9/13/05:
FEMA's Plan to Ferret Out Fraud
GHARIB: Good evening everyone. New Orleans took two giant
steps in getting back to business today. Its airport re-opened
to commercial flights and its port received the first cargo
shipment since hurricane Katrina devastated the Big Easy.
The slow signs of recovery came amid promises from the White
House and FEMA to learn from their mistakes and intensify
their efforts to help the victims. As we continue our ongoing
series, "Recovering from Katrina," Washington Bureau
Chief Darren Gersh says the government is already on the lookout
for fraud.
DARREN GERSH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Homeland
security chief Michael Chertoff sounded like a man trying
to strike the right balance between chasing down fraud and
helping out victims of hurricane Katrina.
MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: The message
has gone out very clearly to everybody that we are going to
be efficient. We're going to cut through red tape, but we're
not going to cut through the laws and the rules that govern
ethics.
GERSH: Congress has already given the FEMA Inspector General's
Office an extra $15 million to be a watchdog over disaster
assistance spending. So far, the record is mixed at best.
In Florida, after hurricane Frances hit last year, investigators
found FEMA may have given out $30 million dollars to individuals
who suffered little or no damage. The federal government's
performance now will largely depend on the private sector,
since FEMA hires contractors to evaluate and process claims
for individual losses.
BILL JENKINS, GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE: So FEMA's
role is not actually doing the inspections themselves, but
the oversight and quality assurance of that program. But it
doesn't actually go out and make the inspections and make
the decisions about what people actually ought to get.
GERSH: In cleaning up after Katrina, the potential for waste,
fraud and abuse is enormous. FEMA will easily spend ten times
as much money than on any previous disaster. And in many cases
the neediest victims may not have a driver’s license
or other critical documents normally required to verify eligibility
for government benefits.
GREGORY SHAW, INSTITUTE FOR CRISIS, DISASTER & RISK MANAGEMENT,
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: I think we're going to err on
the side of getting the money to the people who need it, and
with some level of dignity. And we'll worry about the consequences
after the fact. But I also think that we will develop some
real processes at all levels of the organization for making
sure that the waste, fraud, and abuse are minimized in the
future.
GERSH: Some experts in emergency management say the amount
of fraud uncovered after previous natural disasters has been
small compared with the scale of the devastation. Even so,
every dollar stolen or wasted is a dollar not available to
help real victims. Darren Gersh, Nightly Business Report,
Washington.
Nightly
Business Report transcripts are available on-line post broadcast.
The program is transcribed by eMediaMillWorks. Updates may
be posted at a later date. The views of our guests and commentators
are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of
Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc. Nightly
Business Report, or WPBT. Information presented on Nightly
Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment
advice. Copyright (c) 2005 Community Television Foundation
of South Florida, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Terms of use.
09/13/05:
One On One With Richard Branson, President & CEO, Virgin
Group
GHARIB: Things are going better for another airline executive:
Sir Richard Branson. He's the CEO of Virgin Atlantic Airways,
just one of 300 companies he founded under his Virgin label.
His company, Virgin Group is a $12 billion empire in a vast
array of businesses including music, cell phones, railways,
beverages, and hotels. When I talked with Branson this morning
I asked him what's his next big thing.
RICHARD BRANSON, PRESIDENT & CEO, VIRGIN GROUP: The most
exciting new thing that Virgin’s got on is Virgin Galactic
Airways, which is space travel. We’re building five
spaceships that will be ready in 2 ½-years time. And
that will enable people to go into space.... not exactly cheaply.
It will cost about $200,000 a flight, but far, far, far more
cheaply than it’s ever been done in the past.
GHARIB: Now, Mr. Branson, I understand you’re also
considering building an oil refinery. Why would you want to
do that when it costs a lot of money, it takes many years,
and do you really want to get into the oil business?
BRANSON: The last thing I want to do is build an oil refinery,
but the oil companies are not building oil refineries. So
what we’re trying to do is get a consortium together
to get at least one built. I actually think that governments
should step in. They should tax the oil companies. Do a windfall
tax on the oil companies and put all that money into building
10, 15 oil refineries. If they did do that, oil prices would
come down dramatically.
GHARIB: I imagine one of your motivations is that you run
Virgin Atlantic Airways and with the rising jet fuel prices.
Are you still excited about running an airline, given high
oil prices and all the difficulties in the airline industry?
BRANSON: Well, Virgin Atlantic Airways, I suppose, is my
baby -- although, she’s now 21 years old. She’s
something I’m normally proud of her. She’s grown
into a beautiful 21-year-old.
GHARIB: You said it was your baby. Are you still excited
about running an airline given all the problems the industry
faces.
BRANSON: Yes. I mean, Virgin Atlantic Airways is a quality
airline. And we’re profitable because we’re a
quality product. We’ve just set up a new airline in
Australia. Virgin Blue has done extremely well. We’re
just helping Nigeria set up a national airline called Virgin
Nigeria. We’re gonna set up an airline in America called
Virgin America.
GHARIB: Where does this airline in the US stand, and why
do you want to get in this very crowded competitive market
in the US?
BRANSON: The reason we want to get into the American market
is that there is only one, maybe two, decent airlines in America.
The big airlines are not much fun to fly on. Sounds like a
strange time to go into the airline business when everyone’s
losing a fortune. Actually, in some ways that’s the
time as an entrepreneur to go into a business, when other
people are quite weak, you know, on their knees, in trouble.
You know, that’s time to go in with a really good quality
product, and I think you can do well out of it.
GHARIB: Let’s talk a little bit about the music business.
You run a music empire, and here we are in a Virgin megastore.
Are you concerned at all about how you’re going to grow
this business given that so many people are downloading music?
BRANSON: Yeah, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
We just launched Virgin digital, which is basically a rival
to iTunes. Our megastores, you know, we have to accept that
they will change because downloading music is going to mean
less people in time, you know, buying the physical product.
So, we’ve gone into the mobile phone business, and we
got space in the stores selling mobile phones. You know, we
love the stories; they’re flagship stores. People still
actually like to buy the physical products. So I don’t
think the decline is going to be dramatically quick. But we
have to reinvent ourselves.
GHARIB: You have Virgin Atlantic; you have Virgin megastores,
Virgin hotels, Virgin mobile, Virgin cola, Virgin everything.
Are you at all concerned that by developing all of these new
companies that you’re spreading your brand name a little
too thin?
BRANSON: I think as long as every time we do something new,
you know, it’s quality; it’s perceived as quality.
You know, people when they fly on Virgin, they have a great
experience. When they come into a megastore they’re
served by friendly people. When they use a mobile phone, they
know it’s good value and so on, then we can carry on
expanding the brand.
GHARIB: What about taking Virgin Group public. Why aren’t
you a public company?
BRANSON: I’ll never take a top company public. We may
take individual companies public. And I suppose the reason
not to have the top company public is that I can’t announce
that I’m doing space travel and not see my share price
fall through the floor. You know, I can’t be a record
company, and say I’m going into the airline business
and not see my share price fall through the floor, which is
exactly what would have happened, I think, if we had been
public.
GHARIB: Well, looking at your career. You’ve thrived
by breaking all the rules and taking all of the risks. What
is your business philosophy? What makes you tick?
BRANSON: I mean I love learning about new things. I like
having fun. I like exploring. I never went to university.
In a sense my business career has been one long university
education. It’s been learning about the music business;
it’s been learning about the airline business; it’s
been learning about you know refineries. And it’s just
living life to its full.
GHARIB: Mr. Branson, thank you so much. It’s been a
pleasure talking to you.
Nightly
Business Report transcripts are available on-line post broadcast.
The program is transcribed by eMediaMillWorks. Updates may
be posted at a later date. The views of our guests and commentators
are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of
Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc. Nightly
Business Report, or WPBT. Information presented on Nightly
Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment
advice. Copyright (c) 2005 Community Television Foundation
of South Florida, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Terms of use.
09/13/05:
"HOME EC" -- Flex Time: Striking A Balance Between
Home and Work
GHARIB: Paul, it's an age-old question for working women:
How do you balance careers and family... and ensure you have
enough time for both. More and more women in the American
workplace are finding a new answer. Tonight, our home economist
Brett Graff takes a look at the growing trend towards what's
called "flex time."
BRETT GRAFF, NBR HOME ECONOMIST: For 16 years Tracey Nichols
has been a recruiter at Cross Country Staffing in Palm Beach,
Florida. Four years ago she decided to spend more time with
her three sons. Rather than quit her job, she gave half of
it away. Now she works just Thursdays, Fridays and alternate
Wednesdays.
TRACEY NICHOLS, RECRUITER, CROSS COUNTRY STAFFING: I started
here when I was 21 or 22 and now I'm 38. So a lot of us are
really growing old together. And we're seeing our family's
evolve. People are happier. People want to come to work.
GRAFF: Nichols' boss estimates that 15 percent of the firm's
450 employees choose a flexible schedule. And she's one of
them spending Monday's at home caring for her family.
VICKIE ANENBERG, PRESIDENT, CROSS COUNTRY STAFFING: When
we hire people, they are amazed at the culture of this company.
And you know we're a 450 employee organization. So it's not
like we have 20 employees and this is just easy to accommodate,
onesies, twosies. They're amazed that we actually do this.
GRAFF: Heidi Kramer's situation doesn't reveal her role as
a pioneer. Kramer manages nine people at a local electric
utility, working 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. -- just in time for afterschool
pickup. But nine years ago,
Kramer broke new ground in her company, coming up with a flexible
work schedule and making it work well.
HEIDI KRAMER, TEAM LEADER, FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT: I realized
that I really needed to convince management that this was
going to work. I knew that it was going to work for me. How
was I going to make this work for the company? And that's
when I decided I really needed help with that. I needed to
see what other companies had done this before me.
GRAFF: In July, the Labor Department reported over 27 million
workers had flexible hours. And a growing number of workers
are choosing non-traditional shifts: in the evenings or overnight.
Many like emergency room physician Dr. Barbara Pena say it
keeps the days free for family.
DR. BARBARA PENA, EMERGENCY ROOM PEDIATRICIAN: Basically
I work evenings and nights, and I do it because I feel like
I can have the best of both worlds that way. I can be at home
with my kids during the day and at night I get to do my job.
The downside is being perpetually tired.
GREFF: Living a duel life has its downside. Take freelance
reporters. The paychecks are erratic. Toddlers are attracted
to the computer's power light, and can't differentiate mom's
work time and play time. Truth be told, same is true for mom.
And while the workforce is often unforgiving to a lot of moms,
there are women who do find they are fulfilled professionally
and personally.
NICHOLS: This has to be the best thing.
KRAMER: It's worked out great for nine years.
DR. PENA: I feel like I have it all, absolutely.
GRAFF: Brett Graff, Nightly Business Report, Home Economist.
Nightly
Business Report transcripts are available on-line post broadcast.
The program is transcribed by eMediaMillWorks. Updates may
be posted at a later date. The views of our guests and commentators
are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of
Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc. Nightly
Business Report, or WPBT. Information presented on Nightly
Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment
advice. Copyright (c) 2005 Community Television Foundation
of South Florida, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Terms of use.
9/13/05: "Commentary"- An Idea For Rebuilding New Orleans
GHARIB: Tonight's commentator is looking at Louisiana in
the wake of hurricane Katrina. Here's Daniel Henninger, Deputy
Editor of the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal.
DANIEL HENNINGER, DEPUTY EDITOR, EDITORIAL PAGE, THE WALL
STREET JOURNAL: New Orleans is going to be rebuilt. It may
not be the same Big Easy that preceded Katrina but this most
southern of cities will rise again. The problem is too many
people want to lay hands on the patient. Planners, politicians
and profiteers all have ideas on how to revive this famous
American city. Well, this past weekend marked the anniversary
of September 11, and the people gathered at ground zero saw
what happens when the politicians and planners gain control
of a major rebuilding project: the space once occupied by
the World Trade Center towers is still nothing but a hole
in the ground.
Maybe there's a better way than politics as usual to rebuild
devastated New Orleans: let the market decide. By that I mean
the real market of creative, tireless and determined individuals,
the kind of people who created some of our greatest cities
in the 19th century: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago,
New York. These cities flourished when they became centers
of commerce and new economic activity. To do that now we should
turn New Orleans and perhaps all of Louisiana into a vast
enterprise zone. Liberate Louisiana for 10 years from federal
capital gains taxes, corporate taxes and even workers payroll
taxes. Anything that gets in the way of reviving New Orleans'
economy should be set aside for the next 10 years. The politicians
and planners won't like this idea, which is why we should
give it a try. I'm Dan Henninger.
Nightly
Business Report transcripts are available on-line post broadcast.
The program is transcribed by eMediaMillWorks. Updates may
be posted at a later date. The views of our guests and commentators
are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of
Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc. Nightly
Business Report, or WPBT. Information presented on Nightly
Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment
advice. Copyright (c) 2005 Community Television Foundation
of South Florida, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Terms of use.
09/13/05:
"Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News"
PAUL KANGAS: KANGAS: Those inflationary concerns about the
4th quarter put Wall Street into retreat this morning as did
a shortfall in Best Buys' earnings, which we'll detail later.
In a steady sell-off, the Dow fell 80 points by noon while
the Nasdaq lost 13. Stocks remained broadly lower on profit-taking
and growing concerns about Katrina's impact on the economy.
The DJIA closed off 85 1/2-points at 10,597.44. The Nasdaq
11 points to 2171.75. The S&P 500 fell 9 1/3-points to
1231.20.
In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 12/32nds to 100
31/32nds, lowering the yield at 4.13 percent.
Volume leader on the Big Board, 20 million shares traded,
Nokia moving up 74 cents. The company raised it’s third
quarter earnings outlook due to better-than-expected sales
in Europe.
Then came Best Buy, plunging $5.57. You just heard the news
on that one.
Time Warner, 23-cent loss.
Motorola bucked the trend, up 61 cents.
Lucent Technologies, fifth in Big Board volume, was down
4 cents.
General Electric lost 15 cents.
Citigroup edging up 9 cents.
Pfizer fell 36 cents. Pfizer said the FDA failed to approve
its osteoporosis drug called Oporea (ph). Co-developer Ligand
(ph) Pharmaceuticals stock fell 61cents to $8.19.
Then came Texas Instruments with a gain of 85 cents. Semiconductors
strong today.
And Wal-Mart down 82 cents. Workers in 6 countries have filed
a class action suit claiming Wal-Mart overlooked sweatshop
conditions at toy and clothing factories all the way from
China to Nicaragua.
Proctor & Gamble fell $1.02. Bear Stearns kept first
quarter earnings estimate by 2 cents, down to 75 cents, due
in part to the impact of Katrina on its coffee business.
Then the big newspaper, Knight-Ridder off $3.44. Knight-Ridder
says third quarter operating earnings will down about 20 percent
from a year ago. Prudential cut its price target by $8.00
a share, down to $61 – just about where it is.
Gannett, another publishing company, down $2.37. The company’s
August operating revenue fell 4 ½-percent compared
to a year ago.
Kansas City Southern, the railroad company, and its Mexican
subsidiary settled a dispute with the Mexican government regarding
value-added tax refunds to the TFM Railway, which Kansas City
Southern bought earlier this year.
Dow Jones lost 91 cents. UBS Financial downgraded it from
“neutral” to “reduced,” saying that
the near-term prospects are not good for financial and technology
advertising.
Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold off $1.04. The company
cut its expected 3rd quarter copper sales from Indonesia.
The forecast is cut about 10 ½-percent. And the forecast
for gold sales cut by 20-percent, all from its Indonesian
operations.
Jo-Ann Stores fell $1.23. Chief Financial Officer Brian Carney
(ph) has resigned and so did General Counsel, Valerie Sachs.(ph).
They went to other firms apparently.
And SRA International, that’s an IT consulting firm,
mostly the government that should stock be added to the Standard
and Poor’s 500 mid-cap 400 index on a date to be announced.
It’ll replace Integrated Circuits Systems, which is
being acquired.
Volume leader on Nasdaq, Google, up $1.94. A judge has ruled
that Google can hire a former Microsoft executive to head
its Chinese research and development center so long as he
does recruit from Microsoft.
Baidu.com in there with a nice gain of $1.34.
And then Microsoft itself down 13 cents.
Intel dropped 9 cents.
Cisco Systems, fifth in dollar volume, lost 23 cents a share.
Apple Computer down 58 cents.
Seibel Systems, which is being taken over by Oracle, up 7
cents.
eBay, 66-cent drop.
And Oracle itself up 15 cents.
Yahoo, tenth in volume, up 39 cents.
Majesco Entertainment losing almost 50 percent of its value
today. After the close yesterday, the company cut its 2005
revenue estimate from about $125 million all the way down
to $65 million. And it boosted its loss forecast from $19
million to as much as $45 million.
And then over on the American Exchange, Baycorp Holding,
up 43 percent. Sloan group limited will acquire this company
for $4.19 a share in cash.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight, Susie.
Nightly
Business Report transcripts are available on-line post broadcast.
The program is transcribed by eMediaMillWorks. Updates may
be posted at a later date. The views of our guests and commentators
are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of
Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc. Nightly
Business Report, or WPBT. Information presented on Nightly
Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment
advice. Copyright (c) 2005 Community Television Foundation
of South Florida, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Terms of use.
09/13/05:
Market Stats
NET PERCENT
CLOSE CHANGE CHANGE
DOW CLOSE 10597.44 -85.50 - .8
HIGH 10674.03
LOW 10595.29
NASDAQ COMP. 2171.75 -11.08 -.5
HIGH 2185.89
LOW 2167.83
VOLUME 1,499.8
PREVIOUS 1,431.3
UP VOLUME 379.0
DOWN VOLUME 1,106.2
DOW TRANSPORTS 3591.21 -56.67 - 1.6
DOW UTILITIES 417.12 -3.45 - .8
CLOSING TICK -80
S&P 500 1231.20 -9.36 - .8
S&P 100 569.51 -4.02 - .7
MIDCAP 400 715.65 -5.20 - .7
REUTERS/CRB 318.00 -1.98 - .6
NYSE COMPOSITE 7578.25 -59.26 - .8
VALUE LINE 414.57 -3.50 - .8
RUSSELL 2000 673.13 -7.69 - 1.1
DJW 5000 12322.31 -95.47 - .8
U.S. TREASURIES
5-YEAR NOTE 3.875%
Sept. 15,2010 99 24/32 +8/32 + 3.93
10-YEAR NOTE 4.25%
Aug. 15,2015 100 31/32 +12/32 + 4.13
30-YEAR NOTE 5.375%
Feb. 15, 2031 114 17/32 +17/32 + 4.42
LEHMAN BROS.
LONG BOND INDEX 1814.94 +6.16
DOW CLOSE 10597.44 -85.50 - .8
ADVANCES 989
DECLINES 2344
NEW HIGHS 97
NEW LOWS 35
NET PERCENT
NYSE MOST ACTIVES 4PM CLOSE CHANGE CHANGE
NOK Nokia 16.81 +.74 +4.6
BBY Best Buy Co 44.79 -5.57 -11.1
TWX Time Warner 17.98 -.23 -1.3
MOT Motorola 23.45 +.61 +2.7
LU Lucent Tech 3.10 -.04 -1.3
GE GE 34.28 -.15 -.4
C Citigroup 45.10 +.09 +.2
PFE Pfizer 25.98 -.36 -1.4
TXN Texas Instrument 33.96 +.85 +2.6
WMT Wal-Mart Stores 45.07 -.82 -1.8
NASDAQ CLOSE 2171.75 - 11.08 - .5
VOLUME 1,805.5
PREVIOUS 1,759.2
ADVANCES 1017
DECLINES 2012
NASDAQ ACTIVES
GOOG Google 311.68 +1.94 +.6
BIDU Baidu.com 113.59 +1.34 +1.2
MSFT Microsoft 26.48 -.13 -.5
INTC Intel 24.90 -.09 -.4
CSCO Cisco Systems 18.25 -.23 -1.2
AAPL Apple Computer 50.82 -.58 -1.1
SEBL Siebel Systems 10.36 +.07 +.7
EBAY eBay 38.28 -.66 -1.7
ORCL Oracle 13.64 +.15 +1.1
YHOO Yahoo! 34.30 +.39 +1.2
AMEX CLOSE 1690.33 - 10.59 - .6
INDEX SHARES
DIA DIAMONDS TRUST 106.17 -.64 -.6
QQQ NASDAQ 100 39.63 -.10 -.3
SPY S&P DEP.RECEIPTS 123.65 -.69 -.6
STOCKS IN THE NEWS
PG Procter & Gamble 55.54 -1.02 -1.8
KRI Knight Ridder 61.46 -3.44 -5.3
GCI Gannett Co 72.43 -2.37 -3.2
KSU Kansas City South 22.92 +2.81 +14.0
DJ Dow Jones & Co 41.04 -.91 -2.2
FCX Freeport-McM C&G 42.35 -1.44 -3.3
JAS Jo-Ann Stores 19.10 -1.23 -6.1
SRX SRA Intl 34.20 +1.59 +4.9
COOL Majesco Entertain 1.23 -1.21 -49.6
MWH Baycorp Holdings 13.99 +4.23 +43.3
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