Wednesday, August 25, 2010, 2:44pm CDT | Modified: Wednesday, August 25, 2010, 3:14pm
ATA: Trucking industry reverses two months of tonnage drops
Kansas City Business Journal

The trucking industry ended a two-month tonnage slide in July, returning to its improvement on levels from a year ago.

Trade group American Trucking Associations said Wednesday that its advance index of for-hire truck tonnage rose 1.5 percent last month, up from a revised 1.6 percent drop in June. The index is adjusted for seasonal variations.

With the July increase, the index moved to 110. The base year of 2000 equals 100.

ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said that although he welcomes an improvement in freight levels, he still thinks the recovery for trucking is going to be long process.

“The economy is slowing, and truck freight tonnage has essentially gone sideways since April 2010,” Costello said in a release.

He added, however, that the second half of the year will see gains: “After accounting for the reduction in supply over the last few years, even small gains in tonnage will have a larger impact on the industry than in the past.”

Compared with July 2009, tonnage rose 7.4 percent, the eighth straight year-to-year improvement.

For the first seven months of the year, tonnage was 6.7 percent better than during the same period last year.

Not seasonally adjusted, the ATA index fell 5 percent to 109.9 between June and July.

Earlier this month, Overland Park-based YRC Worldwide Inc. (Nasdaq: YRCW) said tonnage for its regional division was up 4.6 percent from a year ago in the second quarter, leading to positive adjusted earnings before taxes and other expenses. It expects higher operating profits in the third quarter.

Trucking has been a leading indicator of the U.S. economy’s health, hauling 68 percent of tonnage carried by domestic modes of freight transportation.

davidtwiddy@bizjournals.com | 816-777-2204 | Twitter: @dtwiddy71

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Born September 9, 1937 Dick was recently inducted into the National Football league Hall of Fame. He spent 14 years in the NFL as a player for the Detroit Lions and at the age of 72 he is entering into his 36th year as a coach as the defensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Dick Lebeau

As far as my playing ability, I was known as the guy who was just going to come to work every day, I was going to play hard every day. Might not always play good every play, but I was going to play the next play as hard. I learned that from London, Ohio, a small town about two hours from where we’re standing. Honesty and hard work, that’s about all they value down there. It sure has stood me in good stead.

I’ll leave you with one thing. Life is for living, folks. Don’t let a number be anything other than a number. Don’t let somebody tell you that you’re too old to do this or too old to do that. Stay in life. Life is a gift. It’s a joy. Don’t drop out of it. Don’t let somebody else tell you and don’t let your mind tell you.

If I would have gotten out of my life’s work at 65 or 67, when they say is the age of retirement, here is what I would have missed, folks. I would have missed not one but two World Championship football teams that I got to be a part of. I got to be a part of a No. 1 defense that statistically had the lowest numbers in the last 35 or 40 years. I had my number retired from my high school. Had a building named after me in my hometown. I made the Detroit Lions all 75 year team. I was accepted into the Ohio State University Athletic Hall of Fame. Now tonight I guess when I sit down, get off this speaking, which I’m gonna do, I’ll be in the NFL Hall of Fame.

My mother always said, Onward and upward, age is just a number. God love y’all. Thank you.

Link to Full Text

By Deborah Ball Kearns, RE/MAX Times Online Associate Editor

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently released its interpretive rule of a RESPA guideline concerning home warranty companies compensating real estate agents for selling home warranties to buyers and sellers.

According to HUD’s updated interpretation, brokers and agents are allowed to be compensated on a per-transaction basis for selling home warranties to their buyer clients.

But the National Association of Realtors has expressed concerns that the RESPA rule isn’t clear on whether real estate agents and brokers can receive flat-fee compensation for marketing home warranty products. Some real estate companies – including RE/MAX – have business agreements with home warranty companies to market such products to buyers and sellers as a risk-management tool in the course of a home sale or purchase.

Here’s an excerpt from a letter NAR sent to HUD on July 22:

“Home warranties are beneficial products for homebuyers, sellers and homeowners, and home warranty companies do not employ independent sales representatives to acquaint consumers with these products. They are not required for a settlement to be successfully concluded and are often not paid for or sold in conjunction with settlement.

Real estate brokers and agents perform important services on behalf of home warranty companies to educate consumers about home warranty products and service customer questions and claims after these products are purchased. These services are actual, necessary and distinct services from those typically performed by real estate brokers and agents, and Section 8(c)(2) of RESPA permits the real estate broker or agent to receive compensation for these services.

We respectfully request the Department to reconsider its characterization of real estate broker or agent direct-to-consumer marketing services as mere referrals and consider clarifying that general marketing services may be compensable services under Section 8(c)(2) of RESPA.

We are concerned that our members do not have clear guidance to assist them in creating RESPA-compliant service arrangements. NAR asks HUD to consider clarifying the facts underlying HUD’s analysis in the interpretive rule, as well as the application of the rule to per-transaction compensation arrangements. It is important for NAR’s members to understand that flat-fee marketing and service arrangements that comply with Section 8(c)(2) of RESPA are not covered by the interpretive rule.”

If you have questions or concerns about RESPA compliance, you should contact NAR, your local real estate board or your own legal counsel for further advice.

© 2010 RE/MAX, LLC. RE/MAX Affiliates may share this article, provided they do not charge for it and this notice is included. All other rights reserved.

Comment on this story
E-mail your comments to editor@remax.net. Please include your full name, RE/MAX office, city and state or province. Comments, slightly edited for length, flow and punctuation, will appear below.

Comments (2)
As usual, the government has given us a yes, no, maybe answer and I, for one, am not surprised. With that said, can we continue to sell the warranty or not. Yes or no would be the preferred answer.
– Linda Greenwell, RE/MAX Alliance, Louisville, Ky.

The warranty company I use offers “with” or “without” administrative fee (fee paid to real estate agent). I always choose “without” the fee. This saves the buyer or seller money (usually about $75) by not paying the administrative fee. I don’t need to take a fee, I’m already making a commission! Offer the savings to the party paying for the warranty – that goes a long way.
– Rachel Reardon, RE/MAX Executive Realty, Charlotte, N.C.

The scheme begins with an email message from the foreign buyer explaining that they are interested in permanently relocating to Kansas and would like to purchase property with cash from an investment account.  Following the initial communication, the foreign buyer will mail a check or wire funds from a foreign bank account for the earnest money and a substantial down payment to the REALTOR®.  Unfortunately, the check or the wired funds originate from a bank account that does not exist and the funds are fraudulent.

As soon as the funds are deposited in the broker’s escrow or trust account, the foreign buyer suddenly cancels the transaction and demands the immediate return of the deposited funds.  Once the funds are wired back to the foreign buyer, the domestic bank holding the REALTOR®’s trust account will identify the original check or wired funds as fraudulent and the REALTOR® will be defrauded out of the money that was refunded to the foreign buyer from the escrow or trust account.

In order to avoid becoming a victim of these types of fraudulent schemes, never enter into one of these transactions without consulting your supervising broker and company legal counsel and watch out for the following red flags:

•  Cash offer from a foreign buyer drawn from a foreign bank account;

•  Foreign buyer insists on email communications and will not agree to conduct business over the phone;

•  Provides a passport and account statement as proof that the funds reside in a foreign bank account; and

•  Initial email communication contains typographical errors and poor grammar.

The intersection will close at 7 a.m. Saturday, and is scheduled to reopen on Tuesday, August 10, weather permitting.

At this intersection, more than 24,000 vehicles travel north or south on Antioch Road and more than 19,000 vehicles travel east or west on College Boulevard. If you are one of those drivers, please make alternate plans during the closure.

Completion of the Antioch Road widening is set for late fall.

Although street construction and closings causes temporary inconvenience, the long-term benefit is great by relieving future traffic flow. Citizens and businesses in Overland Park are fortunate to have a progressive local government that makes traffic and transportation a top priority because it’s what residents rank as their number one concern on citywide surveys.

To sign up to receive Orange Barrel Alerts by e-mail from the City of Overland Park, click here.

Listed below are tips for individuals on preparing for a disaster.

1. Recordkeeping Take advantage of paperless recordkeeping for financial and tax records. Many people receive bank statements and documents by e-mail. This method is an outstanding way to secure financial records. Important tax records such as W-2s, tax returns and other paper documents can be scanned onto an electronic format. You can copy them onto a ‘key’ or ‘jump drive’ periodically and then keep the electronic records in a safe place.
2. Document Valuables The IRS has disaster loss workbooks for individuals that can help you compile a room-by-room list of your belongings. One option is to photograph or videotape the contents of your home, especially items of greater value. You should store the photos in a safe place away from the geographic area at risk. This will help you recall and prove the market value of items for insurance and casualty loss claims.
3. Update Emergency Plans Emergency plans should be reviewed annually. Individual taxpayers should make sure they are saving documents everybody should keep including such things as W-2s, home closing statements and insurance records. Make sure you have a means of receiving severe weather information; if you have a NOAA Weather Radio, put fresh batteries in it. Make sure you know what you should do if threatening weather approaches.
4. Count on the IRS In the event of a disaster, the IRS stands ready to help. The IRS has valuable information you can request if your records are destroyed. If you have been impacted by a federally declared disaster, you may receive copies or transcripts of previously filed tax returns free of charge by submitting Form 4506, Request for Copy of Tax Return, or Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return, clearly identified as a disaster related request.

For more information type “Preparing for a Disaster” in the search box on the IRS.gov homepage.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? For four Kansas City area high school and college students, practicing was just the beginning.

The string quartet Menergy performed Monday in New York in the final round of the 2010 International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition.

Out of 88 initial contestants, judged on their DVD submissions, Menergy was one of 25 ensembles selected to compete in the semifinals in Boston. Then the quartet advanced with eight other groups to the final round at Carnegie Hall.

“It was a little unreal,” said Melissa Kornspan, 17, the ensemble’s cellist. “It was definitely a great experience.”

Menergy’s four members range in age from 17 to 20, and only one has attended a university, making them among the youngest players on stage.

This year’s winner was a professional group from Turkey.

The Kansas City quartet didn’t place in the final round, but the judges were impressed by how well such a young group performed, said Jackie Lee, the quartet’s coach and founder of Stringendo, the program that started the group.

“We’re talking about high school students competing with professional and pre-professional groups internationally,” Lee said.

Violist Kevan Clarkston, 20, added: “It was still great to be in competition with those people.”

Violinist Philip Marten, 17, called the experience intimidating.

“Our coach told us to think about all the great performers that were there before us,” he said.

While the competition may have been their only thought at the time, during the school year the quartet members are involved in more than just music.

“This is a program where students sacrifice weekends, and evenings sometimes,” Lee said.

In the fall, Kornspan will attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study engineering. Clarkston was at Rockhurst University studying biochemistry, but he transferred to the University of Missouri-Kansas City to double major in music starting this fall.

He said the Stringendo program in part inspired him to change his major.

“This quartet formed two years ago,” he said, “and I came to love chamber music.”

© 2010 Kansas City Star and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.kansascity.com

Mick Eichholz – Hinkle & Eichholz – mickeichholz@msn.com – 913-764-8000

Raylene Kaye Crozier – 913-831-3685 – rkc@crozierlaw.com

Jennifer Blum – 913-341-0303

Jeff Rinne – 913-334-5444

Vernon Jarboe – 785-357-6311 – vjarboe@sloanlawfirm.com – http://www.sloanlawfirm.com/attvjarboe.html

Bob Bartunek – (he is part of a pretty large firm) tel – 816-421-4460 – http://www.sblsg.com/attorney_detail.asp?attorney=13

Robert Vancrum -913-948-9400 – http://www.vancrumlaw.com/

Here are some of the Largest law firms in town:

Lathrope and Gage – John Vratil – http://www.lathropgage.com/jvratil/

Stinson, Morris & Hecker – Mark Wilson – http://www.stinson.com/MarcWilson/

Polsineli & Shugart – http://www.polsinelli.com/lwinn/

Shook Hardy & Bacon – Greg Wolf – http://www.shb.com/locations.aspx?id=18

Here is the Real Estate Board – Attorney – Jim Hubbard – http://www.nhrk.com – 913-782-2350

I have worked with all of them in some fashion and found them to knowledgeable and reasonable.

Best regards,

Steve Kornspan
Re/Max Premier Realty Kansas City | Associate Broker, ABR, GRI, SRES
main: 913-871-4148 ext 2 | direct tel/text: 913-735-5752 | direct fax: 913-562-5789
Steve@SteveKornspan.com | www.SteveKornspan.com

I purchased it at the local Best Buy. The sales person Mark really was great. No bs just told me what I needed to know and sent me on my way. Thanks Mark!

First computer to try to install it on was a dell latitude d630, vista home basic, then a Dell 4300 w/ XP pro, and then a gateway netbook with Vista. After 3 hours I got it working on the first computer. Plugged in the chip like it said, it ran trying to install hardware, could not find driver it failed. Went to Virgin site. Could not find driver there. Did not want to call at 10pm at night.

It recognized the Virgin card and the micro sd drive and sometimes would recognize the usb drive where the virgin software was stored. But when you click on the virgin drive it would disconnect it.

Finally after trying various other things, I kept pluggin in the card, opening it under my computer, then when you see the virgin software drive, right click on in and select open. DO NOT TRY INSTALL it will just disconnect the drive again. Then when it is open and you can see the files. On two computers I was able to run the “Install” on the third I had to run the “Lite”. Not sure why that worked.

After you get the software installed it forces you to the Virgin site to buy time. Which is very slow.

IMPORTANT TIPS – Go to your firewall, and block all internet activity. You would be amazed how many little useless programs are drawing bandwidth. Also, turn off windows update. Also, disable all your little browser add-ons. They are nearly all drawing bandwidth constantly. Especially things like faster fox and delicious.

After that, the card seems to work just fine. We are headed out on a road trip. I’ll let you know.

THINGS THAT DID NOT WORK
Tried installing my old sprint card since it was the same. It installed perfectly. I then tried the Virgin card to see if Vista would use the Sprint card driver for the Virgin. It did not. Don’t bother.

Next, went to the Novatel wireless site and downloaded drivers. Then installed them. Seemed to work a little but again don’t bother.