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The top transit official for President Barack Obama’s administration will be in Denver Friday announcing major funding for the FasTracks project.

Peter Rogoff, head of the Federal Transit Administration, is to join U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and Phil Washington, the head of the Regional Transportation District, at Denver Union Station on Friday afternoon.

He may be here to talk about a $300 million federal loan to help cover the cost of redeveloping Denver Union Station, the hub of the FasTracks project. The Denver City Council last week gave its approval to using city money to repay a portion of the loan if tax revenues couldn’t.

This week, three lines that are part of FasTracks received word of federal money, through Obama’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2011, to help pay for construction. Obama’s proposal included:

• $40 million for the West corridor from downtown to Golden, part of an existing $308 million commitment by the federal government to help pay for the line.

• $40 million for the Gold line from downtown to Wheat Ridge, and $40 million for the East line from downtown to Denver International Airport — via a line item listed as “New Full Funding Grant Agreement Funding Recommendations,” which Rogoff said Tuesday, during a conference call with reporters, signaled the government’s intention to help pay for the line.

The Gold and the East line are on a list of “projects that we’re including in the budget, and we’re signaling our intention to sign a full funding grant agreement on these projects before Sept. 30, 2011,” Rogoff said Tuesday during the call.

Still outstanding is the status of the $300 million loan for Denver Union Station.

Paul Griffo, spokesman for the Federal Transit Administration, wouldn’t confirm or deny that Rogoff would discuss the loan in Denver on Friday.

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John Zumwalt said he plans to give up the chief executive officer’s role at The PBSJ Corp.

Zumwalt, who also is chairman of the engineering and consulting firm, said in a Jan. 25 letter to shareholders that the company expects a new CEO to be in place by the end of September. Zumwalt said he would continue to serve as CEO until his replacement is found.

Korn/Ferry, an executive search firm, will perform both an internal and external search for candidates under the oversight of the nominating committee of the company’s board, Zumwalt said in his letter, which was first reported by the nonprofit news organization, Broward Bulldog.

PBSJ, an employee-owned firm headquartered in Tampa, has been under scrutiny following a series of what Zumwalt described in his letter as “management crisis,” including a $36 million embezzlement scheme and accusations of violating federal campaign finance laws. Most recently, the company said early results of an internal probe suggested that violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act might have occurred in connection with certain projects undertaken by its PBS&J International Inc. subsidiary.

Zumwalt, who served as president of the international subsidiary until July, said he would focus his attention in the coming months on the strategy growth of the corporation and the strengthening and expansion of its core North American businesses.

Bob Paulsen, vice chairman, will provide day-to-day oversight of the current businesses at the corporate level, as it moves ahead with a streamlined business organization, the letter said.

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New Zealand interest rates needn’t rise as much if the government cuts spending and reforms the tax system to curb property investment, Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard said.

“Achieving both low inflation and balanced growth is considerably easier in an environment of fiscal discipline and where the tax system is neutral with respect to investment decisions,” Bollard said in a speech in Christchurch today. Notes of a background paper on which his speech was based were e-mailed to Bloomberg News.

Bollard, who has kept the official cash rate unchanged at a record-low 2.5 percent since April, said yesterday he didn’t expect to start raising borrowing costs until mid-2010 as the economy emerges from a recession. Government spending programs put in place last year to buoy confidence and create jobs will help the economy expand 3.1 percent this year after shrinking 1.4 percent in 2009, he forecast last month.

“A failure to gradually remove the recent fiscal stimulus would put added pressure on monetary policy over the coming period,” Bollard said today. He made no other comment on the outlook for interest rates.

Prime Minister John Key’s government last year brought forward spending on roads and schools to generate jobs, and provided companies with funds so they could keep factories open on reduced hours rather than fire workers.

The government is also considering recommendations from a review of the taxation policy that includes introducing a levy on rental properties.

“We are hopeful that the report of the Tax Working Group will lead to a more efficient and even-handed tax system,” said Bollard. “Our concerns are to minimize tax-fueled property investment and consumption that might detract from more balanced savings and growth.”

Bollard has previously called for taxes to curb property investment, which he says can create a housing bubble.

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Ben S. Bernanke will keep his job as Federal Reserve chairman, the White House and the Senate’s senior Republican predicted two days after wavering support among some Democrats helped drive stock prices lower.

President Barack Obama “is very confident that the chairman will be confirmed,” David Axelrod, a senior White House adviser, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Bernanke will have “bipartisan support in the Senate” even as a number of his party are opposed.

The assurances followed declarations of support for Bernanke from the top two Democrats in the Senate, Nevada’s Harry Reid and Richard Durbin of Illinois, who earlier said they were undecided. John McCain, the Republican 2008 presidential nominee, and John Cornyn, who runs the party’s senate campaign committee this year, are against him. Online traders yesterday raised the odds of approval to 92 percent from as low as 65 percent on Jan. 22.

“We’ve dodged the bullet on this one,” said Greg Valliere, chief policy strategist at Potomac Research Group in Washington. “People were aghast by what happened in the markets on Friday, and do they really want to get angry letters from constituents who have lost money in the stock market because of the Bernanke vote?”

Stocks React

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 2.2 percent on Jan. 22 to 1,091.76, erasing gains so far in 2010, as Reid and Durbin withheld their support for Bernanke and two Senate Democrats, Barbara Boxer of California and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, said they would join Republicans already against him. Both Boxer and Feingold are up for election this year. The S&P 500 was up 0.3 percent to 1,094.93 at 11:46 a.m. today in New York.

The Democratic Party’s loss of a Senate seat in Massachusetts last week has added to pressure on those senators facing re-election at a time of rising voter anger over the economy. Bernanke’s critics have blamed the Fed for lax regulation of banks before the credit crisis and questioned its involvement in the $182 billion bailout of New York-based insurer American International Group Inc.

“It is difficult for governors or chairmen to discharge responsibility under a cloud of uncertainty regarding the security of tenure,” Philippine central bank Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said in an interview in Manila today when asked about Bernanke’s struggle to get confirmed. “It’s best the appointment of a central bank governor is depoliticized.”

Impact on Regulation

While Bernanke’s chances of winning a second term improved, comments by lawmakers supporting him suggest that the 56-year- old former Princeton University economist will be under greater scrutiny on bank regulation and consumer protection.

Durbin, the Senate majority whip, said in a Jan. 23 statement that he will “continue to demand that the Federal Reserve make a commitment to transparency and accountability in its policies.”

“I will make it clear that if the Federal Reserve refuses to exercise its authority to demand bank reform and protect America’s consumers, I will join with members of Congress to push for new laws that achieve those goals,” he said. Bernanke is set to meet with Durbin at 4:15 p.m. today, said Max Gleischman, a Durbin spokesman.

Reid plans a Senate vote on Bernanke’s confirmation this week, said Jim Manley, a spokesman. His term expires Jan no fax payday loan. 31.

Senate Rules

Bernanke’s supporters need 60 votes to limit debate and clear the way for a final vote. Under Senate rules, a motion to limit debate would set up a procedural vote after two legislative days to curtail additional debate to 30 hours.

McConnell indicated enough Republicans will join Democrats in backing the central banker.

“I would anticipate he will be confirmed,” the Kentucky Republican said on NBC. McConnell declined to say how he would vote.

“We believe he will be confirmed,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said on “Fox News Sunday.”

White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said on NBC that Obama received assurances from Reid over the weekend that Bernanke will be confirmed, after support among Democrats ebbed in the wake of an upset victory by Republican Scott Brown in the Jan. 19 Massachusetts special election. Axelrod called Bernanke “a steady hand in the crisis.”

McCain’s Vote

Arizona’s McCain, who lost to Obama in 2008, said he is leaning toward voting against Bernanke, while being “worried” about the impact from rejecting the Fed chief.

“The fact is that Chairman Bernanke was in charge when we hit the iceberg,” McCain said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “His policies were partially responsible for the meltdown that we experienced, and I think he should be held accountable.”

Cornyn, of Texas, said on “Fox News Sunday” he would vote against Bernanke, while Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah and Democrat Robert Menendez of New Jersey told CNN they would support the Fed chief, a Republican first appointed by President George W. Bush four years ago.

Bernanke may get as many as 70 Senate votes, Valliere said. “After Massachusetts, nothing’s certain, but I think it’s very likely that he’ll win,” Valliere said.

While Bernanke’s support among senators is running 2 to 1 in his favor, about half have yet to indicate how they will vote. Of senators who released statements or were contacted by Bloomberg News over the past three days, 32 said they would vote for Bernanke or were leaning in his favor, while 16 were opposed or leaning against him. The rest were undecided or didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Democrats Dianne Feinstein of California and Daniel Inouye of Hawaii announced their support for Bernanke today.

Dodd, Gregg

Christopher Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who chairs the banking committee, and Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the top Republican on the budget committee, said they are confident that Bernanke will be confirmed.

“I have some misgivings about Fed policy and the economic policy, but this man has guided us through a crisis,” Durbin said yesterday on CBS.

Richard Shelby, the senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, yesterday dismissed Dodd’s assertion on Jan. 22 that rejecting Bernanke risked sending the “worst signal to the markets” and triggering an economic “tailspin.”

Any decline in financial markets wouldn’t “last very long,” Shelby, of Alabama, said on CNN. Bernanke will see “a lot of tough votes against him,” and that would be a “strong message,” said Shelby, who reiterated his opposition to the Fed chief.

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Jeff Andrews tried to remain diplomatic when asked about the McGuinty government’s $7 billion green-energy deal with South Korean titan Samsung Group.

The president of Pro-Power and Energy Ltd. in Port Hope could see, on the surface, the attraction of the deal. Samsung C&T and its consortium partner, Korean Electric Power Corp., have assured four manufacturing facilities will be established between 2013 and 2015. Two will make wind towers and wind blades, the other two will assemble solar modules and inverters.

Samsung has also committed to developing 2,000 megawatts of wind power and 500 megawatts of solar power across parts of Ontario. Together, these manufacturing and power-development initiatives are expected to create 16,000 jobs over six years, welcome news during tough economic times, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Thursday.

But there’s a catch. Samsung will get 4 per cent more for the wind and solar power it produces, and it will get priority access to Ontario transmission capacity that’s in short supply. Many energy developers who have been waiting patiently for access to transmission will now have to wait a little longer.

Why, asked Andrews, is the Ontario government giving a deep-pocketed, foreign conglomerate special treatment that’s not being extended to local ventures struggling to create homegrown manufacturing and green energy?

"It’s great for Samsung, but Samsung doesn’t need it as much as we need it," he said.

Pro-Power, in partnership with CWind Inc. of Owen Sound, has been busy putting together its own consortium that aims to build wind turbine nacelles, blades and towers in Ontario. It signed a 10-year contract with auto-parts manufacturer Linamar Corp. to make the nacelles, and has established two subsidiaries, WindPro and WindBlade, to make turbine towers and blades.

This all-Ontario consortium has been attracting investors and wind developers with thousands of megawatts of projects in the pipeline are placing orders fast cash loans. Linamar is on course to make 350 nacelles a year in 2012, well before Samsung will be up and running.

"We have been working hard, digging deep and trying to get the government’s support," said Andrews. "We’ve had some response, but not as much as we think we should get. We’ve proven beyond doubt that we’re serious about it. The Ontario government needs to step up and give support to the people who have really proven they’re committed."

The Green Energy Act, passed last year, was supposed to create a level playing field, he added. Along with the feed-in-tariff program launched in September, Pro-Power and hundreds of other manufacturers and developers have been working on the assumption all are playing by the same rules.

Andrews is clearly frustrated. "We are the Ontario story. I know that sounds cocky, but we are. Our technology was developed and proven here in Ontario by Ontario residents. The patents were established here in Ontario."

McGuinty justified the deal Thursday as a way to accelerate Ontario’s green economy, by drawing an "anchor tenant" that can stimulate jobs and exports much more quickly. The alternative, he said, is to "hope" our industry of smaller players will grow over time while the province misses out on export opportunities to a U.S. green-energy market ready to explode.

Ian MacLellan, vice-chairman of solar-cell manufacturer Arise Technologies Corp. in Waterloo, said that kind of thinking doesn’t work in the long run. "If you took that approach looking back 30 years to Silicon Valley, they would have funded Xerox and not talked to Steve Jobs."

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AMSTERDAM–Dutch sports car maker Spyker denied Sunday it had plans to jointly bid for General Motors’ Saab with Luxembourg investment firm Genii Capital.

German WirtschaftsWoche business weekly, in abstracts of a story to be published on Jan. 18, said the two companies, which have been trying individually to clinch a deal to buy the money-losing Swedish automaker, had now teamed up.

Spyker chief executive Victor Muller, in a reply to Reuters via text message, responded "No," when asked if Spyker was in contact with Genii about a joint bid for Saab or had changed its strategy.

Genii is backed by Formula 1 mogul Bernie Ecclestone.

Lars Carlstrom, who is coordinating the bid for Saab by Genii Capital and Ecclestone, told Reuters there had been some talks with Spyker’s Muller last week but that he could not confirm nor deny anything related to a joint bid.

GM Europe spokesman Stephan Weinmann said GM was in talks about Saab but he declined to comment whether discussions were ongoing with one or several bidders.

GM said on Monday it would move ahead with closing Saab down. On Tuesday, it appointed two supervisors to oversee a wind-down, though it said it would continue to consider "several purchase proposals it has received for Saab."

The magazine’s abstract said: "According to WirtschaftsWoche information, Spyker Cars and Genii Capital have been in contact in order to make a last-second joint offer." It did not give other details.

On Tuesday, Muller said GM’s decision on Saab was a matter of "days not weeks."

Meanwhile, more than 2,000 Saab drivers gathered in their cars in the Swedish brand’s hometown Sunday to show support for the iconic mark.

"It’s hard to know exactly how many cars there were, but an estimate we’ve done puts the number at 2,500," Claes Robertsson, the head of Saab Turbo Club of Sweden, a group of Saab admirers, told AFP.

Robertsson said both Saab employees and brand enthusiasts had attended the rally, in which drivers from Germany, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Britain also took part.

Swedish news agency TT said the demonstration started at the Saab museum in its southwestern Swedish hometown of Trollhaettan and ended at the Saab factory.

According to police, the four-kilometre stretch was entirely filled by Saab cars, TT reported.

In the Netherlands, more than 500 Dutch Saab lovers rallied.

Saab, which employs 3,400 people in Sweden, is one of four major brands being sold by GM as part of a massive restructuring that began in 2005 and accelerated last year when the largest U.S. automaker went bankrupt.

Analysts have warned some 8,000 jobs could be lost with Saab’s closure.

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Antitrust enforcers have intensified their probe of Monsanto Co.’s dominance in genetically modified seeds, ordering the company to turn over information related to its Roundup Ready genetic trait in soybeans.

Monsanto disclosed Thursday that the Department of Justice issued a civil investigative demand, a formal request for information, which follows an informal probe begun by government lawyers last year. Company spokeswoman Kelli Powers declined to specify what information is being sought.

Creve Coeur-based Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, said it has provided access to millions of pages of documents and will continue to cooperate with the government.

"We believe our business practices are fair, pro-competitive and in compliance with the law," Monsanto Chief Deputy Counsel Scott Partridge said in a statement.

The Justice Department’s probe of Monsanto coincides with claims by the company’s chief rival, Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., and other critics who say Monsanto’s leading position in the multibillion-dollar biotech seed market and business practices are stifling innovation that could benefit farmers.

The Justice Department has shown an increasing interest in the genetically modified seed business, leading to this week’s demand to Monsanto for additional information.

Thomas L. Greaney, a law professor at St. Louis University, said civil investigative demands like those received by Monsanto represent the second step in an antitrust investigation and are used by government lawyers to obtain specific documents, depositions and internal memoranda that the company wouldn’t voluntarily hand over and that could be useful in preparing an antitrust case.

"They don’t do it lightly," said Greaney, who spent 10 years at the Justice Department, including a stint as assistant chief in charge of antitrust matters in health care.

It does not suggest, however, that such a lawsuit is imminent, he said.

Thursday marked the first time the Justice Department has confirmed an investigation of possible anti-competitive practices in the seed industry. Department spokeswoman Gina Talamona declined to be more specific about the scope of the investigation or to name the companies involved.

However, Pioneer’s parent, DuPont, acknowledged that it received a civil investigative demand from the Justice Department, spokesman Dan Turner said.

And two other big seed companies, Dow AgroSciences and Syngenta, have also spoken with the department regarding the probe, spokesmen said.

Peter Carstensen, a University of Wisconsin law professor who previously worked as a staff attorney at the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, said the government’s demand for information is a sign that it has "ratcheted up its investigation" of Monsanto.

Carstensen is an expert witness for a farmer being sued by Monsanto and believes there’s a valid antitrust argument to be made against the seed giant need a personal loan with bad credit.

Still, the intersection of intellectual property rights and antitrust law makes any case a complex one that could be difficult for the government to prove in court.

"There are going to be some very hard legal questions with respect to how much right does Monsanto have to use its patent rights in a way that is exempt from antitrust review," he said.

Allegations by Monsanto’s critics focus mainly on the company’s biotech soybeans, which are genetically modified to resist Roundup and other glyphosate-based weed killers. The technology allows farmers to spray entire fields with herbicide without killing crops.

Today, the Roundup Ready genetic trait is found in more than 90 percent of the U.S. soybean crop, including seeds sold by DuPont’s Pioneer unit and other competitors. Monsanto collects a technology fee for licensing the trait.

DuPont has complained to the government that its agricultural subsidiary Pioneer is not being allowed to develop seeds that combine Monsanto’s patented Roundup Ready genetic trait with a separate Pioneer-developed trait for herbicide resistance.

"The ag biotech trait market is firmly in the grip of a single supplier, acting as a bottleneck to competition and choice," DuPont said in formal comments submitted Friday to the Justice Department.

The companies have waged a legal battle since last spring when Monsanto sued DuPont for patent infringement related to their licensing agreement. DuPont countersued weeks later, claiming that Monsanto is using anti-competitive tactics to preserve its market share. The case is pending in U.S. District Court in St. Louis.

Monsanto is currently trying to persuade seed companies to switch to its new, higher priced biotech soybean called Roundup Ready 2 Yield.

DuPont has alleged that Monsanto is trying to force independent seed companies and farmers to make the switch to eliminate the potential for competition from a generic alternative.

To diffuse criticism, Monsanto sent farm groups and seed companies a letter on Dec. 15 stating that farmers would be allowed to continue growing first-generation Roundup Ready soybeans after the herbicide resistance trait patent expires in 2014.

Monsanto said the Justice Department’s demand for information seeks confirmation that it will follow through on that promise.

The Monsanto investigation is part of a broad look at the state of competition in agriculture by President Barack Obama’s administration.

The Justice Department and Department of Agriculture last year announced a nationwide series of workshops in 2010 to hear farmers concerns.

The first session will be held in Iowa on March 12 and focus on issues related to row crops, including biotech seed.

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Brown Shoe Co. saw strong sales in most of its operations during the holiday season, the Clayton-based shoe retailer reported Monday.

Same-stores sales at its Famous Footwear division increased 7 percent in the nine weeks ended January 2.

Comparable sales rose 7.3 percent in the third quarter ended Oct. 31. Same-store sales for its speciality retail division also increased 4.9 percent in that same time period, versus 1.4 percent growth in the third quarter.

Both figures exceeded expectations, the company said. However, Brown didn’t release figures for wholesale operations.

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Last-minute holiday shoppers brought relief to retailers, handing them modest sales gains for the season and prompting several to raise their fourth-quarter profit outlooks.

The improved picture comes because retailers never had to resort to drastic price-cutting after keeping inventories lean. Still, retailers may be facing chilly months as consumer spending is expected to remain muted amid high unemployment and tight credit.

"The holiday season was decent but nothing you can get excited about. And it was saved by a last-minute surge," said Ken Perkins, president of research firm RetailMetrics. "Santa didn’t deliver coal, but he certainly didn’t deliver caviar."

According to Thomson Reuters’ preliminary findings, eight retailers beat expectations, one met, and four missed. Sales figures are based on sales at stores open at least a year and are considered a key indicator of a retailer’s health.

Retailers’ decent performance in December, helped by a last-minute spending spree in the days before Christmas, comes after a disappointing November fast payday loans.

Retailers managed to avoid another Christmas catastrophe because they had a year to plan for a new consumer mindset. They headed into the season with sharply lower inventories and more practical merchandise that resonated with shoppers who stuck to shopping lists and researched deals online before they bought. Shoppers were in malls buying, but they were choosy. They picked up discounted flat-panel TVs, computers and smart phones, but often stayed away from clothing unless it was practical.

Stores were on edge until near Christmas because consumers delayed buying more than last year, either because they were shut in by winter snowstorms or were holding out for better deals. But many stores kept to planned discounts. That’s different from last year, when stores started liquidating merchandise in November because of the escalating financial crisis.

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RALEIGH, N.C. — U.S. consumers and businesses are filing for bankruptcy at a pace that made 2009 the seventh-worst year on record, with more than 1.4 million petitions submitted, an Associated Press tally showed Monday.
 
The AP gathered data from the nation’s 90 bankruptcy districts and found 1.43 million filings, an increase of 32 percent from 2008. There were 116,000 recorded bankruptcies in December, up 22 percent from the same month a year before.
 
While experts believe some of the increase is due to a natural recovery as consumers and attorneys become accustomed to a recent overhaul of bankruptcy laws, the numbers indicate clear correlations to recession-weary regions. Arizona saw the fastest increase, a jump of 77 percent from the year before, followed by Wyoming (60 percent), Nevada (59 percent) and California (58 percent).
 
Emile Harmon, who owns a law firm in Tempe, Ariz., said the firm has doubled its staff to handle the surge in bankruptcy filings. The lawyers have been steadily shifting away from their other areas of business, civil lawsuits and divorce cases.
 
"Bankruptcy is kind of swallowing the whole practice." Harmon said. "There’s little time to do other stuff."
 
There’s also no sign that things are slowing down. Harmon said bankruptcies have been coming in waves, first with those 18 months ago who had adjustable-rate mortages, then with those who lost their jobs due to the housing downturn. Now he’s finding wealthy individuals and business owners who have finally succumbed to lower incomes and shrinking home values.
 
"A lot of the people we see were in a really good financial position two years ago," Harmon said. "People really look at you and say, ‘I can’t believe I’m here business cards."’
 
For three years, filings have been steadily rising back toward levels reached early in the decade before Congress overhauled the nation’s bankruptcy laws. The 2005 alterations made bankruptcy filings more cumbersome, a move that followed fears from lenders that some consumers were abusing the system to wipe away debts.
 
Bankruptcies surged to slightly more than 2 million in 2005 as consumers rushed to file before the new law took effect but then plummeted to 600,000 in 2006. They’ve been climbing ever since and in 2009 became the seventh-highest year on record, behind only the years 1998 and 2001-2005.
 
The 2005 spike had been preceded by a steady climb from 1.5 million in 2001 to 1.6 million in 2005.
 
John Pottow, a bankruptcy professor at the University of Michigan, said the return to the highs of earlier this decade illustrates the failures of the 2005 overhaul bill. He said the measure largely made filings more costly and time-consuming by forcing consumers to undergo a paperwork-heavy test to determine eligibility for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and adding liability for attorneys who provide help.
 
"It never made sense in the first place that you could change the laws and make all these bankruptcies go away," said Pottow, who would like to see the 2005 law changes repealed. "If people are encountering financial distress, you can only scare them away for so long before they come back again."
 
While every state saw a rise in bankruptcies, Alaska (up 12 percent), Nebraska (12 percent) and North Dakota (14 percent) performed best.

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