Browse News by Topic

Data Products

To Do List

Awards & Events

HBJ Today

Click Here to signup to receive HBJ Today via your email

CT Guard nears $41M for aviation center (posted Yesterday at 2:48pm)

The Connecticut Army National Guard is a step closer to collecting $41 million to build its state-of-the-art Aviation Transformation Readiness Center at Bradley International Airport, Congressman John Larsen says.

Larson, D-1^st District, said the U.S. House voted to approve funding for the new 110,000-square-foot facility in Windsor Locks that will house elements of the Guard's aviation units, including up to 289 soldiers and pilots.

The measure now awaits Senate approval.
If funds are approved, construction could begin in 2011, with occupancy in 2013, authorities say.

Both Guard aviation, training and support facilities are housed apart at Camp Hartell in Windsor Locks and the Enfield Armory, more than five miles away, authorities said.

Currently, the Army Aviation Support Facility in Windsor Locks, the aviation assets consist of UH-60 Blackhawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters, and twin-engine C-12s, the military version of the Beech Super King Air 200.
N.Y. subpoenas MetLife, Prudential on soldier death benefits (posted Yesterday at 2:18pm)

New York's attorney general has subpoenaed MetLife Inc and Prudential Financial Inc as part of a probe into whether life insurers are defrauding families of deceased military personnel by siphoning off millions of dollars of death benefits for themselves, Reuters reports.
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced the subpoenas of the largest U.S. life insurers on Thursday, one day after the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said in a published report that it had begun its own investigation into the issue.
MetLife spokesman John Calagna declined to comment, saying the New York-based insurer has yet to see the subpoena.
Bob DeFillippo, a spokesman for Prudential, said the Newark, New Jersey-based insurer will cooperate with Cuomo.
At issue is whether the insurers, rather than pay out lump sums to military families upon the deaths of policyholders, instead would keep money in potentially risky accounts they controlled, known as retained-asset accounts, while paying out low yields to surviving families.
Cuomo said the insurers reportedly earned upward of 4.8 percent annually on these accounts, but paid families interest as low as 0.5 percent, less than the rates they might find at their local banks. The insurers' accounts, moreover, are not guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, Cuomo said.
The attorney general said the subpoenas seek data on how and when beneficiaries learn about the terms and conditions of retained-asset accounts, and data on the differences between interest earned by insurers and beneficiaries.
BofA to boost small biz loans (posted Yesterday at 2:03pm)

Bank of America Corp., which is Connecticut's largest out-of-state bank, said Thursday that it will provide $10 million in grants to nonprofit lenders who provide loans to small and rural businesses.
The loans, which will be used for reserves, are meant to leverage funds provided by the U.S. Small Business Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and could unlock as much as $100 million in low-cost, long-term capital for small business microloans nationwide over the next 12 months.
"Helping strengthen small businesses and new start-up companies stimulates job creation and is critical to our nation's economic recovery," said David Darnell, president of Global Commercial Banking, Bank of America. "Bank of America is empowering these entrepreneurs by directing private sector capital to unlock exponentially greater amounts of federal dollars for their businesses."
SBA and USDA microloans are made through local nonprofit lenders, which also provide business training and technical assistance.
To access the capital, nonprofit lenders participating in these federal loan programs must set aside loan loss reserves at levels of up to 15 percent of the capital provided by the agencies.
However, due to the economic recession, most of these lenders have been unable to meet the reserve requirements, limiting their access to loan capital.
Bank of America hopes to ease this credit crunch with its lending initiative.
Mortgage rates hit low of 4.54 percent (posted Yesterday at 1:34pm)

Mortgage rates dropped to the lowest level on record for the fifth time in six weeks, making homebuying and refinancing the most attractive in decades for those who can get loans, The Associated Press reports.
The average rate for 30-year fixed loans this week was 4.54 percent, down from 4.56 last week, mortgage company Freddie Mac said Thursday. That's the lowest since Freddie Mac began tracking rates in 1971.
The last time rates were lower was during the 1950s, when most mortgages lasted just 20 or 25 years.
The rate on the 15-year fixed loan dropped to 4 percent, down from 4.03 percent last week and the lowest on record.
Rates have fallen since the spring. Yields on U.S. Treasury bonds have dropped as jittery investors seek safer investments. Mortgage rates tend to track the yields on Treasurys.
Low rates helped spark a little activity in the weak housing market. Applications to purchase homes rose 2 percent last week from the previous week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday. Still, the housing market has been struggling and overall applications for loans were down last week as fewer people applied to refinance.
High unemployment, slow job growth and tight credit have made it difficult for many to purchase homes. The housing industry received a boost this spring when the government offered homebuying tax credits, but since those expired in April housing activity has fizzled.
Sales of previously occupied homes fell 5.1 percent in June. New home sales jumped last month, but it was the second-weakest month on record and it came after sales tumbled in May.
Refinance activity has increased over the last month as homeowners seek more affordable monthly payments. But many don't qualify for a loan or don't have the cash to pay for closing costs. And rates have been low for so long that many have already refinanced.
To calculate the national average, Freddie Mac collects mortgage rates on Monday through Wednesday of each week from lenders around the country. Rates often fluctuate significantly, even within a given day.
Rates on five-year adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 3.76 percent, down from 3.79 percent a week earlier. Rates on one-year adjustable-rate mortgages fell to an average of 3.64 percent from 3.70 percent.
The rates do not include add-on fees known as points. One point is equal to 1 percent of the total loan amount. The nationwide fee for loans in Freddie Mac's survey averaged 0.7 a point for all loans.
Magellan Health Services 2nd-quarter profit climbs 90 percent (posted Yesterday at 1:32pm)

Magellan Health Services Inc. said Thursday that its second-quarter profit nearly doubled, and the health care outsourcing company raised its profit estimate for the year, The Associated Press reports.
Magellan's profit jumped 90 percent to $35.1 million, or $1.05 per share, from $18.5 million, or 53 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Revenue rose 17 percent to $741.7 million from $635.8 million.
Analysts predicted profit of 74 cents per share and revenue of $748.3 million, according to a Thomson Reuters survey.
Magellan said cost of care increased 7 percent to $472.5 million in the quarter.
Magellan boosted its full-year profit forecast to a range of $3.29 to $3.85 per share from a previous projection of $2.73 to $3.29 per share. Analysts forecast income of $3.15 per share.
In morning trading, Magellan stock surged $2.52, or 6.9 percent, to $39.25. The stock has ranged from $29.27 to $44.77 over the past year.
Mohegan Sun’s 3Q profit sinks (posted Yesterday at 12:04pm)

The parent of Mohegan Sun said Thursday that its profits plummeted 51 percent in its fiscal third quarter, as the tribal casino saw its table game and slot revenue take a hit amid the weak economy.

Net income for The Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority fell to $11.6 million from $23.5 million in the year ago period.

Net revenues during the quarter declined by about 6 percent, to $354 million.

Meanwhile, operating income at the casino, located on tribal land in Uncasville, fell 17 percent during the April-to-June period totaling $45 million.

"We are certainly disappointed with our results for the quarter," said authority CEO Mitchell Grossinger Etess. "While we did experience sequential improvement in our revenues, particularly at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, earlier this year, that trend did not continue during the third quarter.

Etess said the third quarter results were significantly hampered by lower table games revenue and that the "weakness in consumer spending continues to be a concern,"

Table game revenues fell 11 percent during the quarter to $70 million, while slot machine income inched lower by 8 percent in the April to June period to $181 million.
FuelCell stock offering nets extra $4.2M (posted Yesterday at 12:02pm)

FuelCell Energy Inc. said it netted an extra $4.2 million from its recent public stock offering, money the Danbury maker of fuel-efficient power turbines will plow into new products and expanding its production capacity.

FuelCell said another 3.6 million shares were sold above its offering of 24 million shares of common. The $4.2 million is what was left after fees and commissions.

At 11:30 a.m., FuelCell was down 4 cents, or 3 percent, at $1.32.

Lazard Capital Markets LLC acted as the sole book-running manager and Canaccord Genuity Inc. was co-manager for the offering.
Stanley B&D cutting 80 Tenn. jobs (posted Yesterday at 12:01pm)

New Britain toolmaker Stanley Black & Decker Inc. will close its distribution center in Jackson, eliminating about 80 jobs, The Associated Press reports.

Company spokesman Tim Perra said in a news release the center will be shut down by April 1, prompted by decreased demand. The earliest layoffs will come in October.

The Jackson Sun quoted Jackson Mayor Jerry Gist who said the company's cost reduction moves may ultimately benefit the city, where two Stanley Black & Decker manufacturing plants continue to employ more than 500 people.
Gist said the company is looking at streamlining its North American manufacturing and Jackson is being heavily considered for future moves.

Perra said the distribution work now done in Jackson will move to company facilities in Rialto, Calif., and Fort Mill, S.C.
WFSB parent ends fiscal 2010 strong (posted Yesterday at 12:00pm)

Meredith Corp. got more revenue from ads and licensed products at its magazines and TV stations, including WFSB Channel 3 in Rocky Hill, on its way to lifting fiscal fourth-quarter and annual sales and earnings.

The Des Moines, Iowa, broadcaster and publisher of Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies' Home Journal and other magazines earned $33.4 million, or 74 cents a share, in the three months ended June 30, compared to a loss of $163.7 million, or $3.64 a share, the same period last year.

Fourth-quarter sales climbed to $365.1 million from $345.9 million a year ago.

On the year, Meredith earned $104 million, or $2.30 a share, compared to a loss of $107.1 million, or $2.38 a share, in fiscal 2009.

Fiscal 2010 sales were $1.39 billion vs. $1.4 billion the previous year.
CT junior colleges strain under rising enrollment (posted Yesterday at 11:56am)

Connecticut officials say they're concerned about pressures being put on the state's community colleges as enrollments hit record highs and funding remains flat, The Hartford Courant reports.

Community college officials say the 12 campuses struggled the past academic year to handle a record total enrollment of more than 55,000 students. Enrollment will hit more than 60,000 students this fall, a 10 percent increase, if student population trends continue.

Total funding for the colleges, meanwhile, has been kept at about $158 million since the 2008-2009 year.

Many popular classes at the colleges are already full for the fall, and students are being turned away.

Many students have been turning to community colleges for their lower costs in the tough economy.
Patricelli sells benefits firm to Calif. investor (posted Yesterday at 11:17am)

Avon electronic health benefits vendor Evolution Benefits Inc., co-founded by veteran Connecticut health-services entrepreneur Robert Patricelli and drug giant Pfizer Corp., announced Thursday its sale to a San Francisco equity investor that will take Evolution's product international.

Financial terms of the deal with Genstar Capital LLC were not disclosed.

Evolution is the nation's second-largest provider of prepaid health benefit debit cards to more than 19,000 employers nationwide, with 3.5 million workers and their families enrolled in 1.7 million accounts, officials said.

Genstar's specialty is investing in choice segments of the healthcare, financial services, software and industrial technology industries.

Evolution's original investors include Pfizer Strategic Investments, a unit of the New York drug maker whose research and development operations are in Groton; and venture capital firms The Sprout Group and CCP Equity Partners.

Genstar Principal James Nadauld said Evolution's products will become more appealing amid the trend toward consumer-directed health care paid with debit cards rather than manually submitting health care claims.

Nadauld and Eli Weiss, also of Genstar, said more acquisitions and product development will enable Evolution to fill gaps and "inefficiencies in the manual healthcare claims processing supply chain."

In an interview with HBJ Today, Patricelli, who is Evolution's CEO, said the company will begin marketing its benefits accounts in Canada during the fourth quarter, and will enter several unnamed overseas markets within the coming 12 months. Former Hartford Life CEO Greg Boyko is leading Evolution's international push.

Evolution's sale, Patricelli said, was prompted by its need for capital to grow and the other investors desire to "cash out.''

Financial adviser Raymond James & Associates shopped Evolution to a number of parties, but Patricelli declined to say whether any managed-care giants, such as Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealth Group, were among the "tire kickers.''

Patricelli and the entire senior management team will remain with the company. Headquarters will stay in Avon, where about 70 people are employed; another 25 work in St. Louis.

Patricelli acknowledged the timing of the sale so soon after the recent adoption of federal health care and financial reforms. Both measures originally contained provisions that threatened the viability of consumer health payment accounts.

However, Evolution and Connecticut's congressional delegation, notably Sen. Chris Dodd and U.S. Rep. John Larsen, managed to prevent both reforms from closing the doors on those accounts, Patricelli said.

"Otherwise, it was a good time to sell,'' said Patricelli, 70, a former executive at Cigna and its predecessor, Connecticut General Insurance, who also spent a decade in Washington D.C. in the Johnson, Nixon and Ford administrations.

Evolution Benefits is Patricelli's third health care startup in more than two decades. In 1987, he co-founded Value Health, which was sold 10 years later to what is now hospital operator HCA Corp.

Next came Women's Health USA in Avon that he and former Value Health managers co-founded. But in 2000, seeing opportunity in the health-payments arena, a Women's Health spinoff led to Evolution Benefits.
St. Francis Hospital to idle 200 workers (posted 07/28/10 at 6:30pm)

St. Francis Hospital in Hartford is shedding 200 full-time jobs. Hospital administrators notified the hospital's staff Wednesday, NBC Connecticut reports.
"Like most hospitals statewide, we have experienced a modest decline in our census," St. Francis president and CEO Christopher Dadlez said in a statement. "At the same time, rising expenses and continued shortfalls in federal and state payments for care of Medicare and Medicaid patients have heightened our financial difficulties."
Dadlez called the decision difficult, but necessary. "These measures will not compromise the quality of care that we deliver each day. They will, in fact, ensure our ability to continue our promise to provide the very best care possible for our community," Dadlez said.
Eastford factory faces $140K in OSHA fines (posted 07/28/10 at 1:47pm)

An Eastford aircraft-parts maker faces nearly $140,000 in OSHA fines for alleged safety and health violations.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration says it slapped Whitcraft LLC with 44 alleged violations of workplace standards at its manufacturing plant at 76 County Road in Eastford, in the state's northeast corner.
Whitcraft faces a total of $139,680 in proposed fines for fire, explosion, chemical, mechanical and electrical hazards identified during comprehensive safety and health inspections of the plant begun in January, OSHA said.
Whitcraft President and co-owner Jeff Paul said the company will seek to reduce the fines associated with these citations.
"We were surprised by the safety violations identified," said Paul. "We already moved very aggressively to address OSHA's concerns. In the past two months we have remedied many of OSHA's concerns and have committed $150,000 for further improvements to enhance regulatory compliance and safety."
Whitcraft's Eastford facility primarily manufactures engine components for military and commercial jets, including the Joint Strike Fighter, F-22 and virtually all the major engines produced by Pratt & Whitney, General Electric and Honeywell. The company is privately held.
In addition to the Eastford factory that employs about 270, Whitcraft's parent owns Connecticut Tool, with about 80 workers in Plainville, and Reliable Manufacturing, with about 50 employees in Bloomfield.

Whitcraft has 15 business days to comply with or contest OSHA's findings.
Eastford factory faces $140K in OSHA fines (posted 07/28/10 at 11:56am)

An Eastford aircraft-parts maker faces nearly $140,000 in OSHA fines for alleged safety and health violations.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration says it slapped Whitcraft LLC with 44 alleged violations of workplace standards at its manufacturing plant at 76 County Road in Eastford, in the state's northeast corner.

Whitcraft faces a total of $139,680 in proposed fines for fire, explosion, chemical, mechanical and electrical hazards identified during comprehensive safety and health inspections of the plant begun in January, OSHA said.

Whitcraft President and co-owner Jeff Paul said the company will seek to reduce the fines associated with these citations.
"We were surprised by the safety violations identified," said Paul. "We already moved very aggressively to address OSHA's concerns. In the past two months we have remedied many of OSHA's concerns and have committed $150,000 for further improvements to enhance regulatory compliance and safety."
Whitcraft's Eastford facility primarily manufactures engine components for military and commercial jets, including the Joint Strike Fighter, F-22 and virtually all the major engines produced by Pratt & Whitney, General Electric and Honeywell. The company is privately held.
In addition to the Eastford factory that employs about 270, Whitcraft's parent owns Connecticut Tool, with about 80 workers in Plainville, and Reliable Manufacturing, with about 50 employees in Bloomfield.
The Hartford gives top execs $3.4M in stock (posted 07/28/10 at 11:36am)

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. has awarded restricted stock worth $3.4 million total to three top executives, including $2 million to Chairman, President and CEO Liam McGee, under the insurer's stock incentive plan, Citybizlist Atlanta reports, citing a regulatory filing.

Lizabeth Zlatkus, who is executive vice president and chief risk officer, and Christopher Swift, executive vice president and chief financial officer, will be granted stock worth $900,000 and $500,000, respectively, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The Hartford also approved up to $200,000 in relocation costs to Gregory McGreevey, executive vice president and chief investment officer, Citybizlist Atlanta said on its Website. The grant is to cover the loss that McGreevey, who also is president of Hartford Investment Management Co., will incur in the sale of his current home in the Atlanta area.

The stock awards, with values effective July 22, are to be granted on the first day of trading after the company files its quarterly Form 10-Q report, likely Aug. 6. The shares will vest on the third anniversary of the grant date. In the case of Zlatkus, a retirement-eligible employee, the shares will vest pro rata upon retirement.
City cuts rates to fill Morgan St. garage (posted 07/28/10 at 11:08am)

The city's parking agency is cutting monthly parking rates as much as $250 a year at its Morgan Street garage in a bid to boost usage at its biggest and newest facility hurt by the relocation of UnitedHealthcare and other downtown employers.

Starting Sunday, individual patrons will pay $119 a month to park in the Morgan Street garage, down from $140. Employer patrons will pay progressively lower parking fees per vehicle the more employees they arrange to park at 55 Morgan St.
Mark McGovern, who officially took over three weeks ago as Hartford Parking Authority CEO, said Morgan Street's new rates are the first in a series of customer initiatives the agency is rolling out in coming months

"The Morgan Street Garage is one of Hartford's best-kept secrets, and we're planning to change that,'' McGovern said.

The parking authority suspects the public is unaware of the comparative rates at its Morgan Street, Church Street, Main-Asylum-Trumbull (MAT), and Hartford Public Library garages and several surface lots. Trimming prices is meant to change that, he said.

Boosting Morgan Street's usage is all the more significant partly because that's where the parking authority's corporate offices are located.
Weekday occupancy of Morgan Street's 2,290 parking spaces is down to around 50 percent, McGovern said. The recent move of UnitedHealthcare's Hartford operations from nearby Connecticut River Plaza pulled a number of parking patrons out of the facility.
On the positivve side, McGovern said, UnitedHealthcare employees who used the city's Church Street garage continue to do so.
Downtown Hartford getting grocer-deli (posted 07/28/10 at 11:07am)

Businessman Al Jahmee plans in several weeks to open a grocery-delicatessen at 241 Asylum Street, catering to downtown Hartford's workers and residents.

Al's Market will occupy about 1,700 square feet of the ground floor of what was formerly Niro's clothing boutique.

The grocer-deli is directly across the street from the Hartford 21 high-rise residential tower and within walking distance of a half-dozen other apartment and condominium buildings, among them Trumbull On The Park, 55 On The Park and The Hollander.

"They needed a market downtown,'' Jahmee said of his decision to open his store.

Several attempts to bring a grocery store downtown have stalled in recent years, thwarted by high rents or merchants' concerns about catering to a splintered customer base.

Jahmee said his store will carry fresh meats, dairy, produce and baked goods, as well a canned foods and other grocery items.

The market will open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 10 or 11 p.m. and weekends until 3 a.m.

Jahmee said he previously ran a food store, the New York Grocery, at Broad and Russ Streets for a decade before selling it.
Virtus to market Phoenix’s $1.6B Edge Fund (posted 07/28/10 at 11:06am)

Virtus Investment Partners Inc. has agreed to distribute and handle all advisory services for The Phoenix Cos.' $1.6 billion-asset Edge Series Fund.

Both Hartford firms announced the deal Wednesday, cementing the close ties they have maintained despite Virtus being spun off from The Phoenix on Jan. 1, 2009.

Virtus will rename the trust the Virtus Variable Insurance Trust, which will now be marketed to other insurance and annuity companies.

Edge Series Fund President Philip Polkingham said the transaction fits Phoenix's goal to enter strategic partnerships with organizations that have particular expertise and benefit Phoenix customers.

For Virtus, it retains a valuable relationship while gaining the opportunity to expand its footprint as an asset manager, said CEO George Aylward.

The trust comprises 17 funds and $1.6 billion in assets as of June 30 that are investment options in Phoenix's variable life and annuity products. Virtus currently serves as administrator to the trust and subadvisor to $300 million of fund assets, and will assume subadvisory responsibilities for an additional $500 million of fund assets.

Goodwin Capital Advisers, an affiliate of Phoenix, and Aberdeen Asset Management will continue to manage $700 million of assets under subadvisory agreements with Virtus.

Four of the funds, with approximately $100 million of assets, will not be part of the transaction and will be merged into a third-party variable insurance trust at a later date. Phoenix has an additional $2.2 billion of variable product assets managed by external advisors.
Aetna, CVS enter pharmacy pact (posted 07/28/10 at 11:05am)

CVS Caremark Corp. said Wednesday it struck a large pharmacy benefit management services contract with Hartford health insurer Aetna Inc., but the CVS pharmacy chain reported weaker earnings and trimmed its profit forecast.

CVS Caremark said the Aetna deal and higher legal expenses will hurt its income this year, and the economy is still hurting sales. It now expects a profit of $2.68 to $2.73 per share this year, down from its previous estimate of $2.77 to $2.84 per share. Analysts expect $2.79 per share.

At 11 a.m., CVS Caremark was up 82 cents, or 2.7 percent, at $31.42.

Caremark will administer Aetna's pharmacy benefits management services for 12 years starting Jan. 1. The companies said Caremark will serve about 9.7 million Aetna PBM members and administer $9.5 billion in drug spending per year.

Caremark will handle purchasing, manage inventories, and fill prescriptions for mail order and specialty pharmacies. Aetna will still own its pharmacy benefits management business, but it will transfer 800 employees to Caremark. Another 1,000 employees will remain with Aetna.

The contract will reduce CVS's profit by a penny to 2 cents per share in 2010. After that it will begin adding to the company's net income, contributing 1 to 3 cents per share in 2011, more than 5 cents per share in 2012, and more than double that amount starting in 2013, when the contract is fully implemented.

CVS Caremark's net income fell 7 percent in the second quarter because of contracts lost by Caremark. Citing the weak economy and greater costs, the company reduced its profit forecast for the year and said it expects slower revenue growth from stores open at least one year. The company runs 7,109 stores nationwide, about 400 less than Walgreen Co.

In premarket trading, CVS shares fell $1.58, or 5.2 percent, to $29.02. The stock finished at $30.60 Tuesday.

Second-quarter net income fell to $821 million from $886 million. On a per-share basis, profit was unchanged at 60 cents as the company had fewer shares outstanding this quarter. CVS said it earned 65 cents per share if amortization costs and other one-time items are excluded.

According to a survey by Thomson Reuters, analysts expected a profit of 68 cents per share.

The Woonsocket, R.I., company's revenue fell 3 percent to $24 billion from $24.87 billion. Revenue from its drugstore network rose 4 percent to $14.31 billion, but because of contract losses, Caremark's revenue fell 9 percent to $11.84 billion. The figures add up to more than $24 billion because some revenue is counted under both businesses.

Starting on Jan. 1, Caremark lost three major clients to Medco Health Solutions Inc. The deal with Aetna, which was announced Tuesday night, could make a splash and help the company regain some revenue.

Analysts expected $24.13 billion in revenue, on average.

Sales at locations open at least a year grew 2.1 percent. At those stores, pharmacy revenue rose 2.9 percent and sales of other items rose 0.4 percent. Sales at stores open at least one year are considered a key measurement of retailer health because they exclude results at stores that have opened or closed over the past 12 months.

The Caremark Maintenance Choice program boosted prescriptions filled at retail stores, while the milder flu season and earlier Easter holiday hurt results.

Caremark handled 144.3 million prescriptions in the quarter, down 12 percent from a year ago. It made $3.96 per adjusted claim, down from $4.07.

Sales at stores open at least a year are now expected to rise 2 to 3.5 percent rather than 3.5 to 5.5 percent.
Comcast's 2Q profit dips on NBC deal costs (posted 07/28/10 at 11:04am)

Comcast Corp., Connecticut's largest cable-TV provider, reported an 8.6 percent drop in second-quarter earnings Wednesday partly because of costs related to its pending takeover of NBC Universal, yet it saw improvements in advertising and demand for pricier television services, The Associated Press reports.

Comcast, which also delivers voice and data communications, is still hoping to win regulatory approval and close by year's end its deal to buy a controlling stake in the broadcaster from General Electric Co., based in Fairfield.

NBC Universal's broadcast holdings include WVIT Channel 30 in West Hartford.

Those costs aside, Comcast and other cable TV companies have been facing losses in basic television customers as the market matures and competition is fierce. The economy also took a toll: Fewer new homes built mean fewer people are moving and hence won't be needing to hook up cable TV. The high jobless rate also constrains consumer pocketbooks.

But Comcast found that demand for pay-per-view and pricier digital TV packages is improving.

In the quarter, Comcast reported net income of $884 million, or 31 cents per share, down from $967 million, or 33 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding a 2-cents-per-share cost related to NBC Universal and a 4-cents-per-share gain in the 2009 quarter from one-time tax benefits, Comcast would have earned 33 cents per share.

Revenue rose by 6.1 percent to $9.53 billion from $9 billion.

Analysts were expecting income of 32 cents per share on revenue of $9.3 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

Its shares rose 62 cents, or 3.2 percent, to $19.95 on pre-opening trading.

Free cash flow, a key metric for capital-intensive industries such as cable, rose by 15.8 percent to $1.36 billion.

Comcast, like many cable TV companies, continues to lose video customers. In the second quarter, which is seasonally slow because many people cancel their subscription in the summer months, Comcast lost 265,000 video subscribers to end the quarter with 23.2 million. That's greater than the loss of 214,000 in the same period last year.

But among video customers, 394,000 signed up for the pricier digital cable service. That's higher than the 250,000 that signed up in the 2009 quarter.

Growth in orders for digital cable and pay-per-view, rate increases, among others, offset the loss of video customers. Video revenue rose by nearly 1 percent to $4.9 billion. The average video customer paid $127.78 per month, up 8 percent.

High-speed Internet customers climbed by 118,000, compared with the growth of 65,000 in the same period last year. The number of phone customers rose by 230,000, compared with 233,000 in the second quarter of 2009.

Revenue for cable's broadband business rose 10 percent to $2.13 billion while phone revenue rose 14 percent to $916 million.

Revenue for local ads shown on its cable channels grew 23 percent during the quarter, led by automotive, though all categories are up in double-digit percentages.
WellPoint's 2Q profit rises 4 percent (posted 07/28/10 at 11:03am)

Health Insurer WellPoint, parent of Hamden-based Anthem Blue Cross of Connecticut, said Wednesday its second-quarter net income rose 4 percent due to favorable reserve development, even as commercial enrollment continued to tumble in a tough economy, The Associated Press reports.

The Indianapolis insurer said it earned $722.4 million, or $1.71 per share, in the three months ended June 30. Excluding investment gains, earnings per share were $1.67. Per-share results are helped by fewer shares outstanding.

Operating revenue, which does not count investment gains or losses, fell 7 percent to $14.22 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters forecast a profit of $1.55 per share on revenue of $14.61 billion.

WellPoint is the largest commercial health insurer based on membership. It said its medical enrollment slipped 2 percent, or by 729,000 people, to 33.5 million during the quarter. Enrollment was down because of the loss of the company's UniCare individual and group businesses in Texas and Illinois, and because of the weak economy and high unemployment levels.

Enrollment tumbled 4.5 percent to 15.2 million people in WellPoint's local group business, which provides fully insured coverage to small businesses.

Major health insurers have struggled with costs and enrollment losses tied to the recession, as employers cut jobs and reduced the number of people covered by their insurance. But companies have shown signs this year that trend may be slowing.

Last year, WellPoint said its second-quarter profit fell more than 7 percent, as enrollment dropped 3 percent or by 1.1 million people.

WellPoint competitor UnitedHealth Group Inc. said last week its 2010 second-quarter net income rose 31 percent from a year ago, as costs and enrollment came in better than expected. Tuesday night, Aetna Inc. reported a 42 percent jump in net income partially because it spent a smaller portion of its premium revenue on medical care.

WellPoint said it spent 82.9 percent of its premium revenue on providing medical care during the quarter. That's down from 83.9 percent in the second quarter of 2009.

These medical-loss ratios give analysts a sense of whether insurance is priced correctly, and they'll be regulated under the health care reform law Congress passed earlier this year.

Insurers will be required to spend at least 85 percent of their premium revenue on medical care for large group coverage and 80 percent for individual and small group coverage. But details of that law have yet to be ironed out, and its affect on insurers remains uncertain.

The company raised its profit forecast to $6.30 per share from $6 per share. Analysts expect $6.26 per share on average.

WellPoint reported a 51 percent jump in its first-quarter profit, but the insurer also received unwanted attention that quarter for premium hikes for individual customers in California that has made investors nervous.

Last month, it said it would dial down plans to increase premiums by an average of about 25 percent. It now plans to raise premiums by an average of 14 percent, and it will cap the hikes at 20 percent. The insurer has said it expects to lose $100 million this year on that business.

AP Business Writer Marley Seaman contributed to this report from New York.
Edac’s 2Q net earnings drop (posted 07/28/10 at 11:02am)

Edac Technologies Corp.'s fiscal second-quarter net income fell amid a large sales gain for the Farmington maker of precision aerospace and industrial parts.

Edac earned $345,000, or 7 cents a share, in the three months ended July 3, down from $7.4 million, or $1.50 a share, the comparable three-month period last year when the company realized a large one-time gain from an acquisition.

Chief Financial Officer Glenn Purple said a better reflection of Edac's second-quarter peformance was its operating income, which grew to $729,000 for the 2010 second quarter from $515,000 the same quarter last year. Its first-quarter net income was $410,000.
Sales rose to $18.8 million in the second quarter from $13.6 million a year ago.

Edac's sales backlog -- a leading indicator of the manufacturer's financial prospects -- totaled about $135.1 million as of July 3, almost flat from $134 million a year earlier.
Ariz. extends $1.5B contract with Magellan (posted 07/28/10 at 11:01am)

Magellan Health Services Inc. in Avon received a two-year extension on its $1.5 billion contract to provide managed behaviorial healthcare services to Medicaid recipients in Arizona, a regulatory filing shows.

The Arizona Department of Health Services notified Magellan last Thursday of the second extension on its three-year agreement by two years, through June 30, 2012 - coinciding with the end of Arizona's fiscal year, according to Magellan's 8K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The pact was to expire on Aug. 31, according to the filing, which did not detail the dollar value of the extension.

According to the Arizona Republic newspaper, the Magellan-Arizona mental health contract is the largest of its kind in America.
UI installs repair crew-alert software (posted 07/28/10 at 10:58am)

United Illuminating Co. in New Haven is using software from an Ohio company for an automated system that calls out repair crews after normal business hours, Columbus Business First reports.

UI flipped the switch on Arcos Inc.'s automated system July 20. It's a three-year deal valued at six figures over the length of the contract, an Arcos spokesman told the newspaper on its Web site.

UI provides electricity to more than 324,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in southwestern Connecticut. It has about 1,000 workers.

A release from Arcos said UI is using Arcos' software to replace a system in which supervisors placed telephone calls to alert electric substation and line workers about after-hours power outages. The new automated system is designed to reduce the time it takes to send workers to repair problems, with the ability to fire off voice or text messages to hundreds of employees in a matter of seconds.

The release said the new system will call out workers in the utility company's construction operations and meter services departments and call center, transmission and substation electricians and overhead linesmen.

Headed by company founder and President Mitch McLeod, Arcos has landed seven major utility customers in the past year and has 44 overall. It has contracts with about 40 percent of the top 50 utility companies on the Fortune 500 list.
Delta adding D.C., Vegas flights from Bradley (posted 07/28/10 at 10:06am)

Two days after announcing the cancellation of its high profile Hartford-to-Los Angeles direct flight, Delta Air Lines on Wednesday announced the addition of two direct flights in the coming months from Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks.
"The success of any new route will be determined by passenger response," Delta spokesman Anthony Black said.

Starting on Halloween, Delta will have three daily flights to and from Bradley and Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington D.C. It will compete with direct D.C. service from Bradley by U.S. Airways into Reagan and United Airlines into Dulles International Airport.

On Oct. 2, Delta also is adding Saturday-only direct service to Las Vegas. Southwest Airlines already offers non-stop service to Las Vegas from Bradley.
"Regardless of whether other carriers service those routes, we examine each new route to see if there is a sufficient amount of demand," Black said. "There's probably not a lot of routes where you don't have competition between carriers."

The addition of Washington, D.C. by Delta is part of a larger rollout of its East Coast operations, adding seven national non-stops out of Reagan and 29 enhanced routes out of New York City's two airports, mostly to international destinations.
The schedule for the new Hartford-Washington, D.C. and Hartford-Las Vegas routes will be approved this weekend. The three Washington, D.C. routes will take place morning, afternoon and evening.

On Monday, Delta announced the end of its non-stop Hartford-Los Angeles flights, effective Sept. 30, less than two months after the service began. When that flight started June 10, Bradley officials touted it as a high-profile route giving the airport a direct West Coast connection.

Delta officials said while bookings for the Bradley-L.A. flight were strong over the summer, they tapered off in the fall. The airline decided to keep it as a summer-only service. No determination has been made if the L.A. flight will return in 2011.
"The market continues to perform well, but there are niches in the market where you will see spikes in demand to along certain routes and drops in demand to other destinations," Black said.
With the subtraction of Los Angeles and the addition of Las Vegas and Washington, D.C., Delta will fly to 14 destinations non-stop out of Bradley International, including to its hubs in Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis and Cincinnati.
"With those hubs, you can fly anywhere in our network with one connection," Black said.
Aetna's 2Q profit up 42 percent (posted 07/28/10 at 7:44am)

Hartford health insurer Aetna Inc. says its second-quarter profit rose 42 percent, as the percentage of premiums the company spent on medical care fell versus a year ago, The Associated Press reports.
The insurer said late Tuesday it earned $491 million, or $1.14 a share, in the three months ended June 30. That compares with net income of $346.6 million, or 77 cents a share, in the same period last year.
Aetna earned $450.2 million, or $1.05 a share, excluding one-time items. The company also raised its forecast for its 2010 operating earnings.
Total second-quarter revenue fell to $8.54 billion from $8.67 billion, in part due to a drop in premium revenue from lower commercial insured membership.
Analyst polled by Thomson Reuters forecast a profit of 74 cents per share on revenue of $8.49 billion. Analyst estimates usually exclude one-time costs and gains.
Health insurance is Aetna's main product, but it also sells dental, group life and disability coverage.
Aetna credited its earnings increase on a higher commercial underwriting margin from favorable prior-quarter reserve development and improved performance.
The company, based in Hartford, Conn., reported $127.6 million in gains from favorable reserve development compared to a loss of $42.3 million a year ago. Most of the gains came from its commercial insurance business.
Last year, Aetna struggled with costs that rose faster than it expected when it set prices, due in part to the slumping economy. That caused it to reprice a big portion of its commercial insurance.
In the second quarter, the insurer spent 81.8 percent of its premium revenue on medical care, down from 86.8 percent. It spent 80.1 percent of its premium revenue on medical care for its commercial insurance business, down from 85.9 percent.
NewAlliance Bank posts Q2 profit on record revenues (posted 07/27/10 at 5:30pm)

New Haven-based NewAlliance Bancshares said Tuesday that its second quarter earnings-bolstered by record revenues-jumped 61 percent, as the bank earned higher income from its investments.
The holding company for NewAlliance Bank said its net income for the quarter ended June 30 was $16.3 million, or 16 cents per diluted share compared, to $10.1 million, or 10 cents per diluted share, in the year ago period.
Peyton R. Patterson, chairman and CEO of the bank, said loan delinquencies also improved and loan originations grew by 37 percent in the quarter.
"We are pleased to report record revenues this quarter driven by strong balance sheet growth and higher margins," Patterson said.
NewAlliance reported its best ever quarterly revenue during the April through June period bringing in $73.6 million, a 12.9 percent over the prior year period.
Meanwhile the bank's net interest income, or the money its earns on interest-bearing assets was $57.7 million, a 15.7 percent increase from the prior year quarter. This is the sixth consecutive quarterly increase in net interest income contributing to the revenue increases, the bank said.
The bank also originated $534.9 million in loans for the quarter, including $165.3 million in commercial loans.
Total non-performing loans were $68.3 million at quarter end, compared to $64.9 million at the end of the linked quarter. The banks also set aside $5.5 million to cover loans that may go bad in the future.
GE pays $23M to settle Iraq kickback charges (posted 07/27/10 at 3:53pm)

Fairfield-based General Electric Co. will pay $23.4 million to settle federal charges that some of its subsidiaries paid illegal kickbacks to the Iraqi government in order to win contracts under a U.N. program, the Associated Press reports..

The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a civil complaint filed Tuesday in federal court that GE subsidiaries gave cash, computers, medical supplies and other goods worth $3.6 million to the Iraqi health and oil ministries from 2000 to 2003.

The SEC alleged the kickbacks were in return for contracts to supply medical and water purification equipment under the United Nations' oil-for-food program, which provided humanitarian aid to prewar Iraq.

Cheryl Scarboro, head of the SEC's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act unit, said GE "failed to maintain adequate internal controls to detect and prevent these illicit payments."

GE agreed to pay a $1 million penalty and give up about $22.5 million in profit and interest earned from the transactions. The company does not admit or deny wrongdoing under the settlement. GE also said that the Department of Justice has closed its own investigation into the matter.

"This conduct does not meet our standards, and we believe that it is in the best interests of GE and its shareholders to resolve this matter now," the company said in a statement.

The U.N.'s oil-for-food program was meant to allow aid such as medical supplies and food to flow into Iraq despite tough international sanctions against the government of Saddam Hussein. Iraq sold $64.2 billion of crude oil and bought $34.5 billion of supplies through the program.

But it was also rife with corruption. According to the SEC, all Iraqi ministries demanded a 10 percent kickback on each contract. The federal government has brought similar charges against several other companies, including Chevron, Textron and Ingersoll-Rand.

The SEC said the GE case involves four subsidiaries, two owned by the conglomerate at the time of the alleged kickbacks and two that GE acquired after 2003. Two of the units, Ionics Inc. of Burlington, Ma., and the British firm Amersham PLC, are also named as defendants.

In some cases, the subsidiaries made payments, while in others, they provided goods and services instead, according to GE. A total of 18 contracts were involved. GE said 14 of the contracts were awarded before GE was involved, but that it assumed liability when it acquired the subsidiaries.

Company shares rose 3 cents to $16.17 in late morning trading.
CT June new housing permits see sharp decline (posted 07/27/10 at 1:07pm)

New home construction in Connecticut plummeted in June, as new housing permits issued during the month fell by 40 percent.
Connecticut municipalities issued 247 new housing permits in June, compared to 403 in June 2009.
The one bright spot was that June saw an uptick from the previous month, when Connecticut cities and towns issued 229 permits in May, according to data released Tuesday by the Department of Economic and Community Development.
Permits are issued for single-family houses, condominiums or apartment units.
June's dismal results now put Connecticut's new home permits for 2010, slightly behind last year's pace. Through the first six months of 2009 1,434 new housing permits were issued, compared to 1,344 so far this year.
Prior to the June totals, Connecticut was pacing ahead of last year's pace.
The data from DECD includes housing permits issued from 128 of the 169 municipalities in Connecticut.
Ex-UTC chief David ranks as pay all-star (posted 07/27/10 at 11:55am)

Retired United Technologies Chairman and CEO George David was among the highest paid executives of public companies during the past decade, raking in nearly $450 million in salaries, bonuses, and stock options, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of CEO pay.

David, who retired as chairman of Hartford-based UTC in 2009, was ranked as the 14^th highest paid executive of a public company from 1999 to 2009, according to the Journal, putting him ahead of major Wall Street icons like former Citigroup CEO Sanford I. Weill, who took in $360 million during the same time period.

William W. McGuire, the former head of Minnesota-based United Healthcare, which has major operations in Hartford, also made the list. He ranked as the 10^th highest paid executive over the last decade earning nearly $470 million in salaries, perks and stock options, the Wall Street Journal said.

The highest paid executive from 1999 to 2009 was Oracle CEO Lawrence J. Ellison, who earned $1.8 billion during that time.

The Journal's analysis includes salaries, bonuses, perks, and realized gains on both restricted stock and stock options.
Lego expanding its Enfield footprint (posted 07/27/10 at 11:45am)

Danish toy maker Lego, whose U.S. operations in Enfield date to the 1970s, said Tuesday it will expand its Connecticut presence in the coming year by adding 80,000 square feet of offices and adding jobs at the Enfield Business Park.

Construction on the new space will begin in the coming weeks, with an anticipated occupancy of March 2011, the company said.

Lego said the expansion will accommodate several departments, including direct-to-consumer retail operations, finance, consumer services, facilities management, information technology, and human resources.

Company officials said Lego has "very strong momentum," and is in a position to hire. Lego did not immediately respond to a phone call Tuesday to elaborate on its staffing plans.

"This Enfield site has been the Lego Systems home for 35 years, and we are very happy to be able to assume incremental space to meet the needs of our company growth here at our long-time home," said Michael McNally, Lego's brand relations director. "We have developed a good working relationship with the town, and the location continues to be very convenient for our employees, who come from both Connecticut and Massachusetts."

A few years ago, Lego moved its Enfield manufacturing and warehouse operations to its home base in Billund, Denmark.
CT River Plaza to see “millions’’ in upgrades (posted 07/27/10 at 11:44am)

The new owners of downtown Hartford's Connecticut River Plaza office complex are ready to invest "millions of dollars'' in improvements to draw new tenants to the soon-to-be empty property, officials say.

FBE Limited and Cammeby's International, both of New York, paid $6.7 million cash for the two office towers and parking garage at 450 Columbus Blvd. The same investors own the Pavillion at State House Square office building just blocks away.

The owners commented about their latest Hartford investment through their legal adviser in the deal, William Crowe, of Mayo Crowe in Hartford.

"This was not a speculative purchase,'' said Crowe, who represented the buyers in the purchase from unnamed major institutional investors. "This was a long term investment.''

Citigroup holds the master lease on the plaza office complex that is set to expire on Aug. 7, officials said. The largest subtenant, UnitedHealthcare, recently moved its Hartford operations blocks away into CityPlace.

Remaining subtenant Travelers Co. is vacating the last of its approximately 60,000 square feet and moving into about the same footprint at State House Square, Crowe said.

After Travelers leaves, work will begin for three to four months on upgrading the lobby areas, elevators, the upper-level plaza walkway linking the property to Constitution Plaza, and a new fitness center, said Shawn McMahon, Jones Lang LaSalle's lead broker leasing the property.

"They will be spending significant capital -- in the millions of dollars,'' McMahon said, declining to be specific.

A New York designer will sketch out the improvements. But a general contractor has yet to be chosen, the broker said.

McMahon said the new landlords are negotiating with several unnamed potential prospects about occupying the property. Ideal tenants will take at least 20,000 square feet in floor space, he said.

Two buildings comprise the 555,000-square-foot complex built in 1985: the north tower stands 15 stories, with 320,000 square feet; the 11-story south tower contains 235,000 square feet. The five-level parking garage accommodates 800 vehicles.
CT going half on $500M rail corridor (posted 07/27/10 at 11:42am)

Connecticut will contribute $260 million in state bonding toward improvements to the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield rail corridor, as part of a $500-million plan to build a high-speed rail track through the heart of New England, Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced Tuesday.

The state's share of bonding will be matched with an application filed for $220 million in federal funding for the rail corridor, which has already received $40 million in federal funding to double-track the 10-mile stretch between Newington and Berlin.

Connecticut's segment of the rail improvements are part of a larger plan to extend high-speed passenger rail into Massachusetts and Vermont.

Rell said improvements in the corridor will include fixing existing stations, building new ones, and increasing the efficiency and frequency of freight and passenger service.

When complete, the project goal is to reduce the number of cars on the road by 4,000 each day; increase connectivity of rail and bus systems, especially the proposed Hartford-New Britain Busway; link to Bradley International Airport; and generate 4,000 jobs.

"The high speed rail project will remove one of the great impediments to economic growth in Connecticut - traffic congestion along the corridor. With high speed rail, our economic future improves exponentially and we can move forward with renewed confidence on a project that can create jobs and position Connecticut for sustained future growth," House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan said in a statement.
SEC calls The Hartford on the carpet (posted 07/27/10 at 11:41am)

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., whose investment losses in 2008 led to a U.S. bailout, is being asked by regulators to explain why the Connecticut insurer expects its worst-performing holdings to rebound, Bloomberg News reports.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission instructed The Hartford to provide more details on $2.1 billion of securities that have traded at less than half of what the company says they're worth for more than a year, Bloomberg News reports on its Web site.

The unrealized loss on these investments, held by Hartford's life insurance subsidiary, totaled $1.5 billion as of Dec. 31, the SEC said in a letter to the company dated April 13 and disclosed Monday.

"Please revise your disclosure to indicate the nature of these securities and to explain why these unrealized losses, which appear to be significantly greater than credit spreads in the marketplace, are apparently not indicative of credit losses and/or other-than-temporary impairment," Jim Rosenberg, senior assistant chief accountant, said in the letter to Glenn Lammey, chief financial officer of Hartford's life insurer.

Life insurers buy corporate debt and mortgage-backed securities to fund obligations to policyholders that may take decades to mature. When bond prices fall in the market, carriers aren't required to take losses if they expect the securities to pay off over time.

"It's certainly a yellow flag any time you've got that big of a bucket of unrealized losses that you haven't taken a charge on," said Jay Hanson, partner and national director of accounting at McGladrey & Pullen LLP. "Investors gotta question, ‘Are those just really charges waiting to happen?'"

The insurer fell 3 cents to $23.40 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock is little changed this year.

Hartford agreed to include more information on the securities in its quarterly filings, according to a reply from the insurer to the SEC dated April 27. The holdings are primarily commercial mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations tied to commercial property and have floating coupon rates, said Hartford, which is based in the Connecticut city of the same name.

The drop in market prices reflects "market illiquidity and risk premiums," Hartford said. The company "has concluded that no credit impairment exists for these securities. Furthermore, the company neither has an intention to sell nor does it expect to be required to sell these securities."

Losses on the investments "may be significant" if property values perform worse than the company expects, Hartford said. The SEC told The Hartford in a June 9 letter that it completed its review. Such correspondence may be released about six weeks after a review is closed. SEC questions about companies' practice of writing down securities are "pretty common," Hanson said of McGladrey & Pullen.

Chief Executive Officer Liam McGee said in an interview last month that he was looking for deals in the U.S. property market amid "attractive pricing." McGee was hired in October to reduce risk at the insurer. In his first six months on the job, he cut Hartford's holdings of commercial mortgage bonds.

Hartford lost more than $4 billion in the five quarters prior to McGee's arrival. The insurer repaid its $3.4 billion U.S. bailout in March.
Insurer W.R. Berkley’s 2Q profit climbs (posted 07/27/10 at 11:40am)

A push into new coverages helped Greenwich property-casualty insurer W. R. Berkley Corp. post higher profits in the second quarter.

Berkley said it earned $110 million, or 70 cents a share, in the three months ended June 30, up from $97 million, or 59 cents a share, a year ago.

Chairman William R. Berkley said the insurer benefitted from stable pricing to boost premium income 5.5 percent, with new coverages offsetting declines in its established markets.
Yale cell researchers land $2.5M grants (posted 07/27/10 at 11:39am)

Two Yale University scientists working on cell biology have been named as recipients of the 2010 Pioneer Award from the National Institutes of Health, with each recipient receiving a $2.5 million grant and laboratory support for five years, according to Mass High Tech News.

According to the Yale office of public affairs, the recipients are Haifan Lin, director of the Yale Stem Cell Center, and Tamas Horvath, chair and professor of comparative medicine and professor of neurobiology and obstetrics and gynecology at Yale School of Medicine, the publication said.

In November of 2009, Horvath announced findings in a study that looked at how ghrelin, a hormone produced in the stomach that stimulates hunger, may be used to boost resistance to, or slow the development of, Parkinson's disease. Researchers found that mice who were deficient in ghrelin had more loss of dopamine. Horvath said the results could be easily translated to human use because the ghrelin system is preserved through various species.

Lin won $1.8 million fromt he state of Connecticut's Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee in March of 2008, for research on maintaining and enhancing the human embryonic stem cell core.
Carrier insiders buy Magic Aire division (posted 07/27/10 at 11:38am)

Carrier Corp., the heating-cooling and air-handling equipment unit of United Technologies Corp., is selling its Magic Aire business to a group of Texas investors, including Magic Aire's management.

Carrier said it will retain a minority equity stake in the company.

Based in Wichita Falls, Texas, Magic Aire has more than 100 employees who make commercial fan coils and air handlers. Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
Well Fargo index tracks fading business outlook (posted 07/27/10 at 11:36am)

Though their concerns about credit availability have stabilized, fewer U.S. small business owners expect revenues, cash flow, capital spending and hiring to increase over the next 12 months, according to a survey from the parent of Wachovia Bank-Connecticut.

The July survey for the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index shows lower expectations for business prospects contributed to a 17-point decline from April in the survey's index of business owner confidence, finishing at the lowest score since the survey's inception.

Credit conditions improved modestly for businesses in July with 32 percent of respondents reporting that credit was "somewhat" or "very difficult" to obtain over the past 12 months, down from 36 percent in April.

Yet business owners expect credit to remain tight over the next 12 months as 42 percent expect credit to remain "somewhat" or "very difficult" to obtain, the same percentage reported in April and January 2010.

Wachovia, operates 474 branches with 13,000 employees in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. The Wachovia brand will switch to Wells Fargo in the first quarter of 2011.
UTC cutting another 1,500 workers (posted 07/26/10 at 1:56pm)

United Technologies Corp. in Hartford says it plans to cut another 1,500 jobs through 2011 after eliminating 900 positions in the first half of this year, the Associated Press reports.

The parent company of jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, Otis elevator, Sikorsky Aircraft and other businesses said Monday in a regulatory filing that it will take restructuring and other costs of $121 million in 2010 related to the cuts.

The company didn't specify where the job cuts are coming.

UTC did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
It says it cut about 900 jobs as of June 30 and expects to complete most of the remaining cost-cutting this year and in 2011.

UTC had announced 11,600 job cuts in 2009. It employed 206,700 workers as of the end of 2009.

Its shares rose 49 cents, to $71.39 in afternoon trading.
Delta ends Hartford-Los Angeles route (posted 07/26/10 at 12:21pm)

Less than two months after resuming a direct Hartford-to-Los Angeles flight, Delta Air Lines will shut down the high-profile service by the year's end.
The last flight will be Sept. 30, a Delta official said Monday. Although the direct flight performed well in the summer, the bookings weren't as strong for the fall and winter seasons.
"The Hartford-Los Angeles service started as a summer service with consideration for year-round service. At this time, its performance has proven only as a summer seasonal route," Delta spokesman Anthony Black said.
Bradley officials had touted the non-stop service, giving the airport a direct West Coast connection.

Many airlines flying out to Bradley offer service to Los Angeles, but Delta's was the only direct flight. That direct flight resumed on June 10 after Delta previously discontinued the route in September 2008.

In June, Delta vice president Neel Shah, who is the airline's executive representative for Hartford, said the BDL-LAX flight typically was 80 percent full from out of Bradley and was 100 percent full from out of Los Angeles. The flight resumed, in part, Shah said because corporate air travel is making a comeback after falling off in recent years.
Since the bookings were strong over the summer and not for the fall, Delta will look at the types of travelers that flew direct from Hartford to Los Angeles when deciding the route's fate in the future, Black said.
The direct to Los Angeles flight could resume as a summer service in 2011, but that won't be decided until sometime in the future, Black said.

Delta is the leading air carrier out of Bradley. It offers 175 weekly flights out of Bradley, mostly to Florida and Midwest destinations.
The air line may add more destinations out of Bradley in the near future, Black said.
"On the whole, the market is performing well," Black said.
Hartford’s CT River Plaza sells for $6.7M (posted 07/26/10 at 11:43am)

Connecticut River Plaza, a one-time showcase office property in downtown Hartford, has a new owner from New York City who paid $6,666,667 for the property, city records show.

Connecticut River Plaza LLC bought the two buildings on 1.7 acres at 450 Columbus Blvd. with 556,000 square feet from Boston's U.S. Bank N.A., according to papers filed with the Hartford City Clerk's office.

According to Jones Lang LaSalle, the buildings' leasing broker, FBE Limited and Cammeby's International, owner of State House Square in downtown Hartford, are investors in the limited liability corporation that bought them.
July 23 date stamps on conveyance tax records and deed papers filed with the clerk's office indicate the deal was closed late last week. Records indicate this may have been a cash transaction. No mortgage document tied to the property was filed with the clerk's office.

UnitedHealthcare recently moved its Hartford operations and about 2,000 workers from Connecticut River Plaza to CityPlace, 185 Asylum St., in the heart of the city's central business district.

The sale completes one of the most anticipated transactions in the recent history of downtown Hartford's commercial office market.

Realty insiders say the sale will likely trigger a round of millions of dollars invested by the new owner to continue sprucing up the 25-year-old twin towers to accommodate new tenants.

Jones Lang LaSalle spent more than a year shopping the property on the market. The firm says the lobby space and elevators have been updated. The property also has 800-space parking garage and access to 1,500 more in the city's Morgan Street garage.

The property built by Connecticut developer Richard Gordon over the years has had Travelers, Smith Barney and Citigroup among its tenants.
The new owner could not be immediately reached for comment.
New home sales up, but sales remain slow (posted 07/26/10 at 11:18am)

Sales of new homes jumped last month, but it was the second-weakest month on record. The lackluster economy has made potential buyers skittish about shopping for homes, The Associated Press reports.
New home sales rose nearly 24 percent in June from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 330,000. May's number was revised downward to a rate of 267,000, the slowest pace on records dating back to 1963. Sales for April and March were also revised downward.
High unemployment, low job growth, and tight credit have kept people from buying homes. The industry received a boost this spring when the government offered tax credits to homebuyers. But since they expired in April, the number of people looking to buy has dropped, even with the lowest mortgage rates in decades available.
"There's no question that this is a weak number, but it seems to be more stable," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group. "The bottom line to all of this is that we need more jobs."
Sales are down 72 percent from their peak annual rate of 1.39 million in July 2005. More than 600,000 new homes sold per year from 1983 through 2007. After the housing bubble popped, sales plunged to 375,000 last year. That was the weakest yearly total on records dating back to 1963.
New homes sales made up about 7 percent of the housing market last year. That's down from about 15 percent before the bust.
Weak sales mean fewer jobs in the construction industry, which normally power economic recoveries. Each new home built creates, on average, the equivalent of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in taxes paid to local and federal authorities, according to the National Association of Home Builders. The impact is felt across multiple industries.
CT wants ‘Happy Meal' toy off the market (posted 07/26/10 at 11:11am)

Connecticut's consumer protection chief is asking the federal government to act quickly to remove from circulation a McDonald's Happy Meal toy that he claims nearly strangled a Connecticut boy and that his own son had one.
Commissioner Jerry Farrell Jr. says he wrote to U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Chairperson Inez Tenenbaum about the safety risk posed by "The Last Airbender Katara" figure and bracelet given out by McDonald's.
The state agency says it received a complaint from an unidentified Connecticut consumer, detailing how her son's playing with the Happy Meal toy could have ended in tragedy,
The federal consumer safety agency is aware of Farrell's letter, CPSC spokesman Alex Filip said. The agency said it received a separate consumer complaint in early July and launched an investigation, but could not immediately say whether both complaints were from the same person.
The Connecticut consumer alleged that her son was playing with the Airbender figure and bracelet given out in a Happy Meal when he took the bracelet and put it around his neck, Farrell said.
The hard plastic ends of the bracelet allegedly cut off blood circulation to his arteries, and he began to lose consciousness. The mother managed to remove the bracelet from his neck, averting serious harm.
"This particular complaint struck close to home for me, as my three-year old son also had this toy in his possession," Farrell said in a statement.

Farrell said he has offered to help federal product safety regulators consider ways to take the Katara toys off the market.

In a statement late Moday, McDonald's said its 'Last Airbender' promotion ended last Thursday.

It added that "Katara" figure was evaluated by an independent third-party laboratory, accredited by the CPSC, and determined to be safe for children and in compliance with all applicable federal requirements.

"McDonald's toy safety record far exceeds the record for the toy industry overall,'' the world's largest fast-food operator based in Oak Brook, Ill., said in an e-mail statement. "Our Happy Meal toy designs undergo extensive reviews and testing by a team of safety experts, including independent testing laboratories."
So far the CPSC, Filip said, has not decided what action, if any, is necessary.
Stonington's wastewater upgrade moves ahead (posted 07/26/10 at 11:08am)

Stonington has chosen a Massachusetts company with a proprietary process for enhancing wastewater cleansing as it prepares for an approximately $15 million, three-year upgrade of its treatment plant that discharges into Long Island Sound.
Harold Storrs, director of the town's water pollution control facility, said Cambridge Water Technology's proprietary process uses magnetite, an ion ingredient, that speeds the rate at which waste solids, nitrogen and other nutrients settle out of wastewater. This makes the treatment process more efficient and requires less equipment, Storrs said.
A four-month trial of Cambridge's "BioMag'' ingredient lowered the amount of concentrated nitrogen discharged into the Mystic River to below state requirements, officials said. The Mystic River empties into Long Island Sound.
State environmental regulators mandate that Stonington cut its average nitrogen discharge to less than 5 milligrams per liter. The BioMag trial cut the Stonington plant's discharge to less than 4 milligrams per liter, or 12 pounds daily, from 7.5 milligrams per liter, or 30 pounds a day.
Storrs said that after Labor Day, Stonington will seek appropriations for the plant upgrade. If officials approve, teh town will do out to bid for design proposals for the plant upgrade that so far is about 10 percent complete, he said.
Design and approval will take about a year, and another 18 months to install the upgrades, the pollution control director said.
N.H. tries luring young workers with new website (posted 07/26/10 at 11:05am)

When Graham Chynoweth finished law school in 2004, he faced a choice: return to his native New Hampshire, or head to Boston, where all the "smart" people were going, The Associated Press reports.
"That was totally wrong," said Chynoweth, now a vice president and legal counsel for a Manchester technology firm. "Smart people understand that in a large city it takes so long -- because there's so many people competing on so many different levels -- to get noticed in any one thing. ... I think there's an amazing opportunity for success if people view New Hampshire as the right place to launch a career."
Chynoweth also is co-chairman of Stay Work Play NH, a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging more young workers to settle in New Hampshire. The group is launching a website, http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/SIG=1118adfjm/**http%3A/www.stayworkplay.org/, on Monday aimed at 20- to 30-year-olds that includes information about each element -- staying, working and playing in New Hampshire -- as well as a job search function and links to social media tools.
"The state constantly gets sold short and, really, sells itself short," Chynoweth said. "That myth -- that you can't succeed and you can't have it all in New Hampshire -- is what this website is going to blow up."
Under the "stay" category, visitors to the site will find information about New Hampshire's quality of life, buying or renting a home, educational opportunities and how to stay connected via social media networks and young professional networks. The "work" category provides an overview of the state's economy, resources for starting a business and a job search tool that allows users to view responses by location and salary range. The "play" category highlights New Hampshire as a "natural playground" as well as its "vibrant cultural community" with an event calendar and list of 101 things to do for fun.
Matt Cookson, the organization's president, said the goal is to offer one-stop shopping for young people, but he also hopes visitors will become active participants by submitting their own photos, stories and other content.
"This is really for other people, and we want them to come and give us ideas and give us content we can re-use," he said. "Fun photos of their favorite places, videos on why they like New Hampshire from the perspective of staying, working and playing, ideas about events they want to share with people."
The site will host a video contest this fall, and plans are in the works to make the job search feature more New Hampshire-specific and to include more internship opportunities, Cookson said.
Stay Work Play NH grew out of the University System of New Hampshire's "55 percent" initiative, which seeks to keep 55 percent of the system's graduates in New Hampshire, and has been trying to implement several of the recommendations made a year ago by the governor's task force on retaining young workers.
The task force found that while it is mostly a myth that the state's young workers are fleeing New Hampshire in droves, it could do more to attract and retain them.
"One of the major findings of the task force was that there's really a disconnect between New Hampshire employers and New Hampshire's potential employees, especially at the college level, with the perception being that there's no good jobs in New Hampshire," Chynoweth said. "As you can see from the recent unemployment numbers, there's actually a lot of jobs in New Hampshire. We have way lower unemployment than a lot of other places. So there's a lot of good jobs here. We've just got to connect small businesses with New Hampshire with the students that are coming out and the people who are thinking of coming here or coming back."
Liberty Bank agrees to acquire CT River Community Bank (posted 07/23/10 at 6:30pm)

Middletown-based Liberty Bank said late Friday that it has reached an agreement to acquire Connecticut River Community Bank of Wethersfield.
The deal, which is pending regulatory and shareholder approval, is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Under the agreement each outstanding share of Connecticut River Community Bank will be exchanged for $10.75 in cash.
The per share transaction price represents a substantial premium above the 52-week trading range of Connecticut River Community Bank of $5.00 to $7.75 per share.
"This Merger is a good fit for the customers of both our organizations," said Chandler J. Howard, president and CEO of Liberty Bank, which has $3.2 billion in assets and nearly 40 branches. "The Merger will further strengthen Liberty's franchise in Hartford County, and build upon on the traditions of prudent banking and outstanding customer service which Liberty Bank has maintained for 185 years.
Connecticut River Community Bank, with $175 million in assets, was established in 2002 and operates offices in Wethersfield, West Hartford and Glastonbury.
Connecticut River has been under scrutiny from bank regulators for troubled assets in its loan portfolio.
The company was told by regulators in May that it was prohibited from paying shareholder dividends, and that it had to maintain certain levels of capital, to cushion against further losses.
EB buying Pfizer's CT complex for $55M (posted 07/23/10 at 4:00pm)

New documents show submarine maker Electric Boat is buying drugmaker Pfizer Inc.'s former global research and development complex in New London for $55 million, The Day of New London reports.

The documents filed Thursday in New London City Hall say New York-based Pfizer is giving EB a $40 million mortgage for the property. The purchase plans were announced last month but the price wasn't disclosed.

The sale is part of consolidation plans by Pfizer related to its acquisition of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. The company is moving 1,400 workers assigned to New London across the Thames River to its Groton research campus.

Electric Boat, a subsidiary of Virginia-based General Dynamics Corp., is planning to use the site for a major expansion as the company enjoys a boom in military demand.
Bridge work on I-91 next week (posted 07/23/10 at 1:39pm)
A bridge maintenance project on Interstate 91 between Enfield and Windsor is expect to impact traffic next week from Exits 37-47 in the southbound and northbound lanes.

Construction is scheduled from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. Monday through Thursday evenings, although weather or other events could impact the project schedule.
“Green’’ New Haven tower debuts Aug. 1 (posted 07/23/10 at 12:57pm)

360 State St., the 32-story residential tower in downtown New Haven, will move in its first 50 occupants on Aug. 1, after 21 months of construction.

The $190 million building at the corner of Chapel and State Streets contains 700,000 square feet and will offer 500 apartments ranging from one-bedroom studios for about $1,165 a month to three bedrooms for $4,409.

It also has 28,000 square feet of retail space. The tower will be fully complete on Dec. 1, officials said.

The building is seeking LEED platinum certification.

Developer-architect Becker and Becker Inc. bills it as the largest residential tower in Connecticut. Bozzuto Management Co. is leasing agent.
Enfield outdoor retailer buys Wasp Archery (posted 07/23/10 at 12:47pm)

Enfield sporting goods retailer Weaver's Outdoor Inc. has purchased Wasp Archery Products, a Plymouth, maker of arrow broadheads for game hunting.
Terms were not disclosed.

Wasp, in business for more than 30 years, is Weaver's flagship brand.

Designed and Maintained by ForeSite