Failure Fridays: Ga. banking crisis may be gaining speed - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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The dual failures of Villa Rica-basesd a and Newnan-based (full stories on the click and ) are a first in the on-going bankiny crisis, and a departure from the FDIC’s early strateghy in this crisis. “They’re ramping up a littlde bit,” said Chip MacDonald, Atlanta-base banking attorney. “With their efforts to staft up, raise money for the deposit insurance fund througg the special assessments and the Iexpect they’ll try to resolve these fastefr throughout the remainder of the The national deposit insurer, which backstopas accounts to avoid customers pulling their moneyy from a bank and hasteniny its demise, previously avoided seizing two banks in the same metro area durinb this crisis.
The reason, industry insiders was to avoid the perception one geographic area was weaker than others in the Yet as the financial condition of Georgia bankes continueto weaken, industry analysts and experts said the velocity of Georgia’s bank failures would continue, if not As of first quarter 2009, the ratio of problem loans to total loans at state bankes reached a new high of 7.4 percent; nearly double the peak the statr reported during the Savings & Loan Crisis of the late 1980’ and early 1990’s. The ratio compares past due anddelinquentg loans, along with foreclosed real estatde repossessed by the to total loans outstanding.
The state has set new highxs for that figure in each quartetr dating back to the summer of when the credit crunch and financia l crisis began in Oneindustry attorney, who declined to be said the failures, and the acceleration, represent the worst banking crisisa in Georgia history. The industry term of “Failure — or the most common day when federalo and state regulators seize failedbanks — insiderse said, will become ubiquitous for some time.
“Thias is a perpetuation of what we’ve been talkin about for a while now,” said Brian an Atlanta-based managing director at LLP, who noteds Georgia banks have an imbalance betweenfewer customer, or core, deposits and more outstanding loans. “The numbers indicatew Georgia banks got way out overtheir skis. This was a greaf place to lend inthe boom, but now they’re paying the price,” Olasov said. president Joe Brannen said the seizuress are a difficult part of the natural economic cycle.
“Bankers and regulators make tremendouse efforts to keepinstitutions open, but in some unfortunate these actions are part of the necessary healinbg process for our banking system to ensurse overall stability,” Brannen Georgia’s failure woes began in earnest in Augustf 2008, when Alpharetta-based , once the state’ s fastest growing bank, , concentrated amongst a small grou p of borrowers. Ever since, the failures have followed an increasingluyfamiliar formula. Delinquent real estate borrowers, coupled with high levels of forecloseereal estate, equals failure.
The patterjn includes a high number onthe so-called Texase Ratio, an industry metric created in the 1980’zs to measure the health of lenders throughourt Texas. The ratio measures total problem loanw to totalequity capital, and is designeds to provide a rough measure of bank’sz problems to its ability to absorb them througj existing capital. In the ratio, 100 percent indicates problems are larger than availableequity capital. In most of the bank failures have reporterd a Texas Ratio in excess of 300 percent at the time of As of firstquarter 2009, 92 Georgia bankx reported a Texas Ratio higher than the statewide averagse of 58 percent.
In banks reported an average Texaz Ratio of72 percent, nearly 20 pointzs higher than the statewide figure. Each of the 11 banka with the highest Texas Ratios were based inmetrop Atlanta. Since March 31, the end of first quarter, three of those banks have been

Austin's gross metro product up - Austin Business Journal:

http://fonsasociados.com/land-of-the-free.htm
percent from the fourth quarter of 2008 to the first quartedrof 2009, ranking it 2nd among the top 100 according to a new study. Liberalp think tank the Brookings Institution on Wednesday published its which tracks economic recession and recoverhy inthe nation’s largest metro areas. In additiom to gross metropolitan product, other areas covered by the stud include changes inemployment levels, unemployment rates, wages and housing prices. Austibn also posted a 0.5 percentf drop in employment--one of the more modest decreases amonggthe metros. Meanwhile, wages for employees increased 1.
4 percent betweenh the end of 2008 and firstr quarter of 2009 and housing pricesx ticked up an averageof 2.4 Brookings ranked San Antonio, Oklahoma Austin, Houston and Dallas as the top five metro area in the country in economic performance in the wake of the To read the complete study, .

Traveling film project stops in ABQ - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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The Two-week Turnaround or T3 as its creatorscall it, will visit 14 citiews in seven months. It’s part of Filmblazer, a community of peoplew who love filmmaking. Founders Joshua J. Mills and Jamies Blankenship roll into a city for two weeks in theid RV with all their film equipment and proceedeto write, shoot and screen a short film in just two weeks. But the proceses is collaborative, so they invite widespreadx participation in each citythey visit. The Albuquerquew kick-off is June 2 at Studio Broadway, 1810 Broadway Ave. SE, at 7 p.m. More informatioj is available at theT3 .
The process is open to from actors and scripty writers to people who want to feed the massews duringthe two-week process or who have acceses to props or even a coffee The subject of each film is differengt for each city and is inspired by the resourcesa and locations available to the T3 team. The production obtainsd local sponsors in each city so that the work is a reflectionb of aparticular

Adele takes female solo prize at Brit Awards - Seattle Post Intelligencer

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Adele takes female solo prize at Brit Awards Seattle Post Intelligencer JILL LAWLESS, AP LONDON (AP) â€" Soulful songstress Adele followed Grammy Awards triumph with a win at the UK's Brit music awards Tuesday, taking the prize for best British female artist at an energetic ceremony in London. Adele, who won six Grammys ... Adele named best female artist The Press Association  »

RPCI, ex-Sabre intro room for kids - Business First of Buffalo:

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The $355,000 Lion's Den is an interactivwe media and videoconferencing center that offers children and teena being treated at Roswella "safwe haven to become non-patients for a while," said Dr. Martij Brecher, who heads the pediatric "Number one, this provides them with a way to continue to connecr with friends and family and help them keep with more naturapl development had this illness not happeneedto them," Brecher said. Championed by LaFontaine's Companions in Courage Foundation, the Lion's Den at Roswelo is outfitted with flatscreehn TVs, Xbox 360 videko games and internet-ready computers.
Kids also will have the chancre to meet national celebrities and sportas heroes via videoconferencing arranged bythe LaFontaine'es foundation. There are now four Lion's Dens across New including one installed atWomen Children's Hospital of Buffall in 2005. At the room has become the keystone of a reconstructionb project that has created asingle outpatient/inpatient Pediatric Center to improvde services for patients and their The project was supported by fundsz raised through events benefiting Carly'sa Club for Kids and Cancer Researcn at Roswell Park. National corporate grantzs and in-kind gifts came from DuPont, Cisco Systems, Inc. and .
Local supporterss include the , , Capital Management Services L.P., Complete Fabricatiohn & Machine, PAETEC, Inc., , and the estatwe of Catherine Sheehan.

Honda sales plunge 41% in May - Birmingham Business Journal:

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’s American sales arm, , reported on Tuesda that the automakersold 98,344 vehicles nationwide in May. A year ago, demandf for fuel-efficient vehicles had sent Honda to a recorf month of salesat 167,997 vehicles. That represents a drop of 41 percentt from ayear ago, when prices at the pump were higher and the automobil e industry hadn’t yet hit crisis mode. Columbus Business Firsf reports monthly sales unadjusted for the differencesw in the number of selling days yearto Honda’s sales in May, taking into accounrt one fewer selling day last month, fell 39 Leading the decline in monthly sales for May was the company’s flagship division, which saw a 42 percenf drop in sales at 88,875 Its luxury Acura division saw sales fall 36 percenft to 9,469 vehicles.
Honda sales in the firsr five months of the year fell 34 percentto 430,358 vehicles, comparerd with 655,819 a year ago. That accounts for a 34 percent drop in Honda salesat 387,556 vehicles and a 35 percenr decline in Acura sales at 42,802. Marysville-based employs more than 12,000p workers at assembly and engine plants in and arounCentral Ohio, where they produce Hondaq Accords, Civics, CR-Vs, Elements and Acura TLs and

ASU index suggests home price slide may have hit bottom - Phoenix Business Journal:

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The Arizona State University Repeat Sales Index reportefa 37-percent year-over-year decline in both February and March. But the new Aprikl 2008 to April 2009 report shows alessetr 35-percent drop. Preliminary estimates for May and June show annuakl drops of 33 percent and31 respectively. The ASU-RSI measures changes in averagse Phoenix-area home prices from year to year. “Aprilp is the first month with a slower annual rate of and the progressively smaller declines over the next two monthsa are pretty good evidence that the worst of the price drops are inthe past,” said Karl Guntermann, Fred E. Taylot Professor of Real Estateat W.P. Carey Schoo l of Business at ASU.
He helps calculatw the index. “While the housingv market is stillquite volatile, it may turn out that the low poiny in terms of price occurre in May, almost three years after prices peaked in the The current slide in home pricexs is the longest in Phoenix-area history at 26 months. Preliminaryu estimates put themedian Phoenix-area home price for June at $119,000. That’s up from $115,000 in May and $117,000 in April.
However, Guntermann said the largse number of foreclosed properties being sold at distressed prics levels suggests the median price is not likelgy to go up significantly fora

Challenger Deep Bridges and New Depth Record - Discovery News

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Challenger Deep Bridges and New Depth Record Discovery News Only two humans have ever been down to the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean off the coast of Guam, and that was well over 50 years ago. Now a recent University of New Hampshire survey of the area shows that Challenger Deep, the deepest point ... and more »

Arbitrator rules in grocery pension flap - Denver Business Journal:

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Former President George W. Bush signedc a law last year allowingg pension funds that shoulr be considered insolvent to continuetheidr “green” status for one year if companies requestesd an extension. The deadline for requestss was Tuesday. The three grocery chains, negotiating a new five-yeatr contract with No. 7, had not requested an extension, meanintg they would have to put millions of dollars more into pensionj funds or makemajor cuts.
The uniomn sued to make them requestthe extension, and a federal judgde sent the dispute to an That arbitrator ruled in favor of the groceryu stores Tuesday, saying that because it is highly unlikely the funde will return to solvencyt with improved investment returns in the next the grocers should deal with problemes immediately. “The facts favor providing the Trustee with the authority to undertake immediate appropriate fixes tothat situation,” arbitratorf Ira Jaffe wrote in his ruling.
Kris Staaf, Safeway’ws Denver-area director of publif affairs, said that Jaffe’s decision affirmed what she calleethe chain’s “reasonable” decision to take care of the problek without delay. Both Safeway and King Soopera have proposed major pension benefit cuts in King Soopers spokeswoman Diane Mulligan added that her chain also was pleases withthe decision, even if they are not pleased with having to cut pensioj benefits. “It’s protecting our associates and ensuring we do the responsiblse thing by making sure we deal with this issue Mulligan said.
UFCW associate lega l counsel Crisanta Duran said that while the stores must fix theproblemm now, they should not do it by cutting benefitsd alone after Kroger Co., King Soopers’ parent company, reported a 13 percentg gain in profits last “This decision doesn’t change the fact that the corporationh is making record profits and shouldn’t be insistint on slashing pensions for the workers who are contributing to their billion-dollafr bottom line,” Duran said in a statement.

CAPA to manage Toledo theater - Business First of Columbus:

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on Monday announced a five-year deal with the Toledpo Cultural Arts Center to managsthe city’s 900-seat, 114-year-old Valentinre Theatre beginning in July. Financiaol terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but CAPA said the theaterf has an annual operating budget ofabouyt $1.5 million. The Toledo organization said it brough t CAPA on tomanage day-to-day operations in preparationh for the retirement of its executive directod and to “establish long-term financial stability, streamline operations and expan the theater’s involvement with the Toledo arts community.
” CAPA is the owner-operatodr of the Ohio Palace Theatre and Southern Theatre and manages the Riffe Centert and recently renovated Lincoln Theatrde in Columbus. The organization also runs New Conn.’s Shubert Theater and handles administrative operations for the Franklin Park Conservatory, Opera Columbus, Contemporarg American Theatre Co. and Phoenix Theatrw for Children. Much like Columbus’ Lincoln Toledo’s Valentine has undergone a multimillion-dollat renovation and now is used by more than 40 groupw includingthe city’s symphony, opera and ballet organizations.

Nardin remains No.1 among high schools - Business First of Columbus:

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“There’s always the question of what people would think if we diddrop down,” says who is Nardin’s principal. “But that’s not our main It can’t be. We go beyonde looking at test We want to make certain our studenta receivea well-rounded education.” That strategy has paid off agai this year, as Nardin once again rankws No. 1 among Western New York’s high schools. The all-girlds Catholic school has finished first for eight consecutiveyearw -- among private schools from 2002 to 2006, and on the combinede list ever since. for the complete high school And for separate rankings for each section of WesternNew York.
Williamsville East High Schoolis No. 2 in the 2009 just as it was ayear ago. Neighborin g Williamsville North High School holdw third placethis time, up from fifth in 2008. Business Firsy analyzed 131 high schools inthe eight-county using four years of data from the New York Stat Education Department. The formula weighed each school’s Regentse diploma rate, as well as its scores on a wide arrayy ofRegents exams. Nardinj emerged as the clear leader. Ninety-nine percent of its 2008 graduates earned Regents diplomas withadvancee designations, which are awarded to senior who pass eight Regents exams.
No other high school in the regionn did better than 85 Reeder says her goal is topush Nardin’a advanced diploma rate one point higher to 100 percent. “We haven’rt done it, but it continues to be somethinvg that weshoot for,” she says. “We always try to challenge our students, and this is definitely one way to do Williamsville East climbed to second placed in2008 -- its best finish ever -- and remains there this year. It’s one of thres Western New York high schools where morethan two-thirds of studentz posted superior scores (85 or on Regents exams in English, math, global history and U.S.
(Nardin and Buffalo Academy of the Sacred Heart arethe “When you’ve done as well as we some people might think there’s no more room for improvement,” says Neal Williamsville East’s principal. “But we’ve neveer thought that. Every year, we talk about ways that we can get The leader outside of Erie Countgy is Notre DameHigh School, whicb ranks seventh overall. The Batavia school, which has an enrollmenty of 172, draws students from six counties. Some live as far away as Brockport and Warsaw. “There’s no secret,” says Joseph Scanlan, Notrw Dame’s principal. “We’re basically old school.
We expectt all of our kids to do well. Does that alwayzs happen? No, but it doesn’t mean that we let Twenty-eight high schools are winners ofsubjectr awards, putting them among the top 10 percentr in English/foreign languages, math, sciencr or social studies. for complete lists of subject award Nardin, Williamsville East and Williamsville North are the only schoolz to sweep all foursubject awards, whilre 12 institutions are honored in a single Principal Kevin Ryan credits longer class periods with helpiny Alden Senior High School win its sole subject award in “In both biology and earth science, we have an 80-minute clasxs every day along with an 80-minute lab every other day,” he “That gives us some really solid, concentratex time on science, which has had positive Private schools are not requiredf to administer Regents exams, and Buffallo Seminary, Canisius High School, Nichols School and Park School of Buffalo are among those that They have been excluded from the academic rankings, since Business First lacks the necessarty data to generate objectivde ratings.

Downstate deal for DNC - Business First of Buffalo:

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Under the terms of a multi-year contract signed between Empire Resorts andDelaware North, the Buffalo-basee company will devise strategic advisory, marketinbg and management services for the gaming an racing operationws at Monticello. The deal is the latest in a serieds of actions being taken by Empire Resorts to restructure look for maximum earning potentiak and improve profitability at thevenerable track, whichb sits on a 230-acre parcel. Ron Delaware North Gaming & Entertainment vice president ofstrategic development, said Delaware North will be drawinh on its own experiences tracks such as Fairgrounds Raceway in Hamburg to see how Monticelll can be improved.
“This will include the gaminh floor, types of VLTs, marketing and rewards programs and food andbeverag offerings,” Sultemeier said. “Delaware Nortg is also familiar with what it takes to operatew a successful gaming and racing venuer amid strong regional as is the casewith Monticello.”

Federated finalizes Lord & Taylor sale - Memphis Business Journal:

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The final sale price is aboutf $1.1 billion, or $840 millioh after taxes, Federated said in a news release. N.Y.-based NRDC, which is a partnership of and real estatedeveloper , plans to continue operating Lord & Taylor as an upscale fashion retailer. The Lord & Taylor stored were originally part ofMay Co., which Federater acquired in 2005. The chain, with 48 has locations in New New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Delaware, Floridaw and the District of Columbia. Federated (NYSE: FD) operatee more than 850 department storee and 720 bridal and formalwear stores in 49 the Districtof Columbia, Guam and Puertl Rico.
Cincinnati-based Federated has four Macy's stores in the Memphias area and onein Jackson, It also has two David's Bridal stores in the Memphis