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That write-down, plus more than $3 billion in costs related to consumers' credit problems, led Citigroup to a quarterly loss of $5.1 billion.

In the first three months of the year, Citigroup essentially lost what it earned in that same period in 2007. Analysts, on average, had expected the bank to lose 95 cents per share, according to Thomson Financial.

Citigroup has announced 13,200 job cuts since last summer and more work-force reductions are likely.

"We're very, very focused on efficiency," said chief executive Vikram Pandit during a conference call.

Time Warner Cable, which serves 80,000 homes in the counties around Lexington and in other Kentucky cities including Ashland and Owensboro, could soon be spun off by majority shareholder Time Warner. The latter owns 84 percent of the company's stock.

The move would not have an immediate effect on customers, an area company official said.

"I've been through similar internal spinoffs, and it's never had any impact on customers," said Robert Trott, general manager of Time Warner Cable Central Kentucky.

Earlier this year, executives at conglomerate Time Warner, which also owns Warner Bros., Time and AOL, said they didn't think Time Warner Cable, the nation's second-largest cable company, fit with the overall company.

As consumers increasingly use their handsets to browse the Web, it's no wonder that advertisers see mobile screens as valuable turf. In the United States, cell phones haven't yet proved to be the same kind of advertising bonanza as the Internet, mostly because of the wireless industry's more controlled nature and the slower adoption of text messaging and mobile Web services.

But momentum is gradually building, especially behind text-based marketing campaigns.

According to research firm eMarketer, worldwide spending on mobile advertising totaled $2.7 billion last year and is expected to hit $4.6 billion in 2008, rising to $19.1 billion by 2012. In contrast, eMarketer projects that Internet advertising in the United States alone will reach $25.9 billion this year.

"Consumers are becoming more receptive to using wireless data on their device," said Laura Marriott, president of the Mobile Marketing Association, which has rebuilt its membership in the last several years after a decline in 2002. She added, however, "I think there's mixed feelings in regards to receiving advertising-related messages."

CKF REPORTS LOWER EARNINGS

Danville-based CKF Bancorp Inc. reported earnings Friday of $150,283, or 12 cents a share, for 2008's first quarter. For the same period of 2007, CKF earned $257,824, or 20 cents a share. CKF, which operates Central Kentucky Federal Savings Bank, said its total assets were $148 million on March 31, compared with $149.6 million on Dec. 31. The bank has full-service offices in Danville and Lancaster, and a loan production office in Nicholasville. The stock trades over the counter as CKFB.PK.

PROFITS UP FOR BANK OF KENTUCKY

The Bank of Kentucky Financial Corp., holding company for the Bank of Kentucky Inc., reported first-quarter 2008 earnings Friday of $2.5 million, or 44 cents a share, compared with $2.16 million, or 37 cents a share, for 2007's first quarter. The report showed interest income of $18.5 million, a 6 percent rise over the showing in the 2007 first quarter, the company said. The Bank of Kentucky Financial Corp. is based in Crestview Hills and operates 28 Bank of Kentucky branches. It has total assets of $1.24 billion. The stock is BKYF.OB/OTC.

For the same period of 2007, CKF earned $257,824, or 20 cents a share.

CKF, which operates Central Kentucky Federal Savings Bank, said its total assets were $148 million on March 31, compared with $149.6 million on Dec. 31.

The bank has full-service offices in Danville and Lancaster, and a loan production office in Nicholasville. The stock trades over the counter as CKFB.PK.

Interest income rose 6 percent to $18.5 million, compared with the 2007 first quarter, the company said.

The Bank of Kentucky Financial Corp. is based in Crestview Hills and operates 28 Bank of Kentucky branches. It has total assets of $1.24 billion. The stock is BKYF.OB/OTC.

Convis, 65, retired last year after spending more than two decades with Toyota, most recently as chairman of the company's manufacturing operations in Georgetown.

Convis joined Dana's board of directors in January, about the same time that the company emerged from bankruptcy protection. It had filed nearly two years earlier after being unable to meet automakers' demands for lower-priced parts. The Toledo, Ohio-based company has since reduced costs through work-force moves and plant closures.

The move effectively ends Convis' affiliation with Toyota, which included a tenure as president of the Georgetown plant from 2001 to 2006. He was the first non-Japanese to lead the plant. He had committed to being an executive adviser for two years into retirement.

He had most recently been advising Seiichi Sudo, the Erlanger-based president of the company's North American manufacturing operations, Toyota spokesman Mike Goss said.

Chief Executive Anne Mulcahy said tighter profit margins due to investment spending were offset by a lower tax rate.

The Norwalk-based office equipment maker said it lost the equivalent of 27 cents per share in the three months ended March 31 compared with $233 million, or 24 cents a share, a year ago.

Excluding the previously announced charge of 54 cents per share, the company earned 27 cents per share in the period.

That met expectations of analysts in a Thomson Financial poll.

Delta President Ed Bastian said at a news conference Thursday at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport that the merger will promote growth, especially internationally. He said that could mean better access to overseas routes from the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky region and the possibility of expansion for Comair.

Bastian, also Delta's chief financial officer, said no decision has been made on whether Comair would remain a subsidiary, be sold or spun off into a stand-alone company. No matter, it will remain an important part of the Delta Connection network.

"It will still have a long, long-term contract relationship with Delta, and will be a Delta Connection flier for as long as the eye can see," Bastian said of Comair.

Bastian said that the merger could enhance Comair's role with Delta.

The four-level, 155,000-square-foot addition will provide 158 additional beds, bringing Cardinal Hill up to a total of 232, and nearly doubling the hospital's space. The total includes 34 beds that Cardinal Hill now operates at the University of Kentucky Good Samaritan. Those beds will be moved to Cardinal Hill's main campus at 2050 Versailles Road.

Cardinal Hill officials said that 74 beds will be designated for "sub-acute" care, serving patients with less demanding medical problems. But up to 20 of those beds may be set aside for ventilator-dependent patients. Now, there are only two hospitals in Kentucky that cater to the needs of such patients.

Thursday's announcement offered the first detailed glimpse of the project since it was unveiled before the Urban County Council last week.

Key features of the expansion will include a larger and better-equipped therapy pool, a full-size gymnasium, and more private rooms for patients.

• If you've missed any bill payments, even a 30-day late payment.

• If you've been hit with collection agency notices, foreclosures, repossessions, tax liens or bankruptcies.

• If you've applied for any new credit accounts, which can indicate increased risk.

• If you've closed any credit card accounts, increased the balances or had credit limits reduced. Any of those might affect the ratio between how much credit you're using and how much you have available. (Some debt counselors say that if you're using more than 50 percent of your available credit, it can have a negative impact.)

On Thursday, the Lexington-based mattress and pillow maker said it earned $13.5 million, or 18 cents a share, compared with $29.8 million, or 35 cents a share, for the first quarter of 2007.

Sales dropped 7.1 percent to $247.2 million from $266 million for the 2007 quarter.

The big problem was a 16 percent plunge in U.S. sales, while Tempur-Pedic's smaller international segment rose 10 percent. "On a constant currency basis, international segment net sales decreased 3 percent," the company said.

Soft sales could continue through 2008, although "U.S. sales trends may have stabilized," said President and CEO H. Thomas Bryant.

The Nicholasville-based biotech and animal-feed company sued Felix D. Soriano and asked a federal judge to issue a restraining order to keep the former Pennsylvania-based sales manager and consultant from doing what it claims is similar work for Vi-COR.

At issue is a non-compete agreement Soriano signed with Alltech in late 2002. The agreement, Alltech says, prohibits him from sharing confidential information or calling on Alltech customers on behalf of a competitor for two years.

As an Alltech territory sales manager, Soriano oversaw sales staffers and worked with large customers in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island. In December 2006, he resigned and formed a consulting company and worked for Alltech through March 7, the company said in the suit.

He then resigned, saying in an e-mail produced by Alltech that he had "received a very tempting offer to work as a consultant for another company..."

On Monday, in time for Mother's Day, the nation's largest greeting card seller is releasing a line of recordable cards that allow the sender to save a 10-second message on a computer chip embedded in the card, followed by a 15-second snippet of music.

As part of the release, Hallmark is focusing on mothers deployed overseas with the military. The company plans to travel to five U.S. military bases -- the first visit was held Tuesday at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas -- and allow the children of military personnel to record greeting cards, which Hallmark will then mail overseas in time for Mother's Day and Father's Day.

The cards, which sell for $5.99 each, use a voice prompt to instruct users to press and hold a button inside the card and record a message, which is then followed by the music.

The tunes for the eight designs available for Mother's Day range from the sentimental -- Tanya Tucker's Here's Some Love and Phil Collins' You'll Be in My Heart to the alternative motherly greeting of Tag Team's Whoomp! There It Is.

RiskMetrics Group had deemed Mann to be an "affiliated outsider" because he served as the company's CEO from its formation in 1991 until 1998. He also was chairman of the board, ending that role in 1999.

The group wrote that it thinks "all key board committees (should) include only independent outsiders."

Lexmark had fought the group's advice, sending a note to undisclosed stockholders last week that Mann retired as board chairman "almost 10 years ago" and has been deemed "independent" under New York Stock Exchange and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission standards.

Mann, reached at his Florida home Wednesday, declined to say why he resigned from the Finance and Audit Committee.

Manufacturers and other businesses, meanwhile, were walloped by zooming prices for energy and other raw materials. However, their ability to jack up retail prices to customers was mixed, with some companies restrained by competitive pressures, according to the Federal Reserve's new snapshot of nationwide economic conditions released Wednesday.

Many analysts contend the economy has fallen into a recession, predicting that economic activity contracted during the first three months of this year and is still ebbing now. Even Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke recently acknowledged for the first time that a recession was possible. That was a rare utterance of the "r" word for a Fed chief. The government later this month will report on the economy's first-quarter performance.

Janet Yellen, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, in a speech Wednesday, said the economy "has all but stalled and could even contract over the first half of the year."

The report underscored the challenges facing Bernanke and his colleagues as they fight to keep the economy from sinking into a deep recession, while at the same time avoiding a flare-up of inflation. The report will figure prominently when the Fed meets April 29-30 to decide its next move on interest rates. The Fed, which has been cutting rates since last September to bolster the economy, turned much more forceful in January, when conditions took another turn for the worse. Many economists say the Fed will lower rates again at the April meeting to help shore things up.

The Buick LaCrosse will be the second hybrid to enter the Chinese automobile market following Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius in early 2006.

The LaCrosse is due to be unveiled Sunday at the Beijing auto show, GM managers said. They said it would be priced under 300,000 yuan ($43,000; 27,000 euros) - comparable to the Prius.

"We don't expect to see a very high volume of sales of this car in China in a short period of time. But we bring this technology to help China support sustainable growth and bring consumers in that direction," Joseph Liu, GM China's vice president for sales, told reporters.

The car was developed with contributions from GM's Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center in Shanghai, said Maryann Combs, the center's president.

This rush to regulate also was apparent in the recent crackdown on the airlines, resulting in thousands of grounded flights for safety inspections as the government beefs up its enforcement of existing laws. There have been mounting proposals for tougher government rules to address climate change. High corporate salaries have come under attack on Capitol Hill, as have oil industry profits and rising food costs.

Advocates of more aggressive government action see it as a boon to ordinary Americans struggling in hard economic times. But those favoring a lighter federal touch worry that the pendulum will swing too far toward regulation, stifling economic growth and efficiency.

"There's always that danger," said Jack Kemp, former New York congressman, housing secretary in the first Bush administration and 1996 Republican vice presidential nominee. "We do have to be concerned about over regulation."

But even the conservative Kemp, now an economic adviser to John McCain, has come down on the side of more federal involvement to help struggling homeowners. He argues for a plan - being advanced by the GOP presidential candidate - to help homeowners under water on their mortgages to restructure their loans. Lenders would have to write off part of the principal and, in exchange, the new loan would be backed by the federal government through the Federal Housing Administration. Designed to help 200,000 to 400,000 people, it is similar, if less ambitious, to plans supported by Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Some of the nation's biggest corporate powerhouses - across all industries - have used the greenback's retrenchment to shield themselves from slumping profit margins. Declines against world currencies make U.S. products look cheap overseas, and translate into big returns when sales are converted back into dollars.

Take Coca-Cola Inc. for example. Buying a can of Coke cost $1 in the United States, but the equivalent of about $2 in the U.K. - one reason the beverage giant was able to sail past Wall Street profit projections earlier this week.

And they aren't alone: International Business Machines Corp., Google Inc., Caterpillar Inc., and eBay Inc. all rallied this week because of strong overseas profits.

"If you look at some of the companies that had good quarters, they're doing half or more business abroad," said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors. "The weakness in the dollar is a significant benefit in currency translation, and for those companies that are developing products that will create a boost for export activity."

Shoppers are feeling it, too, as investors pump billions of dollars into agricultural commodities and, insiders say, help push up the price of the most basic of foodstuffs, a loaf of bread.

"It's been very stressful for all of us to manage marketing this crop," said George LaCour, a grain farmer near Morganza in southeast Louisiana.

LaCour sold more than half his 2008 crop before planting it, hoping to cash in on soaring prices. Selling the rest will have to wait until after the harvest since he has limited bank-borrowing power to hedge his future crops against price swings and he doesn't want to risk the money.

"Nobody wants to take the risk," he said.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told an oil and gas exhibition in Tehran on Friday that he thought the commodity still had to "discover its real value," according to the Web site of Iran's state-run television.

Oil prices have hit all-time highs above $115 a barrel in recent weeks, amid reports that oil and gasoline reserves in the United States were lower than expected and as the dollar sinks to record lows.

"The oil price of $115 a barrel in today's global markets is a deceiving figure. Oil is a strategic commodity that needs to discover its real value," the Web site quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

Crude oil futures surged to a new trading record of $117 a barrel Friday following an attack on a key pipeline in Nigeria. The increase capped a week of record highs fueled by supply woes and the dollar's weakness relative to other major currencies.

The biorefinery project in Washington County could lead to a statewide chain of ethanol plants.

"It is a huge grant," Alltech CEO Pearse Lyons said. "This is the last thing that was holding us back" from starting the project.

Construction will begin in June, and the refinery could be producing ethanol -- a fuel that can be used in trucks and cars -- in 15 or 16 months.

Ecofin LLC, an Alltech subsidiary, will be in charge of the project, and Excel Engineering will provide engineering services.

Investors were clearly uneasy about extending last week's big gains after Bank of America said its first-quarter earnings fell 77 percent on write-downs and widening credit losses. BofA's report followed a week in which big-name companies in general turned in better-than-expected numbers for the first quarter, helping the major stock indexes to gains of more than 4 percent.

Wall Street has at times worried that a slowing economy and a potentially hesitant consumer would crimp profits - especially for the financial sector - in the first three months of the year. Shares of National City dropped after the Midwest bank said it got a $7 billion cash infusion from equity investors, lowered its dividend and posted a $171 million loss for the first quarter.

Still, the market performed relatively well Monday, climbing back from an early plunge. Part of the reason was that not all the earnings Monday were downbeat. Merck said its profit nearly doubled in the first quarter because of a $1.4 billion distribution from a partner drug company and a slight rise in sales.

With little in the way of economic data scheduled to arrive this week, investors are looking at a big flow of corporate reports for insights into the well-being of the economy. At this point, investors remain cautious, but because they have already taken huge amounts of money out of stocks, the market appears stuck in a range - fluctuating back and forth as traders recoil at disappointing news but then take advantage of bargain prices.

Diesel prices at the pump also struck a record high of $4.20 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service, putting pressure on truckers and other shippers who rely on the fuel to transport goods to market.

Gas and diesel are expected to keep climbing as they trace the path of crude, which has surged to new records for six trading sessions in a row. And the worst may be still to come: The summer driving season, when demand is at its greatest, has yet to begin.

"It's uncharted territory. People look at the prices and think they're being taken advantage of," said Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service, Wall, N.J. "I don't think we're done, but I have to believe we're in the eighth or ninth inning" of price increases.

Gas prices at the pump jumped more than a nickel over the weekend nationwide, and are up 23 percent from a year earlier. Drivers are paying the lowest prices in New Jersey and the most in California, where a gallon of regular is now averaging $3.86 for a gallon.

"It's extremely timely with all the talk about recession and the economy being in the toilet," said William Parsons, chairman of the conference, which originated at Western Kentucky University. "Whereas there's a lot of doom and gloom on the horizon in different industries, there's a lot of bright light coming out of certain companies within the automotive industry."

The conference, to be held at the Marriott Griffin Gate on Newtown Pike, centers on innovation, diversification and succeeding in the industry. It is expected to draw about 250 participants.

Panel discussions include topics such as breakthrough technologies and alternative fuels, at which Kevin Butt, chief environmental officer of Toyota's North American manufacturing operations, will speak.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger will discuss the impact of private equity groups during a session on Thursday morning.

The consumer price index showed an annual rate of inflation -- the rise in prices across the economy -- of 4 percent over the 12 months that ended March 31, according to a report last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Food prices rose by 4.5 percent over that period and gasoline prices rose by 26 percent.

Here are some answers to questions about inflation at home and abroad:

Question: The economy is slowing, maybe in recession. Shouldn't that cause the inflation rate to fall?

For workers like Neal, a 26-year-old jewelry designer, retirement is probably several decades away, so deciding where to invest now for something so far off can be a daunting prospect. Knowing how many questions investors often have, financial companies have been pushing funds in recent years that automatically grow more conservative as retirement nears.

But although these target-date funds are designed to work essentially on autopilot, there are still some questions investors should consider.

Target-date investments are envisioned as one-stop shopping investments -- something with enough diversity to serve as the base of investor's holdings. But some funds are more aggressive than others. Investors need to consider what kind of risk they will accept.

Someone who panics and dumps a fund when markets fall can destroy much of the benefit of a long-term investment like a target-date fund.

Peterman is the founder of The J. Peterman Co., and he, Quimby and Newmark are featured in a new book: Accidental Branding: How Ordinary People Build Extraordinary Brands by David Vinjamuri.

"He is the man who built his mail-order business to 70 million dollars in sales and reinvented the catalog as we know it," Vinjamuri writes about Peterman.

"He is also famous because of the buffoonish caricature of him played by John O'Hurley on Seinfeld starting in 1995. Four years later, Peterman went spectacularly bankrupt ... And now he's back, quietly rebuilding the empire he lost."

What was the accident that gave Peterman his start?

GBBN Architects: Matthew J. Schottelkotte has been named the company's director of architecture.

Finance

Edward Jones: Dana S. Branham has been named the financial adviser for the company's newest Lexington office, at 800 Seminole Creek Court.

Unified Trust Co.: Kevin Stortzum has joined the firm as portfolio manager and equity analyst.

The earnings will be up because the sales of printers are down.

Selling fewer printers helps a company such as Lexmark in the short-term because inkjet printers, specifically, are often sold at a loss. But that upfront loss comes with the expectation that buyers will shell out for armfuls of profit-laden ink cartridges over the next few years.

But in Lexmark's case, they haven't. And that's at the core of the company's struggles.

But then, months later, what should reappear on that same lot but a shiny new Taco Bell again handing out gorditas by the bag.

Several of Lexington's restaurants have been undergoing makeovers during the past year or so, as their owners have opted to tear them down and rebuild.

The Taco Bell at the intersection of New Circle and Russell Cave roads has been out of commission since November, the last of three of the fast-food Mexican restaurants to be razed and rebuilt.

Also torn down and rebuilt recently was a Wendy's down the road near the North Park Wal-Mart.

More detailed information about Kentucky's Eastern Division bankruptcies can be obtained for a fee by visiting www.kyeb.uscourts.gov, clicking on the electronic case file (ECF) icon and following the instructions for setting up a PACER account.

Chapter 7

ASHLAND DIVISION

Paul R. Carter Sr., Morehead. 08-10181.

Global Automotive Conference: Through Thursday, Griffin Gate Marriott Resort, 250.

International Ministry Conference, Lay Ministry Conference: Wednesday-Sunday, Hampton Inn at I-75, 50.

Coal Prep and Aggregate Processing: Friday through May 2, Hyatt Regency, 1,200.

University of Louisville College of Business, 2008 Kentucky International Equine Summit: Sunday through April 29, Radisson Plaza, 400.

Patent No. 7,354,476 assigned to Lexmark International, Inc., Lexington.

Printed conductive connectors. Inventors: Frank Anderson, Sadieville; Richard Corley Jr., Richmond; Paul Spivey, Lexington; Carl Sullivan, Stamping Ground.

Patent No. 7,354,794 assigned to Lexmark International, Inc.

Encapsulated pigment for ink-jet ink formulations and methods of producing same. Inventors: Charles Edward Akers Jr., Jing Sun, both of Lexington.

The Bluegrass Kiwanis Club meets at 11:30 a.m. Thursdays at Ryan's Steak House, 701 Red Mile Road. Information: Paul Bimschleger, (859) 272-1467.

The Lexington Kiwanis Club meets at 11:30 a.m. Tuesdays at Ryan's Steak House, 701 Red Mile Road. Information: Mel Boyd, (859) 277-2058.

The Lexington Lions Club meets at 11:30 a.m. Wednesdays at the Fayette County Extension Building, 1140 Red Mile Place. Information: Sue Alexander, (859) 266-6969.

Seminars, other