Business torrents

Universal Stainless & Alloy Products, Inc. named Douglas M. McSorely vice president of finance, chief financial officer and treasurer effective July 19, the company said in a statement.

McSorely replaces Richard M. Ubinger who left the company in April to “pursue other business opportunities.”

McSorely was most recently CFO for PSC Metals Inc., an Icahn Enterprises L.P. scrap metal recycling company. He spent 15 years at PSC and worked on M&A activities including financial consolidation of several companies.

“The breadth and depth of his experience will enable him to quickly assume control of the vital financial function and play a key role as we continue to execute our strategic growth plan,” Dennis Oates, chairman president and CEO of Universal Stainless said of McSorely.

Bridgeville-based Universal Stainless & Alloy Products (Nasdaq: USAP) makes and markets semi-finished and finished specialty steels.

In April, Universal reported first-quarter earnings of $1.4 million, compared to a loss in the same period a year earlier.

The company is slated to report second-quarter earnings on July 28.

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The bidding war between two iconic adult magazines has begun.

FriendFinder Networks, the owner of Penthouse magazine, wants to buy Playboy for $210 million, which works out to about $6.24 per share, the company announced Thursday afternoon.

The bid comes just three days after Playboy’s founder and notorious bachelor Hugh Hefner announced he wanted to buy the remaining shares of the iconic bunny brand and take the company private. Hefner already owns 69.5% of Playboy’s class A stock and 27.7% of its class B stock.

After he announced he wanted to buy the outstanding shares for $5.50 each on Monday morning, the stock surged 41%. That deal would value Playboy at $185 million. Playboy (PLA) has hovered around that level ever since.

Shares rose 2% to about $5.62 following the news from FriendFinder.

FriendFinder CEO Marc Bell said in a statement Thursday that he looks forward to working with Hefner and other members of Playboy’s management, should the two companies be combined payday loans with no fax.

Playboy’s magazine business has struggled to stay profitable amid online competition, as well as a decline in advertising in the traditional media industry as a whole. The company is in the middle of restructuring into one that relies more on licensing out its famous bunny brand.

Even after cost-cutting measures, the company reported a $962,000 loss in the first quarter of the year. A year earlier, it lost $14 million in the same quarter.

Playboy continues to make cuts to streamline its businesses and announced in June that it will take a $3 million restructuring charge in its second quarter. Playboy will announce results for that quarter on August 5.  

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Debt collectors are getting desperate and dirty.

Harassing phone calls, abusive language and physical violence are becoming a bigger part of business as debt collectors struggle to round up money from people who don’t have it.

"The American consumer is really hurting and collectors are having to fight harder to get money," said Robert Andrews, a senior analyst specializing in the debt industry at research firm IBISWorld.

Complaints of harassment by debt collectors surged 50% to 67,550 in 2009, according to the Federal Trade Commission. And they are on track to jump 13% this year, based on the number of FTC complaints filed in the first six months.

The No. 1 complaint is repeated calls, and it is not uncommon for collectors to bombard consumers with back-to-back calls for days, weeks, months and even years.

When debt collectors finally get someone on the other end of the phone, they are more likely to use nastier language. Complaints of debt collectors using obscene or abusive language spiked 35% last year.

A 55-year old New York woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said a collection agent called her home repeatedly, personally attacking her and her husband. When she refused to answer the phone, the collector called her estranged sister, an ex-boyfriend and her husband’s ex-wife’s mother.

"This guy was out of his mind and he kept calling and calling, telling me ‘you better talk to me, you deadbeat,’" she said. "He was very threatening and the whole thing was just really unsettling — it made you wonder who was going to show up at your door."

She had reason to worry, since complaints of debt collectors threatening — or actually using — violence more than doubled last year, to 2,517.

Keary Floyd, an attorney who represents consumers at the Floyd Legal Firm in Atlanta, said that while most of his debt collection cases involve excessive phone calls, one of his recent clients recorded a disturbing phone conversation where a debt collector threatened that he or someone else would come to the client’s house to get the money in any way that he could online payday loans.

"I heard it, and if any phone call was going to worry someone, it would be that one," said Floyd.

Other aggressive tactics that are becoming more common are debt collectors calling before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., demanding more money than what is owed, revealing a consumer’s debt to a third party or threatening "dire consequences" like prosecution, jail time, property seizure or job loss.

These practices are not just inappropriate, but they are illegal under the FTC’s Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which has been around since 1977.

An industry representative said the increase in complaints of harassment should not only be attributed to desperate and aggressive collecting agents, but to more consumers trying to cash in on lawsuits.

"Certainly if debt collectors are being more aggressive, they shouldn’t be, but it’s not fair to characterize the actions of debt collectors as the only reason why there is an increase in complaints — they’re not fully to blame," said Mark Schiffman, a spokesman for The Association of Credit and Collection Professionals.

"There’s a growing industry of consumer attorneys and savvy consumers who have learned that they can sue a debt collector fairly easily and collect very easily," he added.

Consumers are able to take a collector to state or federal court for harassment, according to the FTC. If the debtor wins the case, the collector is required to pay for any damages caused by the harassment, such as lost income and medical bills.

Even if debtors can’t prove monetary damages but are able to prove harassment, they can receive up to $1,000 and are reimbursed for the court and attorney fees. 

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Saint Luke’s Brain and Stroke Institute has opened a second location for its Brain Fitness Center.

The new location is at the Jewish Community Center, 5801 W. 115th St., in Overland Park, and is a joint effort between Saint Luke’s South and the JCC. Saint Luke’s declined to reveal the amount of revenue gained from the new center, but spokeswoman Kerry O’Connor said the venture would produce a “modest” profit and wouldn’t cost Saint Luke’s any money to run.

The Brain Fitness Center helps people with conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease or age-related cognitive decline to improve their brain fitness. Sessions are $25 for two hours.

The new center was built to save some gym members from the commute to the other center at 4400 Broadway St cash advance loan. in Kansas City, O’Connor said.

Saint Luke’s opened its first Brain Fitness Center in August 2008 and serves between 75 and 100 gym members a year. Saint Luke’s officials estimate that the center will be able to double its membership with the new center.

Initially, two speech-language therapists will split their time between the two centers.

Saint Luke’s Health System ranks third on the Kansas City Business Journal’s list of top area private-sector employers, with 6,622 Kansas City-area employees.

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In its latest move in the e-reader wars, Amazon slashed the price on the supersize version of its Kindle by more than $100 on Thursday.

Seattle-based Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) said it will sell the next generation of its Kindle DX — the 9.7-inch large-screen version of its portable reader — for $379, a deep discount from the original $489 price tag. It’s releasing the new version July 7, with pre-sale orders starting online today.

Like its smaller Kindle cousin, the DX offers free 3G wireless. The new version displays graphics and text 50% more clearly than its predecessor, Amazon said. It also comes in a graphite color, instead of the original white.

The announcement comes soon after rivals Amazon and Barnes & Noble (BKS, Fortune 500) sharply cut prices on their flagship e-readers instant payday loan. Barnes & Noble cut its Nook e-reader price tag to $199 last week and introduced a low-cost, Wi-Fi-only version for $149. Hours later, Amazon reduced the price of its regular Kindle — which has a 6-inch screen — to $189, down from $259.

But some savvy shoppers scored one even cheaper.

Deal-a-day site Woot.com, which on Wednesday announced it will be acquired by Amazon, offered the regular-sized Kindle for $149.99 on Thursday. The site had just under 5,000 units available, and sold out of them in less than nine hours.  

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Central Pacific Bank will complete its ATM expansion at Hawaii shopping centers with seven more machines this summer.

The Hawaii-based financial institution will add four automated teller machines at the Queen Kaahumanu Center on Maui and three at the Prince Kuhio Plaza on the Big Island by the end of August.

These new machines will be the last of 27 ATMs the bank planned to add to local shopping centers, including those already placed in the Ala Moana Shopping Center and Ward Centers on Oahu guaranteed cash advance.

Central Pacific Bank is the primary subsidiary of Central Pacific Financial Corp. (NYSE: CPF) and is Hawaii’s fourth-largest bank, based on assets, according to PBN research.

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The University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work has received full accreditation for both the baccalaureate and masters’ programs for the next eight years, the university announced Monday.

UH said site visitors concluded that the school’s programs were fundamentally sound and had strong community connections payday loans. The Council on Social Work Education’s Commission on Accreditation also determined that the program’s distance-education delivery option was exemplary in organization and structure.

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The Miami University Board of Trustees approved a 3 percent increase in undergraduate and graduate tuition at the university’s main campus, as well as at its regional campuses in Hamilton and Middletown.

The board approved the higher tuition rates at its meeting Friday. Annual undergraduate tuition is now $12,186, up from $11,443.

Claire Wagner, a Miami University spokesperson, said the proposed increase is smaller than originally anticipated.

“The university has reduced its budget across divisions over the last two years so that in proposing our budget for the following year, the university felt it could maintain its budget with a 3 percent increase and not have to go to 3.5 (percent),” Wagner said.

A 3.5 percent increase in tuition was implemented for the current summer term. Before the summer tuition increase was approved for the 2009-2010 academic year, Miami had not raised tuition rates since 2006. Other local schools have made similar moves.

Wright State University’s board approved a 3.5 percent tuition raise on June 11, the same as Sinclair Community College’s increase on May 11. The University of Dayton announced it would increase undergraduate tuition, fees, room and board 4.25 percent. All of the tuition increases will go in effect this fall.

Sinclair also is considering an additional increase in fees, that if approved by its board of trustees, would potentially take effect January 2011. The college obtained approval for exceptional circumstances from the Ohio Controlling Board to raise fees above the 3.5 percent limit on tuition and fees on June 14.

Tuition can only be raised 3.5 percent per academic year in the University System of Ohio. The University System of Ohio is a state consortium of public higher education institutions such as Miami, Wright State and Sinclair. The system put a tuition freeze on undergraduate tuition when it was created in 2007 until 2009.

Miami is the second-largest Dayton-area institution of higher education by enrollment with more than 20,000 students in 2009, according to Dayton Business Journal research.

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For years, Pat and George Breault gave little thought to their spending. The couple, both IT project managers, earned a handsome $235,000 a year — more than enough to cover their basic living expenses as well as the extra-curriculars they enjoyed, such as dining out, taking cruises, and entertaining at their second home, a condo at Catawba Island on the shores of Lake Erie in Ohio, where they hoped to retire one day.

"We really never talked about retirement," says Pat. "We were both entrenched in our jobs and working all the time."

That changed last summer when Pat’s $105,000-a-year position was eliminated. After a six-month job search came up empty, the Breaults knew they had to do something dramatic to offset the lost income. So they sold the four-bedroom colonial where they’d lived for 20 years and raised their sons (now 24 and 28) and rented a condo near George’s job in Dearborn, Mich., cutting their housing costs in half.

With the immediate financial pressure off, Pat lost the yen to work, especially after months of job hunting yielded no leads. In fact, early retirement started looking more attractive — and George decided he’d like to pack it in soon too.

Trouble is, the Breaults didn’t plan for an early retirement. Certainly, they have some assets to work with. They’re both entitled to pensions (a combined $50,000 a year before taxes if George works until next summer), and they’ve saved $550,000 in their 401(k)s.

Also in their favor: The couple have no debt besides a $192,000 mortgage on their condo, and George’s retiree health benefits will cover them until they’re eligible for Medicare.

Is that enough? The couple estimate they need about $48,000 a year after taxes to cover basic expenses, such as the payments on their condo, health care, and food — an amount they can handle from their pensions and Social Security.

But that doesn’t take into account the luxuries they’re fond of — such as the $12,000 a year they spend on dining out, $9,600 a year on clothing and hobbies, and $4,800 on golf. They’d also like to travel more. "There’s no room for fluff," says Pat.

While it’s likely that Pat can comfortably stop looking for work, two early retirements may be a stretch for the couple, says Scott Barbee, a financial planner in Cincinnati. Being flexible about their plans and lifestyle will be key, says New York City financial planner Dawn Brown. She and Barbee suggest the following tactics.

The fixes

1. Don’t grab that gold watch yet

The surest way for the Breaults to maintain their lifestyle in retirement without running out of money is for George to work longer. Can’t wait until 65? Even working one extra year or part-time would help. He’ll end up with a bigger pension and can keep contributing to his 401(k); plus, the couple won’t have to tap savings while he’s drawing a salary.

2. Get more aggressive

The couple have their savings evenly split between large-cap stocks and bonds. But the returns on that mix will barely stay ahead of inflation, says Barbee. If the Breaults can commit to postponing tapping their 401(k)s for a while, they can afford to switch to a 60/40 stock-to-bond mix, which should earn about 5% a year, Brown estimates.

3. Tighten those belts

If George quits next year and the Breaults keep spending at their current rate, there’s only a 79% chance their assets will last their lifetimes — even with a more aggressive portfolio, Brown calculates. Lopping $12,000 a year off their budget raises that probability to 88%. Brown suggests cutting back on dining out; spending less on clothes and hobbies would help too.

Do you need money help? Post your video on iReport and tell us why you deserve our next Money makeover 

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Contract work and temporary employment are on the rise as the economy improves, especially for companies that need to meet increased demand but are hesitant to commit to permanent employees.

Working a temp job can be a great opportunity to keep skills current and make new contacts while continuing to look for permanent employment. But those seeking to turn these positions into full-time jobs need to be cautious, says Tim Schoonover, chairman of career consulting firm OI Partners.

"There are often no guarantees and no promises that they will be hired full time even if suitable openings arise," Schoonover said. "The downside of contract work is there is the possibility that it can detract from a regular job search and create false hope about a full-time job."

OI Partners offers this advice:

— Ask up front if you can apply for full-time openings that arise during your contract period.

— Aim to outperform full-time employees who are doing the same or similar jobs as you.

— Be positive and upbeat about your commitment to the company, and act as if you already are a full-time employee.

— Meet as many key people as you can. Sit in on staff meetings and let it be known what you are doing for the organization, as well as your background, experience and accomplishments.

— Keep in contact with people who recruit for the company, as well as employees in other departments.

MOVING TO THE BIG CITY

You’ve just graduated from college and are ready to settle down, find a job and start a new chapter of your life. Now you just need to grab a map, close your eyes and drop your finger.

Not so fast. For new grads feeling the pressure of deciding where to live after college, Apartments.com and CareerRookie.com have released a list of the top 10 cities for young adults. The roster is based on the inventory of jobs requiring less than one year of experience, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment and the highest concentration of young adults between the ages of 20 and 24.

"Finding an affordable apartment and a good job may determine where to live, but it’s also important to look at cities offering the culture and lifestyle these young adults enjoy," said Tammy Kotula, spokeswoman for Apartments.com.

The list, including average rent for a one-bedroom apartment:

1. Atlanta, $723

2. Phoenix, $669

3. Denver, $779

4. Dallas, $740

5. Boston, $1,275

6. Philadelphia, $938

7. New York, $1,366

8. Cincinnati, $613

9. Baltimore, $1,041

10. Los Angeles, $1,319

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