NATIONAL

Companies' health costs rise 8% in 2006

Companies' health costs continue to rise at roughly twice the rate of inflation, jumping 8 percent last year, according to a survey released Thursday.

The survey, by consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide Inc., found that while 38 percent of companies now offer consumer-directed health plans, which combine high deductibles with tax-advantaged savings accounts, the median employee enrollment rate in the plans is a relatively low 8 percent.

H&R BLOCK CLIENTS H&R Block Inc. reported Thursday a 3.8 percent increase in clients using the company to prepare their income tax returns through the end of February, although much of the growth has come from online services, software and clients looking for early season refund anticipation loans.

About 9.8 million customers have visited the company's network of tax offices, or 0.9 percent more than the 9.7 million who visited a year ago.

GE UNIT TO BUY PHH General Electric Co.'s leasing, financing and asset management business plans to buy PHH Corp., a top provider of mortgages and services for managing vehicle fleets, for about $1.8 billion, the companies said Thursday.

CISCO TO BUY WEBEX Cisco Systems has agreed to acquire the online meeting company WebEx Communications for about $3.2 billion in cash.

The takeover would further Cisco's push beyond its core market for networking gear and into the lucrative arena of business communications.

LOCAL

Fentress Bradburn named architect for Cleveland museum

Denver-based Fentress Bradburn Architects has been selected as the "architect of record" for the first phase of the design of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Fentress Bradburn has designed more than 26 museums worth more than $500 million, as well as Denver International Airport and the Colorado Convention Center.

COUPLE WINS FRAUD LAWSUIT Denver attorney John Head on Thursday said he won a $17,000 mortgage fraud settlement on behalf of an elderly couple, Glen and Evelyn Sandlin of Westminster.

The defendant in the case that involved misrepresentation and deceptive practices was California-based Ameriquest.

An attorney for Ameriquest said he was not sure whether the lender would appeal. Last year, Ameriquest paid a $295 million national settlement involving predatory lending practices.

QWEST, VERIZON TIE Qwest Communications tied for first with Verizon Wireless in the West in J.D. Power and Associates' annual survey of wireless call quality performance.

The Denver- based telco's customers reported fewer problems in the category of voice distortion, while Verizon scored high marks for making connections on the first try.

Overall, the number of complaints about call quality declined for the third consecutive year at all carriers, J.D. Power said.

BROKERAGES MERGE David/ Hicks Brokerage and Lampert Properties have merged.

Combined, the three managing partners of David/Hicks & Lampert Retail Brokerage - Phil Hicks, Joe David and Allen Lampert - have completed about 5,000 retail leases valued at more than $2 billion.

TRANSMISSION PROJECTS Xcel Energy, Tri-State Generation and Transmission and six other electric transmission entities said they are putting together a consortium to look at current and future transmission line projects in Colorado and related projects in Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming.

It's called the High Plains Express Transmission Project Study, which the group hopes to complete by August.

TRADE MISSION TO BELGIUM The Colorado International Trade Office, in partnership with the Belgian Consulate, will lead a trade mission to Brussels and Antwerp on May 5-11.

Belgium ranks as the 11th largest commercial power worldwide and the 20th largest trading partner of Colorado.

BANK PURCHASED The founder of MegaBank is back in business with the purchase of Front Range Bank.

Thomas Kowalski and an investor group will spend $20 million buying the Lakewood-based company. Front Range Bank had $98 million in assets, three offices, and 23 employees as of Dec. 31, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data.

CH2M HILL BUYS FIRM Douglas County engineering firm CH2M Hill said it completed the acquisition of Wade & Associate Inc., a Kansas-based engineering consulting firm specializing in wastewater conveyance.

Terms weren't disclosed. Since its inception in 1989, Wade & Associates has done more than 400 sanitary sewer projects across the nation, according to CH2M Hill.

NASA DELAYS LAUNCH The U.S. budget squeeze has forced NASA to abandon hope of launching its next-generation spacecraft by 2014, the target President Bush set three years ago.

Instead, the United States will rely on Russia or commercial aerospace companies to ferry cargo and crews to the international space station for five years after the last space shuttle is retired in 2010.

The shuttles' replacements - the new Orion spaceship being developed by Lockheed Martin in Jefferson County and the Ares I rocket launcher - won't be ready until 2015 at the earliest, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told a House panel.

FTC EYES WHOLE FOODS The Federal Trade Commission wants more information about Whole Foods Markets Inc.'s purchase of Boulder-based rival Wild Oats Markets Inc., the companies said in regulatory filings.

Last month, Austin, Texas- based Whole Foods announced it would pay $565 million, or $18.50 per share, for Wild Oats. Whole Foods has experienced slower growth recently, increasing pressure on company executives.

Wild Oats operates about 110 natural foods stores in 24 states and Canada under several names, including Wild Oats Marketplace and Sun Harvest.

Shares of Whole Foods rose 25 cents, to $44.45, and Wild Oats shares fell 8 cents, to $18.13, Thursday on the Nasdaq.

ECONOMY

Wholesale prices surge 1.3% in February

Inflation at the wholesale level surged in February, pushed higher by a big jump in energy prices and the largest increase in food costs in more than three years.

Wholesale prices rose by 1.3 percent last month, the biggest increase since November, the Labor Department reported Thursday. And even more worrisome, prices outside the volatile food and energy sectors also showed a bigger-than-expected increase of 0.4 percent last month.

One factor was toy prices, which rose at the fastest rate in more than two decades.

Separately, the Labor Department reported that the number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits dropped by 12,000 to 318,000 last week.

It was the second consecutive weekly decline and a welcome development after big increases earlier in the year had raised concerns about the health of the labor market.

• Foreigners bought long-term U.S. securities worth a net $84 billion in January, rebounding sharply from $1.2 billion in December to its highest level in five months, according to a Treasury Department report released Thursday.

The monthly Treasury report highlights cross-border acquisitions of securities with maturities of more than one year, including "nonmarket" flows such as stock swaps and principal repayment on asset-backed securities.

Excluding the nonmarket flows, net buying of long-term U.S. securities would have totaled $97.4 billion in January.

That was more than six times the $14.3 billion registered in December, according to the monthly Treasury International Capital report, known as TIC.

THIS JUST IN...

• The Center for Dependency, Addiction and Rehabilitation at the University of Colorado Hospital has appointed Jonathan I. Ritvo as medical director. Ritvo is board-certified in general psychiatry and addiction psychiatry.

• Tobey Borus has joined the Anti-Defamation League's mountain states regional office as volunteer coordinator, and Michele Ross was hired as community service assistant.

• Arcadis promoted Chris -Rutledge to business practice manager for permitting and planning.

• Burns Marketing Communications received three Gold awards at the MarCom Creative Awards competition for its Hewlett-Packard Pebble Beach Golf invitation, Inta Juice's Matcha Green Tea print advertisements and Miramont Lifestyle Fitness' Web site.

• Anne Dupont, principal at the AthenA Group, has been named board chair of the Women'sVision Foundation.

• The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs and Hotel Jerome in Aspen named Cherri L. Lamont as director of leisure sales.

• Consistent Values Inc. of Aurora has merged with Greenwood Village-based Headlee Financial Services. Both firms have offered financial and retirement planning, and advising services in the Denver area for more than 20 years.

• PRACO Public Relations has added Lee Bowers as production/project manager; Allena Nimetz as media planning supervisor; Jill Grow as broadcast traffic and media manager; and Danielle Benge as traffic coordinator.

• Denver-based Sceptre Hospitality and the Elise Group have selected Mona -Ingram as vice president for both companies.

• Wahoo's Fish Taco has opened a restaurant in Northfield at Stapleton.

• Yellow Hat Marketing Inc. has opened its doors at 8986 Green Meadows Court in Highlands Ranch.

• Bruce Johnson has been promoted to president of Westminster-based GHX LLC.

Rocky staff and wire reports

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