When an employee age 65 or older retires, he/she is faced with a number of choices. One of them is whether to elect COBRA for their health care coverage for the next 18 months, or elect Medicare Part B and choose an supplement or go into Medicare Part C (Medicare Advantage). For those who choose COBRA and do NOT elect Medicare Part B, pay close attention to this below.

Owners of National Football League teams are expected to vote Aug. 25 on a bid by Denver and St. Louis sports magnate Stan Kroenke to buy the St. Louis Rams, and approval is likely, according to a news report.

Kroenke - who owns the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche, as well as the Pepsi Center - already owns 40% of the Rams. He wants to acquire the remaining 60%.
 
Read more: Denver Business Journal

Colorado has been named one of 19 state finalists in its latest bid for a share of $4.35 billion in stimulus-funded educational-reform grants.

Colorado has applied for $175 million to be paid over four years in the second round of the national “Race to the Top” competition. The U.S. Department of Education program is distributing funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to selected states that develop reform plans.

Read more: Denver Business Journal

State regulators have issued an air permit to Black Hills Energy, clearing the way for the utility to start building a $450 million power plant complex northeast of Pueblo.

Black Hills is building two natural gas-fired turbines near Pueblo Memorial Airport. The project is scheduled for completion by the end of next year.

Read more on cbs4denver.com.

General Motors is getting into the subprime lending business. And that means taxpayers are, too.

But these car loans aren't as risky as you might think.

GM, majority owned by taxpayers, is buying a company that makes car loans to shoppers with poor credit. Unlike home loans, though, the risk in subprime auto lending is relatively low and may reward GM. The company hopes to boost sales by making loans and leases to buyers that it must now turn away for lack of financing.

King Soopers and City Market customers in Colorado can load discount offers onto their customer-loyalty card using a "digital coupon center" announced Thursday by the grocery chains' parent, the Kroger Co.

The discounts are available through the King Soopers or City Market websites.

The program offers discounts on Kroger store brands as well as manufacturer discounts and web-only coupons that apply to a variety of brands.

Read more at Denver Business Journal
 

Denver ranks as the nation’s eighth-best city for new college graduates.

The report ranks what it considers the nation’s top 30 cities for recent grads, based on such factors as number of entry-level employers based on data from the AfterCollege jobs wesbite, as well as average annual pay, cost of living and unemployment rate.

Read more: Denver Business Journal

President Obama on Wednesday signed into law the most sweeping overhaul of financial regulations since the Great Depression, a package that aims to protect consumers and ensure economic stability from Main Street to Wall Street.

Global wind turbine manufacturer Vestas Wind Systems A/S — which has three operating factories in Colorado — said Wednesday it has landed its largest North American order for wind turbines to date.

The 190 V90-3.0 megawatt turbines to be made by the company are destined for four California wind farms at the Alta Wind Energy Center near Tehachapi, Calif.

Vestas said all the blades for the Alta order will be made at its Windsor factory north of Denver. A majority of the towers will be made at its Pueblo factory, the company said.

Amid the economic crash and rapidly rising tuition rates, Denver residents are less likely than they were a year ago to see a college education as a good investment, according to a new survey.

Two-thirds, or 67% of the 500 Denver-area adults surveyed, still see the cost of college as money well spent, the survey shows. But that is down 22 percentage points from last year’s response.

Nationwide, 64 percent of some 3,000 people surveyed called college a good investment, down 16 percent from 2009, Country Financial said.