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been replaced by the adjacent owner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.