Delegates begin casting ballots for president

By NEDRA PICKLER Associated Press Writer

DENVER (AP) - Democratic delegates began marking their presidential nominating ballots Wednesday.

The delegates in Denver are making the unprecedented choice between a black man and a white woman, with only a limited number of votes expected to be counted in an afternoon roll call before Barack Obama is declared the nominee by acclamation.

With the convention roll call just hours away, delegates still are waiting to hear which states will get to announce their votes before the balloting is cut off.

The abbreviated vote is the result of a deal between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Obama so that some of Clinton's backers can express their support without dragging out the voting too long.

NY AG confirms probe into Goldman, Fidelity

By JOE BEL BRUNO AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - The New York attorney general's office said Wednesday it is investigating whether brokers at Fidelity Investments were given incentives by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to sell auction-rate securities to investors.

Investigators are examining if Fidelity pitched auction-rate securities that were underwritten by Goldman Sachs because it received other services from the investment bank. A spokesman for New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo confirmed the investigation, but declined to provide further details.

Cuomo is leading an investigation into how major Wall Street investment banks and smaller financial companies pitched auction-rate securities to customers. The securities were marketed as being as safe as cash until the market froze up amid the credit crisis, causing investors to lose money.

Spokesmen for Goldman Sachs and Fidelity were not immediately available for comment.

Cuomo, leading the investigation on behalf of state and federal authorities, has reached deals with investment banks to buy back more than $50 billion worth of auction-rate securities from eight global banks. Goldman Sachs agreed to buy back about $1.5 billion in securities still held by private clients that were purchased through the firm before Feb. 11. It also agreed to pay a $22.5 million fine.

The auction-rate securities market involved investors buying and selling instruments that resembled corporate debt, but the interest rates on the investments were reset at regular auctions, some as frequently as once a week.

The market for them collapsed in February amid the downturn in the broader credit markets. Regulators have been investigating the collapse to determine who was responsible for its demise and whether banks knowingly misrepresented the safety of the securities when selling them to investors.

SEC proposes international accounting plan

WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal regulators on Wednesday proposed a plan to allow public companies to begin using international accounting standards for reporting financial results in two years, and may require them to do so starting in 2014.

The push by the Securities and Exchange Commission toward acceptance of a single, global accounting standard has raised objections from some investor advocates and key lawmakers. Supporters of the change say it makes sense in an era of increasingly globalized financial markets and would help lure foreign companies to U.S. markets.

The five SEC commissioners voted unanimously at a public meeting to propose a timetable for the switch to international financial reporting standards, or IFRS, to replace the U.S. standards known as generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP.

Under the proposal, U.S. companies would have the option of adopting the international standards starting in 2010. The agency then would assess the outcome and decide the following year whether to make it mandatory for all U.S. public companies beginning in 2014 with a completion date of 2016.

The SEC could formally adopt the proposal sometime after a 60-day public comment period.

The agency in November eliminated a rule requiring foreign companies with U.S.-traded shares to report their financial results in line with U.S. accounting standards.

Many foreign public companies comply with the international standards, and some had argued the U.S. mandate was burdensome and costly.

The IFRS system is generally considered more flexible, and giving companies the choice could spell the end of GAAP, experts believe. The international standards are deemed especially desirable for large U.S. companies with foreign subsidiaries, which now must maintain two different sets of books.

Critics of the move toward international standards say investors will lose an important source of information used in making decisions and that it will be harder to compare the results of companies that use different standards.

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In NYC, new HIV infections 3 times national rate

NEW YORK (AP) - New data shows New York City residents are contracting the virus that causes AIDS at three times the national rate.

The city health department said Wednesday that almost 4,800 New Yorkers were infected with HIV in 2006. That number represents 72 in every 100,000 residents, compared to a national rate of 23 per 100,000.

The figures pinpoint when people became infected with the virus, not just when they were diagnosed.

Health officials attribute the city's relatively high rate of new infections to its large populations of gay men, blacks and other groups on whom HIV has traditionally taken a heavy toll.

Assistant health commissioner Dr. Monica Sweeney says the figures underscore the continued need to promote HIV testing and prevention.