Knox County explores flood buyout program following recent damage
The program, designed to assist homeowners affected by flood events, is aimed to gauge community interest in a potential relaunch.
According to the post on the Knox County Fiscal Court Facebook page, this is not a reopening of the EWP program but rather an effort to determine the need for additional funding based on the level of interest from impacted residents.
Homeowners whose properties have suffered flood damage are encouraged to submit their full name, contact information, and property address for consideration.
Submissions are to be emailed to the county at enrica@barbourville.com, or questions can be directed to (606) 546-6192.
The Knox County Fiscal Court encourages residents to respond in order to assess the extent of local need, and secure essential resources for those affected by the flooding.
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Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Yahoo
Knox County explores flood buyout program following recent damage
KNOX COUNTY — In response to recent flooding that caused significant damage throughout the area, Knox County Fiscal Court announced it was exploring the possibility of reopening the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Home Buyout Program. The program, designed to assist homeowners affected by flood events, is aimed to gauge community interest in a potential relaunch. According to the post on the Knox County Fiscal Court Facebook page, this is not a reopening of the EWP program but rather an effort to determine the need for additional funding based on the level of interest from impacted residents. Homeowners whose properties have suffered flood damage are encouraged to submit their full name, contact information, and property address for consideration. Submissions are to be emailed to the county at enrica@ or questions can be directed to (606) 546-6192. The Knox County Fiscal Court encourages residents to respond in order to assess the extent of local need, and secure essential resources for those affected by the flooding.
Business Wire
05-05-2025
- Business Wire
Boise Cascade Company Reports First Quarter 2025 Results
BOISE, Idaho--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Boise Cascade Company ("Boise Cascade," the "Company," "we," or "our") (NYSE: BCC) today reported net income of $40.3 million, or $1.06 per share, on sales of $1.5 billion for the first quarter ended March 31, 2025, compared with net income of $104.1 million, or $2.61 per share, on sales of $1.6 billion for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024. 'We delivered solid results during the quarter when considering an environment influenced by constrained demand, difficult weather, and planned downtime at our Oakdale veneer and plywood mill. I am proud of how our team remained both steady and agile in the face of these challenges while continuing to deliver superior value to our customer and vendor partners,' stated Nate Jorgensen, CEO. 'As we move through the second quarter and better understand the underlying demand for 2025, we will be prepared and flexible as the economic situation changes. In addition, our strong balance sheet positions us to stay committed to our ongoing strategic investments and make decisions supported by our constructive view of the long-term demand drivers underlying residential construction.' First Quarter 2025 Highlights In first quarter 2025, total U.S. housing starts and single-family housing starts decreased 2% and 6%, respectively, compared to the same period in 2024. Single-family housing starts are the key demand driver for our sales. Wood Products Wood Products' sales, including sales to Building Materials Distribution (BMD), decreased $53.1 million, or 11%, to $415.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, from $468.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024. The decrease in sales was driven by lower sales prices and sales volumes for LVL and I-joists (collectively referred to as EWP). In addition, lower plywood sales prices and sales volumes also contributed to the decrease in sales. Wood Products' segment income decreased $53.5 million to $17.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, from $71.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024. The decrease in segment income was due primarily to lower EWP and plywood sales prices, as well as higher per-unit conversion costs as a result of downtime to complete the modernization projects at our Oakdale, Louisiana veneer and plywood mill. Comparative average net selling prices and sales volume changes for EWP and plywood are as follows: Building Materials Distribution BMD's sales decreased $97.9 million, or 7%, to $1,407.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, from $1,505.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024. Compared with the same quarter in the prior year, the decrease in sales was driven by a decrease in sales volume and sales price of 5% and 2%, respectively. By product line, commodity sales decreased 7%, general line product sales decreased 3%, and EWP sales (substantially all of which are sourced through our Wood Products segment) decreased 13%. BMD segment income decreased $24.0 million to $48.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, from $72.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024. The decrease in segment income was driven by a gross margin decrease of $20.4 million, resulting primarily from lower sales volumes and decreased margins on commodity and EWP products. In addition, depreciation and amortization expense increased $3.3 million. Balance Sheet and Liquidity Boise Cascade ended first quarter 2025 with $561.8 million of cash and cash equivalents and $395.7 million of undrawn committed bank line availability, for total available liquidity of $957.5 million. The Company had $450.0 million of outstanding debt at March 31, 2025. Capital Allocation We expect capital expenditures in 2025, excluding potential acquisition spending, to total approximately $220 million to $240 million. This level of capital expenditures could increase or decrease as a result of several factors, including acquisitions, efforts to further accelerate organic growth, exercise of lease purchase options, our financial results, future economic conditions, availability of engineering and construction resources, and timing and availability of equipment purchases. For the three months ended March 31, 2025, the Company paid $10.5 million in common stock dividends. On May 1, 2025, our board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share on our common stock, payable on June 18, 2025, to stockholders of record on June 2, 2025. For the three months ended March 31, 2025, the Company paid $53.9 million for the repurchase of approximately 482,700 shares of our common stock. In April 2025, the Company repurchased an additional 179,445 shares of our common stock at a cost of approximately $17 million. Subsequent to these share repurchases, there were approximately 1.1 million shares available for repurchase under our existing share repurchase program. Outlook Demand for the products we manufacture, as well as the products we purchase and distribute, is correlated with new residential construction, residential repair-and-remodeling activity, and light commercial construction. Residential construction, particularly new single-family construction, is the key demand driver for the products we manufacture and distribute. Over the past quarter, the operating environment was challenged. In addition to seasonally slower activity, consumer and homebuilder sentiment was dampened due to significant macroeconomic uncertainties and elevated mortgage rates. Given the current environment, 2025 end market demand expectations are difficult to predict, with most forecasts for housing starts ranging between flat to mid-single digit year-over-year declines. Ultimately, the level and expectations for mortgage rates, home affordability, home equity levels, home size, levels of new and existing home inventory for sale, unemployment levels, consumer confidence, and other factors will influence the near-term demand environment. Long term demand drivers for residential construction, characterized by an undersupply in housing units, aging U.S. housing stock, and elevated levels of homeowner equity remain in place. As a manufacturer of certain commodity products, we have sales and profitability exposure to declines in commodity product prices and rising input costs. Our distribution business purchases and resells a broad mix of products with periods of increasing prices providing the opportunity for higher sales and increased margins, while declining price environments expose us to declines in sales and profitability. Future product pricing, particularly commodity products pricing and input costs, may be volatile in response to economic uncertainties, industry operating rates, supply-related disruptions, imposition of tariffs, transportation constraints or disruptions, net import and export activity, inventory levels in various distribution channels, and seasonal demand patterns. In addition, EWP volumes will continue to be influenced by changes in new single-family housing starts and we expect modest EWP price erosion in the second quarter. About Boise Cascade Boise Cascade Company is one of the largest producers of engineered wood products and plywood in North America and a leading U.S. wholesale distributor of building products. For more information, please visit the Company's website at Webcast and Conference Call Boise Cascade will host a webcast and conference call to discuss first quarter earnings on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. To join the webcast, go to the Investors section of our website at and select the Event Calendar link. Analysts and investors who wish to ask questions during the Q&A session can register for the call here. The archived webcast will be available in the Investors section of Boise Cascade's website. Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures We refer to the terms EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Segment EBITDA in this earnings release and the accompanying Quarterly Statistical Information as supplemental measures of our performance and liquidity that are not required by or presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (GAAP). We define EBITDA as income before interest (interest expense and interest income), income taxes, and depreciation and amortization. Additionally, we disclose Adjusted EBITDA, which further adjusts EBITDA to exclude the change in fair value of interest rate swaps. We also disclose Segment EBITDA, which is segment income before depreciation and amortization. We believe EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Segment EBITDA are meaningful measures because they present a transparent view of our recurring operating performance and allow management to readily view operating trends, perform analytical comparisons, and identify strategies to improve operating performance. We also believe EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Segment EBITDA are useful to investors because they provide a means to evaluate the operating performance of our segments and our Company on an ongoing basis using criteria that are used by our management and because they are frequently used by investors and other interested parties when comparing companies in our industry that have different financing and capital structures and/or tax rates. EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Segment EBITDA, however, are not measures of our liquidity or financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered as alternatives to net income, income from operations, or any other performance measure derived in accordance with GAAP or as alternatives to cash flow from operating activities as a measure of our liquidity. The use of EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Segment EBITDA instead of net income or segment income have limitations as analytical tools, including: the inability to determine profitability; the exclusion of interest expense, interest income, and associated significant cash requirements; and the exclusion of depreciation and amortization, which represent unavoidable operating costs. Management compensates for these limitations by relying on our GAAP results. Our measures of EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Segment EBITDA are not necessarily comparable to other similarly titled captions of other companies due to potential inconsistencies in the methods of calculation. For a reconciliation of net income to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA and segment income to Segment EBITDA, please see the section titled, "Summary Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements and Segment Information" below. Forward-Looking Statements This press release includes statements about our expectations of future operational and financial performance that are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including, but not limited to, statements regarding our outlook. Statements preceded or followed by, or that otherwise include, the words "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "project," "estimates," "plans," "forecast," "is likely to," and similar expressions or future or conditional verbs such as "will," "may," "would," "should," and "could" are generally forward-looking in nature and not historical facts. Such statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of our management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. The accuracy of such statements is subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected, including, but not limited to, prices for building products, changes in the competitive position of our products, commodity input costs, the effect of general economic conditions, mortgage rates and availability, housing demand, housing vacancy rates, governmental regulations, unforeseen production disruptions, as well as natural disasters. These and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements are discussed in greater detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to revise them in light of new information. Finally, we undertake no obligation to review or confirm analyst expectations or estimates that might be derived from this release. Wood Products Segment Statements of Operations (in thousands, except percentages) (unaudited) Three Months Ended March 31 December 31, 2024 2025 2024 Costs and expenses Materials, labor, and other operating expenses (excluding depreciation) 362,246 357,721 348,601 Depreciation and amortization 22,486 24,384 22,998 Selling and distribution expenses 10,603 10,551 11,016 General and administrative expenses 3,313 5,020 3,394 Other (income) expense, net (512 ) 14 78 398,136 397,690 386,087 (percentage of sales) Segment sales 100.0 % 100.0 % 100.0 % Costs and expenses Materials, labor, and other operating expenses (excluding depreciation) 87.1 % 76.3 % 83.1 % Depreciation and amortization 5.4 % 5.2 % 5.5 % Selling and distribution expenses 2.5 % 2.3 % 2.6 % General and administrative expenses 0.8 % 1.1 % 0.8 % Other (income) expense, net (0.1 %) — % — % 95.7 % 84.8 % 92.0 % Segment income 4.3 % 15.2 % 8.0 % Expand Building Materials Distribution Segment Statements of Operations (in thousands, except percentages) (unaudited) Three Months Ended March 31 December 31, 2024 2025 2024 Costs and expenses Materials, labor, and other operating expenses (excluding depreciation) 1,200,940 1,278,421 1,212,013 Depreciation and amortization 14,362 11,107 13,758 Selling and distribution expenses 133,099 133,614 132,550 General and administrative expenses 9,765 9,534 10,482 Other (income) expense, net 533 (118 ) (719 ) 1,358,699 1,432,558 1,368,084 (percentage of sales) Segment sales 100.0 % 100.0 % 100.0 % Costs and expenses Materials, labor, and other operating expenses (excluding depreciation) 85.3 % 84.9 % 84.2 % Depreciation and amortization 1.0 % 0.7 % 1.0 % Selling and distribution expenses 9.5 % 8.9 % 9.2 % General and administrative expenses 0.7 % 0.6 % 0.7 % Other (income) expense, net — % — % — % 96.6 % 95.2 % 95.1 % Segment income 3.4 % 4.8 % 4.9 % Expand Segment Information (in thousands) (unaudited) Three Months Ended March 31 December 31, 2024 2025 2024 Segment sales Wood Products $ 415,845 $ 468,928 $ 419,670 Building Materials Distribution 1,407,116 1,505,021 1,438,785 Intersegment eliminations (286,467 ) (328,529 ) (290,975 ) Total net sales $ 1,536,494 $ 1,645,420 $ 1,567,480 Segment income Wood Products $ 17,709 $ 71,238 $ 33,583 Building Materials Distribution 48,417 72,463 70,701 Total segment income 66,126 143,701 104,284 Unallocated corporate costs (11,607 ) (10,719 ) (11,565 ) Income from operations $ 54,519 $ 132,982 $ 92,719 Segment EBITDA Wood Products $ 40,195 $ 95,622 $ 56,581 Building Materials Distribution 62,779 83,570 84,459 See accompanying summary notes to consolidated financial statements and segment information. Expand Boise Cascade Company Consolidated Balance Sheets (continued) (in thousands, except per-share data) (unaudited) March 31, 2025 December 31, 2024 LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY Current Accounts payable Trade $ 511,292 $ 297,676 Related parties 1,406 1,315 Accrued liabilities Compensation and benefits 71,187 127,415 Income taxes payable 5,469 — Interest payable 5,072 9,957 Other 108,033 127,653 Total current liabilities 702,459 564,016 Debt Long-term debt, net 446,389 446,167 Other Compensation and benefits 39,016 42,006 Operating lease liabilities, net of current portion 41,164 43,174 Finance lease liabilities, net of current portion 26,473 26,883 Deferred income taxes 79,450 78,849 Other long-term liabilities 19,616 17,014 205,719 207,926 Commitments and contingent liabilities Stockholders' equity Preferred stock, $0.01 par value per share; 50,000 shares authorized, no shares issued and outstanding — — Common stock, $0.01 par value per share; 300,000 shares authorized, 45,248 and 45,139 shares issued, respectively 452 451 Treasury stock, 7,439 and 6,956 shares at cost, respectively (396,284 ) (341,974 ) Additional paid-in capital 562,859 565,041 Accumulated other comprehensive loss (454 ) (460 ) Retained earnings 1,960,504 1,928,216 Total stockholders' equity 2,127,077 2,151,274 Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 3,481,644 $ 3,369,383 Expand Boise Cascade Company Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (in thousands) (unaudited) Three Months Ended March 31 2025 2024 Cash provided by (used for) operations Net income $ 40,348 $ 104,124 Items in net income not using (providing) cash Depreciation and amortization, including deferred financing costs and other 37,960 36,621 Stock-based compensation 3,757 4,105 Pension expense 33 37 Deferred income taxes 741 5,062 Change in fair value of interest rate swaps 490 220 Other (821 ) 55 Decrease (increase) in working capital, net of acquisitions Receivables (129,683 ) (119,235 ) Inventories (118,138 ) (103,331 ) Prepaid expenses and other (3,786 ) (1,689 ) Accounts payable and accrued liabilities 127,935 75,041 Income taxes payable 11,654 25,834 Other 1,034 618 Net cash provided by (used for) operations (28,476 ) 27,462 Cash provided by (used for) investment Expenditures for property and equipment (53,205 ) (34,330 ) Acquisitions of businesses and facilities, net of cash acquired — (3,387 ) Proceeds from sales of assets and other 980 559 Net cash used for investment (52,225 ) (37,158 ) Cash provided by (used for) financing Treasury stock purchased (53,884 ) (26,971 ) Dividends paid on common stock (10,485 ) (11,205 ) Tax withholding payments on stock-based awards (5,907 ) (10,980 ) Other (502 ) (475 ) Net cash used for financing (70,778 ) (49,631 ) Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents (151,479 ) (59,327 ) Balance at beginning of the period 713,260 949,574 Balance at end of the period $ 561,781 $ 890,247 Expand Summary Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements and Segment Information The Consolidated Statements of Operations, Segment Statements of Operations, Consolidated Balance Sheets, Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows, and Segment Information presented herein do not include the notes accompanying the Company's Consolidated Financial Statements and should be read in conjunction with the Company's 2024 Form 10-K and the Company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Net income for all periods presented involved estimates and accruals. EBITDA represents income before interest (interest expense and interest income), income taxes, and depreciation and amortization. Additionally, we disclose Adjusted EBITDA, which further adjusts EBITDA to exclude the change in fair value of interest rate swaps. The following table reconciles net income to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and 2024, and December 31, 2024: The following table reconciles segment income and unallocated corporate costs to Segment EBITDA, EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and 2024, and December 31, 2024: Expand
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Yahoo
Iowa financial advisor ordered to repay investors $2.3 million
(Photo by) The Iowa insurance commissioner has ordered a Johnston company and its owner to repay $2.3 million that 15 investors lost in an oil-and-gas operation that regulators have likened to a Ponzi scheme. Regulators say one of the victims of the alleged scheme by Des Moines investment advisor Cory J. Dawkins was a teenage college student whose father died shortly after he began consulting with Dawkins on investments. The student was struggling to find money to bury her father while his body lay in a freezer for two weeks. She allegedly decided to pursue her father's plans of investing $188,000 with Dawkins' help and lost all of the money. According to state records, Dawkins formed Elite Wealth Partners in 2017 and acted as the company's senior partner and sole owner. According to the Iowa Insurance Division, Dawkins then formed EWP Permian Basin Fund II, an investment company with no operating history on which to evaluate its operations. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX To justify his collection of sales commissions, Dawkins allegedly appointed himself to what regulators say was the 'fictional position' of EWP's fund manager. The insurance division says he then offered high-risk, unsecured investment opportunities that were not in his investors' best interests. In 2022, the Iowa Insurance Division formally charged Dawkins and the two companies with securities fraud; performing unregistered activity as securities agents; committing acts that constituted grounds for discipline as investment advisors; and fraud or dishonest conduct as demonstrated through incompetence, untrustworthiness and financial irresponsibility. According to the division's recently filed findings of fact in the case, the alleged scheme was launched sometime before May 2019 when Dawkins spoke to a Polk County couple about investing in EWP Permian Basin Fund II, whereby the couple's money would be used to back a company that was purportedly purchasing oil wells. According to the division's findings of fact, EWP was not actually buying wells and had no assets to secure the notes that were issued to investors. The representations made to the Polk County couple and to other subsequent investors by Dawkins were 'untrue' and amounted to securities fraud, according to the division. Investors, the division found, had been 'led to believe in 2019 that EWP Permian Basin Fund II owned the oil and gas wells when, in fact, it did not.' EWP, the division found, was set up as a vehicle through which people could invest in an entity called the Heartland Drilling Fund – but Dawkins and Elite Wealth allegedly failed to perform due diligence in investigating Heartland and its affiliates, relying instead on Heartland's unverified marketing materials. Dawkins failed to review Heartland's financial statements and 'exhibited significant uncertainty' as to which oil and gas interests were actually held by Heartland, the division found. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the division noted, would later conclude that promised returns to investors 'were little more than an illusion and were actually a Ponzi scheme.' Dawkins and Elite Wealth collected thousands of dollars in fees related to their investment transactions. Dawkins, however, had a conflict of interest by acting as both an investment advisor and a self-interested promoter of EWP, the division concluded. Dawkins was also alleged to have steered investors to a 'very high risk' entity called the Carson Oil Field Development Fund II without disclosing all of the risks involved. By 2021, the division found, Dawkins and Elite Wealth should have known they were recommending not only a series of high-risk investments but were offering investments 'that had numerous characteristics of a fraudulent Ponzi scheme,' with initial investors being paid from proceeds generated by newer investors. One of the alleged victims in the scheme was a 19-year-old Iowa State University student whose father had recently died of cancer. The division said it found her subsequent testimony about her dealings with Dawkins to be 'simply heartbreaking.' The young woman – whose name is redacted from public filings in the case – had invested $188,000 of her father's money with Dawkins, according to the division. 'We needed money to pay for a funeral,' the woman testified at a hearing. 'We simply had my dad's body in a freezer for two weeks. So, we were really struggling, and we owed a whole bunch of our family members money. And we just kind of proceeded because we were so desperate for funeral money to pay for his gravestone and to pay the mortgage on our home … I guess my dad already chose that investment. So we just kind of went with whatever he had … And if he trusted Cory with that market on that, then I just went ahead with it.' Dawkins, the division found, later accepted no responsibility for steering the student toward the high-risk investment, stating that Dawkins 'absurdly claimed' that although he was a fiduciary, his introduction of the EWP investment opportunity to the student was not a recommendation of any kind. At one point during a hearing on the matter, Dawkins allegedly exclaimed, 'I don't recommend anything!' In its findings of fact, the division said it found Dawkins' testimony to be 'wholly untrustworthy, leaving us with the unmistakable impression that Dawkins was willing to say practically anything' to avoid accountability. The division noted that losses by the 15 investors, including interest, totaled $2,371,618. Iowa Insurance Commissioner Douglas Ommen this week revoked the investment advisor registrations of Dawkins and Elite Wealth, revoked the insurance producer licenses of Dawkins and Elite Wealth, and permanently barred EWP from issuing or offering securities of any kind in Iowa. Ommen also ordered EWP to pay $2.3 million in restitution, with $1.9 million of that amount payable immediately, and the remaining $400,000 payable no later than March 31, 2026. Ommen's order also specifies that Dawkins and Elite Wealth are also held liable for the $2.3 million in restitution. Dawkins and the two companies have also been ordered to pay the state $52,644 for the cost of its investigation of the matter. Dawkins did not respond to calls Friday from the Iowa Capital Dispatch. SEC records indicate he, Elite Wealth and EWP denied all of the division's allegations. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
