T H E E X A M I N ER16 SU N DAY, NOV E M BER 15, 2009
ECONOMY
RETIREMENT
NEWSMAKERS
NEWS IN BRIEF
CHARISSE ESPY GLASSMAN
Washington-based PCT Gov-
ernment Relations, LLC has hired
Glassman, a former senior advisor
on the House Foreign Relations
Committee, to launch its Energy
and Sustainability Practice.
Glassman, who will join the firm
as a vice president, will help clients
assess the strategic and political
environment around domestic
and international energy issues
and develop effective strategies
for addressing climate change and
sustainability challenges.
Prior to joining PCT, Ms. Espy
Glassman was director of gov-
ernment relations for the U.S.
Committee for Refugees and
Immigrants.
WENDY TAYLOR
Taylor has been tapped by Wash-
ington-based Promontory Financial
Group to be it director of market-
ing.
Prior to joining PFG Taylor was
chief marketing officer at the inter-
national law firm Hogan & Hartson.
Promontory Financial Group pro-
vides global consulting services to
financial services companies.
GM: 37 pct of U.S. Saab
dealerships to close
About 37 percent of U.S. Saab
dealers will close as part of Gen-
eral Motors Corp.'s planned sale
of the ailing Swedish car brand
to Koenigsegg Group AB, a GM
spokeswoman said Saturday.
GM spokeswoman Ryndee Car-
ney said the company had sent
letters to 81 of the 218 U.S. Saab
dealers notifying them they will be
expected to terminate their dealer-
ships when the sale closes around
the end of November.
The remaining 137 dealers will
continue operating under Saab
Cars North America, a newly
formed company that will run
the brand under Koenigsegg's
ownership.
Mike Colleran, chief operating
officer of Saab Cars North Amer-
ica, said the company chose dealers
based on their potential to make
money. "We selected a network
that gives us the best opportunity
to achieve that," he said. � AP
FDA investigates safety,
legality of caffeinated
alcoholic beverages
The Food and Drug Administra-
tion this week told about 30 makers
of caffeinated alcoholic drinks it is
investigating the safety and legality
of their products.
Companies including Diageo
North America Inc., Constellation
Brands Inc. and United Brands Co.
were told that unless they could pro-
vide evidence of safety, the agency
will "take appropriate action to
ensure that these products are
removed from the marketplace,"
according to letters sent to the com-
panies and released by the agency.
Officials gave the firms 30 days to
respond.
The FDA said it took action after
it received a letter from 19 state
attorneys general, including those of
New York and California, expressing
concern about the products' safety.
� Bloomberg
Broadcast pioneer NBC
readys for cable takeover
Cable TV operator Comcast
Corp. is expected to buy a con-
trolling stake in NBC Universal,
perhaps as early as this week, bring-
ing the network of Johnny Carson,
Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Hope, Milton
Berle and Tom Brokaw under the
corporate control of the company
that owns the Golf Channel and E!
Entertainment Television.
"This is highly symbolic," said
Tim Brooks, who had worked at
NBC for 20 years and now writes
books on television history.
Starting Sunday, Vivendi SA has
an option to sell its 20 percent stake
in NBC Universal. Majority owner
General Electric Co. is expected
to buy it and then sell a 51 percent
stake of the entire NBC Universal
unit to Comcast, which serves about
a quarter of the nation's subscrip-
tion TV households. � AP
Madoff's personal
belongings up
for auction in NYC
NEW YORK (AP) -- As Bernard
Madoff sits in a North Carolina
prison serving a 150-year sen-
tence, remnants of the fallen
financier's once lavish lifestyle
are going on the auction block
at a Manhattan hotel.
Around 200 items -- ranging
from a half-used sticky pad to
expensive jewelry -- are being
auctioned off Saturday in the
grand ballroom at the Sheraton
New York Hotel & Towers.
The items were taken from
Madoff's homes on Manhattan's
Upper East Side, the Hamptons
and Palm Beach, Fla., which
federal authorities seized after
he was convicted of defrauding
investors.
They include dishes, pens
and stationery, boogie boards
and a Rolex nicknamed the
"Prisoner Watch."
Proceeds from the auction
will be divided among Madoff's
victims.
COPYRIGHT
FRAUD
Michael Liedtke
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO � Internet search
leader Google will ease its control
over millions of copyright-pro-
tected books earmarked for its
digital library if a court approves
a revised lawsuit settlement that
addresses objections of antitrust
regulators.
The offer comes two months
after the U.S. Justice Department
balked at Google's original agree-
ment with authors and publishers,
warning the arrangement could do
more harm than good in the emerg-
ing market for electronic books.
Google Inc. is hoping to keep
the deal alive with a series of new
provisions. Among other things,
the modified agreement provides
more flexibility to offer discounts
on electronic books and promises
to make it easier for others to resell
access to a digital index of books
covered in the settlement.
Copyright holders also would
have to give more explicit permis-
sion to sell digital book copies if
another version is being sold any-
where else in the world.
The concessions filed late Friday
in New York federal court are just
the latest twist in a class-action
lawsuit filed against Google four
years ago by groups represent-
ing the interests of U.S. authors
and publishers. The suit alleged
Google's ambition to make digital
copies of all the books in the world
trampled their intellectual rights.
Google negotiated a $125 million
truce nearly 13 months ago only to
be attacked by a brigade of critics
who protested to U.S. District Judge
Denny Chin, who must approve the
agreement before it takes effect.
The financial terms of the settle-
ment remain intact, including a
promise to give 63 percent of all
sales proceeds to participating
authors and publishers.
Among other complaints, the
opposition said the plan would put
Google in charge of a literary cartel
that could illegally rig the prices of
electronic books -- a format that
is expected to become increasingly
popular.
In echoing some of those con-
cerns, the Justice Department
advised Chin that the original set-
tlement probably would break laws
set up to preserve competition and
protect copyright holders, even if
they can't be located.
Google makes concessions
on digital book agreementWASHINGTON (AP) -- The govern-
ment-chartered company that
insures the pensions of one in
seven Americans said Friday
that its deficit this year nearly
doubled to $22 billion.
That's an improvement over
the Pension Benefit Guaranty
Corp.'s midyear record deficit
of $33.5 billion, which spiked
as auto makers and other
companies faltered and caused
the insurance fund's liabilities
to spike.
Yet experts and officials say
the long-term picture is grim.
They say that without major
changes, such as higher insur-
ance premiums and less risky
investments, the fund even-
tually will require a taxpayer
bailout.
"We could face much higher
deficits in the future," PBGC
acting director Vincent Snow-
barger said in a statement.
"We won't fail to meet our
obligations to retirees, but ulti-
mately we will need a long-term
solution."
The yearly ups and downs
of the fund depend on cyclical
factors like the stock mar-
ket, interest rates and the
performance of the PBGC's
investments, said Douglas
Elliott, a fellow at the Brook-
ings Institution who has
studied pension insurance
for years.
Deficit doubles
for government
pension insurer
Arthur Max
Associated Press Writer
AMSTERDAM -- The Dutch govern-
ment plans to bring the polluter-pays
principle into the home garage.
Rather than an annual road tax for
their cars, drivers will soon pay a few
cents for every kilometer (mile) on
the road, in a plan aimed at breaking
chronic traffic jams and cutting car-
bon emissions, the Cabinet decided
Friday.
The GPS monitoring system could
be a test case for other countries
weighing options for easing crowded
roads. Some cities like London have
created congestion charges to con-
trol traffic in downtown areas, but
only Singapore has a similar scheme
for charging according to the amount
of travel.
When the plan takes effect in 2012,
new car prices will drop as much as
25 percent with the abolition of a
purchase tax and the road tax, which
now totals more than euro600 ($900)
per year for a mid-sized car.
Instead, an average passenger car
will pay euro 0.03 per 1 kilometer
($0.07 per mile), with higher charges
levied during rush hour and for trav-
eling on congested roads. Trucks,
commercial vehicles and bigger cars
emitting more carbon dioxide will be
assessed at a higher rate, the Trans-
port Ministry said.
The GPS devices installed in cars
will track the time, hour and place
each car moves and send the data to
a billing agency.
Dutch drivers to pay tax
on road time, not on car
CARLOS OSORIO/AP FILE
A scanner passes over a book at the University of Michigan, where one of hundreds
of librarians from all over the world was helping Google Inc.'s Book Search create
digital versions of all the estimated 50 million to 100 million books in the world.
GETTY IMAGES
The GPS monitoring system planned for
Amsterdam could be an example other
countries follow to ease crowded roads.

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