PROFNET EXPERT ALERTS: Beef Recalls / Job Outlook / Social Media

1. Business: Global Climate Change Ruling: Widespread Risks for Business
2. Business: New EPA Rules Present Challenges for Struggling Businesses
3. Economy: The Reality: The Outlook for Jobs is Still Poor
4. Finance: Should Tax Credit for First-Time Home Buyers Be Extended?
5. Finance: Are Re-Remics Getting a Bad Rap?
6. Finance: High-Yield Inflows Propel New Issue Market
7. Food: Have a Hamburger; Hold the E. Coli
8. Internet: Twitter and Other Social Media Sites' Funding
9. Taxation: IRS Shows No Mercy to Struggling Businesses
10. Workplace: Twitter May Present Unnecessary Workplace Distractions

1. BUSINESS: GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE RULING PRESENTS WIDESPREAD RISKS FOR
BUSINESS. RICHARD O. FAULK, head of the Environmental Practice Group at
GARDERE WYNNE SEWELL LLP in Houston, and a "Climate Change: The New Mass Tort
For the 21st Century?" panelist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Legal Reform
Summit, Oct. 28 in Washington, D.C.: "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second
Circuit's overly broad ruling in State of Connecticut v. American Electric
Power Co., Inc., may have extraordinary implications. The court held that
power utilities can be sued for creating a federal common law global warming
public nuisance. And although it appears to just impact utilities, the
decision entails major risks for all industries. Any industry that generates
greenhouse gas emissions is implicated, and that category includes virtually
all businesses." News Contact: Rhonda Reddick, rhonda@androvett.com Phone: +1-
800-559-4534 (10/5/09)
2. BUSINESS: NEW EPA RULES PRESENT CHALLENGES FOR STRUGGLING BUSINESSES.
SCOTT DEATHERAGE, attorney in the Dallas office of THOMPSON & KNIGHT: "More
than 10,000 facilities across the United States, ranging from electricity
producers and oil refineries to municipal landfills, must meet new
Environmental Protection Agency requirements on monitoring greenhouse gas
emissions by Jan. 1, 2010. As one of the first salvos in imposing a GHG
regulatory system, this has a number of implications, particularly for public
companies. The costs, financial disclosures and public relations aspects of
this and other pending climate change legislation should be a strategic issue
for corporate directors and managers. Although some industries had sought to
delay the new requirements, facilities now have less than four months to
prepare. It may be a challenge for some businesses to make the significant
investments in monitoring equipment and processes to meet that deadline." News
Contact: Barry Pound, barry@androvett.com Phone: +1-800-559-4534 (10/5/09)
3. ECONOMY: THE REALITY: THE OUTLOOK FOR JOBS IS STILL POOR. JAMES
FRISCHLING, co-founder and president at NEWOAK CAPITAL, an asset management,
advisory and capital markets firm in Manhattan: "If you listen to many experts
and are watching the significant rally in the stock market, you might believe
all that was bad is now good again. But without a shift in the direction or
even a leveling off of the increasing unemployment rate, this rally is going
to run out of steam. While there are many signs that the economy is in fact
recovering, the combination of increasing unemployment and a lack of consumer
confidence suggests the rally in the stock market is overdone. Even the
relatively stronger companies that are now turning the corner are reluctant to
hire for fear that it's still too soon to make such a bold move. They're
getting by with reduced staffing and stretching those employees in order to
manage costs. Everyone knows that no successful business is built or can run
on cost-cutting strategy alone, and without seeing an increase in revenues,
these companies will continue to tread water and keep staffing levels
unchanged." News Contact: Marisa D'Vari, MDVari@newoakcapital.com (10/5/09)
4. FINANCE: SHOULD TAX CREDIT FOR FIRST-TIME HOME BUYERS BE EXTENDED? VINCENT
TRUGLIA, managing director of economic research at NEWOAK CAPITAL, an asset
management, advisory and capital markets firm in Manhattan: "The $8,000 tax
credit for first-time home buyers should be extended beyond its scheduled Nov.
30 deadline. Not only has it helped a large number of buyers purchase their
first homes, it has also helped reduce the inventory of unsold homes,
particularly in hard-hit states like California. Congress should also consider
extending the tax credit beyond first-time buyers to all middle-class
purchasers. Such an action would help people who need to move for family- or
work-related reasons to have greater flexibility, besides helping to reduce
the excess housing inventory even faster. An added benefit would be that
overall growth would be higher and unemployment lower if these actions are
taken." News Contact: Marisa D'Vari, MDVari@newoakcapital.com (10/5/09)
5. FINANCE: ARE RE-REMICS GETTING A BAD RAP? MALAY BANSAL, managing director
at NEWOAK CAPITAL, an asset management, advisory, and capital markets firm in
Manhattan: "Re-remic (also known as resecuritization) is instantly rejected in
a knee-jerk type reaction by many people, but single-bond re-remics are a
useful tool. With single-bond re-remics, all you are doing is taking a bond
and splitting it into a senior and a junior bond. The senior bond is better
than the original bond because it has additional support from the junior bond,
which will absorb any losses before the senior. For buyers, the senior bond
would be less likely to be downgraded or face losses in future. It's a simple
process to create this, and a simple structure should not cost a lot. Re-
remics are just a tool, and can be useful if used properly." News Contact:
Marisa D'Vari, MDVari@newoakcapital.com (10/5/09)
6. FINANCE: HIGH-YIELD INFLOWS PROPEL NEW ISSUE MARKET. MARK PIBL, managing
director of high-yield and leveraged loans at NEWOAK CAPITAL, an asset
management, advisory and capital markets firm in Manhattan: "According to AMG
Data, this last third quarter, we saw nearly $5 billion flow into high-yield
mutual funds. This helped propel issuers to take advantage of this new-found
liquidity by raising over $40 billion this past quarter. Our outlook is, given
the strong performance in high yield over the past three months, additional
new money will flow into this sector. It's one of the only asset classes that
is offering an attractive yield with ample liquidity." News Contact: Marisa
D'Vari, MDVari@newoakcapital.com (10/5/09)
7. FOOD: HAVE A HAMBURGER; HOLD THE E. COLI. ALLEN WILLIAMS, Ph.D., chief
operating officer of TALLGRASS BEEF COMPANY, LLC, is the nation's foremost
authority on the production of grass-fed beef. Williams provided the following
response to a major investigative report published in the Sunday, Oct. 4,
editions of the New York Times, which detailed the industrial ground beef
production practices that lead to E. coli-caused sickness in tens of thousands
of people each year: "The majority of E. coli comes into processing plants on
the hides of grain-fed feedlot cattle and in their guts. Most beef in the
United States comes from cattle that are fattened on grain in feedlots. Grain
diets alter the rumen pH in the gut to allow the acid-resistant bacteria, such
as pathogenic E. coli bacteria, to grow and thrive. Grass-fed cattle are much
less prone to the pathogenic forms of E. coli that usually lead to sickness
and recalls. Since 100 percent of grass-fed cattle are fed only forage diets
and raised in the pasture, they are clean inside and out." Williams is based
in Starkville, Miss. News Contact: Martha Murphy, martha@thebloomagency.com
Phone: +1-336-397-5407 (10/5/09)
8. INTERNET: TWITTER AND OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA SITES' FUNDING. ROB ENDERLE,
president and principal analyst of the ENDERLE GROUP, a forward-looking
emerging technology advisory firm in San Jose, Calif., said on the heels of
Twitter appearing to be set to raise $100 million, valuing it at $1 billion:
"There appears to be a repeating trend, perhaps more of a feeding frenzy, when
new popular companies pop up, and money seems to flow to them as if by magic.
Unfortunately, business plans don't always result, and in my experience, all
this extra cash often seems to take the financial pressure off the firm that
otherwise might have driven a good business plan. It seems likely that these
excess valuations and massive cash influxes actually may do more to assure the
young company never actually becomes profitable than to assure the
profitability they anticipate." News Contact: Jessica Mularczyk,
mularczykpr@verizon.net Phone: +1-508-498-9300 (10/5/09)
9. TAXATION: IRS SHOWS NO MERCY TO STRUGGLING BUSINESSES. MICHAEL ROZBRUCH,
CEO of TAX RESOLUTION SERVICES, and tax relief expert in Los Angeles: "With
the federal government looking for ways to fund deficit-reduction activities
as well as close the growing tax gap, the IRS is taking a closer look at
employment tax returns and stepping up increasingly aggressive efforts to
collect unpaid payroll taxes. And in this economy, many businesses that find
themselves in a cash-flow crisis may be tempted to 'borrow' from the money
they collect from employment taxes to pay operating expenses until things
improve. If you've considered this, know that it's a big mistake that could
end up costing you your business. The IRS views non-payment of payroll taxes
as 'theft' and thus it carries severe consequences. Delinquent payroll taxes
can be the downfall of many otherwise successful businesses -- so knowing how
to resolve payroll tax problems can help you avoid any long-term devastation
to your business and protect the future of your company." Editor's Note:
Rozbruch has a profile listed in the ProfNet Experts Database. To view the
profile, go to http://www.profnet.com and, after logging in, click on "Search
Expert." News Contact: Debbie Edwards, debbie@taxresolution.com Phone: +1-866-
477-7762, ext. 326 Web site: http://www.taxresolution.com (10/5/09)
10. WORKPLACE: TWITTER MAY PRESENT UNNECESSARY WORKPLACE DISTRACTIONS.
STEPHEN FOX, employment attorney in the Dallas office of FISH & RICHARDSON:
"Texas Tech University's football coach recently banned his players from
having Twitter accounts, claiming they were an unnecessary distraction. This
is a position more employers might find themselves forced to take as the
interest in social media continues to grow. However, while there is no
question that employers should implement a policy barring workers from
disclosing any confidential business information while using Twitter or other
social media, it's hard to justify completely banning an employee from their
use when they are on their own time. But an employer who is seeing workers
distracted by tweets and status updates may rightfully decide enough is enough
and ban their use during regular work hours." News Contact: Rhonda Reddick,
rhonda@androvett.com Phone: +1-800-559-4534 (10/5/09)
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