http://http://www.kentucky.com/101/index.xml News, sports, and entertainment from Kentucky.com en-us Copyright 2009 Kentucky.com Business 60 Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:25:34 EST http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's Workbench webmaster@kentucky.com http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/651164.html http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/651164.html Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:07 EST
The projects are a women's health and maternity center at St. Joseph East in Lexington and new hospitals in Mount Sterling and London.

The projects were put on hold because of concerns about the economy, but St. Joseph's parent company, Denver-based Catholic Health Initiatives, has decided to restart them, Jeff Murphy, a spokesman for St. Joseph Health System, said Thursday.

The projects at St. Joseph East and London were in the midst of construction when they were put on hold. The project in Mount Sterling was still in the design phase. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/651830.html http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/651830.html Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:48 EST
Holiday spending was so anemic that even Wal-Mart didn't escape unscathed: It posted a smaller sales gain than Wall Street expected and cut its earnings outlook for the fourth quarter. Macy's, Gap and a slew of others reduced their forecasts as well, mainly because of the huge discounts stores have used to draw in customers.

The nationwide picture was bleak: Same-store sales were down 1.7 percent for December, with many chains reporting declines of 10 percent and more, according to an index released Thursday by the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs.

For November and December combined, the drop was 2.2 percent the weakest holiday shopping season since the index was started in 1969. For all of 2008, sales rose just 1 percent, the weakest in at least 38 years. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/651829.html http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/651829.html Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:48 EST
The manufacturers are fighting an unhappy trend. DisplaySearch, a research firm, forecasts that global sales of LCD TVs, the most popular kind, will fall 16 percent in 2009 to $64 billion. That would be the first sales decline since the technology had its TV debut in 2000.

To entice consumers to come back, manufacturers are touting relatively inexpensive advances. One is that many top-line and even some value-priced TVs will connect to the Internet.

Such TVs started appearing a year ago with limited functions, including being able to display news stories and weather reports. Now, back-end systems and partnerships to provide streaming movies are coming together. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/651826.html http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/651826.html Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:48 EST
State's food prices dropped over last three months, survey finds

A yearlong climb in Kentucky's retail food price index reversed course over the last three months of 2008, posting a 2.7 percent decline in the Kentucky Farm Bureau's January marketbasket report. A grouping of 40 food items cost shoppers an average $111.63, surveyors found, down from a record $114.72 in October. The latest survey finding remained more than $7 above year-earlier levels, when the marketbasket index stood at $104.43. For the year, the Farm Bureau marketbasket items cost about 7 percent more than in 2007, which is similar to the federal Consumer Price Index for all foods in 2008.

]]> http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/651803.html http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/651803.html Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:48 EST
The detail was provided in a court filing Thursday as prosecutors argued that Madoff should have his bail revoked and be sent to jail. The judge was expected to rule Friday or Monday whether Madoff should be sent to jail or remain free on bail, confined to his luxury Upper East Side penthouse with an electronic ankle bracelet and under 24-hour guard.

Meanwhile, the many Bernard Madoff investors who withdrew money from their accounts over the years are now wrestling with an ethical and legal quandary.

What they thought were profits was probably money stolen from other clients in what prosecutors are calling the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Now they are confronting the possibility that they might have to pay some of it back. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/651317.html http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/651317.html Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:58 EST
Developer Dudley Webb said late last fall that construction would begin in December on the $250 million tower in the middle of downtown Lexington. It's now January, and the site is a big gravel pit waiting for something to happen.

To make way for Centre Pointe, Webb bulldozed the block bounded by Main, Vine, Limestone and Upper streets. He took out 14 structures, including 182-year-old Morton's Row, the second-oldest commercial building downtown. The National Trust for Historic Preservation called it one of America's biggest losses of 2008.

City officials have asked the state for permission to use incremental tax revenues generated by CentrePointe over the next 30 years to pay for some of the project's "public" infrastructure, as well as for other downtown improvements. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/650393.html http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/650393.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:51 EST
Things were so bad last year that a single Toyota model, the Camry Solara midsize, outsold the entire fleet of Chrysler LLC's passenger cars.

Chrysler will not comment on speculation about its future, spokeswoman Shawn Morgan said Wednesday.

"We are completely focused on our plans to ensure the future viability of our company," she said

U.S. sales of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brand vehicles fell 30 percent last year, the worst decline of any major automaker. It lost more market share than any of its peers, down to 11 percent. Analysts say most of Chrysler's products, especially its cars, don't look, feel or drive as well as the competition's.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/650395.html http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/650395.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:12 EST
The association said delinquencies rose from 2.68 percent in the second quarter to a seasonally adjusted 2.9 percent. The number is a composite ratio reflecting the percentage of accounts across eight categories of consumer loans with payments at least 30 days overdue.

The previous record was 2.88 percent, set in the third quarter of 1989, ABA spokeswoman Carol Kaplan said.

"The No. 1 factor in rising consumer credit delinquencies is job losses," said James Chessen, the ABA's chief economist. "With 1 million jobs lost in the first three quarters (of 2008) and two and a half million expected for the year, delinquencies of all types of consumer loans will likely increase in the coming quarters." ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/650394.html http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/650394.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:51 EST
Time Warner Cable is the nation's second largest cable operator and has about 80,000 subscribers in the counties around Lexington and elsewhere in Kentucky.

As a result of the pretax charges, the New York-based company says it now expects to book a loss for 2008. Time Warner Cable previously predicted a profit of $1.10 to $1.15 per share.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast 2008 earnings of $1.16 per share.

Time Warner Cable noted that its stock price tumbled during the second half of 2008, which indicates a "significant decrease in the value of its cable franchise rights." The company's stock is off 30 percent from its 52-week high of $31.56 set last May.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/650392.html http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/650392.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:03 EST
The Colombian Coffee Growers Federation says it has consulted with U.S. lawyers and will sue cartoonist Mike Peters on Friday for $20 million or more "for damage and harm, detriment to intellectual property and defamation."

It will also demand a retraction from any newspaper that published the Jan. 2 cartoon. The Herald-Leader publishes the cartoon.

The federation, which represents more than 560,000 coffee producers, said that by linking organized crime and coffee, the cartoon "attacks the national dignity and the reputation of coffee from Colombia." ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/650391.html http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/650391.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:03 EST
Richart to head combined PNC and National City in Lexington

PNC Financial Services Group announced Wednesday that Harry Richart , head of National City 's operations in Lexington, will lead the banks' combined operations in the city. Speculation has focused on what kind of impact PNC's purchase of National City will have on Lexington's banking landscape. PNC spokesman Fred Solomon said PNC didn't have a formal leader in Lexington, so no top leader is being displaced. "The combination of PNC and National City greatly expands PNC's presence in Lexington and creates a bank better positioned to meet the credit and banking needs of our Kentucky customers in this economic environment," Richart said in a statement. The company has not disclosed what, if any, impact the acquisition will have on its Lexington real estate, from both of its downtown headquarters to branches across the city.

Hart's uniform rental business sold ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/649115.html http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/649115.html Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:09 EST
The fallout from the meltdown of that market caused a $577,000 loss for the Pikeville-based bank in its third quarter last year.

Community Trust filed the suit in federal court on New Year's Eve, saying it holds $9.9 million of the now essentially worthless securities. The bank bought them beginning in January 2006 because Merrill Lynch had said they were “safe investments for short-term investing,” the suit says.

The securities are called auction rate because their interest rates are set at periodic auctions.

But the securities were linked to Fannie Mae, the quasi-governmental mortgage giant, that has since been taken over by the federal government, which stopped paying dividends on the securities.

“When you have a long-standing relationship with somebody like this bank did with Merrill Lynch, you learn to trust them and rely on their skill and judgment, which they did...” said Richard A. Getty, who is representing Community Trust. “It turned out that many things they should have known about these securities were not really fully disclosed.”]]> http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/648894.html http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/648894.html Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:17 EST
Every few weeks, coupons arrive in Williams' Elizabethtown mailbox for items she usually loads into her cart: Capri Sun drinks for her two children, Reynolds Wrap foil, Hellmann's mayonnaise. While Kroger is building loyalty with 95 percent of a recent mailing tailored to specific households Williams is saving money without searching through dozens of pages of coupons.

"I'm not that big a coupon clipper," she said. "It seems like a lot of coupons you see are (for) things that you never use."

Although the recession has revived penny pinching, Americans are still redeeming only 1 percent to 3 percent of paper coupons. In contrast, Kroger, the nation's largest traditional grocery chain says that as many as half the coupons it sends regular customers do get used. Kroger's part ownership of a data mining firm allows it to use the reams of information its shopper cards collect in many ways, including giving shoppers coupons mainly for products they regularly buy.

Simon Hay, chief executive of dunnhumbyUSA, the British data-mining and marketing operation Kroger co-owns, said targeting promotions becomes even more important in a recession.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/648631.html http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/648631.html Wed, 07 Jan 2009 06:58 EST
The Jockey Club reported that wagering on U.S. races was down 7.16 percent, from more than $14.7 million in 2007. Betting for December was down 20.3 percent, or more than $200 million, to just over $820 million.

"The fourth quarter was an extremely challenging one due in large part to the worldwide economic slowdown and other internal factors," said Alex Waldrop, NTRA president and CEO, in a statement. He pointed out that December was hurt by an unusual calendar with 35 fewer total days of racing and fewer racing weekends to bet on.

Except for a slight increase in 2006, handle has been dropping steadily since it peaked at $15.2 billion in 2003, but this is by far the largest drop in both percentages and dollars, according to the Jockey Club's data.

Overall betting handle also was hurt by disputes between horsemen and racetracks over how to split revenue from advance-deposit wagering platforms such as online betting. Those disputes effectively cut off a lucrative portion of the betting market in several states, including Kentucky, for much of the year. Off-track betting accounts for almost 90 percent of total wagering.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/648896.html http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/648896.html Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:46 EST
The chain, which had emerged from bankruptcy protection in October, couldn't restructure credit deals, according to a Dow Jones report on Tuesday.

The primarily Southeast retailer had difficulty competing against larger chains such as Kohl's and Target. Goody's had 355 stores in 20 states last year before it closed more than 100 of them, including its location in Hamburg Pavilion. That store is being converted into a DSW shoe store.

Goody's opened its Richmond store on Aug. 28, despite the problems and left its former spot at Richmond Mall.

"We were hopeful that Goody's would pull things out of the ditch, said Charles Thrift, senior leasing associate at Richmond Centre developer Crosland.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/648895.html http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/648895.html Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:46 EST
The company said that Chuck Denny, who was National City's president for Kentucky and Tennessee, will head up its operations in Kentucky and Indiana. He replaces Craig Grant, who is moving to Florida to head operations there.

PNC spokesman Fred Solomon said Tuesday that the company has not made any announcements regarding leadership in Lexington, where the combined operations are the fourth-largest bank with 11.72 percent of the city's deposits, according to federal data.

He said he wouldn't speculate on whether there has been any discussions of combining certain operations or changing leadership.

Solomon said previously that efforts to merge the banks' offices, processing centers, ATMs and more would take about two years. The company announced Monday that PNC customers can use National City ATMs without fees and vice-versa.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/648893.html http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/648893.html Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:46 EST
Auto wheel manufacturer lays off 45 in Franklin County

Wheel manufacturer Topy America has laid off 45 workers at its Franklin County factory, according to WKYT-27. The manufacturer said the cut accounted for 16 percent of the site's work force of around 280. Tom Trzaskus, director of the plant, declined to comment when reached at his home on Tuesday evening. In mid-2007, Topy America employed about 600 at the site but then cut 250 workers when it decided to stop making aluminum wheels and focus only on steel wheels. Topy, a subsidiary of the Japanese company Topy Industries, has been manufacturing wheels for the automotive industry since 1986.

Jobless claims overwhelm system

Kentucky is one of several states around the country whose unemployment claims system has been stretched to the max during recent days. Kentucky jobless claims rose to 40,400 in November from 23,400 a year earlier. A flood of new filers overwhelmed the state's unemployment Web site and phone lines Monday, when more than 8,000 people filed initial claims, said Kim Brannock, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Education Cabinet , which oversees the state unemployment office. Kentucky's unemployment systems weren't designed to handle that kind of volume. Technicians worked through the night to add capacity to the Web site and are still trying to increase its phone capacity beyond the current 400 lines, Brannock said. "People seem to feel like they have to file first thing Monday morning," she said. "They don't have to, but they feel that way. It's just overwhelming to the system."]]> http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/647730.html http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/647730.html Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:37 EST
No question.

Automakers reported their sales figures for December on Monday and 2008 became the worst year for the industry since 1992. Dealers in Central Kentucky said they felt optimistic for the future but relayed tales of just how difficult it is to persuade people to drive away in a new car.

It was a year that claimed nearly a thousand dealerships nationally, with about 50 closing in Kentucky. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/647760.html http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/647760.html Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:42 EST
Inspector General H. David Kotz said he is so concerned about the SEC's failure to uncover Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme that the IG is expanding the inquiry called for last month by SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. Cox had pushed the blame squarely onto the SEC's career staff for the failure to detect what Madoff was doing.

At the first congressional hearing on the scandal, Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., called for Congress to create a regulatory structure "for the 21st century."

The House Financial Services Committee is trying to determine how, despite warnings back to at least 1999 to SEC staff members, Madoff continued to operate his alleged scheme. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/647759.html http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/647759.html Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:42 EST
The recession is liable to tone down the flashiness of this week's International Consumer Electronics Show, but the lineup of innovative products probably will measure up to those of past years.

Competition is still fierce, and innovation counts. Name-brand manufacturers still need to differentiate themselves by introducing features that keep them ahead of value-price brands.

For instance, Sony Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. will introduce new flat-panel TV sets that provide smoother-looking action scenes, 3-D capabilities and Internet connections that can download movies, weather data and screen savers. ]]>