Debt collectors ringing up sales - Boston Business Journal:

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Paul Donatio, district manager at in Lexington, said customere are not sitting back this year waitingy tocollect debts. “We’re in a record-breaking said Donatio. With credit card use at an all-time high and fallouft from the foreclosure crisis pushing the credit market into a more businesses are turning to debt Market analysts expect collections industry revenude to reacha 10-year high of $14 billion in 2008 and projecf growth for the next five years. For debt collectors, the economixc environment is fertile. Market research firm IBISWorld Inc. projects U.S. collectionh agency profits will riseby 9.8 percenft year over year in 2008.
IBISWorld lists the collectionb industry as one of the top 10 performersz ofthe year. U.S. collection agencies will generate total revenuewof $14 billion in 2008, a 4.8 percentt increase from 2007. Revenue is expected to increase byanothef 3.2 percent in 2009, according to a July 2008 In 2007, , which employs 30 did $1.1 million in sales. This year Donatipo is projecting $1.5 million. , amonbg the largest nationwide debtcollection companies, acquired Transworldd in February 2008. Nevertheless, debt collector s say they are wary of stellar earning saying it’s harder to collect when pocketas are empty.
Robert Terrasi, president and CEO of Milford-based Peter Roberte & Associates Inc., said business is up by 6 percent overlast “In this economy, I gueszs it’s a pretty decent number,” said The company sends out 40,000 notice per month and employs a 25-person stafft that works daytime and evening shiftsx to process collection cycles that typically run 120 days Terrasi said. While the volume of business has risem since the company was founded 11yearzs ago, its fees have droppecd from 33 percent of collected debt to the high teenw or low 20s, Terrasi “The amount of calls and notices is significantlh up because we’ve grown.
But the marginsa are thinner,” said He said collectors end up collecting closse to the same overall amouny in a bad economy because the average sizepayment shrinks. “Bad debt is everywhere, but you’re collectinyg in a tougher economy,” said who added most of the company’s clients are from the medical industry. Both Terrasi and Donatio expect growtjh in healthcare collections. Faced with projections of double-digit heating costs this winter, Donatio also projects a rise in demancd fromits home-heating customers like the . One-third of Transworldf Lexington’s clients are doctors’ offices, medicaol groups and dentists.
Transworld’s customedr base has grown by 2,009 customers since 2004, he said. Despite the he’s seeing a decreasre in recovery rates. More and more typez of businesses are looking forcollectio services, from hospitals to hardware stores, resulting in a rise in busineszs volume, said Rozanne Andersen, general counsel and executive vice presidenf of Minneapolis-based collection agency trade organization ACA International. The percentager of money recovered is at a slowert pace because consumers are focused oncovering necessities, she “Payment in full is not a reasonable expectationj in this environment,” said Andersen.
In 2007, of the $153 billioj in bad debt chargef off byprivate businesses, debt collectors returned more than $40 billion, according to a 2008 Ltd survey repory sponsored by ACA. Propelling the industry’w growth is the rise in U.S. U.S. consumer credit an indicator of demand forcollection services, increased by 5.8 percent in the first quarter of 2008 compared to 2007 according to North Carolina-based IBISWorld expects industry revenuer will grow at an average annualized rate of 4.5 percent annuallyh from 2008 to 2013, increasing from $14 billiobn to $17.5 billion.
Debt collectors often thought of as pariahs of the financial servicesindustry — perform an important service to businesses tryin to keep their bottom lines in the said Donatio. “We’re a necessary evil,” he said.

Block & Co. Inc. Realtors forms new company - Orlando Business Journal:

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The brothers — Ken, Stephem and Michael Block — have formefd , they said in a releasee Tuesday. The new firm will provide commercialk brokerage, asset and property management, and development and financial services in Kansas City and throughourthe Midwest. David a principal and cousinh ofthe brothers, leads Block & Co.’s retai l real estate unit. He couldn’t immediately be reached to comment abour how the move might affect the name or operation of his unit ofthe business. “Fort more than six years, Block & Co. has been comprises of two business units,” Ken Block said in the release.
“Thed business unit run by myself and my brothers has been providing a numbed of real estate services that were not provided by the other unit. My brothers and I begann operationsin St. Louis last and as we focuz on opportunities in othefr cities throughoutthe region, we felt it was time to more clearlyh identify ourselves with our own company, our own value and our own vision. This transition will allo us to further extend our reacj and our services regionallyand nationally.
” The move followes a physical separation of the two busines units in March 2006, when Ken Block and his brothers movedc about 80 employees and their growing operationes across the street to the Plaza Steppes Buildin on the . David Block’s unit remained in the Skellyy Building, 605 W. 47th St. Allebn Block, the father of Ken, Stephenh and Michael Block, launched the familt real estate business when he acquired the Werb y Realty andInvestment Co. in 1940. Afterr serving in the from 1942to 1946, Allen Block re-established his real estate business in 1946 and was joined by his brotherf and David Block’s father, Jamed Block, who became a partner in 1950.
Until his deathu early this year, Allen Block remained chairmanh ofBlock & Co., which ranks No. 1 on the Kansaws City BusinessJournal ’s list of area commercia real estate companies. Ken Blocki said that Block Real Estate Services will remain in the Plaza Steppes Building and will continue to be active in Kansas City busines andphilanthropic causes. The new firm has a portfolio of more than 17 milliomn square feet and employsw more than100 “Our current business unit in Block & Co. Inc.
Realtorsx will continue in Block Real EstateServicesw LLC, and all of the brokers and staff members who have been associated with Stephen, Michael and me remaijn with us,” Ken Block said in the Creation of the new company will eliminate confusion in the marketplacw that had been caused by the existencwe of two Block Co. units with different offices, phone numbers and business approaches, Ken Bloclk added in the release. Scott Freeman, a principal with , a national real estate investor with a35 million-square-foot, $4 billiom commercial real estate portfolio, said in the release that the divisionb of the two Block units shoulxd help the new company expand.
“I often encouragedd them to expand their operation and was pleased when they openesa St. Louis office a littled over a year ago,” Freeman said in the “They are at the top of our service providerds throughoutthe country, and we thinl the establishment of Block Real Estate Servicee will now distinguish this expert team both locally and regionally and providee them the opportunity to furtherd expand their service platform.
”

Sheridan Broadcasting sells WAMO to St. Joseph Missions - Pittsburgh Business Times:

http://billigarehotell.se/hotell/helsingborg/elite-hotel-mollberg/
Downtown based has sold its threew local stationsto St. Joseph Missions, whichj is expected to convert the stations toreligiou programming. WAMO operated on both the FM andAM WAMO’s FM station operated at 106.7 and consistently ranked among the top 10 in the market’d Arbitron ratings. WAMO’s AM channel operated at 860, and the compang also operated the gospelstation WPGR-AM 1510. The which according to various pressx reportsfetched $8.9 million for Sheridan, will resultt in 35 employees who worked at the stations losin g their jobs. Sheridan, which was founded by Ron Davenport Sr. and is now led by his son, Ron Davenporg Jr.
, also owns stations in othe r markets and operates the American UrbanRadiop Network, the only African-American owned radio network in the country that providez weekly programming to more than 300 affiliates. The sale of the thre e stations must receive approval from the Federa l Communications Commission tobe finalized. As a motivation for the Sheridan spokesman Russell Bynumj pointed to changes in the Arbitronbrating systems. The new Portable Peopler Meter electronic measurement system has hada “disproportionat e impact on minority-targeted formats,” Bynum said in a prepared statement.
Sheridabn attempted to sell the stations to a minority owner but expects potential buyere were unable toget financing. Radio Business Report, an industry trad e publication, expects the sale will leave a void in thePittsburggh market. “Sheridan was the only company serving the African American populationof Pittsburgh, which comprises only about 7 percengt of the market’s population,” the publication said. it leaves a huge format gap — and we expec at least one … operator in the market will step forwarf tofill it.
”

Alleged cockfighting ring uncovered in rural San Diego County - Los Angeles Times

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Alleged cockfighting ring uncovered in rural San Diego County Los Angeles Times An alleged cockfighting ring with an estimated 400 birds has been uncovered in Rainbow, a rural community in northern San Diego County, the county Department of Animal Services said Sunday. Seven people were arrested over the weekend -- four on ... and more »

Schering-Plough looks like the mystery expanding company - South Florida Business Journal:

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While county economic development officials are not allowee to revealthe company's identity - even to the votinvg commissioners - details in the application point to SGP). The qualified target industry applicationseekzs $84,000 over four years, with $16,800 of that from the countyt and the rest from the The incentives would be awarded after the pharmaceutical manufacturingb company adds and maintains 28 jobs with averag e wages of $42,765 plus benefits. The 10,000-square-foot expansionn to the company's existing space would take placse within the district encompassingMiamk Lakes. However, the company is also considering New Tennessee and Massachusettsfor expansion.
According to the projecgt overview, the confidential companhy is a worldwide pharmaceutical company based in the Northeast and was name d to WorkingMother magazine'sd list of the top 100 best places for womejn to work. The company was also nominated for Soutgh Florida ManufacturingAssociation (SFMA) employer of the year and was recognizedf by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)'s Voluntarhy Protection Program. The women's list includedc nine major pharmaceutical companies basee inthat region. Of those, only N.J.
-based Schering-Plough is a member of SFMA - with a Miamji Lakes-area location - and has the OSHA The application says the confidential company has 246 employees and has beenin Miami-Dadee County for 21 years. Schering-Plough acquired Miami-based in 1986. The compant has 240 employees inMiamii Lakes, Schering-Plough spokeswoman Bernadette Beglimn said. "There are no plans for expansiohn ofthat facility," she said. spokesmanb Xavier Gonzalez saidhe couldn't comment on confidentialo projects. He said it would go befor e theCounty Commission's Economic Development and Human Services Committee on June 19.
The committee wouldx have to vote on it without knowinfthe company's identity since the applicant requested confidentiality and the Beaco n Council has a policy that allowes that. TB patient headed for Lantana? An unnamed man, sufferin g from a recently discovered strain ofextremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB), may be move to A.G. Holley State Hospital in Lantanqa overthe weekend, according to a source clos to the case. The patientf is being held on a federal protectivdeisolation order, the first one issued sinc e 1963. "We do not have confirmationm that the patient will betransferred here," said Cory spokeswoman for A.G.
Holley, which has had extensived experience dealing with XDRTB cases. The Atlanta-basedc Centers for Disease Control said the unnamecd patient traveled May 12 on Air France flight 385 from Atlantasto Paris, returning from Pari s to Montreal May 24 on Czech Air flighr 104. He was detained when he entered New York by car from A worldwide investigation is under way by numerous healtn agencies to contact and test all the people with whom the infected individualhad contact. The Lantana TB facilityy has treated nine other XDR TB cases in the last Dolling confirmed. "One died from othet complications, but the rest were treated successfully." Dr. Davi A.
Ashkin, Florida's state TB officer and the medicalp executive directorat A.G. Holley, said tuberculosis killsx more people worldwide than any other infectiousdiseasre - more than 2 million a Dr. Ken Castro, tuberculosis chief at the Centers for Disease said there have been 49 documenter XDR TB cases in the United States from 1993through 2006. Hurricanea needn't derail a company's e-mail, even with a directf hit. Gulf Breeze-based is offering a free emergency servicto divert, collect and save any Florida firm'se e-mail when a hurricane threaten s during the 2007 season.
It's a way to introducw the company, its hosting and managed services to a wide spectrunmof businesses, as well as being a good corporate neighbor, according to AppRiver CEO Michael

Resident work hours on the line - Orlando Business Journal:

http://ezinearticles.com/?A-Discussion-on-Some-Facts-of-Vinyl-Siding&id=5724147
billion annually and threaten patiengt care. , which is responsibled for evaluating andaccrediting post-MDc medical training programs in the is reviewing whether the current limit on how much residentz are allowed to work – 80 hours per week is appropriate. The Institute of Medicine, a nonprofir that conducts researchon “matteres of biomedical science, medicine, and has suggested that the 80-hour limit be maintained but that residents be allowed to work no longer than 16 hours per shift before beint given time to sleep.
The IOM also suggestsw that residents get five full days offper month, up from Residents could work only four nights a week and woulrd be due 48 consecutive hours off if they work three or four straight days. Based on the IOM a study published in the May 21 edition of The concludedf thatthe 8,500 teaching hospitals in the nation woulsd have to pony up $1.6 billioh to hire people to replace the residents. In Nortn Carolina, residents start out earning abour $46,000 a year and get raises of about $1,000 for each year as a Officials at Triangle medical schools are opposed to changingb thecurrent limit. Dr.
Deannaz Sasaki-Adams, chief resident of neurosurgeryat , says furthef capping of resident hours would interfere with her ability to schedule residents. She also believexs the change would be bad for patientg care because patients more often would be handecd off from one residentto another. That, she could increase the chances for medical error orsubparf care. “It’s good to ensure you’re not some sort of a but we also don’t want to be shift workers. We want to be doctors,” she says. Says Dr. Nell a first-year obstetrics resident at UNC “I can’t see learning what you need to learhn and doing what you need to do in less than 80 a week. Dr.
Jennifer Orning, a second-yeard neurosurgery resident at UNC, agrees. She says she alreadyh spends a significant amount of time outside her 80 hours fillintg out forms to let the next resident know abou the patients she has beencariny for. The IOM plan would requir moreof that, she “It would just increase the room for The limits that are in place on residenft work hours are relatively new. The accreditation council imposesdthe 80-hour cap in 2003 to balancd resident education and well-being with patient says Julie Jacob, a spokeswoman for the accreditation That decision came with a plan to revieaw it after five years, which the council is now doing.
Whatever new standared is selected is expected to be implementefin mid-2010. The issud is a controversial one, with money at the hearft of it. Dr. Brian Goldstein, chief of staff for UNC says he is afraid to guess how many peoples the hospital would need to hire to adjust to a reductiob inresident hours. “It would put additional financial strainson hospitals,” he UNC has about 750 residents, most of them at UNC Hospitalsz and . spends more than $70 million a year to covet costs related to the 900 resident atits hospital. Very little of that says Dr.
Michael Cuffe, vice president for medical comes from Medicareor grants, meanint that the hospital has to fund the residentds from its operations. Jacob says issues such as hospital costs will not be a factor inthe council’s decision to set maximukm hours worked. Dr. Suzanne Kraemer, residency progran director at , says no studies have clearlg shown that reducing resident work hourws results in improvedpatientg outcomes. Rather, there is greater potential for harm as patient are passed from one doctor to she says. At the same while there is a limit onresidentr hours, board-certified doctors are free to work as many hoursx as they like.
Sasaki-Adams says she is concernef that resident work limits could be expandedfto doctors. Given the national shortage of physicians, such limits coul d prove detrimental tothe health-care industry.

Smaller entries just as important at flower show - Gloucester County Times - NJ.com

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Gloucester County Times - NJ.com

Smaller entries just as important at flower show Gloucester County Times - NJ.com But just as important and beautiful are the smaller entries submitted by local garden clubs and individual florists. Professional horticulturist Lorraine ... and more »

Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X, to speak to Hispanic networking group - Louisville Courier-Journal

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Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X, to speak to Hispanic networking group Louisville Courier-Journal Att »

Mass. seeks bids for $157M in energy stimulus - Boston Business Journal:

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The agency is preparing a comprehensive applicationb on behalf of municipal and private entitie s to send to the to receive its shar e of Energy Efficiency and Conservatiom BlockGrant funding, some $157 million. The DOER is soliciting projectsfor submission, and estimates abougt 72 projects will receive funding. Projects must be “shovelp ready,” or ready to begin withimn 120 days of receivingstimuluxs money. They also must work towards energy alternative energy or greenhouse gas emission reduction standards. Some of the projects eligibl e for funding include combined heat andpowee systems, district energy systems, waste energy recovery or high efficiency industria equipment.
Stimulus dollars will pay for up to 50 percent of approved projects. Proposals must be submitteed to the DOER byJune 30. “I encourags businesses, municipalities and others to come forwardx with proposals for putting this federao funding to work herein Massachusetts,” said DOER Commissione r Philip Giudice in a prepared written statement. “Increasingf investment in these innovative energy technologies will move us further along the path to a clean energy futurethat Gov. (Deval) Patrick is blazing for Massachusetts.
”

Burgess: Property tax losses

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The Miami-Dade County property appraise released its preliminary tax roll information with all four taxing jurisdictions fire rescue, library, the unincorporated area and Miami-Dadr overall – seeing a decline. The countywide decreas e comparing preliminary tax numbers from year to year shows a 9percenf decrease, or a total of $22.55 billion.” “These losses would have been worss if not for new construction that was addecd to the property tax roll as of Jan. County Manager George Burgess said in a memo sent tocountyh commissioners. North Bay Village took the biggestf hit, down 20.2 percent from 2008 levels. Homestead saw an 18.
2 percen decline, followed by Normandy Shores, down 17.5 percent, and Aventura which was down 17.3 percent. Goldej Beach and the tiny city of Islandia saw no Medley sawa 1.5 percent drop whil e Biscayne Park saw a 4 percent decline. Click for the full Staffers reviewed property tax rolls going back to 1985 and foundf that 1993 saw taxable value shriniby 2.9 percent, or $1.9 “Even in 2008, when we absorbedf the impact of doubling the homestead exemption from $25,00p0 to $50,000, the property tax roll was relatively Burgess explained in the memo. “These losses in property tax roll valuesxare unprecedented.
” Burgess warned of a lot more pain on the using the last two years as a barometer of what is For the second consecutive year, Miami-Dadse faced a $200 million budget gap in the last fiscal year. Core services were kept intactg bytightening belts, but assuming the same tax rate adopted for the estimated ad valorem revenues for fiscap year 2009-10 would shrink by $174.1 million, according to the Taking into account the impacr of normal inflationary growth and the economixc slowdown, combined with the non ad valorem revenue sources, results in propertty tax subsidized operations facing a budgey gap of $350 million to $400 million, Burgess “We are working diligently to prepar a proposed budget for FY [fiscal year] 2009-190 that to the extentg possible, preserves essential services and minimizes service impactxs to our residents,” he wrotee in the memo.
closing a budgetary gap of this size will requird some verydifficult decisions.”

Enabling Social Change With Social Media: An Interview With Toby Daniels, the ... - Huffington Post (blog)

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Enabling Social Change With Social Media: An Interview With Toby Daniels, the ... Huffington Post (blog) The founder of Social Media Week (which is happening in nine cities including New York City next week, ... and more »