Note 2 - Cash and Cash Equivalents and Short-term Investments

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2014

Disclosure Text Block Supplement [Abstract]

Cash, Cash Equivalents, and Short-term Investments [Text Block]

2.	Cash and Cash Equivalents and Short-term Investments

The Company considers all highly liquid investments with original or remaining maturities of three months or less at the time of purchase to be cash equivalents. At March 31, 2014, approximately $1.1 million of cash and cash equivalents was fully insured by the FDIC under its standard maximum deposit insurance amount guidelines. At March 31, 2014, cash and cash equivalents included $0.5 million belonging to majority-owned joint ventures that are consolidated in the accompanying condensed financial statements which generally cannot be used for purposes outside such joint ventures.

At March 31, 2014 and December 31, 2013, the Company had no short-term investments.

At March 31, 2013, gains and losses realized on short-term investment securities were included in “Gain on sale of securities” in the accompanying condensed consolidated statements of operations. Unrealized gains on short-term investments were included in accumulated other comprehensive income in stockholders’ equity, net of tax, as the gains and losses were considered temporary. For the three months ended March 31, 2013, total proceeds from sales of short-term investments were $28.2 million with gross realized gains of $0.5 million and immaterial gross realized losses. Accumulated other comprehensive income at March 31, 2013 included unrealized gains on short-term investments of $0.6 million less the associated taxes of $0.2 million. Upon the sale of short-term investments, the cost basis used to determine the gain or loss was based on the specific security sold. All items included in accumulated other comprehensive income are at the corporate level, and no portion is attributable to noncontrolling interests.

For the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013, the Company earned interest income of zero and $0.2 million, respectively, on its cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. These amounts were recorded in interest income in our condensed consolidated statement of operations.