Union Bank has tapped veteran banker Ronald Heller as its market president for Washington state.
Union Bank N.A., a subsidiary of UnionBanCal Corp. of San Francisco, Calif., gained a stronger foothold in Washington on April 30, 2010, when it acquired Frontier Bank of Everett in a purchase and assumption agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. While Union Bank has has a presence in the Pacific Northwest for nearly a century, it now has branches in 38 Washington cities.
Heller comes to Union Bank with 32 years in the banking industry under his belt, most recently as senior vice president and community banking president for the Northwest division of Wells Fargo and previously with First Interstate Bank payday loans no teletrack.
Heller will start his new role with Union Bank from its Everett office on Aug. 30. He will report to Senior Vice President and head of Pacific Northwest Branch Banking Brian W. Hawley. Heller will work closely with Patrick Fahey, former chairman and CEO of Frontier Bank who has assumed the role of regional chairman of the Pacific Northwest for Union Bank.
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A father and son from the Sacramento region have been charged with stealing more than $1.6 million from clients of their company, according to Attorney General Jerry Brown.
Thomas Rodine, 56, of Carmichael, and Dustin Rodine, 28, of Citrus Heights, are each charged with three counts of embezzlement and one count of submitting fraudulent claims to the state controller.
The Rodines, through their Carmichael-based asset and heir location business, Rodco & Associates, allegedly targeted individuals with assets in the state Controller’s unclaimed property fund, offering to help them claim the money. Once the individuals agreed to work with Rodco & Associates, Brown alleges, the Rodines forged documents in order to reroute the recovered assets to post office boxes they controlled. The Rodines also allegedly forged documents to claim funds that were never disclosed to clients.
In all, the Rodines withheld unauthorized fees and claims totaling $1.675 million, according to Brown. More than $700,000 has been repaid and authorities expect full restitution for victims.
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Charlotte City Council accepted a $25 million federal grant to start construction of a 10-mile streetcar line in a 6-5 vote Monday night after more than two hours of debate.
With that approval, council committed $12 million in matching funds as required under Federal Transit Administration rules. The agency awarded the grant to Charlotte earlier this month.
The vote means the city will move ahead with a $4.7 million contract with the North Carolina division of URS Corp. for the design and construction administration of the grant and for the design of a stormwater system along Trade Street.
Among the 16 people who stepped up to the podium during the public hearing on the streetcar, nine were in support and seven were in opposition.
However, most in the audience waived large signs that decried the potential debt from moving forward on the project, while others held up pieces of paper that simply stated “Streetcar YES!!!”
The funds will be used to finish an initial 1.5-mile segment that connects the uptown transit center to Presbyterian Hospital. Streetcars could be running on the route by early 2014. The city has already spent $15 million on construction and engineering easy payday loans.
Under terms of the grant, the city must start construction within 18 months of receipt of the federal funds and can use the money only for vehicles, real estate and construction costs.
Three cars that had been used on the trolley line in South End have been identified for use along the uptown route. By using the trolley cars, the city says it will save $8 million.
City Manager Curt Walton says the city has four fiscal years to figure out how to fund an estimated $1.5 million in annual operating costs for the streetcar.
Ultimately, city officials want to build a 10-mile route linking Charlotte’s east and west sides, from the Beatties Ford Road corridor to Eastland Mall. Its full cost is estimated at $450 million.
Council members Pat Cannon, James Mitchell, Jason Burgess, David Howard, Nancy Carter and Patsy Kinsey voted in favor of the streetcar grant. Voting in opposition were council members Andy Dulin, Michael Barnes, Warren Turner, Edwin Peacock and Warren Cooksey.
Novartis’ acquisition of Chapel Hill-based Oriel Therapeutics in April was one of only eight M&A deals in the biotech, pharma sector nationwide in the second quarter of 2010, according to a new report by VentureDeal LLC.
The Swiss giant purchased the venture-backed startup for its asthma treatments. Meanwhile, nationally, the number of second quarter deals declined by 20 percent from the first quarter, the report says. Of the eight mergers in the sector, totaling $74 million, only two were biotechs, and six were medical device companies.
Financial details of the Oriel transaction were not released payday loans.
Activity was even slower in the Internet e-commerce space, where M&A activity – 31 firms were acquired for $564 million – declined by 38 percent compared with the first quarter.
M&A activity for telecom, wireless, mobile and communications companies declined markedly from the previous quarter, with 54 percent fewer companies being acquired compared to the first quarter, the report says.
Job cuts accelerated in March, driven by planned reductions on government payrolls, a report released Thursday showed.
Employers announced plans to cut 67,611 jobs in March, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. That’s up 61% from February, when 42,090 jobs were lost, the lowest level in nearly four years.
"Unfortunately, many people are still jobless and many businesses still shuttered," said John Challenger, chief executive officer of the firm, in a statement. "This combination is having a significant negative impact on state and local tax revenues and, in turn, leading to continued downsizing in this sector."
Government job cuts led March’s surge, accounting for nearly 75% of the total jobs shed. Year to date, government job losses have made up about a third of all announced cuts.
There were 50,604 announced government job cuts in March, and the United States Postal Service alone plans to reduce its workforce by 30,000 workers this year through retirement and attrition. The rest of the government jobs will be shed by state and local agencies suffering from budget shortfalls.
But overall the trend was still positive. March job cuts were down 55% from the same month a year ago, when 150,411 cuts were announced.
In the first quarter of 2010, a total of 181,183 job cuts were announced, the lowest first quarter total since 2000 and down 69% from the first quarter of 2009.
A separate report Wednesday from payroll processor ADP showed that private-sector employers cut payrolls by 23,000 jobs in March, marking the smallest monthly decline since February 2008. ADP’s report does not include government jobs.
The report sets the stage for the highly anticipated monthly jobs report from the government due Friday. The Labor Department is expected to show a gain of 190,000 jobs in March, compared to the 36,000 lost in February. Economists forecast the unemployment rate will remain unchanged at 9.7%.
It remains unclear exactly what Google Inc. will do about its operations in China but a decision will reportedly come this week.
The Wall Street Journal said an announcement could come as early as Monday, citing information from an unnamed person briefed on the matter.
The Mountain View search giant's decision to stop censoring the results of its search engine in China met with new criticism there over the weekend.
The state-owned Xinhua news agency accused Google of "playing an active role in exporting culture, value and ideas" and said the company's "ambition to change China's Internet rules and legal system will only prove to be ridiculous."
It remains uncertain whether Google will close only its Chinese search engine at www payday loans.google.cn or will shut down all of its business operations in the country. Talks with Chinese officials about keeping the search engine running with less censorship have reportedly been fruitless.
Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) said in January that it would no longer censor search results in China after a cyberattack originating from there targeted human rights activists and broke into more than 20 companies' systems.
The announcement triggered an international debate over Internet censorship and espionage. China has strongly denied any involvement.
For complete coverage by the Business Journal of the Google cyber attacks, click here.
NASDAQ OMX Group Inc. said Lincare Holdings Inc. would be one of eight new companies whose securities will join the NASDAQ Q-50 IndexSM.
The index is designed to track the performance of the 50 securities that are next in line to replace the securities currently included in the NASDAQ-100 Index(R), a release said. The NASDAQ Q-50 Index is re-ranked on a quarterly basis.
Lincare (NASDAQ: LNCR) provides respiratory therapy and other services to patients in their homes. Based in Clearwater, the company serves patients across the United States.
Other companies joining the NASDAQ Q-50 are Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDQ: AMLN), Gentex Corp. (NASDAQ: GNTX), Micron Technology inc. (NASDAQ: MU), Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ: RMBS), Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI), Vistaprint N.V. (NASDAQ: VPRT) and Windstream Corp. (WIN).
The changes will result in the removal of CTC Media Inc. (NASDAQ: CTCM), Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: ENDP), LM Ericsson Telephone Co. (NASDQ: ERIC), Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: MDRX), Myriad Genetics Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN), Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: PTEN), Strayer Education Inc. (NASDAQ: STRA) and Techne Corp. (NASDAQ: TECH).
The change is effective March 22.
NASDAQ OMX Group (NASDAQ: NDAQ) is the world’s largest exchange company.
DETROIT — As Toyota dealers across the country work to repair the defective gas pedals in millions of vehicles, they also are trying to repair the automaker’s reputation by extending hours, making house calls and offering other services.
Toyota Motor Corp. recalled eight vehicles Jan. 21 and stopped selling those vehicles five days later because their accelerator pedals could stick in a depressed position. Toyota is sending dealers a piece of steel about the size of a postage stamp that can be inserted into the accelerator mechanism and eliminate the friction that causes the problem.
Kent Newbold, president of Newbold Toyota in O’Fallon, Ill., said Wednesday that he was even offering customers free tickets to a movie at the nearby O’Fallon 15 Cine while repairs are made to their recalled vehicles.
Nobody had taken him up on that offer, but he said it would remain until all of the recalled vehicles were fixed. "They’re our customers and we’re going to take care of them. … I was even tempted to sneak out and see ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks 2′ myself," Newbold said.
Jim White Toyota, a dealership in Toledo, Ohio, received about 350 steel pieces, or shims, and began repairs Wednesday morning. By mid-afternoon, about 25 cars were fixed, said Terry Treter, service manager.
Repairs were going smoothly and a little faster than the half-hour Toyota estimated, he said. Technicians do a test drive as part of the repair.
Dealers said they would extend service hours as needed to make repairs at the convenience of their customers. "The main thing the dealers want to do is to get the cars repaired and back on the road," said John S. Poppell, president of Twin City Toyota in Herculaneum.
Tom Seeger, owner of Seeger Toyota in Creve Coeur, added, "We’re going to get this done as seamlessly and comfortably for our customers as possible."
Dealers said customers had been calm despite a warning early Wednesday from U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who said owners of recalled Toyotas should stop driving them. LaHood later said he misspoke and told owners to get their cars repaired.
"There was an (increase in) concerned calls five minutes after Ray LaHood made his first comment, but people calmed down after he later explained himself," Seeger said.
Toyota is giving U.S. dealers payments of up to $75,000 to help them offer extra measures such as house calls. The automaker also suggested other steps, such as additional hires to help with recall repairs, dedicated recall service lanes and complimentary oil changes.
Toyota is sending checks this week based on the number of cars each dealer sold in 2009. Dealers who sold fewer than 500 cars will get $7,500. Dealers who sold more than 4,000 will get $75,000.
Robert Kelly of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
Lee Enterprises Inc., owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, said Friday it had stronger advertising sales in November and expects declines in revenue to ease for the company’s fiscal first quarter ending Dec. 27.
"Based on trends through early December, we’re hopeful that the turnaround has begun," Mary Junck, chairman and CEO, said in a news release. "Although it’s premature to guess when year-over-year revenue comparisons will turn positive, we expect our aggressive cost reductions will enable meaningful earnings growth when they do."
Among the cost reductions were increases in premium cost-sharing for some participants in retiree medical plans and elimination of retiree health care coverage for other participants. Lee said these changes will reduce annual retiree medical costs beginning in 2010 and will cut benefit obligation liability by up to $30 million.
Lee said it expects operating revenue for the quarter ending Dec paydayloans. 27 to fall 14 percent to 15 percent compared to the same period in 2008. Revenue declined an average of 20 percent in the last three quarters of fiscal 2009.
The company also said that debt refinancing, adequate liquidity and improving business conditions allowed its accounting firm, KPMG LLP, to drop from this year’s annual report an explanatory paragraph in 2008’s annual report that raised doubt about Lee’s ability to continue as a going concern. Lee filed the 2009 report Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Lee, based in Davenport, Iowa, owns 49 newspapers and has a joint interest in four others. It also has online sites and nearly 300 specialty publications in 23 states.
The American whiskey market may be back on a roll. The industry which produces Jack Daniel’s and Jim Beam is seeing sales flatten in its domestic market but overseas business is booming and driving overall growth.
These two top brands already have half or more of their sales overseas and are dragging the rest toward export markets such as Western Europe and Australia where annual sales volume growth has averaged nearly 6 percent over the last 10 years.
Both compete head on with other Scotch, Irish and Canadian whiskies, but have done well as Brown-Forman Corp’s Jack Daniel’s became the world’s largest selling single whisky brand four years ago overtaking Diageo’s Johnnie Walker Red.
“Worldwide American whiskey has the opportunity to be the fastest growing in overseas markets. One of its advantages is its mixability compared to scotch whisky,” said Brown-Forman’s Chief Executive Officer Paul Varga.
In the economic downturn, Varga has seen some downtrading to cheaper brands, but whisky’s heritage and taste protects it from the worst of the downtrading seen in the vodka sector.
“The summer months have seen some easing of industry destocking while there is still some trading down,” he said.
The current downturn comes after a decade of growth which followed sliding volumes in the 1990s, and the domestic market has gained nearly 2 million 12-bottle cases since 2000 as whiskey like other spirits gained at the expense of beer.
The U.S. whiskey market was worth 28.3 million cases in 2008, over twice the size of the French cognac market at 12.4 million, but well below the scotch industry at around 100 million. This U.S. industry takes in two Tennessee whiskey distilleries and around 10 bourbon distilleries in Kentucky.
The market is dominated by Jack Daniel’s at 9.5 million cases and Jim Beam at 6 million, which make up 55 percent of U faxless pay day loans.S. industry volumes, and on the export front the former started selling more overseas two years ago and now sells 4.8 million cases outside the U.S. as it pushes into the big export markets of Britain, France, Japan and Australia.
“We are a near-10 million case brand, but could be a 17 million brand with more warehousing,” said master distiller Jeff Arnett at the Jack Daniel’s Lynchburg distillery in Tennessee.
North of Tennessee, Jim Beam is the world’s No 1 Kentucky bourbon, owned by Fortune Brands Inc, selling its 6 million case sales split equally between the U.S. and its big export markets especially Australia and Canada.
Around 12 years ago Jack Daniel’s first moved ahead of Jim Beam in volume terms, but Beam is fighting back as it is the first to move into flavored whiskeys, so popular in the vodka market, with its new Red Stag bourbon infused with black cherry.
This new product has sold 90,000 cases since its launch in June and is attracting new drinkers not seen as typical bourbon consumers. It is Fortune’s first major launch since Jim Beam Black Label over 10 years ago, and executives say if U.S. sales continue strong, it will look at the overseas market.
At Brown-Forman, Varga says Jack Daniel’s has not launched a new pure whiskey product for 12 years, and its flagship No 7 brand accounts for 97 percent of Jack Daniel’s volume.
In its last quarter, (May-July) the Jack Daniel’s family of brands, which includes strongly-growing ready to drink products, saw sales up 8 percent at constant currencies, and Varga says the sales mainly came from volume rather than higher prices.
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