GA Increases Fines

By Ariel Hart

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

9:26 a.m. Monday, December 28, 2009

To those who feel the need to speed: Be warned. For the fastest of fast drivers, it’s about to get really expensive.

Going 85 miles per hour or more on most Georgia roads -- including interstates -- will cost a speeder an additional $200, when a new "super-speeder" law takes effect on Friday. On two-lane roads, meaning one lane each way, the extra fine kicks in at 75 mph.

That’s on top of whatever ticket the speeder gets for going over the speed limit.

“It’s a lifesaving law,” said Bob Dallas, director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, noting that speeding makes death or severe injury much more likely when an accident happens.

The original speeding ticket may not tell the offender about the additional state fine, Dallas said. First, the driver will get the local ticket as usual. Then, the state will send a letter notifying the speeder of the $200 fine, which must be paid within 90 days of the letter's date.

“The goal here is to prevent the worst of the worst speeding in the state of Georgia,” Dallas said. “At some point we just have to put an end to the super-speeders and using our roadways as a racetrack. And this is what this law is designed to do.”

Drivers who don’t pay will have their licenses suspended.

The original ticket is no joke either. Local fines -- which range depending on where tickets are issued and the driver's speed -- are commonly well over $100.

In McIntosh County on Georgia's coast, going 34 mph over the speed limit will cost you $1,355, according to the county court clerk’s office. That’s before the new state fine.

At least one local official, Sheriff J. Tyson Stephens of Emanuel County, has called the $200 state fine little more than a tax that will impose an out-of-kilter burden on the working poor.

Dallas said he knew of no other state with a similar law, though some states had tried variations, such as higher fines on problem roads.

The law intended money collected from the fines to fund trauma services, but where it's actually spent will be up to the state Legislature.

RockBridge Commercial Bank closed by regulators

By Péralte C. Paul

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

7:35 p.m. Friday, December 18, 2009

State regulators shut down RockBridge Commercial Bank Friday, three years after it was founded with a record amount of capital for a start-up bank in Georgia.

RockBridge becomes the 25th lending institution in the state to close its doors in the wake of the financial crisis.

But unlike many other shuttered banks, RockBridge is not being acquired. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which was appointed receiver and tried to find another institution to take over RockBridge's operations, could not.

"The FDIC was unable to find another financial institution to take over the banking operations of RockBridge Commercial Bank," the FDIC said in a statement.

The agency said checks will be mailed Monday to retail depositors for their insured funds.

RockBridge reported having $294 million in total assets and $291.7 million in deposits at the end of September.

Customers with brokered deposits will have those funds wired back to their brokers when they give the FDIC the needed paperwork to show the accounts don't exceed insurance limits.

Kathryn L. Knudson, an attorney at Bryan Cave, the law firm representing RockBridge, declined comment Friday but provided a portion of a statement that RockBridge's board of directors sent to its shareholders:

"It has not been a secret that all banks in our area have been affected by what is generally described as the worst economic downturn since in America since the Great Depression," the statement said. "When economic growth in Atlanta abruptly stopped and became a contracting environment, too many of our customers found themselves unable to meet the interes and prinicpal obligations on their loans and alternative sources of collateral proved insufficient to make up the shortfall. . . .

"Ultimately, these losses used up so much of our capital, that we fell below regulatory threshholds and were no longer permitted by regulators to operate independently."

The bank opened in Sandy Springs after raising $36 million -- a then-record for a Georgia start-up bank -- from investors including some of metro Atlanta's top business leaders, including Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus and Charles Ackerman, founder of commercial real estate firm Ackerman & Co.

As the economy soured, so did RockBridge's portfolio, which, like many troubled institutions, was heavily tied to real estate development.

As it sought regulatory approval and wooed investors, RockBridge officials had said they planned to focus on lending to small and medium sized companies. But the bank focused real estate-related lending, which was booming at the time.

Real estate loans account for 72 percent of RockBridge's $211.7 million portfolio, regulatory filings show, compared with 20 percent in commercial loans to businesses.

More than one-third of RockBridge's real estate loans are in the deepest stages of delinquency.

In an earlier interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, RockBridge's former chief financial officer, Rollo Ingram, said he warned top management they were taking on too much risk by concentrating on on real estate.

"I commented to the board on a number of occasions of the danger," Ingram said in that interview, "but nobody seemed to listen."

Find this article at:

http://www.ajc.com/business/rockbridge-commercial-bank-closed-246571.html

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Food Stamps Go to a Record 37.2 Million, USDA Says

By Alan Bjerga

Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- A record 37.2 million people, or about one out of every eight Americans, received food stamps in September, as the recession drove a surging jobless rate, according to a government report.

Recipients of the subsidy for retail-food purchases climbed 18 percent from a year earlier, according to a statement posted today on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Web site. Participation has set records for 10 straight months.

The government boosted food aid as unemployment soared, heading to a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October. The jobless rate cooled to 10 percent last month, the Labor Department said on Dec. 4.

“We’ve been working to get that money out the door” to families that need assistance, Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan said last week in an interview.

Nevada had the biggest increase in food-stamp participation rates from a year earlier, surging 54 percent, followed by a 46.5 percent jump in Utah, according to the USDA. Texas had the most recipients at 3.1 million, followed by California with 2.9 million and New York with 2.6 million.

Recipients increased in every state and the District of Columbia, except Louisiana. Because of a sharp rise after Hurricanes Ike and Gustav in 2008, the number of people in Louisiana getting food stamps fell 65 percent in September from a year earlier. Gains of more than 30 percent from 2008 were reported in 18 states.

35 Million Budgeted

About 35 million people are expected to receive food stamps each month through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, according to the budget that President Barack Obama sent to Congress in May.

“In this economic time, SNAP has been essential,” Merrigan said. The participation rate of state residents who are eligible for food stamps varies widely, the USDA said last month in a report based on 2007 data.

In Missouri, about 100 percent who were eligible that year took advantage of the program, the highest rate in the nation, followed by residents of Maine and Michigan, at 91 percent and 89 percent, respectively, the USDA said. Wyoming’s participation rate of 47 percent was the lowest in fiscal 2007, followed by California and Idaho at 48 percent and 50 percent, according to the study.

Nationwide, participation in the food-stamp program was 66 percent of those eligible for the aid in 2007, the USDA said. The department has budgeted for a rate of 68 percent in the current 2010 fiscal year.

“We know of a lot of people who are SNAP-eligible who are not participating in the program,” Merrigan said. “We are working with states to improve participation.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Alan Bjerga in Washington at abjerga@bloomberg.net.