Finance and Economic

Ann Moore, the chief executive of Time Inc. — the world’s largest magazine publisher — is stepping down from the company to be replaced by Jack Griffin, a group president of Meredith Corp., according to published reports.

The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and New York Post all reported the CEO shakeup Wednesday evening, citing unnamed executives at the companies.

A Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500) subsidiary, Time Inc. publishes about 115 magazines worldwide including Time and Sports Illustrated and accounts for almost a quarter of total advertising revenues of U.S. consumer magazines. Measured by circulation, it’s the world’s largest magazine company, followed by Meredith, which is based in Des Moines, Iowa.

A Time Warner spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment. CNNMoney is a joint venture of CNN and Time Inc.

A 32-year veteran of Time Inc., Moore was appointed CEO in 2002. She has presided during a time when magazines suffered an unprecedented decline in advertising revenue due to competition from online media and the recession.

In recent years, Time Inc. has made major staff cuts and shed some of its magazine titles.

Griffin ran Meredith’s magazine brands — including Better Homes and Gardens, Parents and Family Circle — as well as its Internet and digital properties.

Meredith announced his departure from the company on Monday, saying he had left "to pursue another opportunity."

Griffin would inherit Moore’s role just as Time Inc. reported a 50% surge in its quarterly operating profit Wednesday.

That surge was primarily due to substantial cost-cutting measures, including a restructuring of the company’s pension expenses.

Time Inc.’s quarterly revenue remained virtually unchanged. Advertising sales were up 4%, but other revenue failed to grow primarily due to flat subscription growth and an ongoing impact from the sale of Southern Living at Home last fall, the company said.

Nearly all of Moore’s career has played out at Time Inc., where she worked her way up the corporate ladder. She started as an analyst shortly after earning her Harvard M.B.A. in 1978 and later became publisher and then president of People. 

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First Commonwealth Financial Corp., Pittsburgh, has planned a public offering of $75 million of its common stock, according to a filing made with the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday. First Commonwealth (NYSE:FCF) said it intends to use the net proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Macquarie Capital Inc. and Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Inc. are serving as underwriters; First Commonwealth said it plans to grant them a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 15 percent of the shares offered to cover over-allotments, if any.

First Commonwealth is based in Indiana, Pa., about 45 miles east of Pittsburgh. It has assets of $6.1 billion and operates 115 retail branches, 65 of them based in the Pittsburgh area.

Last Thursday, First Commonwealth reported second quarter net income of $13.5 million, or 15 cents per diluted share, compared with a loss of $18.6 million or 22 cents a year ago, and well above Wall Street’s average estimate of 5 cents.

For the six months ended June 30, First Commonwealth earned $374,000, compared with a $16.9 million loss for the first half of 2009. Earnings per share were zero; First Commonwealth posted a 20 cent loss per share for the first half of 2009.

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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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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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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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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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The Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism has nearly $3 million of available grants for business and nonprofits to install electronic vehicle charging equipment.

DBEDT anticipates awarding between two and seven grants throughout the state ranging anywhere from $30,000 to $2 million each.

The money is coming from federal stimulus funds that are allocated for Hawaii’s energy program.

In 2008, the Lingle administration committed to reducing dependence on oil in the islands to 30 percent by 2030 and electric vehicles is one means of realizing that goal payday advance online.

The application deadline is July 26 and the funds must be expended by March 30 of next year. Announcement of the selected recipients is scheduled for Aug. 31.

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British bank Standard Chartered is reportedly shifting thousands of its bankers to Apple Inc.'s iPhone from Research in Motion Ltd.'s Blackberry devices.

"It's a group-wide initiative involving wholesale and consumer banks globally," a spokeswoman for Standard Chartered told Reuters.

Bankers until now have for the most part been restricted to RIM's (NASDAQ:RIMM) BlackBerry as the standard device issued by their firms, largely because of security concerns with Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) smartphone in the past.

"If more companies switch to the iPhone, this is of course bad news for RIM," Lu Chialin, an analyst at Macquarie Securities told Reuters. "However, it will take a long time for companies to do their own internal testing before deciding to change, so it will be a while before it has any effect on RIM."

A study by NPD Group last week said RIM was No. 1 in first quarter U.S. market share with 36 percent, with Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) No. 2 at 28 percent and Apple No. 3 at 21 percent.

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Two Whole Foods Markets Inc. (Nasdaq: WFMI) executives were promoted today and one was added to the company's board of directors.

Co-Presidents and Chief Operating Officers Walter Robb and A.C. Gallo were granted their own titles Thursday. The two have shared the roles since October 2004.

Robb was elevated to co-CEO with founder John Mackey and joins the Austin-based natural grocer's board, while Gallo goes on as sole president and COO.

"Walter and A.C. are brilliant retailers, and their contributions to Whole Foods Market's success have been immeasurable. Due in large part to their operational leadership, we successfully managed through 2009, the most difficult year in our company's 30-year history," Mackey said.

Robb started working for Whole Foods in 1991 after selling his operating lease for the future Mill Valley, Calif. store. He ended up opening and operating that store as a team leader until his promotion to president of the northern pacific region in July 1993. Under his leadership, the region grew from two to 17 stores, completed four acquisitions and was a top-performing region for five years.

Robb became executive vice president of operations in 2001, co-COO in 2003 and co-president in 2004.

Gallo transferred to Whole Foods after 15 years with Bread & Circus, which was acquired by Whole Foods in 1992. He was promoted to vice president of the northeast region in 1994 and then to president in 1996. During his tenure, the Northeast region grew from eight stores to 16, including two acquisitions and the first New York City story.

Gallo became executive vice president of operations in 2001, co-chief operating officer in 2003 and co-president in 2004.

Whole Foods posted its quarterly earnings Wednesday, posting 147 percent net income growth.

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TotalBank wants to seize a Hialeah Gardens service station and restaurant.

The Miami-based bank filed a foreclosure action on Monday against Nu Nez Realty Co. and managing members Enrique Nunez, Carmen Nunez, Armando Abreu and Lourdes Abreu, according to Miami-Dade County Circuit Court records. It’s over a mortgage last modified at $3.2 million in March 2009.

Nu Nez Realty bought the 10,257-square-foot center for $4.8 million in 2005 with help from a TotalBank loan. The tenants include a Shell service station and Mima’s Cocina Restaurant, which is registered to Armando Abreu and Lourdes Abreu guaranteed fast personal loans. The restaurant was named in the foreclosure action, but the gas station was not.

Miami attorney Manuel Garcia-Linares, who represents TotalBank in the lawsuit, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

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