Credit trends improve for most credit card issuers
Transcripción
Credit trends improve for most credit card issuers
MARSHALL COUNTY: Schools ready for school to start / LOCAL & STATE, A3 TUESDAY August 18, 2009 MARSHALLTOWN, IOWA CENTRAL IOWA’S DAILY NEWSPAPER timesrepublican.com More than 280,000 readers in print and online weekly! Price 50¢ City looks at assessment of downtown curb repair T-R PHOTO BY TAMMY R. LAWSON For downtown sections from Linn to State, property owners along Center Street may be a step away from assessment toward the installation of new curbs and sidewalks. By TAMMY R. LAWSON TIMES-REPUBLICAN As the city of Marshalltown begins the planning process to overhaul curbs, financing their restoration becomes the true challenge. Discussion of funding toward sidewalk replacement began Monday for the Marshalltown City Council pertaining to areas of Center Street, north of the viaduct and extending from Linn to State Streets. Curbs require a height of six inches; in order for this to occur, City Engineer Lynn Couch advised that sidewalks be leveraged, coinciding with the current Center Street project. Various curbing along the area may average only two inches of depth due to years of overlaid asphalt, hence the loss of curb height; this presents a problem in keeping storm water runoff out of the street to further road deterioration. “Typically, the sidewalk is the responsibility of the property owner, but we require it be raised,” Couch said. Various sidewalks are in fairly poor condition, said City Administrator Dick Hierstein, citing several “are adjacent to sidewalk that have, within the past three or four years, been replaced by the adjacent owner at their cost strictly.” So does the city assess part, or all sidewalk cost to the adjacent property owner for equal treatment of neighbors who paid full cost to refine theirs? “I don’t see that we could subsidize the replacement curbs when CURBS | A3 Today AP PHOTO In this file photo, a Capital One ATM is shown in New York. Capital One Financial Corp. is one of the nation's largest credit card issuers. in Central Iowa’s Daily Newspaper OILWATCH A look at the first closing price of oil for the week on Wall Street. Monday Partly Cloudy Oil prices fell Monday even as the year's first hurricane threatened to grow in size before it heads toward the U.S. coast. Benchmark crude for September delivery fell 76 cents to settle at $66.75 a barrell. Prices have fallen more than 5 percent in two trading sessions.MONEY & 79/56 COMPLETE WEATHER, A2 Get Breaking News as it happens all day and all night on our website. MARKETS, A7 — The Associated Press timesrepublican.com TopStories State fair: The Burt brothers find success in the swine division at state CENTRAL IOWA, A5 Military re-enactment: Military enthusiasts relive moments of Vietnam LOCAL & STATE, A8 Haiti storms: Nation barely hanging on with first rounds of storms NATION & WORLD, A8 Charter schools: Many schools have said no the charter school idea of reform NATION & WORLD, A8 BizStories DOW JONES -186.06 9135.34 By DAVID PITT NASDAQ -54.68 1930.84 S&P 500 -24.36 979.73 CRUDE OIL -0.76 66.75 Credit trends improve for most credit card issuers THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Lawsuit: New York AG is suing Charles Schwab for investments los t in last year’s crash MONEY & MARKETS, A3 LocalObituaries Elaine Casper, 86 Robert Howard, 88 Clara Turner,86 Norman Andreson, 43 Kelly Ann Cooper, 43 Alvin Karsjen Jr., 66 Dennis Reilly, 58 Richard Lompe, 83 OBITUARIES • A6 DES MOINES — Most major credit card companies say fewer customers defaulted on their accounts in July, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re financially better off. A few credit card issuers say more families fell behind on payments, which could be another sign that household finances have yet to recover from the recession. With more than 6 million people living on unemployment benefits and the recession continuing to pressure family budg- ets, many are forced to prioritize their bills. The reality is that credit cards often fall to the bottom. Credit card companies have been trying to limit their risk over the course of the last year. Major credit card issuers reporting monthly results say the rate of losses from unpaid accounts improved from June to July. American Express Co., Bank of America Corp., Capital One Financial Corp., Citigroup Inc., Discover Financial Services and JPMorgan Chase & Co. all say the number of account balances written off due to nonpayment fell. American Express, for example, said its net loss rate fell to 8.92 percent in July from 10.18 percent the month before. Bank of America fell to 13.81 from 13.86 and Chase saw a drop to 7.92 percent from 8.04. What’s more, most of the major card issuers also reported more customers making payments on time. The positive trends don’t necessarily mean consumers are suddenly in much better financial shape. Some of the uptick is more likely due to credit card companies culling the riskiest customers, which will in time lower default and delinquency rates, said bank industry analyst Richard Bove of Rochdale Securities. He sees little to point to a significant improvement in the financial health of consumers. Unemployment remains high and will remain elevated for months and the average household wealth is lower due to falling real estate values. “It doesn’t appear that the recovery in the economy, which seems to be in place at the moment, is going to do anything to change those metrics,” he CREDIT | A3 Nebraska sheriff, others accused of harassment By JEAN ORTIZ THE ASSOCAITED PRESS CUSnapshot Memorial: Photo provided by CU user NamVet. MORE PHOTOS. View more photos and order prints online at timesrepublican.com 7 48445 00010 9 Printed with soy ink on recycled newsprint OMAHA, Neb. — A former Dakota County corrections officer has sued the county, its sheriff and other superiors alleging they pressured female employees into sexual relationships and those who refused their advances were treated as outcasts. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Omaha last week on behalf of Toni Duncan, calls the work environment she chose to leave in 2007 a ‘‘cesspool’’ in which superiors misused their power for their own sexual gratification. It seeks unspecified damages. Attorneys for the Sioux City, Iowa, woman say she’s not the first and won’t be the last to raise issues with the problems in the northeastern Nebraska coun- ty. The county investigated related claims in 2007, but its findings were never made public, according to Duncan’s lawsuit, which alleges a cover-up. ‘‘This is a genuine mess. The more we get into it, the more messy it gets,’’ said attorney Dewey Sloan, who along with Brian Buckmeier represents both Duncan and Williams. An attorney for the county called Duncan’s allegations mystifying and suspicious. ‘‘I have no clue where these allegations are coming from,’’ attorney Vince Valentino said Monday. Sloan also represents Charvette Williams, another former corrections officer who sued the county in June alleging unfair pay and harassment. The Inside Today Advice B4 Business A7 Central Iowa A5 Classifieds B6 Comics B4 Daily Almanac A7 Editorial Forum A4 Iowa News A3 Legals B5 Lotteries A3 National & World News A8 Obituaries A6 People A2 Public Records A2 Puzzles B5 Sports B1 Weather A2 Thank You subscriber XXXXXXXXXX of XXXXXXXX for being part of the T-R family. To subscribe, call 753-6611 or 800-542-7893 or visit timesrepublican.com HARASSMENT | A3 ? sections, ?? pages Vol. CXXXIII No. ??? Copyright 2008. Marshalltown Newspaper, Inc.