Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 9

BUSINESS Wednesday, March 7, 2012 ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL ABQjournal.com/biz AROUND N.M. DOCUMENT NAME: DESCRIPTION: mac ARTIST: carol SIZE: Journal Wire Reports Tribe Sees Benefit In Tres Amigas A $1.5 billion effort in New Mexico to link the United three major electricity grids has caught the attention of one of the largest American Indian tribes. Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly has met with developers of the Tres Ami- gas Superstation near Clovis and sees the project as an opportunity for electricity generated on the vast reservation to reach other markets. With Tres Amigas, Shelly says Navajos have a chance to be a major energy partner and find a new, permanent stream of revenue. Japanese investors and a European company have already signed on to the project.

The Tres Amigas project would include building a hub in eastern New Mexico to serve as the meeting point for interconnections that serve the eastern and western halves of the U.S. and a separate grid that supplies Texas. THE NATION Obama Unveils Mortgage Relief WASHINGTON President Obama announced Tuesday new mortgage relief for members of the military and veterans as well as homeowners with government-insured loans. The initiatives are the latest administration attempt to help borrowers struggling under a depressed housing market. Borrowers with mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration would be able to refinance at half the fee that the FHA currently charges.

The administration says a typical FHA borrower who refinances could save more than $1,000 a year from the changes. For service members and veterans, Obama says major lenders will review foreclosures or denials of lower interest rates. Defective-Housing Owners Split $14M PHOENIX Several hundred Sun City Grand homeowners in Surprise have been awarded nearly $14 million in one of the largest construction-defect cases in Arizona history. The Arizona Republic reports the money was awarded by an arbitration panel against developer Del Webb Communities a subsidiary of PulteGroup Inc. The money was awarded to about 460 Sun City Grand homeowners and includes $7.9 million in damages and $5.7 million in legal fees and costs.

PulteGroup Vice President James Zeumer says the company plans to challenge the award in state court. Keystone Route Revision Readied HOUSTON An executive with the Canadian company seeking to build an oil pipeline across the United States to the Texas Gulf Coast says a plan for a new route around environmentally sensitive Sandhills region will be ready within weeks. president of energy and oil pipelines Alex Pourbaix said Tuesday that the company plans to resubmit its permit request to the U.S. State Department. He also says construction of the southern tier of the Keystone XL pipeline, which require a special permit, will begin by late spring or early summer.

By Joshua Freed The Associated Press Stocks suffered their biggest losses in three months Tuesday, the first hiccup in a strong and steady rally to start the year. Wall Street worried about the global economy and waited while Greece pressured the last investors to sign on for its bailout. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 204 points, giving up almost a third of what had been a 745-point advance since Jan. 1, the best start to a year in the U.S. market since 1998.

The sell-off, which spread west from Europe, also interrupted a period of unusual calm on Wall Street. Before Tuesday, the Dow had not fallen 100 points for 45 straight trading sessions, the longest streak since 2006. things go straight up and ever correct or have some sort of normal pullback, as an investor, that makes me said Ed Hyland, a global investment specialist with J.P. Morgan Private Bank. The gradual rally had been powered by optimism about the U.S.

economic recovery. But investors realized that debt problems, economic problems and Iran problems were still very much their problems, too. Stocks fell sharply from the opening bell and never mounted a serious comeback. All but two of the 30 stocks in the Dow were lower, and Procter Gamble and Kraft Foods managed only a few pennies of gains. The Dow closed down 203.66 points at 12,759.

It was only last week that the Dow closed above 13,000 for the first time since May 2008, four months before the worst of the financial crisis. The Standard 500 index closed down 21 points at 1,343. The Nasdaq composite index was down 40 points at 2,910. All 10 industry groups in the 500 declined. Bank stocks, which typically take a hit when there is any reason to worry about Greece, led the declines, followed by industrial and materials companies, which depend on strength in the world economy.

Stocks Suffer First Beating of 2012 By Chuck Slothower The Daily Times FARMINGTON The owners of New Mexico Title Escrow Co. kept $78,630 in cash in a metal file drawer at the business, rather than in a bank account as required by state regulations, the New Mexico Financial Institutions Division said in recently filed court documents. The state agency, which is investigating the business, also uncovered a $132,880 check from New Mexico Title Co. to Stadium Management Co. for an executive suite at the Denver football stadium.

A license agreement for the suite is signed by Bobby Willis, a former owner of New Mexico Title and current owner of New Mexico Title Escrow, according to his attorneys. The documents were filed in 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe as part of the Financial Institutions investigation of New Mexico Title Escrow. The Farmington business closed in late January, and customers have complained that they did not receive expected disbursements, or that payments into escrow accounts were not properly credited. Police believe millions of dollars are missing. The investigation is running parallel to the state Public Regulation Commission Insurance inquiry into New Mexico Title.

Allegations contained in the court documents raise serious questions about the practices. Messages seeking comment from the Willis and his attorneys were not returned. John Day, one of the Santa Fe attorneys representing Willis and the ownership of New Mexico Title Escrow, in a court filing laid the blame for the disarray on a former manager who left the business abruptly on or around Dec. 27, 2011. Title Co.

Probe Finding Quirks Verizon To Launch Rural Broadband By Peter Svensson The Associated Press NEW YORK Verizon Wireless on Tuesday announced a version of its wireless broadband service designed for use in rural and remote homes that get DSL or cable. The service, called Home- Fusion, could also appeal to some households where DSL is the only fixed-line option, since faster than most DSL services. HomeFusion could provide potent competition for satellite broadband providers, which are often of last for rural homes. The service requires the installation of a cylindrical antenna, about the size of a 5-gallon bucket, on an outside wall. The hardware costs $200, but the work is free.

Service starts at $60 per month for 10 gigabytes of data. enough of a monthly data allotment to download the complete works of Shakespeare 2,000 times, or to watch about 10 hours of HD-qual- ity video using an Internet streaming. Dallas, Nashville, and Birmingham, will be the first areas to get the service, later this month. By the end of the year, Veri- zon hopes to provide it everywhere it has coverage with its new wireless network. The company declined to comment specifically on whether New Mexico would be getting the service except to say the state is part of that network.

Verizon cites the same speeds for HomeFusion as for LTE data sticks: 5 to 12 megabits per second for downloads, and 2 to 5 megabits for uploads. However, LTE users frequently report much higher speeds, ranging up to 70 megabits per second for downloads. Verizon will sell step-up plans with 20 gigabytes of data for $90 per month and 30 gigabytes for $120 per month. It charges $10 per gigabyte of overage on any of the plans. The $60 and $90 plans provide one-third more data per month than corresponding plans sold by ViaSat Inc.

for its Exede satellite broadband service. Journal staff contributed to this report. Wireless Service Offers Fast Speeds RICHARD PNM Resources will move 377 employees in Alvarado Square, left, to the PNM headquarters building, right, or to the Aztec Data Center or Aztec administration building off Interstate 25, north of the Big I. Copyright 2012 Albuquerque Journal By Michael Hartranft Journal Staff Writer NM Resources is ending a three-decade stay at Alvarado Square Downtown, with plans to move 377 employees to the adjacent PNM building or to the data center and administration building north of the Big I. The consolidation begins this month and should be completed by the end of the year, spokesman Frederick Bermudez said.

got fewer employees, cost cutting, more space than we needed, so actually a good opportunity for us to go ahead and capitalize on our owned he said. A $1.9 million-a-year lease for the eight-story Alvarado Square which houses executive offices, accounting, financing groups, customer service, human resources and some IT expires in November 2015. The company has occupied the building since 1980. hoping to do is negotiate an exit, not necessarily to not pay the lease, but to go ahead and Bermudez said. we can just mothball it and bring down the daily operational cost of it to a He said the company expects a savings of $800,000 to $1 million in operation costs once the building is vacated and about $3 million a year when the lease ends.

will result in the company asking for $3 million less in recovery in rates to operate the Bermudez said. About 250 employees mostly in IT or customer service will move from Downtown to the company- owned, Aztec Data Center or Aztec administration building on Aztec NE, just east of I-25. About 50 percent of the data center is currently vacant, and about 80 per- cent in the administration building is as well, he said. renovation has already started at the Aztec he said. start later this month moving people About 380 people will stay Downtown in the 12-story HQ building on Silver SW, where about 255 people now work.

The building will undergo an $8 million to $10 million renovation, Bermudez said. combination of selling the gas operations, exiting the competitive businesses (First Choice and Optim Energy in Texas), the natural attrition seen over the years and efforts not to refill the vacancies have resulted in a significantly smaller he said. In 2002 before acquiring the Texas businesses the company had about 2,675 employees. That number rose to 2,864 by the end of 2008, just before the gas company was sold to Continental Energy Systems. It now stands at 1,949.

STAFF CONSOLIDATION Leaner PNM To Vacate Alvarado Square Offices In Anticipation of Saving Up to $1 Million a Year Millions Believed Missing at Firm Dow tumbles 204 as European sell-off crosses pond to U.S. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Floor traders at the NYSE keep a close eye on volatile stocks on Tuesday. COURTESY OF VERIZON This cylindrical antenna will be used with new HomeFusion wireless broadband service. STOCKS B2 FOOD B6 12,759.15 2,910.32 DOWNASDAQ 1,343.36 7,920.14.