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House GOP Leader John Boehner said he supports a ban on all new federal regulations, after meeting Friday with business lobbyists who complained about uncertain economic conditions.

"I think having a moratorium on new federal regulations is a great idea. It sends a wonderful signal to the private sector they may have some breathing room," Boehner said.

He said any ban would include an exemption for "emergency regulations" for some agencies, and suggested it could last a year.

Boehner and Illinois Republicans Peter Roskam and Aaron Schock convened a group of nearly 20 Washington-based business leaders on Friday who represent various sectors — including homebuilders, retailers and manufacturers — as part of their "America Speaking Out" initiative to gather ideas for the GOP legislative agenda.

Roskam said those in the meeting reported that a significant obstacle to the economic recovery is "the down-talking of the private sector, the rhetoric."

"The anti-business rhetoric that they see coming out of Washington is more than just symbolic." Roskam added. "It’s creating a great deal of uncertainty."

The people in the meeting, many of whom have contributed to GOP candidates, repeatedly criticized the approach to the economy taken by the Obama administration and congressional Democratic leaders, criticizing excessive federal spending and burdensome government regulations.

Bruce Josten from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said businesses have "reached a tipping point" and noted his group believes the thousands of new regulations included in health care reform, the Wall Street overhaul and a pending climate change bill could take about 12 years to go into effect.

Jay Timmons from the National Association of Manufacturers maintained the United States is "becoming one of the most risky places in the world in which to do business." But Timmons did make a pitch for both parties to come together, saying, "It takes a bipartisan effort to get this economy moving again."

Ryan Rudominer, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, seized on the GOP meeting Friday to argue it would result in "a Republican agenda written for lobbyists by lobbyists."

Repeating the theme that Democrats have stepped up this week about a return to Bush policies under a GOP-controlled Congress, Rudominer added, "Only if you think the financial crisis is an ‘ant,’ would you think it a good thing for the country, as House Republicans do, to put forward the George Bush agenda on steroids, where Wall Street reform would be repealed, jobs would be outsourced overseas, and the Bush tax cuts would be extended for the super rich without being paid for."

The meeting with business groups was originally scheduled to take place in Boehner’s office in the Capitol, but after the Democratic National Committee launched attacks about a closed-door meeting with lobbyists, organizers moved it to a conference room in the Capitol Visitors Center.

Republicans did not allow media coverage of the meeting itself, but instead arranged for their own camera to stream the meeting live on the America Speaking Out website. The Sunlight Foundation, a non-profit watchdog group, also streamed the meeting live on its website.

Boehner’s call to stop new government regulations comes a day after he called for the repeal of the financial reform bill just hours after it was approved by the Senate. The president is expected to sign the bill next week. 

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The federal stimulus bill passed in early 2009 has created or saved 90,000 jobs in North Carolina, according to a report by the Council of Economic Advisers released Friday.

The report did not break the gains down by metro areas.

The number was arrived at by looking at the results of three different measurements and then averaging the findings. Those three approaches considered the percentage of all non-farm jobs in North Carolina, the percentage of stimulus dollars the state has received, and the parcelling out of job growth among 42 industries according to how concentrated they are in each state.

“It is important to emphasize that these . . . estimates are inherently more speculative and uncertain,” the report says payday loans for self employed.

Nationally, the report says, 3.05 million jobs have been created or saved.

In the region, the stimulus job affect in South Carolina was 41,000; Virginia, 73,000; Georgia, 91,000.

Seeing the biggest bang were California, 357,000 and Texas, 225,000.

Some 618,000, or 20 percent, of the jobs created or saved were in various forms of construction; 292,000 in health care and health IT; 254,000 in environmental cleanup; and 827,000 in clean energy.

The report did not specify North Carolina job impacts by category.

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The District's technology office is overly reliant on contractors, too eager to award jobs to under-qualified local businesses and not nearly aggressive enough in its monitoring of their work, setting up a system that is easily defrauded and wastes piles of taxpayer dollars, a new report finds.

The D.C. Council's investigation of procurement practices at the Office of the Chief Technology Officer, spurred by a four-year bribery and kickback ring that federal authorities unraveled in early 2009, revealed serious weaknesses in internal controls and contracting policies that "cut across several agencies in the District government," according to report obtained by the Washington Business Journal.

Performed pro bono by law firm Sidley Austin LLP, the review keyed on the OCTO's reliance on outside contractors, inadequate monitoring of contractors, and the long-held policy of awarding work to local firms that are often little more than "temp agencies" scouring Internet job sites for potential hires to fill open government jobs.

The investigation, sought by Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh, government operations chair, was sparked by the March 12, 2009, arrest of Yusuf Acar, OCTO's security chief, on bribery, conspiracy, money laundering and conflict of interest charges. Acar and Sushil Bansal, CEO of Advanced Integrated Technologies, defrauded the District of hundreds of thousands of dollars through a system of kickbacks, fraudulent timesheets, "ghost employees" and the purchase of software licenses that never existed. They created shell companies, manipulated data and held stakes in other companies used in the fraud. "

Acar and Bansal's schemes were not particularly sophisticated," the Sidley investigators wrote. "They merely exploited weaknesses in the District's procurement system." That conclusion is eerily similar to the findings of another investigation into a much more costly scam: the $48 million taxpayer rip-off by mid-level managers in the Office of Tax and Revenue.

The OCTO's reliance on contractors, the Sidley report states, "has led to a culture in which there is too little continuity in the workforce, too few workers who are familiar with the agency's norms and too much anonymity within the agency's workforce."

Roughly 50 percent of the OCTO's workforce are outsiders, down from 70 percent in prior years. Inadequate monitoring of contracts and failure to maintain records made "overbilling relatively easy," investigators found, and the OCTO policies make it effortless for managers to steer work to favored vendors, "which is at best improper and unethical, and at worst illegal pay day loans."

Of larger concern, perhaps, is the District's certified business enterprise program, which requires the government to direct "significant amounts of procurement" to D.C. businesses. In the technology field, the report states, CBEs often do little more than find applicants to fill open jobs. The District pays the CBE, and the CBE pays the contractor. The OCTO scam simply doesn't work if AITC isn't a CBE and Bansal "went to great lengths" to ensure it remained one even as the company grew larger, investigators said. Because of the preference system, the investigation found, CBEs often win awards despite bidding up to 12 percent higher than other vendors, or charging as much as a 12 percent mark-up.

The procurement creates a market for "gray market goods, because many CBEs are not certified dealers for the items they sell to the District." Investigators noted that reforms implemented by former Chief Technology Officer Vivek Kundra, who left just before the scandal broke to join President Barack Obama's administration, "did not meaningfully impede [Acar's] ability to accomplish his criminal activities."

But the OCTO has implemented several reforms since the scandal unraveled, reviewers said, which should reduce the likelihood of a similar problem. D.C. CTO Bryan Sivak, Chief Procurement Officer David Gragan and Lee Smith, director of the department of small and local business development, generally agreed with Sidley's findings in their joint-written response, but they noted many of the investigator's recommendations "are largely complete or in progress."

The OCTO is giving "serious consideration" to naming a procurement compliance officer, Sivak wrote, and the agency is working to hire more full-time employees. Gragan rejected the idea of creating a database that would automatically check for conflicts of interest during each procurement. And Smith said he "does not oppose the council re-examining the effects of the CBE preference on technology procurements." Five people, three of whom worked for the District, were arrested in the OCTO scam. All five, including Acar and Bansal, have pleaded guilty to bribery and other charges. Two dozen D.C. employees were fired in the wake of the scandal.

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The rental car center opening on Tuesday is part of the Miami Intermodal Center, which includes the Miami Central Station scheduled for completion in 2013.

Rental car center

• Cost: $343 million
• Location: Just off of LeJeune Road at 25th Street, across from the eastern edge of Miami International Airport (just north of the Dolphin Expressway/State Road 836)
• Size: 3.4 million square feet on four levels – about eight square blocks
• Number of rental car companies: 16
• Rental car capacity: 6,500 (second largest in the U.S.)
• Fuel positions: 120
• Wash bays: 42

Miami Central Station

Cost: $356 million

• Connections
• MIA Mover: A $303 million people mover that will connect to the airport's terminals
• Rail: Tri-Rail regional transit north to Broward and Palm Beach counties, Metrorail transit throughout Miami-Dade County, Amtrak and, potentially, high-speed rail electronic check payday advance. (The $526 million Metrorail link is projected to be done in April 2012.)
• Bus depot: Miami-Dade Transit, Greyhound and courtesy shuttles
• Taxis and other shuttles

Highway improvements

A $194 million project has widened LeJeune Road and alleviated airport traffic. Traffic flow was improved in the area with a dozen new bridges.

Future growth

Up to 1.4 million square feet of office, hotel, conference, restaurant and retail space could be added based on demand at the MIC. Up to 4.5 million square feet of additional development could fit just east of the MIC. The Florida Department of Transportation can lease or sell joint development parcels to private developers or public agencies.

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Gas prices in Georgia are down 1 cent from last week, following a drop in crude oil prices that tailed reports of slowed economic recovery, AAA Auto Club South reported.

The average price per gallon of gasoline in the Peach State is $2.62, compared with $2.63 last week, $2.59 a month ago and $2.47 a year ago, according to AAA.

The national average price of unleaded regular gasoline is $2.73 a gallon.

A report July 2 from the U.S. Labor Department showed national payrolls decreased by 125,000 last month — a sign the economy is improving at a much slower pace than expected fast payday loans. China also released a report last week showing manufacturing gains increased at the slowest pace in 16 months.

The reports caused the price of crude oil to drop $6.72 to settle Friday at $72.14 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Consumers paid lower retail gasoline prices this holiday weekend than many expected and can expect to see the lower prices continue throughout the next couple of weeks, AAA said.

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Since March, at least 10 construction companies and professional service firms have filed liens totaling more than $1.9 million against Union Station Holdings LLC, which owns the downtown St. Louis landmark.

Those include CB&E Construction Group, which in November 2008 was named general contractor for a proposed $20 million renovation of the 539-room St. Louis Union Station Marriott. That work was never completed, said Gus Cervetto, owner and principal with CB&E.

“The last time we got paid was July or August of 2009,” Cervetto said. He said his company halted work on the renovation last November as the unpaid bills lingered. “The only leverage we had was to walk off the job.”

CB&E filed the largest of the liens against Union Station, $1.28 million on April 23. The CB&E lien includes claims from some subcontractors who separately filed their own liens against Union Station, Cervetto said.

The most recent contractor to file a lien on the property is Kirberg Roofing Inc., which said in a June 15 mechanics lien that it has made repeated demands for payment of $236,358 it said it is still owed. Kirberg’s bill is for roofing work in the train shed area of Union Station, said Robert Golterman, an attorney with Lewis, Rice & Fingersh who represents Kirberg.

In November 2008, St. Louis Union Station announced it had selected CB&E Construction as the general contractor for the renovation work, which was to come in phases over two years. Ocean Hospitalities of Portsmith, N.H., which owns or operates some 120 hotels in the U.S. and Canada, took over management of the hotel property in December 2008. The management change came as the Union Station hotel, which had operated under the Hyatt hotel brand, was switching to become a Marriott.

It was not clear how or if the pay dispute at Union Station impacts the hotel’s relationship with Marriott. Neither a spokesperson for Marriott International, nor a representative of Ocean Hospitalities, nor a representative from Union Station Holdings returned messages about the pay disputes. Steven Snodgrass, an attorney with the Bryan Cave law firm who represents Marriott International in the dispute, declined to elaborate on the court filings.

Cervetto said his company and a number of subcontractors went through mediation with Union Station’s owners earlier this year which resulted in Union Station’s owners agreeing to pay its contractors in three installments. “When the first installment was due, they sent us a check for half of the amount (due),” Cervetto said. “These people are preying on the fact that these contractors need work.”

CB&E is represented by Matthew Menghini of the McCarthy Leonard & Kaemmerer law firm.

A group of five CB&E subcontractors who claim they are owed more than $320,000 from renovation work for Union Station Holdings, brought suit April 14 to collect on their unpaid liens cash advance in one hour. Companies have to bring suit within six months to enforce their liens, or the liens have no effect. That suit also named CB&E as a defendant along with Union Station Holdings.

Other large liens filed against Union Station have come from Suda Architects & Associates, which filed a $276,284 lien April 30, 10 days after the unexpected death of the firm’s principal, Larry Suda; and planning and design firm EDM Inc., which filed a $114,818 lien April 29.

Union Station Holdings owns the real estate. It was a customer of Park City Bank in Chicago, which was operated by FPOP Inc. and was providing some project financing. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized the bank in October 2009, and U.S. Bank acquired the assets.

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The economy grew at a slower pace in the first three months of this year than previously estimated, according to a government report Friday.

Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation’s economic activity, grew at an annual rate of 2.7% in the first three months of 2010, according to the Commerce Department, down from the previous reading of a 3% rise.

Economists expected the third reading of GDP during the first quarter to hold unrevised at 3%, according to a consensus of economist opinion from Briefing.com.

The Commerce Department said increased personal spending continued to stimulate the economy, but those advances were partly offset by "a larger decrease in state and local government spending."

The downward revision "leaves the current economic recovery looking even less impressive compared with previous ones," said Paul Dales of Capital Economics in a research note payday loans.

While Dales expects growth in the second quarter to pick up to an annual rate between 3% and 4%, he said that will not be sustainable.

"Growth will soon slow as the rebound in world trade fades, inventory rebuilding slows and the size of fiscal injection shrinks," he said. "Overall, the U.S. economy may be performing much better than those in Europe, but this is still the weakest and longest economic recovery in U.S. post-war history."

During the last three months of 2009, economic activity grew at an annual pace of 5.6%.  

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A state board officially approved a $1.4 million grant for the city of Rensselaer to offset the cost of a private developer to build a large residential and retail project along the Hudson River.

The Empire State Development Corp.’s board of directors voted June 24 to approve the grant, one of many across the state that’s expected to leverage nearly $160 million in private investments.

The grants are contingent upon the approval of a new state budget.

In Rensselaer, the Restore NY grant of up to $1.4 million will reimburse U.W. Marx Construction Co. for some of its costs related to the proposed de Laet’s Landing development. The 25-acre parcel is located along the river with views of downtown Albany, on the site of the former high school.

U.W. Marx was notified in September 2007 that the city was awarded the grant, but the funding wasn’t available until the ESDC board formally approved it, said Jeff West, vice president of U.W. Marx in Troy.

U.W. Marx expects to spend about $12 million on the first phase of the project, which includes building roads, sewer and other infrastructure, 40,000 square feet of retail space and 130 to 150 apartments.

The company has already demolished the old high school and received site plan approval from the city Planning Commission. It now must secure private financing, finish designing the apartments and retail space and hire a contractor to build the roads and utilities.

U.W. Marx also needs the city to approve the individual site plan for the first phase, West said.

The company hopes to start construction this summer or fall.

Ultimately, U.W. Marx wants to build a marina or dock along the river and thousands of additional square feet of retail space, a hotel and more residential units.

Under the terms of the state grant, the city will receive $600,000 to reimburse U.W. Marx. The remainder of the grant, $800,000, won’t be paid until U.W. Marx spends the full $12 million on the project, West said.

The city of Glens Falls was awarded a Restore NY grant of up to $500,000 to help pay for demolition and renovations involved in the city’s Restore III Empire Square project.

The $5.5 million project will incorporate historic rehabilitation and green building principles to create a mixed-use center of commerce and urban residential space near the downtown business district financial gap to bring the project to fruition.

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The Connected Care network, linking Coloradans to urban Front Range doctors via advanced teleconferencing, goes into action Tuesday after nearly a year in the planning stage.

Insurer UnitedHealthcare and hospital system Centura Health officially will launch the system at four rural facilities and three Front Range hospitals ― St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver, Littleton Adventist Hospital and St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center in Pueblo. Officials hope to expand the system in the future to more Centura Health facilities and to qualified community health centers, critical access hospitals and rural health clinics.

Connected Care clinics at four sites will use audio, video and medical technologies to connect patients with physicians specializing in several fields, including ear/nose/throat, cardiology, gastroenterology, neurosurgery, critical care/pulmonology and pre- and post-surgery consultations. They are expected to serve as many as 4,800 patient visits per year.

"The launch of Connected Care helps eliminate distance as an obstacle to accessing needed health care in rural parts of Colorado," said Beth Soberg, CEO of UnitedHealthcare of Colorado, in a news release. "These four sites, and the ones to follow, will build upon our state's current health care infrastructure and provide people in these locations with a more convenient way to receive quality care."

First announced last August, the system's official launch will take place during a scheduled 11 a.m. ceremony Tuesday at St. Anthony Central Hospital featuring Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien.

VIDEO: Watch a clip with details on the new Connected Care program.

The four rural facilities that will feature Connected Care clinics are:

• Buena Vista Family Practice;
• High Plains Community Health Center in Lamar;
• Rio Grande Hospital in Del Norte; and
• St. Vincent General Hospital in Leadville.

Patients can schedule telehealth appointments at the rural locations, which have been equipped with remote monitoring equipment such as digital stethoscopes and dermascopes as well as audio and video equipment. From there they can speak to specialists not typically available in rural areas.

The services will be provided via the Colorado Telehealth Network, a statewide fiber-optic network expected eventually to connect more than 400 hospitals, clinics and health care providers in the state, according to the release.

Steven Summer, president/CEO of the Colorado Hospital Association, called Connected Care "a great example of the new possibilities that CTN is helping to enable."

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Microtecnica on Friday announced it has won a contract from Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. to supply the environmental control system for the company’s two-seat trainer aircraft, the Hurkus.

Microtecnica, which has an office in Wichita, is an international aerospace equipment company headquartered in Turin, Italy.

The Hurkus is the first trainer aircraft designed and built in Turkey. It will be used primarily by the Turkish Air Force.

“The Hurkus is a landmark project for the Turkish Air Force and one that we are extremely proud to be involved in,” Duane Manning, Microtecnica’s business development manager for the Americas, said in a news release. “The award of the contract to handle the development of the entire environmental control system is a testament to Microtecnica’s experience in developing such flight-critical components.”

Manning is based in Wichita.

The amount of the Turkish contract was not released. Microtecnica in May announced it had won a $25 million contract for similar work on the Saab Gripen NG aircraft.

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