Is the gloom hanging over Wall Street overdone?
Of course that's easy to say when you're sitting in West Virginia, where coal is mined at $115 or more a ton (up from $48 a year ago) and natural gas is produced that fetches more than $11 per million British Thermal Units (up from $6.30 a year ago).
Consider this nugget from a story in Saturday's Wall Street Journal that reported the fall in the value of the stock of UAL Corp., the parent of United Airlines:
"As of Friday, UAL, which generates about $20 billion in annual revenue, had an equity value of $433 million, less than the retail price of two jumbo jets."
UAL's equity value at the market close on Wednesday: $393.6 million.
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Larry Puccio, Gov. Joe Manchin's chief of staff, promised last month that an outside appraisal of the Greenbrooke Building would be made before the state decides if it will purchase the structure.
The state has an option to buy the building at 1124 Smith St. for $13.9 million. The county Assessor's Office has valued the property at just $1.6 million.
H. Kim Painter, senior appraiser in the state Department of Administration's Real Estate Division, has conducted the only full-fledged appraisal of the building so far. He valued the property at $14.5 million.
Is the gloom hanging over Wall Street overdone?
Of course that's easy to say when you're sitting in West Virginia, where coal is mined at $115 or more a ton (up from $48 a year ago) and natural gas is produced that fetches more than $11 per million British Thermal Units (up from $6.30 a year ago).
Consider this nugget from a story in Saturday's Wall Street Journal that reported the fall in the value of the stock of UAL Corp., the parent of United Airlines:
"As of Friday, UAL, which generates about $20 billion in annual revenue, had an equity value of $433 million, less than the retail price of two jumbo jets."
UAL's equity value at the market close on Wednesday: $393.6 million.
***
Larry Puccio, Gov. Joe Manchin's chief of staff, promised last month that an outside appraisal of the Greenbrooke Building would be made before the state decides if it will purchase the structure.
The state has an option to buy the building at 1124 Smith St. for $13.9 million. The county Assessor's Office has valued the property at just $1.6 million.
H. Kim Painter, senior appraiser in the state Department of Administration's Real Estate Division, has conducted the only full-fledged appraisal of the building so far. He valued the property at $14.5 million.
Diane Holley, the Department of Administration's spokeswoman, said, "The final selection of an outside appraiser has not been made at this time. However, we expect the contractual process to be completed soon. The Real Estate Division expects a final appraisal report within the next six weeks."
The state's option to buy the building expires Oct. 30.
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Robert DeGregory, assistant general counsel of the United Steelworkers, said the union on June 27 appealed a decision to dismiss its unfair labor practices complaint against Chesapeake Energy Corp.'s eastern operations.
Chesapeake's contract with Steelworkers Locals 628 and 372 expired Dec. 1, 2006. The union represents 143 Chesapeake employees in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. The company made a final contract offer on May 4, 2007. The members of the locals rejected the offer last December.
The company declared an impasse in negotiations and, on Feb. 1, implemented the terms of its offer. That sparked the union's unfair labor practices complaint.
On May 30 Gary Muffley, regional director of the National Labor Relations Board's Cincinnati office, told the steelworkers that an investigation disclosed that the parties had reached a valid impasse after having met for 43 negotiating sessions between Oct. 27, 2006, and Jan. 16, 2008. Muffley said that after a valid impasse was reached, Chesapeake was free to implement its final offer. He concluded that further proceedings were not warranted and he declined to issue a complaint.
Contact writer George Hohmann at busin...@dailymail.com or (304) 348-4836.
