The Californian from Salinas, California • 14

July 29, 2008 MARKETWATCH July 28 DOLLAR 107.41 1,234.37 NASDAQ 2,264.22 Go to www.thecalifornian.com for up-to-the-minute stock prices BUSINESS EDITOR: Katharine Ball PHONE: 754-4282 FAX: 754-4293 E-MAIL: kballthecalifornian.com www.thecalifornian.com Bush, banks endorse use of covered bonds Oracle fires round in suit Firm accuses rival SAP AG of theft f- 'i 4 I if fir '-r I Uv Local News Events Compiled from staff reports IN BRIEF Ayres Landscaping wins several awards Pacific Grove-based Ayres Landscaping has won achievement awards for 2008 Small Residential Installation and 2008 Medium Residential Installation from the California Landscape Contractors Associatioa The awards were presented July 19 at the 23rd Annual 2008 CLCA Central Coast Chapter dinner and awards ceremony at Chaminade Resort and Spa in Santa Cruz. Projects were judged by a panel of five professional landscape experts and graded on their merits for many different criteria in installation and in maintenance, over a two-day period The landscapes that surpassed all others were given awards in their respective categories. Two other Monterey Peninsula landscape companies received awards. Modern Landscaping Inc. in Carmel received first place awards for Residential Estate Installation and Xeriscape (drought-resistant, low-water-usage landscape).

Property Services Garden Maintenance in Carmel Valley received two awards: first place for Small Commercial Maintenance, and the Sweepstakes Maintenance award For more information about Ayres Landscaping, contact Ramon Ayres at 375-5508 or ayreslandscap-ingsbcglobalnet or visit www.ayreslandscaping.com. LOCAL NEWS EVENTS appears daily in Business. We welcome information and photos Salinas-area business, Including housing, careers and personal finance. Send in care of LOCAL BUSI- NESS: by fax to 754-4293; by e-mail to newsroomSalinas.gannett.com; or by mail or in person to The Salinas Californ- ian, R0. Box 81091, Salinas, CA 93912.

Questions: 754-4260. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, center, gestures Monday during a news conference on mortgage finance at the Treasury Department in Washington. Standing behind Paulson are FDIC Chair Shelia Bair, left, and Federal Reserve Gov. Kevin Warsh. By MICHAEL LIEDTKE The Associated Press i SAN FRANCISCO Escalating its rancor with rival SAP AG, business software maker Oracle Corp.

accused SAP on Monday of knowingly buying and then embracing an illegal operation set up to steal Oracle's products and customers. The allegations emerged in the latest documents filed in a fraud -case that Oracle brought against SAP last year in San Francisco federal court. Oracle fired its volley the day before Germany-based SAP is scheduled to report its second-quarter earnings. The 16-month-old lawsuit focuses on Tomor-rowNow, a software maintenance specialist that SAP bought in 2005 to counter Oracle's $11.1 billion acquisition of PeopleSoft. TomorrowNow offered to support PeopleSoft products at lower prices than Oracle did, an advantage that SAP hoped to use to lure customers away from its See ORACLE, Page 5B In addition to PeopleSoft, They're another mortgage financing tool U.S.

mortgage market but they did not view the effort as a cure-all for all the problems facing the financial sector at the moment. Wall Street failed to be impressed, taking another dive on Monday as investors worried about the rising mountain of bad debt confronting financial institutions. This effort to jump-start a US. market for covered bonds followed action earlier this month by the FDIC to approve new reg- ulations for the bonds, which are a way of packaging mortgage investments i similar to an approach that is used in Europe where i the market for covered bonds exceeds $3 trillion. covered bond The administration hopes these bonds will replace some of the mortgage financing that has disappeared as investors have incurred billions of dollars of losses on mortgage-backed securities.

"As we are all aware, the availability of affordable mortgage financing is essential to turning the corner on the current housing correction," Paulson said in launching the new effort "We are at the early stages of what should be a promising path, where the nascent U.S. covered bond market Can grow and provide a new source of mortgage financing," he said Paulson was joined at the news conference by officials from the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision. All the agencies said they endorsed the new set of best practices compiled by Treasury. Officials from banking giants Bank of America Citigroup JPMorgan Chase Co. and Wells Fargo Co.

issued a joint statement saying, "We look forward to being leading issuers as the U.S. covered bond market develops." Private analysts said that the new initiative could offer help to stabilize the By MARTIN CRUTSINGER The Associated Press fa. WASHINGTON The Bush administration and federal banking regulators joined with the nation's four largest banks Monday to endorse a new way to pump money into the battered U.S. mortgage market. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson unveiled a set of best practices designed to encourage banks to issue a debt instrument known as a Siphpl Hvnorinn Solutions, Retek Inc.

and other smaller. vendors. Today SALINAS RAINFALL NATIONAL CONDITIONS FOR TUESDAY Shown are noon positions of weather systems. Temperature bands are highs for day. "Low clouds uivinswav SUNRISE 6:10 a.m.

SUNSET 8:15 p.m. As of 6 p.m. Monday 0.00' Compiled by Burnett Hartsock, Salinas weather watcher ton The Salinas Californian Since July I Jast season to date (Normal season to date Normal season Ssii trace! 0.04"! Mm uYellowknlle ALLERGY REPORT Treepollefi: i wan a Grass pollen: MQDEWIt 'J Weed pollen: HIGH "5 Mold i LOW Salinas Allergy Clinic: www.salinasallergyclinic.cDm tASil to sunshine 54 "Winds: WNW 8-16 mph VALLEY FORECAST Low clouds followed by sunshine today, except sunny in the south. 44 MOON PHASES mj. u'VancDuvtf iSaskalcfon SI iiT'T "iHi Ti'iillr ffitttriii" 1 SOTttle i Today's HighsTonight's Lows: 4-day Salinas forecast: REGIONAL TEMPERATURES Wednesday Igion San Francises 1 i a UK1 7056 r0 Monday City Hi kp Prep Big Sur' 72 48 pc 0,00 Carmel Vly.

70 48 pc 0.00 67 52 pc 0.00 75 50 pc 0.00 King City 53 pc 0,00 Monday HI is Prep 68 53 pc 0.00 60 53 0.00 63 56 pc 0.00 67 53 pc 0,00 65 53 pc 0,00 Monday HI to tt Prep 63 55 pc 0,00 72 57 pc 0.00 68 53 pc 0,00 66 53 pc 0,00 66 53 pc 0.00 City Manna Monterey Oakland Pacific Grv. Salinas City San Fran, San Jose Santa Cruz Seaside Watsonville Mostly sunny Winds: WNW 7-14 mph 55 6955 JftLit'Ptii'''' Moiitwr STATE TEMPERATURES Thursday ti1 if 'ESI E3 ESI ES3 E3 E3 Waif M6 on Bay Showers Rain T-storms Snow FlurrlBB Ice SATELLITE VIEW OF THE COAST Sunny Winds: NW 8-16 mph 6855 31 Shown is Monday's weather as of 6 p.m, Today HI Low 83 64 pc 98 70 103 74 98 56 85 58 63 51 96 66 80 65 pc 82 64 pc 108 84 107 78 Monday HI Is 84 69 pc 95 69 105 75 100 56 pc 82 56 pc 62 53 pc 95 65 79 67 pc 80 66 pc 108 84 105 77 Monday Hi Low 86 53 pc 72 56 pc 88 64 86 55 74 67 pc 74 63 pc 72 56 pc 75 53 pc 83 43 69 55 8 93 55 Today HI UW 95 52 77 58 pc 93 62 89 68 75 67 pc 73 56 pc 73 52 pc 80 52 pc 78 39 75 54 pc 98 56 City Anaheim Bakersfietd. Barstow Bishop 'y: Concord Eureka Fresno Long Beach Los Angeles Needles Palm Springs City Paso Robles Redwood City Riverside Sacramento San Diego Santa Barbara Santa Maria Santa Rosa Tahoe Valley i Vallejo Yosemite Valley Friday lJ.f..'" San Jose 7958. LiMJ Plenty of sunshine 54 I Winds: NW 10-20 mph NATIONAL TEMPERATURES Monday Today Saturday Hi Lo tt hi It I f- City i-Boating- Albuqueroue 91 66 Santa Cruz 753 Moss Landing OE3 Brilliant sunshine Today's forecast for Monterey Bay, Winds: 'v': WNW 7-U knots Winds: NW 10-20 mph 6255 Castrovllle 6555 Hollister Of- 7055 8456 Monday Hi Loiji 106 83 101 71 pc 90 67 1 91 76 75 62 88 69 95 72 pc 97 77 pc 88 69 pc 105 68 pc 90 74 pc 89 64 pc 104 84 pc 85 60 pc 82 54 pc 89 65 96 56 pc 89 70 94 67 pc 76 54 pc 79 52 pc 98 74 8 87 69 pc 93 73 106 80 Today HI Lo. 105 79 100 77 pc 95 76 pc 87 76 87 73 89 69 96 76 pc 92 77 1 89 73 98 73 pc 90 73 90 72 pe 106 83 87 68 69 56 94 62 93 58 98 73 93 66 pc 65 53 80 55 pi 100 76 93 74 pc 92 73 107 82 ftnenorage 3 Atlanta 93 74 pc Baltimore 88 62 pc Birmingham 96 70 pc Boise 93 61 Boston 85 64 pc 1 Buffalo 82 61 pc I Charleston, WVa.

83 56 Chicago 85 66 pc Cincinnati 87 65 pc Cleveland 86 63 pc 1 Columbus, Ohio 83 62 I Dallas 105 76 I Denver 96 64 1, I Detroit 1 87 62 pc Duluth 78 56 pc Fairbanks 67 53 I Fargo 85 63 1 Flagstaff 81 54 I Hartford: 87 65 pc i Honolulu 89 76 nc Seaside cucc Qlty Las Vegas Little Rock' Louisville Miami Milwaukee Minneapolis Nashville New Orleans New York City Oklahoma City Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix Pittsburgh1 Portland, Ore. Rapid City Reno St. Louis Salt Lake City Seattle Spokane Tucson Washington, D.C, Wichita Yuma Salinas 'jT 94 70 68 54 94 74 92 70 pc 96 74 93 61 85 66 83 68 86 72 pc 90 74 91 69 pc 87 72 pc 88 72 pc 104 79 96 62 87 71 1 79 58 64 50 84 60 pc 81 51 89 63 90 76 96 77 91 74 88 69 Ul UVC r- ten Current weather online The Salinas Californian Web site www.thecalifornian.com The National Weather Service www.wrh.noaa.govhtml AccuWeather.com Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. 2008 7054 Carmel QChualar 8053 7650 Gonzales a 8354 mJL 'i'T Soledad Carmel Valley 8654 Houston 98 73 1 101 1 Indianapolis 85 66 pc Kansas City 82 69 WORLD TEMPERATURES Greenfield I Arroyo Seco 8956.j 8350 King City A 8255 Big Sur 7551 Monday Today Monday Today City Hi HI LoW City Hi Lo Hi Amsterdam 82 66 pc 74 63 1 Manila 86 77 1 84 78 1 Athens 90 72 88 73 Mexico City 75 49 1- 73 55 1 Auckland 59 49 pc 63 55 r. Moscow 62 60 sh 61 48 sh Berlin, 91 66 86 68 Oslo 97 57 73 59 pc Bogota 64 45 64 45 sh Paris 90 64 pc 79 62 pc Cairo 97 73 98 73 Rome 86 66 86 68 pc Dublin 72 52 pc 69 55 San Juan, P.R, 94 77 90 79 pc Geneva 87 61 pc 82 63 Seoul 91 70 1 88 77 1 HoChiMinh 88 73 1 85 75 Sydney 57 44 1 59 48 pc HongKong 1- 99 84 pc 96 82 1 Tokyo', 90 77 1 84 76 pc Jerusalem 81 60 83 62 Toronto 82 61 pc 81 65 pc London 85 62 72 59 pc Vancouver 70 52 pc 62 54 Madrid 91 61 8 93 64 Warsaw 83 60 79 55 pc Prcp-preclpitation; t-sunny; pc-partly cloudy; c-cloudy; r-rain; Ti.

San Ardo 9257 Top deals on wheels for work, family and fun. Hfvglrs are given lav Wednesday 4,0 mpis 10:48 a.m. p.m. 6 4 9:13 p.m. 6JjV y.V -C 8 Lows: 3 49 3,1 3:22 p.m, 2.9 sh-showers: t-thunderstorms; f-siiow flurries; sn-snow; l-ice.