| Investools Settles Lawsuit
Online brokerage and investor education service provider Investools Inc. said Monday it has settled a lawsuit brought by Jana Partners LLC. The settlement provides for in-kind services instead of cash. The settlement was reflected in the company's second-quarter financial statements. Jana filed a lawsuit against Investools in June attempting to receive money for providing financing in connection with Investools' merger with thinkorswim Inc. Investools claimed Jana violated the terms of the financing and dropped the company as a partner. .
City explores suing 100 North Main St. developers
Personal guarantees by the developers to repay city debt from the construction of the apartment complex at 100 N. Main St. may be unenforceable now that a bank has initiated foreclosure on the building. Under a developers agreement, Ben Ganther and Ronald Niebauer personallyand as 100 Block LLCagreed to cover the citys debt should the building fail to generate enough tax revenue to pay off tax incremental financing district bonds issued to assist with construction of the six-story downtown development.
The city contributed $2.2 million to the $8.8 million construction project$2.06 million for construction costs, and land valued at $165,000, city records show.
Now, after the partners defaulted on a $6.1 million construction loan from Bankers Bank, city officials are trying to sort out what standing they have to collect any part of a projected $2.8 million shortfall in TIF payments.
Dream of owning a home wakes up to reality
Not long ago, financially strapped consumers with low credit scores — of, say, 600 — could obtain mortgages and call themselves "home owners." But with the industry in turmoil, particularly for credit-troubled borrowers, local mortgage broker Brooks Campbell now has another name for them: "I think we'll be calling them 'renters.' " .
PROGRESS REPORT THE NEW STADIUMS
On a steamy day a year ago this week - the anniversary of Babe Ruth's passing - a chorus line of Yankees brass and politicians posed with bat-handled shovels to turn the symbolic soil in Macombs Dam Park for the proposed $800-million successor to the stadium known as The House That Ruth Built.
A few weeks earlier, about six miles south in a Shea Stadium parking lot, the initial construction work on a $700-million ballpark designed to evoke memories of Ebbets Field already had begun, with far less fanfare.
For these projects, which will reshape the baseball landscape in New York City, what a difference a year has made. As summer spins to fall and the Yankees and Mets contend for postseason berths in their aging homes (Shea opened in 1964 and Yankee Stadium was rebuilt for the 1976 season), fans will continue to see their teams' new digs rising rapidly nearby.
School Board chairman blasts governor over funding
There was sharp criticism of the governor Monday night when the Bozeman School Board approved a $46 million budget that adds full-time kindergarten classes and covers employee pay raises, but doesn't have enough money to hire math specialists or replace retiring teachers at Bozeman High. Board Chairman Carson Taylor said he's "extremely disappointed" in Gov. Brian Schweitzer and the 2007 Legislature for not providing Montana schools with enough money to make improvements, particularly in a year when the state had a $1.7 billion surplus."Frankly, the most depressing thing, in a year when we have an incredible surplus, is we're not talking ... about innovation," Taylor said. "The parsimony about education budgets in this state is going to come back to haunt us."Taylor said the state needs major tax reform and "the governor ...
Nostalgia among ruins (Metro Times Detroit)
Whenever I drive into Detroit from the south I get a tiny thrill when the city skyline first comes into view. Suddenly, just over where the rainbow should be, buildings appear that spell gleaming modern metropolis. First the Renaissance Center, then the outline of the river, then the towers of the Fisher and what we all once again call the Penobscot Building, and the rest. But as you get closer, a growing sense of unease begins when you come upon the city's signature eyesore, the hulking wreck of the Michigan Central (train) Station, Detroit's own best attempt to create the look of Berlin in 1945. .
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