Business The Paducah Sun | Sunday, May 27, 2012 | paducahsun.com Section D GAS PRICES: Oil prices stay to rival the lowest they have been in 2012. | 2D AREA MORTGAGE RATES Fifth Third Bank Eddyville ........................ 3.75% (1) Independence Bank Paducah .................3.625% (1) Jackson Purchase Ag ................................3.5% (1) Paducah Bank Paducah .............................3.5% (1) Regions Paducah ...................................3.625% (1) Supreme Lending Paducah .........................3.5% (1) U.S. Bank Paducah ................................3.375% (1) 30-year fixed rate in effect Friday. Based on $100,000. Points and/or fees in parentheses expressed as a percentage. TREASURY RATES 3-MONTH T BILLS 0.09% Up .01 Usually indicates the trend of local CD and other rates. 2-YEAR T BILLS 0.30% Dn .02 Most common index in setting adjustable mortgage rates. Weekly 12,454.83 Up 85.45 High this week 12,529.75 Thursday DOW JONES People tend to treat their own possessions best, whether it be their car, their lawn or their com- pany. It’s the latter that Buel Alexan- der and Randy Warmath at Pre- cision Machine, Inc. in Paducah are eyeing for their 78 employees. As of April 1, Precision Machine at 1231 S. Third St. sponsored an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP, that gives employees ownership by accumulating stock in the company at no extra cost. Warmath, a former Certified Public Accountant, described it as an employee recruitment and motivational tool, and an added retirement plan all rolled into one. “I’m hoping that it will help us grow faster and quicker,” Warmath said. Alexander also sees an ESOP as a reward to workers. “I think it’s going to bring about a tremen- dous change in employee morale and productivity, because they are working for themselves now,” Alexander said. An ESOP operates like a defined contribution employee benefit plan in addition to a 401(k) plan. In simplest terms, for employees, it’s a tax-exempt trust that pays out yearly in amounts directly proportional to the company’s profits, said Sherman Coultas. As profits grow, so too do ESOP distributions. Coultas is manag- ing director of The Menke Group, a consulting group in California that specializes in ESOPs. For company owners, an ESOP brings corporate tax benefits, and can be an exit strategy, Coultas said. Coultas has helped Warmath and Alexander research the plan for more than two years. As Al- exander gets closer to retirement age, and neither he nor Warmath has family looking to take over the business, the ESOP emerged as a way to receive the market value for their company without selling to outsiders. Although a three-person board governs the company’s affairs, within a cou- ple years Precision Machine will legally be owned by employees. That’s no small fact for the ESOP’s fables BY ADAM SHULL [email protected]Local businesses find growing value in Employee Stock Ownership Plans “I think it’s going to bring about a tremendous change in employee morale and productivity, because they are working for themselves now” Buel Alexander ADAM SHULL | The Sun Machinist Bob Mooney inspects the scene inside Precision Machine’s shop on South Third Street on Monday. Mooney saw no downside to the company’s new ESOP option after he took a break from tweaking the heavy industrial piece he worked on that will eventually be used in a steel mill. Please see ESOP | 4D News nuggets and coffee-shop chatter from Paducah and the area. MobileNation is open at 2780 New Holt Road and offers a wholesale approach to wireless cell phone services, according to the company. MobileNation owns and op- erates its own high-speed wire- less network in Tennessee and Kentucky. “We aim to keep our costs and overhead low to deliver high-quality wireless service at a significantly lower monthly cost,” said Nate Smiley, marketing manager, in an email. Customers are covered outside of the two states as well with 3G service nationwide through part- nerships with other wireless pro- viders. “As for MobileNation’s core business concept, we are the first and only savings club designed for wireless phones,” Smiley wrote in an email. “We include many features like unlim- ited mobile to mobile and unlim- ited text messaging with the plan rather than charging extra for it.” Smiley wrote that the local store employs four and is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Other MobileNation locations in Tennessee: two in Jackson, and stores in Dyersburg, Humboldt and Milan. For more information, visit mymobilenation.com. ■ ■ ■ Google launched Kentucky Get Your Business Online, a pro- gram designed by the online com- pany and Greater Louisville, Inc. to help small businesses get online. Small businesses across the state can visit KentuckyGetOnline.com to obtain a free website as well as free tools, training and resources, according to a release from Judd MobileNation brings more wireless options Sun staff report ADAM SHULL | The Sun A new MobileNation store is open at 2780 New Holt Road offering a savings-club approach to wireless phone service. Please see BUZZ | 5D NEW YORK — Profits at big U.S. companies broke records last year, and so did pay for CEOs. The head of a typical public company made $9.6 million in 2011, according to an analysis by The Associated Press using data from Equilar, an executive pay research firm. That was up more than 6 percent from the previous year, and is the second year in a row of increases. The figure is also the highest since the AP began tracking executive compensation in 2006. Companies trimmed cash bo- nuses but handed out more in stock awards. For shareholder activists who have long decried CEO pay as exorbitant, that was a victory of sorts. That’s because the stock awards are being tied more of- ten to company performance. In those instances, CEOs can’t cash in the shares right away: They have to meet goals first, like boosting profit to a certain level. The idea is to motivate CEOs to make sure a company does well and to tie their fortunes to the company’s for the long term. For too long, activists say, CEOs have been richly rewarded no matter how a company has fared — “pay for pulse,” as some critics call it. To be sure, the companies’ motives are pragmatic. The cor- porate world is under a brighter, more uncomfortable spotlight than it was a few years ago, be- fore the financial crisis struck in the fall of 2008. Last year, a law gave share- holders the right to vote on whether they approve of the CEO’s pay. The vote is nonbind- ing, but companies are keen to avoid an embarrassing “no.” “I think the boards were more easily shamed than we thought they were,” says Stephen Davis, a shareholder expert at Yale Uni- versity, referring to boards of di- rectors, which set executive pay. In the past year, he says, “Shareholders found their voice.” The typical CEO got stock awards worth $3.6 million in 2011, up 11 percent from the year before. Cash bonuses fell about 7 percent, to $2 million. The value of stock options, as determined by the company, climbed 6 percent to a median $1.7 million. Options usually give the CEO the right to buy shares in the future at the price they’re trading at when the options are granted, so they’re worth some- thing only if the shares go up. Profit at companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index rose 16 percent last year, remarkable in an economy that grew more slowly than expected. CEOs managed to sell more, and squeeze more profit from each sale, despite problems ranging from a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating to an economic slowdown in China and Europe’s neverending debt crisis. Still, there wasn’t much imme- diate benefit for the sharehold- ers. The S&P 500 ended the year unchanged from where it start- ed. Including dividends, the in- dex returned a slender 2 percent. Shareholder activists, while glad that companies are moving a bigger portion of CEO pay into stock awards, caution that the rearranging isn’t a cure-all. For one thing, companies don’t have to tie stock awards to performance. Instead, they can make the awards automati- cally payable on a certain date — Typical CEO made $9.6 million in ’11 BY BERNARD CONDON AND CHRISTINA REXRODE Associated Press Associated Press Robert Iger arrives at The 22nd Annual A Time for Heroes Celeb- rity Carnival Sponsored by Disney at Wadsworth Theater, June 12, 2011 in Los Angeles. Iger is one of the top 10 highest paid CEOs at publicly held companies in America last year, according to calculations by Equilar, an executive compensation data firm, and The Associated Press. The formula calculates an executive’s total compensation during the last fiscal year by adding salary, bonus- es, perks, above-market interest the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year. Please see CEO | 2D Biz Buzz
Transcript
BusinessThe Paducah Sun | Sunday, May 27, 2012 | paducahsun.com Section D
GAS PRICES: Oil prices stay to rival the lowest they have been in 2012. | 2D
AREA MORTGAGE RATES
Fifth Third Bank Eddyville ........................3.75% (1)Independence Bank Paducah .................3.625% (1)Jackson Purchase Ag ................................3.5% (1)Paducah Bank Paducah .............................3.5% (1)
Regions Paducah ...................................3.625% (1)Supreme Lending Paducah .........................3.5% (1)U.S. Bank Paducah ................................3.375% (1)
30-year fixed rate in effect Friday. Based on $100,000. Points and/or fees in parentheses expressed as a percentage.
TREASURY RATES
3-MONTH T BILLS
0.09%Up .01
Usually indicates the trend of local CD and other rates.
2-YEAR T BILLS
0.30%Dn .02
Most common index in setting adjustable
mortgage rates.
Weekly
12,454.83Up 85.45
High this week
12,529.75Thursday
DOW JONES
People tend to treat their own possessions best, whether it be their car, their lawn or their com-pany.
It’s the latter that Buel Alexan-der and Randy Warmath at Pre-cision Machine, Inc. in Paducah are eyeing for their 78 employees.
As of April 1, Precision Machine at 1231 S. Third St. sponsored an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP, that gives employees ownership by accumulating stock in the company at no extra cost.
Warmath, a former Certifi ed Public Accountant, described it as an employee recruitment and motivational tool, and an added retirement plan all rolled into one.
“I’m hoping that it will help us grow faster and quicker,” Warmath said.
Alexander also sees an ESOP as a reward to workers. “I think it’s going to bring about a tremen-dous change in employee morale and productivity, because they
are working for themselves now,” Alexander said.
An ESOP operates like a defi ned contribution employee benefi t plan in addition to a 401(k) plan. In simplest terms, for employees, it’s a tax-exempt trust that pays out yearly in amounts directly proportional to the company’s profi ts, said Sherman Coultas. As profi ts grow, so too do ESOP distributions. Coultas is manag-ing director of The Menke Group, a consulting group in California that specializes in ESOPs.
For company owners, an ESOP brings corporate tax benefi ts, and can be an exit strategy, Coultas said.
Coultas has helped Warmath and Alexander research the plan for more than two years. As Al-
exander gets closer to retirement age, and neither he nor Warmath has family looking to take over the business, the ESOP emerged as a way to receive the market value for their company without selling to outsiders. Although a
three-person board governs the company’s affairs, within a cou-ple years Precision Machine will legally be owned by employees.
Local businesses find growing value in Employee Stock Ownership Plans
“I think it’s going to bring about a
tremendous change in employee morale
and productivity, because they
are working for themselves now”
Buel Alexander
ADAM SHULL | The Sun
Machinist Bob Mooney inspects the scene inside Precision Machine’s shop on South Third Street on Monday. Mooney saw no downside to the company’s new ESOP option after he took a break from tweaking the heavy industrial piece he worked on that will eventually be used in a steel mill.
Please see ESOP | 4D
News nuggets and coffee-shop chatter from Paducah and the area.
MobileNation is open at 2780 New Holt Road and offers a wholesale approach to wireless cell phone services, according to the company.
MobileNation owns and op-erates its own high-speed wire-less network in Tennessee and Kentucky. “We aim to keep our costs and overhead low to deliver high-quality wireless service at a signifi cantly lower monthly cost,” said Nate Smiley, marketing manager, in an email.
Customers are covered outside of the two states as well with 3G service nationwide through part-nerships with other wireless pro-viders. “As for MobileNation’s core business concept, we are the fi rst and only savings club designed for wireless phones,” Smiley wrote in an email. “We include many features like unlim-ited mobile to mobile and unlim-ited text messaging with the plan rather than charging extra for it.”
Smiley wrote that the local
store employs four and is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Saturday.
Other MobileNation locations in Tennessee: two in Jackson, and stores in Dyersburg, Humboldt and Milan. For more information, visit mymobilenation.com.
■ ■ ■
Google launched Kentucky Get Your Business Online, a pro-gram designed by the online com-pany and Greater Louisville, Inc. to help small businesses get online.
Small businesses across the state can visit KentuckyGetOnline.com to obtain a free website as well as free tools, training and resources, according to a release from Judd
MobileNation brings more wireless options
Sun staff report
ADAM SHULL | The Sun
A new MobileNation store is open at 2780 New Holt Road offering a savings-club approach to wireless phone service.
Please see BUZZ | 5D
NEW YORK — Profi ts at big U.S. companies broke records last year, and so did pay for CEOs.
The head of a typical public company made $9.6 million in 2011, according to an analysis by The Associated Press using data from Equilar, an executive pay research fi rm.
That was up more than 6 percent from the previous year, and is the second year in a row of increases. The fi gure is also the highest since the AP began tracking executive compensation in 2006.
Companies trimmed cash bo-nuses but handed out more in stock awards. For shareholder activists who have long decried CEO pay as exorbitant, that was a victory of sorts.
That’s because the stock awards are being tied more of-ten to company performance. In those instances, CEOs can’t cash in the shares right away: They have to meet goals fi rst, like boosting profi t to a certain level.
The idea is to motivate CEOs to make sure a company does well and to tie their fortunes to the company’s for the long term. For too long, activists say, CEOs have been richly rewarded no matter how a company has fared — “pay for pulse,” as some critics call it.
To be sure, the companies’ motives are pragmatic. The cor-porate world is under a brighter, more uncomfortable spotlight than it was a few years ago, be-fore the fi nancial crisis struck in the fall of 2008.
Last year, a law gave share-holders the right to vote on whether they approve of the CEO’s pay. The vote is nonbind-ing, but companies are keen to avoid an embarrassing “no.”
“I think the boards were more easily shamed than we thought they were,” says Stephen Davis, a shareholder expert at Yale Uni-versity, referring to boards of di-rectors, which set executive pay.
In the past year, he says, “Shareholders found their voice.”
The typical CEO got stock awards worth $3.6 million in 2011, up 11 percent from the year before. Cash bonuses fell about 7 percent, to $2 million.
The value of stock options, as determined by the company, climbed 6 percent to a median $1.7 million. Options usually give the CEO the right to buy shares in the future at the price they’re trading at when the options are granted, so they’re worth some-thing only if the shares go up.
Profi t at companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index rose 16 percent last year, remarkable in an economy that grew more slowly than expected.
CEOs managed to sell more, and squeeze more profi t from
each sale, despite problems ranging from a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating to an economic slowdown in China and Europe’s neverending debt crisis.
Still, there wasn’t much imme-diate benefi t for the sharehold-ers. The S&P 500 ended the year unchanged from where it start-ed. Including dividends, the in-dex returned a slender 2 percent.
Shareholder activists, while glad that companies are moving a bigger portion of CEO pay into stock awards, caution that the rearranging isn’t a cure-all.
For one thing, companies don’t have to tie stock awards to performance. Instead, they can make the awards automati-cally payable on a certain date —
Typical CEO made $9.6 million in ’11BY BERNARD CONDON
AND CHRISTINA REXRODEAssociated Press
Associated Press
Robert Iger arrives at The 22nd Annual A Time for Heroes Celeb-rity Carnival Sponsored by Disney at Wadsworth Theater, June 12, 2011 in Los Angeles. Iger is one of the top 10 highest paid CEOs at publicly held companies in America last year, according to calculations by Equilar, an executive compensation data firm, and The Associated Press. The formula calculates an executive’s total compensation during the last fiscal year by adding salary, bonus-es, perks, above-market interest the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year.
Please see CEO | 2D
Biz Buzz
2D • Sunday, May 27, 2012 • The Paducah Sun Business paducahsun.com
LONDON — Concerns that Europe lacks a con-crete plan to keep Greece in the currency union pushed markets lower on Friday, with the euro near-ing a 22-month low.
The likelihood of Greece leaving the 17-country euro currency union has been growing steadily since early May, when political parties opposed to the terms of the coun-try’s fi nancial rescue made huge gains in an otherwise inconclusive election.
A new ballot planned for next month could see the anti-bailout political parties gain power, which would raise the likelihood of the country leaving the euro.
European leaders say they want Greece to stay in the euro, but have so far shown no willingness to compromise on its auster-ity terms. They have also approved no new mea-sures to boost economic growth or stabilize confi -dence in the banking sec-tor.
The uncertainty of a Greek exit from the euro will hang over European markets at least until the elections on June 17. In-vestors fear that in the meantime markets could continue to deteriorate, making any solutions next month too little too late.
“The threat from Greece remains real and an exit would possibly have con-tagion effects that the euro area would need to tackle,” said Laurence Boone, ana-lyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.4 percent at 5,329.57 by midafternoon in London, while Germa-ny’s DAX dropped 0.3 per-cent to 6,300.18. France’s CAC-40 slid 0.3 percent to 3,029.21.
Spain’s Ibex was un-derperforming the wider region, falling 0.6 percent as investors waited for
bailed-out lender Bankia to announce how much more money it needs from the government. Its shares were suspended from trad-ing, having lost over 7 per-cent the previous day.
The euro edged down to $1.2532, not far from the 22-month low of $1.2515 it hit earlier in the week.
Wall Street lacked mo-mentum after the open, with the Dow industrial average shedding 0.2 per-cent to 12,501.60 and the S&P 500 fl at at 1,320.78.
In Asia, media reports that some of China’s big-gest banks will miss their annual lending targets for the fi rst time in seven years rattled markets. Hesitation to take out loans suggests companies
are delaying investment due to uncertainty about the economic outlook.
While Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose marginally to 8,568.08, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.3 percent to 18,609.85. South Ko-rea’s Kospi added 0.4 per-cent to 1,821.98 and Aus-tralia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.6 percent to 4,033.60.
Chinese economic growth fell to a nearly three-year low of 8.1 per-cent in the fi rst quarter and factory output in April grew at its slowest pace since the 2008 crisis, raising the threat of job losses.
On Thursday, a private survey of Chinese manu-facturers showed activity weakened further in May.
The reports on the slow-down in bank lending were another sign that China’s slowdown could be sharp-er than anticipated.
“This could also pres-sure China to take action as soon as possible. With this in mind, we wouldn’t be surprised to see China announce some new in-vestment projects soon,” said Stan Shamu of IG Markets in Melbourne.
In energy markets, the contract for oil for July de-livery was up 34 cents to $91 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 76 cents to settle at $90.66 in New York on Thursday.
The dollar was roughly unchanged at 79.60 yen.
Crisis concerns push marketsBY CARLO PIOVANO
Associated Press
Associated Press
Traders work in the oil options pit at the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday. Oil lingered near seven-month lows around $90 a barrel Thursday in Asia as Europe’s debt crisis festers and China’s economy continues to slow.
“The threat from Greece remains real and an exit would possibly have contagion effects that
the euro area would need to tackle.”
Laurence BooneAnalyst at Bank of America Merril Lynch
meaning all the CEO has to do is stick around.
Other companies do tie stock awards to perfor-mance but set easy goals. Sometimes, “they set the bar so low, it would be dif-fi cult for an executive not to trip over it,” says Patrick McGurn, special counsel at Institutional Shareholder Services, which advises pension funds and other big investors on how to vote.
And for many sharehold-ers, their main concern — that pay is just too much, no matter what the form — has yet to be addressed.
“It’s just that total (com-pensation) is going up, and that’s where the problem lies,” says Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Gov-ernance at the University
of Delaware.The typical American
worker would have to la-bor for 244 years to make what the typical boss of a big public company makes in one. The median pay for U.S. workers was about $39,300 last year. That was up 1 percent from the year before, not enough to keep pace with infl ation.
Since the AP began tracking CEO pay fi ve years ago, the numbers have seesawed. Pay climbed in 2007, fell during the reces-sion in 2008 and 2009 and then jumped again in 2010.
To determine 2011 pay packages, the AP used Equilar data to look at the 322 companies in the S&P 500 that had fi led state-ments with federal regula-tors through April 30. To make comparisons fair, the sample includes only CEOs in place for at least two
years.Among the AP’s other fi ndings:
— David Simon, CEO of Simon Property, which operates malls around the country, is on track to be the highest-paid in the AP survey, at $137 million. That was almost entirely in stock awards that could eventually be worth $132 million, some of which won’t be redeemable until 2019. The company said it wanted to make sure Si-mon wasn’t lured to anoth-er company. He has been CEO since 1995; his father and uncle are Simon Prop-erty’s co-founders.
This month, Simon Property’s shareholders re-jected Simon’s pay package by a large margin: 73 per-cent of the votes cast for or against were against.
But the company doesn’t appear likely to change
the 2011 package. After the shareholder vote, it re-leased a statement saying that “we value our stock-holders’ input” and would “take their views into con-sideration as (the board) reviews compensation plans for our management team.” But it also said that Simon’s performance had been stellar and it needed to pay him enough to keep him in the job.
Simon’s paycheck looks paltry compared with that of Apple CEO Tim Cook, whose pay package was val-ued at $378 million when he became CEO in August. That was almost entirely in stock awards, some of which won’t be redeemable until 2021, so the value could change dramatically. Cook wasn’t included in the AP study because he is new to the job.
— Of the fi ve highest-
paid CEOs, three were also in the top fi ve the year before. All three are in the TV business: Leslie Moonves of CBS ($68 mil-lion); David Zaslav of Dis-covery Communications, parent of Animal Planet, TLC and other channels ($52 million); and Philippe Dauman of Viacom, which owns MTV and other chan-nels ($43 million).
— About two in three CEOs got raises. For 16 CEOs in the sample, pay more than doubled from a year earlier, including Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan (from $1.3 mil-lion to $7.5 million), Mara-thon Oil’s Clarence Cazalot Jr. (from $8.8 million to $29.9 million) and Motor-ola Mobility’s Sanjay Jha (from $13 million to $47.2 million).
— CEOs running health-care companies made
the most ($10.8 million). Those running utilities made the least ($7 million).
— Perks and other per-sonal benefi ts, such as hired drivers or personal use of company airplanes, rose only slightly, and some companies cut back, saying they wanted to align their pay structure with “best practices.”
Military contractor Gen-eral Dynamics stopped paying for country club memberships for top ex-ecutives, though it gave them payments equivalent to three years of club fees to ease “transition issues” caused by the change.
The typical pay of $9.6 million that Equilar calcu-lated is the median value, or the midpoint, of the companies used in the AP analysis. In other words, half the CEOs made more and half less.
CEOCONTINUED FROM 1D
HONG KONG — Chinese e-commerce fi rm Alibaba Group’s $2.5 billion bid to take its Hong Kong-listed unit private was cleared Friday by minority share-holders, easing the way for CEO Jack Ma to gain more control over his company’s destiny.
The approval comes less than a week after Alibaba Group said it was buying back roughly half of strug-gling U.S. Internet com-pany Yahoo’s stake for
$7.1 billion, as the Chinese company starts to extricate itself from a relationship that has grown strained over the years.
About 95 percent of Al-ibaba.com minority share-holders voted at a special meeting to approve Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s offer to buy back the 27 percent of Alibaba.com Ltd. that it doesn’t own for 13.50 Hong Kong dollars a share. That’s the same price at which the company went public in 2007.
The offer could cost up to HK$19.6 billion ($2.5 bil-lion).
Alibaba.com, a business-to-business website, has said that going private will allow it to restructure and make long-term strategic decisions as growth slows after years of rapid ex-pansion without pressure from shareholders worried about the depressed stock price.
The company plans to improve the quality of its site to attract more manu-
facturers, wholesalers and trading companies paying to use it. The number of users has started dropping and Alibaba says reversing that decline could hurt fi -nancial results.
Hangzhou, China-based Alibaba Group also oper-ates Taobao.com, China’s version of eBay, and TMall, which brand owners can use to sell directly to con-sumers. Alibaba also runs a search engine for shoppers and an online payment ser-vice.
NEW YORK — The price of oil held near the lowest levels of the year on a quiet Friday ahead of the holiday weekend.
Benchmark U.S. crude on Friday added 20 cents to fi nish the week at $90.86 per barrel in New York while Brent crude rose by 28 cents to end at $106.83 per barrel in Lon-don.
Both crude varieties have tumbled this month on forecasts of weaker world demand and higher supplies. U.S. crude closed Wednesday at $89.90, its lowest close since October.
Prices fell in May as the economies of the two big-gest oil consumers — the U.S. and China — showed signs of slowing. And many analysts are betting that the European Union will fall into a recession as it struggles with massive government debts. Mean-while, some of the world’s largest oil producing coun-tries have been export-ing more crude this year, boosting supplies.
Iran also appears to be
interested in defusing ten-sions over its nuclear pro-gram. Tough talk between Iran and the West pushed oil prices higher earlier this year. The U.S. and other world leaders fear Iran is building a nuclear weapon, a charge the oil-rich coun-try denies. Negotiators for the two sides made little progress this week but agreed to further talks, which analysts consider a promising sign.
Gene McGillian, a broker and oil analyst at Tradition Energy, said many inves-tors will avoid making new bets on oil until they get an updated look at the U.S. economy. They’ll likely wait for next week’s reports on employment, personal incomes and housing, Mc-Gillian said.
“People also will be look-ing to see if we’ll have a pickup in gasoline demand following the Memorial Day weekend,” he said.
In the U.S., retail gaso-line prices fell by a penny to $3.666 per gallon, ac-cording to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Ser-vice.
Oil holds closeto low for 2012
BY CHRIS KAHNAssociated Press
Associated Press
Gas prices are displayed at a Hess station May 13, in Hoboken, N.J. The price of oil has declined to its low for the year on continued doubts about Europe’s abil-ity to pay off massive government debts. Benchmark U.S. crude lost $1.57 to $94.56 per barrel in New York. It dipped to $93.65 per barrel earlier May 14, the lowest since mid-December.
Repeat ContendersThree familiar faces show up on Kentucky’s list of Best Places to Work
June 2012 www.fourriversbusiness.com
Inside
Pleasing numbersTourism statistics look good despite weather setbacks
Right on trackP&L Railway opens a new office with development intentions
Paducah’s UK College of Engineering recognizes Dr. William Murphy
Locals become tourists when the Queen comes for a visitCompetence, courtesy and inspiration have a place in business
NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE NASDAQ NATIONAL MARKETName Last Wkly YTD Name Last Wkly YTD
STOCKS OF LOCAL INTEREST Wkly YTDName Div PE Last Chg %Chg
Wkly YTDName Div PE Last Chg %Chg
AMERICAN STOCK EXCHANGE
Name: Stocks are listed alphabetically by the company’s full name (not its abbreviation). Company names made up of initials appear at the beginning of each letter’s list.Last: Price stock was trading at when exchange closed for the day.Wkly: Loss or gain for the week. No change indicated by ...YTD: Percent change for the year-to-date. No change indicated by ...
Name: Name of mutual fund and family.Sell: Net asset value, or price at which fund could be sold, for last day of the week.Wkly: Weekly net change in the NAV.
HOW TO READ THE MARKET IN REVIEW
Stock Footnotes: cc - PE greater than 99. dd - Loss in last 12 mos. d - New 52-wk low in week. g – Dividend in Canadian $. Stock price in U.S.$. n - New issue in past 52 wks. q - Closed-end mutual fd; no PE calculated. s - Split or stock div of 25 pct or more in last 52 wks. Div begins with date of stock split or dividend. u - New 52-wk high in week. v - Trading halted on primary market. Unless noted, div rates are annual disbursemts based on last declaratn. pf - Preferred. pp - Holder owes installment(s) of purch price. rt - Rights. un - Units. wd – When distributed. wi – When issued. wt – Warrants. ww – With warrants. xw – Without warrants. Dividend Footnotes: a – Also extra or extras. b – Annual rate plus stock dividend. c – Liquidating dividend. e – Declared or paid in preceding 12 mos. i – Declared or paid after stock dividend or split. j – Paid this year, dividend omitted, deferred or no action taken at last meeting. k – Declared or paid this year, accumulative issue with dividends in arrears. r – Declared or paid in preceding 12 mos plus stock dividend. t – Paid in stock in last 12 mos, estimated cash value on ex-dividend or distribution date. x – Ex-dividend or ex-rights. y – Ex-dividend and sales in full. z – Sales in full. vj – In bankruptcy or receivership or being reorganized under the Bankruptcy Act, or securities assumed by such com-panies. • Most active stocks above must be worth $1 and gainers/losers $2.Mutual Fund Footnotes: e – Ex-capital gains distribution. f – Previous day’s quote. n - No-load fund. r – Redemption fee or contingent deferred sales load may apply. s – Stock dividend or split. t – Both p and r. x – Ex-cash dividend. Source: The Associated Press. Sales figures are unofficial.
D J F M A MA M J J A S O N12,454.830
Dow Jones industrials
For the week endingFriday, May 25
10,000
11,000
12,000
13,000
14,000
85.450
Name Last Wkly YTD
Here are the 1090 most active stocks on the New York Stock Exchange, the 800 most active on the Nasdaq National Market and 262 most active on American Stock Exchange. Stocks in bold changed 10 percent or more in price.
paducahsun.com Business The Paducah Sun • Sunday, May 27, 2012 • 3D
4D • Sunday, May 27, 2012 • The Paducah Sun Business paducahsun.com
owners, who in 1987 estab-lished the business that re-pairs, custom modifi es and levels all kinds of heavy in-dustrial equipment used in everything from steel mills to chemical plants to paper plants.
“It’s going to be differ-ent,” Warmath said about not legally being an owner one day. “I’m not the owner like I’ve been for 25 years so it’s a different way of looking at things.”
Coultas explained the plan to Precision Machine workers in a conference room at the Luther F. Car-son Four Rivers Center last week.
“This will juice up your retirement pension plan in addition to your 401(k) plan,” Coultas told em-ployees who sat with new company hats and T-shirts bearing the phrase “100% Employee Owned.”
The change doesn’t come without some downsides, Warmath said. “One of the drawbacks that kept us from pulling the trigger sooner is the cost,” he said. “We have consultants from
California, yearly apprais-als are required by the IRS, we are paying an indepen-dent trustee now.”
“You have to weigh the pros and cons and ask if you’re going to reap those rewards in the long term, and we thought we would.”
Given the concerns with the future of Social Secu-rity and retirement plans in general, ESOPs may re-ceive more popular atten-tion.
Coultas said the con-cept of ESOPs dates to the 1950s, but they didn’t become more prominent until federal tax breaks fac-tored into the equation in the 1970s.
Throughout the U.S., more than 13 million em-ployees in more than 11,000 companies own stock in their companies through an ESOP, accord-ing to the nonprofi t Na-tional Center for Employee Ownership.
Companies with such plans include Shoney’s, Procter & Gamble, Gore-Tex, and Southwest Air-lines.
Alexander said he couldn’t fi nd many com-
panies with the plan in western Kentucky, though some exist. Tom Clayton, a lender with Paducah Bank, said the bank features an ESOP, but it only goes up to 25 percent ownership for employees.
Allen Dossey, president of Western Rivers Insur-ance, said his company of-fers 98 percent ownership for employees through an ESOP.
And while ESOP com-plexities go further, the bottom line for workers such as Kevin Hammonds, general manager at Preci-sion Machine, is that he has added incentive to do well for his employer, and the company’s owners aren’t selling to someone else.
“I don’t really see a downside,” Hammonds said. Hammonds said he is also reviewing two applica-tions from machinists to work at Precision Machine who were enticed by the new ESOP option.
Call Adam Shull, a Paducah Sun business editor, at 270-575-8653 or follow @adamshull on Twitter.
ESOPCONTINUED FROM 1D
ADAM SHULL | The Sun
Kevin Hammonds (left) general manager at Precision Machine, shows ESOP con-sultant Sherman Coultas liquid nitrogen and explains how the company uses it for unique design and repair work on industrial equipment.
TOKYO — Toyota is look-ing to emerging markets for growth, targeting 50 percent of its global vehicle sales in such countries by 2015, and rolling out eight compact models over the next few years.
But Toyota Motor Corp. Executive Vice President Yukitoshi Funo said Friday the company won’t even try to compete in supercheap models that are plentiful in developing nations.
He told reporters Asia is a “second motherland” for Toyota, where it will boost research and development as well as production of auto parts.
Toyota Motor Corp. al-ready sells more than 3 million vehicles a year in emerging markets, making
up 45 percent of its global sales of 7.1 million vehicles.
Japan’s top automaker is aiming to add another million vehicles in annual sales from emerging mar-kets with eight models, starting with the Etios se-dan that went on sale in India in 2010.
On Friday, Toyota said it had reached a “milestone” of 100,000 cumulative sales of Etios cars, which are all made in India.
Toyota built its repu-tation with fuel-effi cient small cars. And the de-mand for affordable com-pacts could prove a boon for Toyota.
The compacts in the works will be smaller than the Corolla, and likely sell for about 1 million yen ($12,000). Toyota said it won’t try to compete with
models going for half that price. “To think cheap cars will sell in emerging markets is a big mistake,” Funo said. “Cars are symbols of family pride. They’re for driving to a picnic on a day off.”
New growth is crucial for Toyota. Its brand suffered after massive recalls in the U.S., although sales are re-covering. Recent gains in Japan could vanish, once government subsidies for green models end.
Toyota faces intense competition from General Motors Co., Volkswagen AG and Hyundai Motor Co., as well as Japanese ri-val Nissan Motor Co., allied with Renault SA of France. They all have the same thing in mind — growing in emerging markets such as China, Indonesia, Brazil and India.
Toyota looks to growth in emerging markets
BY YURI KAGEYAMAAssociated Press
Associated Press
Visitors crowd around a Toyota Dear Qin concept car during the Beijing Interna-tional Automotive Exhibition April 27 in Beijing. Japan’s top automaker said Friday it is looking to emerging markets for growth, targeting 50 percent of its global vehicle sales there by 2015, and rolling out eight compact models over the next few years.
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paducahsun.com Business The Paducah Sun • Sunday, May 27, 2012 • 5D
Templin, spokesman.Google is partnering with
Intuit to provide its popular Intuit Websites offerings for free including an easy-to-build website, a cus-tomized domain name and web-hosting for one year.
According to the Small Business Engagement divi-sion of Google, 71 percent of Kentucky small businesses do not have a website or on-line presence despite that 97 percent of Americans look online for local prod-
ucts and services.■ ■ ■
Banks Grocery Co. will remodel its SuperValu Foods store at 2855 Lone Oak Road before year’s end, according to H.B. Banks, company co-owner.
The Lone Oak store’s business concept won’t change as the remodel is more cosmetic than the changes at the company’s other two stores in the re-gion, Banks said.
The company’s Jackson Street store re-opened as a Cash Saver Cost Plus
Food Outlet on Friday and the SuperValu location in Cairo, Ill., was renamed Wonder Market in April.
The changes are tied to Banks Grocery changing its wholesale supplier to Asso-ciated Wholesale Grocers, Inc., a move Banks said helped the company main-tain competitive prices.
Got a tip for Biz Buzz? Con-tact Sun Business Editor Adam Shull at 270-575-8653, send a fax to 270-442-7859 or email [email protected].
BUZZCONTINUED FROM 1D
ELKHART, Texas — Lin-da Galayda hauled water and fl agged down truck drivers to ask about their hay. She sold calves and young cows and made her son leave their East Texas family ranch for a job in San Antonio.
About 200 miles to the southwest, Bob and Dar-lene Stryk heeded les-sons from a dry spell 16 years ago and kept their 130-year-old farm afl oat by selling higher-priced, specialty products like raw milk and cheddar cheese before the drought forced them to make their most diffi cult decision yet.
The drought that parched the vast Texas landscape, sucking dry ponds, lakes and reservoirs and severely damaging soil and grass-lands, traumatized farmers and ranchers, who — like their ancestors who sur-vived the Dust Bowl and the dry spell of the 1950s — will tell tales about the drought for generations.
The drought of 2011 cost $7.6 billion in crop losses, the most ever recorded, and forced ranchers to slaugh-ter millions of animals, cut-ting Texas’ cattle herd to its smallest size since 1952.
Now, as they try to re-cover and plan for the fu-ture, Galayda and Stryk share their stories, offer-ing a peek at life during the worst one-year drought in Texas history.
For months, Galayda lived in constant fear for her “girls,” the herd of cows that hark back to her late father. There was no grass or hay. Two springs
that fl owed even during a decade-long dry spell in the 1950s — which serves as Texas’ drought barometer — dried up. Wildfi res raged just two miles from the roll-ing hills of the 7-7 Ranch in Elkhart.
Even now, after the fi res are out, Galayda’s hand clenches when she talks about the helplessness and all-consuming fear of knowing an uncontrollable blaze could rip across the 2,500 acres she ranches, destroying generations of work. “We’ve all heard sto-ries about droughts of years past, but this one was,” Ga-layda pauses, searching for the perfect word.
“Awful.”It took every ounce of
business acumen — much of it acquired during the 25 years she pounded the New York pavement in sti-lettos as a vice president at today’s Macys — to make it through last winter with a herd.
This time, instead of de-signer heels, Galayda wore Wranglers and cowboy boots when executing her carefully conceived busi-ness plan. First, before the spring of 2011, she looked over the livestock. Cows that weren’t pregnant, heif-ers — or young females — with the smallest defi ciency and other any less-than-perfect bovine was sold.
In the spring, excessive wind sucked the last mois-ture from the soil. The rain stopped. Grass disap-peared. And there was no hay in Texas.
“I actually fl agged down trucks that were carrying quality hay ... and asked them ‘Where’s this hay coming from?’” Galayda said with a laugh, recalling how she stopped drivers bringing hay to her neigh-bors to see if she couldn’t get some as well.
Trucks rolled in, some-times in the dead of night. Galayda’s husband, Gary, unloaded bales at 4 a.m. The entire family — sons Christopher and Scott Crawford, and his wife, Rebekah, pitched in. The ranch spent all the cash re-serves, about $140,000, to buy hay. Scott dipped into his savings. Christopher got a job in San Antonio.
The family got rid of more animals, losing mon-ey as calves were sold early and at lower-than-normal weight. Heifers normally used to restock were also sold. Finally, in January, it rained. The creeks, ponds and lake refi lled. The cows gave birth. The grass grew green.
Things were different, though. Some calves came later. A few got sick. The vet blamed anything odd on the drought.
Texas farmers use ingenuityto survive drought effectsBY RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI
Associated PressThe drought of 2011 cost $7.6 billion in crop losses, the most
ever recorded, and forced ranchers to slaughter millions of animals, cutting Texas’ cattle herd to its
smallest size since 1952.
The Paducah Sun has published a look back at the Racers history-making season. The 64-page commemorative book will
include game photos throughout the season, a compilation of season-long Sun reporting, reprints of Sun sports pages, and statistics
from the season all highlighting the Racers run to March Madness.
Books can be purchased at The Paducah Sun and all Paducah Bank locations.
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6D • Sunday, May 27, 2012 • The Paducah Sun Obituaries paducahsun.com
Funeral noticesPaid obituaries furnished to The Paducah Sun by mortuaries.
Alice Mae Goodman FlegleBARDWELL — Alice Mae
Goodman Flegle, age 88, passed away at home May 21, 2012. She was born Jan-uary 26, 1924, in Bardwell, Kentucky, to Jake and Nadi Goodman. She had two sisters, Lucie Goodman Hightower (Bardwell, Ken-tucky-deceased) and Ella Sue Goodman Holtwick
(St. Lou-is, Mis-s o u r i ) . Alice was a gradu-ate of Bardwell H i g h S c h o o l and at-t e n d e d M u r r a y
C o l l e g e . She earned a bachelor of science degree in nutrition and food sciences at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. During World War II she worked at an aircraft factory in Nash-ville, Tenn. She served internships at the Boston Statler Hotel and the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. She also was on staff at St. Luke’s Hospital in Chicago. After she returned to Ken-tucky and married Jimmy Sr., she was head dietician at Western Baptist Hospi-tal in Paducah. She worked with the Department of Economic Security when food stamps were fi rst is-sued in Carlisle County. She was raised in Bardwell Christian Church and cur-
rent member of Bardwell Baptist Church.
Alice raised three chil-dren, Jimmy Len Jr., Rob-ert Mark and Karen Sue Flegle Hobbs. She later helped her husband, Jim-my Len Sr., in the fam-ily business, Flegle Lumber Company, for many years. She became affectionately known as “Mrs. Alice” both for her attention to detail and her loving nature. Alice lost her husband in 1990 and spent the following years painting, traveling, and enjoying grandchil-dren and great-children.
Alice is survived by her sister, her children, her grandchildren, Lauren Ty-ler Flegle, Brittanie Len Flegle, James Brendan Flegle, James Armand Flegle, Alexandra Carlisle Flegle, Mary Jacqueline Flegle Powell, Jamie Al-ice Flegle Wilson, Andrew Mark Flegle, Joni Sue Flegle, Jonathan Grego-ry Hobbs, Jessica Lynn Hobbs, and nine great-grandchildren.
“Mrs. Alice’s” fi nal wish-es for a celebration of life ceremony will be fulfi lled on June 16th, 2012, at the First Christian Church in Bardwell. Informal visita-tion will be from 2-4 p.m., with a formal ceremony at 4:00 p.m., with the Rev. Linda Creason offi ciating.
You may leave a mes-sage of sympathy and light a candle at www.milneran-dorr.com.
Flegle
Eugene BurkeenCALVERT CITY — Eu-
gene Burkeen, 79, of Cal-vert City passed away at 6:15 a.m. Saturday, May 26, 2012, at Western Bap-tist Hospital.
He was a veteran of the U n i t e d S t a t e s Army.
He is survived by his wife, Bet-ty McCoy Burkeen of Cal-vert City; his son,
R o n a l d Burkeen and his wife, Lesa of Benton; his daughters, Brenda Robey and her hus-band, Harold Gene, and Debbie Tabor and her hus-band, Don, all of Paducah; his grandchildren, Jennifer
Showers, Rebecca Aarvig, Amanda Burkeen and Bri-an Robey; and his great-grandchildren, Alyssa Showers, David Showers, Tyler Aarvig, Dylan Aarvig and Katie Crume.
He was preceded in death by his brothers, Jess Burkeen, Raymond Bur-keen, Clint Burkeen, Paul Burkeen, Edward Burkeen and Leonard Burkeen; his sister, Edna Moore; and his parents, Everett Eugene Burkeen and Lizzie Smith Burkeen.
Graveside services with military rites will be at 2 p.m. Monday, May 28, 2012, at Dees Cemetery with Bro. Chris Moore of-fi ciating. Friends may call from 10 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. Monday at Filbeck-Cann and King Funeral Home.
Burkeen
Wiley correctionHICKMAN — Aletha
Wiley is survived by her sis-ter, Laura Major. She was
misidentifi ed in an obituary in Saturday’s Sun; incorrect information was provided.
Tommy Ervin PoolKEVIL — Tommy Ervin
Pool, 51, died at Lourdes hospital early Saturday morning.
He had worked several years ago as a mate on a river boat for Ingram Barge Company.
He is survived by three children; one brother, Rusty Pool of Kevil; two sisters, Terri Herron of West Paducah and Jackie Hamblin of Smithland; one aunt and uncle, Jack and
Glenda Wray; and several cousins.
Tommy was preceded in death by his parents, James Erwin Sr. and Wan-da Stone Pool.
Graveside services will be Tuesday at 1 p.m. at Wood-ville Cemetery. Visitation will be at Morrow Funeral Chapel in Kevil after 11 a.m. until service time at 1 p.m. Morrow Funeral Chapel in Kevil is handling arrange-ments.
Clarence YarbroughWICKLIFFE — Clar-
ence James Yarbrough, 90, of Wickliffe died at 11 p.m. Friday at Coun-tryside Health Care and Rehabilitation.
He was a member of Wickliffe Holiness Church and Wickliffe Masonic Lodge #625. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He was a construction painter and a member of Painters Union Local 500.
He is survived by three daughters, Mary Sue Rol-lins of Wickliffe, Sheila Romain of Paducah and Janet Payne of Bardwell; three sons, Earl Yar-brough of Wickliffe, Brad Yarbrough of May-fi eld and Coy Yarbrough of Bardwell; one sister, Mary Louise Frantz of Hudson, Fla.; 17 grand-children; 28 great-grandchildren; eight great-great-grandchil-dren; and six stepgreat-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Gen-niea Hargrove Yar-brough; two sons, Gale Yarbrough and Larry Yarbrough; and four brothers. His parents were James Edmond and Mauda Mae Daven-port Yarbrough.
Services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Milner and Orr Funeral Home of Wickliffe. Burial will follow in Wickliffe City Cemetery.
Friends may call after 6 p.m. Monday at the fu-neral home.
Ann LindseyFULTON — Ann Goatley
Lindsey, 78, of Fulton died at 3:08 p.m. Friday at Jackson Purchase Medical Center in Mayfi eld.
She was a retired secretary from Roman Ceramics and Merit Clothing in Mayfi eld. She was a member of St. Edwards Catholic Church in Fulton.
She is survived by her husband, Steve Lindsey; two sons, Ray Lindsey of Paducah and Greg Lindsey of Dresden, Tenn.; two sisters, Margie Hayden and Helen Powers, both of Memphis; one brother, George Goatley of Louisville; nine grandchil-dren; and one great-grand-child.
She was preceded in death by two sons, Stevie B. Lindsey and David B. Lind-sey; one daughter, Cheryl A. Lindsey; one sister; and three brothers. Her parents were Olie and Kathleen El-liott Goatley,
Services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Brown Funeral Home in Mayfi eld with Joosa Marydasan offi ciating. Buri-al will follow in St. Jerome Cemetery in Fancy Farm.
Friends may call after 5 p.m. Monday at the funeral home.
Ruby ToweryMAYFIELD — Ruby Pas-
chall Towery, 72, of Mayfi eld died Friday at Western Bap-tist Hospital.
She was a retired Sedalia and Cuba teacher and was a member of Northside Baptist in Mayfi eld.
She is survived by her hus-band, Deese Towery; two sons, Darvin Towery of May-fi eld and Derek Towery of Joplin, Mo.; one daughter, Desa Buckley of Pontevedra Beach, Fla.; and seven grand-children.
Her parents were Hubert and Burline Waters Paschall.
Services will be at 3:30 p.m. today at Byrn Funeral Home with the Rev. Monte Hodges offi ciating. Interment will fol-low in Mayfi eld Memory Gar-dens.
Betty NeelMAYFIELD — Betty
Ann Neel, 62, of Mayfi eld died at 3:14 p.m. Satur-day at her residence.
Arrangements were incomplete at Brown Fu-neral Home in Mayfi eld.
Melita NikitarasBARDWELL — Melita
Rose Nikitaras, 44, of Bardwell died at 9:19 a.m. Saturday at Heritage Manor in Mayfi eld.
She was a member of Shiloh Baptist Church.
She was preceded in death by one son, Michael Blake Elliott; her mother, Barbara L. Polivick; and her grandparents, Toney Lewis and Clara Lee Goad Polivick.
Services will be at 2 p.m. Monday at Old Bardwell Cemetery, with the Rev. Nick Miller offi -
ciating. Friends may call after
noon Monday at Milner and Orr Funeral Home of Bardwell.
Expressions of sympa-thy may take the form of contributions to Ameri-can Stroke Association, P.O. Box 163549, Colum-bus, OH 43216-3549; the National Kidney Founda-tion Finance Department, 30 East 33rd St., New York, NY 10016; or the American Diabetes Asso-ciation, P.O. Box 11454, Alexandria, VA 22312.
BERLIN — Klaas Carel Faber, a Dutch native who fl ed to Germany after be-ing convicted in the Neth-erlands of Nazi war crimes and subsequently lived in freedom despite several attempts to try or extra-dite him, has died. He was 90.
Faber's wife, Jacoba, told the Dutch news site de Nieuwe Pers that he died in a hospital on Thursday. A hospital offi cial in In-golstadt, the Bavarian city where the Fabers lived, confi rmed that Saturday. The offi cial spoke on con-dition of anonymity in keeping with policy.
Faber — whom the Si-mon Wiesenthal Center last year placed at No. 3 on its list of most-wanted Nazi criminals — was con-victed in 1947 of involve-ment in 22 murders and for aiding the Nether-lands' Nazi occupiers dur-ing World War II. He was handed a death sentence that was later commuted to life in prison, according to Dutch prosecutors.
But in 1952, he escaped and fl ed to Germany, where he lived in freedom.
Faber was saved by his German citizenship when German authorities re-jected a request from the Netherlands last year for his extradition on a Eu-ropean arrest warrant. In January, Ingolstadt pros-ecutor Helmut Walter said he had fi led a motion to have Faber serve his sen-
tence in a German prison.Walter said a state court
in Ingolstadt wouldn't need to reconsider any of the Dutch case but decide whether, as a result of the European arrest warrant being rejected, the sen-tence against him could be enforced in Germany.
Prosecutors could not be reached for comment on Saturday, the start of a three-day weekend in Germany.
Faber was born in the Netherlands on Jan. 20, 1922.
Dutch prosecutors have said he was convicted for killings at three different Dutch locations in 1944-1945, including six at the Westerbork transit camp, where thousands of Dutch Jews, including Anne Frank, were held before being sent to labor camps or death camps in eastern Europe.
According to the Wie-senthal Center, Faber vol-unteered for Hitler's SS, a paramilitary organization loyal to Nazi ideology, af-ter Germany overran the Netherlands during World War II.
He also served with the Sicherheitsdienst, the Nazi internal intelligence agency, and an SS unit code-named Silbertanne, or Silver Fir, which con-sisted of 15 men, most of them Dutch, who were mustered to exact repri-sals for attacks by the Dutch resistance on col-laborators, according to the Wiesenthal Center.
Faber was convicted of Nazi war crimes
BY GEIR MOULSONAssociated Press
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paducahsun.com Business The Paducah Sun •Sunday, May 27, 2012 • 7D
BY PATRICK WALTERSAssociated Press
CHESTER, Pa. — When Harrah’s Chester Casino & Racetrack opened its doors in this struggling city in January 2007, it was the state’s third ca-sino, a novelty that pulled in Philadelphia-area gam-blers thrilled not to have to drive to Atlantic City.
Five years later, Penn-sylvania has 11 casinos, four in the Philadelphia area. Harrah’s casino in Chester, a long-downtrod-den city in the southern suburbs, also is closer to competition in Delaware and Maryland.
“We’ve certainly felt the pressures,” said Ron Bau-mann, the Chester casino’s general manager and a veteran of Atlantic City, where casinos have seen their revenues plummet amid heightened compe-tition from Pennsylvania. “The Atlantic City lesson is certainly one that we all need to learn. ... You just always, always have to be creating a competitive ad-vantage.”
To fi ght back, the casino is trying to rebrand itself and increase the quality of its offerings.
Earlier this month, it an-nounced it was rebranding itself Harrah’s Philadel-phia to give customers a better idea of where it is. It is upgrading its restau-rants and starting to hold concerts on its new patio and on its racetrack, efforts geared toward becoming a “night out” destination for customers farther away.
While Harrah’s business remains above both its own projections and those of the Pennsylvania Gam-ing Control Board, the
slots losses have the casino operators scrambling.
“Our plans call for growth this year,” said Baumann, who is focused on getting more of the esti-mated 8.5 million gaming adults within a 60-mile radius around the casi-no. “Are we content with where we’re at? No.”
Last year, gross revenue from slots was $268.1 mil-lion, a 10 percent decrease from the year before. In 2010, it was $296.5 mil-lion, down 6 percent. Overall, slots revenue has been declining since its peak of $328.3 million in 2008, the second year of operation.
When slots and table games revenue are com-bined, the picture isn’t as bleak. Table games, which were introduced in July 2010, generated more than $30 million in additional revenue in 2010, for a total gaming revenue of $336.5 million — an increase of 3 percent. Last year, the fi rst full year of table games generated nearly $81 mil-lion in gross table revenue, helping boost the total gaming revenue to $349 million — up 7 percent.
Kevin O’Toole, the gam-ing board’s executive di-rector, doesn’t fi nd the effects of competition on Harrah’s alarming.
“It’s the casino op-erator’s responsibility to strategize their own situ-ation and make whatever adjustments it would take to meet the competition,” O’Toole said. “Their slots have gone down, but I don’t think they have gone down in any sort of alarm-ing fashion.”
Harrah’s is fi ghting des-perately for market share
against Sugarhouse Ca-sino in Philadelphia; Val-ley Forge Casino Resort, which opened in March; and Parx Casino, which opened a month before Harrah’s in the northern suburbs.
The industry is closely watching the Philadel-phia market to see how the facilities do amid the increased competition. Some analysts worry the market is approaching saturation, while others describe a market that is still evolving. A second li-cense is currently slotted for Philadelphia, but some legislators are advocating bidding it statewide.
Pennsylvania has grown into the second-largest gambling market in the country behind Las Vegas as Atlantic City’s revenues have steadily declined. For Harrah’s, the lessons of Atlantic City loom large. Besides its restaurant and entertainment upgrades, it’s also switching out slots games more often to keep them new.
The rebranding is meant to appeal to a broader swath of customers. As part of the change to Harrah’s Philadelphia, the casino has a neon red Lib-erty Bell on the wall in the gaming room and is open-ing a Tony Luke’s chees-esteak stand.
Lou Meren, 81, of Parkville, Md., drove 90 miles from his home to play video poker at Harrah’s on Wednesday, despite closer options in Maryland and Delaware. He was drawn there by the allure of perks he could get if he went enough times — and because he likes Harrah’s facilities.
Alex Brandon/ Associated Press
Patrons play the slot machines at Harrah’s Casino Thursday in Chester, Pa.
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8D • Sunday, May 27, 2012 • The Paducah Sun paducahsun.com
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