Debt clock restarted as numbers increase

With government deficits on the rise again, a real estate executive restarted a billboard-sized national “debt clock” on Thursday to remind passersby of how much the government is borrowing.

The sign had been dark since September 2000, when developer Douglas Durst pulled the plug after government debt levels started to fall because of budget surpluses.

But with government debt back on the rise, Durst restarted the clock.

The large green sign flickered to life again Thursday morning, showing a national debt of about $6.12 trillion or a share of $66,800 for each U.S. family. The debt was about $5.5 trillion when the Durst family unplugged the sign nearly two years ago.

The clock had been put up in 1989 by Durst’s late father, Seymour Durst, to bring attention to what he felt was a dangerous increase in government borrowing. It sits atop a building at Sixth Avenue and 42nd Street, one block from Times Square.

Agriculture

Beef checkoff program allowed to continue for now

A federal appeals court on Wednesday issued a stay of a lower court’s order that would have halted collections of the national beef checkoff program next week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals action means the checkoff program can continue its collections and activities while the appeals court further considers last month’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Charles Kornmann of South Dakota.

In ruling the checkoff program unconstitutional, Kornmann on June 21 ordered the USDA to halt collections starting next Monday. Wednesday’s stay nullifies that cutoff date and gives the Justice Department on the USDA’s behalf and intervening cattlemen’s groups more time to challenge Kornmann’s finding that the program violated First Amendment rights of cattle producers.

Bankruptcy

Farmland hires financial help

Farmland Industries has received approval to hire UBS Warburg as a financial adviser as it goes through bankruptcy reorganization.

The investment banking firm was helping Farmland market a petroleum refinery in Coffeyville before the cooperative sought bankruptcy court protection from creditors May 31. Robert Terry, Farmland chief executive, has said the company expects to sell some of its operations as part of its bankruptcy plan.

Farmland owns a nitrogen fertilizer production facility in Lawrence, but the company stopped production at the plant more than a year ago.

Accounting

Former Rite Aid executives face federal fraud charges

Former Rite Aid Corp. Chairman Martin L. Grass and three other one-time Rite Aid executives pleaded innocent Thursday to federal criminal charges stemming from their alleged participation in an accounting fraud intended to make the company more attractive to investors.

Flanked by lawyers in a proceeding that lasted less than 30 minutes, the four men all were required to surrender their passports before being released on their own recognizance. None commented about the case to reporters as, one by one, they left the federal building after being processed and fingerprinted.