WSI Holds Hearing About Workers’ Compensation

People who say they were wronged by North Dakota’s workers compensation are speaking out. They say there is a flaw in the system with deciding how and who receives workers compensation.

 
Work force safety insurance says the problem lies in whether the injuries happen on the job or if it is a pre-existing condition the worker has. WSI also says the agency is working on correcting any problems. Representative Rick Berg says, "North Dakota has a very well run system despite upper management problems and, front turmoil page stories, core is that work is done very well."

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Motorsport: NZ race driver banned after positive drug test

A New Zealand V8 racecar driver has been banned after returning a positive drug test for a banned recreational drug.

Dale Lambert tested positive for cannabis at the Manfeild round of the NZV8s in February 2007.

Drug Free Sport New Zealand officials arrived at the circuit for the first-ever drug screening episode of the sport without prior notice and selected three Toyota Racing Series drivers and four NZV8 drivers.

"Our members are subject to WADA’s list of banned substances and it’s the first time the agency has turned up at a circuit," said MSNZ general manager Ross Armstrong. "It’s disappointing that we’ve had a positive urine test first time up but it reinforces to competitors that drugs will not be tolerated in the sport."

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Microsoft reports quarterly results; listeners want to hear about Yahoo, too

Despite a disappointing performance in its Windows business, Microsoft beat Wall Street’s quarterly profit expectations Thursday and issued a strong forecast for its next fiscal year.

But it was the company’s pending bid for Yahoo, which reaches a critical juncture this weekend, that drew twice the usual number of analysts and investors to Microsoft’s quarterly conference call.

Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell reiterated in plain language what Microsoft has been signaling the past three weeks: "[U]nless we make progress with Yahoo towards an agreement by this weekend, we will reconsider our alternatives. … These alternatives clearly include taking an offer to Yahoo shareholders" — a hostile takeover — "or to withdraw our proposal and focus on other opportunities both organic and inorganic."

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Town of Ulster getting over $26G for court

TOWN OF ULSTER - State member-item funding will be provided to digitize and microfilm misdemeanor criminal records from 1985 through 2006 for town court cases.

The $26,435 state budget allocation from state Sen. John Bonacic, R-New Hope, was discussed last week during a Town Board meeting.

Following the meeting, Town Clerk Jason Cosenza said $10,000 of the funding will help save time in future records searches and free space in several offices.

"As of now, the records are stored in low-security locations to which a variety of non-court employees have access," he said. "By converting the documents into the town’s … electronic database, it will automatically create a disaster plan because the town’s server performs backups of all information on a daily basis, with 13 days of on-site backup and a one-day backup that is stored off site."

Under the update schedule, records will be scanned to a high-resolution graphics format between June and early December. Officials wrote that the records would be stored on a server, a disc, and microfilm.

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Anglo Swiss Resources Inc. Extends Warrants

Anglo Swiss Resources Inc. ("Anglo Swiss") (TSX-V: ASW) (OTCBB: ASWRF) (BERLIN: AMO) has extended the expiration date related to 2,500,000 warrants issued in a private placement completed on April 30, 2008.

The warrant expiration date will be amended to October 31, 2008, subject to regulatory approval. The exercise price remains unchanged.

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Hits and Misses: Monday’s Earnings Reports

The drugmaker Merck & Co. (MRK: 39.59, -0.17, -0.42%) on Monday reported that its profit almost doubled in the first quarter due to a $1.4 billion distribution from a partner drug company. Its sales were slightly higher than a year ago.

The maker of allergy and asthma pill Singulair reported net income of $3.3 billion, or $1.52 per share, for the January-March period, up from $1.7 billion, or 78 cents a share, a year ago.

Excluding the $1.4 billion gain from AstraZeneca PLC of Britain and other one-time items, Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck earned 89 cents per share in the latest quarter.

Revenues totaled $5.82 billion, up 1% from $5.77 billion in the first three months of 2007.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were expecting earnings of 86 cents per share, a figure that generally excludes one-time items, but had forecast higher revenues of $6.11 billion.

Its shares rose 21 cents to $66.72 in premarket trading.

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DEERFIELD, Ill., Apr 17, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — United Stationers Inc. (NASDAQ:USTR) today reported preliminary sales and earnings per share for the three months ended March 31, 2008. Earnings per share for the first quarter of 2008 are expected to be in the range of $0.85 to $0.90 versus $0.90 in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted for a previously reported restructuring charge of $0.03 per share, first quarter 2007 earnings per share were $0.93. The weakness reflects lower sales in certain product categories and customer channels. Also, supplier allowances earned in the quarter were negatively impacted by lower inventory purchase volume as well as a shift to product categories with lower rebates.

 Economy, Timing of Holidays Expected to Negatively Affect First Quarter Results

Sales for the first quarter are expected to be approximately $1.25 billion, up 5% compared with $1.19 billion a year ago. The acquisition of ORS Nasco in December 2007 added approximately $74 million to 2008 first quarter sales. Excluding ORS Nasco, sales were down approximately 1% to $1.18 billion. Sales were strong in the janitorial and breakroom category, up approximately 15%. This helped offset a 5% combined sales decline in office supplies, technology products, and office furniture due primarily to a significant decline in national account sales. The sales slowdown occurred mostly in March and reflected weakness in the economy and the timing of the Easter holiday, which fell in the first quarter of this year versus the second quarter in 2007. Sales to date in April have improved from March levels.

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JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) reported-first quarter net income of $2.4 billion, down 50 percent from $4.8 billion in the first quarter of 2007. Earnings per share of 68 cents were down 49 percent, compared with record earnings per share of $1.34 in the first quarter of 2007.

Net revenue hit $17.9 billion, down $1.8 billion, or 9 percent from the prior year. Credit losses and write-downs topped $5.1 billion, up 45 percent from $3.5 billion reported the same time last year.

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Axence Software offers network monitoring and management tools, with features including scanning, alerting, reporting, asset collection, and more. Among their currently available offerings are:

 - nVision monitors mail servers, Web servers and URLs, TCP/IP and Windows services, application health and performance (MS SQL, Exchange, etc.), switches and routers (port mapper and network traffic). The network is automatically discovered and presented on an interactive graphical map.

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