Content about Bank

A Chinese bank funding two huge Lennar Corp. housing developments has attached a condition to the loan, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal: Lennar must work with a Chinese state-owned contractor.

Crime and punishment, redux
The following is a letter in response to “Illinois contractor gets 10-year sentence for asbestos violation.”

Employee morale
The following is a response to the article, “Unhappy employees are staying put.”

“[Unhappy employees are] soon to be going, or at least when the economy improves — that’s when they will leave in droves because of extreme low pay and lack of respect from employers. Why wouldn’t they? No one likes being used or abused. Do you?”
— Rick Heath

Several cities in California’s Inland Empire, which was devastated by the housing bust, have decided not to wait around for relief from the feds or the banking industry. They are ready to invoke a rarely used power -- eminent domain -- to stop foreclosures in their communities and help struggling homeowners restructure their mortgages.

The banking and securities industry is not excited over the idea.

With the help of a county land bank and a city redevelopment agency, Rylee’s Ace Hardware is planning a new store on the site of an abandoned gas station in Grand Rapids, Mich., according to a report in MLive.com.

A suspected bank robber in Santa Fe, N.M. was arrested this week after a Lowe’s employee uncovered more than $48,000 in stolen cash from a store trash can, according to an article in the Albuquerque Journal. 

Jaime Jesus Sanchez-Ramos, age 23, was arrested on April 10 and charges with an April 2 robbery at U.S. Bank. The suspect, who was wearing a green hooded jacket and a ski mask, allegedly entered the building and, at gunpoint, demanded money from a teller. Sanchez-Ramos fled with a box of cash stuffed with $52,650, according an FBI affidavit filed in court.

“The last four years have been tough for the building community, especially the smaller, family-run stores. 

“It has been hard to deal with changing bank regulations after you have been in business more than 30 years, and everything as you knew it has changed. We have watched many of our friends go down, both competitors and customers. We are still standing, but every day is a challenge. 

The National Retail Federation Wednesday said that legislation introduced in the House to repeal debit card swipe fee reform would cost consumers more than $6 billion a year in savings that merchants plan to pass along to their customers. 

Guns and hardware

“Gun thieves will resort to any means to achieve their goal. Dealers take multiple efforts to prevent the thieves from access and slow the theft (these include vehicle barriers, steel doors and curtains, in-store safes and in-store bank vaults) to allow time for the police to respond. The truth is if someone wants to steal something and they are intelligent, they will figure out a way to do it or at least try.”

— Bruce Pfuhl

Sales manager hardware/industrial/AG Benchmade Knife Co.



On customer safety


Are banks and credit card companies charging too much for debit transactions? Here's what we heard: