Aerospace manufacturer Goodrich Corp. said Thursday its second-quarter net income rose 11 percent on sales growth for aircraft parts, driven by regional and business aviation.

The Charlotte, N.C., company also raised its earnings expectations for the year.

In the three months that ended June 30, Goodrich earned $177 million, or $1.38 per share, compared with net income of $159 million, or $1.42 per share, a year ago.

Revenue rose 17 percent to $2 billion from $1.72 billion a year ago. Revenue from original equipment for regional and business jets jumped 58 percent, the most of any category. Revenue from parts for large commercial airplanes rose 17 percent. Replacement part sales across all these categories increased 16 percent. Defense and space sales for parts and services increased 10 percent.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research expected a profit of $1.32 per share on sales of $1.95 billion.

The continued demand for the company’s parts, which range from landing gear to flight-control systems, led it to boost its expectations for the full year.

For all of 2011, Goodrich now expects to earn between $5.85 and $6 per share on revenue of $8.1 billion. It previously forecast earnings of $5.40 to $5.55 per share on revenue of about $7.8 billion. Analysts had previously projected $5.62 per share on revenue of $7.93 billion.

Families suing over the 2009 plane crash of a Continental Connection flight into a house near Buffalo, which killed 50 people, will be allowed to pursue unlimited punitive damages from the flight’s operators, a federal judge ruled Monday.

U.S. District Judge William Skretny had to decide whether Virginia law — which caps punitive damages at $350,000 — should apply in the wrongful-death lawsuits because flight operator Colgan Air was based in Virginia at the time of the crash, or whether New York law should apply, since that’s where Continental Connection Flight 3407 crashed. New York has no cap.

Skretny decided for New York law, siding with attorneys for passengers’ families and against Colgan and the regional carrier’s parent company, Pinnacle Airlines Corp.

“Plaintiffs maintain that punitive damages are in order because defendants recklessly operated Flight 3407 in New York with deficient, unfit pilots who lacked the fundamental knowledge and ability to safely operate the Q400 aircraft,” Skretny wrote. “New York therefore has a compelling interest in seeing its punitive damages law applied.”

He also noted that Colgan, which is now based in Tennessee, interviewed and tested pilot Marvin Renslow in New York and maintains bases at other New York airports.

The decision “sends the correct message to not only Colgan but other airlines that they cannot assume they’re going to be protected by the limits of liability of the state where they are headquartered,” said attorney Justin Green of Kreindler Kreindler LLP, which represents some of the families.

The judge, however, ruled in favor of Colgan and Pinnacle on another issue, finding that federal standards, rather than state law, should prevail in measuring aviation safety and aircraft operations. The airlines successfully argued that the Federal Aviation Act passed by Congress was meant to set the standards for airline safety and should pre-empt any individual state law.

The Newark-to-Buffalo flight crashed into a house in the suburb of Clarence upon approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport on Feb. 12, 2009. All 49 people on board and a man in the house were killed. Federal safety investigators said pilot error led the plane to stall and crash.

More than 40 lawsuits have been filed in federal court in Buffalo, about a dozen of which have been settled. Cases that don’t settle are expected to go to trial in March 2012.

For the third time, two judges will try to settle a long-running lawsuit that claims Massey Energy Co. and one of its subsidiaries poisoned hundreds of drinking water wells in southern West Virginia with coal slurry.

The state’s Mass Litigation Panel is handling the case against Massey and subsidiary Rawl Sales Processing, both of which are now owned by Virginia-based Alpha Natural Resources.

Judges Derek Swope and Alan Moats have ordered lead attorneys for both sides to meet July 25-26 in Charleston to discuss a possible deal and avoid the series of trials set to begin Aug. 1 in Wheeling.

“We are routinely open to discussions or a resolution that would help avoid protracted litigation,” Alpha spokesman Ted Pile said Monday. The company declined further comment.

While the mediation efforts continue, Ohio County Circuit Judge James Mazzone is preparing for trial with the help of Judges John Hutchinson and Jay Hoke.

Court documents show both sides tried to delay the start of the trial, filing a joint motion to extend the deadline for evidence collection until Nov. 30 and proposing a new trial date of June 18, 2012. Mazzone denied that motion last month.

More than 700 current and former residents of Rawl, Lick Creek, Sprigg and Merrimac claim that Massey and Rawl contaminated their water supplies by pumping 1.4 billion gallons of toxic coal slurry into worked-out underground mines between 1978 and 1987.

Slurry is a byproduct of washing coal to make it burn more cleanly. The residents say that’s what turned their well water varying shades of red, brown and black.

For decades, coal companies in Appalachia have injected slurry into worked-out mines as a cheap alternative to dams and other systems that can safely store or treat it. The industry claims underground injection is safe, but critics say slurry migrates through natural and man-made cracks in the earth.

Massey has denied its Mingo County operations harmed anyone.

Although the plaintiffs are now mostly served by a public water system, they say chronic exposure to metals and chemicals in the slurry are to blame for birth defects, developmental disabilities and a range of ailments.

In February, Massey agreed to create a medical monitoring fund to provide health screenings for hundreds of plaintiffs. That essentially makes the pending trial a series of personal injury and property damage cases.

Neither side has revealed how much Massey is putting into the fund. Alpha also declined to release the amount. A June 30 court order says mediation discussions, “including any resolution or settlement,” must remain confidential.

The judges would begin the trials by hearing one case each from seven categories distinguished by illness: cancer or renal failure; cognitive impairment such as attention-deficit disorder; colon or kidney problems; leukemia, spina bifida or pancreatitis; cysts, boils or internal ulcers; gallbladder problems; and chronic diarrhea, rashes or other so-called “sentinel symptoms” of exposure to contaminated water.

Each trial would play out in two phases. The first would determine Massey’s liability and whether the plaintiffs are entitled to punitive damages, or those intended to deter a defendant’s future bad conduct. The second phase would determine the amount of compensatory and punitive damages.

An embezzler who was on parole when he briefly obtained a $9.1 million state tax credit pleaded no contest to attempted fraud on Monday, prosecutors said.

Richard A. Short also pleaded no contest to unlawfully using a financial transaction device for using the ATM card of an elderly neighbor who suffered from dementia, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said. Short’s sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 30.

Short was arrested a day after sharing the stage with then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm in March 2010 as she announced his company, RASCO, would get the tax credits. He got the grant after saying the company planned to improve the lives of poor people overseas by using renewable energy to provide electricity, clean drinking water, sanitation and telephone and Internet service.

Short’s ability to get a business tax credit for a company he apparently created on his trailer park home computer deeply embarrassed the state’s economic development officials.

Before his arrest, Short had a lengthy criminal history. His prison record and the fact that he was on parole could easily be found by searching the state’s offender database online.

Officials at the Michigan Economic Development Corp. said they never conducted a background check on Short. They also failed to check his other paperwork, including an apparently fake letter Leyton said Short wrote claiming he had $10 million in a trust fund to finance RASCO’s operations.

After Short’s arrest, the Michigan Economic Growth Authority began doing background checks on applicants for state tax breaks. Granholm also ordered a shakeup of the Economic Growth Authority board. Gov. Rick Snyder, who took office Jan. 1, has tried to vastly decrease the number of state tax credits going to individual companies.

Short was convicted in 2002 of embezzling money from Harding Energy Inc. of Muskegon County’s Norton Shores and sentenced to at least two years in prison. He also pleaded guilty in 2002 to earlier fraud charges in Oakland and Genesee counties, according to Corrections Department and state police records.

He was paroled in April 2004 but was returned to prison the following February for violating his parole with additional fraudulent activities, then paroled in January 2007.

IBM Corp. raised its income guidance for the year on Monday as earnings in the latest quarter increased 8 percent because of growth in all three of its major product categories.

The results show the strength of the 100-year-old company’s efforts to link its mainframes and other computing hardware with its newer businesses, software and services. Those two categories bring in the bulk of IBM’s income.

Signings of new contracts for services increased — a welcome sign for Wall Street after a decline last quarter.

But the company faces questions about whether its profit increases are sustainable. Some analysts worry about increased competition, specifically in outsourcing, the biggest part of IBM’s services business.

Investors gave the numbers a tepid endorsement. The stock rose 2 percent.

Net income was $3.66 billion, or $3 per share, in the second quarter compared with $3.39 billion, or $2.61 per share, a year ago. Excluding items, IBM earned $3.09 per share, ahead of the $3.02 per share analysts expected.

Revenue increased 12 percent to $26.7 billion, ahead of the $25.4 billion analyst estimate.

New contract signings in services increased 16 percent over last year to $14.3 billion. They had declined 14 percent in the first quarter, raising fears about the robustness of IBM’s pipeline of new deals.

IBM has stopped including this figure in its earnings releases; it can now only be found deep in the charts accompanying the results. Instead, IBM insists that its backlog of services deals that are already in the pipeline is a better predictor of future revenue. The backlog is now $144 billion, $15 billion higher than last year.

Guidance for 2011 calls for at least $13.25 per share, excluding items, up from the previous estimate of $13.15 per share.

But the company’s history makes it subject to high expectations. IBM, which is based in Armonk, N.Y., has not only consistently raised its guidance, but it has also taken the rare step of setting a specific long-term profit goal — $20 per share in operating earnings by 2015. So investors now expect steady guidance increases.

Brian Marshall, an analyst with Gleacher Co., said he was disappointed with the latest numbers. IBM’s income should have been higher considering that revenue was more than $1 billion higher than estimates, he said.

“They are spending faster than I thought — that is my main concern,” Marshall said, adding that IBM’s ability to hit its long-term profit target is “not a slam dunk in my view.”

IBM’s stock rose $4.07, or 2.3 percent, to $179.35 in extended trading after the release of results Monday. In the regular session earlier, the stock fell 26 cents to $175.28. The stock is up more than 40 percent since September, indicating investors’ overall belief about IBM’s profit predictions.

Investors are testing Europe’s resolve to end the sovereign-debt crisis by pushing Italian and Spanish bond yields toward levels that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to ask for help.

Italy accelerated its deficit-cutting plan last week as 10-year bond yields exceeded 6 percent, approaching the 7 percent mark that prompted its smaller euro partners to seek bailouts. The country, with an economy almost three times the combined size of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, paid the most in three years at an auction of five-year securities last week. Spanish and Italian 10-year bond yields rose to euro-era records Monday.

Borrowing costs for Italy held firm during the first half of the year amid confidence the economy was too large and its banks too strong to be infected by market contagion. That has changed, with Mario Draghi, the incoming European Central Bank chief, saying the crisis has entered a new phase. The International Monetary Fund called for a “greater sense of urgency” in securing a solution for Greece.

“This is certainly a wake-up call for the European officials to come up with a solution and time is running out,” said Michiel de Bruin, who oversees about $35 billion as head of European government debt at FC Netherlands in Amsterdam and holds Italian and Spanish bonds. “I don’t think Spain and Italy will need to be bailed out, but if the market tests the spreads, things can be very volatile.”

When it’s time to renew your wireless contract, think twice about your options before you sign on the dotted line. These FAQs will help you figure out whether you’ll benefit from switching to a no-contract plan.

How do I know a no-contract plan is best for me?

If you prefer a wide range of services and you like choosing among a variety of phones at low or no cost, a contract with a major carrier is still the best option. But if you can live without some phone choices and fewer perks, a prepaid plan could be a winner.

Is there a downside to a no-contract plan?

The lack of commitment you enjoy with a contract-free plan also works in a carrier’s favor: It can boost rates and change terms anytime. And if you have a prepaid plan and fail to reload your account by the expiration date, you may risk losing your phone number. Also, some plans have extra fees, such as activation charges or daily access charges.

Do I have to wait until the end of my contract to switch?

No. Most carriers now charge a prorated fee when you exit a contract early rather than impose the full fee.

Do I have to pay a lot for a phone with a no-contract plan?

You’ll pay more for a phone than you would if you were signing a contract. The Android-powered LG Optimus S, for instance, was recently $20 from Sprint if you ordered it online and agreed to a two-year contract; the nearly identical LG Optimus V from prepaid service Virgin Mobile had a $200 price tag. But over several months you could pay that cost difference many times over on your service bill if you have a contract.

Will I be able to surf the Web?

Some no-contract plans offer unlimited Web surfing and email in all-in-one plans — voice, text and data — that cost $40 to $80, and that could save you money.

Are service and reception as good with no-contract plans?

That depends. Some no-contract carriers are owned by the wireless giants and operate on their networks. Sprint, for example, owns Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile. Others, such as MetroPCS, use separate, smaller networks that may have spotty coverage in some areas and charge extra for roaming.

How do I make the switch?

Carriers are required to port a phone number for anyone who stays within a general metropolitan area. Contact your current carrier to ask how best to schedule the move, but don’t cancel your service until you’re set up with the new carrier.

Send your questions and comments to moneypower@kiplinger.com.

Sales of single-family homes rose in June in Rhode Island, but dropped considerably from a year ago.

The Rhode Island Association of Realtors said Tuesday that sales of single-family homes jumped 16 percent from May to June. But sales fell 22 percent compared to a year ago.

Prices rose 2 percent in June, with the median climbing to $215,000.

Prices of multi-family homes were unchanged in June, while condominium prices rose 11 percent.

Still, sales were down in both categories compared to last year. Sales of multi-family homes plunged 44 percent, while condo sales dropped 21 percent.

Distressed sales were down 58 percent from a year ago.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. said Tuesday its second-quarter earnings rose 13 percent, as enrollment gains helped fuel revenue growth in several categories and consumers continued to moderate their health system use.

The Minnetonka, Minn., company earned $1.27 billion, or $1.16 per share, in the three months that ended June 30. That’s up from $1.12 billion, or 99 cents per share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue rose 8 percent to $25.23 billion.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet forecast earnings of 91 cents per share on $25.22 billion in revenue.

UnitedHealth also hiked its 2011 profit forecast by 20 cents per share. It now expects earnings of $4.15 to $4.25 per share, up from its forecast in April for earnings of $3.95 to $4.05 per share. It expects $101 billion in revenue.

UnitedHealth is the largest health insurer based on revenue and the first to report earnings every quarter. Many see the company as a bellwether for managed care companies.

The company’s total medical enrollment jumped 5 percent to 34.2 million. The insurer said moderated health system use helped its performance. UnitedHealth and other insurers have been helped in recent quarters by health care use that has grown at a slower-than-expected clip.

When it’s time to renew your wireless contract, think twice about your options before you sign on the dotted line. These FAQs will help you figure out whether you’ll benefit from switching to a no-contract plan.

How do I know a no-contract plan is best for me?

If you prefer a wide range of services and you like choosing among a variety of phones at low or no cost, a contract with a major carrier is still the best option. But if you can live without some phone choices and fewer perks, a prepaid plan could be a winner.

Is there a downside to a no-contract plan?

The lack of commitment you enjoy with a contract-free plan also works in a carrier’s favor: It can boost rates and change terms anytime. And if you have a prepaid plan and fail to reload your account by the expiration date, you may risk losing your phone number. Also, some plans have extra fees, such as activation charges or daily access charges.

Do I have to wait until the end of my contract to switch?

No. Most carriers now charge a prorated fee when you exit a contract early rather than impose the full fee.

Do I have to pay a lot for a phone with a no-contract plan?

You’ll pay more for a phone than you would if you were signing a contract. The Android-powered LG Optimus S, for instance, was recently $20 from Sprint if you ordered it online and agreed to a two-year contract; the nearly identical LG Optimus V from prepaid service Virgin Mobile had a $200 price tag. But over several months you could pay that cost difference many times over on your service bill if you have a contract.

Will I be able to surf the Web?

Some no-contract plans offer unlimited Web surfing and email in all-in-one plans — voice, text and data — that cost $40 to $80, and that could save you money.

Are service and reception as good with no-contract plans?

That depends. Some no-contract carriers are owned by the wireless giants and operate on their networks. Sprint, for example, owns Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile. Others, such as MetroPCS, use separate, smaller networks that may have spotty coverage in some areas and charge extra for roaming.

How do I make the switch?

Carriers are required to port a phone number for anyone who stays within a general metropolitan area. Contact your current carrier to ask how best to schedule the move, but don’t cancel your service until you’re set up with the new carrier.

Send your questions and comments to moneypower@kiplinger.com.

Toy maker Hasbro said its second-quarter profit rose 33 percent, mainly due to double digit revenue gains on strong sales of toys its boys division like Transformers and Beyblade, a spin-top game. Here’s a closer look at revenue results by category.

TOTAL REVENUE: Up 23 percent to $908.5 million.

U.S. AND CANADA REVENUE: Up 14 percent to $505 million.

INTERNATIONAL REVENUE: Up 43 percent to $374.5 million.

REVENUE BY CATEGORY:

— Boys: Up 96 percent to $460.4 million.

— Games and Puzzles: Down 12 percent to $231.3 million.

— Girls: Down 11 percent to $119.1 million.

— Preschool: Down 10 percent to $97.6 million.

For $320, you could buy 37 burritos at restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill. Or a single share of its stock.

Since going public in January 2006, Chipotle has jumped from $44 a share to $320 on Friday— a 630 percent return for investors who held on the whole time. The company, which sells upscale fast food tacos and burritos, is now one of the most expensive stocks in the Standard and Poor’s 500 index based on its price compared with its earnings. That’s the measure most investors use to evaluate the future growth prospects of a company and the demand for its stock.

Chipotle is a darling of the stock market because of its profitable business model, rapid growth, and a concept that resonates with customers. But its stock is also up for another reason, analysts say. It’s one of the few rapidly-growing companies that allow investors to target U.S. consumers who can afford regular $8- to-$10 lunches.

“There just aren’t a lot of growth names left,” says Steve West, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus who covers restaurants. “When you think about how many mutual funds and hedge funds out there need to invest in consumer growth names, it’s becoming a supply and demand problem.”

It seems harder than ever for these stock pickers to find a middle ground in the market. Since the recession ended in early 2009, luxury and low-end consumer companies have outperformed. Jeweler Tiffany Co., for instance, has returned 350 percent since March 2009 because its affluent customers are spending money again. At the other end, discount consumer goods retailer Dollar Tree Inc., has returned 165 percent to investors over the same period by taking market share from companies like Wal-Mart and Target. During the same period, the benchmark Standard and Poor’s 500 index has returned about 100 percent after dividends.

Chipotle and a handful of growing companies like Panera Bread and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters are among the few that reach middle income consumers. They sell affordable products with higher quality ingredients that appeal to consumers who don’t worry about handing over $10 for lunch a few times a week. Hungry office workers might not be confident enough about the economy to treat a coworker to a sit-down lunch, but a freshly-made burrito or a chicken salad sandwich is another story.

As a result, these middle-market companies are outperforming the stock market. Chipotle has outshined the rest of the group. It jumped 13 percent over the last three months and has returned nearly 500 percent since March 2009. Analysts expect the company to report that earnings per share will be up 15 percent when its quarterly report is released Tuesday.

Investors like Chipotle in part because it is small but getting bigger. Chipotle has barely made a dent in the U.S. market. The company was founded in 1993 and operates about 1,000 stores across 35 states. Compared with a former hot growth stock like Starbucks Corp., which has 17,000 stores worldwide, analysts see a lot of room for growth — both at home and overseas.

Twelve of Chipotle’s 20 largest stakeholders are actively managed growth-oriented mutual funds that try to beat the overall market. Fidelity’s $79.9 billion Contrafund owns nearly 10 percent of the company’s 31.1 million outstanding shares, or 1.2 percent of its portfolio. The $5.4 billion Columbia Select Large Cap Growth Fund owns nearly 700,000 shares, enough to make up nearly 4 percent of its portfolio.

What’s more, analysts say that Chipotle’s simple menu and fast service have led to its sales to top $700 per square foot in the last quarter, the most of any restaurant in its category. Chipotle customers come back more frequently and spend more at every visit than customers of other fast food restaurants. That has helped sales at restaurants open at least a year to rise 12 percent over the last year. Chipotle made $46 million in profit from $509 million in revenue its first quarter. Sales have grown at an average of 24 percent a year over the last five years.

Chipotle trades at 54 times its earnings. The Standard and Poor’s 500 index, on the other hand, costs 15 times its earnings per share. Even Apple Inc., one of the most-loved stocks in the market, costs just 17 times earnings.

Some of the most bullish analysts think that the stock will outperform the overall stock market for a long time.

“A decade from now we are still going to look at Chipotle as a high growth story,” says Bart Glenn, an analyst who covers the company for DA Davidson Co. “People are going to look back and wonder, ‘How did I miss this?’” me

Of course, that’s exactly the sort of talk that has propelled other companies that developed cult-like followings on Wall Street — only to later take a substantial fall when growth declines, price pressures or problems arise. Krispy Kreme Donuts Inc., Starbucks, and Research in Motion are among them.

Will the same thing happen to Chipotle? Any off notes when the company releases its quarterly results on July 19 could send the stock down quickly.

Rising food costs could also cut into Chipotle’s bottom line. In the first quarter alone, its food costs rose 32 percent. In late June, the company announced it would raise prices on some items. And Chipotle warned investors that lower than expected avocado harvests from California are expected to cut into its margins for the rest of the summer. Another concern: an investigation currently under way by the Department of Justice into its hiring practices. The company would not comment on these concerns, citing its upcoming earnings release.

And 3 of the 25 analysts covering Chipotle advise their clients to sell, according to FactSet.

Brian Elliot, an analyst at Raymond James, is one of the few on Wall Street to rate Chipotle a sell. He downgraded the stock on January 26, when it was priced at $222, because he thought that expectations had gotten ahead of reality. Elliot thinks that Chipotle’s stock price will fizzle as its growth rates slow, and that other companies will draw the attention of investors.

“It’s simply the natural evolution of a chain,” he says. “In consumer retail-restaurant land, that’s a story that’s played out many, many times.”

For $320, you could buy 37 burritos at restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill. Or a single share of its stock.

Since going public in January 2006, Chipotle has jumped from $44 a share to $320 on Friday— a 630 percent return for investors who held on the whole time. The company, which sells upscale fast food tacos and burritos, is now one of the most expensive stocks in the Standard and Poor’s 500 index based on its price compared with its earnings. That’s the measure most investors use to evaluate the future growth prospects of a company and the demand for its stock.

Chipotle is a darling of the stock market because of its profitable business model, rapid growth, and a concept that resonates with customers. But its stock is also up for another reason, analysts say. It’s one of the few rapidly-growing companies that allow investors to target U.S. consumers who can afford regular $8- to-$10 lunches.

“There just aren’t a lot of growth names left,” says Steve West, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus who covers restaurants. “When you think about how many mutual funds and hedge funds out there need to invest in consumer growth names, it’s becoming a supply and demand problem.”

It seems harder than ever for these stock pickers to find a middle ground in the market. Since the recession ended in early 2009, luxury and low-end consumer companies have outperformed. Jeweler Tiffany Co., for instance, has returned 350 percent since March 2009 because its affluent customers are spending money again. At the other end, discount consumer goods retailer Dollar Tree Inc., has returned 165 percent to investors over the same period by taking market share from companies like Wal-Mart and Target. During the same period, the benchmark Standard and Poor’s 500 index has returned about 100 percent after dividends.

Chipotle and a handful of growing companies like Panera Bread and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters are among the few that reach middle income consumers. They sell affordable products with higher quality ingredients that appeal to consumers who don’t worry about handing over $10 for lunch a few times a week. Hungry office workers might not be confident enough about the economy to treat a coworker to a sit-down lunch, but a freshly-made burrito or a chicken salad sandwich is another story.

As a result, these middle-market companies are outperforming the stock market. Chipotle has outshined the rest of the group. It jumped 13 percent over the last three months and has returned nearly 500 percent since March 2009. Analysts expect the company to report that earnings per share will be up 15 percent when its quarterly report is released Tuesday.

Investors like Chipotle in part because it is small but getting bigger. Chipotle has barely made a dent in the U.S. market. The company was founded in 1993 and operates about 1,000 stores across 35 states. Compared with a former hot growth stock like Starbucks Corp., which has 17,000 stores worldwide, analysts see a lot of room for growth — both at home and overseas.

Twelve of Chipotle’s 20 largest stakeholders are actively managed growth-oriented mutual funds that try to beat the overall market. Fidelity’s $79.9 billion Contrafund owns nearly 10 percent of the company’s 31.1 million outstanding shares, or 1.2 percent of its portfolio. The $5.4 billion Columbia Select Large Cap Growth Fund owns nearly 700,000 shares, enough to make up nearly 4 percent of its portfolio.

What’s more, analysts say that Chipotle’s simple menu and fast service have led to its sales to top $700 per square foot in the last quarter, the most of any restaurant in its category. Chipotle customers come back more frequently and spend more at every visit than customers of other fast food restaurants. That has helped sales at restaurants open at least a year to rise 12 percent over the last year. Chipotle made $46 million in profit from $509 million in revenue its first quarter. Sales have grown at an average of 24 percent a year over the last five years.

Chipotle trades at 54 times its earnings. The Standard and Poor’s 500 index, on the other hand, costs 15 times its earnings per share. Even Apple Inc., one of the most-loved stocks in the market, costs just 17 times earnings.

Some of the most bullish analysts think that the stock will outperform the overall stock market for a long time.

“A decade from now we are still going to look at Chipotle as a high growth story,” says Bart Glenn, an analyst who covers the company for DA Davidson Co. “People are going to look back and wonder, ‘How did I miss this?’” me

Of course, that’s exactly the sort of talk that has propelled other companies that developed cult-like followings on Wall Street — only to later take a substantial fall when growth declines, price pressures or problems arise. Krispy Kreme Donuts Inc., Starbucks, and Research in Motion are among them.

Will the same thing happen to Chipotle? Any off notes when the company releases its quarterly results on July 19 could send the stock down quickly.

Rising food costs could also cut into Chipotle’s bottom line. In the first quarter alone, its food costs rose 32 percent. In late June, the company announced it would raise prices on some items. And Chipotle warned investors that lower than expected avocado harvests from California are expected to cut into its margins for the rest of the summer. Another concern: an investigation currently under way by the Department of Justice into its hiring practices. The company would not comment on these concerns, citing its upcoming earnings release.

And 3 of the 25 analysts covering Chipotle advise their clients to sell, according to FactSet.

Brian Elliot, an analyst at Raymond James, is one of the few on Wall Street to rate Chipotle a sell. He downgraded the stock on January 26, when it was priced at $222, because he thought that expectations had gotten ahead of reality. Elliot thinks that Chipotle’s stock price will fizzle as its growth rates slow, and that other companies will draw the attention of investors.

“It’s simply the natural evolution of a chain,” he says. “In consumer retail-restaurant land, that’s a story that’s played out many, many times.”

Apple Inc.’s fiscal third quarter earnings report on Tuesday comes amid speculation about how well the company is recovering from shortages that have limited sales of its hot iPad tablet computer.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR: Investors are keenly awaiting new iPad sales numbers. Analysts say the device is on track to make more money for Apple than its entire Mac division by the end of the year, and Apple has been hurt by an inability to make enough iPads to meet demand. Chief operating officer Tim Cook said on last quarter’s conference call that Apple was working through the “mother of all backlogs” with the iPad.

WHY IT MATTERS: Apple is the world’s most valuable technology company, whose $337 billion market value dwarfs that of Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. Its iPhone, released in 2007, essentially created the mass consumer smartphone market, and the iPad, released last year, created a hot new computer category and has already sold 20 million units. Its stock is up 50 percent since last year.

WHAT’S EXPECTED: Analysts expect earnings of $5.82 per share and revenue of $24.84 billion, according to FactSet.

LAST YEAR’S QUARTER: In the same period a year ago, Apple earned $3.51 per share on $15.7 billion in revenue.

If Rhode Island’s 39 cities and towns are anything, they are fiercely independent — right down to the point where each and every one has its own rules for setting up party tents.

That can make life — and business — difficult for William Corcoran, who owns a tent company. Half of the 2,000 events he does a year are in Rhode Island, where he might be sent from a building department to a police department to a fire department and back again to get the proper permit.

Not long ago, he was told it was necessary to appear before the planning board in Warwick to get the green light to erect a tent — for three days — for a dog show.

“A lot of my time is spent not putting up tents but dealing with the regulatory process,” said Corcoran, whose firm, Newport Tent Co., has been in business for 40 years. “It’s bad enough we have to fight the wind and the rain. We don’t have to fight City Hall.”

For small business owners, the backbone of the economy in Rhode Island and in states across the country, red tape means more than just frustration. Figuring out complex rules, much less complying with them, costs time, and time costs money. The Small Business Administration estimates that federal regulations cost the economy $1.75 trillion a year — which says nothing of those that states impose themselves.

Last year, the General Assembly approved a package of bills aimed at making it easier for firms to do business here. And former Gov. Donald Carcieri signed an executive order establishing an office whose aim is to improve regulatory procedures — and help businesses navigate them.

“We were hearing a consistent outcry that we need to do a better job of streamlining our system,” said Keith Stokes, executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation. “Small businesses were just lost out there.”

Rhode Island, which has the third-highest unemployment rate in the country at 10.9 percent and is adding new jobs at a glacial pace, has something of a reputation when it comes to business climate. And it’s not good.

The cable business news network CNBC last month ranked Rhode Island No. 50 — dead last — in its annual state-by-state survey of the best places to do business. Virginia came out on top; Alaska was just ahead of Rhode Island in 49th place.

Rhode Island performed poorly in half of the 10 categories, including the cost of doing business, overall economy, business friendliness, cost of living and infrastructure and transportation.

That can keep companies from moving here in the first place, or hinder their growth once they’re here. An effort this year by Gov. Lincoln Chafee to gradually reduce the corporate tax rate from 9 percent to 7.5 percent was dropped. The change would have put Rhode Island on par with Connecticut and ahead of Massachusetts, which has a rate of 8.25 percent.

Leonard Lardaro, a professor of economics at the University of Rhode Island, said that calling the state’s regulations draconian would be an understatement. They’re not consistent, he said, and they’re not necessarily up to date.

“In total, they’re onerous,” he said.

As the smallest state in the U.S., he and others point out, Rhode Island should be nimble — a model of efficiency.

The state legislation passed last year provided, among other things, for concurrent review of permit applications by multiple agencies so the process doesn’t drag on for months; took steps to smooth implementation and enforcement of a fire code that business owners describe as a nightmare; and set aside funding to develop a statewide master business application.

Rhode Island also created an office of regulatory reform, including a position now filled by Sherri Lynn Carrera. As the state’s small business ombudsman, it is her full-time job to deal with other people’s headaches and complaints. In short, she wrestles with red tape.

One firm she worked with was Stat-SouthCoast EMS, of Dartmouth, Mass., an ambulance company seeking to expand into Rhode Island. The company applied in May 2010 to the Department of Health for an ambulance license and was told it wouldn’t be reviewed until August, said Mark Haskell, director of corporate development. Carrera cited a staff shortage.

Later, when the company tried to register its vehicles at the Department of Motor Vehicles, it couldn’t because its leasing company did not have a license to do business in the state. So Stat-SouthCoast ended up purchasing two other vehicles, at an unexpected cost of about $130,000, Haskell said.

Later still, the company learned that ambulances in Rhode Island are required to have a special safety modification on the rear — a requirement no other state has. Technically, modifying the vehicles in this way voids the warranty, Haskell said, but he made the adjustment anyway. (Carrera said the requirement is being phased out.)

All told, the delays cost the company a lease on an office space, pushed back their hiring of 12 workers and meant several months of lost income.

Carrera met at least eight times with company officials — who nearly decided to walk away from Rhode Island — and helped resolve the issues over five months. The company has been now up and running in Newport.

“Our heads were spinning,” said Haskell.

Karl Wadensten, who sits on the Economic Development Corporation board of directors, is heading the board’s effort on regulatory reform. Wadensten, who owns a business in Richmond, R.I., that sells industrial vibrators and is a devotee of the “lean business” philosophy, says there’s no more pressing issue in a state that desperately needs to create jobs.

But he says it’s going to require a cultural shift — perhaps the hardest type of change. State agencies and municipalities aren’t used to seeing small businesses as customers.

“This is so complex and so convoluted, this process, they don’t realize that without speeding it up people are delayed in getting employed.”

Corcoran, of the tent company, said he doesn’t so much object to the cost of permits and licenses. It’s the inefficiency that bogs him down: keeping straight, for instance, which jurisdiction wants fire extinguishers posted on the center of the tent poles, and which wants them at the exits.

“It’s time that you can’t be doing other things, like marketing or servicing your customers,” he said. “So it’s diminishing your ability to grow your business.”

Mow, spray or chew?

The options for controlling plant growth beneath Cape Cod’s power lines are limited.

Mowing leaves an aesthetically unpleasant landscape where fast-, high-growing tree and plant species outcompete power-line-friendly species that grow low and slowly.

Selective spraying of herbicides has met with stiff opposition from opponents of chemical solutions and their potential health impacts.

Even the benign and pastoral-sounding use of goats to clear pernicious growth beneath power lines that has recently become a popular alternative idea faces significant hurdles.

“They’re indiscriminate eaters,” said NStar spokesman Michael Durand during a recent tour of the company’s rights of way in Falmouth. The goats will often go after the plants the company and environmental groups want to encourage, leaving woody and invasive plants that can grow quickly and pose the greatest risk to power lines, NStar officials said.

There’s also the matter of what the goats leave behind, including the spread of seeds, and other logistics around their deployment on a mass scale.

As the county moves forward with a study of the use of herbicides on Cape Cod, the discussion about goats and NStar is only a small part of the conversation.

“It doesn’t make sense to me to focus on one utility or one company,” Cape Cod Commission Executive Director Paul Niedzwiecki said.

Instead, the commission is pursuing a four-part plan to survey and reduce the use of pesticides on the Cape by a variety of groups, including utilities and homeowners.

One component, the mapping of drinking wells near NStar’s rights of way, is basically complete and will make the utility’s heavily regulated spraying even safer, Niedzwiecki said. The regional planning and regulatory agency is also testing the Cape’s groundwater to establish a baseline to understand the impact of herbicides in the region, he said.

While NStar has agreed to temporarily hold off on using herbicides, other users continue to spray, Niedzwiecki said.

“We don’t have the same level of cooperation from municipal governments, federal entities, other utilities and even homeowners,” he said.

The county plan includes two other components: a survey of the overall use of the chemicals Capewide and education about their impacts and alternatives.

$50,000 for survey

County officials are currently exploring whether they can come up with $50,000 to support the survey. The education component is already an active part of what the most vocal opponents of NStar’s spraying do, Niedzwiecki said, adding that he hopes they will continue to help in that respect.

But the leader of GreenCAPE — a nonprofit organization that has spearheaded the fight against NStar’s spraying — questions the need for studying the issue more before acting.

“You can reduce without knowing what you are already using,” said GreenCAPE director Sue Phelan.

Phelan questions the likelihood that a baseline could be established because of how chemicals travel once they enter the groundwater and the air. GreenCAPE has long pushed for alternatives, including grazing goats under power lines, she said.

“We keep coming back to that one because it works so well and it has worked in other areas,” Phelan said.

The idea has regained some momentum including among a herd of legislators and other civic leaders who recently visited the Massachusetts Audubon Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary in Cummaquid, where goats are being used to control vegetation.

‘You can’t train a goat’

Using goats to manage rights of way is more complicated than it sounds.

Distribution lines require 100-foot-wide clearances, while larger transmission lines require 300 feet, NStar senior arborist for distribution lines Paul Sellers said. For transmission lines there is “zero tolerance” for possible outages from trees or limbs falling on the lines, said senior arborist for transmission lines Bill Hayes.

Once clearances are established mechanically herbicides applied by crews of three to five wearing backpacks can maintain the area easier and with less impact than mowing, the arborists said. Without frequent maintenance, the rights of way quickly succumb to fast-growing, brittle species, Hayes said.

The spraying allows the utility’s arborists to discourage some species while encouraging others, such as shrub oak, which gets to only about 15 feet high, Hayes said. The utility also manages for diversity in collaboration with state officials and local organizations.

Managed correctly, the rights of way are an ideal habitat for many butterfly species, small mammals and birds of prey, Hayes said.

Since the rights of way in Falmouth were last sprayed two years ago, the area has exploded with growth, including both wanted and unwanted species.

“You can’t train a goat to differentiate between a compatible species and an invasive species,” Sellers said.

Although the NStar officials said that similar efforts in other locations have not been successful, an official from a New Hampshire utility that ran a pilot program using sheep says the idea has merit.

“In terms of the utility’s perspective, we believe the program demonstrated that sheep can ‘do the job,’” Public Service of New Hampshire spokesman Martin Murray wrote in an email to the Times. The problem, Murray wrote, is a lack of interest from vendors who can provide the animals to do the work.

The study undertaken by the New Hampshire utility compared sheep with mowing, Durand wrote in an email to the Times, adding that mowing has been replaced by integrated management programs such as the one NStar uses that include the herbicide spraying and are fast becoming the preferred method nationwide.

Despite concerns about the feasibility of using sheep or goats, NStar remains open to discussions about such alternatives, Durand wrote.

Part of the appeal for James and Paulette Foster when they bought their English Tudor home in Detroit’s Jefferson East 25 years ago was what the riverfront neighborhood one day would become.

“Within a few years this would be a paradise; the new Detroit area over here,” said Paulette Foster, a court stenographer.

That has yet to happen.

But as grand plans for the city’s under-used and partly developed riverfront have been deep-sixed by a national recession, Jefferson East — a neighborhood of wood and brick two-story houses, boat houses, marinas and high-end condos — continues to bob around a mortgage collapse that has crippled much of the city.

Values of many homes are down, but not so much as other parts of town. Vacant houses and empty lots that fill some neighborhoods are fewer in Jefferson East. Some streets have occupancy rates approaching 90 percent in a city that saw 250,000 people leave over the past decade.

“Most of the people here are staying here. They are going to weather the storm,” says 76-year-old Doris Fleming, who has lived in the same house with her husband, Daniel, since 1955. Their backyard runs into a canal.

“If you don’t have the water all you have is the cars racing up and down the street,” she said. “We watch the boats go by. It’s like living on the water. On some streets, sometimes people don’t know their next door neighbor. We know one another. We are a community.”

Proximity to the Detroit River attracts people to the neighborhood and the value of being so close to the water has kept it afloat.

“Everybody wants to be around water. Water is magical,” said Rocky Marcoux, commissioner of Milwaukee’s Department of City Development. “With the correct plan and correct execution of that plan you could easily get twice the value of riverfront property than elsewhere.”

Over the past 30 years, the Milwaukee River’s shoreline has been transformed from a heavy industrial and manufacturing base to mostly residential. Last week, 200 additional high-end rental units were approved at time when many such developments in other cities, like Detroit, have been put on hold due to the recession and slow-recovery economy.

“You’ll have less of a drop in valuation along the river as you would citywide,” Marcoux said. “Milwaukee has not been exempted from the downturn, (but) we held up pretty well. We have had an increase in the number of units being constructed along the river.”

In Detroit, development along the riverfront near downtown abruptly ended about two years ago when lenders made it more difficult to get financing.

A $60-million development that promised 112 apartments, condos and townhouses has attracted weeds instead of buyers. Another $25 million condominium and retail project also appears to have died.

A new state park and RiverWalk promenade brings down walkers, joggers and bicyclists. But a number of boarded up warehouses and empty lots still remain.

“I’ve been active in the community for years and I think of how there were plans in place and nothing resulted from it … nothing being accomplished except a lot of noise,” Paulette Foster said.

Propelled by businesses and foundations, attention now is focused more on building up the city’s core, leaving it up to the residents and small shop owners in Jefferson East to mostly fend for themselves.

Matching grant programs have paid for building façade work along Jefferson Avenue, while work on a streetscape — including new streetlights — has been going on since 2006, said Joshua Elling, Jefferson East Business Association executive director.

“We have a $726,000 budget,” Elling said. “We do a lot with a little. We do a crime patrol, a clean team. We do a ton of stuff … services that the city can’t provide. In a perfect world we’d be irrelevant.”

Faced with a $155 million city budget deficit, impending layoffs and cutbacks to some services, little, if any, help is expected from City Hall.

“The city already has hit rock bottom,” said Al Barrow, who owns a small, neighborhood hardware store on Jefferson.

Barrow has been at the same location about 20 years and plans to expand after recently buying an adjacent building for $40,000.

“There’s only one way to go and that’s up,” he said. “I always think positive.”

President Barack Obama has chosen a candidate other than Elizabeth Warren as director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a person briefed on the matter.

The president’s choice is a person who already works at the consumer agency, the person said yesterday. Obama may make the nomination as soon as next week, another person briefed on the administration’s plans said.

The people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the process isn’t public, didn’t name Obama’s choice.

Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard professor, was appointed last fall by Obama to set up the consumer bureau until a director was named. Warren previously was head of the congressional watchdog panel overseeing the bank bailout.

Raj Date, a top deputy to Warren at the consumer bureau, was on a short list of candidates to become director, Bloomberg News reported last month, citing a person briefed on the process. Date, currently the bureau’s associate director for research, markets and regulations, is a former banker with Deutsche Bank AG and Capital One Financial Corp.

Consumer bureau spokeswoman Jen Howard declined to comment, as did Jen Psaki, a White House spokeswoman.

The consumer bureau, which is to begin formal operations on July 21, was established by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial- regulatory overhaul to fill what lawmakers said was a gap in oversight of financial products such as mortgages and credit cards whose abuse contributed to the 2008 credit crisis.

The bureau’s director requires confirmation by the Senate. After 44 Republican senators announced in May that they wouldn’t vote to approve any candidate to run the bureau without changes in its structure, analysts said the White House might have to resort to a temporary appointment during a congressional recess. Sixty of the 100 senators are required to vote for a nomination because of procedural rules.

The legislation requires a director confirmed by the Senate or appointed in recess before the bureau has authority to supervise and regulate non-bank financial firms such as mortgage originators, payday lenders and credit bureaus. It also isn’t able to enforce rules against “abusive” consumer products, a legal standard Congress created in Dodd-Frank.

Obama didn’t nominate Warren last fall after then-Senator Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat who headed the Banking Committee, said she couldn’t win confirmation.

Since then, several potential candidates have rejected overtures, including Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan, and Ted Kaufman, a former Democratic senator from Delaware, people briefed on the search said.

Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. shut the Trans Alaska Pipeline Saturday as it performs maintenance on two of the line’s pumping stations.

The Anchorage, Alaska-based operator halted operation of the line south of Prudhoe Bay at 6 a.m. local time, said Michelle Egan, a spokeswoman for Alyeska, in an e-mailed statement.

Repairs will replace valves at Pump Station 4 and pipe will be straightened and rearranged at Pump Station 11, the company said. The line consists of 11 pumping stations, according to Alyeska data.

Oil flow will be halted until the work is complete, estimated to be sometime Sunday night, Egan said. Oil that would normally flow on the line, capable of moving as much as 2.14 million barrels a day, will be stored until start up, she said.

The 800-mile line runs from Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope to Valdez, the northernmost ice-free port in the U.S.

BP Plc, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil Corp. own a combined 96 percent of Alyeska. — Bloomberg News

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may have their AAA ratings lowered by Standard Poor’s Ratings Services because of their dependence on the U.S. government, which is under review for a possible cut.

SP also placed select AAA-rated Federal Home Loan Banks and 126 debt issues guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Creditwatch negative, meaning there’s a one-in-two chance they may be cut in the next 90 days, the ratings firm said today in a statement.

SP reduced the outlook on the U.S. rating to negative from stable on April 18. The U.S. may have its AAA long-term rating lowered if SP concludes Congress and President Barack Obama’s administration haven’t achieved a credible solution to the rising U.S. government debt burden and aren’t likely to achieve one in the foreseeable future, the firm said July 14.

Home loan guarantors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were placed under government conservatorship in 2008, have a “direct reliance on the U.S. government,” SP said in today’s statement.

The builder of an unfinished Las Vegas Strip hotel has disputed a report that calls the project unsafe, saying company officials are “100 percent confident” that the Harmon is structurally sound.

Craig Shaw, CEO of Tutor Perini Corp., told Clark County officials Friday that the Harmon was not in danger of collapsing, even in the event of a major earthquake.

“Safety is of paramount concern to our company,” Shaw wrote in documents also distributed by the company to reporters. “We would not commit that the Harmon Tower is safe if we were not 100 percent confident of this fact.”

The statement aimed to counter a structural report released Monday that claimed the Harmon would likely collapse in a major earthquake.

The Harmon, originally envisioned as a boutique hotel with condominium units, sits next to the Crystals shopping center on Las Vegas Boulevard. It’s part of the $8.5 billion CityCenter project that opened at the end of 2009 and is jointly owned by MGM Resorts International and Dubai World.

Perini and MGM Resorts have been locked in a legal battle since last year over the stalled construction project. MGM Resorts officials have alleged that the hotel construction was shoddy. Meanwhile, Perini officials claim the design was incomplete.

MGM Resorts released its report Monday by engineering firm Weidlinger Associates of Marina Del Rey, Calif. The analysis claimed the Harmon would likely collapse in a strong earthquake and that it would take at least one year to figure out what kind of repairs would be required.

“Perini had ample opportunity during the construction period to perform adequate testing and ensure proper construction of the building,” MGM Resorts spokesman Gordon Absher in a statement Friday. “Perini failed to do so. In fact, despite its grandstanding now, Perini opposed CityCenter’s attempts to conduct testing to determine the true state of the building.”

Clark County officials this week set an Aug. 15 deadline for MGM Resorts to come up with a plan to fix the Harmon.

Absher said MGM Resorts will comply with the request, while Shaw applauded the deadline Friday in a plea to county officials that also insisted MGM Resorts’ structural report was merely a litigation tactic.

Shaw said his company commissioned engineering consultants John A. Martin Associates to study the property. The firm determined the Harmon “presents no threat to life safety or property damage.”

Shaw said Perini was eager to complete the Harmon and correct any defects.

Absher said MGM Resorts does not trust that Perini can repair the Harmon.

“We will meet Perini’s contentions in the courtroom,” he said.

MGM Resorts first reported construction problems in 2008. More recently, Clark County officials questioned the building’s stability and commissioned a safety report.

That review concluded in January that the project “has stability issues,” citing improperly placed steel reinforcing bars and overstressed link beams.

In a story July 14 about solar energy development zones, The Associated Press erroneously reported the name of the director of energy programs for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. His name is Steve Belinda.

In headlines on a July 3 story about the retirement of Command Sgt. Maj. Jeff Mellinger, The Associated Press, relying on information from the Army’s Human Resources Command, erroneously called Mellinger the last Vietnam War-era draftee. The story itself said the Army believed he was the last draftee still serving. A spokesman for the Human Resources Command says that after the story was published, the command became aware of and verified that at least two other active duty servicemen drafted in the Vietnam War era are still serving in the military. They are Chief Warrant Officer 5 Ralph Rigby and Chief Warrant Officer 4 Franklin Ernst.

Sometimes you just have to say you’re sorry.

Britain’s The Guardian newspaper has apologized to The Sun tabloid for claiming that The Sun illicitly accessed the medical records of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s son.

The Guardian’s initial story, which accused The Sun of accessing the files to sustain a “scoop” saying Brown’s son had cystic fibrosis, added to growing outrage in Britain amid allegations of phone hacking at another one of Rupert Murdoch’s tabloids.

The Sun denied the claim, saying its source for the story had been a member of the public. It is owned by News International, the British arm of Murdoch’s News Corp. media empire.

The Guardian on Friday ran a correction — news of which The Sun carried on its front page.

The number of homes taken back by lenders in the first half of this year fell 30 percent compared with the same 2010 period, the result of delays in foreclosure processing that threaten to stall a U.S. housing recovery.

Banks seized 421,212 homes in the first six months of the year, down from 529,633 between January and June last year, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

The decline reflects lenders taking longer to move against homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments. The banks are working through foreclosure documentation problems that first surfaced last fall and an ensuing logjam in some state courts. Lenders also have put off on taking action against delinquent borrowers as U.S. home sales have slowed this year.

As the processing delays mount, however, so has the backlog of potential foreclosures — homes that otherwise would have been repossessed by lenders this year.

RealtyTrac estimates that 1 million foreclosure-related notices that should have been filed by banks this year will be pushed to next year. The filings include notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions — warnings that can lead to a home eventually being lost to foreclosure.

The delayed filings buys more time for many borrowers behind in payments to remain in their homes, perhaps giving them time to catch up or simply to stall their inevitable eviction. But it also means any eventual foreclosures will happen next year, extending the shadow of distressed properties that hovers over the market.

“The best-case scenario is we don’t get back to normal levels of foreclosure activity until 2015, which means the housing market recovery gets delayed by at least a year,” said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac.

And given delays in the time it’s taking lenders to move a home from default to foreclosure and then sell the property, the housing turnaround could conceivably be pushed out to as late as 2016, Sharga said.

“It could be the new reality is we’re going to have to accept the fact that home prices in most markets aren’t going to budge much for the next several years while this overhang gradually, painfully makes its way into the market and gets purchased,” he said.

In all, some 1.2 million U.S. homes received a foreclosure-related notice in the first six months of this year, RealtyTrac said.

That’s down 29 percent from the same period last year and down 25 percent versus the second half of 2010.

Put another way, one in every 111 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing between January and June.

In addition to repossessing fewer homes, banks also fired off 36 percent fewer initial notices of default in the first half of this year than in the same period last year. The notices are the first step in the foreclosure process.

Foreclosure activity did pick up slightly between May and June, although lenders repossessed fewer homes than they did in June last year.

At the current pace, banks are on track to take back between 800,000 and 900,000 homes this year, down from a record of 1 million lost to foreclosures last year, Sharga said.

The firm had originally anticipated some 1.2 million homes would be repossessed by lenders this year.

Foreclosures typically sell at a discount to other types of homes, weighing down home values. As a result, housing experts say U.S. home prices are unlikely to recover until the glut of foreclosed homes on the market is cleared out.

Lenders have been careful not to unload all of their foreclosures on the market at once, and have financial incentives to continue doing so. But the prospect of more foreclosures hitting the market for years to come makes it difficult to predict when home values will stabilize. And that keeps many would-be homebuyers on the sidelines.

Between April and June, it took an average of 318 days for a home to go from the first stage of foreclosure to the point where it was sold at auction or taken back by the lender, RealtyTrac said. That’s up from 298 days in the first three months of the year and up from 277 days in the second quarter of last year.

The foreclosure process took longest to play out in New York at an average of 966 days, or 2.6 years, during the second quarter. New Jersey was second-slowest at an average of 944 days, RealtyTrac said.

Homes were on a relative foreclosure fast-track in Texas, taking an average of 92 days to go through the process, the fastest turnaround time in the nation.

Despite slowdown in foreclosure activity, several states continue to have outsized foreclosure rates.

Nevada continued to lead the nation, with one in every 21 households receiving a foreclosure notice in the first half of this year.

Rounding out the top 10 states with the highest foreclosure rate in the first half of this year are Arizona, California, Utah, Georgia, Idaho, Michigan, Florida, Colorado and Illinois.

A convicted killer walked into the home of a prison’s deputy warden without knocking just weeks before the warden’s wife allegedly helped the inmate escape, a former Oklahoma prison counselor testified Thursday at the woman’s trial.

Retired counselor Kathy Kardokus said she was at the home of Bobbi Parker when inmate Randolph Dial entered and got ice.

“I didn’t think he should be coming in the house, at least without knocking,” Kardokus said.

She said she asked Parker if Dial did that often, and that Parker said yes.

Prosecutors say Parker, 49, fell in love with Dial and helped him escape the Oklahoma State Reformatory on Aug. 30, 1994. Parker’s husband, Randy Parker, was deputy warden of the prison in Granite at the time.

Kardokus also testified that she saw Bobbi Parker and Dial sitting together on the porch of the Parker home inside the prison grounds.

“They were sitting on the porch swing talking, I couldn’t hear what they were saying,” she said.

Bobbi Parker has said she was kidnapped and held hostage by Dial for more than a decade until they were found living at a chicken ranch in Campti, Texas, in April 2005. She has pleaded not guilty to the felony charge and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Parker’s defense attorney, Garvin Isaacs, later questioned Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent Robert Williams for the second consecutive day. He asked Williams if Dial’s mental health was considered during the investigation of the case.

Williams testified that he knew nothing about Dial’s mental health background, other than a report he received from the FBI. Isaacs showed him a 1979 report by Dr. Edward Norfleet that described Dial as “an extremely sociopathic fellow.”

Isaacs showed Williams another report from 1991 by a psychologist’s assistant at the Dick Conner Correctional Institute, where Dial was incarcerated at the time. The report by Kevin Smith said Dial had “an antisocial personality” and “an extreme talent for manipulation.”

Smith’s report said Dial would seek out women and “once he feels he has their trust, he begins to scheme.”

Dial was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder in the 1981 slaying of a karate instructor in Tulsa County. He managed to obtain minimum-security status at the prison and authorities say he befriended Parker while she ran a prison pottery program.

Dial pleaded guilty to escaping from prison and maintained until his death in 2007 at age 62 that he kidnapped Parker at knifepoint, forced her to drive him from the prison and held her hostage.

Here is the letter handed in by Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News International, who announced her resignation on Friday following the escalation of the British phone hacking scandal.

“At News International we pride ourselves on setting the news agenda for the right reasons. Today we are leading the news for the wrong ones.

“The reputation of the company we love so much, as well as the press freedoms we value so highly, are all at risk.

“As chief executive of the company, I feel a deep sense of responsibility for the people we have hurt and I want to reiterate how sorry I am for what we now know to have taken place.

“I have believed that the right and responsible action has been to lead us through the heat of the crisis. However my desire to remain on the bridge has made me a focal point of the debate.

“This is now detracting attention from all our honest endeavors to fix the problems of the past.

“Therefore I have given Rupert and James Murdoch my resignation. While it has been a subject of discussion, this time my resignation has been accepted.

“Rupert’s wisdom, kindness and incisive advice has guided me throughout my career and James is an inspirational leader who has shown me great loyalty and friendship.

“I would like to thank them both for their support.

“I have worked here for 22 years and I know it to be part of the finest media company in the world.

“News International is full of talented, professional and honorable people. I am proud to have been part of the team and lucky to know so many brilliant journalists and media executives.

“I leave with the happiest of memories and an abundance of friends.

“As you can imagine recent times have been tough. I now need to concentrate on correcting the distortions and rebutting the allegations about my record as a journalist, an editor and executive.

“My resignation makes it possible for me to have the freedom and the time to give my full cooperation to all the current and future inquiries, the police investigations and the CMS (Culture, Media and Sport Committee) appearance.

“I am so grateful for all the messages of support. I have nothing but overwhelming respect for you and our millions of readers.

“I wish every one of you all the best.

“Rebekah”

A mixed slate of reports Thursday showed the economy is being held back by high gas prices and sluggish hiring.

Economists are forecasting a pick-up in growth in the second half of the year. But the latest data revealed only faint signs of a turnaround.

The Commerce Department said retail sales ticked up only 0.1 percent last month, after declining the previous month. Consumers spent more on cars and in big chain stores in June, but less on furniture and appliances.

The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits dropped last week by 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 405,000, the lowest level in three months. Still, applications have been above 400,000 for 14 straight weeks, reflecting the weak job market.

U.S. companies paid less for raw materials and factory goods in June, a separate report showed. The decline in wholesale prices was driven by the steepest fall in energy prices in nearly two years. Gas prices dropped by the most since last May, the Labor Department said.

Still, businesses and motorists are paying nearly a dollar more per gallon than they were a year ago. That has forced many consumers to forgo discretionary purchases. Growth in retail sales has slowed since February — around the same time that gas prices began to surge.

“Consumers are fatigued,” said Chris Christopher, an economist at IHS Global Insight. “The only real good news on the consumer side of the economy is that gasoline prices started to fall, but are still relatively high.”

Stock markets rose in early trading but then gave up their gains. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 8 points in afternoon trading. Broader indexes also declined.

Another potential problem: businesses may be forced to cut orders in the coming months after adding to their stockpiles for 17 straight months. Sales across all levels of businesses fell in May for the first time in nearly a year, the Commerce Department said in a fourth report. Fewer sales are a sign that companies may have overestimated consumer demand.

JPMorgan economist Michael Feroli said the bank lowered its growth forecast for the July-September period based on the latest data on stockpiles. He said it expects only 2.5 percent growth, down from its initial estimate of 3 percent.

That’s not much higher than the 2 percent growth most analysts expect for the first half of the year.

The economy would need to grow 5 percent for a whole year to bring down the unemployment rate by one percentage point. Economic growth of just 3 percent a year would hold the unemployment steady and keep up with population growth.

“Clearly the recent stalling in employment growth has forced households to be a bit more careful with their cash,” said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist with Capital Economics. “For the moment, these data will do little to dispel fears that the economic recovery is going nowhere.”

Companies pulled back on hiring sharply this spring. The economy added only 18,000 net jobs in June, the second straight month of dismal hiring. The unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent, the highest this year. That’s far below the average job gains of 215,000 per month in the February-April period.

The decline in unemployment benefit applications is an encouraging sign that layoffs are dropping and the job market may be slowly improving. The total would have been even lower if Minnesota’s government wasn’t shutdown. That caused 11,500 state workers to file applications last week, the department said.

The four-week average, a less volatile measure, dropped to 423,250 last week. That’s the lowest since late April.

Applications had fallen in February to 375,000, a level that signals healthy job growth. But they rose above 400,000 in early April and have yet to fall below that level since.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress on Wednesday that temporary factors, such as high gas prices and supply chain disruptions caused by the Japan crises, have slowed the economy. They should begin to fade and the economy should grow at a faster pace in the second half of this year, he said. But if not, he said the central bank is prepared to do more to stimulate growth.

Gas prices peaked in early May near $4 a gallon but have fallen steadily since. Prices at the pump averaged $3.66 on Thursday, according to AAA.

Cheaper gas dragged down overall retail sales in June. Sales at gas station tumbled 1.3 percent in June.

Consumers also spent less on furniture, electronics, appliances and sporting goods for a third straight month.

Shoppers did boost purchases at general merchandise stores, which include stores such as Wal-Mart and Target. Sales at those stores rose 0.4 percent.

The Producer Price Index, which measures price changes before they reach the consumer, declined 0.4 percent in June. Wholesale energy prices fell 2.8 percent, the biggest decline in nearly two years.

Food prices rose 0.6 percent in June, mostly because of higher fruit and melon costs. Oranges jumped 41.2 percent, and carbonated soft drinks rose 7.5 percent, the most since the government began tracking that category in 1996.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, the so-called core index rose 0.3 percent, driven largely by a jump in prices for pickup trucks.

Companies paid less for raw materials and factory goods in June, evidence that inflation pressures are weakening as gas prices fall.

The Producer Price Index, which measures price changes before they reach the consumer, declined 0.4 percent in June, the Labor Department said. That’s the steepest drop since February 2010. Wholesale energy prices fell 2.8 percent, the biggest decline in nearly two years.

Gas prices peaked in early May near $4 a gallon, but have fallen steadily since. Prices at the pump averaged $3.65 on Wednesday, according to AAA.

Food prices rose 0.6 percent in June, mostly because of higher fruit and melon costs. Oranges jumped 41.2 percent, and carbonated soft drinks rose 7.5 percent, the most since the government began tracking that category in 1996.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, the so-called core index rose 0.3 percent, driven largely by a jump in prices for pickup trucks.

The core wholesale price index has risen 2.4 percent in the past year, the department said. That’s up from a 2.1 percent increase in the 12 months ending in May.

Rapid rises in gas and food prices earlier this year raised fears that inflation could get out of hand. The index has risen 7 percent in the past twelve months, down from an annual increase of 7.3 percent in May.

But as gas and food prices ease, the threat of higher inflation appears to be receding.

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Wednesday that recent price increases are likely to be temporary. Prices for commodities like oil and farm goods have stabilized, he said. And high unemployment makes it unlikely that workers can press for higher wages, which in turn makes it hard for companies to raise prices.

Fed policymakers expect core consumer inflation to average between 1.5 percent and 1.8 percent this year, Bernanke said. That’s within the Fed’s informal target range.

Mutual fund investors last month made their biggest retreat from stocks since the bull market began more than two years ago.

A net $17.3 billion was withdrawn from stock funds in June, while bond funds attracted new cash for the fifth consecutive month, industry consultant Strategic Insight said on Thursday.

It was the biggest monthly flow out of stock funds since March 2009, when stocks hit bottom after the financial crisis. Net withdrawals totaled more than $20 billion that month.

Last month’s withdrawals came as the Standard Poor’s 500 stock index fell 1.7 percent amid a spate of disappointing jobs and manufacturing news suggesting the economic recovery may be stalling. Stocks fell sharply at the beginning of June, then rallied in the final week to recover most of the earlier loss.

June was the second consecutive month when investors withdrew more than they deposited into stock funds. Stock funds attracted net deposits for the first four months of the year, and the year-to-date flow total remains positive, with net deposits of $22.5 billion.

But in June, investors apparently didn’t have the stomach for volatility, which was fueled by fears of a Greek debt default, as well as the slowdown in the U.S. economic recovery.

“U.S. investor confidence is clearly fragile, and will remain so for the foreseeable future,” said Avi Nachmany, research director with Strategic Insight.

Other details of how investors moved their money in June:

— Foreign stock funds: Investors added a net $2.3 billion into funds that buy foreign stocks. Flows into this category have been positive for 13 consecutive months.

— Bond funds: Investors added a net $12.6 billion. Bond fund flows have been positive each month since February, as investors have returned to the play-it-safe strategy they adopted after the stock market meltdown of 2008. Over the next two years, investors deposited about $700 billion into bond funds, while consistently withdrawing from stock funds. Year-to-date, bond funds have attracted $68 billion in net deposits.

Taxable bonds, a category that includes corporate bonds, accounted for the bulk of last month’s flow into bond funds, with $11.7 billion in net deposits. Municipal bonds, which buy the debt of state and local governments, attracted net deposits of $900 million. That was significant because it marked the first month of positive flows for muni bonds since October. The next month, investors began exiting muni bond funds, fearing that states and cities were in critically poor financial shape. But the surge out of muni bonds eased in the spring, along with worries about state and municipal fiscal health. So the slightly positive flow in June wasn’t a big surprise.

— Exchange-traded funds: A net $10.6 billion was deposited into U.S. ETFs, which bundle together investments in a particular market index. Unlike mutual funds, they can be traded during daily sessions just like stocks. June’s net deposit total was more than twice as big as May’s $4.5 billion figure. ETFs continue to grow fast. Strategic Insight says ETFs are on pace for their fifth consecutive year with net deposits of $100 billion or more. Year-to-date, $58 billion has flowed in.

A Purdue University student is asking a judge to block a request that the school release the 19-year-old’s name to a California film company seeking to learn the identities of more than 2,000 people it claims illegally downloaded copyrighted adult videos.

A motion to quash a subpoena filed Tuesday in federal court in Lafayette contends the film company is on an unjustified fishing expedition that would risk “reputational injury to a promising young college student,” identified as Doe No. 26. The lawsuit alleges the student’s IP address was used last fall to download a film featuring porn star Sasha Grey.

The motion is in response to a subpoena served June 1 on Purdue. The subpoena, filed by attorney Ira M. Siegel on behalf of Third Degree Films, which makes adult entertainment films, seeks the name, address, telephone number and email address of Doe No. 26 by Aug. 15.

Third Degree Films, based in Canoga Park, Calif., filed a lawsuit on Dec. 23 seeking unspecified monetary damages. It also asks the court to order all copies of the copyrighted material be destroyed.

The lawsuit names IP addresses at seven other universities, including the University of Southern California, Southern Methodist University, Rochester Institute of Technology and George Washington University.

Purdue spokesman Chris Sigurdson said the school regularly receives subpoenas seeking the Internet protocol addresses of students accused of copyright violations. The school notifies the IP address owners and gives them a deadline to decide whether they will challenge the release of their identities. He said the university has received “very few motions to quash,” but didn’t have an exact number.

So far this year, Purdue has received 321 requests seeking 211 IP addresses for possible copyright violations of photos, videos or music, Sigurdson said. Last year it received requests for the identities of the owners of 993 IP addresses. He did not know have a breakdown on the number of requests by category such as music of videos, but said he wasn’t aware of any others involving adult videos.

Sigurdson said the university is awaiting a judge’s decision on the motion to quash.

The motion to quash filed by Terre Haute attorney Raymond Modesitt contends that an IP address is “”not a fingerprint or DNA evidence.” It argues that in a similar case, U.S. District Judge Harold Banker of Illinois wrote that there may or may not be a correlation between an individual subscriber, an IP address and “the infringing activity.”

Baker cited a news story about federal agents raiding a home that was linked to child pornography, seizing the desktop computer, cellphones and tablet computers of the homeowner and his wife, but found no one at the home had downloaded the illegal material. Agents later traced the downloads to a neighbor who used multiple subscribers’ Wi-Fi connections.

The motion contends DOE No. 26 lived in a dorm surrounded by a roommate and other college students. “Every passer-by with even a modicum of technological skill had ample opportunity to use DOE No. 26′s IP address for their own purposes without detection,” the motion states.

Siegel declined comment, saying he doesn’t comment on pending litigation. A message seeking comment was left for Modesitt at his office.

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Tom Coyne can be reached at http://twitter.com/TomCoyneAP

Steve Dunn, chief technology officer at WaveForm, makes an adjustment to one of the many different machines he uses to determine what type of contact a patient might need.

For centuries, traditional eye exams have relied on the repetitive mantra, “Which is better, one or two?” as patients are asked to identify which trial lenses help them see more clearly.

What if those tedious exams could be replaced by emerging technology that calculates eye corrections and provides 28 times more information as quickly as the blink of an eye?

And what if that technology could help a sight-impaired grandparent see his grandchildren for the first time?

Welcome to WaveForm, where all of this and much more already is possible.

Based in Kalispell, WaveForm now is an industry leader in developing refractive “wavefront” technology to optimize vision through improved eyeglass and contact lens technology.

Wavefront technology has been developed over the past 15 years or so, drawing from adaptive optics technology that’s used in applications such as space telescopes, said WaveForm President and Chief Technology Officer Steve Dunn.

A wavefront is a physical representation of the optical quality of a light beam.

In simpler terms, imagine light traveling as a bundle of light rays. If one were to draw lines perpendicular to the tips of that bundle of rays, it creates a wavefront map. An eye with perfect vision has a wavefront that’s completely flat, while the wavefront of an imperfect eye is irregular.

It’s complicated technology, Dunn admitted, but in layman’s terms, wavefront aberrometry — aberrometry is the measurement of the imperfections in the optical system of the eye — is an advanced optical measuring technology that measures 28 levels of aberrations within the human eye.

The technology was first embraced by refractive surgeons for LASIK surgery about a dozen years ago. Dunn, who works in a research and development facility next to Dolan Family Vision at 32 Village Loop in Kalispell, has taken wavefront technology to the next level by developing highly customized WaveForm contact lenses.

“This is really home-grown incubated contact lens technology,” he said. “We calculate the correction for lenses and place that correction over the pupil and not in the geometrical center of the lens. We’re the only ones in the world who do this.”

By placing the correction over the pupil, WaveForm can handle the most complex eye problems, such as keratoconus, high astigmatism and other medical conditions that affect vision.

“The real ‘wow’ comes from these people with medical issues who can’t find solutions,” he said.

Dr. Doug Dolan, whose eye clinic next door is a beta site for WaveForm testing, said the advanced technology is a good resource for his patients.

“The more I use it, the more I find it invaluable,” Dolan said. “It’s a great starting point to be able to quantify problems.”

Dunn can manufacture up to 100 contact lenses a day in his WaveForm laboratory. Once the wavefront technology is perfected for producing multifocal contact lenses — and it’s only a matter of time before that happens — WaveForm would move to a bigger facility in Kalispell.

“Our financial model shows us growing in three years to 50 to 100 employees,” Dunn said.

With an onslaught of baby boomers ready and waiting for quality custom multifocal contact lenses, there’s a captive audience for the production of such lenses.

Dunn began his optometry career in 1967, eventually taking over a practice of 10,000 patients in Hawaii in 1986. He retired in 1997 and relocated to Whitefish in 1998.

He was drawn back into the optometry field about 10 years ago and founded WaveSource Inc. in 2004 as an intellectual property management company to license and develop nonsurgical vision optimization applications.

Dunn’s first round of research was done in the back of his wife’s art studio in Whitefish.

WaveSource Inc. is the corporate entity for WaveForm, a privately held company with opportunities for private investment.

A year ago WaveForm got $800,000 in private equity funding to move forward with research and development for production of custom multifocal contact lenses. In addition to the private investment, the company received $87,633 from the Montana Board of Research and Commercialization Technology to develop the final technology to manufacture WaveFront Guided Multifocal custom lenses.

Dunn said funding from the Montana board has been crucial for WaveForm, and he has applied for a follow-up grant for clinical work. He also said local support from Montana West Economic Development and Kim Morisaki, manager of business development for Montana West, has been very helpful.

While WaveForm essentially is a contact lens company, the firm built an eyeglass component into the business model for another layer of diversity. From 2008 to 2010 WaveForm worked diligently to create optimized wavefront refraction technology needed for the eyeglass component.

Once the eye doctor assesses the refraction, the frame information and eyeglass lens material is recorded into WaveForm’s order entry screen and information is stored on a secure server in Kalispell. With the press of a button the order is sent to WaveForm’s free-form eyeglass lens manufacturing lab in Thailand.

All of this can happen within 5 minutes from start to finish, Dunn said, leaving the eye-care practitioner more time to provide medical diagnosis and treatment, see more patients and increase practice profitability.

“At the end of the day, this company will get into the eyeglass manufacturing business, too,” Dunn said. It will make sense to expand to both sides of the business.”

WaveForm will launch the optimized wavefront refraction technology at the Sept. 24 Vision Expo in Las Vegas, then a week later Dunn heads to a similar trade show in Paris.

“This is the most fun and the most exciting work I’ve ever done,” Dunn said. “We were pioneers in soft lenses, and this (new technology) takes it global.”

David Israel, Dunn’s business partner, serves as a consultant and is based in San Diego. WaveForm’s board of directors hails from Kalispell and includes Ty Weber as chairman, Jerry Meerkatz, Will Schmaultz and Kristen Heck.

“The board was insistent that this be a Montana-based company,” Dunn said.

If the Smart Grid would have been in operation this week, hundreds of thousands of homeowners and businesses likely would not have been without power for several days. More like just a few minutes, ComEd said Wednesday.

While many customers continue to wait for electricity to be restored since Monday’s storm, ComEd is eager to push Senate Bill 1652 that authorizes the Smart Grid, along with rate increases.

Tabrina Davis, a spokeswoman for ComEd, and Jim Chilsen, a spokesman for the Citizens Utility Board, both discussed whether we would be better off with the new system. Here are their responses to questions from the Daily Herald:

Q. What is the overall condition of ComEd’s electrical network in Chicago and the suburbs?

ComEd. ComEd’s reliability is ranked in the top quartile among other comparable utilities. Our reliability performance in 2010 was strong, customers experienced 39 percent fewer interruptions and power was restored 34 percent faster than in 1998. However, while our reliability is strong in terms of today’s analog utility, it has few digital features and is not a grid that will support customers’ growing demands and our future economy. SB1652 is designed to jump start that transformation.

CUB. We all know that ComEd had an awful track record on reliability in the late 1990s. The company has made progress since then. We still get plenty of complaints from consumers in certain areas about frequent outages. There’s always a question as to whether ComEd is focusing enough resources on reliability, and state regulators evaluate the company’s reliability on a yearly basis. But Illinois still is without strong service/quality standards to make sure ComEd is using the resources it has adequately to reach certain reliability benchmarks, such as how skillfully it trims vegetation around its wires. If we want better reliability, Illinois needs service quality standards.

Q. How would the Smart Grid have helped if it already had been operational in the recent storm outages here? Can you provide specific examples?

ComEd. If Smart Grid technology had been in place, here’s how it would have minimized the impact of the storm: ComEd would have known customers were out of power without them having to call us. Technology would have pinpointed outages allowing us to dispatch crews more quickly to restore service. Digital automation would have rerouted power or corrected a problem before an outage occurs meaning fewer customers would have seen outages, and thousands of customers may have never experienced an outage. With the June 21 storm, we estimate that 100,000 customers would have never experienced an outage. With the July 11 storm, we estimate that approximately 175,000 customers would have never experienced an outage.

CUB. CUB is cautiously optimistic that making high-tech upgrades to the power grid could help in at least two ways during the kind of violent storm we witnessed on Monday. First, a lot of people don’t know that often ComEd doesn’t know there’s an outage in a certain area unless it gets calls from customers. A smarter grid would give ComEd detailed information on outages immediately. Plus, it has the potential to isolate outages and prevent them from becoming widespread. Reducing the impact of an outage saves ComEd and consumers money, not to mention it lessens the expensive headaches caused by outages, such as spoiled food. We agree with ComEd that the smart grid, if done right, has the potential to save consumers money and improve reliability. However, ComEd’s proposal now on Gov. Pat Quinn’s desk, is not just a smart-grid proposal. It also guts key consumer protections and contains some major checkbook issues. For example, it would authorize an unfair and exorbitant return on equity of 10.25 percent. We like the Smart Grid items in this bill, but we can’t give ComEd a blank check.

Q. What exactly would the Smart Grid do if a tree is blown down during a storm and knocks down an electrical wire? How would ComEd’s response time change? How would the repair time change?

ComEd. If a tree or tree limb were to fall on a three-phase wire, it would result in a fault condition on the circuit. The substation breaker would open, knocking all of the customers on that circuit out of power. With distribution automation, the faulted section of the circuit would be automatically isolated and customers who are not affected by the downed tree or limb would be automatically restored. This means that at least 50 percent of the customers who were knocked out of service would be automatically restored in a matter of minutes. Repair time would not be affected as the damage remains the same.

Q. What would happen to the Smart Grid during high winds, heavy rains or heavy snow storms? How would the Smart Grid continue to operate, compared to the current network?

ComEd. The integration of multiple technologies and the integration of the vast amount of information facilitate a “self-healing” grid, meaning the overall system is more robust and less susceptible to issues with individual elements or devices. Essentially, information and electricity can be automatically routed around a problem area.

Q. If the Smart Grid would have been fully operational before these recent storms, how would it change ComEd’s ability to restore power? Would it be faster/slower?

ComEd. Technology would have pinpointed outages allowing us to dispatch crews more quickly to restore service. Digital automation would have rerouted power or corrected a problem before an outage occurs, meaning fewer customers would have seen any outages.

Q. Would buried electrical lines make a difference in such storms? What would be involved if all of ComEd’s electrical lines were buried?

ComEd. While buried power lines are less susceptible to storms, they are subject to corrosion and moisture and it takes longer to restore outages when they occur. It is important to note the breathtakingly high costs associated with conversion to an underground distribution system. Construction of new underground distribution facilities and overhead-to-underground conversions cost five to 10 times more than comparable overhead construction, according to a 2009 report from the Edison Electric Institute. And the cost of placing our overhead power lines underground is roughly $100 billion. On a 30-year schedule, according to our conservative estimates, it would mean an additional $40 per month above current residential bills, $90 to $100 per month by 2030 and more than $100 per month by the time installation is completed. You also would need to factor in road closures, congested traffic and limited access to northern Illinois businesses and the cost impact would be even greater. We’ve conducted a cost-benefit analysis of underground power lines and by comparison, the $2.6 billion that ComEd would invest in upgrades to our electric system — should Gov. Quinn sign SB1652 — would mean an average bill increase of $3 per month for residential customers and an estimated 700,000 fewer outages annually. As I stated earlier, our investment would include $1.1 billion for Smart Grid technologies that would enable us to dispatch crews more quickly to restore service.

CUB. Buried electrical lines would definitely make a difference, but it would come with a hefty price tag, and we still would have reliability problems caused by an out-of-date and overused network. It would be less costly to build a smart grid, and it would be a more comprehensive answer to our reliability problems.

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Information from: Daily Herald, http://www.dailyherald.com

NEW YORK — Borders Group, the nation’s second largest book store chain that once operated over 1,000 stores, appears headed for liquidation after a judge on Thursday approved its motion to auction itself off with a team of liquidators as its opening bid.
The move came after an offer made earlier this month from a private-equity investor disintegrated overnight.

Borders said it will accept bids until 5 p.m. Sunday and will give notice by Monday if no other bidder emerges.

Earlier this month private-equity investor from Phoenix offered $215 million for the company, plus the assumption of $220 million in debt.

But on Wednesday, creditors objected, saying that the agreement would not prevent Najafi from taking possession of the company and liquidating it immediately for profit. Landlords also objected.

Creditors said a bid from liquidators Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers is stronger. They believe it would pay out between $252 million and $284 million in cash.

Creditors said in a court filing that they were hopeful Najafi would submit a higher bid, but Najafi stood by its original offer.

On Thursday, Borders said it wouldn’t seek approval for Najafi’s bid at a scheduled hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Southern District of New York and designated the liquidators as the primary, or “stalking horse” bid.

Meanwhile, one analyst speculated that if Borders liquidates, that could spark a higher bid for its chief rival Barnes Noble. Financier John Malone’s Liberty Media made a $1 billion offer to buy Barnes Noble in May.

Liberty Media has said it values Barnes Noble for both its Nook e-reader business and its retail stores, so a full liquidation of Borders would increase the value of the retail side of the business, Janney Capital Markets analyst David Strasser said.

“This is perhaps an opportunity for a higher negotiated bid via Liberty or an entrance of another bidder,” he wrote in a note.

Borders Group Inc., based in Ann Arbor, Mich., filed for bankruptcy protection in February. The company started with a single store in 1971, and helped pioneer the book superstore concept along with larger rival Barnes Noble Inc. It was brought down by heightened competition by discounters and online booksellers, as well as the growth in popularity of electronic books. It currently operates about 400 stores, down from its peak in 2003 of 1,249 Borders and Waldenbooks, and has about 11,000 employees.

NEW YORK — Remarks by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that dimmed hopes for a third round of bond-buying pushed stocks lower Thursday.

In a second day of testimony, Bernanke told lawmakers the Fed expects the economy to improve. He said the central bank would only step in with more economic stimulus if there is a significant downturn in the economy.

“We’re not prepared at this point to take further action,” Bernanke said.

Stocks turned immediately lower after the remarks and fell for much of the day.

Bernanke was clarifying statements he made Wednesday that left the door open to new economic stimulus measures. Investors took his earlier remarks to mean that the Fed chairman had all but guaranteed new action to stimulate the economy, said Jeff Cleveland, senior economist at money manager Payden Rygel.

“They realize that’s not the case now,” Cleveland said.

The Standard Poor’s 500 index fell 8.85 points, or 0.7 percent, to close at 1,308.87. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 54.49, or 0.4 percent, to 12,437.12. The Nasdaq composite fell 34.25, or 1.2 percent, to 2,762.67.

It was the fourth day of losses on the stock market out of the last five. Worries that Italy could be the next European country to get caught up in the region’s debt problems have kept investors on edge this week.

Google Inc. rose 12 percent in after-hours trading after the company reported earnings that soared past analyst expectations. The results calmed investors who were concerned that a leadership shake-up would hurt the company.

JPMorgan Chase Co. rose 1.8 percent after the bank reported that higher investment banking fees raised its net income above analysts’ expectations.

ConocoPhillips rose 1.6 percent after the country’s third-largest oil company said it would split in two. One company will be an oil producer, and the other a refinery. Investors preferred two simple businesses to one complicated one.

Stocks started higher after applications for unemployment benefits fell to a three-month low last week, a sign that companies are laying off fewer workers. At 405,000, the figure is still above the 375,000 that signals healthy job growth.

In a separate report, the government also said an increase in car sales and a drop in gas prices pushed up retail sales slightly in June.

Stocks were also held back by a stalemate in Washington over raising the country’s borrowing limit. Late Wednesday Moody’s threatened to lower the U.S. credit rating below the highest grade of triple-A, citing the risk that the government might fail to make its debt payments if an agreement isn’t reached by an Aug. 2 deadline.

In Europe, a threat resurfaced that Italy’s government could lose control of the country’s debt crisis. Yields on Italy’s debt jumped to their highest level since the introduction of the euro following a bond sale. A debt default for an economy as large as Italy’s would hurt lending across the globe.

Marriott International Inc. fell 6.6 percent after the hotel chain said it would earn less in the full year than previously expected.

YUM Brands Inc. rose 1.4 percent after the owner of the Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC fast-food chains said its earnings rose on strong international sales.

About four stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was light at 3.8 billion.

The nation’s largest food companies say they will cut back on marketing unhealthy foods to children, proposing their own set of advertising standards after rejecting similar guidelines proposed by the federal government.

A coalition of food companies — including General Mills, ConAgra Foods and Kellogg — announced the guidelines Thursday. The companies said the effort will vastly change what is advertised, forcing them to curb advertising on one out of three products currently marketed to children.

The new standards, which will allow companies to advertise food and beverage products to children if they meet certain nutritional criteria, could force some brands to change recipes to include less sodium, fat, sugars and calories. While many companies have trumpeted their own efforts to market healthier foods to kids, the agreement would apply the same standards to all of the participating companies.

“Now foods from different companies, such as cereals or canned pastas, will meet the same nutrition criteria, rather than similar but slightly different company-specific criteria,” said Elaine Kolish of the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, a group formed by the industry to address marketing issues.

The group’s proposal was pushed along by a government effort to do the same thing. The Federal Trade Commission and several other government agencies were directed by Congress to come up with voluntary guidelines for marketing junk food to children, and those were issued earlier this year. The industry balked at that proposal, saying the voluntary standards were too broad and would limit marketing of almost all of the nation’s favorite foods, including some yogurts and many children’s cereals.

Not surprisingly, the proposal issued by the government is stricter than the standards the companies are pushing for themselves. Still, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz praised the industry guidelines Thursday. He said the government would consider the food companies’ initiative as the government develops its own standards.

“The industry’s uniform standards are a significant advance, and are exactly the type of initiative the commission had in mind when we started pushing for self-regulation more than five years ago … we applaud industry for making healthy progress,” he said.

While the government proposal put broad limits on fats, sugars and sodium that would apply to marketing of all foods, the industry has suggested different guidelines for different foods, saying that is a more practical approach.

The industry guidelines for children’s cereals, for example, would allow them to be advertised if they have around 10 grams of sugar a serving, while the formula used by the government would discourage advertising for cereals that have 8 grams of sugars in an equivalent serving. That would mean General Mills would still be able to advertise Honey Nut Cheerios cereal under the industry guidelines but would be discouraged under the voluntary government guidelines. Other sugary cereals such as Trix, Lucky Charms and Count Chocula would also make the cut under the industry numbers.

Another difference between the proposals is where companies are allowed to advertise. While the government guidelines are broad, discouraging advertising of unhealthy foods on packaging and in stores, along with in the media, the industry guidelines would apply to media — television, radio, print, video games and the Internet — but not packaging. That means the little bee on the front of the Honey Nut Cheerios box and the rabbit on the Trix box would stay under the industry proposal and go under the government draft.

Even if the industry standards are not as strict as the government guidelines, they still represent progress on the part of the companies. Many companies now advertise any children’s cereals that have less than 12 grams of sugar, down from 15 or 16 grams of sugars a decade ago.

Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest, praised the industry for pushing for uniform standards for all of the companies, though she said they do not go far enough. She said she hopes the industry standards are a jumping-off point for negotiations with health advocates and the government.

“The government agencies have developed standards that are best for kids and the companies have developed standards that are best for industry, now we need to work out a reasonable compromise,” she said.

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, the Democrat who wrote the language directing the government to develop the standards, said he believes the industry proposal falls short.

“With childhood obesity rates rising, now is the time for all parties to rally around those guidelines and begin implementing them, rather than coming up with competing proposals,” he said.

That may be a while off. House Republicans have included a provision in next year’s Federal Trade Commission budget that would delay the government standards by asking the government to study the potential cost and impact of the guidelines before implementing them.

If they are not delayed by Congress, a final draft of the standards could come by the end of the year.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned U.S. lawmakers Thursday that they would deliver a “self-inflicted” wound to the nation’s economy by holding up efforts to raise the government’s borrowing limit.

The Fed chief also said the central bank had no immediate plans to introduce new stimulus measures, elaborating on remarks he made a day earlier that the Fed stood ready to take additional steps to boost the economy if conditions worsened.

His comments ended an early-morning rally on Wall Street. Traders had interpreted Wednesday’s comments to mean the Fed was about to embark on another round of bond purchases, analysts said.

The government hit its $14.3 trillion borrowing limit in May. Republicans have held up increasing the limit because of concerns that excessive government spending has widened the federal deficits. The Treasury Department said it will default on its debt if the limit is not raised by Aug. 2.

Bernanke told a Senate panel that a default on the debt would lead to even greater federal deficits. Interest rates would rise, and the government would be forced to pay higher rates on its debt. At the same time, higher rates would slow the economy and an already-weak job market. That would curtail tax revenue.

“I think it would be a calamitous outcome, create a very severe financial shock,” Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee during his second appearance before Congress this week. “Treasury securities are critical to the entire financial system … A default on those securities would throw the financial system … potentially into chaos.”

Bernanke was on Capitol Hill to deliver his semiannual economic report. On Wednesday, he told a House panel that the Fed would consider various options for boosting the economy if growth does not rebound. Stocks rose immediately after he made those comments.

But on Thursday, he made clear that the Fed had no immediate plans to launch another round of bond purchases. He said the economy is more complex now than a year ago, when the Fed decided to institute a $600 billion program of buying Treasury bonds to lower long-term interest rates.

Last summer, the Fed was concerned about a prolonged period of falling prices, or deflation, Bernanke said. This year, inflation is higher.

“We’d like to see if, in fact, the economy does pick up, as we are projecting. … We’re not prepared at this point to take further action” to stimulate the economy, Bernanke said.

Stocks had been trading higher before the hearing. They fell immediately after he spoke. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 54 points.

Investors took Bernanke’s remarks on Wednesday to mean that the Fed chairman had all but guaranteed new action to stimulate the economy, said Jeff Cleveland, senior economist at money manager Payden Rygel.

“They realize that’s not the case now,” Cleveland said.

Bernanke’s second day of testimony was dominated by questions over the borrowing limit impasse.

Republicans are demanding that any increase in the borrowing limit be accompanied by an equal amount of spending cuts. President Barack Obama and Democrats have insisted that tax increases be a part of any long term deficit-cutting deal, something Republicans have rejected.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said there was a big difference between an actual default on the debt, which would occur if the government missed an interest payment, and delaying other government payments for a brief time.

Bernanke said the Treasury has told him that prioritizing payments would be an unworkable solution. He also said the prolonged debate was already having adverse consequences.

Moody’s Investors Service said Wednesday it will consider lowering the United States’ credit rating because of a small but rising risk that the government will default on its debt.

A downgrade would raise interest rates on U.S. treasury bonds, increasing the interest paid by U.S. taxpayers. It would also push up rates for mortgages, car loans and other debts, which are linked to Treasury rates.

The United States pays an average of about 3 percent on its existing debt, according to the Treasury Department. In 2010, that added up to $197 billion in interest payments.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has forecast that interest payments will rise to $463 billion by 2014. That is under an assumption that the U.S. keeps its top credit rating. A reduced rating would force the government to pay higher interest rates.

“I would urge Congress to take every step possible to avoid defaulting on the debt or creating even any significant probability of defaulting on the debt,” Bernanke said.

President Barack Obama bluntly told Republican congressional leaders Wednesday they must compromise quickly if the government is to avoid an unprecedented default, adding, “Don’t call my bluff” by passing a short-term debt limit increase he has threatened to veto.

The presidential warning, directed at House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., marked an acrimonious end to a two-hour negotiating session at the White House that produced no evident progress toward a compromise.

Another round of talks is set for Thursday.

With a threatened default less than three weeks away, Moody’s Investors Service announced it was reviewing the U.S. bond rating for a possible downgrade, and the Treasury said the annual deficit was on a pace to exceed $1 trillion for the third year in a row.

With the negotiations at a seeming standstill, Republicans drew a warning of a different sort, from an unlikely source — the party’s Senate leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

In an interview with radio talk-show host Laura Ingraham, McConnell warned fellow conservatives that failure to raise the debt limit would probably ensure Obama’s re-election in 2012.

Republicans, many of them elected with the support of tea party activists in 2010, are demanding deep spending cuts as the price for allowing a debt limit increase to pass. But negotiations have bogged down over Obama’s demand for tax increases that GOP lawmakers say they won’t accept.

McConnell predicted that if Congress fails to act, Obama will argue “that Republicans are making the economy worse and try to convince the public, maybe with some merit, if people start not getting their Social Security checks and military families start getting letters saying their service people overseas don’t get paid.”

“You know, it’s an argument he has a good chance of winning, and all of a sudden we (Republicans) have co-ownership of a bad economy,” McConnell said. “That is a very bad positioning going into an election.”

McConnell said his first choice was to reach a good compromise with Obama.

Short of that, “my second obligation is to my party … to prevent them from being sucked into a horrible position politically that would allow the president probably to get re-elected because we didn’t handle this difficult situation correctly.”

With bipartisan talks scheduled to resume on Thursday, two Democratic officials quoted Obama as telling Republicans, “Enough is enough. We have to be willing to compromise. It shouldn’t be about positioning and politics and I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

Talking with reporters at the Capitol after he left the White House, Cantor said the president had backed away from spending cuts agreed to earlier because of pressure from Democrats in Congress. He said the two sides were far from agreement on a $2.4 trillion package of deficit cuts that would allow the Treasury to borrow through the next election.

As a result, the Virginian said he had reversed his own position, and was now willing to ask the House to approve a smaller increase, with a second installment before the 2012 election.

“He got very agitated seemingly and said he had sat here long enough and that no other president, Ronald Reagan wouldn’t sit here like this,” Cantor said of the president.

Cantor quoted Obama as saying the talks had reached the point that “something’s got to give,” and demanded Republicans either jettison their demand for deficit cuts at least equal to the size of the debt limit or drop their opposition to tax increases.

“And he said to me, ‘Eric, don’t call my bluff.’ He said, ‘I’m going to the American people with this.’”

Democratic officials said that in fact, Cantor had twice earlier in the meeting raised the possibility of a short-term bill, and that he interrupted the president mid-sentence to do so a third time.

At the Capitol, rank-and-file lawmakers advanced their own fallback measures in case the bipartisan compromise talks fail.

One version, authored by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., was designed to make sure Social Security benefits are paid on time. Another, unveiled by a trio of House conservatives, would give priority to paychecks for members of the armed forces.

Without an increase in government borrowing authority by Aug. 2, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has warned, there could be a default posing a catastrophic risk to the economy, still recovering from the worst recession in decades.

At least in part, McConnell’s comments were a rebuttal to conservatives who criticized his proposal on Tuesday to let Obama raise the debt limit without a vote of Congress.

Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich called that idea an “an irresponsible surrender to big government, big deficits and continued overspending,” and Ingraham said she had received emails from conservative listeners likening McConnell to Pontius Pilate.

The Republican lawmaker brushed aside the biblical reference. But without mentioning Gingrich by name, he referred to two government shutdowns of 1995 that the one-time House speaker engineered in hopes of winning deep spending cuts from a Democratic president.

The tactic backfired politically on Gingrich and the Republicans, and benefited President Bill Clinton.

Some Democrats couldn’t resist the temptation to jab at Republicans.

“You have the Republicans who walked out of the Biden talks. You have the speaker of the House who’s close to entering into a framework agreement with the president of the United State walk out because other Republicans in the House undercut him,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., a participant in the talks led by Vice President Joe Biden.

“And now you have Republicans trashing a proposal put forward by the Republican leader in the Senate.”

Nelson’s proposal was designed to ensure that Social Security recipients receive their checks in the event of a default, mandating that the program’s obligations no longer count against the overall debt limit.

He acted one day after Obama cautioned that he could not guarantee the checks would go out if there was a default.

On the other side of the Capitol, Republican Reps. Steve King of Iowa, Louie Gohmert of Texas and Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, a presidential candidate, said if the debt ceiling is reached, the Treasury should fund pay any allowances for members of the armed forces first and obligations on the public debt second, ahead of all other expenses.

Congressional Republicans have had a relatively muted response to McConnell’s debt limit proposal. Privately, though, conservative lawmakers have been critical, accusing him of giving up the leverage the GOP has to force Obama into making deep spending cuts as the price for an increase in the debt limit.

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Associated Press writers Jim Kuhnhenn, Laurie Kellman, Ben Feller and Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report.

Fifty seven newest state troopers have received layoff notices in a first wave of job cuts aimed at balancing the Connecticut state budget.

State Police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance tells The Hartford Courant that the layoffs are scheduled to take effect in about six weeks, on Aug. 21. Troopers being laid off are the most recent graduates of the police academy.

Vance declined to confirm the information when contacted by the Associated Press on Wednesday. He said Gov. Dannel Malloy’s office will release a statement Thursday.

The troopers are among 328 layoffs announced Wednesday, most of them Department of Correction workers, as officials struggle to close a gap in the state’s two-year, $40.1 billion budget.

A total of roughly 6,500 jobs are expected to be cut after a labor concessions deal collapsed.

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Information from: The Hartford Courant, http://www.courant.com

REPOSSESSIONS SLOW: Foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac says the number of homes repossessed by banks in the first half of the year fell 30 percent from the same period last year amid lender foreclosure processing delays. Overall foreclosure-related notices declined 29 percent in the same period.

FORECLOSURE OVERHANG: The slowdown in the number of foreclosure filings means many homes that might have otherwise have been foreclosed upon this year will likely be repossessed by lenders next year, dragging out the housing recovery and uncertainty about home values.

FORECLOSURE FORECAST: RealtyTrac expects between 800,000 and 900,000 homes will be repossessed this year.