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THE BULLETIN 0 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2013
BRIEFING
GM cuts price of Volt dy13 percent General Motors is knocking 13 percent off the sticker price of the Chevrolet Volt electric car as it tries to
keep pacewith rivals in the market for plug-in vehicles. The automaker said Tuesday that the 20f4Voltwill startat
$34,995, including shipping — $5,000 less than the current model. The new model is scheduled to reach
us ice sues o over securi ies By Jessica Silver-Greenberg
for misconduct in the pack-
New York Times News Service
aging and sale of mortgage
The Justice Department sued Bank of America on Tuesday, accusing the bank of defrauding investors by vastly underestimating the quality of m ortgage-backed securities. The lawsuit is the latest action by President Barack Obama's federal mortgage task force that has vowed to hold Wall Street accountable
securities during the housing boom. Bank of America, the Justice Department said, cloaked the risk associated with $850 million worth of securities backed by residential mortgages. In a corporate filing last week, Bank of America said it was bracing for the action. Eric Holder, the U.S. attor-
ney general, said the lawsuit was "the latest step forward in the Justice Department's ongoing efforts to hold accountable those who engage in fraudulent or irresponsible conduct." As Bank of America assembled securities in 2008, the government claimed, the bank ignored that more than 40 percent of the mortgages included did not meet underwriting guidelines. Even though Bank
of America knew about the troubled mortgages, the government said, the bank sold the securities anyway. Unlike other lawsuits, this case zeros in on prime mortgages, rather than subprime loans. Prosecutors portrayed Bank
of America's mortgage operations as emblematic of Wall Street's reckless practices in the heady days before the
financial crisis. Under pressure to generate profits, the lawsuit said, Bank of America pressured employees to churn through mortgage evaluations. The instructions for slipshod standards stemmed from the top of the bank, the lawsuit said.One employee, according to the lawsuit, said that her job was to "basically validate the loans," rather than to comb through them to spot flaws.
showrooms late this summer.
UBS topay$50M to settle SECcase UBS will pay $50 million to settle charges by the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission that the Swiss bank
misled investors, the regulatory agency announced Tuesday. UBS Securities was accused of violating securities laws while
structuring and marketing a collateralized debt obligation, or CDO,
during a 2008 mortgage bond transaction. Regulators said it failed to disclose that it retained $23.6 million in upfront
cash in the course of acquiring collateral for the CDO. — From wire reports
BEST OF THE BIZ CALENDAR FRIDAY • Cricket Trailer Tour: Representatives from the travel trailer company will demo four new Cricket Trailers; registration requested at www.cricket trailer.com; free; 4-7 p.m.; BeaverCoach Sales & Service, 62955 Boyd Acres Road,Bend; 800-382-2597. SATURDAY • Cricket Trailer Tour (See above) TUESDAY • Professional Enrichment Series:Mike Hollern, president of Brooks Resources Corp., and Troy Reinhart, partner with Northwest Quadrant Wealth Management, answer questions; registration required; members $20, or $30 for both August sessions; nonmembers $35, or $45 for both August sessions; 7:30a.m.; Volcanic Theatre Pub, 70 S.W.Century Drive, Bend; 541-323-1881 or www.bendchamber.org. • Membership101 — Driving Your Membership:Connecting new membersoftheBend Chamber of Commerce with current members; registration required;10 a.m.; Charles Schwab if Co.,777 N.W. Wall St., Suite 20f, Bend; 541-382-3221, shelley@ bendchamber.org or www.bendchamber.org. AUG. 14 • Howto Start a Business: Registration required; $15; 6-8 p.m.; COCC Chandler Building,1027 N.W. TrentonAve.,Bend; 541-383-7290. AUG. 15 • City Club'sAugust Forum:Former Portland Mayor SamAdams discusses the city as an economicforce: what has worked, what has been learned andwhat would have beendone differently; register before Aug. f3; $20 for first-time guests and members; $35 for nonmembers; 11:30 a.m.-f p.m.; St. Charles Bend Center for Health 8, Learning, 2500 N.E.Neff Road; 541-633-7163 or www.cityclubco.org. •LunchwithLandWatch: Discussion of Bend's Urban Growth Boundary and otherlandissues; free, BYOL(buy your own lunch); noon-'I p.m.; Zydeco Kitchen and Cocktails, 919 N.W. Bond St., Bend; 54f647-2930, sherryn© centraloregonlandwatch. org or www.centraloregon landwatch.org/blog/329lunch-with-landwatch.
For the complete calendar, pickup Sunday's i3ulietin or visit bendbulletin.comlbizoal
emers I -
ase airine LlSBS a—QLl-can-Ba mo • Members can fly as often asthey like on 6-seat planes
By Elon Glucklich The Bulletin
By Billy Witz New York Times News Service
BURBANK, Calif. — Meticulous, well-thought-out plans
might be for some people, but not Wade Eyerly. At 16, he walked into the registrar's office at the University of Central Missouri, not knowing he was supposed to have applied for admission. He walked out with a schedule of classes. After arriving in Washington, jobless, he landed a position in Vice President Dick Cheney's press office, followed by stints in Iraq as a government operative and in Washington as a National Security Agency consultant. This all helps to explain why Eyerly, while projecting a Ferris Bueller-like certainty that everything will always work out in the end, eschewed graduate school at Stanford to start an airline. With Surf Air, Eyerly is bringing what he calls the allyou-can-eat-style pricing plan of the local gym or Netflix to air travel — pay a member-
ship ($500) and a monthly fee ($1,650) and fly as often as you like on six-seat, single-engine turboprops. Surf Air started flying in June, with service between smaller airports in Burbank, Calif., and San Carlos near Palo Alto, tapping into those who do business between Hollywood and Silicon Valley and would prefer to do so without the hassles of major airports. It added service last month to Santa Barbara, Calif., and is considering additional destinations by the end of the year. If it looks as if he is flying blind — a novice businessman
J. Emilio Flores/New YorkTimes News Service
Passengers board a plane from Surf Air, an airline that offers unlimited travel for a membership and a monthly fee, at Burbank Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, Calif.
"It's a home run or a strikeout. It works or it doesn't. If this doesn't workin a year, 18 months, we'll know. It won't drag out."
diving into an industry that is plagued by contractions, mergers and failed enterprises — Eyerly views his fledgling Surf Air as an opportunity to fundamentally change the way business travelers fly. It is a pitch to certain kinds of decision-makers — the small-business chief executives, those who have not yet made their fortune but are intent on making their mark. For his customers, Eyerly hopes Surf Air can be an incubator of ideas, where flights can be dinner parties in the air, where the membership can be a Facebook for entrepreneurs. If the business model works in California, it will work in more than 50 markets around
outside the Atlantic Terminal, which is separate from the main terminal, walk a few dozen steps to the lobby, grab — Wade Eyerly, founder, Surf Air a snack from the concierge cart and walk out on the tarmac to board the plane. There the country, he said. were no tickets, no lines and "Forgive the Kansas City no body scans. A valet parked reference, but it's Bo Jackson the customers' cars. at the plate," Eyerly, a 34-yearFor Surf Air, tapping into old Kansas City native, said, fliers' dissatisfaction with the referring to the former Royairline industry is the easy als slugger. "It's a home run part. Making a profit at it is or a strikeout. It works or it another matter. While Surf doesn't. If this doesn't work in Air might be the first to adopt a year, 18 months, we'll know. an all-you-can-fly fee strucIt won't drag out." ture on small aircraft on a narSurf Air has raised about row list of routes, others have $11 million in capital, Eytried elements of this model erly said. Its membership is with limited success. "It's all a great selling propnearing 300, each of whom has made a three-month osition," said Robert Mann, an commitment. airline industry analyst and It was not hard to see the former executive who helped lure recently when members American Airlines begin an arrived and departed from all-you-can-fly pass in 1981. "The key is very few people Burbank. It was possible to pull into the small parking lot make money doing it."
Obama outlinesplansfor Fannie, Freddie By Jackie Calmes New York Times News Service
WASHINGTON — In another sign that the housing market has strengthened, President Barack Obama on Tuesday outlined his longawaited ideas for overhaul-
ing mortgage finance giants Fannie Maeand Freddie Mac to significantly reduce the government's risk in any future credit crisis. In an appearance in Phoenix, Obama endorsed bipartisan efforts in the Senate to wind down the two
Trucking company eyes Bend expansion
companies and end their longtime implicit guarantee of a federal government bailout. That dread prospect, once thought improbable, was realized in the fall 2008 financial crisis; Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, then bankrupt, were rescued by the government at great cost to taxpayers, who only now are
being repaid. The presidentmade clear that he would only sign into law a measure that puts private investors primarily at risk for the two companies,
which buy and guarantee many mortgages from banks to provide a continuing stream of money for lenders to provide to additional homebuyers. An acceptable measure also must specify the government's role and liabilities for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and — unlike legislation in the Republican-controlled House — must ensure Americans' continued access to a 30-year mortgage at a fixed interest rate. After years in which the
formerly formidable Fannie Mae andFreddie Mac and their congressional allies blocked proposals for payment of fees or risk premiums, Obama is calling for financial institutions to pay an assessment to the government on the value of mortgage-backedsecurities. Under his proposals, the revenue would help finance assistance for borrowers and subsidize construction of homes andrentalproperties that would be affordable to lower-income Americans.
Bend trucking company Taurus Freight is eyeing NorthWest Crossing as a possible location for its new headquarters. Taurus is looking at a nearly 1-acre piece of land near the intersection of Northwest Lolo Drive and Northwest York Drive to construct a 4,300-square-foot building, with space for a possible 2,100square-foot expansion. Taurus Freight operates as a freight logistics company, helping truck drivers coordinate their routes and delivery schedules along the West Coast. It works with independent truck drivers, so it does not park a fleet of semitrucks on-site. On July 30, Taurus submitted several blueprints and a request for a pre-application meeting with Bend's Community Development Department. The meeting is set for Aug. 22. The building plans are preliminary at this point, Taurus CEO Dustin Whitaker said. It's possible the company will stay in its existing office off of Mt. Bachelor Drive, between Century Driveand the Deschutes River in southwest Bend. The company leases its office and shares building space with several other tenants. "Right now we're just trying to match facts and figures. We're real early on" in the process, Whitaker said. "We're not going to go ahead with something without checking out our options." The new building would give Taurus some space to grow, if it moves ahead. Taurus has added several staff members in the past few years, with 10 fulltime dispatchers and support staff working out of its 2,400square-foot oNce today. "It's possible we could go forward and get our own place," Whitaker said, though he added there's no timeline in place at this point. The company's proposed NorthWest Crossing site lies south of Summit High School, and sits adjacent to a gym and nutritionist's office. The property is part of a long strip of industrial-zoned land surrounding the high school's south and east boundaries, where development has been sparse. While homes have sprouted up throughout NorthWest Crossing's residential areas, just five buildings have gone up in the industrial zone, which spans more than 27 acres, according to Deschutes County records. — Reporter:541-617-7820 eglucklich@bendbufletin.com
BANKRUPTCIES Chapter 7 Filed July 31 • David Harms, 64898 Nino Court, Bend • Ryan J. Pitt,1938 N.E. Veronica Lane,Bend • Justin 0. Close, 63180 Eastview Drive, Unit 1, Bend • Matthew B. Levi, P.O.
Box 731, Prineville • Derek 0. Camacho, 4f 0 N.W. 24th St., Redmond • Andrea C. Joyce, 3332 S.W. KalamaAve., Redmond • Wesley 0. Johnson, 194f2 CherokeeRoad, Bend • Christina M. Powell,
2357 N.E. Moonlight Drive, Bend • Suzanne P.Blakley, 62700 Todd Road, Bend • Aaron T. Coe,f6801 Gross Drive, Bend • Michelle K. Hurley, 2704 S.W. Glacier, No. 2, Redmond • Simon J.K. Delery, 2853
N.E. Buckboard Lane, Prineville Filed Aug. 1 • Karen J. Way,61535 Highway 97, Suite 9-145, Bend • Jeffrey W. Greiner, 20945 Miramar Drive, Bend • Russell L. Mathiasen,
40288 N. Twickenham Road, Mitchell Filed Aug. 2 • Todd D. Wycoff, P.O.Box 8522, Bend • Larry R. Heckathorn, 236 N.E. B. St., Madras • Michelle T. Stearns, 2048 S.E. Melrose Drive, Prineville
Filed Aug. 3 • Imelda Saldana, 1514 N.E. Seventh St., Redmond Chapter 13 Filed July 30 • Terry L. Avery, 2510 N.E. Bobbi Place, Prineville
Filed July 31 • Joseph T. Dillon, 64597
McGrath Road, Bend • Edward R. Petri, P.O.Box 1137, La Pine • Robert L. Novak, 1393 Foley Drive, Burns • Jeffrey R. Cornett, 19723 Buck Canyon Road, Bend