CSBJ Daily

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Consumers, battling soaring gasoline prices and a slumping economy, cut back further on their spending in April.

The Commerce Department reported today that retail sales dipped 0.2 percent last month, right in line with economists’ expectations.

It was the second drop in the past three months and was led by a 2.8 percent decline in auto sales, the biggest setback in this category in 10 months.

Excluding autos, retail sales rose by 0.5 percent, likely boosted by sales at discount store such as Wal-Mart.

However, sales at department stores were down 0.1 percent, indicating that tough economic times may be pushing people to seek out bargains at giant discount stores.

Despite the prospect of an economic recession, overall economic growth, as measured by the gross domestic product, has not yet turned negative.

The Bush administration is hoping that a $168 billion economic stimulus package, which includes about $100 billion in direct payments to households, will give the economy a jump-start. The government started making those payments at the end of April.

The Springs-based Spectranetics Corp. is planning to buy the Kensey Nash Corp., an endovascular device maker, for $10 million with additional payments up to an aggregate of $14 million.

Upon U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval, the deal is expected to close by the end of June.

Kensey’s products generated sales of $5.1 million during 2007.

Spectranetics was founded in 1984 and sells the only excimer laser approved in the United States and Europe that is used in minimally invasive cardiovascular surgery.

The Pikes Peak Association of Realtors has $13,000 in Colorado Association of Realtors Housing Opportunity Foundation grants for nonprofit affordable housing organizations.

Applications will be accepted through June 27.

To be eligible for the money, organizations must be based in the Pikes Peak region, have a housing related mission and be a public agency or a nonprofit agency with a 501(c)(3) status.

Applications are available at the PPAR offices, 430 N. Tejon St. Contact Michele Van Metre at 633-7718, ext. 114 or mvanmetre@ppar.org.

The El Paso County Board of Commissioners needs volunteers.

The Board of Adjustment, which hears and decides issues of physical variances related to the county zoning code, needs members for a one-year term.

The Citizen Review Panel, an extension and continuation of the grievance appeal, needs a representative for a three-year term.

Applications are available at www.elpasoco.com. Click on “Volunteer Boards.”

Send applications and letters of interest to Board of Commissioners, Attn: Fran St. Germain, county administration manager, 27 E. Vermijo Ave., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903.

Among “mid-sized metro areas” Colorado Springs is ranked 11th for the nation’s top 20 cities for relocation.

The ranking survey was sponsored by Worldwide ERC, which studies workforce mobility. The survey defined mid-sized areas as having a population between 600,000 to 1.3 million.

Rankings included job growth for 2007, percentage of nearby top-ranked colleges, average in-state tuition for four-year public colleges, percentage of population growth since 2000, number of pediatricians per 100,000 population and separate sales and income tax categories.

The green living index, which measures environmental incentives and policies, the availability of biofuel, wind power generation and the amount of energy-efficient buildings, was another key category.

Denver/Aurora also ranked 11th in its category, metropolitan areas of 1.3 million or greater.

Unemployment benefit checks will no longer be mailed.

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment has partnered with Chase to issue Visa debit cards for automated payments.

The cards are expected to provide greater security, privacy and reliability and save the state more than $209,000 in postage costs during the first year.

Benefits will be deposited into accounts every two weeks and the cards can be used anywhere Visa is accepted.

Boston-based Iron Mountain Inc. has acquired the Denver-based DocuVault companies.

The deal expands Iron Mountain’s presence in Colorado, but whether DocuVault will retain its name is unknown.

DocuVault was founded in 1997, and Iron Mountain was founded in 1951 and employs more than 10,500 workers.

During 2007, Iron Mountain reported $153 million in net income on revenue of $2.7 billion.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

An Air Force Academy team won the 2nd annual National Security Innovation Competition for creating a liquid that neutralizes chemical weapons.

The competition, created by the Colorado Homeland Defense Alliance and the Colorado Springs Technology Incubator, seeks to highlight national security technology being developed at the nation’s top universities.

The Air Force team’s ionic liquids neutralize chemical weapons agents without the hazards of current methods.

The Colorado State University Robot Team came in second place for its light weight robot that can manipulate its shape and center of gravity to help locate terrorist attack victims.

Third place honors went to the USAFA Hyperacuity Vision Team, which created camera sensors modeled after insect vision that can produce sub-pixel resolution images for unmanned planes.

April was the second month in a row to show an increase in listings sold, according to the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors’ monthly report.

From February to March, Realtors saw a 33 percent leap in closed sales on a month-to-month basis. From March to April, closings increased 6 percent.

“You’re beginning to see absorption of existing homes for sale,” said Jay Gupta, the board’s chairman, adding that 12.5 percent of listings sold during the month of April actually went under contract in less than 30 days. Another 18 percent closed within 60 days.

“Those were the homes that were priced correctly for today’s market,” he said.

Double-digit sales increases were evident in some areas. Black Forest, for example, saw a 62 percent increase in sales with 55 deals closed during April, up from 34 during March. Other Multiple Listing Service areas showing increased activity were Briargate (up 34 percent), Northgate (up 67 percent), southeast Colorado Springs (up 31 percent) and Tri-Lakes (up17 percent) in a month-to-month comparison.

That could be reassuring news to the more than 6,736 homeowners who had homes listed for sale in El Paso and Teller counties during April. Average time on the market in El Paso County: 93 days.

Sen. Ken Salazar’s cellulosic biofuels production tax credit has been included in the 2008 Farm Bill.

The $1.01 per gallon tax credit is good through 2012 for biofuels produced from renewable cellulosic feedstock – not food grain or food starch.

“Cellulosic biofuels are an innovative and sound alternative to food grain and starch-based fuels,” Salazar said. “They will not contribute to food shortages or higher food prices and will help ease the cost of petroleum-based fuels from foreign countries. … And they can be produced from plants that require far less water. This tax credit is a major step in our march toward cheaper fuels and greater energy independence.”

Cellulosic biofuels are made by releasing the sugars locked in the cell structure of plants and fermenting that sugar into fuel, or by converting the biomass into a synthetic gas which can be converted to liquid fuels or used to generate electricity.

Cellulosic biofuels have the potential to displace 3.5 billion barrels of oil annually, equivalent to 60 percent of the country’s yearly consumption of oil.