Gov. Bill Ritter’s vaunted renewable-energy initiative still has a ways to go.
Last week’s news conference to announce the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels was held on the west steps of the Capitol.
Assorted politicians, industry leaders and assembled media shivered as gusty winds buffeted the venue in the shade cast by the building.
Meanwhile, the vacant east steps of the Capitol were bathed in cozy, warm sunlight.
Think solar.
Take concrete action to get potholes filled
If there is a pothole the size of Chatfield Reservoir in your neighborhood, the “No More Potholes” consumer-action campaign wants you.
Launched recently by the Rocky Mountain Cement Council, the Colorado Ready Mixed Concrete Association and the Colorado/Wyoming chapter of the American Concrete Pavement Association, the “No More Potholes” campaign is designed to drive motorists to www.nomorepotholes.com.
There, people can e-mail their local city- council rep to request that future street paving be done using concrete. The groups say concrete is the “Cadillac” of road-paving materials because it is more durable and longer-lasting.
The ads were created by Louis ville-based CTA Integrated Communications.
Brains behind Baby Einstein booked up
Littleton’s Julie Aigner-Clark, inventor of the Baby Einstein products, is among 17 high-profile female entrepreneurs featured in the new book “Secrets of Millionaire Moms.” She shares a spot in the book by Tamara Monosoff with the founder of Build-a-Bear, the face behind Shabby Chic and the CEO of the Lillian Vernon catalog.
Aigner-Clark sold her baby-products empire to Disney but has since has moved on to a line of products that stimulate the minds of people with Alzheimer’s.
BUSINESS BOOKSHELF
Big banks feeding on easy credit, fees
“Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit, and the Era of Predatory Lenders” by James D. Scurlock (Scribner, $24).
Big banks battling to keep Wal-Mart from forming its own bank have no moral high ground to stand on, suggests documentary filmmaker James D. Scurlock in his provocative new book, “Maxed Out.”
Despite assertions by some banks about establishing the right relationships, Scurlock says “twenty-first century banking is as much about building relationships as Wal-Mart is about building communities.”
Scurlock maintains that the primary objective of the banks is to deliver credit efficiently to as many customers as possible and to convert that credit into debt.
“What’s really important, then, is being the low-cost provider,” Scurlock writes. “And to do that, you must maximize your economies of scale; you must get bigger and bigger, and you must become ruthlessly efficient at every level of the company.”
The banks, therefore, don’t want Wal- Mart to build a bank because they are afraid it will beat them at their own game.
Scurlock describes today’s big banks as “sales centers” for pushing credit cards, second mortgages, car loans, credit insurance and other financial products. Then he lists some of the fees that banks tack on, including fees for going over the limit, paying early, paying by phone and paying in person. Returned-check and late-payment fees, he points out, have risen 200 percent in the past 10 years.
“These fees, incidentally, cost the banks nothing. So, to Wal-Mart, I say, ‘Bring it on!’ They’ve never charged me a processing fee for running my Cocoa Puffs over the scanner. And they let you use the bathroom,” Scurlock writes.
FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
