Developers offer to buy Orchards golf course
Ed White says he will sell his Orchards Executive Golf Course to an Overland Park developer for $1.35 million unless the city of Lawrence comes up with a competing offer within a week.
White, who bought the nine-hole executive course for $750,000 in 1992, said he received a formal offer Friday from an Overland Park group, which he declined to identify. The group wants to turn the 30.5-acre site into apartments and single-family homes, he said.
But White would rather sell to the city, a message he's been delivering since 2000, when he also had the property listed for sale but could not secure a buyer.
In November, a city-ordered appraisal deemed the Orchards site to be worth $670,000. Lawrence city commissioners asked for the appraisal, but have not provided any further direction to city staffers, City Manager Mike Wildgen said.
White remains hopeful.
"This should remain a golf course," White said. "I'm a golf person and it should remain a golf course, but it's only fair that I try to recoup my investment."
Utility: PG&E seeks transfer from state oversight
California's biggest utility asked a federal bankruptcy judge Friday to free it from state laws and regulations as it tries to emerge from Chapter 11 protection.
Nine months after its $13.2 billion bankruptcy, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. argued Friday before Judge Dennis Montali that the federal government should take over for the state in overseeing the utility.
The state Public Utilities Commission and California's attorney general vehemently oppose PG&E's plan, which relies on breaking dozens of state laws, regulations and environmental rules.
Bankruptcy experts say Montali's decision will make or break PG&E's plan to emerge from bankruptcy.
Automaker: Complaints drive Chrysler to pull television ad
Chrysler Group said Friday it would pull a TV ad showing a minivan passing a snowplow after Washington state officials complained it encourages reckless driving.
DaimlerChrysler and its advertising agency, PentaMark Worldwide of Troy, Mich., began receiving complaints shortly after the ad started airing earlier this month.
DaimlerChrysler spokesman James Kenyon said the ad already has been pulled in Minnesota and Wisconsin. It will be off the air in the rest of the country by Tuesday, he said.
Economy: Existing home sales reach all-time high in 2001
Lured by low mortgage rates, Americans pushed sales of previously owned homes to a record last year, even as the country suffered through a recession.
The National Association of Realtors reported Friday that 5.25 million existing homes were sold in 2001. That surpassed the previous sales record of 5.21 million set in 1999 when the economy was booming.
The record 5.25 million represented a 2.7 percent rise from the 5.11 million homes sold in 2000.
"The housing sector continued to defy the recession," said Karen Dexter, economist with Merrill Lynch.
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