08/16/2010 (6:57 pm)

Cards avoiding immigration controversy

Filed under: economics |

The National Football League is the golden child in the world of professional sports. It has the best media deal, highest TV ratings and most lucrative revenue sharing pacts.

Now, its seems the NFL and Arizona Cardinals are avoiding (at least for now) the state's immigration fight over Senate Bill 1070.

There are no indications there will be SB 1070-related protests today at University of Phoenix Stadium for the Cardinals preseason opener against the Houston Texans.

Groups opposed to the immigration law are not planning any major protests at the Glendale stadium. The immigration issue has caused for some headaches for the Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondbacks in downtown Phoenix.

Hispanics groups opposed to 1070 want Major League Baseball to relocate the 2011 All-Star Game out of Chase Field. D-backs owner Ken Kendrick says he's personally opposed to 1070 but critics of the bill don't like that he gives to Republicans (some of whom back the measure).

A few blocks down the street Suns owner Robert Sarver and guard Steve Nash came out against the law and then wore 'Los Suns' jerseys once during the playoffs in the early days of the immigration controversy. The move earned grief from fans who like the law or don't want sports team being political, but accolades from 1070 opponents. The Cards actually got some ticket calls from a few fans irked by the Suns stance and political move.

The bill was signed in April during the NFL offseason and the team has steered clear of the debate. That's not to say the 1070 fight won't pop up later in the regular season. The Cards do have some nationally televised games and were in the playoffs the past two years.

But at least for now, it appears the immigration fight is avoiding the NFL team as it enters a crossroads season on the field and for its growing and somewhat bandwagon fan base. That fan base includes includes plenty of working class whites more friendly towards 1070, and Hispanics averse to the law.

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08/12/2010 (1:36 am)

Clayco, OSHA team on Missouri Baptist Medical Center project safety

Filed under: management, term |

Clayco Inc. announced a new partnership Tuesday with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to create safety standards during construction of a $132 million patient pavilion at Missouri Baptist Medical Center in Town & Country.

Project partners Clayco, Legacy Building Group, Murphy Company, Sachs Electric and the OSHA-St Louis office said they pledged support of a continued commitment to safety on the jobsite. The subcontractors involved in the project will also be incorporated into the partnership upon selection.

“The primary goal is to eliminate work-related injuries and incidents for the state-of-the-art medical facility through identification and promotion of construction safety strategies,” Clayco Chief Safety Officer Todd Friis said in a statement.

The West Pavilion project is part of a multiyear plan to add nearly a million square feet to Missouri Baptist, an affiliate of BJC HealthCare. The hospital is building a six-story, 227,000-square-foot West Pavilion patient tower at its Town & Country campus. The facility will feature 96 additional private hospital rooms and the necessary space for future expansions at Missouri Baptist Medical Center saving account pay day loan. In addition, a new 160,000-square-foot, 460-car parking garage will be constructed of structural steel and slab on deck construction.

The partnership is also supported by Missouri Baptist Medical Center, HOK, KJWW Engineering Consultants, the Associated General Contractors of St Louis, the Carpenters District Council of Greater St Louis and Vicinity, the St Louis Building & Construction Trades Council, the Eastern Missouri Laborers’ District Council, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local One, the Plumbers’ and Pipefitters’ Local 562 and the Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 36.

St. Louis-based Clayco Inc., led by Chairman and Chief Executive Bob Clark, is one of the largest privately held companies in the area with annual revenue of $755 million. It also has offices in Chicago, Detroit and Washington, D.C.

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07/30/2010 (12:12 pm)

Centene profit rises in Q2

Filed under: term |

Centene posted a profit of $22.8 million, or 45 cents a share, for the second quarter, up 13 percent from $20.2 million, or 46 cents a share, in the prior-year period, as its managed care at-risk membership rose.

The health insurer reported a 4 percent increase in revenue to $1.08 billion for the quarter ended June 30, up from $1.04 billion a year earlier.

Analysts had expected an average profit of 42 cents a share on revenue of $1.1 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

Centene said its quarter-end managed care at-risk membership totaled 1,531,800, an increase of 242,800 members, or 19 percent year-over-year No teletrack payday loans.

Last month, the city of O’Fallon, Mo., approved $24 million in bonds to help finance Centene's new data center.

St. Louis-based Centene (NYSE: CNC), led by Chairman and CEO Michael Neidorff, provides managed care programs and related services to individuals under Medicaid. It reported revenue of $4.1 billion in 2009.

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07/23/2010 (7:09 pm)

38 states press Google on personal data

Filed under: online |

A coalition of 38 states is pressing Google to answer for its unintentional collection of personal data through unsecured private wi-fi networks from its Street View cars.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who is leading the multistate investigation, asked the Internet giant whether it had tested its Street View software before use.

That check "should have revealed that the program collected data transmitted over wireless computer network," Blumenthal said in a letter to the company Wednesday.

Blumenthal also asked what Google has done with the data, particularly if it has sold or used the information. He also requested that Google identify the individuals responsible for including the snooping code into the Street View software and the specific locations where the unauthorized data was collected.

"We will take all appropriate steps - including potential legal action if warranted - to obtain complete, comprehensive answers," Blumenthal said payday loans. "Our multistate investigation will determine whether laws were broken and whether legislation is necessary to prevent future privacy breaches."

Google first disclosed that it had mistakenly collected "payload data," which includes what websites people are visiting, from wi-fi networks that were not password-protected in May.

The information was gathered and stored while Google’s Street View cars drove around the world collecting images for the company’s mapping service using local wi-fi hotspots.

Blumenthal launched the investigation last month. Backing the probe are a growing number of states - including Texas, Florida and New York - as well as Washington, D.C.  

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07/07/2010 (2:30 am)

Buffalo will stay hot, hot, hot

Filed under: management |

Temperatures will heat up again Tuesday and continue right through the middle of the week before some cooling and potential rainfall appears in the forecast.

The National Weather Service forecasts highs of around 90 or a little higher through Thursday and leads to a few reminders about the range of temperatures away from lakes Erie and Ontario and air quality payday loan.

For those wondering, the record high for July 6 in Buffalo was 97 degrees in 1988 and the normal high for this date is 79 degrees.

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07/04/2010 (5:00 pm)

Hispanic Chamber hires Rackspace manager as its chief of staff

Filed under: management, marketing |

The manager of community affairs at Rackspace Hosting has decided to leave her high-tech employer to join the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Mari Aguirre will become the new chief of staff for the Hispanic Chamber. Currently, as manager of community affairs, Aguirre is also president of the Rackspace Foundation.

In her new role as chief of staff, Aguirre will oversee the Hispanic Chamber’s Leadership Foundation and lead 15 employees. Before joining Rackspace (NYSE: RAX), Aguirre worked for former San Antonio Mayor Phil Hardberger. In the mayor’s office, Aguirre worked on education and workforce initiatives, diversity issues, board and commission appointments and the Hurricane Katrina volunteer effort guaranteed cash advance.

“Mari is very talented, has a tremendous work ethic, has great passion for our small-business community, and we are very excited that she agreed to join our great organization,” says Hispanic Chamber President and CEO Ramiro A. Cavazos.

San Antonio-based Rackspace is the world’s leading information technology infrastructure hosting and cloud computing company.

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06/29/2010 (7:33 pm)

Planet Fitness plans third Triad site

Filed under: marketing |

Planet Fitness has leased about 22,680 square feet of space at the Charlestown Shopping Center in Kernersville, marking the third company location in the Triad.

YOT Fitness Kernersville LLC, which conducts business as Planet Fitness, leased the space from Greenwood and Charles Inc. and joins Rite Aid and other tenants in the shopping center.

Raymond D. Collins Jr., of Collins Commercial Properties Inc., represented YOT Fitness/Planet Fitness in the Kernersville lease.

Ladd Freeman Jr low rate payday loans., of Freeman Commercial Real Estate, represented Greenwood and Charles Inc. as landlord in the lease.

Planet Fitness in Kernersville is slated to open in the fourth quarter with an initial 15 employees. Other Planet Fitness centers are located in Greensboro and High Point.

Martin Sinozich is principal and managing partner of the three Triad locations.

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06/27/2010 (12:30 am)

Wal-Mart, Best Buy, RadioShack: No iPhone 4 for walk-ins

Filed under: technology |

IPhone seekers hoping to avoid days-long lines thought they’d have an ace in the hole: retail outlets other than Apple’s stores. Apple partner AT&T warned potential buyers that it wouldn’t have inventory for walk-in buyers until next week, but Wal-Mart, Best Buy and RadioShack all announced plans to have "limited" supplies available Thursday for shoppers who didn’t pre-order the iPhone 4.

That was the theory. The reality hasn’t played out so smoothly.

Wal-Marts around the country said that their iPhones were in short supply, and Twitter was ablaze with customers reporting from Wal-Mart stores that had just one or two of the devices in stock.

An Evansville, Ill., Wal-Mart said it had exactly one unreserved iPhone 4 available when it opened. But don’t race out the door: It’s already sold.

Only 1,500 of the 3,600 Wal-Mart stores in the United States are offering the phone on Thursday, according to company spokeswoman Ashley Hardie, though more stores will sell the phone after the launch day.

"They can’t get here soon enough!" Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) spokeswoman Melissa O’Brien added.

A spot check of two Best Buys and multiple RadioShack stores in New York City found no phones available for customers who hadn’t claimed them in advance.

But a few pockets of inventory emerged: A Best Buy on 62nd Street had a stash of 16 GB iPhone 4s available for sale mid-afternoon. Store employees wouldn’t say how many were left.

"Inventory remains constrained, and it is expected that many of the iPhones that Best Buy receives will go first to customers who reserved one during presale," Best Buy (BBY, Fortune 500) warned Wednesday in a statement. The company said availability would vary store by store, and that customers should call before heading out to pick up a phone.

To prevent long lines at Apple and AT&T stores — the only places to get the iPhone on the first day of sale in past years — Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) delivered devices to Best Buy, RadioShack and Wal-Mart stores across the country. But the inventory was not enough to meet the wild demand for the phone.

One RadioShack on 23rd Street in Manhattan said Apple had given it just eight iPhones — total. They were all reserved for pre-orders, but the store said that it would make them available to walk-ins at noon if they weren’t yet claimed.

Another RadioShack, on 57th Street, went through its scant inventory so fast it wasn’t able to fulfill all of its pre-orders. One block away, a RadioShack store that didn’t accept pre-orders — it stuck with first-come, first-served — sold out fast amid hectic demand.

Best Buy, which planned to have very limited iPhone stocks on hand, had no one in line at its Fifth Avenue outpost right before its opening.

But that was for the best, since that store didn’t have a single iPhone 4 on hand for walk-in customers, according to a manager preparing for an early open. Customers who pre-ordered through Best Buy would be able to pick up their phones at scheduled appointment times throughout the morning, he said.

RadioShack (RSH, Fortune 500) did not immediately return requests for comment.

AT&T (T, Fortune 500) announced last week that it won’t start selling the iPhone 4 to walk-in buyers until June 29, and it stuck by that statement Thursday morning. Customers who turned up seeking one were set away.

Daniel Karbowitz, 32, lost his iPhone 3G last week and hoped to replace it with the latest model. When the AT&T store broke the bad news, Karbowitz set out for the nearby Apple store.

"I’m not optimistic," he said. "I hope I can get one today, but Apple likes keeping a scarce supply of their newest products."

Demand for Apple’s new phone was 10 times higher than it was for the previous version, the iPhone 3GS, according to AT&T. Apples said it sold 600,000 devices on the first day of pre-sales.

The unanticipated demand crashed AT&T’s servers, and a number of customers were unable to pre-order the iPhone 4 last week. AT&T stopped accepting pre-orders after just one day. It’s waiting for Apple to restock its inventory.

Meanwhile, the iPhone’s availability — or unavailability — at other retail outlets did nothing to quell demand at Apple’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Thousands lined up at the store Thursday morning, with many saying they came because they heard the phones would be in short supply.

With a line still out the door, the Apple store on 67th Street in Manhattan ran out of inventory mid-afternoon for customers who didn’t pre-order. Just after 2 p.m., the store closed down its walk-in line. Managers said they would take stock of their remaining supplies and see if the could re-open the queue later Thursday.  

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06/20/2010 (1:27 am)

WRIT sells four Rockville properties

Filed under: online |

Rockville-based Washington Real Estate Investment Trust has completed the sale of four properties for $23.4 million.

All four buildings — three office buildings and one industrial property — are on Parklawn Drive in Rockville. WRIT has owned three of the buildings since 1993. It purchased the fourth in 1999.

This is the latest shuffle in WRIT’s local portfolio.

Earlier this month, the real estate investment trust paid $68 million to acquire two office buildings at the Quantico Corporate Office Center near Marine Corps Base Quantico in Stafford, Va.

The company owns more than 90 commercial real estate properties in the Washington market.

WRIT (NYSE: WRE) had $76.5 million in fiscal first-quarter revenue, little changed from year ago results.

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05/15/2010 (4:00 pm)

Jimmy Smits, Reba McEntire on tap for Capitol Fourth show on National Mall

Filed under: management |

Actor Jimmy Smits and country music performer Reba McEntire are among celebrities lined up for this year's "A Capitol Fourth" show, broadcast live from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol.

This is the 30th anniversary broadcast of the show, which leads up to Washington's fireworks display on the Naitonal Mall.

Smits will host the broadcast. Other performers scheduled this year include Darius Rucker of Hootie & the Blowfish and classical pianist Lang Lang, who will perform with the National Symphony Orchestra.

McEntire will also receive the National Artistic Achievement Award during the show.

As in years past, the show will be broadcast live on PBS and heard live on NPR member radio stations.

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