Financial thoughts

Gasoline prices are continuing their lazy ascent in Western New York.

Gas is selling for an average of $2.858 per gallon in Erie and Niagara counties as of Monday morning, according to the American Automobile Association.

That’s up seven-tenths of a cent from a week ago. The local average on Aug. 9 was $2.851.

And it’s up 1.2 cents from a month ago, when gas prices averaged $2.846 in the Buffalo area.

AAA issues daily price estimates for metropolitan areas across the country, based on its survey of credit-card purchases at self-service stations.

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Millions of jobless Americans are getting their unemployment benefits back.

Hours after the House voted Thursday to push back the deadline to file for extended unemployment benefits until the end of November, President Obama signed the measure into law.

The approval came a day after the Senate voted 59 to 39 to restore the payments, ending a seven-week stalemate.

Some 2.9 million people were scheduled to run out of benefits by the end of the week. The jobless stopped getting their checks in early June, after Congress failed to extend the deadline to apply for unemployment insurance.

Senate Republicans, as well as Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson, prevented the legislation’s passage, saying it should be paid for first. They suggested covering the $34 billion tab with unused stimulus money, a step the Senate Democratic leadership rejected.

Federal unemployment payments, which last up to 73 weeks, kick in after the state-funded 26 weeks of coverage expire. These federal benefits are divided into tiers, and the jobless must apply each time they move into a new tier Online payday loans.

The payments will be retroactive to the previous deadline of June 2. But it could take up to a month for states to start sending the checks again, experts said.

Lynda Kahn of Coral Springs, Fla., can’t wait to get that check. She stopped getting benefits last week and applied for Medicaid, only to be turned down because she doesn’t have dependent children. But she did get a supermarket gift card from a local charity to supplement her $200 a month food stamp allotment.

Kahn depends on her unemployment check, which was $275 a week plus a $25 stimulus-funded supplement that will be discontinued for those newly unemployed. She lost her job as a manager for a doctor’s office last August.

"It covers my mortgage payment," she said. 

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AirTran Airways reported that passenger traffic grew by 7.4 percent for June and 7.9 percent for the second quarter of 2010, both up from the year-ago periods.

The Orlando-based airline’s traffic and load factor — how full its planes were — represent new all-time records for the month of June and the second quarter, according to an AirTran release. June traffic grew by 7.4 percent to more than 1.8 billion revenue passenger miles. The company’s load factor for the month was 86.4 percent.

For the second quarter, traffic grew by 7 payday loans guaranteed no fax.9 percent to more than 5.2 billion revenue passenger miles, and the airline’s load factor was 83.1 percent.

Enplaned passengers also represent a new second-quarter company record. The airline enplaned more than 6.5 million passengers, a 5.3 percent increase from the second quarter of 2009.

AirTran Airways is a subsidiary of AirTran Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AAI) and a Fortune 1000 company.

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Graphic Packaging International Inc. plans to close its beverage-packaging plant in Golden at the end of October.

The plant at 4455 Table Mountain Drive employs about 150 workers. Most are in manufacturing jobs, and Graphic Packaging hopes to be able to move them to its other facilities around the country, said company spokeswoman Cindy Baerman. About 12 research-and-development employees will remain in Golden, she said.

In a statement, Graphic Packaging said the Golden shutdown “reflects the company’s ongoing efforts to align its manufacturing footprint to the changing needs of its beverage customers and improve its cost structure and margins to better position it for future growth.” It said the plant’s business and equipment will be moved to the company’s other U.S. locations.

“While closing the Golden facility is a difficult decision, it is necessary to ensure that we are able to consistently serve our customers and meet their changing needs from a solid network of efficient, low-cost manufacturing facilities, even in the face of the ongoing economic challenges of today’s marketplace,” David Scheible, the company’s president and CEO, said in the statement.

Graphic Packaging International is a unit of Graphic Packaging Holding Co. (NYSE: GPK), of Marietta, Ga. The company, which has about 15,000 workers worldwide, makes paperboard packaging for food, beverages and other consumer products and is a major producer of folding cartons, coated-recycled boxboard and specialty bag packaging.

The company is a descendant of Coors Paper Packaging, a packaging arm of Coors Brewing Co. that was launched in the 1970s.

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Research in Motion Ltd. is reportedly working on a touchscreen Blackberry smartphone with a slide-out keyboard and a tablet computing rival to Apple Inc.'s iPad.

The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed sources in a report Tuesday on RIM's (NASDAQ:RIMM) attempts to develop new products to compete with Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) popular lines.

The new smartphone runs on a new version of the BlackBerry operating system, the Journal reported, includes the ability to read finger gestures to expand and contract images and move through screens low fee payday loans.

The new tablet device connects to cellular networks via a BlackBerry phone, the paper reported, and could come out by the end of the year.

RIM's North American smartphone market share plunged to 38 percent in the March quarter from 54 percent a year earlier, while Apple's share grew to 23 percent from 18 percent.

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In a move aimed at combating the spread of diabetes, insurer UnitedHealth Group is launching a new program that will pay for lifestyle coaching at YMCA facilities.

Under the proposal announced Wednesday, the insurer will cover 16-week programs at the YMCA that discuss changes in eating, exercise and other lifestyle habits.

As part of the program, UnitedHealth will also pay incentives to Walgreens’ pharmacists to teach people how to better manage the disease.

Insurers such as UnitedHealth may start rolling out more such preventative care programs as the government’s health care overhaul forces insurers to cover patients regardless of medical condition.

UnitedHealth said it will pay YMCA lifestyle coaches based on performance, so coaches get paid more for recruiting more participants into the program, and for helping those participants achieve greater weight loss.

The company said studies funded by the government show that pre-diabetes patients can prevent or delay the disease by 58% simply by meeting in group coaching sessions, changing eating and exercise habits, and losing about 5% of their body weight faxless pay day loans.

UnitedHealth claims its program marks the first time a health insurer will cover "evidence-based" preventative diabetes care.

"The pilot data showed that paying for these services works — people get and stay healthier, leading to dramatically lower health care costs for employers and the health care system," Tom Beauregard, executive vice president of UnitedHealth Group, said in a statement.

UnitedHealth will first roll out the program in 7 cities, including 3 in Ohio: Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton. The other cities are Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz.

The program is free to people enrolled in UnitedHealth care plans through their employers. 

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Devereux Kids has been awarded $200,000 in federal funds for its community-based education, support and reunification program aimed at increasing the safety and well-being of children.

The funds will be used to expand the organization’s child abuse and neglect prevention programs in Marion County, but may be expanded to other areas, according to a Devereux release.

Devereux Kids, established in 1999, is a program of Orlando-based Devereux Florida. Devereux Kids works in 10 counties in Florida and reached more than 1,100 children in 563 families in the 2009 fiscal year. The foundation supporting the organization was founded in 1912 in Pennsylvania and created Devereux Florida in 1987. Devereux Florida helps more than 13,000 children annually.

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Three of every four chief financial officers are willing to offer pay raises, improve benefits or even approve bonuses to keep high-performing and much-coveted employees – when the economy recovers, according to a just-released report.

Almost half of CFOs say they would approve pay raises and promote top performers when the economy is humming. About three of five would enhance benefits – such as health care insurance or retirement plans – and one of every four would offer bonuses, according to Accountemps, a division of Robert Half International.

About 1,400 CFOs participated in the survey. Many business experts and economists say companies need to address compensation-related issues with top employees now, otherwise those workers will leave when the economy improves.

“Indispensable workers who helped businesses stay afloat during tough times will have new career options as conditions improve,” said Max Messmer, chairman of Accountemps and author of “Motivating Employees for Dummies, 2nd Edition fast payday loan.” “Employers need to make retention of top performers a high priority or risk losing these key players and, possibly, their competitive advantage. Let your top performers know they have a clear path within the organization and re-evaluate compensation levels to make sure they’re in line with what other firms in your industry are paying for similar positions.”

Of course, when the economy improves remains uncertain. Currently, about 125,000-plus Sacramento-area residents are looking for work. And the four-county region’s jobless rate is a modern-day record 13.1 percent, with about six available employees for each open position.

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Developer: NorthSide Regeneration LLC/McEagle Properties

Total projected cost: $8.1 billion

Time frame: Spring 2010 through 2030

Size: 1,490 acres

What will it be: A proposed mixed-use development across parts of St. Louis’ downtown and near north side, with an estimated 10,000 new houses, 4.5 million square feet of office space, 1 million square feet of retail plus other services

What’s next: NorthSide must win final city approval to start issuing $390 million worth of tax increment financing bonds, and it plans to start work this spring on rehabs to the Clemens House Mansion on Cass Avenue. The project faces two ongoing lawsuits.

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San Antonio area cable companies are gearing up for 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Starting Friday, Time Warner Cable and GVTC Communications will offer content from NBC Universal’s 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games.

The cable companies will show more than 835 hours of programming, the most ever for a Winter Olympics.

The games will be played between Feb. 12-28. On Time Warner Cable, NBC Universal will air a number of events on Sports On Demand Channel 950 and in HD on Showcase on Demand Channel 101.

Time Warner customers who are watching the Olympics on WOAI-TV will be able to press select on their remote when they see a Start Over prompt to restart a program in progress ay day loans.

Separately, GVTC customers also will have access to more than 1,200 hours of free online video content from the games not available on television. Subscribers will be able to visit MyGVTC.com and sign in with their GVTC e-mail account to access the content.

Also half the content will be exclusive online video unavailable on NBC and affiliate networks CNBC, MSNBC, USA and Universal HD.

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