Frontier Airlines will begin nonstop service from St. Petersburg–Clearwater International Airport to Milwaukee, Wis., and Omaha, Neb., later this year.
The airline will offer year-round service to General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee beginning Nov. 18.
Flights will depart Milwaukee at 7:38 a.m. CST to arrive in Tampa Bay at 11:23 a.m. EST every day except Wednesday. Flights will depart Tampa Bay at 12:03 p.m. EST to arrive in Milwaukee at 1:51 p.m. CST.
This schedule is effective Dec. 16 – April 1. Some variations apply.
Seasonal service to Eppley Airfield in Omaha will begin Jan. 16 and run Wednesdays and Sundays through April 17.
Flights will depart Omaha at 8:25 a.m. CST to arrive in Tampa Bay at 12:25 p.m. EST. Flights will depart Tampa Bay EST at 2:55 p.m. to arrive in Omaha at 3 p.m. CST.
Frontier Airlines is a wholly owned subsidiary of Republic Airways Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: RJET), an airline holding company that owns Chautauqua Airlines, Lynx Aviation, Midwest Airlines, Republic Airlines and Shuttle America.
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Consumers are more willing to spend money online again, after a year of lackluster results.
Reston-based Internet tracking firm comScore says retail e-commerce sales reached $32.9 billion in the second quarter, up 9 percent from a year ago.
The total does not include online travel, auctions, autos or large corporate purchases.
It marks the third straight quarterly gain in year-over-year online sales, after a year of flat or falling quarterly e-commerce totals. Retail sales fell for the first time ever in the fourth quarter of 2008, and declined in both the second and third quarters of 2009.
“The second quarter’s continuation of the first quarter’s strong retail e-commerce growth rates is encouraging,” said comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR) chairman Gian Fulgoni one hour payday loan. “We remain optimistic heading into the second half of the year, but we will be keeping a close eye on unemployment rates, which along with potential uncertainty in the stock market could limit growth in e-commerce spending in the near term.”
Upper income households, or those with annual incomes of $100,000 or more, spent 17 percent more shopping online than they did a year ago, nearly twice overall e-commerce growth last quarter.
Electronics, computers and software, books and magazines were among the biggest sellers online last quarter.
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Helm Bank USA tripled its profits in the second quarter as it encountered fewer charges from bad loans.
The Miami-based bank earned $1.66 million in the second quarter, up from net income of $544,000 in the first quarter, according to its filing with the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. The biggest improvement came because the bank only took an expense of $1.6 million to reserve for future loan losses. In the previous quarter, it took $2.1 million.
However, Helm Bank’s net interest income declined to $5.4 million in the second quarter from $5.6 million in the first quarter.
The quality of the bank’s loan portfolio registered a modest improvement. As of June 30, Helm Bank had $20.2 million in late or unpaid loans, representing 7.68 percent of its total loans, plus $5.5 million in repossessed property. As of March 31, it had $21.9 million in noncurrent loans, representing 8.26 percent, plus $5.8 million in repossessed property.
Helm Bank’s assets consist of more investment securities than loans, so its amount of bad loans was a relatively small slice of the bank’s total size.
The bank’s $7.3 million reserve for future loan losses covered 36 percent of its noncurrent loans as of June 30.
Helm Bank was the 16th-largest bank chartered in South Florida as of March 31, with $728 million in assets. It was down to $712 million in assets at mid-ear. The bank’s deposits declined to $658 million from $677 million between March and June. Its total loans were virtually unchanged, at $257 million.
For at least 30 cash-strapped states counting on federal stimulus money, the news was a stunning blow: A deficit-weary Congress had rejected billions in additional aid, forcing lawmakers into a mad scramble to balance their budgets.
Now, with a new fiscal year just days away in most states, many governors are proposing to make up for the shortfall with tax increases, cuts in essential services and layoffs of thousands of public employees.
The federal stimulus program enacted last year is set to expire in December. Much of the money goes to states to provide unemployment insurance and to help offset cuts to education, health care and public safety brought on by the recession.
Congress was poised to extend some funding to states through June 2011, including $35.5 billion for unemployment benefits and $16 billion for Medicaid. But the measure died in the Senate earlier this month, blowing a hole in the states’ budgets and bouncing thousands of unemployed workers off the rolls.
The stimulus money represents just a fraction of the help states typically receive from the federal government, but it’s the kind of targeted relief states count on during a poor economy, when revenue is falling.
Without the extra money from Washington, states will be forced to divert cash from other programs to shore up Medicaid, which has swelled to a record enrollment during the economic downturn empire payday loans.
The legislatures in several states have already adjourned for the year, but some will have to return to revise their budgets if the expected federal money does not materialize.
A few states that counted on additional stimulus money to balance their budgets drafted contingency plans in case the money did not come through.
In Massachusetts, the loss of an estimated $687 million in federal funds forced budget negotiators to come up with two versions of the state budget — one that included the money and one that did not.
Some states, unwilling to count on the federal assistance, crafted budgets that did not depend on extra assistance from Washington at all.
"We assumed conservatively that there would not be a bonus check," Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels told The Associated Press.
"It would have never entered our mind to put funny money like that into the budget."
Buffalo General Hospital has received state approval for an $8.4 million relocation project of its MRI and CT services.
The State Department of Health okayed the project in mid-May, which calls for shifting all of its MRI and CT services to one central site. The hospital plans to move the equipment and services from the second floor of the A and B buildings into the sub-basement of A building.
The plan better realigns imaging services and will allow improved access to the heart-vascular center under construction next door. The project also opens up space that will likely see future use as clinical services.
Completion is slated for this fall.
Secrets of Louisville Chefs, a locally produced television program that features the work of some of Louisville’s most prominent chefs, will have a new home on WBNA-TV beginning June 1.
The show currently airs on WBKI-TV.
The program features hosts Kevin Harned, Kelly K, Cheryl Case and Tim Laird. They give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at Louisville-area restaurants and their chefs.
WBNA will air Secrets of Louisville Chefs Monday through Friday at 6 p.m., and Sundays at 4:30 p.m.
Secrets of Louisville Chefs is produced by Louisville-based BMB Productions LLC.
More information about the show can be found here.
WBNA-TV, Louisville’s Ion TV affiliate, operates seven full-powered television stations in the Louisville market. It is seen on Insight cable, DirecTV, Dish, ATT Uverse, and over the air on channel 21. It also operates digital channels 21.2 Qubo, 21.3 Ion Life, 21.4 Retro TV, 21.5 God TV and 21.6 The Light.
Additional information about WBNA can be found at www.wbna-21.com.
As Toyota’s mass recall threatens the leading automaker’s reputation, several rivals are rolling out incentives to reel in Toyota customers looking to get rid of their cars.
General Motors is offering incentives of $1,000 and low financing rates specifically for Toyota customers worried about their recalled vehicles.
"We decided to make this offer after receiving many e-mails and calls from our dealers, who have been approached by Toyota customers asking for help," GM said in a statement. The offers will run through the end of February.
Starting Wednesday, GM started offering $1,000 rebates or up to $1,000 to help pay off current leases on Toyota products. The automaker is also offering 0% financing on most models for Toyota customers. The offers apply to 2009 and 2010 model year cars.
Hyundai said it is offering a $1,000 rebate for anyone who trades in a Toyota from Thursday to February 1. Customers who trade in their Toyotas with the trade incentive can purchase one of three models only: a Hyundai Sonata, Elantra or Elantra Touring.
Ford is offering $1,000 to customers trading in Toyota Motor Co. products. The offer began Wednesday but a Ford spokeswoman said the offers are not targeted at Toyota’s recall problems. Customers are also being offered the same $1,000 on Honda products.
Chrysler is offering an additional $1,000 to customers who trade in their Toyota Tundra, Tacoma or Sienna and purchase or lease a new Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge car or Ram truck. It is also offering $1,000 in bonus cash to drivers who want to turn in a leased Toyota to buy or lease a Chrysler product.
Such "conquest incentives" — incentives targeted at owners of other manufacturers’ vehicles — are common in the industry, GM spokesman Tom Henderson said.
However, some of the incentives are designed to take advantage of Toyota owners’ worries at a time when they’re concerned about the safety and quality of their cars.
Toyota announced last week that it was recalling 2.3 million cars, SUVs and trucks for a problem with a potentially sticky gas pedal. This was after the company recalled 4.2 million vehicles — many of them the same as last week’s recall — for a problem in which the gas pedal could become stuck on the floormat.
Toyota recently announced that will temporarily stop selling models affected by the most recent recall, including some of their most popular products like the Camry sedan and the Rav4 small SUV.
For its part, Honda said the recall "has no impact whatsoever on Honda or Acura customers" and that it "will not undertake any sales activities that expressly target Toyota customers."
The problem plays to GM’s current strengths, said James Bell, an analyst with Kelley Blue Book’s KBB.com. Some of GM’s strongest products, like the Chevrolet Malibu sedan and Chevrolet Equinox SUV, are strong competitors to products Toyota is now not selling.
"The Equinox is the obvious buy over a Rav4," he said.
If the Chevrolet dealers were still selling last year’s Equinox, before the new, completely redesigned model was introduced, GM’s position wouldn’t have been as strong, he said.
The yen’s surge to a 14-year high and renewed deflation may prompt Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to press the central bank to take further steps to support growth.
Hatoyama, 62, will meet Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa “soon,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano told reporters yesterday. Hirano said the leaders will discuss quantitative easing policies in addition to falling prices and the stronger currency.
The government has stepped up calls on the central bank to prop up growth since it declared the economy was in deflation on Nov. 20. Shirakawa, who yesterday pledged to act “promptly and decisively,” has few options given that the key overnight lending rate is at 0.1 percent and the bank is already purchasing government bonds and corporate debt.
“We’re not in a situation where the BOJ will act just because the government is pressuring it to,” said Junko Nishioka, a chief economist at RBS Securities Japan Ltd. in Tokyo. “There’s an election next year, so the government wants to show how much it has already done.”
Nishioka said she didn’t expect any policies to be announced from the central bank after this week’s meeting with Hatoyama, given that it’s common for policy makers to meet and discuss the economy and financial markets.
Deflation can undermine economic growth by making debt burdens heavier, eroding corporate profit margins and deterring capital investment and consumer spending. Japanese prices excluding fresh food slid 2.2 percent in October from a year earlier, a near record drop, and the government’s declaration of deflation was its first in more than three years.
‘Promptly and Decisively’
“The bank is always prepared to act promptly and decisively if judged necessary to ensure the stability of financial markets,” Shirakawa said yesterday in Nagoya, central Japan. “The bank will do its utmost to overcome deflation both in terms of monetary easing and ensuring the stability of the financial markets.”
Reports yesterday showed Japan’s recovery from its worst postwar recession may be weakening. Industrial output grew at the slowest pace in eight months in October as manufacturers including Toyota Motor Corp. pared production at home. Wages tumbled 1.7 percent, extending their longest losing streak in six years.
Hatoyama championed the Bank of Japan’s independence after he took power in September following his Democratic Party of Japan’s landslide August election victory. Hirano reiterated yesterday that the government respects the bank’s autonomy.
Testing BOJ
Other Cabinet members haven’t been shy in testing the central bank. Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan said on TV Asahi last week that he’d “like to see monetary policy work just a little harder” to battle deflation. Financial Services Minister Shizuka Kamei said in October that the bank “sometimes sounds like it’s talking in its sleep.”
“Hatoyama’s Cabinet seems to think that the BOJ isn’t playing a big enough role in fighting deflation,” said Susumu Kato, an economist in Tokyo at Calyon Securities. “The government may ask the BOJ to increase the amount of its government bond purchases” to around 2 trillion yen ($23 billion) a month from 1.8 trillion yen, Kato said.
The government may be looking for monetary policy measures to combat prices and the yen because it has the highest debt burden in the industrialized world, limiting the scope of fiscal policy. Nevertheless, Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii said yesterday that he is compiling an extra budget of more than 2.7 trillion yen, the amount of money frozen from the previous administration’s budget, to spur growth.
Quantitative Easing
The BOJ introduced quantitative easing steps in March 2001 before suspending those policies in March 2006. Shirakawa has said the policy of flooding the economy with cash had a limited impact on economic growth.
Hatoyama and Shirakawa are also likely to discuss the yen, which rose to a 14-month high of 84.83 to the dollar on Nov. 27, setting off a chorus of complaints from Japanese manufacturers. Canon Chief Executive Officer Fujio Mitarai said Japan is “standing on the edge of a cliff.”
Shirakawa said yesterday the government will decide whether to intervene, adding that the central bank will “closely watch these developments and their effects with great interest.”
Canon Inc. would lose 4.4 billion yen in sales and 2.5 billion yen in operating profit this quarter for every 1 yen drop in the dollar compared with its forecast of 90 yen, the company said on Oct. 27.
Japan last intervened in the currency market in March 2004, when the yen traded around 109 per dollar. The central bank sold 14.8 trillion yen in the first three months of that year.
“We’re paying close attention to whether the BOJ will go along with intervening in the market,” said Shinichi Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Credit Suisse Securities Japan. “Intervention would stop the bleeding for now, so it’s important.”
Irish government workers will stage the biggest strike in at least three decades today in protest at plans to cut pay to contain the budget deficit.
Nurses, teachers and tax officials are among around 250,000 workers taking part in the 24-hour nationwide stoppage over what unions have said are “vicious” cost-cutting plans by the government, which is grappling with a deficit amounting to about 12 percent of gross domestic product.
Ireland, once Europe’s most dynamic economy, has been hit by a property crash and the global recession, eroding tax income and pushing the shortfall to 26 billion euros ($38.9 billion) this year. Finance Minister Brian Lenihan wants to cut about 4 billion euros from spending in the Dec. 9 budget to rebuild investors’ confidence after borrowing costs soared.
“Strikes will send the wrong signals,” said Alan McQuaid, chief economist with Bloxham Stockbrokers in Dublin. “If the international market sees the government standing up, they will see it as a good thing. There is a steely determination on the part of the government to do the right thing.”
The stoppage has been partially scaled back due to flooding in the south and west of the country after heavy rainfall. Hospitals and emergency service workers will maintain services in those areas, unions said on Nov. 22. The strike today will still close shut social welfare offices, passport offices and the public offices of the state tax authorities.
“The private sector has had to discount and cut costs, the public sector must respond,” said John Forde of Dublin- based Chambers Ireland, which represents 13,000 companies. “Hard decisions must now be taken to resolve this issue.”
Lost Rating
The difference in yield, or spread, between 10-year Irish securities and 10-year German bunds was at 150 basis points yesterday. While it’s narrowed since reaching 284 basis points in March, the spread remains five times wider than its average over the last decade. Ireland has also lost its top credit rating at Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch ratings this year.
The government said this month that the deficit will hit 14 percent of gross domestic product next year, almost five times the European Union limit, unless it takes action. It sees the economy, which doubled in size in the decade through 2007, shrinking 1.5 percent in 2010 after a 7.5 percent contraction this year.
Abercrombie & Fitch posted a much better-than-expected quarterly profit on Friday, helped by cost cuts, and the retailer’s shares rose more than 6 percent.
The retailer of young men and women’s clothing said net income fell to $38.8 million, or 44 cents per share, in the third quarter ended on October 31 from $63.9 million, or 72 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company earned 30 cents per share. Analysts on average were expecting 20 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Net sales fell 15 percent to $765.4 million as same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, fell 22 percent.
Same-store sales, a closely watched metric of retail health, fell 18 percent at the flagship Abercrombie & Fitch chain, 22 percent at the Abercrombie kids’ chain, 26 percent at Hollister and 30 percent at Ruehl, which the company is planning to close by the end of the current fiscal year fast payday loan.
Abercrombie said it expected to incur charges of $60 million to exit the Ruehl business, which is down from its prior estimate of $65 million.
The company also said it was on track to open an Abercrombie & Fitch flagship store in Tokyo in December, as well as five more Hollister stores in Europe during the fourth quarter.
In the next fiscal year, the company expects to open flagship Abercrombie & Fitch stores in Copenhagen and Fukuoka, Japan.
Abercrombie shares rose to $39.00 in premarket trading from Thursday’s close at $36.76 on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Martinne Geller; Editing by Derek Caney and Lisa Von Ahn)
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