United Tech fourth-quarter profit down after restructuring charges

(Reuters) - United Technologies Corp reported a 26 percent decline in profit, reflecting large restructuring charges at the end of a year that saw the company close its largest-ever acquisition and sell several small units.

The diversified U.S. manufacturer said on Wednesday fourth-quarter earnings from continuing operations fell to $945 million from $1.28 billion a year earlier. Per-share profit from continuing operations came to $1.04, down from $1.42 a year earlier.

The results for the just-ended quarter included 25 cents per share of restructuring charges and other one-time items.

Revenue at United Tech, the world's largest maker of elevators and air conditioners, rose 14.4 percent to $16.44 billion from $14.38 billion a year earlier.

The company, which also makes Pratt & Whitney jet engines and Sikorsky helicopters, did not change its 2013 profit forecast for earnings of $5.85 to $6.15 per share.

Hartford, Connecticut-based United Tech last year closed its $16.5 billion takeover of aircraft components maker Goodrich Corp and sold or are selling units that make products including wind turbines, fuel cells and industrial pumps.

United Tech shares are up 12 percent over the past year, outpacing the 9 percent rise of the Dow Jones industrial average <.dji>.

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/united-tech-fourth-quarter-profit-down-large-restructuring-120911292--finance.html

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Media Can?t Break Its Wingnut Fever (OliverWillisLikeKryptoniteToStupid)

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Gilda's Club chapter in Wis. sticks with name

FILE - In this May 4, 2012 file photo Bonnie Hanson polishes furniture in the "Baba Wawa" room at Gilda's Club in Middleton, Wis. The cancer support group said Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013 it is sticking with its name honoring comedian Gilda Radner following public outcry after the group announced a change in November. (AP Photo/Wisconsin State Journal, M.P. King, File)

FILE - In this May 4, 2012 file photo Bonnie Hanson polishes furniture in the "Baba Wawa" room at Gilda's Club in Middleton, Wis. The cancer support group said Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013 it is sticking with its name honoring comedian Gilda Radner following public outcry after the group announced a change in November. (AP Photo/Wisconsin State Journal, M.P. King, File)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) ? Stung by the overwhelmingly negative reaction to removing the name of original "Saturday Night Live" cast member Gilda Radner from a cancer support group's title, a Wisconsin chapter is borrowing one of the comedian's catch phrases for its next announcement: Never mind.

Gilda's Club Madison will remain just that, group leaders told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The board voted last week to keep the name after an avalanche of criticism in November when it announced it was switching to the more generic Cancer Support Community Southwest Wisconsin, in part out of concern that young people today were unfamiliar with Radner, who died of ovarian cancer in 1989.

"It really struck a chord with folks and all of us agreed we want people to come to Gilda's and get the help that they need," said Wayne Harris, chairman of the board for the Madison chapter. "If this is what it takes to make that happen, we're all as a group happy to make it happen."

The intention of changing to a broader name was honorable, Harris said. "In retrospect, we probably should have thought that through or understood it more," he said.

Anger over the name change, which was supposed to take effect this month, came from members of the local Gilda's Club chapter, fans of Radner who saw it as a slight to a woman who confronted cancer with dignity and humor, leaders of other clubs who reaffirmed their commitment to keeping the name, as well as Radner's husband, actor Gene Wilder.

"We started receiving emails right away," said Lannia Stenz, director of the Madison chapter. "For the most part it was simply asking 'Why did you do this? Please reconsider.' It was really, truly passionate feedback. We had some people who were angry but at the base of everything it was the love of Gilda and her story."

Reaction to the news led to a flurry of positive comments Wednesday on the Gilda's Club Facebook page and on Twitter.

Ron Nief, a professor at Beloit College in southern Wisconsin who has made a career out of studying how generations view the world differently, said he was glad to know that Radner still resonates with people and has not been forgotten.

But Nief also said he thought the decision to keep the name was more about securing future donations and less about honoring Radner.

"They are an organization that does very good work and in order to do it they have to raise money and the name is related to their ability to raise funds," Nief said.

Stenz, leader of the Madison chapter, said the potential loss of donations "was not as much of a factor in our decision to retain the name." She said it was driven more by feedback from its board, Gilda's Club members and people in the community.

Stenz and Harris said the goal of the name change was always about making clear the group's mission, not to remove Radner's memory.

"We were just talking about changing the name that we went by legally," Harris said. While Radner would have still been a part of the organization, "in the end, they want to see Gilda's name out front," he said.

Paintings and drawings of Radner line the walls of the Madison-area chapter, which is located in the suburb of Middleton. One depicts her on top of Madison's state Capitol. Another imagines her sitting along the shores of Lake Mendota on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

The meeting rooms are named after her "Saturday Night Live" characters, including New York-street smart reporter Roseanne Roseannadana; speech-impeded talk show host Baba Wawa, a parody of Barbara Walters; and out-of-sync editorialist Emily Litella who would say, "Never mind," after being told of her confusion.

Radner was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1986. She sought support from The Wellness Community in California, and in 1991, her friends and family started Gilda's Club on the East Coast to honor her legacy. The name was inspired by something Radner said after her diagnosis: "Having cancer gave me membership in an elite club I'd rather not belong to."

Gilda's Club Worldwide merged with The Wellness Community in 2009, and the joint headquarters in Washington changed its name to the Cancer Support Community. Local chapters were given the choice of keeping their names or changing it. Of the 53 chapters worldwide, 23 are known as Gilda's Club.

Together, the chapters deliver $40 million a year in free care to about 1 million cancer patients and their families, said Linda House, executive vice president of the national Cancer Support Community. The Madison chapter has about 2,200 members.

Stenz said she hoped the Madison community that Gilda's Club serves will embrace its decision to keep the name.

As far as lessons learned from the experience, Harris had a simple takeaway: "We're not changing our name again."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-01-23-Gilda's%20Club-Name%20Change/id-41ca94417a424d979e4e585e40ede76b

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Sickening fog settles over Salt Lake City area

In this Jan. 9, 2013, photo, an inversion cloud covers downtown Salt Lake City. A group of Utah doctors is declaring a health emergency over the Salt Lake City area's lingering air pollution problem. Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment planned to deliver a petition Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013, demanding immediate action by elected officials. (AP Photo/The Deseret News, Ravell Cal)

In this Jan. 9, 2013, photo, an inversion cloud covers downtown Salt Lake City. A group of Utah doctors is declaring a health emergency over the Salt Lake City area's lingering air pollution problem. Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment planned to deliver a petition Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013, demanding immediate action by elected officials. (AP Photo/The Deseret News, Ravell Cal)

In this Jan. 9, 2013, photo, an inversion cloud covers downtown Salt Lake City. A group of Utah doctors is declaring a health emergency over the Salt Lake City area's lingering air pollution problem. Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment planned to deliver a petition Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013, demanding immediate action by elected officials. (AP Photo/The Deseret News, Ravell Cal)

In this Jan. 9, 2013, photo, an inversion cloud covers downtown Salt Lake City. A group of Utah doctors is declaring a health emergency over the Salt Lake City area's lingering air pollution problem. Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment planned to deliver a petition Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013, demanding immediate action by elected officials. (AP Photo/The Deseret News, Ravell Cal)

In this Jan. 5, 2013 photo, an inversion cloud partially obscures shrouds the cities in the northern Wasatch Front from the Snowbasin ski resort boundary in Utah. A group of Utah doctors is declaring a health emergency over the Salt Lake City area's lingering air pollution problem. Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment planned to deliver a petition Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013, demanding immediate action by elected officials. (AP Photo/Standard-Examiner, Robert Johnson)

Dr. Gary Kunkel arrives at the Utah State Capitol wearing a breathing mask before a news conference Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013, in Salt Lake City. A group of doctors is declaring a health emergency over northern Utah's lingering pollution problem. Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment delivered a petition Wednesday demanding immediate action by elected officials. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) ? Michelle Francis keeps one eye on Utah's air quality index and the other on her 9-year-old daughter's chronic asthma these days. The air pollution is so awful in her Salt Lake City suburb that Francis keeps her daughter indoors on many days to prevent her cough from being aggravated.

"When you add all the gunk in the air, it's too much," Francis said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has singled out the greater Salt Lake region as having the nation's worst air for much of January, when an icy fog smothers mountain valleys for days or weeks at a time and traps lung-busting soot.

The pollution has turned so bad that more than 100 Utah doctors called Wednesday on authorities to immediately lower highway speed limits, curb industrial activity and make mass transit free for the rest of winter. Doctors say the microscopic soot ? a shower of combustion particles from tailpipe and other emissions ? can tax the lungs of even healthy people.

"We're in a public-health emergency for much of the winter," said Brian Moench, a 62-year-old anesthesiologist and president of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, which delivered the petition demanding action at the Utah Capitol.

The greater Salt Lake region had up to 130 micrograms of soot per cubic meter on Wednesday, or more than three times the federal clean-air limit, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

That's equivalent to a bad day in the Los Angeles area.

For 2 million Utah residents, there is no escape except to the snow-capped mountains that gleam in the sunshine thousands of feet higher, or to resort towns like Park City, where the Sundance Film Festival is under way.

"I wish there was something we could do about it," Francis, a school teacher 10 miles north of Salt Lake City, said.

Authorities have prohibited wood burning and urged people to limit driving. Vehicle emissions account for more than half of the trapped pollutants.

Utah regulators are working on a set of plans to limit everyday emissions, including a measure to ban the sale of aerosol deodorants and hair spray that contain hydrocarbon propellants. Those plans, however, will take years to show results.

Doctors say people ? especially pregnant women and children ? should stay indoors, or at least avoid active outdoor exercise under the sickening yellowish haze. Elderly people with heart disease are most at risk, Moench said.

"If you can see it, you don't want to breathe it. Think about what's going into your body," Salt Lake City pediatrician Ellie Brownstein said. "It's essentially like smoking. Instead of breathing clean air, you're breathing particles that make it harder for your lungs to function and get oxygen."

Snow cover amplifies the phenomena called a temperature inversion ? Salt Lake City was a foggy freezer box Wednesday at 18 degrees, while Park City basked in sunny 43-degree weather. The warmer air aloft acted like a lid on the frigid valley air, leaving it with no place to go.

For weeks, industrialized cities in northern China have been dealing with bouts of sickening smog several times more toxic than Utah's. But by U.S. standards, Utah's pollution index is off the charts with readings routinely exceeding a scale that tops out at 70 micrograms a cubic meter. The EPA sets a standard for clean air at no more than 35 micrograms.

"People think the health implications are limited to asthma ? that's only a drop in the bucket," Moench said. "For every pregnant woman breathing this stuff, this is a threat to her fetus through chromosome damage. It sets people up for a lifelong propensity for all sorts of diseases."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2013-01-24-Toxic%20Fog-Utah/id-a39afc88674b4914b59ff35e6643f205

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Delta in talks with Airbus, Boeing to buy jets: Bloomberg

(Reuters) - Delta Air Lines Inc is in talks with Airbus SAS and Boeing Co to buy $1 billion or more new jets, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Atlanta-based airline is looking at current versions of the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737, not the newest versions, likely meaning a deeper discount to retail prices than normal, the news agency quoted one person as saying. (http://link.reuters.com/byw45t)

The talks are for an order of twenty-four to thirty planes and deliveries would start in three to five years, it said.

Lindsay McDuff, a spokeswoman for Delta, told Reuters that the company does not comment on industry rumor and speculation.

The deal could have a book value of at least $1 billion, based on prices tracked by consultant Avitas of Chantilly, Virginia, Bloomberg said.

Delta, the No. 2 airline behind United Continental Holdings , is looking for a deal in which it could exchange some of its 50-seat regional jets for new planes from Boeing or Airbus, similar to a deal with Bombardier Inc made in December.

The sale of old aircraft is a part of a cost-cutting program at the company, which includes retiring smaller, less efficient planes from its fleet.

(Reporting by Maria Ajit Thomas and Karen Jacobs; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/delta-talks-airbus-boeing-buy-jets-bloomberg-015643207--sector.html

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Deep freeze slides toward the northeast

The frozen ice covered pair of gloves belonging to a Chicago firefighter stand on a railing behind him in single digit temperatures during a five-alarm blaze in a warehouse on the city's South Side, Bridgeport neighborhood rages Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

The frozen ice covered pair of gloves belonging to a Chicago firefighter stand on a railing behind him in single digit temperatures during a five-alarm blaze in a warehouse on the city's South Side, Bridgeport neighborhood rages Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Icicles form on a fire hose from single digit temperatures as Chicago firefighters battle a five-alarm blaze in a warehouse on the city's South Side, Bridgeport neighborhood Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Chicago firefighters battle a five-alarm blaze in single digit temperatures at a warehouse on the city's South Side, Bridgeport neighborhood Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

A flock of geese huddles to stay warm on a slab of ice enveloped by steam on the Rock River in Watertown, Wis. as arctic air pushes through the Upper Midwest on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013. The upper Midwest region is grappling with another day of extreme cold. (AP Photo/Watertown Daily Times, Samantha Christian)

Ice crystals form frost on the window of a home in Medina, Minn. as the area experiences subzero temperatures on Monday, Jan. 21, 2013. (AP Photo/The Star Tribune, Richard Sennott)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) ? The Upper Midwest remained locked in a deep freeze Wednesday as the bitter temperatures crept eastward where at least one mountain resort warned it was too cold even to ski.

Overnight, ice-covered Chicago firefighters spent hours fighting a massive fire at a warehouse on the city's South Side, hindered by the single digit chill.

The cold snap arrived Saturday night as waves of Arctic air swept south from Canada, pushing temperatures to dangerous lows and leaving a section of the country well-versed in winter's pains reeling. The National Weather Service said states from Ohio through to the far northeast of Maine could expect to be slammed by that Arctic blast on Wednesday.

The numbers so far are chilling in themselves: 35 below at Crane Lake, Minn., on Tuesday; Embarrass, Minn., at 36 below on Monday; and Babbitt, Minn., at 29 below on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

The weather service issued a wind chill warning for Wednesday in the far north of Maine. In Presque Isle and Caribou, temperatures are not expected to rise above 7 below. And the wind chill could make it feel more like 40 below. Vermont was similarly afflicted, with wind chill advisories and highs peaking in the single digits. Forecasters said Boston and New York City could expect temperatures in the double digits, but that the wind chill would make it feel 5 below. And in mid-Massachusetts, high winds up to 30 mph in Worcester will add to the weather misery.

At least one ski resort in New Hampshire was planning to close Wednesday and Thursday because of the extraordinary cold. Wildcat Mountain in the White Mountains region said it was expecting temperatures in the negative double digits and a wind chill of 48 degrees below zero ? conditions that would not be safe for guests or employees on the slopes.

Late Tuesday, some 170 Chicago firefighters ? approximately one third of the city's fire department ? turned out in frigid temperatures to battle a blaze at a warehouse on the South Side. Officials said the fire prompted the department's biggest response in recent years, according to The Chicago Sun-Times. Despite the scale of the fire, firefighters' soaked jackets and hats froze, and icicles formed and dangled from hoses and hydrants.

Authorities said exposure has played a role in at least four deaths.

On Sunday, a 70-year-old man was found frozen in his unheated home in Des Plaines, Ill. And in Green Bay, Wis., a 38-year-old man was found dead outside his home Monday morning. Authorities in both cases said the victims died of hypothermia and cold exposure, with alcohol a possible contributing factor.

A 77-year-old Illinois woman also was found dead near her car in southwestern Wisconsin on Saturday night, and a 61-year-old Minnesota man was pronounced dead at a hospital after he was found in a storage building Saturday morning.

The bitter conditions were expected to persist into the weekend in the Midwest through the eastern half of the U.S., said Shawn DeVinny, a National Weather Service meteorologist in suburban Minneapolis.

Ariana Laffey, a 30-year-old homeless woman, kept warm with a blanket, three pairs of pants and six shirts as she sat on a milk crate begging near Chicago's Willis Tower on Tuesday morning. She said she and her husband spent the night under a bridge, bundled up under a half-dozen blankets.

"We're just trying to make enough to get a warm room to sleep in tonight," Laffey said.

___

Associated Press writers Doug Glass in Minneapolis, Don Babwin and Tammy Webber in Chicago, Jeff Karoub in Detroit, Dirk Lammers in Sioux Falls, S.D., and Dinesh Ramde and Gretchen Ehlke in Milwaukee contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-01-23-Deep%20Freeze/id-e90ea740d3ca4b2f896c16c111348434

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what is a short sale - Zillow Real Estate Advice

The?short sale is a term used frequently these days in real estate. It can be a bit confusing.

But thanks to?ForeclosureUniversity.com, here is a quick overview (in layman's terms!):

A short sale is when a lender accepts a discount on a mortgage to avoid a possible foreclosure auction or bankruptcy. Instead of buying from a seller, you are purchasing the property directly from the lender for a discount.

For example: A homeowner, who is facing foreclosure, has an existing first mortgage of $300,000. The agent writes an offer to the lender for $220,000, which is accepted as full payment for the loan. This is a short sale.

Why are they willing to take such a discount? Several reasons. First of all, banks do not like excess inventory and bad loans on their books; therefore, if they see an opportunity where they can sell the property without a huge loss, they will do it. Secondly, lenders know they could lose a lot more money if the property goes to auction. There are so many fees involved if the property goes to auction, that they would be better off taking the discount beforehand and be finished with the headache of it all.

Foreclosures are at an all time high. It is safe to say that most lenders will accept a short sale, however, you may come across one or two lenders who will not discount. If the numbers work out for the lender they will do it.

It does not matter what type of house or condition it's in, all mortgages can be discounted. The best properties to perform a short sale on are the houses that need lots of work and repairs because lenders will give a bigger discount if they see the houses will be difficult to sell. Properties that are over-leveraged are also prime candidates.

Most rookie investors who see a house over leveraged with an upside-down mortgage may think there is no hope for this property. On the other hand, this is a sweet deal to the savvy investor. Properties with large 2nd mortgages are also treated as gold because the 2nd mortgage is wiped out at the foreclosure auction. Lenders with a 2nd and 3rd mortgage position would rather have something than nothing.

Source: http://www.zillow.com/advice-thread/what-is-a-short-sale/475096/

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