Edmonds firm buys hotel in Kansas City
Published 10:35 pm Tuesday, September 11, 2007
The Hotel Group of Edmonds has acquired the 388-room Radisson Hotel and Suites in downtown Kansas City, Mo., and re-branded it as a Crowne Plaza. The 28-story hotel will receive more than $12 million in renovations and upgrades from The Hotel Group, said Edmond Lee, the firm’s founder and chief executive officer. The Hotel Group now manages or owns 27 properties in 10 states and employs over 1,800 people.
Microsoft releases security patches
Microsoft Corp. released four software patches Tuesday to fix security flaws, including one that could allow hackers to take over computers running the company’s instant messaging programs. Only one of the flaws carried the company’s most severe “critical” rating, but it applies only to the Windows 2000 operating system. The other security vulnerabilities — including the one affecting MSN Messenger and Windows Live Messenger — were assigned the second-highest “important” rating.
Housing forecast to slow economy
Ongoing weakness in the housing market will push the national economy to the brink of recession, but growth in other areas should put the country back on a slow road to recovery by 2009, according to the quarterly Anderson Forecast by the University of California at Los Angeles. The forecast predicts growth in the gross domestic product of just over 1 percent for the fourth quarter of 2007 and first quarter of 2008. That growth is just above the traditional definition of a recession.
McDonald’s reports strong sales uptick
McDonald’s Corp. reported impressive August sales, attributing a better-than-expected 8.1 percent increase in same-store results to strong demand for its breakfast items, drinks and new Chipotle chicken wrap as well as a continuing turnaround in Europe. The monthly sales report sent shares in the world’s largest restaurant company up more than 4 percent in morning trading and helped propel the Dow Jones Industrial Average higher.
OPEC agrees to boost oil production
OPEC agreed late Tuesday to boost its crude output by 500,000 barrels a day starting Nov. 1 in an effort to calm markets worried that supplies could grow tight by the end of the year. A spokesman for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said the increase would be based on the group’s current production.
Chiquita faces huge terrorism fine
The Justice Department will not prosecute 10 Chiquita Brands International executives involved in the company’s now-defunct payoff of Colombian terrorists protecting its most profitable banana-growing operation. The government’s long-awaited decision was part of a sentencing memo urging a federal judge to fine Chiquita $25 million and have the company serve five years’ probation. If accepted, the fine would mark the largest criminal penalty ever imposed under U.S. terrorism sanctions laws.
From Herald staff
and news services
