FDIC clocks 15 bank failures so far in 2010

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Six more U.S. banks were seized on Friday as regulators continue to close the doors of banks struggling to cope with fallout from the financial crisis.

Crisis in Credit

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) said First Regional Bank in Los Angeles, Florida Community Bank, First National Bank of Georgia, American Marine Bank in Washington, Marshall Bank in Minnesota and Community Bank and Trust in Georgia had failed -- pushing the tally to 15 banks that have failed this year.

The FDIC expects 2010 to be a peak for bank failures as a result of the financial crisis. Last year, 140 banks failed, compared to 25 in 2008 and three in 2007.

First-Citizens Bank & Trust Co, of Raleigh, North Carolina, will purchase $2.17 billion in total assets and $1.87 billion in total deposits from First Regional Bank, the FDIC said.

The eight branches of First Regional Bank, whose parent company was First Regional Bancorp, will reopen on Monday as branches of First-Citizens.

SCBT, N.A. of Orangeburg, S.C.will assume $1.1 billion in total deposits and about $1.21 billion in total assets from Community Bank and Trust, of Cornelia, Ga., FDIC said.

Community Bank's 36 branches will reopen during normal business hours as branches of SCBT but will continue to conduct business under its own name, FDIC said.

Florida Community Bank, of Immokalee, Fla., will be taken over by Premier American Bank N.A., of Miami, but will continue doing business under its old name. The bank's branches are due to open on Saturday.

As of September 30, 2009, Florida Community Bank had $875.5 million in total assets and $795.5 million in total deposits.

Premier, which was acquired on January 22 by Naples, Florida-based Bond Street LLC, will pay the FDIC a premium of 0.4 percent to assume all deposits of Florida Community Bank and will buy $499 million of the failed bank's assets.

The 11 branches of First National Bank of Georgia, in Carrollton, will reopen on Saturday as Community & Southern Bank branches. As of September 30, 2009, First National had $832.6 million in total assets and $757.9 million in total deposits.

Community & Southern Bank, also in Carrollton, will pay FDIC a premium of 1.25 percent to assume all of the deposits of First National and will purchase essentially all of its assets.

American Marine Bank, of Bainbridge Island, Washington, had total assets of $373.2 million and total deposits of $308.5 million as of September 30, 2009, which will be assumed by Columbia State Bank in Tacoma, Washington.

United Valley Bank, of Cavalier, N.D., will take over $59.9 million in total assets and $54.7 million in total deposits from Marshall Bank, of Hallock, Minn.

U.S. regulators have said the banking industry's recovery will lag the overall economy.

The FDIC has said it expects the total bill for bank failures to reach $100 billion for the period of 2009 through 2013.

(Reporting by Gina Keating; Editing by Richard Chang, Bernard Orr and Carol Bishopric)

Is There Trouble In Paradise? My Return to Honolulu

Just got back from a week in Honolulu and don’t you dare say a word. I was WORKING. I gave two speeches and met with political leaders of both parties.

Sorry for the defensiveness. And yes, the beaches were very nice. But (my wife) Kathy and I rented a car and had the opportunity to drive around the entire Big Island and see a lot of Hawaii. What we found was very disturbing. On the western shore from north to south, we saw thousands of tents and huts where people were living. Many are also living in their vehicles, some their own, some abandoned by someone. When I mentioned this to a few political folks they told me that they had heard about this but that they themselves seldom get to that part of the island. So this destitution, within only miles of the great city of Honolulu, is largely invisible to the public at large.

There are problems in layers in our 50th state. Many of the faces of the homeless are native Hawaiian and that in itself suggests a problem with race in a state that in many ways is a multicultural model for America’s future. Natives are almost a fifth of the population (but less than 10% of the voters, hence adding to their lack of visibility). Some leaders have tried to come to terms with this human problem. One has been offered by Senator Daniel Akaka and supported by his Senate colleague Daniel Inouye and other elected officials of both parties. This bill would grant status to native Hawaiians similar to the relationship granted to Native American tribes on the mainland. With this special status would come benefits in the form of increased spending for education and health care, along with separate government institutions. The sentiments behind the bill appear to be noble, but the bill (which has passed both houses of Congress in the past, but vetoed by President Bush) would seem to create a myriad of problems. First, it would be a federal unfunded mandate whose costs would be picked up by significant increases in taxes to Hawaiian taxpayers. Second, as a result, it could create an enormous amount of resentment toward native Hawaiians, who just don’t need the hostility. And third, it could very well split the native community between many natives who have succeeded and those who have not – creating a sense of status anxiety among the former.

The problem is that no one has presented an alternative. Some groups are calling for public hearings, which so far Congress has rejected. While not a solution to the problem, this is the kind of issue that needs a thorough vetting and can offer an engaged public to try out perhaps better models that provide a fairer solution to all parties. I found that there is concern among Hawaii residents and a desire to not sweep this under the carpet. But my polling suggests that the Akaka Bill is not the best answer.

California controller: State will run out of cash before April

SACRAMENTO — State Controller John Chiang issued a stern warning Friday about California's cash reserves, telling legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger they must act on nearly $9 billion in budget cuts the governor is seeking by March — or the state will run out of cash to pay its bills.

Without making those cuts — which Chiang says will pump $1.3 billion into the state's checking account — California would be broke by April 1, no fooling.

The state wouldn't climb back to what's considered a safe level of cash on hand, $2.5 billion, until later that month, when tax revenues are expected to begin flowing into Sacramento.

"While our current cash condition is marginally better than it was one year ago," Chiang wrote to leaders, "it is still precarious."

Even with the budget cuts, the state's cash reserve would still be far below that cushion in March and April.

To that end, Chiang is calling for an additional $2 billion in cash-flow "solutions." Looking at previous cash crunches, that could mean some payments, like income tax refunds, would be delayed for a few weeks to keep the cushion intact.

"Call it overdraft insurance," said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the state Finance Department. He stressed that officials are still huddling over specific solutions.

If the budget gridlock lingers all the way to July, then IOUs could come back into play.

And because many budget cut require months of ramp-up to take effect, delaying action on a new budget could inflate the state's overall $19.9 billion deficit by $2 billion, Palmer warned.

"Inaction ignores the projected cash shortfall which we face in less than 70 days," Chiang wrote. "Only you can prevent history from repeating this year."

Ron Paul tells Ben Bernake "Fiat Currency Always Ends"

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Climategate - How They Did It

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In west Pasco, U.S. 19 becoming a retail ghost town

One recent Friday night, Commissioner Ann Hildebrand and some friends arrived for dinner at the Chili's in Trinity.

The line for a table was out the door, so they drove to nearby Pappa's Ranch restaurant. Packed. So was Trinity's Grille 54 and the Outback Steakhouse.

Almost felt like boom times.

But less than 10 miles west, it's a different scene.

"You go up and down U.S. 19," she said, "and that isn't the case."

U.S. 19, often dubbed west Pasco's Main Street, is struggling amid the recession, the buildout in other parts of the county and the changing demographics of nearby neighborhoods.

This weekend marks a dismal business-related milestone for the corridor: Target closed its doors after 18 years on the strip, leaving another gaping hole in a shopping center prominently located near Gulf View Square mall. It was one of only four Targets in the country to close.

Target joins a list of recently departed big names from U.S. 19: Linens 'N Things and Circuit City (both of which went out of business nationwide), Gap Outlet, Old Navy and Outback Steakhouse.

By no means is the area alone. Tampa Bay wide, landlords are dealing with the highest retail vacancy rates in a decade.

Last quarter, the region's retail real estate market hit a 9.6 percent vacancy rate. In Pasco County that rate was 11.8 percent, according to a report from real estate firm Colliers Arnold.

But in Pasco, the problem is even more pronounced along U.S. 19.

Around 15.4 percent of retail space was vacant at the larger multitenant shopping centers on U.S. 19 in Pasco last quarter, according to Colliers Arnold.

That translates into roughly 689,000 square feet of empty space along that corridor, the report says.

By contrast, back in late 2005, the retail vacancy rate on Pasco's stretch of U.S. 19 was only 6 percent, or around 275,000 square feet.

A lot of the strip's problems are tied up in its history. Many of the older strip malls developed in the 1960s as small centers that gave retirees a nearby place to pick up their medicine, dry cleaning and groceries, Hildebrand pointed out.

But the market shifted as the makeup of the neighborhoods changed from retirees to working families. Some of the malls, such as Embassy Crossing and Southgate, were redeveloped. But many others have not aged well.

"How do we reinvent these small shopping centers that aren't as vibrant as they once were?" she asked.

And some of the property owners say they have no reason to do so. Mehrdad Moshtagh, a property manager from Clearwater, for instance, represents two brothers who bought an old mall in Holiday, on the east side of U.S. 19 near Flora Avenue.

A few years after buying it, the brothers had talked about relocating their software company there, but decided the expense outweighed the benefits, he said. A couple of years later, Lowe's expressed some interest, but that idea, too, faded.

In the meantime, the mall is one of the more run-down centers on the strip. But Moshtagh said the owners are waiting for the economy to swing back and bring a potential buyer who could redevelop the site.

"Why should I go invest the cost to knock it down?" he said. "I think it benefits whoever the developer is to come in and do it themselves. For us, it would be a total loss."

So that mall sits, as does the old Service Merchandise building in Port Richey, vacant for years and now an attraction for graffiti artists.

A representative for a New York real estate company that has a ground lease on the property said it has signed a lease with Ashley Furniture to locate there.

Ashley Furniture did not return a phone call seeking information about its plans.

Little surprise that it's getting cheaper to rent space. Asking rental rates on U.S. 19 in Pasco are down, from a high of $12.88 per square foot in late 2007 to $10.74 last quarter, according to Colliers Arnold.

(Even the latest number is likely lower since landlords have been negotiating rates as much as 20 percent below asking price, the firm says.)

But longtime west Pasco real estate agent Greg Armstrong said some malls may be empty simply because owners can't reduce rental rates; they have bank loans that establish a certain rental income.

Armstrong said shopping patterns have changed so much — people are headed east to do their shopping, rather than to U.S. 19 — that he isn't sure what to make of the corridor's retail future.

He said he thinks the hardest place for retailers is on the west side of the highway, and said he wondered if buildings on that side would be best suited for employment.

The U.S. 19 corridor is targeted for infill and redevelopment under a new county marketing plan that divides Pasco up into market areas. But county officials have not invested in a redevelopment plan that would lay out a specific vision for the corridor.

The big push at some point will be giving developers financial incentives, and more density rights, to rebuild the stressed area, officials say.

"(U.S.) 19 is going to be tough to develop without a lot of economic incentives," said County Administrator John Gallagher.

Hildebrand, whose district includes portions of the corridor, said she doesn't get a lot of complaints about it. But as someone who lives nearby, she wants to see improvements.

"It's all been conversation," said Hildebrand. "We need to get cranking up."

Jodie Tillman can be reached at jtillman@sptimes.com or (727) 869-6247.

By the numbers

Fourth-quarter retail vacancy rates for U.S. 19 corridor in Pasco.

Year	Percentage
2005	6.1%
2006	8.5%
2007	9.4%
2008	13.5%
2009	15.4%

Source: Real estate firm Colliers Arnold

Storm blankets southern states with snow

As Tennessee digs out, up to a foot of snow comes down in N. Carolina

Malcolm Wolf wears bags on his feet to keep snow out of his shoes as he walks down a street in Richmond, Va., on Saturday.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A storm that blanketed the South with snow Saturday had children eager to sled down hills, while grown-ups were warned to stay off slippery roads as officials worked to clear a mess of wrecks and downed power lines.

Nearly a foot of snow had fallen in parts of western North Carolina, and nearly 10 inches had fallen in some areas north of Memphis, Tenn. In Nashville, about a half-foot of snow was on the ground, the National Weather Service reported.

To the northeast, the Washington-Baltimore area was preparing for 4 to 8 inches of snow as the storm approached. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for parts of Maryland and Virginia and the District of Columbia.

About a foot of snow was reported in the Richmond area in Virginia, the weather service said.

In northern Virginia, the weather caused several multi-vehicle crashes along Interstate 81 in Shenandoah County, Virginia State Police said. Four people were hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.

Transportation officials were urging drivers to stay off the roads.

The weather also cut short a farewell celebration Saturday at the National Zoo in Washington for young panda Tai Shan, who will be flown to China on Thursday to become part of a breeding program.

The storm left roads icy and snowpacked across the South, and thousands were without power as ice accumulated. Although police said they had to clear hundreds of wrecks overnight, there were no deaths or serious injuries reported.

Few cars were on roads around Nashville, and most people seemed to be hunkered down indoors. Some ventured out on camouflage all-terrain vehicles usually reserved for hunting season.

Jake Guthrie, manager of a Nashville Ace Hardware, pasted a "Sold Out of Sleds" sign at the entrance of the store after selling "several hundred" in the past two days. Workers had to tell a steady stream of callers that they wouldn't have any more sleds until Friday.

"But winter's not over yet," Guthrie said.

Sledding near Nashville
The DuBose family was enjoying a second day of sledding on Nashville's outskirts.

"We ran over the dogs yesterday, so we left them at home today," said Jane DuBose, 47, as her two sons, ages 8 and 12, were sledding down the entrance ramp to a closed road.

In Smyrna, southeast of Nashville, a high school bowling tournament was postponed after snow and ice caused the roof to collapse at the bowling alley where it was to be held, according to the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association.

Will O'Halloran, publisher of City Social Magazine in Baton Rouge, La., got caught in the storm in both directions of his monthly trip to pick up the publication from a printer outside Louisville, Ky. At one point he thought his headlights were broken, only to find they were covered in ice.

"People are crazy out there," O'Halloran, 49, said over breakfast at a McDonald's outside Nashville. "Cars spinning, trailers jackknifed. I just tried to keep it at 40 mph and move along."

Multiple wrecks
In mountainous western North Carolina, I-26 near Asheville and I-40 near Black Mountain were shut down Friday night after snow and icy roads caused multiple wrecks. Duke Energy reported about 35,000 outages in the state, mostly in the western mountains.

North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue declared a state of emergency Saturday, and 30 National Guard soldiers were standing by to help emergency crews. However, officials said the storm was not as bad as they had predicted.

States of emergency also were declared in Arkansas, Tennessee and parts of Virginia.

In Kentucky, the state transportation cabinet said in a news release that about 5 to 6 inches of snow had fallen in most of the state, with nearly a foot piling up closer to the Tennessee line.

Temperatures around the region were forecast to remain low through the weekend.

Meanwhile, states in the storm's wake were uncovering from inches of snow and caked ice that fouled electricity to hundreds of thousands of customers.

Gov. Brad Henry requested a federal disaster declaration for all of Oklahoma after a massive storm left up to a half-inch of ice on trees and power lines. A spokeswoman for Public Service Co. of Oklahoma, Andrea Chancellor, said it could be five days before electricity is restored to all customers.

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