The National Bureau of Economic Research says we’re not out of the
recessionary woods yet, though some think the economy is looking up.
Floyd Norris of the Times, for one, thinks the numbers are pointed in the right direction. (More over at The Atlantic Wire.) Restaurants certainly seem to be rebounding.

Today, I stumbled across another intriguing indicator. It’s called the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity
— LIRA for short. Produced regularly by Harvard University’s Joint
Center for Housing Studies, the index measures “national homeowner
spending on improvements for the current quarter and subsequent three
quarters,” and aims to track “future turning points in the business
cycle of the home improvement industry.” The graph charts the trend.

The plunge from 2007 through 2008 is striking. But a turnaround does
seem to be in the works. Harvard’s Nicolas Retsinas, who directs
the Joint Center, notes that: “The LIRA suggests annual spending will
accelerate, with nearly five percent growth in 2010.”

It’s hard to tell whether the LIRA signals a broader economic
recovery. It may be that people who can’t sell their homes are deciding
that, if they have to stay put, they might as well renovate. If that’s
the case,  now may be the time to start that renovation project you’ve
been putting off — well before the good contractors start
getting booked.

[JURIST] US District Judge James Selna on Thursday ordered a May 13 pre-trial conference for the consolidated litigation against Toyota Motor Corporation surrounding the company’s auto safety failures. The court found that, “ecause this docket involves both personal injury actions and actions for economic loss, the Court believes a somewhat unique structure is required.” Toyota will defend itself in US District Court for the Central District of California against nearly 100 consumer fraud class action and personal injury claims. In addition to civil suits, Toyota faces a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) probe into investor disclosures, as well as a criminal investigation by federal prosecutors surrounding “sudden acceleration” in Toyota cars.
Last week, the US Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) consolidated more than 150 pending lawsuits against Toyota, transferring them to the district court. Earlier this month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that it will seek a record civil penalty of $16.375 million against Toyota for a four-month delay in notifying the agency about a problem with “sticky” gas pedals in various car models. In March, the California Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) filed a consumer protection suit against Toyota, alleging that the company knowingly sold vehicles with acceleration defects. Toyota has been under federal scrutiny since December and has recalled approximately eight million cars.

“What I worry about,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told a gathering yesterday at the Center for Middle East Peace, is that “a failure to act now when there are changed circumstances, including the Arab Peace Initiative, including the very broadly shared fear of Iran’s intentions and actions, will not just set us back, but may irreversibly prevent us from going forward” and ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a two-state solution.

It’s that sort of urgency, up against the current impasse in the peace process, that’s leading the Obama administration to consider offering its own peace plan. Even if it does, Clinton implicitly clarified in her speech, “We not only know we cannot force a solution, we have no interest in forcing a solution. The parties themselves are the only ones who can resolve their differences.”  Notice, though, that that’s not the same thing as pledging not to offer a U.S. proposal for peace.

Her speech also tethered the peace process to the marginalization of Hamas, a shared Israeli-Palestinian Authority-U.S. interest:

In contrast to Hamas, the Palestinian Authority has staked its credibility on a path of peaceful coexistence. Even more than economic opportunities, that path for the Palestinians must lead to a state of their own, for the dignity that all people deserve, and the right to chart their own destiny. If President Abbas cannot deliver on those aspirations, there’s no doubt his support will fade and Palestinians will turn to alternatives – including Hamas. And that way leads only to more conflict.

But the U.S., the so-called Quartet (the U.S., Russia, the United Nations and the European Union) and the Arab states can only facilitate a solution, Clinton said: “[T]here are only two peoples who can make the decisions. … President Obama can’t work harder than the people of Israel and the Palestinian territories.”

man

The SEC just charged Goldman Sachs (GS) with fraud related to mortgage-backed CDOs. The result? The stock just puked and is down 7% right now.

Follow Our Full Goldman Sachs SEC Charges Coverage Here >

Join the conversation about this story »

The home building market continued to improve in March. Private building permits rose to 685,000 from 637,000 in February, a 7.5% increase, according to today’s Commerce Department report (.pdf). Last month’s number was also 34.1% higher than a year earlier. Private housing starts — indicating new construction begun — were also up in March, rising to 626,000. That beat February’s number by 1.6% and March 2009 by 20.2%. Both of these numbers are the highest seen since 2008.

Here are two charts that provide some historical perspective for both figures:

As these charts show pretty clearly, the new home construction market has improved recently, but still has a very long way to go to approach even pre-bubble levels.

Still, these two measures rising in March would appear to be good news, since they indicate  builders sense increased demand for new homes on the part of Americans. This is particularly positive for the labor market. Construction has lost 2.1 million jobs since the height of the housing boom. More home building means that some of those jobs will return.

Yet new construction doesn’t necessarily stabilize the housing market; in fact, it may weaken it. For home prices to rise, inventory must decline. That will occur as purchases of existing homes exceed those that hit the market. Foreclosures are still a huge problem, as they reached a new high in March.

But new home building increases housing inventory. For every new home bought during a month, one fewer existing home will be purchased. That slows the decline in housing inventory and will prevent housing prices from rising as much, if at all. So while increased building of new homes might be good for the labor market, it’s bad for the housing market in this environment.

Note: All numbers above are seasonally adjusted.

Could a link between a lull in solar activity and jet streams over the Atlantic Ocean be the result for why the UK is suffering colder winter’s while the rest of the world warms?

According to a new report published in the Institute of Physics Publishing’s Environmental Research Letters points out that we are moving into an era of low solar activity which authors believe is likely to result in UK winter temperatures more akin to those seen at the end of the seventeenth century.

“This year’s winter in the UK has been the 14th coldest in the last 160 years and yet the global average temperature for the same period has been the 5th highest,” says lead author Mike Lockwood of the University of Reading. “We have discovered that this kind of anomaly is significantly more common when solar activity is low.” (more…)

A Pussycat Dolls wannabe has pleaded not guilty to a drugs charge stemming from her arrest last month.

Natalie Mejia, who shot to fame after appearing on The Pussycat Dolls reality show Girlicious in 2007, was in a car that was pulled over for speeding on a Los Angeles Freeway and later arrested after cops searched the vehicle and found a dozen bags of cocaine stuffed in the singer’s designer handbag.

Natalie maintains that she has no idea how the blow ended up in her possession and pleaded not guilty to one count of drug possession with intent to sell in a California courtroom on Thursday.

She remains free on bond but will have return to court on April 26.

Case Western Reserve University Provost W.A. “Bud” Baeslack announces a request for proposals for the Johnson & Johnson – CWRU Innovation Challenge Grant. This is the inaugural year of funding from The Johnson & Johnson-CWRU Innovation Challenge Grant, which was announced to the campus community in February.

The funding is designed to support research that will lead to improvements in health care. Faculty and clinicians participating in this program will develop technologies in a broad range of areas. Researchers in the fields of science, medicine and engineering conducting projects to improve human health are encouraged to apply.

“In keeping with Forward Thinking, it is critical to develop team solutions to healthcare problems. We hope to see strong interdisciplinary project ideas submitted through this important J&J program,” Baeslack said.

One page quad charts are due April 21. The quad charts should include the names of the principal investigators, their institutional affiliations and contact information. Sample quad charts are available through the Provost’s office.

The Johnson & Johnson – CWRU Innovation Challenge Grant will provide a total of $250,000 in seed funding for selected projects and must include a one to one match. Initial awards are for one year, with status updates and a final report required at the end of the project. This request for proposals specifically seeks novel applications that will improve diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

Successful proposals will be oriented toward translational and potentially transformative research that will significantly impact one of the following areas:

• Therapeutic electrical stimulation
• Oncology therapeutics
• Biomaterials
• Wireless medical technologies
• Bio-sensor platforms
• Therapies for CNS disorders
• Surgical devices

Preference will be given to interdisciplinary project teams. Evaluation of each proposal will include scientific merit, potential impact, experience of the investigators and the potential for future commercialization. Selected proposals will be reviewed through the CTSA electronic review system.

Complete details are available through the Office of the Provost.

This Wednesday at Twitter’s Chirp Conference, CEO Evan Williams announced that Twitter would be coming out with an official Twitter application for Android devices.  The company appears to be launching a platform-wide campaign to have uniform “Official Twitter Apps” for all devices.   “We realized we had to have a core experience on these major platforms just like we do on the web, otherwise we are failing users,” Williams said.

Recently, Twitter bought AteBits, the company that developed Tweetie, one of the most popular Twitter apps for the iPhone.  Twitter has also partnered with RIM to develop the official Twitter app for Blackberry, which is now in public beta release.  The big question on the minds of those who care is: will the company develop the app themselves, partner with Google (like they did with RIM), or purchase an already existing App (like they did with Tweetie) in order to create the uniformity among platforms they are striving for?

Andrew Kameka of Androinica seems to think that Twitter will acquire either Twidroid or TweetsRide and rename one of them as the official Twitter app for Android.  What do you think?  Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Via MobileBurn, TechCrunch, Androinica

Did China just announce a floating interest rate strategy? ZeroHedge posts a Dow Jones newswire headline saying the country will. Jamie Coleman at ForexLive believes the comments are offhanded remarks from Hu. Stay tuned…

Join the conversation about this story »

Asi es, en caso de que no ocurra ningún cambio, en España será muy barato el recargar un coche eléctrico. En concreto, por cada 100 km recorridos tendremos que pagar apróximadamente 1€.

Comparando esta cifra con las actuales, parece algo insignificante. Sin duda, el coche eléctrico es el futuro nos guste o no, y por el momento, ya contamos con la ventaja económica del ahorro en el combustible. Además, en los ayuntamientos de Madrid ya estan comenzando a utilizar este tipo de vehículos y se espera que los modelos combencionales sean sustituidos por coches eléctricos.

Por otra parte, el gobierno ya ha mencionado que implementaran tarifas especiales más baratas para quién recargue el vehículo por la noche.

Related posts:

1. I-MiEV, el primer coche eléctrico de Mitsubishi
2. Audi mostrará un nuevo coche eléctrico en el Salón de Frankfurt
3. Smart confirma el lanzamiento del ForTwo eléctrico

In a swift train of events, the Senate last night passed a short-term extension of emergency unemployment benefits, which the House approved a few hours later and President Obama signed into law shortly afterward. “In these tough economic times,” Obama said, ”it is more critical than ever to bring relief to Americans who are working every day to find a job, and families that are struggling to make ends meet.”

Millions of Americans who lost their jobs in this economic crisis depend on unemployment and health insurance benefits to get by as they look for work and get themselves back on their feet.  I’m grateful that the House and Senate moved forward on this temporary extension today.  But as I requested in my budget, I urge Congress to move quickly to extend these benefits through the end of this year.  I also urge Congress to move forward on legislation to help small businesses grow and hire and other measures to increase the pace of job growth. This is my top priority, and I will fight day and night until every American who wants a good job has one.

The temporary extension — which allows unemployed workers who’ve exhausted their state-based benefits to access emergency federal help through June 1 — is designed to buy lawmakers more time to negotiate the longer-term extension that Obama is urging.

The latest in FMO’s growing selection of podcasts focuses on a new Chinese government policy, recruiting young Uyghur women from majority Uyghur areas of East Turkestan, and transferring them to work in factories in urban areas of eastern China.

Under this policy, thousands of Uyghur women have been removed from their families and placed into substandard working conditions thousands of miles from their homes. Though official propaganda slogans promote the program as an overwhelmingly positive experience for these women, less than two years after the initiation of the policy, it has already left a history of broken promises and shattered families. Local leaders, who are subject to intense pressure from higher levels of the PRC government, have used deception, pressure, and threats in order to recruit women to participate in the program.

In this podcast, four experts talk about the impact this programme is having on these women:

• Dr. Michael Dillon, visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing
• Omer Kanat, Uyghur Service at Radio Free Asia
• Amy Reger, Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP)
• Enver Tohti, chairman of the UK Uighur Association

These interviews were recorded between September 2008 and July 2009, by film-maker Simon James.

• Podcast
• Subscribe via iTunes

Apple Inc. is expected to modestly beat expectations when it reports second quarter fiscal 2010 results next Tuesday and also provide in line guidance for the present quarter, says Mikel Abramsky, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

That won't be enough to lift shares higher, but no worries, the continued success of iPad launches around the world most likely will.

"Given runup in shares and largely in-line results, investors are expected to turn their attention forward on pending iPad 3G/international launches and updated iPhones, expected to drive additional upside," Mr. Abramsky said. 

Trading below its peers at 16x FTM price/earnings, Mr. Abramsky said Apple stock remains attractive.

He reiterated his Outperform rating and US$275 price target.

David Pett

Go along to your local hustings and meet your election candidates! Find out where yours is here:

(ACQ hustings are only held in key marginal constituencies)

Don’t forget you can follow Ask the Climate Question on Facebook and Twitter

Dreadlocked soul star Crystal Bowersox is well on her way to winning the ninth season of FOX’s American Idol, but A.I. insiders dish that the homesick single mom came thisclose to throwing in the towel and leaving the competition to return to her home in Ohio about two weeks ago.

According to TMZ.com, the accomplished guitarist and vocalist suffered a meltdown and walked off the show earlier this month. In fact, Crystal — who was nearly disqualified from Idol when she was hospitalized for diabetes in February — only agreed to remain in the competition after a pep talk from host Ryan Seacrest.

“The greatest thing I ever did was make enough money so I could buy my mom a house. You can buy your mom a house,” Ryan said, consoling her.

The words of encouragement seem to have done the trick: Crystal remains in the competition and won rave reviews from the judges for her rendition of the Elvis classic “Saved.”

The Mexican Gray Wolf is one of the rarest mammals in the world. (Photo: Robin Silver / PRNewsFoto/Center for Biological Diversity)

From Green Right Now Reports

The Center for Biological Diversity today announced the release of a free iPhone application, Wild Calls, designed to increase awareness of the plight of endangered species worldwide and to spur people to take action to protect wildlife.

The application, developed by Los Angeles-based Mobile Culture Lab, allows users to receive a randomly selected endangered species sound each week (or more frequently if users choose) via push notification. Through the “Call of the Wild” feature, each week one of 30 endangered species sounds will be randomly selected from the Center’s library and “pushed” to app users, who can then experience a genuine recording of an endangered species in its natural habitat, recorded by someone in the Center’s global network of researchers and wildlife advocates.

Users can then download the sound as a ringtone or browse the app’s gallery of additional “Rare Earthtones” to download additional ringtones, along with matching wallpapers, or learn more about endangered species. Another feature of the app, “Wake Up Wild,” allows users to make their cell-phone alarm clock play an endangered species sound as their wake-up call.

The organization said it believes Wild Calls is the first iPhone app specifically devoted to the protection of endangered wildlife. The app also allows users to subscribe to Endangered Earth Online, a weekly electronic newsletter of the Center for Biological Diversity; and to respond to action alerts from the Center by signing letters and petitions in support of protecting endangered species.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national nonprofit devoted to protecting endangered species and wildlife through litigation, science, and creative media. The Center’s free ringtones site was launched in 2007 and now features almost 100 ringtones.

This isn’t a new video, so skip it if you’ve seen it before. It’s got some great in-car footage of a McLaren GTR stuffing Ferrari F40s at LeMans, and you can pick up some proper heel-toe driving tips if you look close enough. I’m not sure who the driver is, but some of the in-car shots come from Andy Wallace’s McLaren F1 GTR.

Not a fan of the blues? Don’t like John Mayall? You’d rather have Andy Wallace talk you through a lap of the LeMans circuit in a McLaren GTR? OK, then, here you go:

Thanks to Autospies for dusting off the top vid; like the McLaren F1, some things just don’t go out of style.

Our Kansas City Regional office sits at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. Each River is named for its respective State (or more accurately for the Kansas and Missouria Native American Tribes), and both join at the intersection of two distinct Kansas Cities (one in each state). Two hundred years ago Lewis and Clark sat at this very spot. Anyone who has read their journals must marvel at the awe and wonders that they experienced travelling upriver from the Mississippi to the headwaters of the Missouri, through the Bitterroot Mountains to the Clearwater, and on to the Mouth of the Columbia. Each day on the river was an experience.

These and other great rivers were responsible for the growth of small trading outposts into towns and eventually into bustling cities. Unfortunately water quality suffered with the growth of our nation. Untreated sewage, dangerous chemicals, and destruction of wetlands all degraded the water we depend on for drinking, fishing, recreation, and life. Things have gotten better, but challenges still lay ahead, especially in those waters that were responsible for our growth.

My staff and I pulling trash out of the Kansas & Missouri Rivers

Administrator Jackson has asked us as an Agency to focus on a number of priorities including protecting America’s Waters. Part of this effort is an initiative to focus on rivers and lakes in our own backyards, to experience them in ways that are meaningful to us. The goal of this initiative is to restore and protect urban water bodies by engaging communities in activities that foster increased connection, understanding and ownership of their waters and surrounding land.

A couple of weeks ago I was conducting an interview at a local high school for my alma mater. I trudged into the library and past a statue that looked vaguely like Colonel Sanders of KFC fame. An hour or so later as I walked the prospective Penn Quaker to the door, I let my eyes linger on the statue once again and noticed a small name plate at the base…Samuel Clemens. Like most busy adults I had walked past the statue of Twain without giving it much of a glance, a satirical parallel to my own daily trips across the Missouri River indifferent to the history and wonder that lay beneath the bridge deck. I took it as a sign from the greatest American river man to avoid taking my experiences with urban waters in Kansas City for granted. In the coming months I hope to share them with you.

About the author: Jeffery Robichaud is a second generation scientist with EPA who started in 1998. He serves as Chief of the Environmental Assessment and Monitoring Branch in Kansas City.