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PARKERSBURG - A letter written by attorney Andrew Woofter to Wood County Commission President Blair Couch about delinquent personal property taxes owed by Couch's former business was released pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Couch's political opponent Harry Deitzler, officials said on Friday.

The Parkersburg News and Sentinel on Thursday reported taxes of $16,582 remain owed by A.W. Couch Inc., a car rental firm that ceased operation when the franchises in the area were taken over by the Hertz Corp. The debt was first reported two years ago.

Couch, a Republican and the incumbent county commissioner, in the November general election will face Deitzler, a former Wood County prosecutor who is with the Charleston law firm of Carper, Bee and Deitzler.

Wood County Prosecutor Jason Wharton Friday said the FOIA request was made around April 6.

"The FOIA request was from Harry Deitzler," Wharton said.

While Woofter, special counsel for the sheriff's tax office, on Wednesday said he believed the letter was privileged communications between attorney and client, Wharton said it was his opinion under FOIA that the letter was a "disclosable document."

The letter outlined a repayment plan with Couch, but was never mailed to Couch after the agreement was never approved by the tax office, Woofter said.

"The FOIA policy is to keep the public informed and disclosures are to be liberally construed. Looking at this particular document, although attorney/client privilege is recognized under FOIA, it was my opinion it was a disclosable document," Wharton said.

Wood County Sheriff Jeff Sandy said the FOIA request came to the tax office.

"The tax office is handled by chief tax deputy Dennie Huggins and we were advised by legal counsel, (Wood County Prosecutor) Jason Wharton, to release the letter. We were advised by the prosecutor that everything that we had in that file needed to be released pursuant to the FOIA request," Sandy said.

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Delinquent tax letter released pursuant to FOIA

25-05-2012 14:23 The Carroll Foundation Trust case took a further disturbing twist with new shocking revelations which now involve yet another Police Authority in this ongoing organised crime tax fraud heist operation which stretches the globe. Sources have confirmed that the Suffolk Police Chief Constable continues to retain compelling criminal evidential Carroll Trust prosecution files concerning the multi-million pound Warren Park estate at Warren Hill Newmarket which was owned by the Gerald Carroll Trust interests. It has now been disclosed that Warren Park was the subject of a co-ordinated criminal seizure operation executed by the HSBC banking institution in concert with the FBI Scotland Yard targeted crime syndicate which continues to operate in offshore tax havens with impunity. It has emerged that the British Horse Racing Authority and Weatherbys are believed to also hold evidential material surrounding the Warren Hill Newmarket scandal. Political commentators close to this case of international have remarked that the Suffolk Police dossiers disclose a shocking trail of criminal subversive cover-up attempts linked to an array of obstruction offences directly involving the tax havens of the Bahamas Gibraltar and the Cayman Islands which are thought to have all been utilized effectively as criminal offshore money laundering platforms in the Carroll Foundation Trust and parallel Carroll Maryland Trust cases. Further sources have revealed that the FBI have obtained new explosive ...

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Horse Racing Live Explosive Film Clip*Link Industrial Scale Accounting Fraud FBI Scotland Yard Case - Video

By Lukanyo Mnyanda and Keith Jenkins - 2012-05-26T06:00:00Z

Frances bonds rose in the week, with 10-year yields falling the most in five months, as investors sought higher-yielding alternatives to German securities as havens from Europes debt crisis.

Yields on the French benchmark debt slid to a record yesterday as a report showed consumer confidence improved and after Le Parisien reported the government may raise tax-free state savings-account limits, potentially boosting demand from banks holding the deposits. German 30-year bonds pared a fourth week of gains as Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said Europes largest economy can be persuaded to support joint euro bonds. Spanish 10-year yields stayed above 6 percent.

It may just be a product of a hunt for yield as the yield compression has continued almost unabated across the bund curve to the point where even 30-year bonds dipped below 2 percent, said Richard McGuire, a senior fixed-income strategist at Rabobank International in London. That perhaps informed the positive performance that weve seen in semi-core paper.

The French 10-year yield fell 34 basis points, or 0.34 percentage point this week, to 2.52 percent at 4:28 p.m. London time yesterday, after reaching 2.422 percent, the least since Bloomberg began collecting the data in 1990. The 3 percent bond due April 2022 rose 2.93, or 29.30 euros per 1,000-euro ($1,257) face amount, to 104.19.

Austrias five-year note yield was at 1.25 percent, after falling to a record 1.216 percent.

The extra yield, or spread, that investors get for buying 10-year French bonds over similar-maturity German bunds narrowed 28 basis points in the week 114 basis points. It widened to a euro-era record 204 basis points in November.

Investors looking for safety within Europe amid speculation that Greece may withdraw from the monetary union are looking beyond Germany, which sold two-year notes on May 23 at an all- time low average yield of 0.07 percent. The securities carried a zero-percent coupon. The country also sold index-linked bonds due April 2023 with a real yield of minus 0.24 percent.

Dramatic rallies in core-to-semi-core markets have dominated price action in the past couple of days, Padhraic Garvey, head of developed-market debt at ING Groep NV in Amsterdam, wrote in a note to clients yesterday. The likes of France, Austria and Belgium are perceived to be offering the characteristics of relative safety, but with a spread that more than compensates for the extra risk.

Benchmark 10-year German bund yields declined six basis points to 1.37 percent.

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French Bonds Gain as Investors Seek Crisis Havens

Now more than ever, a comfortable retirement depends on secure, stable investments. Unfortunately, the right stocks for retirement won't just fall into your lap. In this series, I look at 10 measures to show what makes a great retirement-oriented stock.

Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) is regarded as one of the primary forces behind the proliferation of the Internet. Without its networking infrastructure products, it's hard to imagine what the Internet might look like today. Yet now that the Internet is a well-established part of modern society, Cisco has tried to go past its roots to search for new growth paths. In doing so, though, it has alienated some of the companies with which it worked together earlier in its history. Can Cisco recover from tough times? Below, we'll revisit how Cisco Systems does on our 10-point scale.

The right stocks for retireesWith decades to go before you need to tap your investments, you can take greater risks, weighing the chance of big losses against the potential for mind-blowing returns. But as retirement approaches, you no longer have the luxury of waiting out a downturn.

Sure, you still want good returns, but you also need to manage your risk and protect yourself against bear markets, which can maul your finances at the worst possible time. The right stocks combine both of these elements in a single investment.

When scrutinizing a stock, retirees should look for:

With those factors in mind, let's take a closer look at Cisco Systems.

Factor

What We Want to See

Actual

Pass or Fail?

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Will Cisco Systems Help You Retire Rich?

NORMAN ROTHERY From Saturday's Globe and Mail Published Friday, May. 25, 2012 6:30PM EDT Last updated Friday, May. 25, 2012 7:08PM EDT

The bear market is back and Canadian investors have the claw marks to prove it.

The S&P/TSX composite is now down just over 20 per cent from its highs of early 2011. The European financial crisis and Chinas slowdown have taken a bite out of portfolios and continue to stalk the market.

Fortunately, there is good news even during a rough patch like this. Lower prices can be an opportunity for bargain hunters. In fact, a bear market can be an excellent time to track down a few juicy dividend stocks while theyre on sale.

To guide us in our hunt, lets follow the path of conservative dividend investors a group that has historically done quite well over the long haul.

Investors of this type tend to stick to larger companies because big guys tend to be more stable than small fry, which have the disconcerting habit of swooning after every economic twitch.

When it comes to size, I think its good to employ a two-stage test. Start by looking for firms with market capitalizations in excess of $500-million, then search for those with revenues of $500-million or more. Each factor weeds out slightly different stocks and they work well in combination. For instance, by demanding large revenues you effectively eliminate many speculative junior mining concerns from consideration.

You can get a full list of large Canadian common stocks that trade on the TSX by taking a quick trip to globeinvestor.com's stock filter. If you do so this weekend, youll likely find more than 200 stocks that pass the dual size test.

With such a long list of large Canadian stocks in hand you can develop a good sense of the dividend yields on offer. To form a picture of the dividend landscape, Ive sorted all the stocks into groups based on their yields; Ive then added up the number of stocks in each group. The result is displayed in the accompanying graph, which shows the distribution of large Canadian stocks by dividend yield.

Dividend investors should be pleased that most large Canadian stocks pay dividends because that diversity allows for a good deal of choice when it comes to selecting the best ones for your portfolio.

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10 dividend stocks for safety-conscious bargain hunters