Madison police say a man walked into Summit Credit Union, 401 S. Yellowstone, on Friday and handed the teller a note demanding money. Before the teller could respond, the man apparently changed his mind and walked out empty-handed, police said. No one is in custody.
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FILE - In this Nov. 24, 2011 file photo, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy say goodbye after their meeting in Strasbourg, France. Sarkozy and Merkel are scheduled to meet in Paris on Monday, Dec. 5, 2011, to unveil a proposal for closer political and economic ties between the 17 countries that use the euro. While the leaders differ on some of the details, their cooperation has been so tight they have come to be known by a single name: "Merkozy." (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 24, 2011 file photo, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy say goodbye after their meeting in Strasbourg, France. Sarkozy and Merkel are scheduled to meet in Paris on Monday, Dec. 5, 2011, to unveil a proposal for closer political and economic ties between the 17 countries that use the euro. While the leaders differ on some of the details, their cooperation has been so tight they have come to be known by a single name: "Merkozy." (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 24, 2011 file photo, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy leave the building after their meeting in Strasbourg, France. Sarkozy and Merkel meet in Paris on Monday, Dec. 5, 2011, to unveil a proposal for closer political and economic ties between the 17 countries that use the euro. While the leaders differ on some of the details, their cooperation has been so tight they have come to be known by a single name: "Merkozy." (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)
BRUSSELS (AP) ? Europe's government-debt crisis, which has dragged on for more than two years, is entering a pivotal week, as leaders across the continent converge to prevent a collapse of the euro and a global financial panic that could result.
Expectations are rising that Friday's summit of leaders of the 27 countries in the European Union will yield a breakthrough. An agreement on tighter integration of the 17 EU countries that use the euro ? especially on budget matters ? would be seen as a crucial first step. That could trigger further emergency aid from the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund or some combination, analysts say.
The coming days "will decide if the euro will survive or not," Emma Marcegaglia, the head of Italy's industrial lobby, Confindustria, said Sunday.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Central Bank Chief Mario Draghi and even U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will star in a 5-day financial drama leading up to the summit.
If the summit is a failure, Sarkozy warned last week, "the world will not wait for Europe."
Sarkozy and Merkel meet in Paris on Monday to unveil a proposal for closer political and economic ties between the 17 euro countries. While the leaders differ on some of the details, their cooperation has been so tight they have come to be known by a single name ? "Merkozy."
The two agree overall on the need for tougher, enforceable rules that would prevent governments from spending or borrowing too much ? and on certain penalties for persistent violators.
"Where we today have agreements, we need in the future to have legally binding regulations," Merkel said Friday.
Merkel wants to change the basic EU treaty to reflect the tougher rules on euro countries and make them enforceable. Even if there is general agreement on Friday, actually putting new rules in place through treaty changes could take more than a year. And many economists fear the new rules alone would not be enough to halt the rise in Europe's borrowing costs.
The hope is that a firm expression of intent, however, would reassure the ECB, so that it can make stronger efforts in the short term. That would give governments time to get their finances under better control and make economic reforms that would improve growth.
The urgency has been heightened in recent weeks as Italy and Spain, the continent's third- and fourth-largest economies, face unsustainable high costs to finance their debts. The yield on 10-year Italian bonds is around 7 percent. Yields above that level forced Ireland, Portugal and Greece to seek bailouts. By comparison, bond yields in Germany, Europe's largest and most stable economy, are roughly 2 percent.
"The eurozone is threatened to face an existential situation if it becomes clear over the next few weeks that several member states cannot cover their refinancing needs, or can only do so at suicidal conditions," former German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck told the Sunday edition of German tabloid Bild.
"Everything must be done to hinder the eurozone from breaking up," he said.
Italy, whose government debt is equivalent to 120 percent of the country's annual economic output, needs to refinance euro200 billion ($270 billion) of its euro1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion) of outstanding debt by the end of April.
The size of the problems facing Italy and Spain are considered too large for the existing funds available to the European Financial Stability Facility ($590 billion) and the IMF ($389 billion.) To boost the firepower of the IMF, several economists have proposed that the ECB lend to it.
"We are now entering the critical period," the EU's financial chief, Olli Rehn, said last Wednesday.
That same day, the U.S. Federal Reserve, in coordination with the ECB and four other central banks, sought to give stressed-out European banks some relief. The Fed announced a plan to make it cheaper for banks to borrow American dollars, which is the dominant currency of trade. It was the most extraordinary coordinated effort since October 2008, and it prompted a nearly 500-point rally in the Dow Jones industrial average.
Still, that help did not address the fundamental problem in Europe: unsustainable levels of government debt.
In Italy, Premier Mario Monti had that on his mind as he unveiled his new austerity and gowth measures he said his government of technocrats approved Sunday. They include what he called immediate cuts to the costs of maintaining Italy's bulky political class as well as significant measures to fight tax evasion. As part of the political cost cuts, Monti said he would forego his salary as premiere.
The package also includes measures to spur growth and competition, while aiming to stamp out rampant nepotism. Monti will outline the measures on Monday to Parliament, which must approve them.
In a sign of how all 17 eurozone nations see their fates as intricately linked, Dutch Premier Mark Rutte on Monday will be visiting Monti in Rome.
"It is really important that the markets see that Europe is prepared to help the countries in trouble, so long as those countries commit to very tough reforms and austerity programs," Rutte said.
Indeed, the debt loads of countries like Italy and Greece are everyone else's problem.
Germany's economy depends heavily on exports. If economic output in the rest of Europe collapsed, demand for German goods would fall sharply. Across the Atlantic Ocean, the United States depends on Europe for 20 percent of its own exports. And investors in American banks have worried about their holdings of European debt.
The bigger threat to the U.S. and the global financial system is that Europe's debt crisis could spiral out of control.
If governments default on their bonds, banks that own them could take a significant hit. It could become very difficult for these banks to borrow and nervous depositors could flee with their cash. In the worst case, a global financial panic could be triggered, in which banks all over are too skittish to lend to each other. That would cause a credit crunch that deprives businesses of the short-term financing they depend on for day-to-day operations.
With such fears in the air, the United States is ratcheting up its involvement.
Geithner will meet Tuesday in Germany with Draghi and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble. On Wednesday, he travels to France for talks with Sarkozy and the prime minister-elect of Spain, Mariano Rajoy Brey. And Geithner will meet Monti in Milan just before the new Italian leader heads for the EU summit in Brussels.
On Wednesday, many of Europe's most important leaders will be in Marseille, France, for a meeting of the conservative-leaning European People's Party. Merkel, Sarkozy and Spain's new conservative prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, will all be there.
On Thursday, the ECB holds its monthly policy meeting. Many analysts expect one or more actions by the bank aimed at boosting growth and steadying the financial system.
One step would be to cut its key short-term interest rate from the current 1.25 percent. It made a surprise quarter-point cut at November's meeting. Another would be to extend loans to banks for up to two or three years, instead of the current limit of 13 months.
Even more significantly, Draghi hinted last week that the bank could be willing to take a more direct and aggressive role in solving Europe's government-debt crisis, if EU leaders agree to the coordinated belt-tightening being pushed by Merkel, Sarkozy and others.
"Other elements might follow, but the sequencing matters," he said in a speech Thursday.
The ECB extends unlimited short-term loans to banks. It cannot lend directly to governments, including buying their national bonds. It can, however, buy national bonds on the secondary market and has been doing that each week in modest amounts.
Many economists have urged the bank to sharply increase these purchases because that would stabilize or lower the yields on them. That would reduce borrowing costs of the heavily indebted countries that issue them and keep the countries from defaulting.
The ECB has so far resisted expanding its support because it believes that would take the pressure off politicians to cut spending and reform government finances, a concern known as moral hazard. The ECB has also worried that injecting too much money into the European economy could trigger inflation.
EU leaders gather in Brussels for Friday's summit the night before. Sarkozy and others say the stakes couldn't be higher.
"What will remain of Europe if the euro disappears?" Sarkozy asked. He then provided an answer: "Nothing."
___
Don Melvin from Brussels, Dave McHugh from Frankfurt, Sara DiLorenzo from Paris, Frances D'Emilio from Rome and Mike Corder from Amsterdam contributed
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Carrier IQ has issued a new press release defending its business and reminding us all that it works not unilaterally, but for the operator -- the carrier. The nut:
Carrier IQ acts as an agent for the Operators. Each implementation is different and the diagnostic information actually gathered is determined by our customers – the mobile Operators. Carrier IQ does not gather any other data from devices.
We've got a massive discussion coming up on the podcast, folks.
Check out the whole press relase for yourself after the break.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/vM3YkBcbWsM/story01.htm
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti ? The World Bank will spend $255 million to help house Haitians, clean up neighborhoods and send thousands of children to school over the next year under a plan approved Thursday by the agency's board.
The new funds seek to fill critical needs in Haiti as the troubled nation nears the second anniversary of the January 2010 earthquake that toppled thousands of homes, destroyed hundreds of schools and force more than a million Haitians into precarious settlements in the capital and elsewhere.
The money will go toward housing 22,500 people, many of whom have been living in the hundreds of tent camps that sprang up after the quake. It will also help spruce up parks and repair roads in neighborhoods that are home for 75,000 people, pay for school tuition for 100,000, train 8,000 teachers and provide hot meals five days a week for 75,000 youngsters.
The funds give hope that reconstruction will move along even though a recovery panel that was supposed to coordinate those efforts dissolved in October.
The Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, which was co-chaired by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, came to an end after Haitian authorities failed to renew its 18-month mandate.
A transition team and Prime Minister Garry Conille are trying to figure out the shape and responsibilities of a new panel.
The World Bank announcement came the same week that a forum hosted by the Haitian government and the Inter-American Development Bank brought hundreds of potential investors to Haiti, an impoverished country long overlooked because of its tattered infrastructure, cumbersome laws and unpredictable political climate.
President Michel Martelly said at the event that he wants to create 500,000 jobs within three years.
Some of those jobs are to be generated by two international businesses that announced projects this week: a $224 million industrial park in the north, the country's biggest private investment since the quake, and a $45 million Marriott Hotel to be built in the capital.
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HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) ? A Pennsylvania judge on Friday approved the appointment of David Unkovic as the receiver for the city of Harrisburg, the state's debt-laden capital, even though Unkovic has had ties to some of the city's largest creditors.
Commonwealth Court Judge James Kelley said Unkovic's experience with the creditors was not a conflict. Unkovic is a long-time public finance expert
"The court is convinced Mr. Unkovic meets the statutory qualifications and that there are no demonstrable conflicts which would prevent Mr. Unkovic from performing his fiduciary duties in the best interests of the City and the Commonwealth," Kelley wrote in his memorandum.
Unkovic will now have 30 days to develop and submit a recovery plan to the Commonwealth Court. Harrisburg is saddled with $317 million debt incurred during expensive renovations of an incinerator.
The appointment of the receiver followed a ruling last week by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge that the city of Harrisburg could not file for bankruptcy to get out its outstanding debt.
Unkovic worked for 27 years at the Saul Ewing law firm, which is representing Assured Guarantee Municipal Corp. in its fight to have Harrisburg pay what it owes on bond finance deals related to the retrofit of the incinerator.
He also worked for three years with the law firm of Cozen O'Connor, where he was bond counsel on behalf of Dauphin County, another major player in the incinerator project. Cozen O'Connor represented the administration of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett in its petition to have Unkovic named as Harrisburg's receiver.
Kelley said he was confident that Unkovic could perform his job as receiver fairly.
"Mr. Unkovic assuaged the court's concerns in relation to possible conflicts regarding payment as receiver and his position as a state employee, possible involvement with all of the city's authorities or stakeholders, financial interest in entities involved either directly or tangentially in these proceedings, as well as financial interests and conflicts remaining from past employment," the judge said.
The emergency action plan submitted last month by the secretary of Pennsylvania's Department of Community and Economic Development, Alan Walker, is to be implemented by Unkovic.
Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson, who had opposed the bankruptcy filing approved by the City Council, has supported using a modified version of Pennsylvania's Act 47 process for distressed cities.
"I am pleased that any questions about the bankruptcy filing by the city council and the appointment of Unkovic as city receiver have been resolved so that the focus can narrow in the next 30 days to the development of a financial recovery plan that moves the City of Harrisburg to long term fiscal solvency," Thompson said in a statement
Unkovic will remain on the state's payroll with the same $125,008 salary he started with six months ago when he became chief counsel for the Department of Community and Economic Development.
The governor also welcomed the approval. "The administration is pleased that the court moved quickly on this decision putting Harrisburg another step closer to fiscal recovery," Kelli Roberts, a spokesman for Corbett, said in an email.
(Reporting By Mark Shade)
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In her new book, The Heights: Anatomy of a Skyscraper, author Kate Ascher sheds light on the infrastructure and services that make life and work possible in a modern skyscraper. She examines everything that goes into designing, building and maintaining these towering buildings.
Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/02/143055126/deconstructing-a-skyscraper?ft=1&f=1007
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The hardest part of coming up with a list of 10 things that went wrong for the Eagles this year is narrowing the list down to 10.
Because everything went wrong this year.
Nonetheless, we?ll give it a shot. Here, in no particular order, are 10 things that the Eagles were counting on to contribute to a big-time postseason run -- perhaps even a Super Bowl run -- that went terribly wrong this year.
This is not a list of the Eagles? weaknesses or faults, more a list of their greatest 2011 disappointments.
1.) Asante Samuel didn?t have an Asante Samuel kind of season
We all put up with Samuel?s occasional unnecessary risk-taking because the payoff is a ton of big plays. From 2006 through 2010, Samuel had an NFL-best 41 interceptions -- more than eight per year, including five in the postseason. Samuel?s teams were 29-5 during that span when he had an INT and 24-3 in the regular season. This year, those big plays never happened. With the exception of an INT in Atlanta and an INT and TD return against Arizona, Samuel has not had a productive season. Maybe the trade talk affected him, who knows. He just hasn?t been himself. The Eagles don?t have many defensive playmakers. They couldn?t afford a down year from one of their best.
2.) Michael Vick was never Michael Vick
The guy we saw the first 10 weeks of last year never materialized. Why did 21 TDs and six INTs become 11 TDs and 11 INTs? Nobody is quite sure, but it?s clear that without an elite quarterback, the Eagles had no chance to be an elite team.
3.) DeSean DiSaster
The last few years, DeSean won games for the Eagles. This year, he lost games. When he bothered to show up at all. The Eagles tested D-Jack this year to see whether he was mature enough to handle a massive contract. The result was his worst year as a pro, at least five dropped touchdown passes, a one-game suspension after he missed a mandatory team meeting and a growing reputation as another wide receiver diva. Does DeSean deserve a top-5 wide out contract? After 11 weeks, he ranks 24th in the NFL in receiving yards, 53rd in receptions and tied for 70th with two TD catches. You tell me.
4.) The Juan Castillo Experiment
Really, not much more to say here. It?s all been said. A catastrophic failure. When you become the first team in NFL history to blow four fourth-quarter leads in your own stadium in one season, it doesn?t take a genius to realize one team is making adjustments and the other isn?t.
5.) A huge step backward for Nate Allen
It seems like so long ago now, but Nate Allen was very good last year before he got hurt. He had interceptions in his first three NFL games and looked for all the world like a big-time ball hawk at safety. But Allen has struggled this year, both with continued knee soreness and tackling and coverage issues that may or may not be related to his knee. Not the same guy. Big step backward for Allen.
6.) Trent Cole?s calf injury
Cole was off to a tremendous start when he got hurt in the 49ers game. He had three sacks in his first four games, and his explosive moves to the quarterback were opening up rush lanes for Jason Babin, who had seven sacks in those first four games. But Cole?s calf injury really ruined his season. He only missed two games, but he hasn?t been the same since he got hurt. He has two sacks in five games since coming back, and Babin only has three since Cole got hurt. If you do the math ... before Cole?s injury, Cole and Babin combined for 10 sacks in four games. Since then, they have five sacks in seven games. This defense can?t work without a ferocious pass rush, because the back seven just isn?t good enough or experienced enough to carry the unit and the Eagles don?t have any blitzers capable of disturbing the QB. Cole?s injury was disastrous for the defense.
7.) Andy Reid coached really, really poorly
From getting too conservative with Mike Kafka in the Atlanta game to the fourth-down conversion attempt vs. the Giants early in the fourth quarter with the Eagles leading to the Chas Henry fake punt against the Bears to the Ronnie Brown goal-line option play in the 49ers game to giving NFL rushing leader LeSean four total fourth-quarter carries against the Bears and Cards ... Reid made a series of inexplicable and inexcusable decisions this year, and in close games, they cost his team dearly. Reid is not an awful coach. He?s a good coach who?s having an awful year.
8.) The Nnamdi Problem
I still think Nnamdi Asomugha is a very good cornerback and this will turn out to be a good signing. That said ... what the heck were they thinking taking a guy who didn?t join the Eagles until July 29 and couldn?t start practicing with his new team until a week later -- just five weeks before the regular-season opener -- and trying to transform him overnight into some sort of hybrid corner-safety-linebacker with the weight of the defense on his shoulders? By the time Castillo finally backed off the ?Have-Nnamdi-do-Everything Plan,? admitting he asked the veteran cornerback to do way too much way too soon, Asomugha seemed lost. Then he hurt his knee at practice and a disappointing season turned into a disastrous one. Castillo spoke when he got hired of simplifying the defense. Once the Eagles acquired Asomugha, Castillo did exactly the opposite, and by doing so, he effectively neutralized one of the team?s huge additions.
9.) Where are the picks?
A decent pass rush never resulted in turnovers. The Eagles devoted a lot of offseason resources to the pass rush, signing defensive linemen Babin and Cullen Jenkins to huge contracts, and both have played very well. The Eagles are seventh in the NFL with 30 sacks, just three out of third. But all that pass pressure never resulted in the interceptions it was supposed to lead to. The Eagles are only 15th with 11 interceptions, and four of them came in one game. Take out the Redskins game, and the Eagles have just seven interceptions in 10 games. They had three in their five games before Washington and just four in the last five games. The whole idea of pass pressure is to make quarterbacks feel uncomfortable and force them to make rushed, poor decisions. For whatever reason, the Eagles? pressure never did that.
10.) No big plays
Last year, the Eagles had 11 offensive touchdowns of 40 yards or more. The year before, they had 12. This year? They have just one -- and that came on opening day, LeSean McCoy?s 49-yard TD run against the Rams. So in 33 games from opening day 2009 through opening day 2011, they had 24 offensive TDs of 40 yards or more. In the last 10, they have one. Since the Eagles always have bad field position -- they rank 25th in kick return average at 22.3 yards a pop and 29th in punt return average at 6.8 -- it?s no surprise so many drives have failed to generate points. It?s hard enough going 80 yards or more with an efficient offense. Factor in all the turnovers -- the Eagles lead the NFL with 25 of them -- the red-zone inefficiency (24th) and the absence of big plays and it?s easy to see why this offense has been so inefficient.
E-mail Rueben Frank at rfrank@comcastsportsnet.com
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