC spokesman Scott Burnell said in an e-mail.The commission should have required the company to implement lessons from Japan's nuclear crisis last year, said Chairman Gregory Jaczko, who opposed the license."Right now we know there are things that need to be fixed, things that need to be changed, or at least things that need to be analyzed," Jaczko said yesterday in an interview at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. "For us to issue this license, and say 'we'll deal with them later,' to me is kind of putting the cart before the horse."It has been less than a year after an earthquake and tsunami on March 11 caused meltdowns and radiation leaks at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant. The industry has faced concerns about nuclear safety at least since a partial meltdown at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island plant in 1979, and the NRC's authorization of Southern's reactor may face a challenge in federal court from environmental groups."The chairman's vote reflects the post-Fukushima reality that U.S. reactors are not designed to deal with a meltdown" and will need years' worth of work "to make them less dangerous," Jim Riccio, a nuclear policy analyst for Greenpeace USA, an anti-nuclear group, said in an e-mail.Southern will build the first U.S. reactors to use a standardized design, which it says will speed construction and reduce risks.The agency's vote is a "monumental accomplishment," Thomas Fanning, Southern's chairman and chief executive officer, said yesterday in a statement."Anything that we learn from Fukushima, I assure you we will bring to bear," Fanning told reporters on a conference call yesterday. The NRC's review of the planned reactors "has been thorough, it has been thoughtful and it is complete," he said in an interview yesterday.The NRC is weighing rules to improve safety at existing plants, and by March 9 it may direct owners to take steps to be better prepared for power failures.An agency task force in July recommended that the commission implement rules to improve safety at the 104 U.S. operating reactors, including reviews of seismic and flooding risks. An industry plan to place emergency pumps and generators at plants may speed the agency's review of the proposed safety enhancements, Martin Virgilio, the NRC's deputy executive director for reactor and preparedness programs, said at an NRC staff meeting with industry officials Jan. 13.The agency should have required the Vogtle plant to adhere to all post-Fukushima regulations, such as a potential requirement to ensure that spent-fuel cooling pools have better monitoring equipment, Jaczko said. "I'm concerned that we will have challenges getting all of the Fukushima changes made" at the Vogtle plant, he said.The NRC chairman said he will work to make sure the NRC's Fukushima-related regulations are applied to Southern's plant as the agency considers the rules, which he wants implemented by 2016.Several environmental and consumer organizations said this week that they may file a lawsuit in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia challenging the NRC award of Southern's reactor license.They will ask the court to direct the NRC to complete another environmental impact statement to take into consideration lessons learned after Fukushima, said Stephen A. Smith, executive director of one of the groups, the Knoxville, Tennessee-based Southern Alliance for Clean Energy."The only way the nuclear power is ever going to be successful is if you assure accidents like Fukushima don't happen," Smith said in a phone interview. "Cheer leading and the rush to move forward has overtaken safety," he said.The U.S. nuclear industry established its own safety- monitoring organization, the Atlanta-based Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, after a partial meltdown at Three Mile Island. Reactor owners have made technology upgrades at power plants, and plant owners spent more than $2 billion to bolster security after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, a Washington-based industry group."Probably the most robust commercial facilities on the planet are nuclear power plants," Tony Pietrangelo, senior vice president and chief nuclear officer for the NEI, said in a Jan. 11 interview.Nuclear accidents at U.S. plants would release less radiation than previously thought and would cause almost no immediate deaths, an NRC analysis issued on Feb. 1 determined.Reactor designers are now implementing more "passive" engineering, which relies more on the laws of physics to improve safety, Eric Loewen, chief consulting engineer for GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy in Wilmington, North Carolina, said in a phone interview."Usually the laws of physics are a little bit more reliable than making sure that somebody left a valve open or making sure that some automated system works," he said.

Study: 'Green' loans safer bet than Congress thought
Potential losses from U.S. energy loan programs are likely to be less than projected by the White House and Congress, according to an independent analysis that Democrats said validated support for clean-energy innovation.The Obama administration ordered the review in response to pressure from Republicans, who criticized the loans as an effort to pick "winners and losers" after the collapse of Solyndra LLC, which won a $535 million loan guarantee.The long-term loss on 30 U.S.-backed clean-energy and auto loans might be about $2.7 billion, or $200 million less than the department's estimate, Herbert Allison, a former Treasury Department official, found in his review released yesterday."Mr. Allison identifies less risk for the overall portfolio than the department's analysis, and less than Congress estimated when it set aside a $10 billion reserve in anticipation of losses associated with funding these emerging industries," Eric Schultz, a White House spokesman, said in a statement yesterday.The Obama administration hired Allison, 68, to review the loan-guarantee programs after Republicans faulted U.S. backing for Solyndra, a solar-panel maker that filed for bankruptcy protection in September, about two years after winning its loan. The report was released three days before the White House's budget request for fiscal year 2013, which may include support for loan guarantees."It would be a stunning case of bureaucratic disregard to declare victory because the government is expecting to lose 'just' $3 billion," House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican, and Representative Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican and head of the committee's investigation panel that is examining the Solyndra loan, said in a joint statement.Senator Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat and chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said the report offers a "reassurance" that Energy officials were correctly weighing the risks.The Allison report shows that the loan program is working, said Representative Henry Waxman of California, the senior Democrat on the House energy committee.Allison didn't review loans to Solyndra, of Fremont, California, or Beacon Power Corp., an energy-storage company that sought bankruptcy protection in October, after receiving a $43 million U.S. loan guarantee in August 2010.The Energy Department's estimate of the government's long- term cost of the 30 loans being reviewed in the $23.87 billion portfolio is $2.9 billion, according to the report. Allison estimated $2.7 billion, reflecting lower potential losses on loans to two carmakers.The department should create the position of chief risk officer to review the chances for default in its loan programs, according to Allison's analysis.It also recommended a "more robust website" to provide the public with information on the performance of the projects."The report makes clear that the department was operating under congressional requirements to provide loans to projects that would have trouble obtaining private financing, which is why Congress appropriated funds for a loan-loss reserve," Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement.While Allison found less risk in the loan program than anticipated by the department, chances for default were higher for the clean-energy program under which Solyndra and Beacon won their awards.The department estimated a potential loss of $640 million for eight loans not tied to an electric utility. Allison estimated $820 million, or a 28 percent increase.For the 20 projects tied to a utility, the Energy Department's loss estimate was $1.55 billion. Allison estimated $1.7 billion, or 9 percent higher."This is less a report than an umbrella to deflect the criticism that's pouring down on the administration," Representative James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican, said in a statement. Sensenbrenner introduced a bill that requires an assessment of the U.S. loan guarantees already awarded.Congress set aside $10 billion in the clean-energy and auto loan programs for possible losses, and the Energy Department had initially anticipated as much as $5 billion in losses, Schultz said in an e-mail.