| Hertz Fourth-Quarter Profit Rises on Higher Rental Revenue
Net income in the quarter was $80.7 million, or 25 cents per share, compared with $39.8 million, or 14 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 7.4 percent to $2.14 billion. On an adjusted basis, Hertz earned 29 cents per share for the fourth quarter. Analysts on average had expected the Park Ridge, New Jersey, company to earn 26 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates. Hertz operates 7,900 car rental locations and ranks as the largest airport-based car rental agency in the U.S. market. It also rents tools and equipment through a subsidiary. The company was spun off by Ford Motor .
IRS Summarizes Changes for Filing 2007 Returns
AMT exemptions rise. Filing is delayed for some taxpayers. Several popular deductions reappear on IRS forms. Tax relief is available to struggling homeowners whose mortgage debt is forgiven. Retirement savings incentives expand. A new deduction is available for some mortgage insurance premiums. And new recordkeeping rules apply to cash donations to charity. These are among the changes taxpayers will find when they fill out their 2007 tax returns. More information about the changes, summarized below, can be found on IRS.gov and in various IRS documents, including the Instructions for Form 1040. AMT Exemption Increased for One Year For tax-year 2007, Congress raised the alternative minimum tax exemption to $66,250 for a married couple filing a joint return, up from $62,550 in 2006.
NCAA's punishment of LBSU makes little sense
Monson isn't hearing jeers yet from the local boosters, nor from the gentleman who counts most, F. King Alexander. "I think the guys have played hard all year, and that's a credit to the head coach," he says. "They've had a few bad breaks at the end of some games, and that's been unfortunate. I think Dan Monson has done an excellent job of representing our school with class and dignity. And so has his team. "I'm just so impressed with the way our players have handled themselves in a season of such adversity. They'll be a time in years to come when other teams will be worried about us." No doubt about that, although this season the only worry other teams have had about Long Beach State has been to avoid running up the score so as not to embarrass the Amazin' 49ers too badly.
Grand green vision for S.F.'s Parkmerced
The owners of San Francisco's Parkmerced want to add nearly 5,700 homes to the World War II-era rental housing complex, an ambitious renovation that could rank as one of the greenest in the country. Over 20 years, the developer says, the minimum $1.2 billion project would take the 115-acre property off the power grid by employing wind turbines and other low-emission energy sources, slash water consumption through improved plumbing and recycling, and halve tenants' automobile use by, among other things, adding public transportation options. "I almost consider it a moral obligation in a project of this size to be responsible and do whatever we can do to help confront the problem of climate change," said Craig Hartman, lead architect on the project and partner with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP.
Spice Girls Say Final Farewell
So glad we made it, time will never ever change it ... " The Spice Girls, who last year reunited for the first time since 1998 and completed shows in Europe and the U.S., closed their tour with a show in Toronto Tuesday night. They were originally scheduled to go to Australia and South America, but family obligations and an already overextended timeline wouldn't allow for it. As for whether the Spice Girls are done for good or just taking another break, the ladies write, "We look to the future with hope and imagination and let Girl Power live on through all of you as it will continue in us and the future generations to come." .
Live blog
Henry K. Lee is liveblogging the Hans Reiser murder trial. See all his Chronicle articles on the case here and all his blog entries here. 2:10 p.m. In 2003, Nina Reiser left her two young children in the care of her mother, Irina Sharanova, in Russia for two months as she studied for her medical exams in the Bay Area, Hans Reiser testified this afternoon. "And I started visiting them every weekend and spent a week or two..I started becoming a more and more unwelcome guest at her mother's house, because the kids were really freaking out about being separated from their mother." "More and more unwelcome, is that what you said?" Du Bois asked. "Yes," Reiser said. "But what I'm interested in is just the period of time in two years, 2002 and 2003, is it true or not that your wife left the children in Russia for a period of at least two months on each occasion?" Du Bois asked.
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