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BUSINESS
News in Brief: GC Services named employer of the year
HOUSTON -- GC Services Limited Partnership was named the 2008 West Virginia Outstanding State Employer of the Year by the WORKFORCE West Virginia Bureau of Employer Programs.
GC Services earned the award for the company's continued efforts to recruit qualified applicants through the WORKFORCE West Virginia program, as well as recruit actively on site at the local WORKFORCE office located in Huntington.
The award was given at the annual WORKFORCE West Virginia awards luncheon in Chester, W.Va. Daniel Darnulc, assistant vice president, and Helen Arigan, human resources director for GC Services' Huntington offices accepted the award. For more information about GC Services, visit www.gcserv.com.
Canadian firm plans W.Va. expansion
CHARLESTON -- A Canadian company plans to expand its crane business to West Virginia.
Gov. Joe Manchin's office said Friday that J.D. Irving Ltd.'s operation is expected to open in October in Kanawha County. The administration says J.D. Irving has invested $20 million in the operation, the first foray into the U.S. for its equipment business.
The governor's office says the operation is expected to create 15 new jobs at first. Employment is expected to hit 50 within two years.
Heavy construction cranes are among Saint John, New Brunswick-based J.D. Irving's myriad businesses. Other interests range from paper and lumber to trucking and shipbuilding.
President James Irving says he sees the potential for more investment in West Virginia.
ICG settles with another Sago victim
CHARLESTON -- The estate of another miner killed in the Sago Mine explosion has reached a tentative legal settlement with International Coal Group.
Lawyer Tim Bailey says the confidential deal struck for heirs of James Bennett has not been approved by Kanawha County Circuit Judge Charles King. Bennett was one of 12 miners killed in the January 2006 methane gas explosion.
Bailey says the agreement is limited to mine owner ICG, its Wolf Run subsidiary and Chairman Wilbur Ross Jr. Claims involving Bennett already have been settled with the manufacturer and supplier of concrete foam blocks used to build failed seals at the Upshur County mine.
Survivor Randal McCloy Jr. and the estate of miner David Lewis also have settled with ICG.
An ICG spokesman declined to comment.
Appeals court denies constitutional challenge
WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court on Friday denied a constitutional challenge to a 2002 anti-fraud law that created a board to oversee the accounting industry after a wave of business scandals.
An attorney for the conservative plaintiffs' group said it planned to appeal the 2-1 ruling by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, either to the full appeals court or directly to the Supreme Court.
The panel's ruling rejected the argument by the Free Enterprise Fund that the industry oversight board established by the Sarbanes-Oxley law violates the Constitution's mandated separation of powers among the three federal branches.
The pro-business group has argued that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board -- endowed with subpoena power and the authority to discipline accountants -- breaches the separation-of-powers requirement because its five members aren't appointed by the president, cannot be removed by him, and Congress does not control the board's budget.
Cleveland-Cliffs sets vote on Alpha purchase
CHARLESTON -- Iron ore and coal mine operator Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has set the date for shareholders to vote on its proposed purchase of coal producer Alpha Natural Resources.
Cleveland-Cliffs agreed to acquire Alpha in a deal valued at $10 billion July 16. A Securities and Exchange Commission filing Friday says Cleveland-Cliffs has scheduled voting for Oct. 3.
Shareholders of Abingdon, Va.-based Alpha would receive 0.95 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs and $22.23 in cash for each share.
The combined company would be named Cliffs Natural Resources, and own nine iron ore facilities and more than 60 coal mines in North and South America and Australia. Most of the coal operations would come from Alpha, which has mines in West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
