Nenita Dasalla- Single Family Residence Real Estate Sales Consultant

jwoolfolk@mercurynews.com

// 0){ document.getElementById(‘articleViewerGroup’).style.width = requestedWidth + “px”; document.getElementById(‘articleViewerGroup’).style.margin = “0px 0px 10px 10px”; }
// ]]>On an 8-3 vote that signaled growing impatience with labor battles in the face of a fiscal crisis, the San Jose City Council on Tuesday imposed 10 percent pay and benefit cuts on four unions representing more than half the city’s workforce.

The unions had resisted across-the-board concession requests that six other unions had accepted to reduce layoffs as city officials try to close a $115 million budget deficit.

Labor leaders characterized the council vote as a “heavy-handed” power grab. And council members said they were making plans in case workers strike.

Complete article found at: http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/ci_18176715

By Alia Wilson, Sunnyvale Sun

awilson@community-newspapers.com

Plans for the biggest celebration Sunnyvale has ever seen are already under way to mark the city’s 100th birthday in 2012.

Incorporated in 1912, the city and its mild climate and fertile soil made for a farmer’s paradise. A century later, thousands continue to enjoy the ideal California weather. From the Valley of Heart’s Delight to the Heart of Silicon Valley, Sunnyvale has held on to a rich part of Santa Clara County history.

Complete article found at: http://www.mercurynews.com/sunnyvale/ci_18148315

By Julia Scott

julia.scott@bayareanewsgroup.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Swimmers, surfers and families heading to the Bay Area’s urban beaches won’t be exposed to unhealthy bacteria this summer — with some notable exceptions, according to an environmental group that tracks the health of California’s shoreline.

Heal the Bay’s annual Beach Report Card, released Wednesday, gave an “A” grade to 90 percent of Bay Area oceanside beaches for the absence of potentially harmful bacteria such as fecal coliform and E. coli in summer months.

Complete article found at: http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county/ci_18139902

Fed Minutes: Fed debated in April how to tighten credit if inflation persists

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve said last month that the economy is gradually improving and began discussing how it would reverse policies adopted during the recession that pumped billions of dollars into the economy.

Some members said the Fed might need to start boosting interest rates this year to guard against inflation. Any effort to tighten credit would lead to higher rates on some mortgages, credit cards and other consumer loans.

Fed policymakers didn’t commit to taking any action at the April 26-27 meeting, according to minutes released Wednesday. But they agreed that if the economy continued its steady growth, the Fed would need to pull back on its massive stimulus programs and take steps to prevent consumer prices from getting out of control.

The officials generally agreed that the first step should be for the central bank to stop reinvesting money earned off its holdings of mortgages and Treasury securities. That’s consistent with comments made by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke at a news conference after the April 27 meeting. But that would have only a limited impact on the rates Americans pay on loans.

A majority of participants said the best method for tightening credit would be to lift the federal funds rate, which is now at a record-low near zero. The federal funds rate is the interest banks pay each other on overnight loans. Most Fed officials said they preferred raising that rate before selling mortgage securities from the Fed’s vast portfolio.

Some members thought the Fed would need to start signaling to investors that interest rates would need to rise. A few members believed the Fed might need to boost its key interest rate or start selling some of the assets in its portfolio this year.

The minutes don’t identify what the individual Fed policymakers said.

Economist Chris Rupkey at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ said the Fed could start boosting interest rates near the end of this year. Fed policymakers “are back to talking exit strategy,” he said. But high unemployment at 9 percent could weigh on the economy and delay any tightening into next year, he added.

The Fed’s exit strategy is likely to be more complicated than ever before because of the extraordinary steps the Fed took during and after the recession to prop up the economy.

The Fed’s balance sheet has nearly tripled in the past three years to roughly $2.7 trillion. To counter the 2008 financial crisis and the recession, the Fed launched programs to buy billions of dollars’ worth of mortgage securities and Treasury debt.

Those programs have helped drive down rates on mortgages and other loans and boosted stock prices. However, critics — including some members of the Fed — said the programs also contributed to higher inflation.

Many Fed officials said they preferred a gradual process of selling off its mortgage securities. The goal would be for the Fed’s portfolio to consist entirely of Treasury securities within five years of the start of those sales.

Fed officials didn’t agree on when the central bank would launch its exit strategy.

Bernanke and other Fed officials have predicted that a surge in oil prices would be temporary and would not lead to runaway inflation. Crude has fallen about 11.5 percent since April, when a weak dollar and a rash of international crises pushed oil to two-year highs.

Still, many Fed officials had become more concerned about inflation, the minutes revealed. They worried that oil prices could keep rising and force more companies to boost the prices they charge consumers. Fed officials said they need to monitor inflation closely.

Fed officials also expressed concerns that higher gas prices could lead consumers to spend less on discretionary goods, which would weigh on the economy. They also cited other risks that could restrain U.S. growth, including debt problems in Europe, supply disruptions to U.S. companies stemming from the earthquake in Japan and a failure by Congress to boost the U.S. government’s borrowing authority.

However, some Fed officials said there would need to be a “significant change” in the economic outlook for the Fed to embark on a third Treasury bond-buying program. The Fed is slated to end a $600 billion bond-purchase program on schedule in June. The program was launched in early November when the Fed feared that the economy could ball back into another recession.

This isn’t the first time the Fed has talked about an exit strategy. Bernanke in February last year started laying out a plan about how the Fed would tighten credit when the time was right. But the economy slowed sharply in the spring of 2011 because of the European debt crisis. And, unemployment got stuck at high levels topping 9.5 percent. By November, the Fed was forced to launch a second stimulus program.

Articles found at: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Fed-considers-tighter-credit-apf-426640438.html?x=0