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FutureGen timeline

February 2003 — President George W. Bush announces initiative to develop coal-fueled power plant with near-zero emissions.

April 2003 — Utilities and mining companies, including St. Louis-based Peabody Energy, organize to help build plant, dubbed FutureGen.

December 2005 — Department of Energy, companies sign agreement to develop plant.

April 2006 — Four Illinois cities chosen as state’s nominees to host FutureGen; at least six states compete for project.

July 2006 — Mattoon and Tuscola in Illinois and two Texas cities chosen as FutureGen finalists.

July 2007 — Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich signs bill approving $80 million of incentives to lure FutureGen.

December 2007 — Mattoon is chosen as FutureGen site. DOE officials are not present and cite cost concerns.

January 2008 — Bush administration pulls FutureGen support.

March 2009 — Government auditors report DOE made a $500 million error in calculating FutureGen costs.

June 2009 — Obama administration revives FutureGen with $1 billion in funding.

September 2009 — DOE and FutureGen Alliance sign $17.3 million agreement to temporarily continue plant design.

February 2010 — Energy Secretary Stephen Chu expected to make final decision whether to go forward with FutureGen.

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Laclede Group Inc., the owner of Missouri’s largest natural gas utility, said fiscal first-quarter profit fell 27 percent on lower margins and sales from its wholesale gas marketing unit.

Net income for the quarter ended Dec. 31 was $22.9 million, or $1.03 per share, compared with $31.3 million, or $1.41, a year earlier.

The wholesale gas unit, Laclede Energy Resources, "was impacted by pricing dynamics resulting from additional pipeline infrastructure brought online over the past year," Laclede CEO Douglas H. Yaeger said in a statement.

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A 1930 Ford Model A used by bank robber John Dillinger to evade federal agents sold at auction Saturday for $165,000.

The car, sold at the Barrett-Jackson collector car auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., had a cameo role in the 2009 movie "Public Enemies" starring Johnny Depp.

This car was used in Dillinger’s 1934 escape from the Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters, Wis. Dillinger and his gang had been staying at the lakeside resort when the proprietor tipped off the FBI.

A team of agents attempted to surround the house, but Dillinger and his partners Homer Van Meter and John "Red" Hamilton escaped to a nearby house where they found the Model A and forced its owner to drive them to safety.

Later, the car caught the attention of police and Hamilton was fatally wounded in a gun fight. The car still bears a bullet hole and the stains of Hamilton’s blood.

Dillinger later ditched the car in Chicago, stealing a 1934 Ford V8 in its place. (Dillinger was known to prefer Ford’s then-new V8 cars for their speed.)

The car was eventually returned to its original owner, who left it parked in his garage, figuring it wasn’t worth repairing payday loans in one hour. A subsequent owner, who purchased the car 30 years later for $1,400, also left it untouched.

Temporary cosmetic repairs were done to the car in 2007 for the movie. The identity of the winning bidder was not immediately known. The price paid for the car includes a 10% "buyer’s premium" added on to the $150,000 final bid price.

In general, Model A Fords are not particularly rare or valuable, even today. The ordinary market value of a 1930 Model A coupe with a rumble seat is about $13,000, according to appraisal Web site Nadaguides.com.

"I have to admit, this is a surprising price for a model A, regardless of ownership," said McKeel Hagerty, president of the collector car insurance company Hagerty Insurance. Hagerty Insurance is a sponsor of Speed TV’s live broadcast of the Barrett-Jackson event. 

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The world’s biggest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, said Thursday that it has agreed to freeze planned job cuts in Belgium to get workers to drop a two-week brewery blockade causing beer shortages at supermarkets and bars.

The company and Belgian trade unions said they struck a deal that postpones the brewer’s plans to reduce 303 jobs in Belgium — some 10 percent of its work force there.

It says it will also create 40 call center sales positions, bringing net job losses to 263.

"We have found agreement," said LBC union spokeswoman Annemie Plessers. She said that would lift the blockade and allow such beers as Stella Artois, Leffe and Jupiler to be distributed again starting today.

Instead of imposing the job reductions, A-B InBev said in a statement that there would be "an analysis of the problems and a coordinated search for solutions with the different parties involved."

The beer drought saw the Belgian government drafted to help mediate the crisis.

Supplies of Stella Artois and Jupiler ran out at the central depot of the Delhaize supermarket, one of the biggest in Belgium. Other supermarkets shelves where the suds would be stacked high were increasingly empty cash advance.

It was no better in bars across the country, where owners increasingly had to turn to other beers to keep taps running.

"The distribution of Jupiler, Hoegaarden and Stella Artois on tap has totally stopped," said Luc De Bauw, the head of the HoReCa organization of bar and restaurant owners.

The unions now need to call for meetings with their rank and file early today, and expect the blockades to be lifted later that day.

Union activists have set up walls of beer crates at the company’s three main plants in Belgium since Jan. 7, preventing the company from bringing beer out or taking raw materials, empty bottles and packaging goods in.

Unions say AB InBev’s worldwide operations yield hefty profits that made layoffs unnecessary. Overall though, Belgium is a shrinking market where consumers drink less and less mass market beer.

Last November, AB InBev reported $1.55 billion net profit in the third quarter, saying cost savings from the 2008 merger of St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch and InBev ran ahead of plan.

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Did you purchase a home after Nov. 6? Don’t expect your $8,000 homebuyer tax credit any time soon.

UPDATED: IRS releases new form, begins accepting claims again

Since Congress passed the tax credit last February as part of the stimulus program, more than 1.4 million buyers have scrambled to take advantage of it, according to the IRS.

All they had to do was file an amendment to their 2008 tax returns (the ones they filed last spring) and claim the promised refund of 10% of the purchase price — up to $8,000.

"I closed on a Friday and I filed an amendment to my taxes on Monday," said Valatisha Jacinto, who purchased her Waco, Texas, home last March.

But that all changed on Nov. 6.

One CNNMoney.com reader wrote: "I bought a new home to get the $8,000 tax credit like many others. However the IRS has NOT ALLOWED ANYONE TO FILE since November 6th!! It has been over 2 MONTHS!!"

He’s right. Nov. 6 marked the date that the rules changed because an extended — and expanded — version of the homebuyer tax credit went into effect. And that put filing for the credit on hold.

Originally, the credit was just good for first-time buyers and was slated to end on Nov. 30. But Congress extended the credit to include contracts signed by April 30 and closed by June 30. It also made a refund of up to $6,500 available to existing homeowners looking to buy something new.

And that marked the start of a new IRS paperwork wrangle.

Those homeowners who closed their sale before Nov. 6 use Form 5405 to claim the credit right away. But those closing after that date are in limbo because no form yet exists for them to file.

The IRS had been expected to come out with a revised form by early January, but it has yet to release anything.

Robert Dietz, an economist with the National Association of Home Builders who has been monitoring the situation, said the delay may be caused because numerous parties, including the Treasury Department, have to agree on how to process all the new documentation that the expanded tax credit requires. Whereas before, all you did was file a form saying you’d bought a house — no proof required.

Now, for example, existing homeowners buying new places must provide proof that they owned and resided in their previous homes for at least five of the past eight years.

"They may just be making sure all their i’s are dotted and their t’s are crossed before they release it," Dietz said.

No e-filing for homebuyers

Even after the new form is ready, new filers will still face delays. Anyone who wants to claim their first-time homebuyer tax on their 2009 taxes (the ones being filed now through April 15) can’t do it it electronically. That’s right: Back to paper filing.

Part of that change is because the IRS has become more concerned about fraud as it discovers more people claimed the tax credit without actually purchasing property.

In October, a tax preparer, James Otto Price III, was the first person convicted of this crime. He falsely claimed the credit for 15 clients.

"Because of the scams, the IRS started sending back the amended returns and asking for proof," said Mary Mellem of David & Mary Mellem, EAs & Ashwaubenon Tax Professionals.

The IRS, she said, now requires a signed copy of the settlement statement ( HUD-1), plus a signed mortgage statement with the new address and a copy of either the taxpayer’s drivers license, bank statement or pay stub, showing the new address. That paperwork slows the process.

"The system has no way of sending along the documents they’re requiring," said Mellem. "Taxpayers must file a paper return instead."

The IRS points out that taxpayers can still use the electronic forms available on its Web site; they just have to print them out, attach the proof and mail everything in. And that can take quite a while.

"Taxpayers are looking at another three months before they get their returns," said Mellem. 

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Yahoo Inc. gave its support to rival Google Inc. Wednesday, denouncing an alleged cyber attack originating in China against Google’s network infrastructure.

"We condemn any attempts to infiltrate company networks to obtain user information," a Yahoo representative said in an e-mail statement. "We stand aligned with Google that these kinds of attacks are deeply disturbing and strongly believe that the violation of user privacy is something that we as Internet pioneers must all oppose."

Google said late Tuesday that the attack’s primary goal was to access Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. The company said that the incident, as well as Chinese censorship rules, could force it to shut down its operations in China, which includes Google.cn.

The search giant’s ongoing investigation suggests the attack targeted at least twenty other large companies from a variety of industries. Neither Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) nor Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) revealed whether Yahoo was among the victims need a personal loan with bad credit.

"Yahoo does not generally disclose that type of information, but we take security very seriously and we take appropriate action in the event of any kind of breach," Yahoo said.

Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), which launched a Chinese version of its search engine Bing in June, said that the company has "no indication that any of our mail properties have been compromised."

In 2005, Yahoo sold its business in China to Alibaba.com, China’s largest e-commerce company. Yahoo maintains a 39% financial stake in the company but Yahoo no longer has "operational control or day-to-day management over the Yahoo! China business," according to a Yahoo spokeswoman.

Google did not have any response to Yahoo’s statement. 

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The replacement of Japan’s finance minister four months into the government’s term increases concern about the commitment to rein in budget deficits, Moody’s Investors Service said.

“Japan’s fiscal strategy unknowns deepen” with the appointment of Naoto Kan last week, Thomas Byrne, senior vice president of Moody’s in Singapore, wrote in a note today.

Byrne’s stance contrasts with analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, who said Kan has indicated a willingness to repair Japan’s finances. The 63-year-old deputy prime minister last week replaced Hirohisa Fujii to become the country’s sixth finance chief in 18 months, tasked with preventing a relapse into a recession while curtailing expansion of the world’s largest public debt.

“The revolving door for leadership at the Ministry of Finance does not engender confidence that Japan will put together a credible fiscal strategy to reduce deficits and stabilize the massive government debt overhang in the medium term,” Byrne said.

Kan said on Jan. 7 that it will be a “challenge” to maintain fiscal discipline this year and he will try to secure funds to fulfill the ruling Democratic Party of Japan’s pledges without exacerbating the debt burden.

The leadership change also “raises doubts” over the administration’s commitment to a 44 trillion yen ($480 billion) cap on new Japanese government bond sales for next fiscal year, Byrne said. Kan may “seek to further boost fiscal stimulus to an economy hamstrung by renewed and stubborn deflationary pressures,” he said.

Debt Rating

Moody’s rates Japan’s debt at Aa2, the third-highest investment grade, with a stable outlook. Byrne said the nation’s sovereign outlook in the medium term depends on “stronger economic growth and a return to a gradual course of deficit reduction and debt containment.”

“While we believe the domestic market will readily absorb even the record level of JGB issuance this year, strains on JGB yields could emerge in outlying years,” Byrne said. Local residents held 94 percent of Japanese government bonds as of June, Finance Ministry data show.

Yields on the benchmark 10-year note fell 1 basis point to 1.35 percent in Tokyo today. They reached a two-month high of 1.365 percent on Jan. 8, the day after Kan was appointed.

Kan ‘Misunderstood’

Morgan Stanley strategist Atsushi Ito said investors have “misunderstood” Kan’s remarks since his appointment and his policy isn’t based on increasing spending to spur the economy.

“He’s not a fiscal expansionist,” said Tokyo-based Ito. “He wants to achieve a policy mix of fiscal austerity, monetary accommodation and a weaker yen.”

Kan will try to get parliament’s approval for the government’s record 92.3 trillion yen budget for the year starting April 1.

The finance minister also indicated last week that he’s open to discussing an increase in the country’s 5 percent sales tax once wasteful spending has been eliminated. His remarks indicate the government may start “seriously debating” an increase in the levy as early as next year, even while it risks suppressing consumer spending, said Tetsufumi Yamakawa, chief Japan economist at Goldman Sachs.

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State regulators seized Horizon Bank on Friday evening, making it Washington’s first bank failure of 2010 and the fourth community bank to be seized in the state in the last 13 months.

Washington Federal Inc., of Seattle, quickly snapped up the failed Bellingham bank from regulators, according to information released by the state Department of Financial Institutions no teletrack payday loans.

Regulators closed Horizon because of “inadequate capital and severe loan losses,” the department said in a press release.

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The Toronto stock market built on the solid gains of the previous session Tuesday morning thanks to a small upswing among mining stocks.

The S&P/TSX composite index was up 36.3 points to 11,903.2 after strong manufacturing data from the U.S. and China raised commodity prices and lifted the main index 121 points.

The Canadian dollar climbed 0.53 of a cent to 96.55 cents US, its highest level since mid-October, as the U.S. currency weakened for a second day. The loonie ran ahead 0.87 of a cent on Monday after comments by U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke pushed the expectations for interest rate hikes further out into 2010.

The base metals sector ahead 1.49 per cent with the March copper contract in New York up two cents at US$3.42 a pound. Teck Resources (TSX: TCK.B) gained 77 cents to $39.78.

The gold sector climbed one per cent as the February bullion contract in New York rose $8 to US$1,126.30 an ounce. Barrick Gold Corp. (TSX: ABX) gained 43 cents to $42.51.

The market also found strong support from potash producers after Credit Suisse raised Potash Corp. (TSX: POT) to outperform. It said the company along with Uralkali of Russia will lead a rebound among suppliers of the crop nutrient and believes sales volumes in the industry could double this year. Potash shares ran up $5.92 to $122.61 while shares in rival Agrium Inc. (TSX: AGU) advanced $2.11 to $67.65.

The consumer discretionary sector was the biggest percentage decliner, down 0.47 per cent with Shaw Communications (TSX: SJR.B) down 32 cents to $21.18.

Oil prices were slightly higher after the weak American currency helped push oil past the US$80 a barrel level for the first time since early November.

The February crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was 10 cents higher to US$81.61 after surging more than $2 on Monday and the energy sector was ahead 0.14 per cent. EnCana (TSX: ECA) gained 36 cents to $36.07.

In the oilpatch, Noble Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NBL) will pay US$494 million to acquire the Rockies upstream assets of Petro-Canada Resources (USA) Inc. and Suncor Energy (Natural Gas) America Inc. (TSX: SU). The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter and Suncor shares rose 45 cents to $38.75.

The financial sector was also weak as Scotiabank (TSX: BNS) lost 47 cents to $48.46.

In Canadian economic news Tuesday, the industrial product price index increased one per cent in November, while the raw materials price index rose 2.2, mainly due to higher prices for petroleum and metals. Statistics Canada reported that the rebound in the industrial index was the strongest since June 2008.

The TSX Venture Exchange moved ahead 8.31 points to 1,552.24.

New York markets were weak following solid gains on Monday as investors took in some mixed economic data business

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South Korea’s exports increased at the fastest pace in 17 months, adding to signs that Asia’s fourth-largest economy is recovering from the global recession.

Overseasshipments gained 33.7 percent in December from a year earlier to $36.2 billion, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said today. That was more than the median 27.9 percent forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 10 economists. Imports rose 24 percent to $32.9 billion for a trade surplus of $3.3 billion.

Higher overseas sales suggest a strengthening recovery in South Korea’s $929 billion economy, which grew 3.2 percent in the third quarter. Exports in November 2008 recorded their biggest fall of the year as the financial crisis weakened demand, providing a low-base comparison for the figures released today.

“Exports will post growth for the coming months given the low base from last year and also as demand from overseas rises,” said Kim Jae Eun, an economist at Hyundai Securities Co. in Seoul. “South Korea should benefit from orders from China and emerging nations less affected by the global recession.”

Hyundai Motor Co. and other South Korean carmakers may sell 1.4 million vehicles in the domestic market this year from an estimated 1.37 million in 2009, the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association said in December. Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., the world’s biggest shipbuilder, aims to win $17.7 billion in new orders in 2010.

Markets Closed

For 2009, the country’s trade surplus reached a record $41 billion as imports dropped 25.8 percent while exports declined 13.8 percent, the ministry said in a statement.

Exports in January will grow at a double-digit pace from a year earlier after the global financial crisis cut January 2009 overseas shipments by 34.5 percent, according to the statement.

South Korea’s financial markets are closed for a public holiday today. The nation’s benchmark Kospi stock index gained 50 percent last year, the most since 2005.

South Korean exports will increase 13.2 percent this year, after a 13.9 percent decline in 2009, the finance ministry said last month. Earlier reports showed industrial production climbed 1.4 percent from October while an index of leading economic indicators and manufacturers’ confidence increased.

Exports to China, the biggest buyer of South Korean goods, surged 74.4 percent in the first 20 days of December, today’s report showed. Shipments to the U.S. rose 8.7 percent and shipments to Europe gained 49.4 percent over the same period.

Shipments of semiconductors and display panel exports more than doubled last month, the government said. Petrochemicals exports gained 61.1 percent.

South Korean President Lee Myung Bak said Dec. 30 the nation’s economy is likely to expand more than 5 percent in 2010, the fastest pace in three years helped by exports and domestic spending. Both the finance ministry and the central bank in December raised economic growth forecasts for 2009 and 2010.

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