World financial news

Will a monthly debit card fee soon be the norm? Bank of America said Thursday that it plans to start charging a $5 monthly fee when customers make debit card purchases. The fee will be rolled out starting early next year.

Paying to use a debit card was unheard of before this year and is still a novel concept for many consumers. But several banks have recently introduced or started testing debit card fees. That’s in addition to the spate of other unwelcome changes checking account customers have seen in the past year.

Bank of America’s announcement carries added weight because it is the largest U.S. bank by deposits.

The fee will apply to basic accounts, which are marketed toward those with modest balances, and will be in addition to any existing monthly service fees. For example, one such account charges a $12 monthly fee unless customers meet certain conditions, such as maintaining a minimum average balance of $1,500.

Customers will only be charged the fee if they use their debit cards for purchases in any given month, said Anne Pace, a Bank of America spokeswoman. Those who only use their cards at ATMs won’t have to pay.

The debit card fee is just the latest twist in the rapidly evolving market for checking account.

A study by Bankrate.com this week found that just 45 percent of checking accounts are now free with no strings attached, down from 65 percent last year and 76 percent in 2009. Customers can still get free checking in most cases, but only if they meet certain conditions, such as setting up direct deposit.

The study also found that the total average cost for using an ATM rose to $3.81, from $3.74, the year before. The average overdraft fee inched up to $30.83, from $30.47

The changes come ahead of a regulation that goes into effect next month.

Starting Oct. 1, the regulation will cap the fees that banks can collect from merchants whenever customers swipe their debit cards. Those fees generated $19 billion in revenue for banks in 2009, according to the Nilson Report, which tracks the payments industry.

There is no similar cap on the merchant fees that banks can collect when customers use their credit cards, however free business cards. That means many banks are increasingly encouraging customers to reach for their credit cards, in hopes of reversing a trend toward debit card usage in the past several years.

An increasing reliance on credit cards would be particularly beneficial for big institutions like Bank of America, which have large credit card portfolios, notes Bart Narter, a banking analyst with Celent, a consulting firm.

“It’s become a more profitable business, at least in relation to debit cards,” Narter said.

This summer, an Associated Press-GfK poll found that two-thirds of consumers use debit cards more frequently than credit cards. But when asked how they would react if they were charged a $3 monthly debit card fee, 61 percent said they’d find another way to pay.

With a $5 fee, 66 percent said they would change their payment method.

Several banks are nevertheless moving ahead with debit card fees.

SunTrust, a regional bank based in Atlanta, began charging a $5 debit card fee on its basic checking accounts this summer. Regions Financial, which is based in Birmingham, Ala., plans to start charging a $4 fee next month.

Chase and Wells Fargo are also testing $3 monthly debit card fees in select markets. Neither bank has said when it will make a final decision on whether to roll out the fee more broadly.

The growing prevalence of the debit card fee is alarming for Josh Wood, a 32-year-old financial adviser in Amarillo, Texas.

Wood relies entirely on debit cards to avoid interest charges on a credit card. If his bank, Wells Fargo, began charging a debit card fee, he said he would take his business to a credit union.

If a debit fee became so prevalent that it was unavoidable, Wood said he’s not sure how he’d react.

“I might use all cash. Or go back to writing checks,” he said.

Bank of America’s debit card fee will be rolled out in stages starting with select states in early 2012. The company would not say which states would be affected first.

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The influential Russia finance minister who was just ousted by President Dmitry Medvedev is warning that Russia’s budget is overextended.

Alexei Kudrin was forced out Monday after a public spat with Medvedev.

In a statement, Kudrin says over the past several months despite his numerous objections “decisions were taken on budget policies that without doubt have increased budget risks.”

He said those included “excessive commitments in the defense sector and social sector that will inevitably affect the entire national economy.”

Kudrin said wanted to resign in February but Prime Minister Vladimir Putin asked him to stay on. Putin on Tuesday appointed one of Kudrin’s deputies, Anton Siluanov, to serve as acting finance minister.

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Three commissioners appointed by Gov. Rick Perry may grant some of the nation’s largest refineries a tax refund of more than $135 million _ money Texas’ cash-strapped schools and other local governments have been counting on to help pay teachers and provide other public services.

The refund would mean more pain for some communities after a year in which state lawmakers had to grapple with a $27 billion shortfall and slashed spending on public schools by more than $4 billion. Nearly half the refund would be taken from public schools, and those in cities where the refineries are based would be hurt the most.

“We were already cut at the knees as it is, but more cuts? It’s appalling,” said Patricia Gonzales, a single mother of 13-year-old twins at Park View Intermediate School in Pasadena, a refinery town just south of Houston. Gonzales was just elected president of the school’s new parent-teacher organization, which was formed this summer after the state budget cuts left the school lacking everything from pencils to paper towels.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is evaluating 16 requests for the refund, which concerns a piece of pollution-controlling equipment. If granted, the refund total for those requests could add up to more than $135 million, according to county tax data and application documents analyzed by The Associated Press. What’s more, agency documents show that if the commission grants the requests, at least 12 other refineries that have not sought a refund also could qualify.

The three-person commission last year expressed some support for the refund, prompting concern the panel is preparing to side with the industry in the middle of a budget crisis.

Should the commission approve the request, it would fall in line with Perry’s argument on the GOP presidential campaign trail that by being friendly to business he has attracted businesses and jobs to Texas while other states suffered.

“Gov. Perry appoints individuals who are qualified and willing to serve, and expects they will consider all of the facts and make the appropriate decision,” said Lucy Nashed, a spokeswoman for Perry.

The refund request has to do with a piece of technology used by refineries to minimize pollution. Beginning in 2006, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began requiring refineries to remove sulfur dioxide from diesel and gasoline in an attempt to reduce vehicle pollution. Many refineries had to either upgrade existing “hydrotreater” units or purchase new, more effective equipment.

Valero first asked for the refund for six of its refineries in 2007, and wants payment retroactive to that year. Since then, at least four other companies have joined in and asked for the same retroactive refund.

Valero is arguing that the units should be exempt under a Texas law that says industrial plants don’t have to pay taxes on equipment purchased to reduce on-site pollution. The law saves companies millions, and is meant to encourage investment in new technology.

At first, the request was denied. The commission’s staff said the hydrotreaters reduce pollution in diesel and gas, not necessarily at the plant. In fact, staff said, the hydrotreaters actually increased sulfur dioxide pollution near the refineries because the toxic gas is now burned off in a flare.

Valero appealed, and the panel’s chairman, Bryan Shaw, said last April that the Legislature likely intended a broader interpretation of the law. He instructed his staff to research whether they could award partial exemptions to Valero. Shaw declined to be interviewed for this story, saying it could present a conflict because the issue will be brought before him again.

Valero alone could potentially get a refund of more than $92 million, but spokesman Bill Day said the San Antonio-based company believes the final refund _ if approved _ would be much smaller. He said appraisers will ultimately decide the value of the refinery properties and it’s unlikely the numbers will be as high as those the companies noted on the applications they submitted to the commission.

There is no timeline for a ruling. The slow pace of decision-making has left municipalities and school districts in an uncomfortable position in which they collect _ and spend _ money they could be forced to return, acknowledged Susana Hildebrand, a chief engineer at the TCEQ.

“We don’t have a statutory deadline, so there’s not a legal impetus,” she said. “I understand the concern that the taxing authorities have.”

Refunding tax money would be yet another hit for counties, cities and school districts that are already cutting corners and improvising to make up for lost funds. Schools alone could be forced to fork over $62.8 million, according to data compiled by the AP.

In smaller, more rural counties _ where property taxes from large industrial complexes provide a big chunk of funding for schools and government services _ the impact could be greater. For example, in Moore County, where a Valero refinery is seeking exemptions on two units, a $15.8 million refund would amount to more than $720 per person.

“If it was a good year and property values were up it wouldn’t be so bad,” said Hugh Landrom Jr, president of Hugh Landrom and Associates, an engineering firm that does industrial appraisals for Galveston and other counties that are home to large refineries and chemical plants.

“It’s compounded by the state budget cuts that are being passed down to everybody,” Landrom said.

And because of a complex law aimed at evening the playing field between areas that have large refineries _ and a strong tax base _ and those that don’t, all schools in the state would ultimately be impacted if the abatement is approved, though refinery towns would be hurt the most, said David Hodgins, consultant and attorney for the Texas Association of School Administrators.

“The dollars that are lost by these school districts directly affect the children of the employees that help make these companies what they are,” Hodgins said.

For Gonzales and other parents in Pasadena, the prospect of the school district having to hand back money is terrifying. Already, the middle school her children attend has laid off eight staff members and is asking for parents to donate money to pay for basketballs, volleyballs and even gloves for the science teachers, Gonzales said.

The mom-turned-activist said she learned about the refineries’ requests while lobbying earlier this year to convince Perry and the Legislature to dip into the state’s so-called rainy day fund to ease cuts to the schools _ an effort that failed.

Gonzales lives near a miles-long stretch of refineries, where massive pipes and stacks light the night like skyscrapers do in other cities. An intense, burnt chemical scent hangs over the town.

“You smell it. That’s what we’re known for. Stinkadena because of the refineries,” Gonzales said. “There are days when we can’t go out because our children’s asthma is that bad … and then they want money back?”

Valero said no one _ not the refinery owners, municipalities, commission or appraisal districts _ knows how much the industry could get if a refund is granted.

“It’s not going to be a disaster,” said Day, the company spokesman.

“I guarantee you, it’s not a surprise to the school districts,” he added. “Yes, they spent the money, yes we’re asking for an abatement on our pollution control equipment … but this is really no different than a homeowner appealing their property tax, just on a larger scale.”

In the meantime, Gonzales and other parents are planning to sell “$10,000 brownies” _ a gimmick aimed at raising awareness about how much money they would have to raise to make up for the lost refinery funds. The group also plans to boycott gas stations if necessary to fight the request.

“We pay taxes every day. Small businesses pay taxes. Why should big corporations get breaks?” she asked.

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Rebuffing an election boycott by Shiite protest groups, supporters of the country’s Sunni rulers voted in a special parliamentary election that is likely to reinforce divisions after seven months of unrest in the Gulf’s main Arab Spring showdown.

Bahrain’s confrontation between a reform-seeking Shiite majority and Sunni rulers holding near-total power remains one of the trickiest puzzles for the West as the Middle East’s politics are redrawn.

The Shiites’ calls for a greater say in national affairs echoes the same notes as in other Arab nations whose uprisings gained clear Western support. But Bahrain’s Sunni rulers have strong cards that most others cannot play, including a critical military partnership with Washington as hosts to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet _ the Pentagon’s front-line force against potential threats from Iran.

“This is a fake election. It’s useless,” said one man among a group of young Shiites gathered in streets littered with trash, rocks and tear gas canisters from clashes the night before.

“We don’t have any stake in the political system anymore,” said the man, who only gave his first name, Ali, fearing retaliation by the authorities.

The elections were needed to fill 18 seats in the 40-member parliament left vacant by a mass resignation of Shiite lawmakers to protest crackdowns, including deadly clashes, arrest sweeps and workplace purges. The boycott call by the main Shiite blocs effectively turned their backs on Bahrain’s political system and staked their hopes in an embarrassingly low turnout at the elections.

But Bahrain’s state TV announced the turnout at 51 percent in the districts with open seats _ lower than the 67 percent turnout in last year’s full parliamentary election, but an apparent strong reply against the boycott.

Most of the voters who turned out Saturday appeared to be supporters of the government.

Full results are expected by early Sunday. But the most important outcome was already determined by the Shiite boycott: The opposition must now decide whether to escalate public protests as their best remaining option.

“Leaving the political process opens up the obvious question of where to go from here,” said Toby Jones, an expert on Bahraini affairs at Rutgers University. “This opens the door for groups calling for more confrontation.”

More than 30 people have died in the unrest and hundreds have been arrested, including activists sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of plotting to overthrow the ruling system.

In recent months, Bahrain has faced near daily skirmishes after security forces crushed a wave of large-scale marches and sit-ins inspired by other Arab uprisings. The current clashes are isolated in Shiite neighborhoods and pose no direct danger to the leadership. But they highlight the deep frustrations among many Shiites _ who account for about 70 percent of the population _ and the growing belief in poorer districts that mass protests are the only way to force change.

Hours after the voting ended, clashes raged in some mainly Shiite areas into early Sunday.

Shiites claim they suffer widespread discrimination, including being blocked from top political and government posts. They also bristle at daily evidence of perceived second-class status, such as security forces bringing aboard Sunni Muslims from other Arab nations and south Asia under a government program that grants citizenship in exchange for loyalty.

“Each side sees itself as the legitimate voice of the country and the others as those standing in the way,” said Jones. “The election just drives home this message. It’s political theater on both sides to make a point.”

Security was boosted to high-alert levels for the election. Police set up dozens of checkpoints and patrolled key roadways.

An election coordinator, Brig. Abdullah bin Saif Al Nuaimi, said several arrests were made for trying to disrupt the voting, including throwing stones at cars coming to polling stations.

The voting in predominantly Shiite areas appeared light. At one polling station in the Manama neighborhood of Sanabis, which has been the scene of clashes since Friday, only about 30 ballots were cast in the first four hours of voting.

But at a polling station in Hamad Town, a mixed Sunni-Shiite area, the voting was noticeably stronger with a steady stream of people. Voting was also brisk at special locations, including a mall in the capital, Manama.

Bahrain’s parliament has little direct powers, but it carries important symbolism as part of limited political reforms started about a decade ago. It also is one of the few popularly elected bodies permitted by the Arab kings and sheiks who rule the Gulf from Kuwait to Oman.

“It was my duty to vote and show I have solidarity with the leaders of Bahrain,” said Samira, a 32-year-old Sunni, who only gave her first name for fear of being harassed after she voted in Sanabis.

Bahrain’s prime minister, Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, claimed the voting “asserted that we are on the right path toward a better future.” A government-issued guide to the elections carried the heading: “From anarchy to action.”

The U.S. has urged all parties in Bahrain to restart reconciliation talks, which were opened by the government in July and produced a set of proposals that included boosting the powers of the parliament. But the U.S. has been careful not to reprimand Bahrain’s leaders too harshly in public to avoid jeopardizing strategic bonds in the Gulf.

Bahrain has the backing of powerful neighbors. A Gulf force, led by Saudi Arabia, was dispatched to Bahrain in March to help prop up the 200-year-old Sunni dynasty.

But the protests across the region have stirred some small steps toward more political openness.

The United Arab Emirates also held elections Saturday for seats on a national advisory council, which has no legislative powers but is promoted by Emirati officials as part of a widening “experiment” in allowing a greater public voice in affairs. The UAE’s elections will be decided by about 129,000 hand-picked voters.

Next week, Saudi Arabia plans to hold municipal elections after a nearly two-year delay. Women, however, will be still barred from participating or voting.

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday that he was finishing his fourth round of chemotherapy in Cuba and expressed optimism that he will not require any further treatment.

Chavez spoke by phone from Havana to hundreds of supporters who gathered at the Riverside Church in New York to pray for his health. Those in the church included Bolivian President Evo Morales and the foreign ministers of Cuba and Argentina.

“Those prayers today have great meaning for me,” Chavez said in the call, which was broadcast on Venezuelan state television. “We’re closing the fourth round of chemotherapy and with the grace of God, this will be sufficient.”

“I’m just about to finish,” Chavez said. “It’s something malignant that’s turning into something benign.”

“I promise you I will live,” he said poor credit personal loans.

He supporters chanted: “Oh, no, Chavez won’t go!”

Chavez underwent surgery in Cuba in June to remove a tumor from his pelvic region. Since then, he has undergone three rounds of chemotherapy, and has said this should be the final phase.

Chavez has said previously that tests have shown no signs of a recurrence.

Venezuelan Vice President Elias Jaua said Wednesday that Chavez’s health was steadily improving.

Chavez “is doing well, better every day,” Jaua said.

(This version CORRECTS that Chavez said he was finishing, instead of finished with, fourtth round of chemotherapy.)

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Retailers just got an early Christmas gift: Americans are expected to spend more than they did last year during the holidays.

Retail sales in November and December are expected to be up 3 percent during what is traditionally the biggest shopping period of the year, according to research firm ShopperTrak said Tuesday.

The sales predication, which matches the outlook from the International Council of Shopping Centers on Friday, would be below last year’s 4.1 percent spike _ and the 5-plus percent gains during boom economic times. But it’s still above the 2.6 percent average gain over the last 10 years and is considered respectable growth given the down economy.

“Clearly, consumers will remain surgical in their spending,” said Bill Martin, ShopperTrak, co-founder. “But the Christmas season should still be quite satisfactory.”

The industry is still waiting for a widely-watched forecast on Oct. 6 from the National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group. But the ShopperTrak and ICSC predictions are the first look at how retailers might fare during the shopping period that can account for up to 40 percent of merchants’ annual revenue. Retailers are worried that many Americans are saddled by concerns about their jobs, the stock market and the overall U.S. economy, which could lead to them cutting back on holiday shopping.

So far, consumers still are spending on necessities, as shown during the critical back-to-school spending, the second-biggest shopping period of the year. However, they’re expected to continue to shop for bargains, a buying habit many picked up during the recession.

Customers also are expected to do more research online before they head to stores _ and browse less when they are in stores. As a result, customer traffic in the store is expected to be down 2.2 percent, according to ShopperTrak, which measures foot traffic in 25,000 stores in the U.S. and blends those figures with economic data.

“Every shopper in a store will be more valuable than last year, and retail stores should be ready to convert their holiday shoppers into sales,” said Martin.

When consumers do head out to the stores for the holidays, the divide that’s been seen this year between luxury purchases and bargain shopping is expected to continue.

ShopperTrak says specialty shops that sell low-end clothing and accessories may feel the need to cut prices to compete with discount chains, but that upscale stores will likely be able to cash in on consumers looking for goods they feel will hold up over long-term use.

The retail analyst expects clothing and accessories sales to rise 2.7 percent over the holidays, but for its traffic to dip 1.1 percent compared with a year ago.

Electronics and appliance sales are expected to rise 1.2 percent from the previous year, but traffic is predicted to fall 4.9 percent. ShopperTrak says the category will likely be hurt as consumers do comparison shopping and then buy online as well as the lack of any “hot” holiday product that will draw in more shoppers. The demise of many of the nation’s consumer electronics chains, such as Circuit City, has also left consumers with fewer places to shop.

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Greece will try to avoid international “blackmail and humiliation” by speeding up reforms and civil-service staff cuts, the finance minister said Monday, hours before holding an emergency teleconference with creditors.

Greece’s international bailout creditors stepped up the pressure at the start a crucial week in the nearly two-year debt crisis, urging the government to do more to heal its finances. Global markets were skeptical, however, and fell sharply on fears Athens will default on its mountain of debt.

Out of patience with the Socialist government’s delays on promised reforms, Greece’s partners and creditors are threatening to cut the cash lifeline without which the country would go bankrupt in less than a month.

Athens is struggling with a deepening recession that is eating away at the impact of its austerity measures while also causing unemployment and public anger to grow.

International debt inspectors will talk to finance chief Evangelos Venizelos around 1600 GMT ahead of a government meeting called by Prime Minister George Papandreou, who canceled a scheduled trip to the U.S. on Saturday.

“We expect the Greek authorities to explain, in particular, how they intend to close the fiscal gaps in 2011 and 2012 and how they plan to proceed with the structural reforms and privatizations,” said Amadeu Altafaj Tardio, a spokesman for the European Commission.

Ahead of the discussions, Venizelos said the government still seeks to generate euro3 billion ($4.1 billion) more revenues next year than it spends, before counting the cost of interest on existing debts.

Greece’s economy is expected to contract by about 5.5 percent this year _ more than the 3.5 percent earlier assumed _ and a further 2.5 percent in 2012, according to new government and IMF estimates.

“The country cannot go forward without the true implementation of major structural reforms _ we have delayed them,” Venizelos said at a conference south of Athens, adding that achieving the 2012 target was vital.

The government still must live up to its commitment to lower the 2011 budget deficit goal to 7.6 percent of gross domestic product.

When it became obvious earlier this month that there was a more than euro2 billion ($2.75 billion) shortfall in the budget, Greece’s creditors threatened to withhold the sixth installment of a euro110 billion rescue package agreed upon in May 2010.

Without the installment, worth euro8 billion, Greece faces defaulting on its debts by mid-October no checking account payday advance.

A review by officials from the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission, collectively known as the ‘troika,’ was suspended earlier this month amid talk of missed targets.

The government hurriedly announced an extra two-year property tax _ payable through electricity bills to ensure its collection _ to compensate for the shortfall.

But the news was greeted with an outcry from a public already reeling from salary cuts and the recession. State electricity company unionists also threatened to refuse to collect the taxes, and to prevent those who don’t pay having their power supply cut off.

A Communist labor union has called a protest against the tax outside parliament Wednesday.

Venizelos said Sunday night that the backlash led to skepticism among Greece’s creditors about whether the government would manage to raise the projected revenue.

While technical staff from the troika have been back in Athens for about a week, trying to figure out whether the recently announced measures will be enough to meet the targets, senior debt inspectors have stayed away until progress is made.

Altafaj Tardio said that, depending on what Venizelos says at the teleconference, the troika “will decide on the resumption of the review mission.”

IMF representative Bob Traa urged the government to speed up structural reforms and avoid further emergency taxes, arguing that Athens should give up the “taboo” of firing public servants.

“I have compared Greece to a Mercedes that can go 120 kilometers per hour but is only going 40 because it has so much sludge in the engine,” Traa told the conference.

He said Greece needed to speed up its reforms in tax collection and reducing the size of the overmanned public sector.

In an interview, Traa said Greece needed to implement key commitments including plans to slash 150,000 public sector positions by 2015.

“If you can do it (staff cuts) up front, you get over it much more quickly. Whether society can support that is a different issue,” Traa told the AP. “Our experience is that … if you do things gradually that may induce the public getting very tired. Adjustment fatigue is something that happens in every country.”

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Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki tried on Saturday to ease sectarian tensions over a brutal bus massacre that left 22 Shiite pilgrims dead, as authorities released two suspects in the killings.

The two were released for lack of evidence, and six other suspects are still being held in Baghdad, a senior Iraqi official close to al-Maliki said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

In the attack Monday, gunmen wearing military-style uniforms stopped the bus at a fake security checkpoint on a remote stretch of desert highway in Anbar. The passengers aboard were all from the Shiite holy city of Karbala in southern Iraq, said Karbala councilman Hussein Shadhan al-Aboudi, and were headed to the Sayyida Zainab shrine in Damascus, Syria.

Witnesses said the gunmen ordered 22 men off the bus, walked them down the road, and shot them in a nearby valley in Iraq’s Sunni-dominated Anbar province.

The arrests, in turn, stirred Sunni resentments, when a prominent sheik in Anbar accused security forces of “abducting” the suspects as Shiite revenge for the massacre.

Al-Maliki, a Shiite, sought to tamp down sectarian anger.

“It is true that the crime was very ugly, and it caused great pain to the families of the victims, but this attack did not target a specific component of the Iraqi people,” al-Maliki told reporters. “The terrorists did not differentiate between people, and their goal was to create a crisis.”

Al-Maliki said Sunnis were also killed, but did not elaborate. He confirmed that some suspects had been freed but did not say how many.

Al-Aboudi maintained that all of the bus passengers were Shiite. But he said the same gang of gunmen also killed a Sunni motorist on the same stretch of road earlier that day.

On Saturday, al-Maliki said the investigation “went through legal channels.” That apparently is what led to the release of the two suspects.

“When they saw that the evidence was not sufficient, legal authorities took a decision on this,” al-Maliki said. “And we respect the judiciary system.”

Karbala officials who were briefed on the case initially said 10 suspects were arrested. But al-Aboudi said Saturday that there were only eight, and blamed the discrepancy on confusion in the immediate aftermath of the arrests.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I love it from my standpoint, but looking at it from the government’s standpoint, can they afford to do that?”

stl jobwatch

Highlights from our blog tracking trends in employment, the economy and labor in St. Louis and beyond. stltoday.com/jobwatch

St. Louis cab company is cited for job discrimination

A St. Louis taxi company has been ordered to pay damages totaling $85,000 for denying a driving position to a candidate after he disclosed a prior medical condition during the applications process.

The Laclede Cab Company’s rejection of the applicant constituted workplace discriminaton, according to a report filed by the Missouri Commission on Human Rights.

Laclede Cab claimed its insurance carrier wouldn’t cover a driver because he’d suffered a stroke some years before.

The commission said the driver had been employed by other cab companies in the years after he was stricken.

“A company violates the law when it assumes that a person with a disability cannot perform a job,” commission executive director Alisa Warren said in a statement issued Monday morning.

“Such stereotypes deny people with disabilities the chance to earn a living and it also deprives employers of capable and dedicated employees.”

The commission, a division of the Missouri Department of Labor, ordered Laclede Cab to pay $50,000 in damages and another $35,000 for violating the applicant’s civil rights.

Dave McNutt, the owner of Laclede Cab, said the company is appealing the commission’s ruling.

(09.13.11)

Missouri unemployment edges up slightly