IN BRIEF
Cooling company says Neonopolis bill unpaid
The company that cut off air conditioning to the now-sweltering Neonopolis mall is speaking out.
On Friday a representative from climate control provider Ameresco says turning the air back on is as simple as paying the bill.
"They actually owe us $300,000, so we turned off the cooling," said Jeanette Coleman-Hall of Framingham, Mass.-based Ameresco.
Coleman-Hall called in response to an article about sweltering conditions in the mall.
Neonopolis developer Rohit Joshi admitted he was in a dispute with the air conditioning provider.
Coleman-Hall said the dispute is only a matter of paying the bill.
"He hasn't paid us in months," she said.
Several tenants in second-floor art studios have also complained, departed or are planning to depart.
Joshi says he plans to replace the portable units with a larger, buildingwide system.
Coleman-Hall said he may as well just pay the Ameresco bill.
"Sometimes to just put the equipment in is more expensive than to just pay the bill and put it back on," she said.
Companies in housing accused of scheme
A class action lawsuit has been filed against KB Home, Countrywide Financial and LandSafe Appraisal Services for an alleged scheme to artificially inflate home values in Arizona and Nevada, a spokeswoman for the case said Friday.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Arizona, claims KB and the other defendants inflated home prices by as much as $2.8 billion in Arizona and Nevada alone during a three-year period.
KB steered home buyers toward Countrywide and LandSafe, an appraisal subsidiary of Countrywide, said Laura Young, spokeswoman for Seattle-based law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro. Buyers typically paid $20,000 more than what the home was worth, she said.
Homeowners can visit www.hbsslaw.com/kbhomes to join the case.
NEW YORK
Treasury prices rise as investors seek debt
Treasury prices rose Friday after mixed economic data led investors to buy back into government debt.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 0.46 points. Its yield was unchanged at 3.29 percent.
