Navajo bar initiation comes with ribbing
Troy Eid, a partner with the law firm of Greenberg Traurig in Denver, has been negotiating on behalf of El Paso Natural Gas for a right-of-way renewal agreement on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona and New Mexico.
If the negotiations ever end up in tribal court, Eid will be prepared. He was one of two Coloradans who passed the Navajo bar exam this year. The other was Chris Clark-Deschene of Boulder, a Navajo tribal member and partner in the Denver-based energy consulting firm of Schaff & Clark-Deschene.
Unlike most state bar associations, the Navajo Nation requires members to accept pro bono appointments representing indigent tribal members in family law, criminal defense, consumer protection and other cases.
The 16 attorneys who passed the bar exam – two-thirds of them Navajo tribal members – also got some pro bono ribbing from tribal Council Delegate Larry Noble after the swearing-in ceremony Nov. 4 in Window Rock, Ariz.
“‘You guys are going to start billing me already, I can just feel it!” Noble told them, according to Eid. “Remember, under Navajo law, none of you can repossess my Harley without my written consent.”
CEO? Heck, no, say some execs in survey
Business executives are now thinking twice about pursuing the corner office, according to a global survey by Burson- Marsteller, a public relations firm based in New York.
The research reveals that 54 percent of global business leaders report they would turn down the CEO position if it were offered to them. The survey also asked execs, “Why not be the CEO?”
The No. 1 reason was the absence of work/life balance. More than 64 percent of respondents cite this as the leading obstacle. Other barriers cited for CEOs are the tyranny of quarterly earnings, persistent stress and intense public scrutiny.
However, global business execs are less likely to say that the actual pressures of running a business – regulatory oversight, cost-cutting – lead them to turn down the CEO position. And apparently much of the world has a rosier view of being a CEO: The highest levels of CEO disillusionment were found in North America and Europe.
Fuel cheapskate, thy name is American
What’s a fair price for a gallon of gas? For a U.S. resident, the answer is about $2. For people living in London, $5.16 sounds about right.
So says a recent AP/Ipsos International poll that surveyed 8,000 people in nine industrialized countries – including 1,022 in the U.S.
On average, U.S. residents cited a price of $1.99 per gallon, followed by Canadians ($2.72) and Australians ($2.94). At the other end were residents of the United Kingdom ($5.16), Germany ($4.87) and South Korea ($4.11).
The poll also found that 69 percent of U.S. residents thought the price of fuel would cause a financial strain during the next six months. That figure was 85 percent among South Koreans and 31 percent among Germans.
Maybe it’s the ability to assess the baggage
Apparently airplane travel still has some advantages.
Nearly 21 percent of passengers surveyed recently have flirted with their seatmates, according to a survey by Chase United Mileage Plus Visa. About 21 percent have exchanged phone numbers; 40 percent have shared a meal or drink at the airport with someone they met on a plane. Five percent went out on a date afterward.
Most travelers avoid conversations about political views, religion and dating, according to the survey.
The poll of 424 adults was conducted by Ipsos Nov. 4-7 and had a plus or minus 6 percentage point margin of error.
Comcast staying aloof from VoIP price war
Comcast Colorado said it has no plans to slash prices of Digital Voice telephone service to gain market share from Qwest.
“Why wouldn’t we price it at $10? Because we’d lose money,” Scott Binder, senior vice president for Comcast Colorado, told The Denver Post last week. “We will do things, promotionally, to try to bundle some of the services to try to get people to take our products.”
Comcast’s Digital Voice service, including local and long distance service, ranges from $39.95 to $54.95 monthly – depending on whether customers have other services. Without any other Comcast service, Digital Voice costs $54.95 a month.
Other communications companies have slashed prices. In June, SBC Communications, the No. 2 U.S. telephone provider, cut the price of its high-speed Internet service from $19.95 to $14.95 a month. In July, EchoStar Communications slashed its Dish Network satellite TV service in certain cities for 30 days, offering 60 channels for $19.99 for one year, including free installation and a free DVR.
Cerberus chief bags companies, big game
You may have heard little about Steve Feinberg or the hedge-fund group he heads, Cerberus Capital Management, based in New York.
But recently it has gained control of companies including Mervyn’s, the National and Alamo car-rental companies, and Formica Corp. Cerberus is said to be in the hunt for Albertsons, the supermarket chain.
“Cerberus controls companies that ring up at least a combined $30 billion in sales,” Business Week magazine reported recently. It also noted that Feinberg last year climbed an 11,000-foot mountain in Colorado and shot a bull elk with one shot.
