News money 2008-07-21 Andanh.com

Company does more than just printing Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:43:00 EST
The Fetter name has been a part of Louisville's printing industry since 1888, when founder George G. Fetter Sr. opened Fetter Printing Co. on Fifth Street between Main and Market.

Flex-time policy can be beneficial to business Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:49:00 EST
Matt Dornic gives his employees flexible work hours so they can pursue graduate degrees or even to work a second job. Steven Rabinowitz encourages his staffers to do pro bono work, although he knows that such extracurricular activities might lead them to quit for a better job elsewhere.

re: Chris & Kara Mohr nutrition & fitness Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:49:00 EST
At Penn State University, Chris earned his Bachelor of Science in nutrition and Kara her Bachelor of Science in psychology. Chris has a master's in nutrition from the University of Massachusetts. At the University of Pittsburgh, Kara got her master's in exercise physiology, and both Chris and Kara earned doctorates in exercise physiology. Chris is also a registered dietitian.

Memorabilia help rock company's profits Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:50:00 EST
George Harrison called his 1970 solo album "All Things Must Pass." But that doesn't appear to be true for autographs and other collectibles from the Beatles and other rock music legends.

Personal errands: A new wave of outsourcing Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:51:00 EST
Think only celebrities, high-ranking professionals and the wealthy can enjoy having personal assistants at their beck and call? Not necessarily.

J.A. president wins Ernst & Young title Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:52:00 EST
Debra Hoffer, president of Junior Achievement of Kentuckiana, received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year 2008 Award in the Support of Entrepreneurship category in South Central Ohio and Kentucky. Hoffer is now eligible for the competition's national level.

Most productive day? Survey finds it's Tuesday Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:52:00 EST
A recent phone survey found that 57 percent of executives found Tuesday to be the most productive day for employees. Monday was the second most popular answer, but only 12 percent said so compared with 26 percent in 2006.

Business People Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:51:00 EST
Financial services and non profit organization announcements are in today's Business People. Submit new items at courier-journal.com/businesspeople Sign up for the daily Business People newsletter at courier-journal.com/newsletters.

Inkjets expected to smear earnings Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:12 EDT

Lexmark International will release its second-quarter earnings on Tuesday, and analysts expect the Lexington-based printer maker to continue its well-publicized struggles stemming from its inkjet printer division.

Since late 2005, that division has struggled as consumers bought printers, which often are sold at a loss, but failed to purchase enough ink cartridges over time to meet Lexmark's profit expectations. The company withdrew from 20 percent of its inkjet sales in 2006 and then announced last October that it would drop another 30 percent of sales in hopes of finding the most profitable customers.

Along with those announcements were restructurings that closed plants, eliminated employees and transferred thousands of jobs to lower-wage countries.

.It's even money if they'll announce another restructuring next year,. said Tom Carpenter, vice president and senior equity analyst at Hilliard Lyons in Louisville.

News site blooper: Tyson who? Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:08 EDT

Technology is great, right . as long as it does what we want it to do.

If not, there can be red faces all around, like those at the American Family Association and its Onenewsnow.com Web site.

Onenewsnow handles a lot of Associated Press copy, and its small staff doesn't always have time to read every item before it goes to the Web, says Fred Jackson , the news director.

They programmed a computer to scan AP stories and make certain changes to keep the stories in line with the association's conservative agenda. One change was to substitute the word homosexual for gay .

New and near retirees face danger of outliving assets Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:12 EDT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. . Thinking about retirement?

Think hard.

A new study warns that about 75 percent of .near retirees. . those ages 58-65 . will outlive their savings unless they reduce their pre-retirement standard of living by more than one-third.

For many Americans, that might mean downsizing their home, selling one of their cars, not eating out as often and giving up planned vacations.

Personnel file Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:04 EDT

Architecture

GBBN Architects: Britney .Groneck has joined the firm's architectural support core group. The Vine Grove native is a graduate of the University of Kentucky, where she earned her bachelor of architecture degree. Her areas of expertise include urban residential development and adaptive reuse projects.

Education

Berea College: David E. Shelton, a retired senior vice president of real estate, engineering and construction for the Lowe's companies, has been named chair of the college's board of trustees. He succeeds, M. Elizabeth Culbreth, board chair since 2002. James R. Lewis, Somerset native and president and chief executive officer for worldwide property and casualty operations with Chicago-based CNA, has been elected to a six-year term on the college's board of trustees.

A users' guide to 4 common touch-screen technologies Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:35 EDT

Resistive

This is the most common kind for portable electronics. It's found on Palm Treos, HTC phones and the Samsung Instinct.

Two layers of clear conductive material lie on top of the display. Pressing them together makes current flow between them. Resistive displays are cheap and can be used with a simple plastic or metal stylus, but are prone to damage because the sensor is on top of the display.

Most resistive screens need to be calibrated periodically, or the touch sensing might not line up with the display. Also, the sensor degrades the image quality slightly. It's difficult, but not impossible, for resistive screens to register more than one touch at the same time.

Dipping into retirement funds can yield big losses Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:12 EDT

NEW YORK . Saving enough for retirement can fall far down on a to-do list for Americans squeezed by rising costs for necessities like food and energy. But even those who do set aside money can, in a single move, risk much of what they've saved.

Financial experts worried about the thin wallets of some workers are warning lawmakers in Washington that an increasing number of investors have begun to treat their retirement plans like piggy banks.

While making loans or withdrawals from a retirement account is often linked to an emergency like illness, there is fresh evidence that the impact of even briefly sidelining money can be huge by the time retirement arrives.

Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., chairman of the Senate's Special Committee on Aging, contends investors are robbing themselves of future earnings if they touch accounts that are supposed to be sacrosanct until retirement.

Discount-shopping bike riders Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:12 EDT

NEW YORK . Adrienne Radtke plans to keep riding her bike to work even if gas prices drop. Steve Pizzini got rid of his Cadillac Escalade in favor of a 16-year-old Acura and doesn't expect to have another gas-guzzler.

.I had a paradigm shift,. said Pizzini, a financial analyst. .I spent the money on a nice car. But to me, it's not worth it. I don't think I will go that route again..

Every economic downturn changes shoppers in some way. But this time, experts say the new behavior . fueled by higher gas and food prices, tightening credit and a slumping housing market . are the most dramatic and widespread that they have seen since the mid-1970s.

So retailers, marketers and investors are all trying to figure out which habits shoppers will keep and which ones they will drop when the economy recovers. Will the people who switched to store-brand ice cream go back to Breyers or Edy's? Will shoppers return to department stores or keep looking for labels at T.J. Maxx?

Kentucky datebook Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:12 EDT

Classes

Eastern Kentucky University's Leadership Excellence for Middle Managers will be Aug. 1-Nov. 20. Topics include leadership, principles of human behavior, selecting and developing talent among others. Information: cheryl.juhasz@eku.edu or (859) 622-1164.

Kentucky Electrical Contractors Association will present the following six-hour Kentucky- and Ohio-approved electrical continuing education classes at the IEC Training Center, 950 Contract Street. For more information or to register, call (859) 266-4968 or visit www.iecbluegrass.org. Business and Employment Law, Business Practices and Compliance with OSHA, a Practical Approach, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday , $125, $100 for IEC members; Master Electricians and Electricians: 2008 NEC Code Update, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, $65, $50 IEC members.

Meetings

Conventions Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:12 EDT

Events scheduled for Lexington, including expected attendance:

Reeves International, BreyerFest 2008: Through July 21, Holiday Inn North, 6,000.

Kentucky Association of Conservation Districts: Through Tuesday, Radisson Plaza, 400.

International Lutheran Laymen's League, 2008 International .Convention: Thursday-Sunday, Hyatt Regency Lexington, 1,000..

Kentucky by the numbers Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:12 EDT

176,600

More than 176,600 people are employed in the tourism industry in Kentucky, earning more than $3.46 billion in payroll, according to an annual report compiled by the Travel Industry Association in Washington, D.C. Nearly $7.25 billion was spent directly by domestic travelers in Kentucky in 2007. Combined with indirect spending, the total value of the tourism industry totals $10.72 billion.

The report shows that tourism in Fayette County was up by 7 percent in 2007 and increased 7.2 percent statewide in 2007.

Kentucky Money Market Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:33 EDT

Court order dissolves privacy protections Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:12 EDT

NEW YORK . Credit card companies know what you've bought. Phone companies know whom you've called. Electronic toll services know where you've gone. Internet search companies know what you've sought.

It might be reassuring, then, that companies have largely pledged to safeguard these repositories of data about you.

But a recent federal court ruling ordering the disclosure of YouTube viewership records underscores the reality that even the most benevolent company can do only so much to guard your digital life: All their protections can vanish with one stroke of a judge's pen.

.Companies have a tremendous amount of very sensitive data on their customers, and while a company itself may treat that responsibly ... if the court orders it be turned over, there's not a lot that the company that holds the data can do,. said Jennifer Urban, a law professor at the University of Southern California.

Ways to safeguard your personal data on the Web Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:12 EDT

Your privacy protections may disappear with a court order or subpoena, but there are steps that privacy activists suggest you take to reduce your exposure:

. Read privacy policies. Although you have little control over what happens to data, you can at least know what gets collected and retained.

. Avoid identifying information in user IDs, such as a first initial and full last name. Choosing a moniker that avoids any reference to your name, job or other personal attributes can make tracking more difficult.

. Don't use the same user ID across multiple services. For example, if a user ID is attached to a message board posting that includes your full name, even if the ID itself does not contain your real name, it's now tied to your name when used elsewhere.

Stocks fluctuate on worries about earnings, oil Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:41 EDT
Wall Street fluctuated Monday as investors watched the price of oil regain ground and decided to cash in some of their gains from the market's big rally last week.

Oil rose on concerns that the threat of new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program may escalate tensions in the Middle East. Light, sweet crude was up $1.72 to $130.60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

That offset initial market enthusiasm after Bank of America Corp. posted results that beat expectations, raising hope the credit crisis might be easing for the nation's biggest retail banks. The largest U.S. bank by assets reported that higher investment banking and record revenue helped drive earnings during the second quarter.

With BofA's results, four of the nation's five biggest banks have now reported better-than-expected earnings, and that's raising hopes that the financial sector is starting to recover from the year-old credit crisis.

"With crude trading up near $130, and a big advance last week, some investors are taking chips off the table," said Jim Herrick, manager of equity trading at Baird & Co. "We're going to be in a tight trading range this week based on earnings and oil prices. I expect more of the same."

Deadly Tolls: Sick truckers causing fatal wrecks Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:16 EDT
Tractor-trailer and bus drivers in the United States have suffered seizures, heart attacks or unconscious spells behind the wheel that led to deadly crashes on highways. Hundreds of thousands of drivers carry commercial licenses even though they also qualify for full federal disability payments, according to a new U.S. safety study obtained by The Associated Press.

The problems threatening highway travelers persist despite years of government warnings and hundreds of deaths and injuries blamed on commercial truck and bus drivers who blacked out, collapsed or suffered major health problems behind the wheels of vehicles that can weigh 40 tons or more.

The U.S. agency responsible for cracking down on unfit truckers, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, acknowledges it hasn't completed any of eight recommendations that U.S. safety regulators have proposed since 2001. One would set minimum standards for officials who determine whether truckers are medically safe to drive. Another would prevent truckers from "doctor shopping" to find a physician who might overlook a risky health condition. It's unclear whether any of the eight recommendations will be done before President Bush leaves office.

"We have a major public safety problem, and we haven't corrected it," said Gerald Donaldson, senior research director at the Washington-based Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, whose members include consumer, health and safety groups and insurance companies. "You have an agency that is favorably disposed to maintaining the integrity of the industry's economic situation."

Truckers violating federal medical rules have been caught in every state, according to a review by the AP of 7.3 million commercial driver violations compiled by the Transportation Department in 2006, the latest data available. Texas, Maryland, Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Alabama, New Jersey, Minnesota and Ohio were states where drivers were sanctioned most frequently for breaking medical rules, such as failing to carry a valid medical certificate. Those 12 states accounted for half of all such violations in the United States.

Economists: 2nd half growth likely to be anemic Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:12 EDT
Call it the big fizzle. The hoped-for second-half economic rebound is looking to be lethargic, with the country straining under high energy prices and fallout from the housing and credit debacles.

Forty-five percent of economists believe the economy won't log any growth or will clock in at a feeble 1 percent pace in the final six months of this year, according to a survey being released Monday by the National Association for Business Economics, which is known by the acronym, NABE. And, 10 percent think economic activity could actually contract during the period.

"Forecasters are approaching the second half with a lot of caution," Ken Simonson, point person on the survey and chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, said in an interview. "Most forecasters are suggesting the outlook will be sluggish, but not desperate. I'm afraid we're stuck on the ground floor of growth."

Thirty-two percent, meanwhile, think the economy growth's during the second half could be between 1 and 2 percent, which would mark a plodding performance. The more bullish are clearly in the minority camp: 11 percent think growth will come in between 2 and 3 percent. Only 1 percent expect growth to surpass 3 percent.

The economy's growth slowed sharply in the final quarter of 2007 and remained stuck in a rut in the first quarter of this year. Tax rebates, which have energized shoppers, should help lift the country out of the doldrums somewhat in the second quarter. The government releases its estimate of the second-quarter's economic performance at the end of this month. However, as the bracing force of the rebates fade, some analysts fear the economy could hit another rough patch near the end of this year.

Roche offers $43.7B for rest of Genentech Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:36 EDT
Swiss pharmaceutical maker Roche on Monday offered $43.7 billion for the remaining shares of its U.S. biotech partner Genentech Inc., seizing the opportunity offered by the weak U.S. dollar to grab a bigger share of earnings from such Genentech drugs as the blockbuster cancer treatment Avastin.

But analysts said Roche might need to pay more, and investors seemed to agree by bidding Genentech's share price above the offer.

Roche Holdings AG already owns 55.9 percent of the South San Francisco, Calif.-based drugmaker. It offered $89 per share, 8.8 percent above Genentech's closing price Friday and 19 percent above the price a month ago.

Genentech shares climbed well above that offer in midday trading on Monday, jumping $10.58, or 12.9 percent, to $92.40 after rising to a 52-week high of $94.19 earlier in the session - a bet that the bidding will go higher.

The California company took no position on the offer, but confirmed in a statement that a special committee of its board would meet promptly to decide on a response.

Yahoo settles with Icahn to avert August showdown Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:31 EDT
Yahoo Inc. averted a showdown with rabble-rousing investor Carl Icahn on Monday by giving him three seats on its board of directors in a truce that still leaves the door open for a possible sale to Microsoft Corp.

The compromise spares Yahoo from more bickering with Icahn, an acerbic billionaire who had spent the past two months spearheading a rebellion to replace the Internet company's entire board in retaliation for its rejection of Microsoft's $47.5 billion takeover bid in May.

The duel had been scheduled to culminate in a shareholder vote at Yahoo's Aug. 1 annual meeting.

It now appears there will be fewer fireworks at that gathering, although some Yahoo shareholders are still expected to vent about the board's inability to get a deal done with Microsoft after six months of wrangling.

The main order of business will be the cease-fire giving Icahn three of the 11 seats on Yahoo's board, which will be expanded to make the deal possible.

Reach out and touch Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:01 EDT

NEW YORK . It has been a good year for touch screens.

The launch of the first iPhone model a year ago boosted interest in the technology tremendously, and this year's updated model is likely to stoke enthusiasm. Now touch-screen manufacturers are going flat out, and more devices will soon be controlled by the tip of your finger.

.After the iPhone came out, a lot of mobile-phone companies said, .Oh, I can make that kind of touch-screen mobile phone, too,'. said Jennifer Colegrove, analyst at iSuppli Corp.

Sprint Nextel Corp. just introduced a touch-screen phone, the Samsung Instinct, that's very reminiscent of the iPhone. Verizon Wireless this year introduced its first two phones that use touch screens as their main interface. Research In Motion Ltd. is thought to be making a touch-screen version of the BlackBerry. Sony Ericsson is bringing out its first touch-screen model in a few months.

Loose change Mon, 21 Jul 2008 08:59 EDT

Chinese Dir