Business and Finance

Less than five months after receiving a critical public incentive, the latest expansion of the CORTEX bioscience district is taking shape.

Conversion of a former telephone factory as laboratories and research space won’t be done until late this year, but the district already has snagged a big-name tenant able to attract the kind of high-tech startups that the region’s economic developers covet.

Cambridge Innovation Center, one of the nation’s leading business incubators, will occupy 30,000 square feet of space on the second floor of the 1940s phone factory, at 4240 Duncan Avenue, which is undergoing a $73 million conversion as labs and research space.

CIC’s CORTEX project, initially disclosed Wednesday, will be its first outside its home in Cambridge, Mass.

Dougan Sherwood, a CIC director, said St. Louis “has all the underpinnings of a really strong innovation ecosystem.” He said his company hopes to house at the Duncan Avenue building as many as 100 startups in a variety of fields.

The region’s universities and medical research facilities helped draw CIC, Sherwood added. Also playing a role was the CORTEX plan to develop its nearly 200-acre district as a lively, 24-hour Central West End neighborhood with thousands of workers and residents. A capper for CIC was attractive space at the former factory, he said.

“We’re building this thing in the heart of the science community in St. Louis,” Sherwood added.

Work on the building, just renamed @4240, began this spring after the St. Louis Tax Increment Financing Commission granted CORTEX nearly $168 million in public aid to help grow the technology district.

TIF commissioners voted in December to approve CORTEX’s request for assistance in its $2 billion plan to transform its 187-acre Central West End district over the next two decades.

CORTEX’s goal is to turn the area of old warehouses and factories into a hub for technology and medical research.

Dennis Lower, CORTEX’s president and chief executive, has said the district will use $8 million to $10 million in TIF money on four current projects no fax payday loans.

Those four, which have a combined value of $186 million, are an office building for BJC HealthCare, an orthopedic center by Shriners Hospital for Children and a park along Boyle Avenue, in addition to the Duncan Avenue project.

BJC has completed the shell of its five-story building at CORTEX and work will begin soon on the park, called CORTEX Commons. Sitework is underway on the Shriners project.

Wexford Science & Technology, a Baltimore-based developer of research centers, owns the 183,000-square-foot @4240 building. Tarlton Corp. is the general contractor on the building.

In addition to CIC, @4240’s other main tenant so far will be Washington University’s Offices of Technology Management and Research Administration.

CORTEX, a nonprofit joint venture by area universities, BJC and the Missouri Botanical Garden, already houses the BioGenerator and the Center for Emerging Technologies — home to dozens of tech startups. The partnership with Wexford is intended to attract more young companies looking for high-quality space.

Future CORTEX phases could stretch to Vandeventer Avenue, with more offices, a retail center, housing and two small hotels.

During a tour for the Post-Dispatch on Wednesday, Peter Boldt, Tarlton’s superintendent on the project, expressed admiration for workers who in 1948 completed the Art Moderne-style brick and reinforced concrete structure designed and built by the Austin Co. of Cleveland.

He pointed out aspects of the building’s rock-solid construction and the precision placement of electrical boxes that workers had embedded in concrete ceilings.

“They did this right,” Boldt said.

Decades later, workers have sawed through some of those ceilings to produce 40-foot cutouts that allow daylight to penetrate the structure from beneath new skylights. Architects from HOK of St. Louis designed the renovation.

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Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s first quarter profit rose 1.1 percent as the world’s largest retailer struggled with a sales slump in its namesake business.

The company, based in Bentonville, Ark., blamed a payroll tax increase, delayed tax refunds and bad weather for the profit and sales results that missed Wall Street expectations.

The company also offered a profit outlook that came below analysts’ projections. Wal-Mart’s stock fell $1.76, or 2.2 percent, to $78.10 in premarket trading.

Wal-Mart said Thursday that it earned $3.78 billion, or $1.14 per share in the quarter ended April 30. That compared with $3.74 billion, or $1.09 per share, a year earlier.

Sales rose 1 percent to $113.43 billion. That figure excludes Sam’s Club membership fees.

The results fell short of Wall Street expectations for earnings of $1.15 per share on revenue of $115.78 billion.

Wal-Mart reported a 1.4 percent drop in revenue at stores open at least a year at its namesake business, its first drop in a year and a half. At Sam’s Club, the figure rose a slim 0.2 percent, held down by less traffic from business customers, bad weather and lower-than-expected inflation.

Revenue at stores open at least a year is considered a key measurement for retailers because it excludes the effect of stores that open or close during the year.

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In the belly of the crowd, which grew increasingly bellicose as the Boston Bruins came from behind to force overtime, you couldn’t see Patrice Bergeron’s game-winning goal. But you knew what happened.

The rush was quick and fluid, like a bathtub getting unplugged. Hockey fans who had moments earlier danced with glee amongst the jubilant crowd near Maple Leaf Square now scattered in all directions. Instead of their Toronto Maple Leafs advancing to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with a Game 7 win over Boston — as seemed enticingly possible when the Leafs were up 4-1 in the third period — they had to swallow another loss.

But anger plus disappointment didn’t equal rage and destruction. For many, it just meant heartbreak.

“It’s just … I feel empty. I don’t even know what to say,” said a downcast, jersey-clad Ethan Lowe, a 17-year-old Torontonian.

“Unfathomable,” chimed in Alex Hnatykiw, 19, who’d driven into downtown Toronto from Bolton to catch the game with her friend. “I want to cry.”

As the crowd gradually thinned, a dozen police on horseback trotted through the intersection of York St. and Bremner Blvd. Hooves crushed beer cans and glass and other street party detritus, while dejected fans sauntered away in all directions, their crestfallen wandering peppered with the odd raspy yell of anger toward the victorious Bruins.

Then there were the silver-lining types, like Pat Keenan and his friend Chris Anderson. Yes, the duo from Wasaga Beach was sad about the loss. But they were also grateful this year’s team beat largely-held expectations by making the playoffs and forcing a Game 7 against Boston. The performance of Toronto netminder James Reimer was particularly heartening for them.

“You gotta give it to my boy Reimer,” said Anderson with a grin.

“And they played a hell of a series,” added Keenan.

Simandeep Gill, 18, who was sitting on the curb nearby, echoed the sentiment. “It’s devastating, but some people didn’t think the playoffs would happen,” he said. “It just shows we have a bright future.”

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MANILA, PHILIPPINES—Less violence than usual and expected glitches in voting machines marked Monday’s congressional and local elections in the Philippines, which will gauge popular support for the president’s anti-corruption drive and other reforms.

Elections Commission Chairman Sixto Brillantes said he expected turnout of 70 per cent. More than 52 million voters registered to elect 18,000 officials, including half of the 24-member Senate, nearly 300 members of the House of Representatives and leaders of a Muslim autonomous region in the south, where Islamic insurgents and militants are a concern.

Results are expected within a day or two.

The ballots were stacked with familiar names of at least 250 political families who have monopolized power across the country, from former first lady Imelda Marcos, 83, to newly minted politicians like boxing star Manny Pacquiao.

“Wherever you go, you see the names of these people since we were kids. It is still them,” businessman Martin Tunac, 54, said after voting in Manila. “One of the bad things about political dynasties is they control everything, including business.”

Critics worry that a single family’s stranglehold on different levels of government could stymie checks against abuses and corruption. A widely cited example is the 2009 massacre of 58 people, including 32 media workers, in an ambush blamed on rivalry between powerful clans in southern Maguindanao province.

Violence was less pronounced this year, with no Election Day deaths reported as of Monday night, but at least 46 people have been killed in the run-up to the elections since January, police said.

On Monday, assailants lobbed a grenade at a school where the voting was under way in southern Marawi city, but missed and hit a house, wounding three people. Armed followers of a mayoral candidate clashed with marines in nearby Sulu province, where troops replaced local police.

The official election watchdog, Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, said it received reports of breakdowns in some of about 80,000 voting machines, which are being used for only the second time since the 2010 presidential election. The supplier said it had expected 200 to 300 units to malfunction but had 2,000 replacements on standby.

At the end, Brillantes said the problems were minor and the polling generally smooth.

The outcome will determine the level of support for President Benigno Aquino III’s reforms in his remaining three years in office. Aquino has been praised at home and abroad for cracking down on widespread corruption, backing key legislation and concluding an initial peace agreement with Muslim rebels.

But he cannot run for re-election and his choice of a candidate to succeed him, who will be expected to continue on the same reform path, will depend on the new political landscape.

The Aquino administration is confident they will maintain the majority in the House and the focus was on the Senate, said Ramon Casiple, head of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform Internet Payday loans.

“The implication of a Senate that is his ally is that he will have the needed support for his policies and programs,” Casiple said. “Definitely he will not be a lame duck for the next three years because of that, much more if he maintains his popularity. This means they will be more in a position to contest the 2016 presidential elections on a more stable foundation.”

Candidates backed by Aquino ran against a coalition headed by Vice-President Jejomar Binay and deposed President Joseph Estrada. Although officially No. 2 in the country, Binay has emerged as the administration’s rival and may be positioning himself for the 2016 race.

Among 33 senatorial candidates were two of Aquino’s relatives, Binay’s neophyte daughter, Estrada’s son, a son of the sitting chamber president, a son of a late president, a spouse and children of former senators and there’s a possibility that two pairs of siblings will be sitting in the same house. Currently, 15 senators have relatives serving in elective positions.

The race for the House was even more of a family affair. Toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ widow was expected to keep her seat as a representative for Ilocos Norte province, her husband’s birthplace, where the locals kept electing the Marcoses despite allegations of corruption and abuse during their long rule. Imelda Marcos’ daughter Imee was seeking re-election as governor and her son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., is already a senator.

Incumbent Rep. Pacquiao ran unopposed and is trying to build a dynasty of his own: His brother Rogelio was seeking to represent his southern district and his wife, Jinkee, was vying to become vice-governor for Sarangani province.

Estrada, who was ousted in a 2001 “people power” revolt on corruption allegations, ran for mayor of Manila, hoping to capitalize on his movie star popularity, particularly among the poor.

School counsellor Evelyn Dioquino said that the proliferation of political dynasties was a cultural issue and other candidates stood little chance because clans “have money, so they are the only ones who can afford (to run). Of course, if you have no logistics, you can’t run for office.”

Ana Maria Tabunda of independent pollster Pulse Asia said that dynasties restrict democracy, but added that past surveys by her organization have shown that most Filipinos are less concerned about the issue than with the benefits and patronage they can receive from particular candidates. Voters also often pick candidates with the most familiar surnames instead of those with the best records, she said.

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SASKATOON—He was one of the most recognizable residents in Saskatoon and some people consider the Prairie city a little different now that he’s gone.

Alvin Cote wasn’t a well-known politician, businessman or hockey player, but a ragged, homeless alcoholic whose tough talk would easily melt into a hearty chuckle and a big smile short on teeth.

He spent that past couple of decades living in Saskatoon. He could be seen curled up on floor of a bank foyer, sleeping on park benches or reading worn copies of National Geographic in the drunk tank.

He died April 19, a few days shy of his 60th birthday.

Saskatoon police officers are still talking about his death, even though they considered it an inevitable fate. It’s believed Cote had been arrested more times for public drunkenness than anyone else in the city’s history. Some officers put the tally at close to 1,000.

Although his obituary does not list an official cause of death, police say Cote was in hospital with pneumonia when he died.

Downtown beat officer Const. Derek Chesney was surprised and saddened when he heard the news. He saw the man almost every day over the past five years.

“It’s not often that you can arrest somebody on multiple occasions and end up being friends with them. But such was the case with Alvin,” Chesney recently wrote on his official police blog, Cops and Bloggers.

The officer confesses that he had a good cry after writing the online tribute. He fights back tears again as he talks on the phone about the important life lesson Cote taught him.

“You realize that people can fall through the cracks,” says Chesney. “And just as much as a good person can have a bad day, things can happen to people in their lives where they end up going on a path that perhaps they didn’t choose.”

Cote was from the Cote First Nation in the Kamsack area, east of Saskatoon near the Manitoba boundary. He was carted off as a child to a residential school on a neighbouring reserve and suffered years of abuse, says Chesney.

He says Cote never talked about it, but the abuse likely set him on his destructive path. Cote has a sister in Saskatoon and she tried to look after Cote for a while, says Chesney. But he wouldn’t stop drinking.

Chesney remembers meeting Cote for the first time in the winter of 2009 outside the old train station downtown. Chesney had just earned his badge and saw the man with a scraggly beard tapping and flexing his arms, yelling his catchphrase: “I’m a fighter.”

Chesney calmed him down by asking, “I heard you were a lover, not a fighter.”

“Well, I’m that too,” Cote laughed.

Chesney and his partner then put Cote in their cruiser and, as they were heading back to the police station, Cote knocked on the dividing window with $5 in his hand. He said he was hungry. Chesney ran into a McDonald’s and got him two double cheeseburgers. Cote happily devoured his meal during the rest of the ride.

Chesney says he and many other officers looked out for Cote. They checked on him at night and made sure he had enough to eat. Sometimes, when Cote was hanging out on his usual bench in the public lobby of the police station, officers changing shifts would hand him their lunches as they walked by.

One time, when Cote was in detention on his birthday, staff rummaged up a cupcake and stuck a candle on top. “They actually had everybody on key and everybody else in cells sang Happy Birthday. He blew the candle out through the bars.”

Chesney says he last saw Cote a few weeks before he died, sitting outside a Tim Hortons. Chesney patted him on the back and they ended their chat the way they always did.

“OK, Bud. See you later,” Chesney said.

“You will,” Cote replied.

Chesney says he and other officers have made their way in recent weeks to the home of Cote’s sister to drop off sympathy cards and kind words about the man they miss my credit score. Some even say they thought of him as family.

But the police aren’t the only ones mourning Cote. Chesney’s blog has received hundreds of clicks and comments from people who had seen Cote on the streets, even though they never knew his name.

A McDonald’s manager wrote about how she will miss waking Cote up outside the restaurant in the mornings and asking him to move along. Another woman said she’ll miss buying him lunch. One man talked about how he once saw Cote sleeping inside a bank foyer. He slipped some money under the pile of clothes the man was using as a pillow.

“Sounds like this guy may have been an angel in disguise?” wrote a woman named Amy. “He seems to have brought out the best in humanity.”

Const. Robbie Taylor often sat and had coffee with Cote. He laughs as he recalls his favourite stories about the man, like the one about how Cote used to wear a second-hand sweater from the Salvation Army. On the front it read, “What the world’s greatest mom looks like.”

Then there was the time when Cote pitched a fit in detention because officers gave him a magazine with singer Anne Murray on the cover. “I hate her!” he ranted.

Taylor says Cote loved to read but was always losing or breaking his glasses. So officers usually grabbed him glasses from boxes of used, donated pairs that were supposed to go to Africa.

Taylor once gave Cote an amateur eye exam. He had him read an oatmeal box while trying on different glasses. If he squinted, Taylor had him try on another pair. The ones Cote liked best were large and red and made him look like TV talk show host Sally Jessy Raphael. Cote suspected they were women’s glasses but he still tucked them away in his pocket.

“I still have a couple of pairs in my locker. They were ready to go if he broke them again.”

Cote was such a character that a worker at the police detention centre sketched his picture, put his mug on some T-shirts and gave them to other staff. Orders for more are now rolling so people will have something to remember him by.

The workers tried to give one of the T-shirts to Cote last year for Christmas but he didn’t want it. He grumbled that he looked too much like Santa Claus.

Even Saskatoon’s police chief knew Cote. Clive Weighill recalls seeing him at a Tim Hortons just a few weeks before he died. Weighill slipped him some cash.

“I think most people thought I was telling him to leave but I was just giving him a five dollar bill so he could go get himself something to eat.”

Weighill says a study completed last year tracked Cote and 22 other homeless people with substance abuse problems. It showed that they cost the city $2.8 million over one year in policing, ambulance and hospital costs.

That’s why police, health officials and other agencies hope to build a wellness centre in the city to house the group. Weighill says it’s a more dignified solution than sticking them in police cells.

The centre could also provide faster access to treatment services, but Weighill concedes some people just don’t want help.

Chesney says he did everything he could for Cote. “I couldn’t make him sober up. I couldn’t bring him home and put him in my basement and give him a bath. He lived the way he wanted to and you almost have to respect somebody for that.”

Some officers say they would have gone to Cote’s funeral but he was buried on his home reserve some 350 kilometres away. There’s talk of a local memorial, but nothing has been organized.

Chesney hopes the bench in the police lobby that Cote sat on for countless hours will be decorated with a plaque in his name and moved into the new police station that’s under construction. That way Cote will always be there.

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Canadian employers say Ottawa’s changes to the temporary foreign worker program will add costs, increase red tape and could even put some companies out of business.

“It’s going to drive up costs and make it more difficult to use the program,” said Perrin Beatty, president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

“Nobody benefits from that,” Beatty said adding it could force come employers out of business.

Ottawa moved to tighten the rules surrounding the program Monday following a public uproar over the use of temporary foreign workers at the Royal Bank of Canada.

About 47 people working in computer services were slated to lose their jobs as the bank outsourced their work to a U.S.-based firm with operations in India. The bank has since apologized.

“The government has tried to solve a political problem by exacerbating an economic problem,” Beatty said.

Under the new rules, employers who want to hire temporary foreign workers will bear the cost of proving no Canadian was willing or able to do the work.

Ottawa has eliminated a provision that allowed employers to pay temporary foreign workers 5 to 15 per cent less than the prevailing Canadian wage.

Under the new rules, employers who hire temporary foreign workers will have to demonstrate plans to transition to a Canadian workforce.

As well, the government plans to suspend a “fast-track” method that allowed employers to prove within five days that no Canadian workers were available to do the work.

Federal immigration minister Jason Kenney, who announced the changes, said the government is aware that employers are facing skills shortages across the country.

While Canada has created more net new jobs since the 2008 recession than any other G7 country, demand for temporary foreign workers is also on the rise, Kenney said.

Intended to fill jobs where there’s an acute shortage on a temporary basis, Kenney said, the government shares Canadians “concerns about examples of the program being used not as it was intended.

“Canadians must have first crack at jobs in our economy,” Kenney said.

The new rules will strengthen the program and help employers grow and ultimately create more jobs for Canadian, Kenney said.

Business groups were critical of the changes.

“One of the worst decisions this government has ever made,” said Dan Kelly, president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said of the new rules. “They’re completing ignoring the needs of small firms and the needs of employers who are in need of entry level workers.”

“I’m very, very unhappy with this government for this decision,” Kelly added quick guaranteed personal loans.

Many of the heaviest users of the program are small businesses in rural communities in high-wage provinces, like Alberta and Saskatchewan, who can’t compete with the resource industry for younger workers, he said.

“Half our members in western Canada are telling us right now they’re ignoring business opportunities because they don’t have enough people,” Kelly said.

Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters said the new user fees should be tied to performance; ensuring companies that want to hire temporary foreign workers get speedy approval from government.

“The fact of the matter is you have companies that just can’t find people,” said Jay Myers, president and chief executive officer of the manufacturers’ association.

If companies can’t find the right people quickly, it could slow down Canada’s economic recovery, Myers cautioned. “It’s about the productivity and the ability of whole companies to compete.”

The federal government said it costs $35.5 million a year, or about $342 per applicant, to process employers’ requests for temporary foreign workers.

Some 338,000 people were working in Canada on temporary foreign worker permits last year, more than are admitted annually as permanent residents.

Canadian employers say they need the program to fill gaps in the labour force.

The top 20 Canadian employers using the temporary foreign worker program in 2011 included major fast food restaurants, some construction companies and meat packers, according to a list previously released under a Freedom of Information Request.

Wendy’s Restaurants, in Calgary, Alberta, for instances, made 553 requests under the program for what’s called a positive Labour Market Opinion, a precursor to being granted permission to hire a temporary foreign worker.

One LMO can apply to any number of TFW positions.

On average, half of all LMOs result in a work permit being issued. At the time, it was taking an average of 104 days – just over three months – to get a work permit issued.

The now suspended Accelerated Labour Market Opinion process allowed employers to win approval to hire temporary foreign workers within 10 days of applying.

The Alberta Federation of Labour has said the fast-track approval process – aimed at bringing in highly-skilled workers — was being misused by fast-food companies, convenience stores and gas stations to bring in low-skilled foreign workers.

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Rookie Markham councillor and motivational speaker Howard Shore received an absolute discharge in Newmarket court after pleading guilty to possession of an iPhone stolen from a health club locker.

Shore’s lawyer, Edward Prutschi, told Justice Howard Chisvin on Friday that Shore continues to battle depression with the help of his psychiatrist and family doctor.

Outside the courtroom, Prutschi said mental illness can manifest itself in many ways. “A lot of these ways don’t make sense to us,” Prutschi said.

An absolute discharge means Shore is technically guilty but does not receive a criminal record for the theft.

Crown Attorney Paul Tait sought a conditional sentence and six months’ probation after Shore pleaded guilty in December to possession of property not worth over $5,000 that was obtained by an offence. The phone was worth $650.

Tait did not address the court on Friday.

Shore did not speak in his court appearance on Friday, which lasted less than 10 minutes. He quickly brushed past reporters outside the courtroom, refusing comment.

His case was heard in community treatment court, a special forum created for defendants with substance or mental health issues.

Chisvin postponed passing a sentence immediately after the guilty plea in December and also again in February, when he heard a progress report on the councillor’s therapy cash advance loan no fax.

Prutschi presented court with paperwork on Friday which he said shows Shore is successfully continuing with therapy and medication.

In his earlier court appearances, Shore blamed depression for his actions.

Shore was nabbed in November 2011 as he tried to exit the health club with the phone in his bag, after the phone’s owner called its number and heard it buzz as Shore walked past.

This wasn’t the first time Shore has wound up in court for stealing a cellphone. In 2008, Shore was convicted in Florida of a taking a female lawyer’s phone and then stalking her.

Court earlier heard from Prutschi that Shore’s anxiety issues could be traced back to when he was a preschooler and his parents parted ways.

Immediately after charges were laid in 2011, Shore professed his innocence, telling the Star: “This is a complete and utter misunderstanding, 100 per cent. I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong and I have 100 per cent confidence that in due course this will be resolved.

“I was stunned (to learn of the charges) because I haven’t done anything wrong.”

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KAUFMAN, TEXAS—Texas authorities have arrested the wife of a former justice of the peace who was charged with making a terroristic threat in connection with the shooting deaths of a district attorney and his wife.

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Kim Lene Williams was arrested early Wednesday. Online jail records do not list charges against her and officials wouldn’t immediately comment on the reason for her arrest.

A law enforcement official has said authorities are trying to build a case against her husband, Eric Lyle Williams, in the deaths of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, whose bodies were found at their home March 30.

A probable cause affidavit says Eric Williams sent an email one day after the McLellands’ bodies were discovered implying there would be another attack if authorities didn’t respond to various demands. The email was sent from Eric Williams’ personal computer. Authorities arrested him on Saturday and charged him with making a terroristic threat.

He was being held on $3 million bond on that charge.

Williams lost his elected position as justice of the peace after he was convicted of stealing three computer monitors from an office. McLelland and Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse — who was shot and killed in an apparent ambush outside a courthouse in January — prosecuted that case.

During closing arguments, the prosecutors presented testimony indicating that Williams had made death threats against a former girlfriend and a local attorney.

A jury found Williams guilty; he received two years’ probation and lost his law license and position as justice of the peace.

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A trial designed to assign fault to the companies involved in the deadly Deepwater Horizon disaster has resumed with testimony of a BP manager who supervised two rig managers indicted on manslaughter charges.

John Guide was BP’s wells team leader for the well that blew out in the Gulf in 2010. He was the first witness to testify Monday as the trial entered its eighth week.

Guide supervised two rig managers who have been indicted on manslaughter charges in the deaths of 11 workers during the April 20, 2010 explosion.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier is hearing testimony without a jury. Barring a settlement, Barbier could decide how much more money BP and its contractors should pay for their roles in the nation’s worst offshore oil spill.

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