Richmond Times-Dispatch from Richmond, Virginia • B9

10829TDCH09B final; 0829 Friday Busi 10829TDCH09B ZALLCALL 082808 Richmond Times-Dispatch Friday, August 29,2008 SUSMGSS Business Editor: John Hoke (804)649-6344 jhoketimesdispatch.com inRich.com 0 Keyword: Top local gainer Circuit City 14.47 Biggest local decliner Chesapeake Top gainer MB1A 34,81 Biggest decliner Occidental Petroleum -48 Hanover approves Outlet center planned Hanover County authorities have reached a key agreement with the developers of an outlet mall planned for the Winding Brook development where Bass Pro Shops will open next month. U.S. seeks sale of WTVR Antitrust suit says Raycom has 30 days to divest CBS affiliate deal on outlet ma A Ashland OT Hanover County Phnnad outlet imJI Lewistown I lfet Road tatf 1 II II Hanover Industrial oft! LaJteridge fartawyjf AVvX SIRwiHI" I Raaa Dm Uinm I Bus Pro Shops Planned development at Lewistown Road and 1-95 could be complete in 2010 BY REED WILLIAMS Times-Dispatch Staff Writer Hanover County has approved an agreement for a 360,00 O-square-foot outlet center in the Winding Brook development at Lewistown Road and Interstate 95. The outlet mall would be built between a new park and the Bass Pro Shops store that is expected to open this falL Hanover's Board of Supervisors approved the agreement at its meeting Wednesday. "It certainly solidifies that it's every enables the authority to acquire about 7 more acres from the developer.

Some of that land would be set aside for a road to ring the outlet center and also gain access to the new park, said Joseph P. Casey, a Hanover deputy county administrator. The outlet center would be built by Illinois-based Horizon Group Properties and is expected to have 80 to 90 stores. Gary J. Skoien, the company's chairman, president and chief executive officer, declined yesterday to discuss specific tenants for the mall, saying only that they would be "well-known, high-end fashion outlets." "Leasing at the center is going exceptionally well," he said.

Contact Reed Wiliams at (804) 649-6332 or rwiliamsfflimesdspatctioom. one's intention that the outlet center would come to Winding Brook," said Kay Pan graze, a senior vice president of Indiana-based Holladay Properties the company developing Winding Brook. "We're excited about the project," she said. Under the agreement, the developer would do its best to substantially complete the outlet center by September 2010. Hanover created a Community Development Authority for the Winding Brook development to help attract Bass Pro Shops.

The authority issued about $28.5 million in bonds to pay to install water and sewer lines, build a four-lane road, acquire about 40 acres for a public park, and construct parking lots for Bass Pro. The agreement approved Wednesday I I i I Attestation Road 1 mile Henrico County I I TOM ROBEOTSTlMES-nSMTCH BY MELISSA RUGGIERI AND JOHN REID BLACKWELL Times-Dispatch Staff Writers The Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit yesterday in US. District Court against Raycom Media that requires the company to divest its Richmond CBS affiliate, WTVR, within 30 days. On Wednesday, the department denied Sinclair Broadcast Group the right to purchase WTVR, citing a previous agreement with WTVR that it could unilaterally reject any potential buyer without cause. Raycom also owns WWBT, Richmond's NBC affiliate that it purchased from Lincoln Financial Media Company in April.

Federal Communications Commission limitations on TV ownership in the same market require Raycom to sell one of its two Richmond stations. According to the Justice Department's lawsuit, Raycom has 30 days which can be extended to 60 to divest WTVR. If this does not occur, the court will appoint a trustee to sell the station. The proposed settlement also requires that Raycom operate WTVR "separate and apart" from Raycom's other operations to preserve competition until it is sold. It also mandates that the sale must preserve WTVR as a viable business.

"The divestiture is necessary to preserve competition for advertisers who buy broadcast television advertising time in the Richmond market," said Deborah A. Garza, deputy assistant attorney general of the Antitrust Division, in yesterday's filing. "Without this divestiture, advertisers on local Richmond stations would have paid higher prices." Once the RaycomLincoln Financial deal was closed April 1, Raycom agreed to sell WTVR within 90 days to a buyer approved by the Justice Department. According to the agreement reiterated in the lawsuit, if Raycom failed to divest WTVR by that deadline, the department would file a lawsuit and proposed settlement. Sinclair was the winning bidder for WTVR, but it owns Richmond's Fox affiliate, WRLH.

If the WTVR deal was approved, Sinclair planned to sell the licensing assets of the station to a new company, Carma Broadcasting LLC. WRLH and Carma Broadcasting share the same ad- MARCD JOSE SANCHEZTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS A bus passenger In the San Francisco area Is able to use his laptop on board. Some riders In the Richmond area can too, as the GRTC Transit System hasjolned a growing number of systems that have Installed WI-FI wireless computer networks aboard their buses. Fancier buses may lure riders Some in GRTC fleet now have capability for wireless computers From Staff and Wire Reports I hink of the typical city bus, and you're likely to picture old vehicles with hard seats and noisy brakes that belch diesel fumes as they jerk from stop to stop. systems are looking for inexpensive ways to make bus trips faster.

Some use technology that keeps traffic lights green when a bus approaches. In the Washington region, the emphasis on improving bus service marks a shift. Metro's rail system, a federal project of the 1960s and 1970s, has long been the local favorite. Home buyers often pay a premium for proximity to a Metro station while bus routes don't have the same cachet. Expanding and improving Washington's bus service is critical to shift some of the pressure off the rail system, which is packed during rush hour and has little room to add longer or more frequent trains.

Plus, a project to extend Metro rail 1 1.6 miles in Northern Virginia carries a price tag of $2.6 trillion, and it won't be done until 2013 at the earliest. So Metro General Manager John Catoe has proposed an extensive network of express buses that would use shoulders or bus-only lanes to help meet the region's immediate needs. Staff writer Will Jones and The Associated Press contributed to this report. large numbers of new riders quickly and affordably. To harness the increased demand for mass transit, officials are turning to new ways of delivering and marketing their bus service.

In June, GRTC equipped buses used on its longer express routes with Wi-Fi service. While some riders prefer to relax, others are starting to realize the time can be used to respond to e-mails or do other work, spokeswoman Kathy Shaw Clary said. "It's spreading more. It's still pretty new." Ted Mann, an Arlington, resident, has been a regular bus rider since totaling his car a year ago and has noticed improvements to buses in his area. Mann, 66, said the Washington area's extensive transit service has meant he hasn't felt compelled to buy a new car.

Metro, the Washington region's transit agency, hopes a makeover will help buses' public relations problem. This month the agency is introducing new buses with a modern red and silver color scheme, cushioned seats and sound-deadening floors for a quieter ride. In addition to improvements like Wi-Fi, transit Paul McTear, president and CEO of Raycom, declined to comment on the department's filing but said the company is proceeding with efforts to sell the station. The next step for the company, he said, is "that we are moving heaven and earth to remarket WTVR to the people that we have talked to before. Actually, as a result of some of the articles in the trades publications, we have received numerous phone calls regarding getting additional information on the sale of WTVR." The Justice Department would provide no further information about why it rejected the See WTVR, Page B11 Transit agencies, including GRTC Transit System, want you to take another look.

They're rolling out more attractive and comfortable buses, convenient express routes and even on-board Wi-Fi. High gasoline prices and a tight economy have made all kinds of transit, including buses, more popular. In the first three months of 2008, 2.6 trillion trips were taken on public transportation in the U.S., a 3 percent increase over the first quarter of 2007, according to the American Public Transportation Association. Buses may lack the hipness of subways or light rail, but they are the best hope for accommodating Rising Roanoke health costs gain notice Markets to dose U.S. financial markets will be closed Monday for the Labor Day holiday.

Most markets abroad will be open. theMHHEYpingh Newspaper examines role, influence of region's top care provider, Carilion BY REX BOWMAN Times-Dispatch Staff Writer ROANOKE Roanoke's medical community was abuzz yesterday after a front-page Wall Street Journal article concluded the city's booming health-insurance rates are due in part to Carilion Health System's prices. Carilion, a Roanoke-based nonprofit organization that runs eight hospitals, is a powerful economic force in the Ro he said, citing Cigna Corp. data, they are 25 percent higher than in Richmond. Drawing a link between Carilion's prices and the insurance rates, the Journal noted that Carilion's $4,727 charge for a colonoscopy is four to 10 times higher than what a local endoscopy center charges.

"They've inflated the cost of health care by creating a monopoly," said Dr. Geoffrey Harter, head of the Coalition for Responsible Healthcare, a group of physicians that organized to bring attention to what it calls Carilion's "exclusionary anti-competitive behavior." See COSTS, Page B11 anoke Valley, one that some local doctors complain has squeezed many residents out of affordable health care with high prices. They praised the article, which ran in yesterday's edition of the Journal, for putting a spotlight on Carilion's strategy of getting independent local doctors to work for Carilion, a strategy they say is aimed at eliminating competition and establishing a health-care monopoly in the region. "As any economist knows, a monopoly will always raise prices and lower quality," said Dr. Frank Cotter, an op-thamologist who has long criticized Carilion's efforts to push doctors to join the Carilion system.

Carilion officials yesterday defended their policies, saying they can cut costs when doctors work as employees of the system because tests and procedures are not unnecessarily duplicated. Health-care costs are burgeoning nationwide, they added. The thrust of the Journal article was that, since a federal court allowed Carilion and another hospital to merge in 1989, the cost of patient care at Carilion has skyrocketed, causing Roanoke's health-insurance rates, once the lowest in the state, to become the highest. A local insurance salesman told the Journal that health-insurance rates in the Roanoke Valley were once 20 percent lower than in Richmond. Today, Be careful in selecting the right savings plan.

Higher rates of return come with increased risks. To read more money-saving tips and to share your own visit inRich.com. Keyword: consumer. SOURCE QearPOM HnancU Solution!.