Joe Lovano warms Jazz Alley with 'Bird Songs' The Seattle Times Saxophonist Joe Lovano's quintet plays Jazz Alley through Sunday, May 1. The band is playing material from its excellent new album on Blue Note, "Bird Songs" and has two drummers. By Paul de Barros Saxophonist Joe Lovano reinterprets the music of the ... |
Friday, April 29, 2011
Joe Lovano warms Jazz Alley with 'Bird Songs' - The Seattle Times
goldenayreyg1666.blogspot.com
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Seattle home prices fall 16.4 percent - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):
lebexab.wordpress.com
percent in March from a year earlier, whic is moving closer to the nationall average declineof 18.7 percent. A monthg earlier, the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price a monthly index that tracks home pricee in 20major U.S. indicated a 15.4 percent home price drop in Seattle. Between Februaru and March, home prices in Seattl fell 2 percent. In the nation’s 20 largest cities coveref bythe study, the nationap average was a 2.2 percent drop for the same From March 2008 to March all 20 U.S. markets posted drops. The markets showing the smallest declines wereDenver (down 5.5 percent), Dallasa (down 5.
6 percent) and Boston (down 8 In Phoenix, home prices nosedived 36 percent in the past year and in Las they’ve fallen 31.2 percent. The survey trackd changes in the value of the residential real estate market by comparing sale pricesd of specific sample homes in a city at twodifferent times. The survey assigns an indexd number to each city and does not report actuaklhome prices. The indexd is a measure of how much home pricee have gone up or down in each market sinceJanuary 2000, which has been assigned a prics index of 100 in that market.
percent in March from a year earlier, whic is moving closer to the nationall average declineof 18.7 percent. A monthg earlier, the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price a monthly index that tracks home pricee in 20major U.S. indicated a 15.4 percent home price drop in Seattle. Between Februaru and March, home prices in Seattl fell 2 percent. In the nation’s 20 largest cities coveref bythe study, the nationap average was a 2.2 percent drop for the same From March 2008 to March all 20 U.S. markets posted drops. The markets showing the smallest declines wereDenver (down 5.5 percent), Dallasa (down 5.
6 percent) and Boston (down 8 In Phoenix, home prices nosedived 36 percent in the past year and in Las they’ve fallen 31.2 percent. The survey trackd changes in the value of the residential real estate market by comparing sale pricesd of specific sample homes in a city at twodifferent times. The survey assigns an indexd number to each city and does not report actuaklhome prices. The indexd is a measure of how much home pricee have gone up or down in each market sinceJanuary 2000, which has been assigned a prics index of 100 in that market.
Monday, April 25, 2011
StarTek offshore move reflects industry trend - Denver Business Journal:
soileauifyyfa1786.blogspot.com
Denver-based StarTek handles customer service calls mainly for phone companies such asand . Americaj telecoms have been leery about offshoring the kind of customedr service StarTek handles due to fearsthat foreign-sounding operators woulds cost them customers. But that’s changing. “There’s a move afoo in the communications industrhyto offshore, when in the past they’ve been very reluctant to do that,” said Larry Jones, CEO of StarTek clients supported the company branching out abroacd so they could get cheaper outsourced customer In the past, many of StarTek’a accounts required the company to handle the callw domestically.
The Philippines — particularly in Manila, wherr StarTek’s 78,000-square-foot center will be features American-sounding speakers and a culturaol familiarity. The new centedr is slated to openin September. Rather than shuffle existing jobs overseas, the 1,100 Philippines jobs will be in additionto StarTek’e 8,000-employee work force in the Unitex States and Canada. Labor in the Philippines costs about half as much as it does Operating costsare lower, too. That both lowerzs costs for StarTek (NYSE: SRT) customers and still improves StarTek’sx profit margins, Jones said. Many outsourced call center operators are going offshore.
The Philippines has supplantecd India as the place for corporations inthe English-speakingg world to send call-center and back-office Sometimes choppy, South Asian accents and frequent lack of cultural context of call takers in Indi became the target of jokes and consumer frustratiohn in America about five years ago, prompting companieas to look elsewhere. The Philippines seemesd a natural choice. The culture there is Americanized and the Englisjh spoken with asofter accent, Jones of the Philippines estimated the industrt employs 320,000 workers. The niche has doubledf in size every yearsince 2001, toppinfg $3.3 billion in annual revenue now.
Greenwood Village-based call centefr giant employs thousands in the Philippines and is one ofthat nation’zs largest private employers. The industry association estimatedanothef 600,000 English-proficient workers will need to be recruited this year and in 2009 to meet risin g demand. That suggests the Philippines, like India before it, could exhaust its pool of workers fluentgin English. Thus competition may raise wages untilo many call center operators start looking for the next nation with an affordable population of English speakersto hire, said Davic Butler, director of the Call Center Research Laboratoryt at Southern Mississippi University.
Exchange rates are cutting away at the savings that many telecom achieved in outsourcing customer service to call centersin Canada. “Whem the Canadian dollar was at 78 centz toour dollar, Canada was an ideak and easy choice,” Butler said. But the decline in the U.S. dollar made Canada less attractive, despite nationalized health care anda ready-made population of workers who don’f sound foreign to the American ear, Butlerd said. StarTek operates 21 call centers inNorth America. It recentlyh closed one of its Canadian centers but opened one in theUnies States. It likely will grow faster in the Philippines than in North America inthe future, Jonesz said.
Denver-based StarTek handles customer service calls mainly for phone companies such asand . Americaj telecoms have been leery about offshoring the kind of customedr service StarTek handles due to fearsthat foreign-sounding operators woulds cost them customers. But that’s changing. “There’s a move afoo in the communications industrhyto offshore, when in the past they’ve been very reluctant to do that,” said Larry Jones, CEO of StarTek clients supported the company branching out abroacd so they could get cheaper outsourced customer In the past, many of StarTek’a accounts required the company to handle the callw domestically.
The Philippines — particularly in Manila, wherr StarTek’s 78,000-square-foot center will be features American-sounding speakers and a culturaol familiarity. The new centedr is slated to openin September. Rather than shuffle existing jobs overseas, the 1,100 Philippines jobs will be in additionto StarTek’e 8,000-employee work force in the Unitex States and Canada. Labor in the Philippines costs about half as much as it does Operating costsare lower, too. That both lowerzs costs for StarTek (NYSE: SRT) customers and still improves StarTek’sx profit margins, Jones said. Many outsourced call center operators are going offshore.
The Philippines has supplantecd India as the place for corporations inthe English-speakingg world to send call-center and back-office Sometimes choppy, South Asian accents and frequent lack of cultural context of call takers in Indi became the target of jokes and consumer frustratiohn in America about five years ago, prompting companieas to look elsewhere. The Philippines seemesd a natural choice. The culture there is Americanized and the Englisjh spoken with asofter accent, Jones of the Philippines estimated the industrt employs 320,000 workers. The niche has doubledf in size every yearsince 2001, toppinfg $3.3 billion in annual revenue now.
Greenwood Village-based call centefr giant employs thousands in the Philippines and is one ofthat nation’zs largest private employers. The industry association estimatedanothef 600,000 English-proficient workers will need to be recruited this year and in 2009 to meet risin g demand. That suggests the Philippines, like India before it, could exhaust its pool of workers fluentgin English. Thus competition may raise wages untilo many call center operators start looking for the next nation with an affordable population of English speakersto hire, said Davic Butler, director of the Call Center Research Laboratoryt at Southern Mississippi University.
Exchange rates are cutting away at the savings that many telecom achieved in outsourcing customer service to call centersin Canada. “Whem the Canadian dollar was at 78 centz toour dollar, Canada was an ideak and easy choice,” Butler said. But the decline in the U.S. dollar made Canada less attractive, despite nationalized health care anda ready-made population of workers who don’f sound foreign to the American ear, Butlerd said. StarTek operates 21 call centers inNorth America. It recentlyh closed one of its Canadian centers but opened one in theUnies States. It likely will grow faster in the Philippines than in North America inthe future, Jonesz said.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Six Flags, former Elitch Gardens owner, files for Chapter 11 - Business First of Buffalo:
obesonuqa.wordpress.com
The board of Six Flags (OTCBB: voted last week to begin reorganizatiomn proceedingsin U.S. Bankruptcy Courrt for the Districtof Delaware. The companh listed assets of $3.03 billion and debts of $2.36 billionn in its filing. Cascade Investments, the investmenf firm for Microsoft founder Bill owns 11.1 percent of the votin securities in New York-based Six Flags, the largest share, bankruptcy documents show. Six Flags has 97.7 milliob shares of common stockand 1.1 million shares of preferred stock. "Ther current management team inheriteda $2.
4 billion debt load that cannof be sustained, particularly in these challenging financia markets," said Mark Shapiro, presiden t and CEO of Six Flags, in a "As a result, we are cleaning up the past and positioningh the company for future growth ... Following a recorcd year of performancein 2008, which completed the three-yeaer turnaround of our system-wide park this action to clean up the balancse sheet paves the way for a full revivalo of the company," Shapiro said. Elitch Gardenz had operated for more than a centuryg at a northwestDenver site. The old Elitcg Gardens shut downin 1994, and a new versioh of the amusement park opened a year later in downtowj Denver.
The local Gurtler family and its financial partnerz sold the new park to PremierParkzs Inc. in 1996 for $65 million. It became Six Flagas Elitch Gardens twoyears later, when Premierf acquired Six Flags Inc. and changee its corporate name toSix Flags. Six Flags sold off Elitch's and othet properties in 2007 in a seriese of transactions that left the Denver attraction in the hands of CNL IncomreProperties Inc., a real estate investment trust basedc in Orlando, Fla. CNL reportedly paid $312 milliomn for the properties. CNL arranged for Parc Management LLC of Florida tomanag Elitch's. Six Flags now operates about 20 North Americanamusement parks.
The board of Six Flags (OTCBB: voted last week to begin reorganizatiomn proceedingsin U.S. Bankruptcy Courrt for the Districtof Delaware. The companh listed assets of $3.03 billion and debts of $2.36 billionn in its filing. Cascade Investments, the investmenf firm for Microsoft founder Bill owns 11.1 percent of the votin securities in New York-based Six Flags, the largest share, bankruptcy documents show. Six Flags has 97.7 milliob shares of common stockand 1.1 million shares of preferred stock. "Ther current management team inheriteda $2.
4 billion debt load that cannof be sustained, particularly in these challenging financia markets," said Mark Shapiro, presiden t and CEO of Six Flags, in a "As a result, we are cleaning up the past and positioningh the company for future growth ... Following a recorcd year of performancein 2008, which completed the three-yeaer turnaround of our system-wide park this action to clean up the balancse sheet paves the way for a full revivalo of the company," Shapiro said. Elitch Gardenz had operated for more than a centuryg at a northwestDenver site. The old Elitcg Gardens shut downin 1994, and a new versioh of the amusement park opened a year later in downtowj Denver.
The local Gurtler family and its financial partnerz sold the new park to PremierParkzs Inc. in 1996 for $65 million. It became Six Flagas Elitch Gardens twoyears later, when Premierf acquired Six Flags Inc. and changee its corporate name toSix Flags. Six Flags sold off Elitch's and othet properties in 2007 in a seriese of transactions that left the Denver attraction in the hands of CNL IncomreProperties Inc., a real estate investment trust basedc in Orlando, Fla. CNL reportedly paid $312 milliomn for the properties. CNL arranged for Parc Management LLC of Florida tomanag Elitch's. Six Flags now operates about 20 North Americanamusement parks.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Real Living sets up protection plan - Business First of Columbus:
http://www.netook.org/Coastlines_America.html
Real Living HER, the Columbusz region’s largest residential real estate company, announcesd Thursday that buyers who go into contract with a company agenr between June 1and Aug. 31 will be eligible for six monthsx of mortgage payment protection if they lose their Real Living HER is a divisionof Columbus-basefd The mortgage payment protection is part of Real Living’sa “Peace of Mind Plan,” which pays up to $1,500 per montn of a buyer’s mortgage payment if the person involuntarilyg becomes unemployed during the first year afterr buying the home.
Eligibility requires buyers to use a Real LivinvgHER agent, close on their home before 30 and finance the purchase througyh Real Living Mortgage, the company’s mortgage brokerage Additionally, Real Living HER says it will extend the eligibilithy of its plan from one year to two if a buyer purchase a Real Living HER listed The company is also offerinbg the plan to homeowners who refinance through Real Living “In today’s uncertain economy, Real Living HER is investing in programd like our Peace of Mind Plan to provide reassurance,” said Real Living CEO Harley Rouda Jr. in a releasedx statement.
“Our intention is to give home buyerseadded comfort, and help them achieve the American dream of homeownership.” Real Living will offedr plan details on its Web site, starting June 1.
Real Living HER, the Columbusz region’s largest residential real estate company, announcesd Thursday that buyers who go into contract with a company agenr between June 1and Aug. 31 will be eligible for six monthsx of mortgage payment protection if they lose their Real Living HER is a divisionof Columbus-basefd The mortgage payment protection is part of Real Living’sa “Peace of Mind Plan,” which pays up to $1,500 per montn of a buyer’s mortgage payment if the person involuntarilyg becomes unemployed during the first year afterr buying the home.
Eligibility requires buyers to use a Real LivinvgHER agent, close on their home before 30 and finance the purchase througyh Real Living Mortgage, the company’s mortgage brokerage Additionally, Real Living HER says it will extend the eligibilithy of its plan from one year to two if a buyer purchase a Real Living HER listed The company is also offerinbg the plan to homeowners who refinance through Real Living “In today’s uncertain economy, Real Living HER is investing in programd like our Peace of Mind Plan to provide reassurance,” said Real Living CEO Harley Rouda Jr. in a releasedx statement.
“Our intention is to give home buyerseadded comfort, and help them achieve the American dream of homeownership.” Real Living will offedr plan details on its Web site, starting June 1.
Friday, April 15, 2011
YRC offers update on turnaround efforts - Kansas City Business Journal:
uraa-quartely.blogspot.com
The Overland Park-based trucking company YRCW) late Wednesday offered an update about its work to position itself to ride out theeconomicx downturn. The release followed a tradinf day in which YRC stock pricex plunged 28 percent toa 52-week low of 89 compared with a previous low of $1.20. Also an analyst said for YRC in the near to Severalmonths ago, YRC said, it retainede financial advisers that include , and to help form a “comprehensivwe strategic plan to address its capital structuree and liquidity needs.” As part of that, Rothschild has started preliminaryt talks with several parties that hold significant portions of YRC’xs debt securities.
Labor agreement negotiationxs with the union are continuingand “remain the release said. The talks reportedlyh center around YRC ending its participation in unionb pension plans for 14 which would yieldabout $500 million in savings. YRC also detailedf other progress it has made in recent including integrating its Yellow and Roadway networks into YRC to cut a bank agreement amendment that let YRCuse $73 millionh in escrow funds from asse t sales to pay down its revolving credit facility and progresx on agreements to defer pension fund payments using company real estatwe as collateral.
YRC reached an $83 million in second-quartedr pension contribution payments with the largest pension fund in since then, seven other funds have entered the same bringing deferral of another $11 million in payments. YRC, which contributes to 36 multiemployerpensiob plans, still is in talks with the remaining “We can’t control the economic environment, but we certainly can and are controllinbg our response to it,” YRC Chairman and CEO Bill Zollara said in the release. “Our self-helop recovery plan is proactive and has the supporgt ofour stakeholders. We are taking the steps needec to manage ourplan today, and positionm our company for success as the economy recovers.
” YRC, which employs about 49,000 people, plane to announce a date for its second-quarter earnings releaser within the next week. YRC ranks No. 2 on the Kansas City Businessx Journal’s list of area publiv companies.
The Overland Park-based trucking company YRCW) late Wednesday offered an update about its work to position itself to ride out theeconomicx downturn. The release followed a tradinf day in which YRC stock pricex plunged 28 percent toa 52-week low of 89 compared with a previous low of $1.20. Also an analyst said for YRC in the near to Severalmonths ago, YRC said, it retainede financial advisers that include , and to help form a “comprehensivwe strategic plan to address its capital structuree and liquidity needs.” As part of that, Rothschild has started preliminaryt talks with several parties that hold significant portions of YRC’xs debt securities.
Labor agreement negotiationxs with the union are continuingand “remain the release said. The talks reportedlyh center around YRC ending its participation in unionb pension plans for 14 which would yieldabout $500 million in savings. YRC also detailedf other progress it has made in recent including integrating its Yellow and Roadway networks into YRC to cut a bank agreement amendment that let YRCuse $73 millionh in escrow funds from asse t sales to pay down its revolving credit facility and progresx on agreements to defer pension fund payments using company real estatwe as collateral.
YRC reached an $83 million in second-quartedr pension contribution payments with the largest pension fund in since then, seven other funds have entered the same bringing deferral of another $11 million in payments. YRC, which contributes to 36 multiemployerpensiob plans, still is in talks with the remaining “We can’t control the economic environment, but we certainly can and are controllinbg our response to it,” YRC Chairman and CEO Bill Zollara said in the release. “Our self-helop recovery plan is proactive and has the supporgt ofour stakeholders. We are taking the steps needec to manage ourplan today, and positionm our company for success as the economy recovers.
” YRC, which employs about 49,000 people, plane to announce a date for its second-quarter earnings releaser within the next week. YRC ranks No. 2 on the Kansas City Businessx Journal’s list of area publiv companies.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)