Finance and Economic

Four Ohio pension funds have joined the New York state retirement fund in filing a class-action suit against BP for allowing its stock to plunge in value, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said on Wednesday.

The four Ohio funds — the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, the State Teachers Retirement system of Ohio, the School Employees Retirement System of Ohio and the Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund — have a combined value of $150 billion.

These funds joined the New York State Common Retirement Fund, worth $132 billion, in filing suit against BP (BP), which has lost about 45% of its market value since the company’s oil well blew up an offshore rig in the Gulf of Mexico in April, killing 11 workers and unleashing a massive spill.

"BP misled investors with false and misleading statements about the safety of its drilling operations and its ability to fix events like the oil spill," DiNapoli said in an announcement that he released with Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, who represents the legal interests of the Ohio funds.

"By forming a partnership between New York and Ohio, we aim to compensate investors for what we believe was securities fraud and effect real change in the way BP and other companies do business," DiNapoli added payday loans.

BP did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

The New York fund, the country’s third-largest, originally filed suit against BP in June. The fund held 19 million BP shares at the time of the explosion.

Robert Whalen, spokesman for the New York comptrollers, said the New York fund is filing as a co-lead plaintiff with the Ohio funds. He said there are also four pending actions filed through U.S. district courts in Louisiana and California, but they will eventually be consolidated into one.

BP has agreed to set aside $20 billion in an escrow account for spill-related costs. The company also decided to suspend its dividend for the rest of the year.

On Wednesday, the Times of London reported that Tony Hayward is getting ready to step down from his job as chief executive officer, but BP denied the report.  

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The amount of foreclosures initiated by lenders in Massachusetts in June has dipped from June of last year according to a new report from The Warren Group.

June marks the second straight month that petitions to foreclose have gone down year over year, per the Warren Group. State lenders filed 2,220 petitions for foreclose — the first step in the foreclosure process — a 21.7 percent drop from 2,835 last June.

June’s foreclosure petitions were up 5.2 percent from the 2,110 filed in May.

A total of 13,338 foreclosure petitions have been filed so far this year statewide, down 3.4 percent from 13,813 during the same period last year.

“The foreclosure picture in Massachusetts hasn’t really improved that much. The level of foreclosure starts for the first half of the year is only slightly lower than a year ago. We have been averaging just over 2,200 foreclosure petitions a month this year compared to about 2,300 a month last year,” Warren Group CEO Timothy M. Warren said in a statement.

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For respondents to the latest Business Pulse survey from Los Angeles Business from bizjournals, the rest of 2010 will be a mixed bag of results for their individual businesses.

The results of the question "What does the second half of the year look like for your company" broke down as follows:

• Not good, but better than last year — 23 percent
• Even worse than last year — 26 percent
• OK — 18 percent
• Better than last year — 22 percent
• A lot better than last year — 9 percent

No comments were left on the poll.

This week's poll looks at the problems surrounding the iPhone 4, which has been dubbed, even by Steve Jobs himself, as "Antennagate no faxing 1 hour payday loans."

How do you think Jobs and his band of merry men in Cupertino have handled the situation, taking into consideration Friday's announcement of free cases to those who have already bought an iPhone 4?

What grade would you give Apple on "Antennagate"? Go to our poll page or our homepage and cast your vote. Be sure to leave a comment explaining your answer.

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Servigistics bought Conduit Internet Technologies Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

Atlanta-based Servigistics provides software to help companies manage their parts inventory.

Conduit, headquartered in State College, Pa., provides product content management technology for OEM and dealer-based service organizations.

"Conduit's content management solutions will give potential and existing Servigistics clients extended capabilities to drive revenue through the service chain by granting more visibility and access to critical content necessary to support their distribution channels," said Eric Hinkle, CEO of Servigistics, in a statement paydayloans.

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Group buying website Living Social is coming to Sacramento.

Living Social will launch in Sacramento on Tuesday, the company announced.

Living Social is adding Sacramento and 24 other cities, which will bring the daily deal company up to 52 markets, a news release said.

Users can save up to 90 percent on local restaurants, spas, pole dancing lessons, horseback riding and other attractions, the company said cash advance loan no fax.

Membership to Living Social is free.

Groupon, another group buying website, launched in Sacramento, its 53rd city, in May.

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Temperatures of 100 degrees-plus will spread across the Baltimore-area Tuesday and continue through the middle of the week.

The National Weather Service expects temperatures to reach 103 degrees Tuesday, with the heat index reaching as high as 107. On Wednesday, temperatures are expected to again eclipse 100, according to the NWS.

The service has issued a heat advisory for the Baltimore/Washington, D.C., region, meaning the duo of hot temperatures and high humidity “will combine to create a situation in which heat illnesses are possible payday loans guaranteed no fax.” The NWS advises people drink plenty of fluids, stay in air-conditioned rooms and stay out of the sun.

The record-high temperature for downtown Baltimore on July 6 is 104 degrees, according to Weather.com. The average is 90 degrees.

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Riverview Bancorp Inc. wants to raise as much as $23 million in a stock offering, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchanged Commission.

The Vancouver-based bank (NASDAQ: RVSB) will issue 6,896,552 shares, bringing its outstanding number of shares to 17,820,325.

The money will be used to support growth and meet the bank’s capital needs. The bank is under an order from the federal O

The bank’s shares fell 4 percent Friday to $2 .39. They had a 52-week range between $2.13 and $4.39.

Riverview Bancorp Inc. is the savings and loan holding company of Riverview Community Bank.

The bank had $838 million in assets as of March 31. It lost $5.4 million in fiscal 2010.

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The University of Hawaii Board of Regents approved on Monday construction of the world’s largest telescope atop Mauna Kea on the Big Island.

The unanimous vote, required because UH is leasing the land from the state, clears the way for project developers to file for a building permit with the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

The telescope will be able to collect nine times more area, have a spatial resolution 12 times sharper and provide up to 100 times the image clarity of the most powerful telescopes currently in existence, according to the project’s website. Scientists hope the telescope will in part provide insight into the physics of the universe’s early formation as well as massive black holes.

A joint project between the University of California, the California Institute of Technology and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy, the project has attracted excitement within the scientific community, but also controversy.

Some Native Hawaiians argue that it will disrupt sacred land. Kealoha Tiscotti of Mauna Kea Aina Hou said the telescope threatens Native Hawaiian burial grounds and important ceremonial land.

“It’s a huge footprint,” Tiscotti said in reference to the size of the proposed telescope low rate payday loans.

Conservation groups, including Kahea: The Hawaiian Environmental Alliance, also have expressed concern over the disruption of the ecosystem.

Marti Townsend, program director for Kahea, said her organization plans to continue protesting the telescope and will register opposition with the DLNR when the building permit is filed.

The project’s directors say they have reached out to the community, meeting with Native Hawaiians, local schools, labor unions and local officials.

“We believe this partnership will benefit the Big Island and Hawaii in so many ways, with jobs, the economy, work-force development, education, the environment, culture and, of course, science,” said Henry Yang, chairman of the project’s board of directors, in a prepared statement. “The world-class stature of astronomical education and research of the University of Hawaii on all its campuses statewide will benefit, and discoveries made by this telescope will benefit not only the international science community, but all of humankind.”

The proposed telescope is projected to begin operations in 2018.

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UNC-School of the Arts has named David Nelson of Raleigh as the school's next chief academic officer, according to an announcement.

Nelson most recently was senior vice president of academic administration at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. In that role he led more than 60 full-time faculty members and oversaw an $11 million annual budget. Southeastern Baptist has about 2,500 students.

UNCSA Chancellor John Mauceri said Nelson was the unanimous choice of the search committee.

“David is a theologian, philosopher, scholar and a musician," Mauceri said. "He had an immediate grasp of the complexities and opportunities the CAO position at UNCSA affords. He will make a great partner in mapping the future course of our school and its academic programs."

Nelson's appointment will take effect July 15.

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Nevada’s jobless rate hit a record high last month and and is now the highest in the nation, the first time in four years that Michigan doesn’t hold that distinction, according to a government report released Friday.

The Silver State’s unemployment rate climbed to 14% in May, the highest in the state since 1976 when the Labor Department began collecting the data. It was up from 13.7% in April.

Meanwhile, joblessness slipped to 13.6% from 14% the previous month in Michigan, which has been ravaged by the struggles of the auto industry. The state has been the leader in unemployment rate since April 2006.

During the last year, Nevada has lost a net total of more than 29,000 jobs, and posts the highest percentage increase in unemployment at 2.5%.

"So much of Nevada’s economy is tied to the gaming industry and housing sector, which continue to weigh on Nevada’s labor market across the board," said Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo. "Consumer spending on travel and leisure is still in a pullback, and while the housing market is no longer in a free fall, there are still a lot of vacant homes in Nevada."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also said in a statement that mounting unemployment in the state is a sign that Nevada continues to suffer from extreme economic conditions.

"This increase in our unemployment rate only emphasizes the need to diversify our state’s economy and create jobs," said Reid, who is in a difficult fight for re-election.

Though it’s still the second highest in the nation, Michigan’s unemployment rate has improved after peaking at 14.5% in December.

"Auto sales and production are up, and that has helped generate a little improvement in Michigan," said Vitner, highlighting that the state added 4,500 manufacturing jobs in May, likely due to hiring at auto plants.

Meanwhile, a majority of U.S. states welcomed lower unemployment rates last month, the report said.

A total of 37 states and the nation’s capital posted declines in jobless rates in May on a monthly basis. Unemployment increased in six states and seven states reported no changes.

On an annual basis, the job market is still sluggish. Joblessness climbed in 31 states and in Washington, D.C., from a year earlier, and only eased in 17 states.  

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