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Show PAGE 6 il - I FRIDAY, JUNE 20. 2008 BUSINESS EDITOR :A A Ijocal Industry Dow Jones News & Notes Final Nasdaq S&P 500 Final 2462.06 32.35 Final 1342.83 5.02 ; 12,063.09 34.03 Grace Leong gleonghefaldextra.com 344-291- 0 THE DOLLAR EXCHANGING Gold Silver Per ounce $901.70 $10.80 Per ounce Wednesday 107.88 $1.5530 $1.9600 1.0183 10.3082 Thursday $17,457 $0,132 Yen Euro 107.96 $1.5499 Pound Canadian dollar Mexican peso $1.9739, 1.0147 10.3199 Legal Bluffdale contractor fined for violating federal labor laws AKI Industries Inc., a Bluffdale-basecontractor, was fined $58,905 in civil penalties for repeatedly failing to pay overtime to its employees. The company is now challenging the civil penalty, and the case is being referred to the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Administrative Law Judges. The federal Labor Department first sued the company in U.S. District Court in January 2006 alleging it violated federal overtime and record-keepin- g requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The suit was filed following an investigation in 2004 of the company's pay practices. A settlement was reached in April in which the company agreed to not violate federal labor laws and to pay $6 1,2 14 in back wages. The fine was assessed after the company was investigated a second time and was found to be still violating federal overtime rules, and even provided the federal investigators with inaccurate and misleading time records. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that employers pay covered workers at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked, and time and one-hatheir regular rates of pay for hours worked beyond 40 in a single workweek. Employers also must maintain adequate and accurate records of employees' wages, hours and other conditions of , employment. "A component of the Wage and Hour Division's enforcement strategy is to assess penalties and seek litigation in cases where employers continue to violate the law," said Dean A. Campbell, the Wage and Hour Division's district director in Salt Lake City. "In this case, the employer knew its conduct violated the law and concealed the accurate time Busted deal angers Huntsman d SLC firm's stock tumbles after Hexion sues to end $10.6B merger Paul Foy "Our company will fight Apollo vigorously on all fronts," Huntsman said in a statement SALT LAKE CITY Jon to The Associated Press. Huntsman Sr. blasted a private-equit- y An Apollo affiliate owns d Hexion Columbus, group for backing out of a deal to buy his chemicals Specialty Chemicals Inc., which was to take over Huntsman company. Huntsman on Thursday Corp. A spokesman said Hex-ion- 's called partners of New York-base- d action spoke for itself. Hexion announced the deal Apollo Management LP a disgrace "and their decision one was off Wednesday because of Huntsman's increased debt and of the most unethical contract violations he's seen in a its profits. of business. Hexion said the combination of Huntsman promised to make the companies couldn't survive on heavy debt financing. It Apollo pay for canceling the said it doubted Deutsche Bank $6.5 billion deal. THE Ohio-base- lf Huntsman responded on that point. "Of course, our business has been considerably damaged during the nearly year long ; period that Apollo should have used to get this transaction closed," he said. Huntsman Corp.'s profit tumbled 84 percent as the weaker dollar and costlier raw materials and feedstocks ate away at higher revenues. Earnings for the three months ended March 31 were $7.3 mil first-quart- - T I rising costs. Huntsman sells y resins, polyurethanes and other specialty chemicals. Hexion filed a lawsuit Wednesday in the Delaware Court of Chancery to affirm its rght to back out of the merger. Huntsman said Apollo's partners, Leon Black and Josh Harris, "should be disgraced" for the decision. "First and foremost, we shall ep-ox- High-octan- HUNTSMAN, B5 r O 'j& e fuel demand at its lowest in d ' n. lion, down from $46.6 million in the first quarter of 2007. . In late May, the company announced big price hikes and an energy surcharge to cover Nation's premium gas sales tank Manufacturing Fork-base- AG and Credit Suisse Group AG would provide financing because of Huntsman's deterio-ratio- See keeping records from our investigator." Global industrial group buys part of S.F. manufacturer Sandvik Tooling, a tooling system and superabrasive components maker, acquired 49 percent of Precorp Inc., a SDanish diamond cut- maker of Dolvcrvstalline . ore fri fVct oornrnipn nn fiiifAmntnio irHiicfitto I 'ka slai! id expected to close by the end of the month. Sandvik Tooling plans to develop a global market for diamond-basecutting tools in the growing aerospace sector, said Anders Thelin, Sandvik's president. Precorp has 140 workers, while Sandvik Tooling has 16,400 workers ASSOCIATED PRESS ! nearly 25 years d Tamara Lush THE ASSOCIATED PRESS companywide. C Of National Briefing Bear Stearns arrests linked to hedge fund o rM r Two former Bear Stearns managers NEW YORK were arrest- - 1 .J I s J ErMIAMI BEACH, Fla. nesto Evangelista prefers to pump premium gas into his Nissan Titan, thinking it makes the truck run better. But at a BP station just a few blocks from the sand of Miami Beach, the painter grabbed the handle for the regular, gas to fill his tank on a recent Friday. "Premium is just too expensive," he said. "Nobody can afford to fill up with premium anymore." With rising fuel prices pushing the national average for premium to $4.48 a gallon about 40 cents higher than regular motorists like Evangelista are buying less of it, industry statistics show. e Demand for fuel is at its lowest in nearly a quarter of a century and is now primarily consumed by a core group of luxury vehicle owners and even some of them are fuel into putting lower-grad- e ) seven-month-o- . g on securities fraud and other charges linked to the collapse of a hedge fund that bet heave ily on sub-prim- mort- gages before the market L0UIS LANZANOAssociated Press high-octan- Federal agents exit 26 Federal Plaza with handcuffed former Bear Stearns hedge fund manager Matthew Tannin on Thursday. collapsed, federal au- thorities said, Matthew Tannin was taken into custody outside his New Jersey home on Thursday morning and Ralph Cioffi was arrested at his New York City home, the FBI said. ' & See ! V ' jU'." Economy limping along, indicators show NEW YORK The economy, hobbled by higher fuel and food prices, tighter. credit and a depressed housing market,... is limping along at a snail's pace, a private business group said Thursday. Separately, the number of newly laid-of- f workers filing for unemployment benefits remained at worrisomely high levels, even as it dropped slightly last week. ) SYM COMPANY AA ALCOA INC ABSY ABSOWTESKYINC LAST CHANGE 0.02 39.12 0.0330 - 0.0020 SYM COMPANY MU MICRON TECH MYGN MYRIAD GENETICS LAST CHANGE ABX BARRiCK GOLD 40.07 0.37 NATR NATURES AEP AMER ELECTRIC 42.16 0.22 NOVL NOVELL INC 33.07 1.55 NUS NU SKIN ENT INC AIG AMER AMD ADV MICRO DEVICES AMGN AMGEN Of INU BAC BK BAM BR00KFIELD BU BMY GROUP AMERICA CP 47.67 0.37 22.81 0.33 40.00 0.52 4.09 0.09 8.80 0.16 28.14 - 023 C CITIGROUP 20.17 CMCSK COMCAST COST COSTCOWHOL 20.34 023 - 7024 CORP 96.86 0.02 128 - 2.40 638 0.93 DB WALT DISNEY-- 32.89 0.06 DNEX DI0NEXCP 70.86 0.06 ERIC LM ERICSSON ADR 11.94 0.02 PR ENTERGY CP 122.15 0.75 INU 80.78 SKYWESTINC 1529 1.47 SNTO SENT0C0RP 0.05 0.00 STR QUESTARCI 68.69 - 0.81 INC 0.10 UORWC 24.67 0.51 UNITEDHEALTH 27.89 - 233 USB US BANCORP 29.92 0.09 USEG US ENERGY CORP 3.12 0.01 USNA USANA HEALTH SC1EN 2.48 035 UTMD UTAH MEDICAL PROD 2847 2875 0.53 VZ VERIZON COMMUN 36.50 0.52 34.94 0.99 WB WACHCMACP 17.77 0.89 4,76 0.05 WEN WENDYSINTLINC 30.49 1.79 14.80 0.66 WFC WELLS FARG 25.63 020 56.05 0.79 WMT WAL MARTS 57.69 0.02 0.14 WNI SCHIFF 5.90 0.07 027 X U.S. STEEL 182.17 737 51.44 0.07 125.02 0.86 22.85 0.57 430 3725 LEE LEE ENTERPRISES IUV SOUTHWEST MCK MCKESSON MER MLCOCMNSTK 37.69 MER-P- J MERRILL LYNCH 1623 MMSI MERIT MEDICAL SYS 15.88 0.05 XEL XCa ENERGY MSFT MICROSOFT 2893 0.47 ZK)N ZK3NS BANCORP CP 025 35.15 UNH CP NORDSTROM CORP 33.09 UDR ' INC JWN INC 0.07 0.95 0.01 C SMITH SKYW 0.66 028 0.01 J Sll 0.00 - 51.80 23.12 PENNEY SEARS HLDGS CORP 46.42 H R BLOCK INC JCP SHLD 412 7725 THE TRAVELERS HRB JETBLUE AIRWAYS SCO GRP INC (THE) TARGET 0.01 JBLU SCOXQ TRV 8.95 INTEL CP RASER TECH INC TGT 27.91 INTC RZ COMM SYBASE INC FRANKLIN COVEY CO HENRY SCHEIN INC PG&E CP QWEST AT&T GEN ELECTRIC CO IBM KG Q SY FC IBM NAT T GE HSK 0.13 OMNITUREINC 0.14 DELTA AIR UN 15.86 NORTHWEST 0.54 CHEVRON 0.01 NWN 19.92 DAL 0.15 6.35 OMTR 52.47 CVX 735 0.64 BRISTOL MYERS Q 1.60 0.04 BALL CP A 50.37 7.33 0.39 INC 0.29 44.86 35.44 ASSET SUNSHINE 7.44 - INC 0.00 20.82 0.08 32.18 0.16 T7""""gY8 80- Regular W . ....... 70. s'-- Premium p 60 plunge ' 50 ! LYNNE SLADKY Associated Press NJy 1 1 ABOVE: Yesterday's performance of selected publicly traded companies " 90 percent I STOCKS OF LOCAL INTEREST PREMIUM, B5 Gregg Bernstein, 34, fills up his scooter with premium gasoline in Miami Beach Fla. on Friday. LEFT: In a June 1 1 file photo gas prices are posted at a World Gasoline station in Sunnyvale, Calif. K ; 14 30 20 ..... 10- mid-gra- gas sales at 40 fit n The percentage of and premium convenience stores has declined over the past decade, from about 30 .1.. percent to about 1 8 Premium '98 '00 '02 7.7 '04 SOURCE: National Association of Convenience Stores PAUL W '07 AP Press SAKUMAAssociated Hundreds arrested over subprime mortgage fraud FBI Lara Jakes Jordan and Alan Zibel THE ASSOCIATED WASHINGTON PRESS More than 400 real estate industry players have been indicted since March including dozens over the last two days in a Justice Department crackdown on incidents of mortgage fraud nationwide that stem from the country's housing crisis. The FBI put the losses to homeowners and other borrowers who were victims in the schemes at over $1 billion. "Mortgage fraud poses 1 Director Roberts. Mueller speaks as Deputy Attorney General Mark R. Filip looks on at Department of Justice in Washington on Thursday. JOSE LUIS MAGANA Associated a significant threat to our economy, to the stability of our nation's housing markets Press and to the peace of mind of millions of American homeowners," Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip said at an afternoon news conference. Since March 1, 406 people have been arrested in the sting dubbed "Operation Malicious Mortgage" resulting from 144 cases across the country. Sixty people were arrested on Wednesday alone, including in Chicago, Miami, Houston and a dozen other regions policed by the FBI. Law enforcement officials said their stepped-u- p focus on mortgage cases aims to combat problems that have grown out of the risky lend- - See MORTGAGE, B5 |