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4A Daily News– Wednesday, May 23, 2012 Commerceenterprise business • New Member and Spotlight - The Corning Chamber of Commerce wel- comes the VFW Post 4218 and Auxiliary as new members. The Veterans of Foreign Wars have been around since May, 1952 in Corning. The women's auxiliary in May, 1953, and the Veterans Memorial Hall was built in 1931. They serve this community in many ways, including the Honor Guard for veterans who have passed. They organize the Memorial Day Service, the Veteran‚s Day parade; pro- vide scholarships every year and do a lot of charity work in Corning. The VFW hosts the charity bingo every Wednesday evening at the hall and the money goes to different charities including Corning Christian Assistance's food bank. Recent- ly they installed a flag pole and new flag at the Senior Center. Thank you, VFW Post 4218 and ladies auxiliary for all that you do for the community. Chamber Article Veterans Groups present the annual Memorial Day Service at 10 a.m. on Monday, May 28, at the Sunset Hill Cemetery, 4470 Oren Ave. in Corning. Bucky Bowen will be Master of Cere- monies, and the Corning Union High School Band will perform patriotic music. Michael LePeilbet will be Guest Speaker and the National Anthem will be sung by Valanne Cardenas. Laying of Wreaths will be done by the Boy Scout Troops, and the Corning Veterans Honor Guard will perform a Rifle Salute and Taps. Everyone is welcome to a barbecue lunch at the Veterans Memorial Hall, 1620 Solano Street after the service. The lunch includes a hamburger, salad, beans and ice cream for $6 per person. • Tehama Trail Passport Weekend Cor- • Memorial Day Service - The Corning & rection — The Chamber apologizes for the error in last week's Chamber News concerning the date of the Tehama Trail Passport Weekend. Please take note that the dates are June 2 and 3. We are sorry for the error. The Passport Weekend will be a chance for visitors to tour 16 farms/wineries currently on the Tehama Trail Map. All of the farms will open their doors on Passport weekend, even those who are normally open by appointment only. Tehama Trail Passport Weekend tickets are $20 per person and include free tasting at all farms. All proceeds go to benefit the Tehama Trail association to further devel- op agri-tourism in Tehama County. Tick- ets can be purchased at all participating farms and the Tehama County Farm Bureau. Tehama Trail highlights local tourist attractions, historic landmarks and local shopping. The map is easy to navigate and user friendly. For more information visit www.tehamatrail.com, or call (530) 527- 7882. Triathlon is coming up June 9 and 10. The weekend is split up into two separate races between a Mountain Bike Triathlon (Saturday) and a Road Triathlon (Sun- day). • The Third Annual Black Butte have a Sprint and Olympic distance race. There will be a health and fitness expo to see the latest and greatest gadgets as well as local vendors from the surrounding area showcasing their all natural goods. Tehama and Glenn County boasts some of the widest array of produce from fruit to nuts, olive and olive oil to their up and coming wine country. For more informa- tion go to www.blackbuttetriathlon.com. Both MTB and Road triathlons will Your Business can be featured in the... Ford to get blue oval back after second upgrade DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co. is getting its blue oval logo back. Moody's Investors Ser- vice raised Ford's debt rat- ings to investment-grade Tuesday for the first time in seven years. The upgrade means that all Ford's assets, including factories and the blue oval logo, are back in the company's hands and will no longer be used to secure the company's debt. Ford posted the assets as collateral in 2006 in order to get a $23.5 billion loan and avoid bankruptcy. ''This is a great day for us and is the result of several years of hard work and progress by everyone asso- ciated with Ford,'' Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said in a statement. Ford needed two ratings agencies to upgrade it to investment grade to get its assets back. Fitch Ratings upgraded the company last month. Standard and Poor's has not get upgraded Ford, and said in March that it did- n't expect to change Ford's ratings within the next year. ''The key factor in our considering an investment grade rating for Ford was whether or not the company would be able to sustain its strong performance,'' said Bruce Clark, Moody's senior vice president. ''We concluded that the improve- ments Ford has made are likely to be lasting.'' Moody's said one of Ford's main strengths was its low break-even point in North America, the compa- ny's largest market. The rat- ings agency calculated that Ford has to sell only 1.8 mil- lion cars and trucks to break even. In the 12 months ended in March, Moody's said, Ford shipped 2.7 mil- lion cars and trucks in North America, 50 percent above the break-even point. Prior to its restructuring in 2009, Ford had to sell 3.4 million cars and trucks before it started earning a profit. Moody's also said Ford's cars and trucks are increas- ingly competitive with Asian automakers. Moody's also believes Ford can main- tain its investment grade even in the face of a Euro- pean downturn. ''In addition, we believe that Ford will maintain a robust new product renewal program,'' the agency wrote. An investment-grade rat- ing signals that a company's debt has a low risk of default. Companies with investment grade credit rat- ings generally pay lower interest on debt. Ford will also have an easier time bor- rowing for projects like new plants in Asia. Moody's also affirmed General Motors Co.'s credit rating of Ba1, one notch below investment grade, on Tuesday. Moody's said GM remains on track to return to investment grade within the next year. Ford lost its investment grade status in 2005 when it was racking up billions in losses as the SUV boom went bust. The company decided that a massive restructuring loan was worth risking its logo. The influx of cash helped Ford to revamp its cars and trucks and — unlike rivals General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group — avoid bankruptcy protection. Ford shares rose 16 cents, or nearly 2 percent, to $10.36 in after-hours trad- ing. financial officer, Lewis Booth, said just before his retirement in April that get- ting the blue oval back would have an ''enormous'' psychological impact on the company after its wrenching turnaround. ''For every person who works at Ford, anywhere in the world, that's a very pre- cious thing,'' he said. The logo, which is recog- nized worldwide and appears on everything from baseball caps to scented can- dles, dates to 1965. Ford began replacing black and white ovals with blue ones that year, according to Ford corporate historian Bob Kreipke. The script in the center of the logo goes back even further. Harold Wills, a friend of company founder Henry Ford and a draftsman who helped design the first Model T, created the Ford script in 1912 using his grandfather's stencil set. Ford says it hasn't placed a value on the logo. But Interbrand, which tracks brand values, said the Ford brand is worth $7.5 billion, and it ranked Ford 50th out of its top 100 brands in a recent survey. June 9-10, 2012 9,000 total distribution! 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Late last week, two leading independent proxy advisory firms, ISS and Glass Lewis & Co., separately recommended that Wal-Mart sharehold- ers vote against certain board members, including Duke and Scott. York City comptroller John C. Liu said the five city pension funds he advises will vote against five board members. His office said in a statement then that it asked Wal- Mart in 2005 and 2006 to investigate concerns of legal and regulatory non- compliance. The New York City Pension Funds Early this month, New You've met the parents ...and that went really well! Now come meet the jeweler who will make sure you have the ring that gives you a whole new set of in-laws! Gold facebook.com/redbluffgoldexchange T-F 10am-5:30 pm 423 Walnut St. Red Bluff Exchange Sat. 10 am-4 pm 528-8000 York Times reported that Wal-Mart allegedly failed to notify law enforcement after its own investigators found evidence that $24 million in bribes was fun- neled through its Mexican unit in the hopes of speed- ing building permits and winning other favors. U.S. law forbids Amer- ican companies from bribing foreign officials. Scott was CEO when In late April, The New Wal-Mart was investigat- ing the alleged bribery practices in late 2005, and Duke was leading the company's international business. ''(We) do not have confidence that the cur- rent board has the inde- pendence and leadership needed to address these difficult issues,'' Cal- STERS said in a state- ment released Tuesday. Wed-Thurs-Sun 11-8pm • Fri & Sat 11-9pm Knick's Now Open! 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