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The worst drought in Texas’ history has led to the largest-ever one-year decline in the leading cattle-state’s cow herd, raising the likelihood of increased beef prices as the number of animals decline and demand remains strong.

Since Jan. 1, the number of cows in Texas has dropped by about 600,000, a 12 percent decline from the roughly 5 million cows the state had at the beginning of the year, said David Anderson, who monitors beef markets for the Texas AgriLife Extension Service. That’s likely the largest drop in the number of cows any state has ever seen, though Texas had a larger percentage decline from 1934 to 1935, when ranchers were reeling from the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, Anderson said.

Anderson said many cows were moved “somewhere there’s grass,” but lots of others were slaughtered. He said that in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana and Arkansas, about 200,000 more cattle were slaughtered this year, a 20 percent increase over last year.

That extra supply could help meet increased demand from China and other countries, but the loss of cows likely will mean fewer cattle in future years.

“Consumers are going to pay more because we’re going to have less beef,” Anderson said. “Fewer cows, calves, less beef production and increasing exports.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that beef prices will increase up to 5.5 in 2012, in part because the number of cattle has declined. That follows a 9 percent increase in beef prices in the past year.

Oklahoma, the nation’s second-largest cattle producer, also saw about a 12 percent drop in cows, Oklahoma State University agriculture economist Derrell Peel said.

Anderson said beef production nationally will be down 4 percent next year.

In Texas, the problem is primarily due to the worst single-year drought in the state’s history. From January through November the state got just 46 percent of its normal rainfall of about 26 inches.

The drought was the result of a La Nina weather pattern, which brings drier than normal conditions to the southwestern states paydayloans. Forecasters have said La Nina is back, meaning another dry year for Texas, Oklahoma and other nearby states.

The lack of rain coupled with blistering summer heat caused pastures to wither, leaving rancher with the choice of buying feed for the cattle or selling them.

Betsy Ross, a 75-year-old rancher from the small central Texas community of Granger, said she sold all but 80 of the 225 grass-fed animals she had in January. With feed costs up 40 percent and her pasture parched, Ross said she didn’t have any other option.

“It’s not a profitable year, heavens no,” she said. “If you can’t keep them on grass when they’re grass fed you’re not going to make any money.”

About 200 miles north in Sulphur Springs, Texas, part-time rancher Dwyatt Bell said producers in his part of the state sold off up to half their herds. Bell said high prices for cattle have helped offset increases expenses, but many ranchers still are struggling to stay afloat.

“It’s been a rough year,” he said.

Across Texas, the drought has caused an estimated $5.2 billion in losses to farmers and livestock producers, and that figure is expected to rise

Nationally, the number of cows has dropped by an estimated 617,000 this year, a 2 percent decline from the 30.9 million animals on Jan. 1. That number would be larger, but states in northern plains such as North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska, increased their cow herd.

Anderson said it’s unclear whether high beef prices would hurt U.S. sales or limit exports. The U.S. is the world third largest consumer of beef per capita at 85.5 pounds per year. Uruguay is first at 137 pounds per capita.

“Exports have been the strongest part of beef demand all year and they’re expected to remain so but higher prices should constrain their growth,” he said.

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House Republican leaders previewed legislation to extend Social Security payroll tax cuts and long-term unemployment benefits at a meeting of the rank and file Thursday, aiming for a vote next week.

One official who attended the closed-door meeting said lawmakers responded particularly favorably to a provision that would assure construction of an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas, despite a veto threat from President Barack Obama.

The measure has been in the drafting stage for more than a week as House Speaker John Boehner and other leaders try to coax lawmakers to support a payroll tax cut extension that critics say has not contributed to job creation.

Boehner said Thursday he believed he had enough support to start pushing a payroll tax cut through the House next week.

In addition to extending the Social Security payroll tax cut and benefits for the long-term unemployed, the measure has been broadened to avert a threatened 27 percent cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients. All three items carry a Dec. 31 deadline for action.

The House measure varies on several points from legislation that Obama and congressional Democrats want, but the president seemed eager on Wednesday to draw a line at items he described as extraneous.

His veto threat was specifically linked to any requirement for the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a project that he recently put on hold until after the 2012 election.

“Efforts to tie a whole bunch of other issues to what’s something that they should be doing anyway will be rejected by me,” he said.

Obama did not say which other items he had in mind.

Republicans said they welcomed a fight over the pipeline, which they have described as shovel-ready and promising 20,000 new jobs at a time of high unemployment.

“We are working on a bill to stop a tax hike, protect Social Security, reform unemploym

ent insurance and create jobs,” said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. “If President Obama threatens to veto it over a provision that creates American jobs, that’s a fight we’re ready to have.”

Obama would lower the 6.2 percent payroll tax that workers normally pay to 3.1 percent next year, part of his effort to breathe life into the country’s ailing job market. He also wants to trim the payroll taxes that employers pay to give them an incentive to hire people.

The House bill would drop next year’s payroll tax to 4.2 percent, the same as this year’s level, with no tax breaks for companies. It would be financed by extending the current pay freeze on federal workers through 2015 and a host of smaller savings, including charging higher Medicare premiums to higher-earning seniors.

A 2 percentage point reduction in the payroll tax means a tax cut of $1,000 to an earner making $50,000 a year.

A similar battle is brewing in the Democratic-run Senate, where leaders plan a symbolic vote as early as Thursday that is designed for political purposes.

That Democratic-written bill would lower next year’s payroll tax to 3.1 percent. It is financed chiefly by a 1.9 percent surtax on income over $1 million, a proposal that is almost universally opposed by Republicans, who say it would discourage business owners from hiring.

GOP senators are expected to easily kill the measure, but Democrats hope the roll call will produce fodder for campaign ads against Republicans.

Asked Wednesday by reporters whether he might eventually accept spending cuts to pay for the bill, Reid showed some flexibility.

“We’re ruling nothing out, OK?” Reid said, other than budget cuts to federal agencies, which have already been sliced twice this year.

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The Iraqi army was supposed to pull out of the nation’s cities by the end of this year but is delaying the pullback over security concerns, the Iraqi military spokesman said Saturday.

The delay is an acknowledgment that even after four years of declining violence, Iraq’s police force is not capable of maintaining security on its own. The other worry is that violence will increase when American troops complete their own withdrawal from the country at year’s end.

The government’s plan remains to eventually hand over security to the police and pull Iraqi troops back to bases outside the cities. But the spokesman for the Baghdad military operations command, Qassim al-Moussawi, said Saturday that the military is worried that the police will not be able to handle security in all areas of the country.

“We started to hand over gradually in some areas. But other areas we can’t hand over to the police because still the Interior Ministry needs the support of the Iraqi army. It is not capable now nor by the end of 2011.”

The Iraqi army’s presence can be felt all over Iraq’s quasi-militarized cities, where soldiers in helmets and flak vests and carrying AK-47’s man checkpoints and drive around in Humvees. The army has received the bulk of the training and support from the U.S. military and is generally seen as more competent than the police.

The police, since they tend to work and live in the same areas, have had problems with infiltration by various militant factions and are perceived as less willing to go after lawbreakers.

“We are monitoring the situation to see when police have the capability to maintain the security in order to hand over the responsibility to them,” al-Moussawi said.

Al-Moussawi said there were concerns that if the Iraqi army pulled out of the cities, violence would return.

According to the 2008 agreement signed between the U.S. and Iraq, all American troops are scheduled to leave Iraq by the end of this year. The American government will still keep a sizable presence in Iraq where it has its largest embassy in the world plus offices in Irbil, Kirkuk and Basra.

Iraqi political leaders have said they would like to have American military training help, but negotiations between the two sides are stuck on what type of legal protection to give any American troops who remain behind.

Even if a contingent of American forces were to stay behind, they would likely have a very limited role that would not extend much to combat operations, meaning the job of protecting the country against both Sunni and Shiite militias would rest solely with the Iraqis.

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The United Auto Workers may be nearing a tentative contract agreement with Ford.

The union has called leaders from factories across the nation to Detroit on Tuesday. That usually means a deal has been reached.

But a person briefed on the negotiations says talks ended Sunday night with no agreement. The negotiations are scheduled to resume Monday. The person didn’t want to be identified because the talks are private.

An agreement would set the wages and benefits for 41,000 Ford workers nationwide for four years guaranteed unsecured personal loan.

It’s expected to have no pay raises for most workers but have a signing bonus that’s bigger than the $5,000 given to workers at General Motors.

It’s also expected to have profit-sharing checks and promises of thousands of new union jobs.

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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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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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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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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

TORONTO