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News In Brief

Economists Predict Seven More Months of Job Loss

San Diego County’s shrinking employment base won’t stabilize until the second quarter of next year or show any net gain in new jobs until the third quarter of 2010, according to an economic analysis done by USAToday.com and Moody’s Economy.com released Aug. 20.

Over the 12 months from the end of the first quarter of 2009 to the end of 2010’s first quarter, the San Diego region will lose 3 percent of its jobs, reported at 1.27 million as of the end of March, according to the analysis.

It predicts the region won’t return to that level until “many months have passed which would finally occur during the third quarter of 2011, with greater job creation occurring late in 2011 and continuing into 2013.”

For the entire nation, the report forecasts a 2.4 percent job loss over the same 12-month period ending March 2010, but says new jobs won’t be generated until well into the third and fourth quarters of next year.

As of June, San Diego’s unemployment rate was 10.1 percent, while the jobless rate for California was 11.6 percent, and 9.7 percent for the nation. Total nonfarm employment then was 1.25 million, down by nearly 55,000 jobs from June of 2008, according to the latest report from the state’s Employment Development Department.

, Mike Allen

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Pair Pleads Guilty in Defense Contracting Bribery Case

A Chula Vista couple pleaded guilty to wire fraud Aug. 19 in federal court in connection with a widespread bribery case involving the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command that’s based in San Diego.

According to federal prosecutors, Elizabeth Ramos, 42, and her husband, Louis Williams, 43, admitted that from 1999 to 2008 they paid $200,000 to $400,000 in cash to another San Diego couple, Gary and Kelly Alexander, in return for Gary Alexander’s intercession to ensure Ramos and Williams’ company was hired for work under federal government contracts. Gary Alexander is a former employee of Spawar.

Ramos and Williams’ company, Technical Logistics Corp., was hired as a subcontractor on several occasions by Computer Sciences Corp. and Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, and paid about $4.8 million, prosecutors said.

Besides the cash bribes, the defendants said they gave Gary Alexander a Rolex watch, expensive dinners, clothing, and a Palm Springs vacation as part of the arrangement to keep receiving government contracts.

Ramos and Williams, who are scheduled to be sentenced in February, were indicted in July, along with the Alexanders, prime contractor Jackie Goodwin, and Sinthia Nares on a variety of charges including bribery and wire fraud. The Alexanders were charged with filing false tax returns.

The defendants are scheduled for trial in January.

, Mike Allen

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Salk Institute President Joins California Stem Cell Board

The state’s stem cell agency has a new San Diegan on its 29-member oversight board.

Salk Institute President William Brody was selected to serve on the panel by Lt. Gov. John Garamendi on Aug. 13.

Brody, who took over Salk duties in March, replaces Salk Executive Vice President Marsha Chandler on the board.

, Heather Chambers

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Regulators Put Limits on Imperial Capital Bancorp

Imperial Capital Bancorp, San Diego’s third-largest bank with $4.2 billion in assets, said in a securities filing of Aug. 3 that it signed a written agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and with the state’s Department of Financial Institutions restricting the company from certain things such as paying dividends or incurring debt without getting approval from its regulators.

The bank already is operating under similar restrictions from a cease and desist order from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the DFI, issued in February after the company reported a huge increase in problem loans at the end of last year.

At the end of June, ICB reported it was undercapitalized, meaning it holds capital or reserves below the minimum ratios required of banks. As of June 30, ICB’s Tier 1 capital was 4.2 percent and its total risk-based capital was 6.8 percent. The minimum ratio to be considered adequately capitalized on the latter measurement is 8 percent.

The cease and desist order ICB agreed to in February required it to increase the bank’s Tier 1 capital to more than 9 percent, and its total risk-based capital to greater than 13 percent by Aug. 11.

Now traded on the Pink Sheets electronic board, shares of Imperial Capital under the ticker IMPC.PK had a 52-week range of 15 cents to $11.65.

, Mike Allen

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Nassco Launches Cargo Ship USNS Matthew Perry

The USNS Matthew Perry, the latest Navy cargo ship built by General Dynamics Nassco, was christened and launched in a ceremony Aug. 16 attended by some 2,000 people, the company said.

Nassco began work on the Perry in April 2008, and after further work, it will be delivered to the Navy’s Military Sealift Command in the first quarter of next year. The ships carry some 10,000 tons of food, ammunition and other supplies.

, Mike Allen

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