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ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Exxon Mobil Corp. was ordered Monday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to pay about $500 million in interest on punitive damages for the Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, nearly doubling the payout to Alaska Natives, fishermen, business owners and others harmed by the 1989 disaster.

The decision would double the average payout of about $15,000 for the nearly 33,000 claimants.

In June 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court set punitive damages at $507 payday loan with bad credit.5 million. But two months later, the high court declined to decide whether Exxon Mobil must pay interest on the punitive damages awarded in the nation’s worst oil spill and instead sent it back to the appeals court.

Exxon could appeal the decision on the interest payments to the Supreme Court. An Exxon spokesman declined to comment on Monday.

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Resale prices for Canadian homes rose to their highest average on record in May, while sales activity climbed for a fourth straight month as consumer confidence strengthened, according to an industry report released Monday.

But rebounding sales in some of the most expensive markets skewed the national average, the Canadian Real Estate Association said in the report.

The average home price last month rose 0.4 percent to C$319,757 ($282,971), topping the previous record set a year ago. It was the first year-over-year increase since May last year.

The average price has recovered 16.4 percent from the low reached in January, CREA said.

Home sales rose 8 percent to 37,649 units in May from April, the fourth consecutive monthly increase on a seasonally adjusted basis. Nationally, 49,521 units changed hands in May, down 0.8 percent from a year ago.

"New records were posted in only 15 percent of local markets in May, none of which are among the most active or expensive," CREA said bad credit cash loans.

"The strong rebound in sales activity, not price, in Canada’s most expensive markets is driving up average prices nationally and in some provinces, just as a sharp decline in activity in these markets pushed average prices lower in late 2008."

Of the 25 major markets that CREA tracks, 14 reported rises in unit sales year-over-year, with five markets, mostly in the western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, posting double-digit increases.

Prices rose in 14 markets, led by a 17.3 percent increase in Newfoundland and Labrador and a 12.1 percent climb in Saint John, New Brunswick.

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Six Flags Inc will not sell assets or reduce its workforce as a result of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing this weekend, the theme park operator’s chief executive told CNBC on Monday.

“This isn’t a liquidation,” said CEO Mark Shapiro. “This is about the past. This is about debt that’s been around for just too long.”

Six Flags, which operates or owns 20 parks in North America, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the early hours of Saturday morning. The company was saddled with a $2.4 billion debt load and faced a looming cash $300 million payment to preferred stock holders in August.

The company tried to convince lenders to swap debt for equity in the last two months, but abandoned the measure after the measure drew little interest.

Common shareholders, as well as most bondholders, will likely be “heavily diluted” due to the Chapter 11 filing, Shapiro said in the interview.

In its bankruptcy filing, the New York-based company said its restructuring plan will result in the deleveraging of its balance sheet by about $1 compare car insurance prices.8 billion. The plan also calls for the elimination of more than $300 million in preferred stock obligations.

The filing will likely wipe out the 6 percent stake held by Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins football team who took control of the company in a proxy battle in 2005. Other equity stakeholders who will be affected include Bill Gates’ fund Cascade Investment LLC, which has about an 11 percent stake in the company.

Still, Shapiro said Snyder will continue his duties as chairman of the board, a position he took on in December 2005.

The chief executive also said he did not expect the bankruptcy filing to hurt the company’s summer revenue because the company has built a reputation for its safety standards.

(Reporting by Deepa Seetharaman; Editing by Derek Caney)

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Replacing a furnace is costly, ranging from $3,000 to $5,000 installed.

You can wait for an older furnace to reach the end of its life, which happens (on average) between 18 and 22 years. Or you can replace it before a breakdown to enjoy a variety of rebates, grants and tax credits that subsidize the cost.

Who knows if a helping hand will still be around by the time your furnace breathes its last?

Here are some subsidies for furnace upgrades:

• Up to $1,250 in federal and provincial rebates under the ecoEnergy retrofit program. You have to get a home energy audit and do the work within 18 months, followed by a second energy audit.
• A $125 rebate on a mid-efficiency or high-efficiency furnace with an electronically commutated motor, installed by Dec. 31, from the Ontario Power Authority’s Every Kilowatt Counts program.
• A $100 rebate from Enbridge Gas for a high-efficiency natural gas furnace, installed by Nov. 30, which carries the Energy Star mark.
• A 15 per cent tax credit on home renovation spending from $1,000 to $10,000, incurred by Feb. 1, 2010.

New federal rules will come into effect next year to stop the sale of mid-efficiency furnaces manufactured after Dec. 31.

A mid-efficiency furnace burns about 80 per cent of the gas you pay for. It’s better than a conventional gas furnace, which is 60 per cent efficient.

But with a new high-efficiency furnace, you can keep 90 to 97 per cent of the fuel inside your home.

So, why do some homeowners opt for a mid-efficiency furnace? It uses the chimney to vent gases.

A high-efficiency furnace doesn’t use the chimney. The gases are vented through a plastic pipe out the side wall or basement of the home.

Venting can be an issue if you live in a compact house in a densely packed urban area cash loans for bad credit. You can’t drill holes too close to windows or dryer outlets.

"There are real challenges doing venting in the city," says Roger Grochmal, president of Atlas Cares, a home heating and air conditioning contractor.

"Even if your mid-efficiency furnace hasn’t reached the end of its useful life, you may want to think about replacing it now."

Mid-efficiency furnaces are still installed every day, says Direct Energy’s Dave Walton, director of home ideas.

"Some people just have a preference. It’s more about venting concerns."

A home energy audit can help you pick the right furnace for your house. The cost is $300 to $350, partially offset by a $150 rebate from the Ontario government.

Many homeowners are replacing their central air conditioning, too.

"It’s a really good time to do an upgrade," says Grochmal. "Of every 10 furnaces we install, we’re doing six to seven air conditioning units at the same time."

You can get up to $500 in federal and provincial rebates for upgrading central air conditioning under the ecoEnergy retrofit program.

Another rebate for air conditioning replacement is offered by the Every Kilowatt Counts program. It’s $250 or $400, depending on the seasonal energy efficiency rating (SEER).

"The ways to max out the grants are quite astonishing. There are serious savings to be had," says Walton.

But you shouldn’t let the rebates drive your decision-making, Grochmal warns. There may be a better solution for your home that doesn’t get you the maximum rebate.

Next week, we’ll look at geothermal and solar heating systems.

eroseman@thestar.ca

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BURLINGTON–Hip clothing retailer West 49 Inc. reported Thursday a first-quarter loss of $2.6 million, improved from a year-ago loss of $4.2 million as sales rose 4.9 per cent.

The loss amounted to four cents per share, compared with a loss of seven cents per share in the comparable period a year ago.

Sales in the period ended May 2 were $38.9 million, up from $40.8 million.

Same-store sales, a measure of performance at stores open at least a year, were up 2.9 per cent on a consolidated basis and 7.7 per cent for the company's core West 49 banner.

"In spite of the challenging economy, we improved our margins while growing both our net sales and comparable store sales in the first quarter," chief executive Sam Baio said in a statement how to get a free credit report.

"The strategies we have been executing over the past several quarters are beginning to pay off during the first quarter of fiscal 2010. Our stronger comparable store sales and top line growth are a testament to the exceptional brands we offer and our competitive pricing."

The company said it has received a waiver from its bank for a credit covenant that it had previously disclosed it had breached. West 49 said it is working with the bank towards completing an annual renewal process during the second quarter.

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Sales at U.S. retailers rose in May and the number of workers filing new applications for jobless benefits fell for a fourth straight week last week, according to official data on Thursday that suggested the recession was abating.

The Commerce Department said total retail sales rose 0.5 percent, the first advance in three months, lifted by strong gasoline and building material receipts. Sales fell 0.2 percent in April.

A separate report from the Labor Department showed the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless aid fell 24,000 to 601,000 in the week ended June 6, the lowest since January 24.

“It looks like we are turning the corner. There is pretty clear evidence that the worst of the labor downturn has passed, but we still expect more job losses,” said Zach Pandl an economist at Nomura Securities International in New York.

U.S. stock index futures briefly rose on the reports.

The reports bolstered the argument that the economy’s severe recession was close to hitting a bottom, with growth likely to return in the second half of the year.

The sales report raised optimism that consumer spending would probably be flat to modestly lower in the second quarter, instead of falling sharply as expected by most analysts.

Spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, rose 1.5 percent in the January-March period, after a 4.3 percent dive in the fourth quarter.

Still, retail sales were partly boosted by increases in gasoline prices, which could crimp consumers’ wallets best payday advance.

“The tender green shoots could be snuffed out by the frost of higher mortgage rates and gasoline prices,” said T.J. Marta, chief market strategist at Marta on the Markets in Scotch Plains, New Jersey.

Gasoline sales jumped 3.6 percent in May after dropping 0.8 percent the previous month. Excluding gasoline, retail sales rose 0.2 percent. Sales of building materials climbed 1.3 percent in May, the biggest advance since April last year, after falling 0.6 percent in April.

Excluding motor vehicles and parts, sales rose 0.5 percent in May, compared to a 0.2 decline the prior month, the Commerce Department said. Vehicles and parts sales rose 0.5 percent after a 0.4 percent fall in April.

Soft spots in the report included sales of electronic goods, which fell 0.5 percent in May after declining 0.9 percent the previous month.

While initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits declined for the fourth straight week, the number of people staying on the benefit rolls after collecting an initial week of aid rose to a record 6.82 million in the week of May 30, the latest week for which data is available.

It was the 19th week in a row so-called continued claims set a record, the Labor Department said. 

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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday delayed the sale of most of Chrysler’s assets to Fiat pending further consideration of an appeal by three Indiana state funds and several consumer groups, a move that injects a new element of uncertainty over the carmaker’s fate.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who handles emergency matters arising from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said in a one-sentence order that the rulings of the bankruptcy judge allowing the sale "are stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the court."

The order is in effect a holding action that gives Ginsburg or the full court more time to consider whether to delay the deal while parties objecting to it file appeals. The most likely explanation for the temporary stay is that the justices needed more time to consider the filings, which started arriving over the weekend.

Chrysler LLC, Fiat and the government were prepared to close the deal as soon as Monday night if the court let the deal go forward, according to people briefed on the matter. Lawyers for the carmakers and the government have said that speed was of the essence to ensure the companies’ survival and preserve thousands of jobs.

Under the terms of the deal, Fiat can walk away as soon as June 15, a move that Chrysler executives warned would mean near-certain liquidation. Executives testified in court that despite spending more than a year scouring the globe for someone to buy the company, none except Fiat made an offer. And a lawyer for Chrysler argued in a recent court filing that the carmaker was losing $100 million a day while in bankruptcy.

Chrysler halted production at its factories in the United States after it sought bankruptcy protection on April 30 florida health insurance. The company said it would restart the plants, including a truck assembly plant in Fenton, once the sale of its assets to Fiat was finalized. The Fenton plant is scheduled for permanent closure by the end of September as part of the bankruptcy. Another Chrysler plant in Fenton that made minivans was shuttered in October and will not be restarted.

For much of its court case, decisions had fallen Chrysler’s way. The carmaker won quick approval of its sale from two lower courts, and many legal experts said they did not expect the Supreme Court to further delay the deal.

But lawyers for the objectors, including Indiana funds representing teachers and police officers and several groups with product liability claims, filed their appeal to Ginsburg late Saturday night, after the 2nd Circuit reaffirmed a lower court’s approval of the sale. The appeals court had delayed the closing of the deal until Monday afternoon or until the Supreme Court declined to issue its own delay.

The Indiana funds have sought greater compensation for their portion of Chrysler’s $6.9 billion in secured debt. They have also argued that the Obama administration illegally used federal bailout money earmarked for financial institutions to help Chrysler. The Indiana funds bought their holdings in July 2008 for 43 cents on the dollar.

Lawyers for the funds have questioned whether Chrysler could have received a better deal than the Fiat transaction or through a liquidation. They have also objected on constitutional grounds, saying that the Obama administration was not allowed to give bailout money meant for financial institutions to Chrysler.

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OTTAWA–With Canada’s economy under pressure at home and abroad, the Harper government is trying to talk up business conditions in Canada while simultaneously jawboning against protectionism in the United States.

Despite the highest jobless rate in 11 years, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty sought to look on the bright side yesterday, saying the economic slump may be bottoming out.

"What I see in the Canadian economy are some indications of stabilization and some positive indications about people being willing to spend again," he said at an international forum in Montreal.

Meanwhile, Trade Minister Stockwell Day revealed that Canadian trade commissioners in the United States will descend en masse on Congress today to raise the alarm about protectionism.

"Part of the ongoing strategy is to bring to the attention of as many people as we can in Congress the negative effects of Buy America," Day said outside the Commons. The campaign is called "All Politics is Local Politics," Day explained. "It’s hitting at yet another level, getting the message across that Buy America and protectionism winds up hurting both economies – ours and the United States’."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has already tried to convince the White House of the dangers of nationalist rules such as Buy America, which put contracts off limits to foreign companies.

Protectionism captured national attention on the weekend when Canadian mayors endorsed blocking American firms from bidding on municipal contracts in retaliation for similar restrictions in the U.S.

The mayors’ move reflects rising fears about protectionism at the local level in the U online payday loan.S. that could bar Canadian companies from bidding on $90 billion (U.S.) worth of road, bridge and other infrastructure projects included in the U.S. economic stimulus package.

Still, Flaherty responded to the call for fresh protectionist measures in Canada by warning that any rules that limit open commerce will hurt everyone.

"Protectionism is bad for Canada and bad for the United States," Flaherty told reporters. "It’s bad for cities. It’s bad for provinces. It’s bad for American states."

After recent revelations that the federal budget deficit would soar past $50 billion (Canadian) and that the jobless rate is the worst in more than a decade, Flaherty tried to strike a positive note yesterday.

He said, as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported, that Canada was among four industrialized countries, including France, Italy and Britain, where the economic decline may bottoming out.

Flaherty expressed "cautious optimism that a global economic recovery may not be far behind" and said Canada will bounce back vigorously.

He also said all of the measures in Canada’s economic action plan to help Canadian households and businesses are "in place and fully operational."

But in the Commons, NDP leader Jack Layton said Flaherty had "misled" Canadians. "Contrary to what he said, the economic action plan is not in place, the money is not flowing" to municipalities that need it, Layton said.

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Even in the southwest Chinese home base of Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery, residents are more familiar with the gas-guzzling Hummer brand that it is looking to buy from bankrupt General Motors than with the heavy machinery maker itself.

Little-known Tengzhong, which makes special-use vehicles and bridge and highway components, emerged last week as the surprise buyer of Hummer — a move that has delighted locals but raised eyebrows elsewhere.

“I think Hummer is a famous brand,” said Zhang Youyi, an engineer who wasn’t initially sure if Tengzhong was even located in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, a farming and industrial powerhouse.

“It would be good news for Chengdu,” said Zhang, referring to recent tragedies that have struck the province — from a mystery bus fire that killed 27, a landslide that buried over 80 people and last year’s earthquake that killed more than 80,000.

Others aren’t so sure.

Besides flying in the face of Beijing’s push to more fuel efficient cars, Tengzhong’s non-binding deal to buy a brand that has become a metaphor for macho, gas-guzzling waste also needs to deal with regulatory and financing issues.

Tengzhong’s management team is in the United States hammering out a deal with GM, and could return to China this week, said a source close to the talks.

“The purchase of a U.S. auto brand famous for being a gas-guzzler obviously does not make sense,” the China Daily wrote in an editorial on Monday business cards.

It matters little that Hummers get fewer than 8.5 kilometers to the liter (20 mpg) and can cost more than $65,000 — almost a lifetime of work for the average urban Chinese worker. The Hummer was never about being average.

“You don’t see many Hummers in Chengdu,” said Liu Shan, a schoolteacher. “They’re for rich people. Ordinary people like them for wedding pictures,” she said.

“LET THE WORLD FOLLOW US”

At the entrance to Tengzhong’s factory, a series of grey buildings, a slogan in large red characters proclaims, “Let the World Follow Us.”

But workers arriving for the early Monday shift declined to talk to reporters, instead handing out slips of paper they’d been given with a Hong Kong phone number of the company’s public relations firm.

“Nobody can talk about this,” said a receptionist, referring all inquiries to the company website’s phone numbers.

The oversized Hummers are geared for off-road use, but have become symbols of machismo for the bulging wallets of celebrities such as sumo wrestling star Asashoryu, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the newly rich in Russia. 

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At long last, the end of TARP may be here for some big banks.

Next week, the Federal Reserve will unveil which of the 19 banks that underwent the government’s stress test program will be allowed to repay money under the Treasury Department’s controversial Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Industry analysts estimate that as many as 10 banks, and as few as four, could win approval to exit TARP next week.

Weary of the intense scrutiny and fickle nature of lawmakers, banks have been scrambling to comply with the rules associated with repaying taxpayer funds. Most notably, several have been busy raising massive amounts of capital in order to redeem the preferred-shares the government acquired in them.

Just this week, JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) and American Express (AXP, Fortune 500), announced plans to raise a combined $7.7 billion through the sale of common stock.

JPMorgan Chase, AmEx,Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), State Street (STT, Fortune 500) and Bank of New York Mellon (BK, Fortune 500) have all been widely mentioned as banks capable of repaying government funds after they were deemed well capitalized as part of the stress-test program.

Others thought to be included in that group are regional banking giants Capital One (COF, Fortune 500), BB&T (BBT, Fortune 500) and U.S. Bancorp (USB, Fortune 500).

Investment bank Morgan Stanley, which faced a $1.8 billion capital shortfall following the stress tests, may be the one exception as the firm has raised most of the $6.2 billion in capital it planned to sell through common stock over the past month.

Others are racing to catch up as well, including Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), which revealed Tuesday that it had raised almost $33 billion of the nearly $34 billion in capital it needed as a result of the stress-test program.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based lender added that it would "comfortably exceed" that amount soon enough, suggesting that it too was eyeing to free itself from the clutches of TARP, although it is widely doubted the nation’s largest bank by assets will win approval as part of next week’s announcement.

What troubles many lenders about TARP nowadays, said Standard & Poor’s equity research analyst Stuart Plesser, is that they will remain at a severe competitive disadvantage.

Not only are those banks obligated to pay a hefty dividend on the government’s preferred shares that weighs on their quarterly results, these banks also stand to be viewed by clients and the market as weaker than rivals.

And there is also the issue of compensation. Banks stuck in TARP will likely be obligated to abide by more severe restrictions on salaries and bonuses, potentially allowing their peers to lure top earners away overnight pay day loans. That could make it even tougher for some of the struggling banks to remain competitive.

"Banks don’t want to let that kind of talent leave," said Plesser.

The ins and outs of TARP

Those banks that exit the Treasury program will, among other things, need to prove that they can issue debt without having to rely on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s debt guarantee program. They will also need to have enough capital to continue lending to creditworthy consumers and businesses.

Banks’ ability to keep lending after paying back TARP has remained a key concern for regulators.

Credit is already tight at those 500 or so lenders that took taxpayer funds, according to a report published this week by the Treasury Department. But there are fears that the availability of credit could deteriorate further among big banks once they return TARP funds as they try to insulate themselves from future loan losses.

"The administration and regulators would really prefer not to get the money back at this point," said Douglas Elliott, a former investment banker who now serves as a fellow at the Brookings Institute. "They need to let the strongest banks repay, but they’re not trying to make it easy."

To date, just 20 of the 500 or so banks that have taken TARP funds have managed to repurchase their shares from the Treasury Department, according to agency transactions records. Many of those firms have been smaller regional banks or community lenders.

One question that regulators have not directly addressed is what they intend to do with the warrants, or rights to purchase shares, the government acquired when it injected capital into many of these banks last fall.

Banks have been anxious to buy back these obligations, but there have been concerns that allowing banks to redeem warrants would be to the disadvantage of U.S. taxpayers who stand to make significant gains should bank stocks continue to move higher in the months and years ahead.

But even as banks race to escape the clutches of TARP, analysts say they are hard pressed to believe that those firms will be free and clear of scrutiny.

Robert Maneri, managing director at Victory Capital Management, whose firm owns shares of names like Bank of America, JPMorgan and U.S. Bancorp, said banks will face more regulatory pressure over their loan portfolios and capital levels as the U.S. economy attempts to navigate the ongoing recession.

"Let’s face it, regulators don’t need TARP money if they want to be involved," said Maneri. 

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