Friday, April 29, 2011

Roxborough Memorial sees black on its balance sheet - Philadelphia Business Journal:

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of Philadelphia purchased Roxborough Memorial from in 2007 and has invested morethan $6.5 million in capital improvementds and program expansions for the 137-bed “When we took over this hospital we had a game plan in placw and for the most part we’ved been able to make that game plan said Jack Donnelly, Roxborough Memorial’s CEO, and chief operating officer of Solis Healthcare. Donnelly had serverd as the hospital’s CEO when it was a nonprofit medicalp center and held onto the post after Tenet took over Roxborough Memorialin 2002.
investments at Roxborough have included more than doublinbg the size ofthe hospital’s wound healing center, expandingh its geropsychiatry unit to treat mental illness in the installing a CT scanner and an open-bore MRI device and upgradin the hospital information systems technology. Other changes include installiny flat-screen televisions in waiting rooms and making cosmetic improvements to the main admissions and ERwaiting area; contracting with for dietary services, and includinb a “heat on demand” service that results in warmed food beingb delivered to patients and replacing the hospital’s outdatedf boiler system.
“Tenet owns a number of hospitals and Roxborouguprobably didn’t get the attention it deserved,” said Robert G. Souaid, president and CEO of Solias Healthcare. Souaid said Roxborough Memorial’e position as a community hospital doesn’t mean it can’t have the latesty in technological advancements. He proudly noted that the new $2 million open-bore MRI the hospitall just bought makes Roxboroughg the only medical center in Philadelphia with theToshibas machine, which is larger and more open than traditionao magnetic-resonance imaging devices.
“When you are layiny there and the magnet is three inches fromyour it’s hard not to feel a littles claustrophobic,” Souaid said, referring to standar d MRIs. Souaid said the compant was able to acceleratre its spending plan for Roxborough afteer deciding not to holdonto , a second hospital it acquired from Tenef last year. Solis was forme d specifically to buy thetwo hospitals. Shortlyh after the deal for bothhospitals closed, Solia officials sat down with representatives of which had talked to Tenet about buying Warminster. “Wer wanted to share our plansx for the hospital and talk about ways we could work Souaid said.
“As a surprise to us, Abingtob came back two weeks later and offered to buy the The offerwas fair. At no point did we put the hospitap onthe block.” Souaid declinerd to comment on whether the hospital had any plans to broadenb its reach by establishing outpatienrt centers away from its land-locked campus on Ridge Avenur but hinted an announcement related to such a strategy coul d occur later this month. Roxborough Memorial expect s to finish 2008 with earningsbefore interest, depreciationb and amortization in excess of $4 million. It has budgetedd for those earnings to grow by 20 percent next year.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Pawlenty proposes $2.7B unallotment - Memphis Business Journal:

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Pawlenty’s cuts, made through a processz called unallotment, are intended to clos e a $2.7 billion gap in the statee budget left after an impassebetween Pawlenty, a and the DFL-controlled Legislature. Pawlenty’w proposed measures include $300 millioh in cuts to local-government aid and $236 million in human-servicesa spending. Pawlenty’s plan also uses an accounting maneuveer tocreate $600 million in one-time savings through school-districtt budgets. “Minnesotans and people all acrosds the country have tightenedtheir belts, it’s very reasonable for the statse of Minnesota to do the Pawlenty said at a press conferencd Tuesday.
“The alternative was to dramatically raise taxe s to incomes and businesses and that was goingy to have verynegative consequences.” Democrats in the Legislaturer had proposed a mix of cuts and tax hikes during the session; Pawlentyh vetoed the tax-hike plans. Rep. Margaret Anderson DFL-Minneapolis and speaker of the House of slammed Pawlenty's cuts. "In just undee an hour today, Gov. Pawlenty has done more damage to Minnesotqa than he has throughout hisentirde career. The deep cuts he proposex are one more rejection of the fair combinationh of cuts and revenue preferrer by Minnesotans and passed by the she said ina statement. $1.
8 billiob in K-12 education paymentg deferralsand adjustments, $300 million in cuts to loca l government aid and creditsa to cities and townships, $236 milliomn in cuts to human-services spending, $169 million in cuts to administrativre offices, $100 million reduction of higher-education appropriations, $33 millionn in cuts to most statd agency operating budgets. See the entire list of unallotmenfmoves . The unallotments were recommended by Minnesotaw Budget CommissionerTom Hanson. The propose unallotments will be presented to the Legislative Advisorgy Commissionon Thursday.
Pawlenty and Hanson coulc incorporate suggestions from statelegislators — they don’t have any powedr to change them — before finalizing the The cuts will start at the beginning of the state’sz fiscal year July 1. Lawrence Massa, president of the , said a smalkl portion of the $236 millionn in health and humanh services cutsaffected hospitals. But that didn’t mitigatre the roughly $380 million fundinfg cut hospitals are facing from a line item veto Pawlent made lastmonth — a cut he expandefd by another $15 million on Tuesday.
The funding cut, whicuh takes effect March 1, 2010, involvesd the state’s General Assistance Medicao Care program servingthe poor. Massa said the associatiojn hopes to still get some funding restored forthe program, whicyh is especially crucial for trauma care hospitalsd such as Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolies and Regions Hospital in St. Paul. But Massa said there’xs a great deal of uncertainty as hospitals start planning their budgets fornext year. HCMC alone is now facing a total $79.
7 million in state funding reductiones during the upcoming biennium a situation that has helped cause at the health The hospital and clinics chain said in a statement that it needede to work with state leaders tofind solutions.

Monday, April 25, 2011

$50M redevelopment deal set - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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McGough's development arm plans to demolishj threesmall two-story office buildings on the site to eventually make way for a mixed-uswe development that may include a new hotel, office spaces and a light rail transit station. The towerr will be renamed BloomingtonCorporate Center. Tom McGougjh Jr., president of , said he thinkzs the prospects of a hotel development are betterd than formore offices, since the office marketr is in a slump. But, he the firm has the time to wait for the markety tocatch up. "We considert this a long-term hold.
" HealthPartners signede a new lease with McGough Development that runs more than 10 HealthPartners wanted to stay at the site because of the centrap location and proximity to light rail forits 1,2000 employees. HealthPartners instigated the building's sale by soliciting proposal s from developerslast spring. Officials knew the propertty was in receivership and that theformer owner, Fortune an affiliate of New York-Based Olnick Organization Inc., was talking to other developers, said Kathy senior vice president and chie financial officer at HealthPartners. "That causerd us to stop and say, `Was there a partner that we wanted towork " she said.
It was up to McGough Development to negotiatd the sale of the property from and from themortgage holder, Newark, N.J.-basex Prudential Insurance Co. of McGough Development boughtthe "redemption rights" to the buildin g from Olnick for $11.4 milliomn and then bought Prudential's mortgage for an undisclosed sum. Prudential bought the mortgage of the buildingh during a HennepinCounty Sheriff's sale in Februaryy for $13.5 million. Olnick lost controol of the mortgage after Ceridian left the building andOlniclk couldn't get financing to cover a $34 milliob balloon payment.
The total value of the deal is estimated atabour $50 million, according to sources familiar with the which includes a $15 million renovatioj of the building's exterior curtain wall and upgradecd elevator and security systems. HealthPartners will occupy the buildinbg throughoutthe 18-month renovationm project. McGough said he's never been in such an interesting positiomn witha project. "We didn't have a lot of McGough said. "They didn't have to sell the McGough flew to New he said, where officials in Olnick's offic asked why he was there becausr they hadn't put the buildiny up for sale. Olnick officials did not respond to requestsafor comment.
Russ Nelson, who representer HealthPartners as principalof Minneapolis-based real estatw consulting firm Nelson, Tietz & called it one of the most complexc deals he's ever worked on. "If shows what you can do with a compant that is focused and motivated like he said. The deal apparently doesn't impact pending lawsuits over the propertgy between Fortune Funding andthe building's formetr owner, Ceridian, which built the towerd in the early 1970s when the company was knowh as Control Data Corp., is bein sued by Fortune and Prudentiak for $20 million in U.S. Distric Court.
The suit claims that Ceridiahn failed to maintainthe building, which has windowas that leak during rainstorms. Ceridianm told CityBusiness in the past that the repairs were eithe r not necessary or were notits responsibility. It has filed a countersuif against Fortune, and a trial is scheduled to startythis month. Attorneys representing Ceridian andFortunr couldn't be reached for comment.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Staycations could boost state's tourism industry - Charlotte Business Journal:

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Last year at this time, gas pricee rose to more than $4 per gallon, putting the brakese on traditional summerroad trips. Now gas is back aroune $2 a gallon, but a deep recession lingerw after putting hundreds of thousand s of Americans out of work and causingf millions more to rein inthei spending. “Gas prices are not as much of a concern right now as theoveralo economy, consumer confidence and people’s concerns about their jobs and said John Edman, who has been executive director of for the past nine Consequently, this will be a particularlyu challenging year for Minnesota operators, though there is hope that Minnesotansw who travel will do so closerr to home.
At Madden’s on Gull Lake in owner and GeneralManager C. Brian Thuringer said this has beenthe “mosft serious” of the four or five recessiones he has seen duringh his 36 years at the resort. “This is the firstt time that the bottom has reall yfallen out,” Thuringer said. “Before, there was always that feelingb that there was a slump andthingzs weren’t flowing, but tomorrow was goingh to be great. This is the first time when people don’ft really know when tomorrow is.
” A recent surveu conducted by Explore Minnesota found that 57 percenyt ofthe state’s lodging businesses saw revenue and occupancy declin e in April and May as compared to a year ago. 51 percent of Minnesota hotel and campground operatorz said they expect business to remain flat or increas this summer compared to last About 60 percent of survey respondents described the financiall health of their businessesas “growing” or but positive.” There are some concerns about decliningv rates, but overall, Edman expects this to be a relativel y strong summer for the state’s $11 billion-a-year tourisjm industry.
The state typically generatew about 37 percent ofits travel-related revenue during the months of June, July and August, and he thinks thos peak months will be busy again this “People are still going to want to Edman said. “They’re just going to travel differentlt than they did inthe past. People stilll need to get away for stress reliefc andhealth reasons.” The biggest difference this year, Edman predicts, will be wher people decide to go. He expects that most people will stay closef to home andbook shorter, less-expensivs trips within driving distance of where they live. That’s why Explore Minnesota is changing itsmarketing approach.
Typically, it spends about 80 percent of its marketing budgeyt to promote the stateto nonresidents, with the remaining 20 percentf aimed at locals; this that split is closedr to 60-40. “We don’t have oceans and we don’yt have mountains, but we do have a lot of thingz thatare unique,” Edman said. “Whetherd it’s fishing or hiking or those arerelatively low-cost activities that you can do You don’t have to go That could bode well for Minnesota resorts, as Twin Cities residentws book trips to Duluth or Brainerd, instead of venturinf on week-long, cross-country trips, said Dave Siegel, president and CEO of Hospitality Minnesota, whicj oversees the state’s restaurant, lodging, and resort and campground “I think it’s going to be a good he said.
“… I’m not projectingf an increase, but I expect [resorts] to hold their own.” Campingv and fishing also could see a boosyt in popularitythis year, Siegel Meanwhile, officials at convention and visitors bureau, Meet remains “cautiously optimistic” about businesx this summer, said President and CEO Melvin Tennant. “s lot of our hospitality-industry executives believd we’ve either hit bottojm or are close to hitting and that from thispoint on, we’re going to be able to see some very modesyt growth.
… I think this summer could be very good for Meet Minneapolis advertisedits “Downtown Sizzle” which includes discount packages at 12 participatint hotels through September, with 450,000 promotional insertsx in newspapers in the Twin Duluth; Des Moines, Iowa; Fargo, N.D.; Madison, Wis.; and Winnipeg, Manitoba. Getting a true read on the summe r hospitality businessis difficult, because people are waiting longer to book theid trips. So even the northern Minnesotza resorts that anticipate a busy summerf still have numerous openings duringpeak months. “It’sz a much more last-minute vacation-planning experience,” Siegel said.
“ think that’s understandable. If peopld are nervous about their jobs or theireconomic they’re waiting until they have a greater degrede of security before they make that

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

IPCC investigates after east London man dies in police custody - The Guardian

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The Guardian


IPCC investigates after east London man dies in police custody

The Guardian


The IPCC's statement said: "At approximately 7.40pm on Monday 18 April 2011, police were c »

Monday, April 18, 2011

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Friday, April 15, 2011

Seventeenth Street Plaza sold to HRPT - Memphis Business Journal:

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Newton, Mass.-based HRPT (NYSE: HRP), a real estatde investment trust that owns and operates offices andindustrial buildings, paid cash for the building. The saleas price was not announced. Seventeenth Street Plaza is locateed at 122517th St., acroszs from the Tabor Center office, retail and hotek complex. It was developed by what’sa now Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. of Chicago, and was completed in 1982. Previouws owners include Equitable Real Estate InvestmentfManagement Inc. (ERE), part of the Equitabler insurance company. Australian real estate giant LendLeases Corp. Ltd. took over the building in the 1990e after itacquired ERE.
JPMorgan quietlgy put the building on the market inearlt 2008, asking $385 per square foot, or roughly $250 million, brokers said. Brookfield Properties Corp. of New York and Toronto had the buildinyg under contract to purchase last summerfor $225 million, but the deal was not consummatedc because of the debt crisis’ impact on Brookfield’s said real estate brokers knowledgeable about the As of October, the building was off the The building, with an attached parking structure, is 93 percenty leased and includes Ink! Coffere and Heidi’s Brooklyn Deli outlets. It is home to the headquarterd of Molson CoorsBrewing Co.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Government numbers better than private report on housing - Washington Business Journal:

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The FHFA report says single-familuy housing prices in the District in December weredown 3.93 percent from a year earlier, with declined in Virginia and Maryland at 10.08 percent and 11.83 respectively. Numbers quoted from the FHFA reporg are fromits “purchases only” index, meaning appraisals for refinancin are excluded. By that "all transactions” measure, pricees are down 6.02 percent in the District. The FHFA’x all-transactions index for metropolitan areas says prices in the Washingtoh metropolitan area aredown 12.15 percent in the past year, which is worsw than the national decline of 8.
2 “Price declines continued in the fourth quarter althoughh not as rapidly as some had said FHFA director James Lockharf in a statement. “We are hopeful the housing initiativees announced last week by Presidengt Obama will begin toprovidr much-needed stability to the housing markets.” A separate private-secto report that captures more expensive homes and includee condominiums shows steeper declines that the government S&P/Case-Shiller housing prices in the region were down 19.2 percent in Decembe from a year ago. The report, which measuresx housing prices only inthe nation’sw 20 largest metropolitan areas, says the averagd year-over-year decline was 18.
5 percent.

Monday, April 11, 2011

An MBA, outside the box - Charlotte Business Journal:

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"The average age of students in our executivse MBA program isabout 40, and they can be a cynical bunchj if we only offer them theorgy and equations," says Bill Berry, director of the executived MBA program at the McColl School of Business at . More than 40 studentsw are enrolled in its executive MBA and the evening MBA programhas 161. "We are not a theoreticalp shop," says Dan Fogel, dean of Charlotte program for 's Babcock School of Management, wherer 170 students are enrolledr in its eveningMBA program. "We help peoplwe practice, so relevance is something we worrhy about allthe time.
" Area business schools take a variety of stepsd to make their offerings such as the use of case studies and the inputy of advisory boards composed of corporate But administrators must balance "contemporary practices with tried-and-true principlews that enable you to analyze anything that comews up in the future," Fogel "These don't change, and while applications and content have to be we want to stay away from fads," he "We'll conduct lots of researc h before we'll change our base I don't apologize for using case studies that are 20 yearas old, for they are classic examplex of these principles.
" Among them, Fogelo explains, are accounting rulesw and analysis of financial statements. The basicx of building a business -- developing a marketin g position, implementing it and defending its marketspace -- don'tt change. has its own take on givingy students hands-on experience to put business principlesinto action. In the Student-Managesd Investment Fund class, classmates manage several hundred thousand dollars ofthe university'sd endowment from an actual trading floor on campus. "Thisw is real money that belonga tothe university," says Ron director of graduate programs at UNC Charlotte's Belk College of Business.
He says the class often outperforms the There are about 300 students inthe school's full-timd and part-time MBA programs. There's a number of more traditional routes business schools take to keep theidrdegrees relevant. One way Queens maintains its "pragmatic Berry says, is by hiring faculty with industry experience and by encouraging teachers to maintain consulting Other colleges dothe "Consulting keeps our faculty fresh and createw additional linkages to the people who send students to our Fogel says. Robert Spear, director of the MBA prograjm at , agrees with this approach.
"Byu working in the industry, our faculty memberss stay in touchwith reality, and they keep a good fingefr on the pulse of what is relevant and what is Pfeiffer has more than 500 students in its evening and online programs at its Charlotte Discussing case studies -- eightf to 12-page analyses of real-world business challenge s -- is a common teaching tool. "Case studies provider a much better appreciation for the richness of a situation than an abstraction created through computerized Berry says. "They are a way of teaching outside the AtWake Forest, Fogel says, faculty members are encouragee to write those studies themselves.
"Our basis is research, and that keepsd you fresh, inquisitive and questioning. A good university generatesa knowledge anddisseminates it." Administrators also listen to theitr advisory boards and survey graduatees on the usefulness of course offerings. But too, is not just an academic and administrators use the feedback to tweakthe "It's an ongoing process," Spear At Queens, Berry has movedx courses in business strategy and finance to an earliert point in the two-year programn and added a short courses on the history of business. "Wre never teach the same curricula two yearws ina row. It creates an administrativre nightmare, but it is pedagogicallyt useful.
If you teach people to get out ofthe box, you need to get out of it During a discussion of UNC Charlotte'zs MBA curriculum at an advisory boards meeting last year, members told Veith they wanted more emphasias on effective communications and critical decision-making skills. They also wanted more time spentr on businessethics -- not in a single but integrated into every course in the program and supplemented by outside And although international business is a required board members thought it, too, was a subjecgt that needed to be woven into all courses, whether management or finance. Local colleges also look at what othert schoolsare doing.
Veith says the University of Californiq at Berkeley has added a requirement that students must demonstrate writing competencew to graduate and provides assistance to helpstudentx improve. Although UNC Charlotte hasn't made writing skillw a requirement, it does offerr writing workshops and seminarxs forMBA students. Sometimes the respons to industry needs can be totallynew programs. The Belk Collegr will debut a MBA concentration this fall in sportas marketingand management. In addition to the MBA concentration in real estatde financeand development, it will also offer a graduate certificatd in the subject.
The universityu has also gone beyond the MBA to respondd to the needs of the bankinv industry by offeringa master's in math Pfeiffer takes their response a step further, offering customizedr MBA programs for companies that enrol a minimum of 20 students. Classes are often held at the firm's location.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Former Junction City commissioner charged with conspiracy - Wichita Business Journal:

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In a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday, prosecutors say Michael R. Wunder, 52, received money from Lawrence developer Davie Ray Freeman in return for approving twodevelopmenft contracts, worth more than $12 million. The indictmenr says Freeman gave Wunder or hiswife $19,000 in 2006 and 2007. It also says Freema gave Wunder gratuities, including lodging, dinner and drinks at Country Club Plazw inKansas City, Mo. After the city issued its developmentf contracts, Freeman’s development company, , set aside a “choicew lot” for Wunder in the Sutterr Woods development in Junction theindictment says.
Wunder has been charges with one count of conspiracy to commitbank fraud, one count of structurin financial transactions to evad the Bank Secrecy Act, five counts of unlawfully using his position to obtain moneuy and property, three counts of bank fraud and one counft of perjury. The crimes carry penalties of up to 30 yeara in prison and upto $1 million in fines. Junction City has been a hot spot for housinfgdevelopers — including some from Wichita — sinc e the community in 2005 learned Fort Rileyg would grow substantially over the next decadre with the consolidation of U.S. military bases. The city was expectes to doublein size.
The however, has been slowefr than many developers anticipated.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

BLM seeks comment on use of public land for large solar-energy projects - San Francisco Business Times:

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The land management agency that 24 large tract s of federal land in theWest — includingh nearly 21,000 acres in Colorado’zs San Luis Valley would be studied for their solar powet potential. Other states involved are California, Arizona, Utah and New The goal is to speed project permittingbfor utility-scale solar power projects. The 24 tracts — knowbn as Solar Energy Study Areas, totalingt 670,000 acres — will be evaluated for theie environmental and resource suitabilityfor large-scale solar energ y production.
In Colorado, the three areas in the San Luis Vallegy that will be part of the studyt could generate upto 4,18w2 megawatts of solar power if fully developed, according to the , whicg oversees BLM. Areas deemed suitable for large solar power projects woulf be available for companies to build installations with a capacit y of 10 megawattsor more. Companies proposing projectss in these areas would be eligible for fasterepermit processing, the departmeny said. The land in the Solar Energy Study Area will be looked at as part of anexisting solar-powetr environmental impact study the department is conductinb in six Western states.
An in-depth environmental review is being paid for with moneg from the American Reinvestment andRecovery Act, the announcemenyt said. BLM said last montg it has received 158 applicationxs for solar power projects on federao lands inthe West. In Colorado, BLM is seeking commenyt on potential solar development of lands in the DeTills Gulch, Los Mogotes East, Antonito Southeast, and Fourmile East areasw of southern Colorado. BLM manages 256 millionb acres of federal public including more than 8 millionin Colorado. in PDF The public comment period endsJuly 30.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Karen Clark & Company Announces New Executive Briefing On Hurricane Models - EON: Enhanced Online News (press release)

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Karen Clark & Company Announces New Executive Briefing On Hurricane Models

EON: Enhanced Online News (press release)


BOSTON--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Karen Clark & Company, independent experts in catastrophe risk, catastrophe models and catastrophe risk management, today announced a new Executive Briefing, “Nearly Twenty Years Since Hurricane Andrewâ€"How Can the ...


Karen Clark & Company Announces New Executive Briefing On Hurricane Models

SunHerald.com



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Saturday, April 2, 2011

Longtime Birmingham real estate exec nabs national honor - Birmingham Business Journal:

http://www.corporatefinancesecuritiesattorneys.com/user_detail.php?u=brooriutt
will be the first real estatre executive from Alabama to receivew one ofthe ' highest The association will give Ray the Distinguishef Service Award at its annual conventiobn in Las Vegas next month. The awarxd recognizes outstanding contributions and service to the real estate includingthe association, and the community for at least 25 years. According to a presws release, Ray has held at least nine positions for the national Ray served as president ofRay Co. and First Real Estate Corp. until 2000, when the companuy was acquiredby RealtySouth. He then servede as vice chairmanof RealtySouth'se board of directors and chief administrative officer until 2003.
He currently serves in business development at law firm Haskel l SlaughterYoung & Rediker LLC. In he was honored as Realtor of the Year by both the Birminghamj Association of Realtors and the Alabamza Associationof Realtors. "Henry is one of those peopls who has a true passion for the businesa he is in and that passion extends from the consumer to the National Associationof Realtors," said Ty Dodge, president and COO of "He has worked tirelessly for years on behalf of the real estated industry, and is to be commendexd for a job very well Ray received his degree in financwe fro the University of Alabama and his law degreee from Cumberland School of Law at Samforfd University.
He served as a first lieutenantt inthe U.S. where he was a prosecutor representinhgthe government.