St. Charles County Business Record, MO articles from March 2009

St. Charles County Business Record, MO archives from March 2009

A step up from the triple-wide: Cottleville's new City Hall a boon for local businesses.
March 2, 2009... Byline: Sarah Wienke After 170 years, one of St. Charles County's oldest towns has its first City Hall and is constructing its first park. For local business leaders, the new city center is a symbol of Cottleville's economic viability and...

St. Charles Chamber seeks growth through younger blood.
March 2, 2009... Byline: Sarah Wienke The St. Charles Chamber of Commerce is observing its 70th anniversary this year, but rather than celebrating the milestone, its staff and board are implementing new strategies. The county's oldest chamber of commerce...

$8M will help stimulate St. Charles County road projects.
March 2, 2009... Byline: Mike Trask The metropolitan area's clearinghouse for federal transportation funds has targeted almost $8.8 million for work in St. Charles County. At its meeting last week the East-West Gateway Council of Governments' board of...

Trainer, consultant at Missouri Training Institute says interview questions should be tailor-made.
March 2, 2009... Byline: Amy Armour Asking the right questions to potential employees is key in finding the right fit for a company, according to Dewey Thompson, senior business trainer and consultant at the Missouri Training Institute. Thompson presented...

Missourians in the News: March 2, 2009.
March 2, 2009... Byline: Business Record Staff York reappointed to NLC post St. Charles Mayor Patti York has been reappointed to the International Council of the National League of Cities. The NLC's international programs are designed to help city leaders...

St. Charles City councilman fined for falsifying securities form.
March 2, 2009... Byline: Mike Trask The Missouri Securities Division last month fined local politician Michael Klinghammer $5,000 for falsifying two of his clients' signatures on a form used in connection with the purchase of an investment. The...

St. Charles County Business Record News Digest: March 2, 2009.
March 2, 2009... Byline: Business Record Staff Sen. Dempsey to chair state Senate job-creation panel Republican state Sen. Tom Dempsey of St. Charles will head the newly-created Missouri Senate Job Creation 2020 Committee. The purpose of the committee is...

St. Louis legal community gives at Justice for All Ball.
March 3, 2009... Byline: Business Record Staff They're still totaling up the take from the Justice for All Ball. But, given the economy, organizers of what is perennially one of the St. Louis legal community's biggest charity event are happy. Dan Glazier,...

Tattoo photo ruled not taboo by 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
March 3, 2009... Byline: Donna Walter It's not a strip search if you don't have to strip. On Monday, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Bella Villa police chief didn't violate the Fourth Amendment rights of an Overland woman when he...

Missouri House committee considers Nonpartisan Court Plan reform proposal.
March 4, 2009... Byline: Jason Rosenbaum For the past few years, opponents have ramped up efforts to change the composition of the state's Nonpartisan Court Plan. Some have argued that the process is too secretive and provides too much power to trial...

St. Louis County attorney Robert Sigoloff remembered for generosity, willingness to help.
March 4, 2009... Byline: Donna Walter Robert Sigoloff, a lawyer in west St. Louis County, will be remembered as a man who was always willing to help his fellow lawyers. Sigoloff died Feb. 28. He was 68. Jacqueline Busch Hunt, of The Hunt Law Firm, where...

Missouri Court of Appeals Western District strips DWI conviction from sentence in fatal wreck.
March 4, 2009... Byline: Scott Lauck An appeals court on Tuesday reversed the driving-while-intoxicated charge against a driver who killed a Kansas City teen in November 2006. The Missouri Court of Appeals Western District said there was plenty of evidence...

St. Louis legal community to hold 'court crawl'.
March 4, 2009... Byline: Angela Riley The concept of a pub crawl is familiar to many, but the idea of a court crawl may be entirely new. The event to be held at 4 p.m. March 12 will have area lawyers traveling from the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse to...

Missouri plaintiffs' lawyers welcome Wyeth decision.
March 5, 2009... Byline: Donna Walter and Scott Lauck In a rare move, the U.S. Supreme Court made plaintiffs' lawyers happy Wednesday with its 6-3 decision allowing individuals to bring state claims against drugmakers. Dirk Vandever, a plaintiffs' attorney...

Group urges selection commission not to 'recycle' Missouri judicial candidates.
March 5, 2009... Byline: Scott Lauck How many times is too many to be nominated for a spot on a Missouri appellate court? A group that criticizes the state's method of selecting judges issued a statement Wednesday, calling for the Appellate Judicial...

Meyerkord to receive Award of Honor from Lawyers Association of St. Louis.
March 5, 2009... Byline: Donna Walter Lawyer Stephen F. Meyerkord, the perfect opponent, will receive the Award of Honor, the highest award given by the Lawyers Association of St. Louis. He was dubbed the perfect opponent not because he's easy to defeat;...

American Heritage hit with foreclosures in six Jefferson County subdivisions.
March 6, 2009... Byline: Will Connaghan Foreclosure proceedings have begun against 262 lots owned by American Heritage Homes in six Jefferson County subdivisions. The sales are set for March 23. Area homebuilder Flower & Fendler last year bought some of...

Southern Illinois jury awards $60 million verdict in equipment-leasing scam.
March 6, 2009... Byline: Donna Walter A jury in Southern Illinois awarded a $60 million verdict to a not-for-profit community health care clinic in a fraud case alleging a nationwide equipment-leasing scam. St. Louis-based Lewis, Rice & Fingersh...

Wal-Mart wants company to share settlement expense; files suit in St. Louis County Circuit Court.
March 6, 2009... Byline: Angela Riley Wal-Mart has sued a pharmaceutical management system company for its role in a settlement that Wal-Mart reached with a family whose son was born with spina bifida. The current suit, filed Tuesday in St. Louis County...

Porn conviction upheld by federal appeals court despite instruction error.
March 6, 2009... Byline: Donna Walter A federal appeals court upheld a conviction for possessing child pornography even though the jury instruction used at trial differed from the grand jury indictment. Despite the error in the instruction, there was...

St. Charles County home sales slow, but price decline is slight.
March 9, 2009... Byline: Sarah Wienke The county's home sale figures for the first two months of 2009 are a mixed bag, with sales of existing homes down significantly but at prices that haven't dropped as much as the national average. Existing home sales...

Tips for refinancing in St. Charles County in a changing market.
March 9, 2009... Byline: Sarah Wienke To get the skinny on the current trends in home refinancing in St. Charles County, look first to the title companies. And even then the answer is not entirely clear. U.S. Title President Nancy J. LoRusso said that...

St. Charles County Business Record Biz Bites: March 9, 2009.
March 9, 2009... Byline: Mike Trask Less than a year after he was hired, Jim Maurer has been ousted as the executive director of United Services, a St. Charles County not-for-profit that provides preschool daycare and other services to disabled and...

Missouri Court of Appeals gives Michael Teer time served for fatal DUI.
March 9, 2009... Byline: Donna Walter Michael Teer is a free man. He walked out of the St. Charles County Jail last Thursday after the Missouri Court of Appeals in St. Louis ordered that he be discharged. Teer killed four people and injured another in an...

St. Charles County Business Record News Digest: March 9, 2009.
March 9, 2009... Byline: Business Record Staff Wentzville chamber offers guarantee to new members The Wentzville Chamber of Commerce is offering a money-back guarantee to new members. The chamber announced recently that if after 90 days of active chamber...

Missourians in the News: March 9, 2009.
March 9, 2009... Byline: Business Record Staff Cowan to replace Unger at ARI James J. Unger is retiring as president and CEO of St. Charles-based American Railcar Industries Inc., the company said last week in a regulatory filing with the SEC. Unger's...

Q&A with Jason Rauschelbach, of Chesterfield-based The Mortgage Store-USA.
March 9, 2009... Byline: Wm. Stage For years we've heard him on the radio, touting the joys and benefits of home ownership and exhorting us to visit The Mortgage Store for the best deal possible to realize that dream. A true self-starter, Rauschelbach...

Missouri tenants deserve foreclosure notice, rights groups say.
March 10, 2009... Byline: Donna Walter Advocates for fair housing called on the Missouri General Assembly to pass legislation to give tenants notice of foreclosure proceedings against their landlords. Legislation introduced in the state Senate by Sen....

Stem cell order sparks debate on Missouri measure.
March 10, 2009... Byline: Jason Rosenbaum President Barack Obama's decision to lift funding restrictions on embryonic stem cell research sparked a war of words between opposing sides of a proposal targeting state funding for the practice. Before Obama...

Error doesn't cancel foreclosure sale, Missouri Appeals Court rules.
March 10, 2009... Byline: Angela Riley A creditor is not entitled to have a foreclosure sale set aside after it made a mistake during a foreclosure sale, a Missouri Appeals Court said last week. The Missouri Court of Appeals Western District ruled that...

Missouri Court of Appeals in Kansas City overrules year-old precedent.
March 10, 2009... Byline: Donna Walter It's an appellate court's prerogative to change its mind. And that's just what the Court of Appeals in Kansas City did last week in a decision allowing juvenile officers to begin termination proceedings against parents...

Missouri appeals court finds blight standards have not changed.
March 11, 2009... Byline: Donna Walter A Missouri appeals court removed an obstacle to the redevelopment of the Ice House District in the city of St. Louis on Tuesday. It upheld the Board of Aldermen's finding that the area just south of downtown is...

Missouri Court of Appeals denies attempt to remove thousands of plaintiffs from class action suit.
March 11, 2009... Byline: Scott Lauck The Missouri Court of Appeals Western District on Tuesday denied an attempt to remove thousands of plaintiffs from a $36.3 million class action lawsuit settled in 2007. The appeals court said a Jackson County Circuit...

Committee choice could decide fate of Missouri public defender bill.
March 12, 2009... Byline: Jason Rosenbaum The seemingly routine procedure of referring a bill to committee could have a sizable impact on the fate of legislation altering the state's public defender system. Most notably, Sen. Jack Goodman's bill codifies an...

Exxon ruling may stem punitive damage ratios, says Univ. of Calif.-Irvine law professor.
March 12, 2009... Byline: Donna Walter The days of large punitive-damage awards may be coming to an end. Erwin Chemerinsky, law professor and founding dean of the University of California-Irvine School of Law, said the U.S. Supreme Court moved litigants...

Addition of plaintiff before suit could be transferred weighed by Missouri Supreme Court.
March 12, 2009... Byline: Jason Rosenbaum A judge's discretion to change the venue of a lawsuit in a Louisiana train accident was at issue Wednesday before the Missouri Supreme Court. In June 2007, a train owned by the Kansas City Southern Railroad Co....

Legal malpractice trial in St. Louis County Circuit Court begins against attorney with SPvG.
March 12, 2009... Byline: Angela Riley A legal malpractice case against Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard playing out in St. Louis County Circuit Court this week will examine what duty an attorney has to inform a client about the need to contact all relevant...

Kansas City law firm battles insurers over two large settlements.
March 12, 2009... Byline: Scott Lauck The jury's or judge's verdict is rarely the end of the story, as a pair of lawsuits recently filed by Davis, Ketchmark & McCreight show. In one lawsuit, filed Feb. 17, the Kansas City plaintiffs' firm sued The Bar Plan...

Missouri Court of Appeals Western District hears defenders' arguments.
March 13, 2009... Byline: Scott Lauck Missouri's public defenders are used to arguing to the appellate courts on behalf of clients. On Thursday, they used their powers of persuasion on behalf of the public defender system itself. Attorneys for the Missouri...

Husch Blackwell, with offices in Missouri, lets go 17 attorneys.
March 13, 2009... Byline: Heather Cole Husch Blackwell Sanders let go 17 attorneys and 45 staff members firmwide Thursday, citing performance and consolidation. The cuts are not being made for economic reasons, Co-Chairman David Fenley said in a phone...

Carnahan sues Stifel Nicolaus.
March 13, 2009... Byline: Donna Walter Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan filed a lawsuit against investment firm Stifel Nicolaus & Co. to force the company to repay investors who lost more than $180 million in the auction-rate securities market....

8th Circuit upholds 18-month sentence enhancement.
March 13, 2009... Byline: Donna Walter A Jamaican national who more than once entered the United States illegally gets to stay in this country a while longer -- in federal prison. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday affirmed the sentence...

Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan sues Stifel Nicolaus.
March 13, 2009... Byline: Donna Walter Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan filed a lawsuit against investment firm Stifel Nicolaus & Co. to force the company to repay investors who lost more than $180 million in the auction-rate securities market....

St. Peters held liable for selling quarry land.
March 16, 2009... Byline: Angela Riley Twenty years ago, when the Quarry Holding Company sold land to the St. Peters for $1 it expected to make a lot more. A judge ruled last week that the city breached its contract when it did not pay the quarry a...

'At end of their rope,' St. Charles-area fire officials ask for tax hike.
March 16, 2009... Byline: Sarah Wienke The Central County Fire and Rescue Fire Protection District is seeking a 54 percent hike in its operating tax rate, but to fire officials and community advocates, it's worth every penny. The annual increase for the...

Home values could drop 7% in St. Charles County.
March 16, 2009... Byline: Mike Trask The figures aren't final, but St. Charles County Assessor Scott Shipman expects a countywide decline of approximately 6.29 percent in value of reassessed residential, commercial and agricultural property. You will see a...

Area legislators rule out Missouri tax hikes.
March 16, 2009... Byline: Mike Trask State Rep. Sally Faith said she gets about 100 e-mails and 30 or 40 phone calls each day from people concerned about potential cuts to the state's budget. But Faith, who sits on the House Budget Committee, and several...

O'Fallon business owner says rules of leadership change with the economy.
March 16, 2009... Byline: Amy Armour Strong leadership within a company can mean the difference in keeping quality employees happy and productive or losing those employees to the competition. The better the leaders, the happier the employees. The happier...

St. Charles County Business Record News Digest: March 16, 2009.
March 16, 2009... Byline: Business Record Staff LMI sees profit fall St. Charles-based LMI Aerospace Inc. recorded a profit of $585,000, or 5 cents per share, during the fourth quarter of 2008. The St. Charles-based company posted a profit of $3.8 million,...

Missourians in the News: March 16, 2009.
March 16, 2009... Byline: Business Record Staff McCullough, Wapelhorst named to convention panel Gov. Jay Nixon has appointed attorney Joseph G. McCullough and businessman Thomas N. Wapelhorst to the St. Charles County Convention and Sports Facilities...

First panel sent to governor for Missouri Court of Appeals Western District vacancy.
March 17, 2009... Byline: Donna Walter The Appellate Judicial Commission on Friday named the first of three panels of candidates for openings on the Missouri Court of Appeals Western District. The panel consists of Judge Jacqueline A. Cook, Cynthia L. Reams...

Wash. U. moves on to mock trial finals; U of Missouri-KC wins Spirit award.
March 17, 2009... Byline: Business Record Staff The Jackson County Courthouse played host last weekend to the Opening Round Championships of the American Mock Trial Association. More than 180 undergraduate students from 19 schools across the country...

Missouri Department of Social Services needs to adopt rules, Missouri Supreme Court says.
March 18, 2009... Byline: Angela Riley The Missouri Supreme Court said a denial of a couple's adoption subsidy by the state Department of Social Services' Family Support Division is not valid because the division's decision was not based on formal rules and...

Missouri Supreme Court rejects challenge from sex offender.
March 18, 2009... Byline: Jason Rosenbaum The Missouri Supreme Court rejected a challenge from a sex offender who incurred a prison sentence when he did not register a change of address notice within 10 days. The Supreme Court previously ruled that it was...

St. Louis County jury clears law firm in legal malpractice suit.
March 18, 2009... Byline: Angela Riley A St. Louis County jury has cleared Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard and one of its attorneys, Rodney Sharp, of all wrongdoing in a legal malpractice suit against them. Physician Hamid Hosseini had filed suit against...

Missouri Supreme Court upholds officer's firing for excessive force.
March 18, 2009... Byline: Donna Walter The Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners had the authority to fire a police officer who beat and spit on a drunken driver who was already subdued, a unanimous Missouri Supreme Court said Tuesday. The officer,...

Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District says man wasn't competent for trial.
March 18, 2009... Byline: Donna Walter A man convicted of incestuous sex crimes could get a new trial -- if the Missouri Supreme Court agrees with a state appellate court that the defendant is mentally retarded and unable to assist in his own defense. The...

Missouri appeals court affirms $1M verdict in defamation case.
March 19, 2009... Byline: Donna Walter A Missouri appeals court upheld a $1 million verdict against Allstate Indemnity Co. in a lawsuit claiming the insurer defamed a homeowner in a denial letter. The insured, John Johnson, owned the Salem, Mo., home for...

Symposium to examine St. Louis-area civil rights cases.
March 19, 2009... Byline: Angela Riley Starting with the infamous Dred Scott decision in 1857, a large number of significant civil rights cases have arisen out of St. Louis. To draw attention to those decisions, the St. Louis County Historical Society is...

IRS ramping up collection efforts, tax attorneys say.
March 19, 2009... Byline: Angela Riley The current tax season is tougher than most for Americans. With unemployment and home foreclosures at record highs, more can't afford to pay -- and won't pay -- their taxes. This could prove to be a problem as local...