NEW YORK – New Yorkers who live near the park where anti-Wall Street protesters have been camping out for more than a month are complaining that their quality of life has declined.
At a two-hour meeting Thursday night, some neighbors said protesters urinated in the streets and beat drums in the middle of the night.
"They're defecating on our doorsteps," said Catherine Hughes, a member of the area's community board, a representative panel that helps funnel local concerns to city officials.
Some neighbors who attended the packed meeting called for the protesters to vacate Zuccotti Park, the plaza where protesters have set up their base camp.
But the board voted unanimously for a resolution that recognized the protesters' First Amendment rights while calling for a crackdown on noise and public urination and defecation.
Three local elected officials praised the resolution in a statement Thursday.
U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and state Sen. Daniel Squadron called the community board's resolution "an attempt to establish a sensible framework that respects the protesters' fundamental rights while addressing the very real quality of life concerns for residents and businesses around Zuccotti Park."
Asked about Occupy Wall Street on WOR Radio on Friday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the protesters' leaderless structure has made it difficult to negotiate with them.
"It's a little bit complicated by there's nobody to work it out with," Bloomberg said. "You know, there just is not any one group, one ideology, one objective, one person to negotiate with."
Occupy Wall Street spokesman Han Shan, who has served as a liaison between protesters and local elected officials, agreed the protesters needed to be better neighbors.
Shan said Friday that there are ongoing discussions about the drumming, which is officially confined to noon to 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
One of the drummers, Jackson Leverette, questioned why neighbors would single out the drumming when the plaza, directly across the street from the World Trade Center site, is already noisy.
"When the construction workers are out there it actually drowns out the drums," he said.
The community board also said it opposed the use of force by police or the park's owners to address their concerns.
TOKYO (Reuters) – Tokyo Electric Power Co (9501.T) is likely to sell a 20 percent stake in wind power developer Eurus Energy Holdings to trading firm Toyota Tsusho (8015.T) to help raise funds to compensate victims of Japan's nuclear crisis, a newspaper said on Sunday.
Tokyo Electric, the owner of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, is expected to sell the stake for a little less than 20 billion yen ($262 million) and post a profit of about 10 billion, which will be used for compensation, the Nikkei business daily reported.
The company, better known as Tepco, has issued a statement, saying that it has not made such a decision.
Tepco is still reeling from the radiation crisis at its Fukushima atomic plant triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan's northeast.
It last month began accepting victims' applications for compensation, but the troubled utility needs to find funds to foot the cost and is seeking help from a taxpayer-funded bailout body.
Eurus Energy, currently owned 60 percent by Tepco and the rest by Toyota Tsusho, is Japan's biggest wind power developer and also operates wind power plants abroad.
Tepco is preparing an extraordinary operating plan, likely to include asset sales, cost cuts and other restructuring measures, and get government approval before receiving bailout funds.
(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Yoko Nishikawa)
DETROIT – A Detroit-area union is supporting a new labor contract with Chrysler Group, giving the agreement a boost after "no" votes at other key locals.
An official at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant says 53 percent of those voting supported the new contract. The plant employs 2,400 assembly workers who make the Dodge Charger and Chrysler 200.
Chrysler and the United Auto Workers reached the agreement last week, but it must be ratified by workers.
The UAW isn't releasing votes from individual plants, so it's unclear how close the contract is to passing. But progress has been bumpy, with large locals in Belvidere, Ill., and Warren, Mich., rejecting the agreement. Voting ends next week.
Chrysler's contract is less generous than those already ratified by workers at General Motors and Ford.
NEW YORK – McDonald's Corp.'s third-quarter net income rose by 9 percent as it kept defying a tough economy and attracting more customers. But those diners might want to get ready to pay more.
The world's largest hamburger chain, which has performed well throughout the recession and its aftermath, noted potential challenges like the rising cost of beef and higher labor costs. McDonald's, a bellwether for the rest of the fast-food industry, hinted that it could raise menu prices for the third time this year.
Companies of all stripes, from restaurants to clothing makers, raised prices this year as the cost for many raw materials spiked, and it appears that more increases are coming. For McDonald's that means the beef in its burgers, the grain in its buns and the coffee in its lattes.
But companies know that they still have to be careful to not raise prices too much and drive away customers, who are choosing carefully where to spend their money.
"The economists say we are officially out of the recession, but it hardly feels that way," CEO Jim Skinner said in a conference call with analysts. He referred to McDonald's gains as "hard-won" victories.
The 9 percent rise in net income, to $1.51 billion, represents McDonald's ninth straight quarter of earnings gains. Earnings per share of $1.45 beat analysts' expectations of $1.43. A 14 percent increase in revenue, to $7.17 billion, also beat the $7.02 billion predicted by analysts polled by FactSet.
McDonald's success has hinged on quickly adapting to customers' changing tastes and reshaping itself as a hip, healthier place to eat. It has added menu items like smoothies and oatmeal, remodeled restaurants, and converted more locations to 24-hour operations. All those moves, the company says, have brought in more customers.
The company didn't give details about possible price increases, though Skinner said that keeping prices affordable was "paramount."
We will continue to evaluate additional price increases in light of this inflationary environment, always balancing our goal of driving traffic and market share gains with managing impact of rising costs," said Chief Financial Officer Peter Bensen.
The company's U.S. commodity costs spiked 8 percent this quarter compared to a year ago. That's higher than the 6 percent in the second quarter and the 1 percent increase in the first quarter.
The cost of beef, which normally declines at the end of the summer grilling season, stayed high, which McDonald's hadn't expected. The U.S. Department of Agriculture now predicts that consumers will end up paying 8 or 9 percent more for beef and veal in 2011 compared with 2010.
McDonald's has already raised prices to offset the higher ingredient costs, raising menu prices by an average of 1 percent in March and another 1.4 percent in May. Bensen said the company had experienced good "flow through" on the two price increases, meaning they hadn't driven away customers.
Grocery prices, which are increasing at a faster clip than restaurant prices, could also give McDonald's some room to raise prices because customers could view eating in as less of a value.
Beef wasn't the only expense to rise. McDonald's effective tax rate climbed because of some lower foreign tax credits. Labor costs rose, and the company invested in new restaurant openings in China, where it now has about 1,400 locations. "Almost every category of costs is going in the wrong direction," Bensen said.
The store openings in China, where it hopes to have 2,000 locations by the end of 2013, signal McDonald's strategy to invest in emerging markets as the U.S. economy continues to struggle. The U.S. accounts for about 31 percent of McDonald's total revenue.
Customer spending at McDonald's franchised and company-owned restaurants rose 5 percent, while in Europe, the company's largest market, the figure climbed 16 percent, and in Asia/Pacific, the Middle East and Africa 20 percent. The foreign gains were helped by the impact of currency translation — when the dollar weakens, money made in other countries translates into more dollars in the U.S. — but even without that effect, the gains outpaced the U.S. revenue growth.
Those figures don't reflect McDonald's corporate revenue, which consists of revenue at company-owned restaurants plus fees and rents paid by franchisees.
McDonald's shares rose $3.31, or 3.7 percent, to close at $92.32.
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Dutch opposition parties took aim at Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Saturday, demanding the minority coalition government secure a definitive and sustainable solution to Europe's debt crisis or risk a loss of parliamentary support.
The minority coalition government of Liberals and Christian Democrats needs the support of the pro-European opposition for any measures to solve the debt crisis because its main ally, the eurosceptic Freedom Party, is firmly opposed to bailouts.
"The package that comes from the summit must be sufficiently robust to actually lead us out of the crisis and we will ultimately judge the results from the summit on that basis," said Job Cohen, leader of the largest opposition party PvdA.
Euro zone leaders will meet on Sunday and Wednesday in a bid to resolve the debt crisis.
Under pressure from the PvdA, Democrat D66 and Greens party, the two government parties agreed to back motions calling on Rutte to push for sustainable reform in Europe instead of more austerity measures and a division of retail and investment banks to stop them "gambling" with consumer savings.
"This minority cabinet cannot simply take our support for granted," Greens leader Jolande Sap warned.
Rutte earlier told parliament that negotiations in Brussels were already difficult and he was not in favor of complicating the talks now with the opposition parties' proposals.
Euro zone countries are working on a plan that involves leveraging the euro zone bailout fund, recapitalising European banks and putting together a second financing package for Greece that entails deeper losses for private investors.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she expected a breakthrough in efforts this week.
A succession of opinion polls in the Netherlands has shown that public backing for euro zone bailouts is wearing thin, however, with a Maurice de Hond poll indicating on Friday that 72 percent of Dutch voters believe that European leaders no longer know what to do.
BAILOUT FUND
Rutte said the Netherlands would support the International Monetary Fund (IMF) taking on a greater financial role in the euro zone bailout, but refused to be drawn on other options being discussed in Brussels, sparking irritation from parliamentarians.
"The Netherlands is in favor of a bigger role for the IMF, both in expertise ... but also financially," Rutte said.
"The discussion within the IMF and G20 on giving the IMF greater financial power is very welcome."
He said that Brazil, Russia, India and China had reacted positively to an IMF agreement to evaluate the idea of giving the IMF greater financial power and the Netherlands was urging Europe to take a positive stance on that.
The fiscally conservative Netherlands has consistently said that euro zone members must stick to the budget rules and has proposed that tough sanctions be imposed on budget sinners.
Roland Plasterk, Labour's finance spokesman, said Europe's leaders had made an "enormous mess" of things and the European Central Bank should gain a greater role in the bailout fund.
Under questioning from Plasterk, the prime minister said the government had become more amenable to the idea of a tax on financial transactions, having earlier opposed the measure.
Rutte said he had recently discussed the idea with Germany's Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the proposal would be discussed at the G20.
"The cabinet is in favor of this tax, but we are not in favor if it is introduced by just a number of countries because the effect could be enormous," Rutte said.
Rutte said the tax could have "great consequences" on the competitiveness of Dutch banks if only a couple of countries implemented it.
(Reporting By Aaron Gray-Block)
BERLIN (Reuters) – A festering dispute in Angela Merkel's center-right coalition worsened on Saturday when the chancellor publicly rejected a claim by one of her junior coalition partners that a tax cut proposal had been scrapped.
Merkel said in a speech in Wiesbaden on Saturday that the center-right government was still aiming to cut taxes by 6 or 7 billion euros ($8.3 billion or $9.7 billion) in 2013, ahead of the next federal election, even though the Christian Social Union (CSU) allies oppose it.
"There's no way that the plan has been taken off the table," Merkel said, referring to the announcement on Thursday by Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and Economy Minister Philipp Roesler to cut taxes in 2013.
Without the support of the CSU, which shares power with Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and Roesler's Free Democrats (FDP), the tax cut proposal has no chance of succeeding.
CSU leader Horst Seehofer has rejected the tax cut plan.
The three party leaders met in Berlin on Friday evening to try to iron out their differences but failed to reach an agreement -- other than postponing a decision until November 6.
There were also conflicting reports on Saturday about what happened at the meeting as leaked to Reuters and other news outlets.
In an unprecedented move, Roesler even retracted a comment he made in a newspaper interview with Bild am Sonntag to be published on Sunday. An advance of the interview was released on Saturday.
At first Roesler said Merkel "accepted the blame for the blunder about the coordination with Seehofer." But Bild am Sonntag later said Roesler had withdrawn the word "blunder" and replaced it with "misunderstanding."
The messy dispute, drawing ridicule from the opposition that has dubbed Merkel's government the "chaos coalition," comes at a difficult moment for the chancellor ahead of crucial meetings on the euro zone crisis on Sunday and Wednesday.
Even though the amount in question -- 6 or 7 billion euros in 2013 -- is relatively small compared with the sums at stake in the euro zone rescue, media latched onto the unusually public row as a sign of the coalition's demise amid sagging support.
Sources close to Merkel dismissed on Saturday reports she had apologized to Seehofer that emerged from CSU and FDP camps for not informing him of the Schaeuble/Roesler tax cut plan.
"There was no 'blunder' and there was no apology," one source told Reuters. The tax cut proposal announced by Schaeuble and Roesler was a conscience move "to open the door for a broader discussion about tax cuts for the public."
Seehofer was annoyed and only learned of their foray on tax cuts from media reports. "It doesn't work like that, presenting facts in the public and expecting us to rubber stamp them," Seehofer said. "That's just not on."
After long opposing tax cuts demanded by Roesler's FDP, Schaeuble appeared at the Economy Minister's side to announce the 6- billion to 7-billion euro tax cuts in 2013. German media speculated that Schaeuble had caved in to win their backing for measures to bolster the euro zone rescue fund.
Schaeuble and Roesler want to cut taxes by reducing the so-called "cold progression," or "bracket creep," in Germany's tax code that generates billions of euros in revenues for the treasury because tax brackets are not adjusted for inflation.
The system has not been changed since 1958 and the state took in an extra 76 billion euros from 2005 to 2010. It has been
taking in about 22 billion euros a year from 2010.
But Seehofer and his Bavarian CSU oppose those plans, saying there are other ways to reduce revenue that would not require approval from the upper house, or Bundesrat, where the center-right coalition has no majority.
The opposition SPD, who rule the key states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Wuerttemberg, have already said the Roesler/Schaeuble tax cut plan has no chance.
(Reporting By Erik Kirschbaum; Editing by Myra MacDonald)
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