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MOD-PAC Corp. said revenues declined in the third quarter but the printer and paper board packaging company was able to turn a slight profit.

Net income was $14,000 compared to a $1.1 million loss last year.

Revenue totaled $12.6 million, off 3.4 percent from $13.1 million in the 2007 second quarter cash loan till pay day in one hour.

Officials of the Buffalo-based company (NASDAQ: MPAC) said the sluggish economy hampered sales but restructured operations have helped reduce costs.

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Jet fuel prices continue to plague AirTran Airways Inc., which reported a $107.1 million loss in the third quarter despite record revenues.

Orlando, Fla.-based AirTran (NYSE: AAI) said it earned a record $673 million in revenues, up 10.6 percent from the same quarter in 2007, but the price of jet fuel and losses associated with its fuel-hedging program, dragged the airline into the red.

The loss for the quarter amounted to $0.91 per diluted share. In the third quarter of 2007, AirTran earned $10.6 million in net income or $0.11 per diluted share.

"Although AirTran Airways posted record third quarter revenues, unprecedented fuel costs were a major challenge for our industry," said AirTran CEO Bob Fornaro, in a statement. "While we are extremely disappointed with our financial performance this quarter, we are taking dramatic steps to better position the airline competitively and to restore profitability.

AirTran, the second-largest carrier at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, said its fuel costs grew by $149 million over the same quarter in 2007, as its cost per gallon rose 63 percent from $2 americashadvance.25 to $3.67.

Jet fuel hedging, a bet placed on fuel prices to protect against dramatic swings, actually cost the airline $41.5 million, the carrier said.

Fornaro said in the release that the carrier would continue to cut capacity, sell aircraft and reducing costs.

AirTran cut capacity by almost 10 percent in September and said its capacity would be down by more than 6 percent in the fourth quarter. The carrier said it is looking to trim capacity by another 3 to 7 percent next year.

The low-cost carrier recently restructured its credit card processing contracts and has sold five 737-700 aircraft through September, with agreements to sell five more.

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Constellation Brands Inc (STZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s largest wine producer, posted a quarterly profit excluding items that beat Wall Street estimates by a penny, and maintained its full-year earnings outlook.

On a net basis the owner of Robert Mondavi and Ravenswood wines reported a loss for its fiscal second quarter of $22.7 million, or 11 cents per share, compared with a net profit of $72.1 million, or 33 cents per share, a year before.

Excluding restructuring charges, acquisition-related costs, inventory write-downs from selling some Australian assets and other items, Constellation earned a profit of 45 cents per share. Analysts on average were expecting 44 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.

Net sales rose 7 percent to $956.5 million, with branded wine sales growing 6 percent and spirits sales growing 4 percent.

Excluding the recent acquisitions of premium wine brands including Clos du Bois and Wild Horse, the company’s branded wine business rose 4 percent faxless online payday advances. In North America, wine sales rose 7 percent from the year-ago period, when the company sold much less wine in order to reduce distributors’ inventory levels.

Wine sales, excluding acquisitions, fell 3 percent in Europe and 1 percent in Australia and New Zealand. The company said recent price increases hurt sales volume.

Sales of the company’s spirits brands, which include Svedka Vodka, Black Velvet Canadian Whisky and 99 Schnapps, rose 4 percent.

The company maintained its prior earnings outlook for fiscal 2009, which ends in February, saying it expects to earn $1.68 to $1.76 per share, excluding items.

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The Sacramento Kings will air all but one of their 2008-09 contests on local TV, team officials said.

The team’s Dec. 13 game against the New York Knicks will be broadcast on NBA-TV, spokesman Mitch Germann said.

Comcast SportsNet California will carry 75 Kings games, of which 38 are home games. Local ABC affiliate KXTC Channel 10 will air 15 contests.

The season begins Oct bad credit payday advance. 29 on the road against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

All games will be broadcast on radio on Sports 1140 KHTK-AM.

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The Federal Reserve would gain more power over short-term interest rates as part of Congress's $700 billion legislation to revive credit markets, making it easier for the Fed to pump funds into the banking system.

The draft bill, released yesterday, gives the Fed authority as of Oct. 1 to pay interest on reserves held at the central bank by financial institutions. That would encourage banks to deposit excess funds with the Fed rather than dumping them into the money markets and distorting its overnight federal funds rate.

The flood of liquidity pumped into the financial system by the Fed to encourage interbank lending over the past year has made it harder for the central bank to gauge market conditions and keep fed funds at its 2 percent target. The rate has traded between zero and 7 percent since Sept. 15.

“It's probably a good thing,'' said Marvin Goodfriend, a former senior policy adviser at the Richmond Fed who is now professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Allowing payment of interest on reserves will “enable the Fed to have credit policy that's independent of its monetary policy,'' he said.

While containing the interest provision sought by Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke since May, the draft legislation increases congressional scrutiny of the Fed's emergency loans in connection with the collapses of Bear Stearns Cos. and American International Group Inc.

Report to Congress

The bill requires the central bank to submit reports to Congress on loans to nonbanks since March 1 as well as updates at least every two months while the loans are outstanding.

The Federal Open Market Committee sets a target for the federal funds rate, which the New York Fed is obligated to achieve on a daily basis through temporary and permanent purchases or sales of bonds in the open market. Banks are required to hold a proportion of their customers' deposits in an account at the central bank.

Paying interest on reserves puts a “floor'' under the traded overnight rate, which would allow a central bank “to provide liquidity during times of stress'' without affecting the rate, New York Fed economists said in a paper last month advance america cash advance. New Zealand's central bank has adopted such an approach.

The Fed had already received authority in 2006 to start paying interest on reserves in October 2011. Bernanke asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in May to expedite the authority. U.S. lawmakers are reviewing the $700 billion plan to buy troubled assets from financial institutions, and the House and Senate may vote tomorrow.

New Date

The draft legislation doesn't mention the Fed in the three- line section that would provide the interest-payment authority. The bill says that the part of the 2006 law giving the Fed the power “is amended by striking `October 1, 2011' and inserting `October 1, 2008'.''

In 2006, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that Fed interest payments would cost the government $1.4 billion in the first five years.

“I expect them to use it to manage the funds rate more efficiently,'' said Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP LLC, in Jersey City, New Jersey.

A measure of availability of cash among banks, known as the Libor-OIS spread, widened to 2.08 percentage points, the most on record, on Sept. 26. In the year before the credit crisis started in August last year, the spread averaged 8 basis points.

Commercial banks borrowed $39.4 billion from the Fed's discount window for the week ending Sept. 24, almost double the previous period, as the financial crisis deepened and funding from other banks dried up.

Counterparty fears also increased in the wake of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s bankruptcy filing on Sept. 15.

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Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said he's confident several countries will take steps comparable to the $700 billion plan he proposed to buy bad mortgage-related securities to address the global financial crisis.

“We are talking very aggressively with other countries around the world and encouraging them to do similar things, and I believe a number of them will,'' Paulson said on ABC News' “This Week'' program.

Paulson yesterday asked Congress for unfettered authority to buy devalued mortgage-related securities from investment firms in an effort to keep the financial system from coming to a standstill. The proposal would prevent courts from reviewing the Treasury's actions while raising the nation's debt ceiling.

German Finance Ministry spokesman Stefan Olbermann said members of the Group of Seven industrial nations are in “ongoing talks about the situation on financial markets worldwide.'' Finance ministers from the G-7 countries meet in Washington on Oct. 10.

Asked about the U.S. plan, Olbermann said, “We have to see if and to what extent those measures make sense for Germany.''

The U.K. currently has no plans to set up such a fund, a British Treasury official said.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown today said “in relative terms, we've done a huge amount'' by giving banks access to more than 100 billion pounds ($183 billion) under a Bank of England program that allows them to swap bonds hurt by the collapse of the subprime mortgage market payday loans.

While a French finance ministry spokesman declined to comment on Paulson's latest remarks, Finance Minister Christine Lagarde spoke with U.S. officials during the week and told Europe 1 radio today that the U.S. response had “allowed us to avoid a systemic crisis.''

Treasury's Plan

“We have obstacles to overcome,'' Lagarde said.

The U.S. Treasury late yesterday modified its proposal to allow for purchases from institutions outside of the U.S., a step Paulson today said was needed to mute the impact of the credit crisis in the U.S.

“As you think about this, if a financial institution has business operations in the United States, hires people in the United States, if they are clogged with illiquid assets, they have the same impact on the American people as any other institutions,'' he told ABC News.

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U.K. retail sales unexpectedly increased in August for a second month as stores attracted shoppers with discounts on clothing and footwear.

Sales climbed 1.2 percent after rising 0.9 percent in July, the Office for National Statistics said today in London. Economists forecast a 0.5 percent decline, according to the median of 27 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. On the year, sales increased 3.3 percent.

Unemployment rose the most in 16 years in August and the housing slump deepened as the credit squeeze intensified enough to prompt HBOS Plc, the nation's biggest mortgage lender, to agree to a takeover today. The Bank of England has still refrained from cutting interest rates since April as policy makers count on slowing growth to help control inflation.

“Some of this is the usual volatility in the data, but overall the picture for the consumer is very weak,'' said Nick Kounis, chief European economist at Fortis in Amsterdam and a former U.K. Treasury official. “The Bank of England will want to see inflation risks ease before it starts cutting rates.''

The pound was little changed against the dollar after the report, trading at $1.8203 as of 10:57 a.m. in London.

Food sales fell 0.2 percent on the month, while non-food sales increased 2.1 percent, the statistics office said. For the three months through August, sales dropped 0.8 percent, the most since 1991. Statistics officials said that this decline should be interpreted with caution because of the record monthly increase reported in May.

Clothing, Footwear

Sales of textiles, clothing, and footwear increased 4.1 percent from July, the statistics office said. Prices of those items dropped 2.5 percent from a year earlier and have shown an annual decline in every month since July 2007. Sales at household goods stores also rose, with a gain of 1.7 percent.

Kingfisher Plc, Europe's largest home-improvement retailer, rose the most since 2000 in London trading today after reduced discounting helped first-half profit to top analysts' estimates even as U.K., Irish and Spanish house prices slid no fax payday loans.

Claims for unemployment benefits rose by 32,500 in August, the most since 1992, the statistics office said yesterday, as companies from banks to homebuilders cut jobs while the global credit squeeze worsened. House prices fell 12.7 percent from a year earlier, HBOS said on Sept. 4.

Recession Forecast

The U.K. economy will shrink in the third and fourth quarters, according to a Sept. 10 forecast by the European Commission. Growth stalled in the second quarter as consumer spending dropped for the first time in three years.

Lloyds TSB Group Plc agreed to buy HBOS today to rescue it from the worsening credit crisis. The Bank of England joined the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and counterparts around the world in offering an additional $180 billion today to markets facing their worst crisis since the 1920s.

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said in a letter to Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling on Sept. 16 that policy makers are determined to tame consumer prices inflation jumped to 4.7 percent in August, more than double the bank's 2 percent target.

The annual retail price deflator, which shows cost changes in stores, rose 0.9 percent on the year as food prices increased 6.6 percent, the most since 1991, the statistics office said.

German discount retailers Aldi Group and Lidl kept increasing their share of the U.K. grocery market this summer as food inflation accelerated, according to a Sept. 16 report from market researcher Taylor Nelson Sofres Plc.

The rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee has “become firmer in its belief that a period of muted economic growth is necessary to dampen pressures on prices and wages and return inflation to the target in the medium term,'' King said.

Eight of the nine-member rate-setting panel voted to keep borrowing costs at 5 percent, minutes of the Sept. 4 decision published yesterday show. David Blanchflower wanted a half-point cut, the biggest since 2001.

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In America, Hayes Clinical Laboratory is a single testing facility cornered in by the national powerhouses that dominate their industry. But, when the family-owned business tapped the overseas market, it scored a deal that could lead to dozens of clinical testing facilities in India.

Boynton Beach-based Hayes Clinical made a joint venture in June with the Neon Healthcare and Research Institute, one of the largest lab companies in Calcutta, in India’s West Bengal state. They petitioned the government to set up labs in 54 hospitals and academic medical centers around that area.

Hayes Clinical would help with training, introducing more advances tests and facility design. It would also make sure Neon follows the same accreditation standards as an American lab would under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Hayes Clinical VP Trent Hayes said. India doesn’t have any equivalent regulating body. In that country, health care is a cash market.

The Indian market for diagnostic tests was valued $520 million in 2007, according to a research report by New York-based Kalorama Information. It projected that it would grow to $1 billion in 2012.

“Many have speculated that growing demand for private health care in India will drive demand for more advanced diagnostic equipment,” the report noted.

In exchange for its work, Hayes Clinical would get an annual payment from Neon. Trent Hayes would not say how much.

Trent Hayes is one of five family members who work at the company. Shelby Hayes, a Kentucky native who has worked in lab testing since 1962, founded Hayes Clinical in 1999. He previously ran the lab at Bethesda Memorial Hospital. His son is Trent Hayes, his daughter heads the lab and his son-in-law is company president.

Competing as a stand-alone lab is tough credit scores. Most health plans have exclusive contracts with one of the nation’s two dominant testing companies, Quest Diagnostics and Laboratory Corp. of America. Hayes Clinical has offered to do the services for less, but the insurers are locked into these contracts and won’t deal with them, said Judy Hayes, the company’s CFO and Shelby Hayes’ wife. While some patients pay cash or have covered insurance, about 90 percent of the company’s business is Medicare.

That means doctors who send most of tests for insured patients to Quest and Lab Corp. would have a third pickup box outside their door for Hayes Clinical. Shelby Hayes said his long relationships with local doctors have kept those boxes busy.

Expansion under such circumstances was difficult, so the Hayes family turned to Gora Aditya, an India native and co-owner of Hayes Clinical. He now resides in the Toronto area, where he runs a large clinical lab and real estate companies. Aditya heard about Neon’s desire to partner with an American lab, and he brought Hayes Clinical on board.

But, Hayes Clinical isn’t alone in its foray into India. In 2007, Quest opened an office in Delhi to provide diagnostic services to clinical research organizations.

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Canadian software company Open Text Corp. is offering to buy Captaris Inc. for $131 million, or $4.80 per share.

Bellevue-based Captaris (NASDAQ: CAPA) had recently turned down a slightly smaller offer from private equity firm Vector Capital, which had offered $125 million in March for the software company.

Open Text (NASDAQ: OTEX) is based in Waterloo, Ontario, and employs about 2,900 people payday loans.

Shares in Captaris jumped more than 24 percent in early Thursday trading, rising 91 cents to $4.65.

Captaris is the state’s 57th-largest public company based on its 2007 revenue of $94.8 million and employs 450 people, according to Puget Sound Business Journal research.

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A San Francisco company has purchased LopezGarcia Group Inc., one of Dallas’ most recognizable engineering firms.

URS Corp. (NYSE: URS) bought the 200-employee firm, said Wendy Lopez, co-founder and CEO of LopezGarcia, who will remain with the firm as leader of its Texas initiative with a title of vice president.

Both LopezGarcia and URS declined to disclose financial terms, although Lopez said it was an all-cash deal.

The LopezGarcia name is expected to disappear eventually, but for now the five LopezGarcia offices will answer the phones as URS/LopezGarcia. LopezGarcia has offices in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and Amarillo.

“We are about to celebrate 20 years in the business, and we’ve had a really good run,” Lopez said. “The company is doing great. There was no reason prompting us (to sell), but I see our industry changing, and the firms are getting bigger … and the projects are getting bigger.”

Lopez said the firm was having trouble growing beyond its regional size, and also saw the consolidation trend developing.

URS approached LopezGarcia, said Lopez, who said talks commenced about a possible merger about a year ago.

“Sometimes you are limited by your resources,” she said. “In a larger organization, it will create some larger opportunities for our employees. If someone wants to work in Hong Kong, we’ve got an office there.”

URS’ Vincent Provenza, senior vice president and regional business unit manager for URS Corp. in New Orleans, said URS wanted a bigger Texas presence, he said.

“URS has always felt that Texas, because of its quality of life and economy … would continue to grow in population and this growth in population would necessitate new infrastructure in power, transportation and water resources. These are all the things that URS focuses on.”

The state has been consistently a top issuer of government bonds, which are used to fund infrastructure projects credit report. In the first quarter of 2008, the state issued $11.1 billion in bonds, according to URS.

Provenza said URS looked at more than 100 firms to find one that shared its culture and focused on the state and local infrastructure market.

URS has had a presence in North Texas since the 1960s, mainly through acquistions of local firms. About a year ago, it began a Texas initiative to grow its clout in the Lone Star State. Its Texas projects have included work on a downtown Dallas Area Rapid Transit line, planning work for the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and environmental planning for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, a state agency.

Lopez said she’ll lead URS’ Texas initiative going forward, working to raise the firm’s profile in the state to grab more market share.

LopezGarcia’s projects have included the mechanical, electrical and plumbing design services for the new Dallas Cowboys stadium, program management services for D/FW Airport and engineering design services for U.S. 290 in Houston. In July, Lopez was named one of the area’s most influential women in business by the Dallas Business Journal.

URS will move out of its offices at 3010 LBJ Freeway in the Graystone Centre and move into the InfoMart, where LopezGarcia offices. No layoffs are expected, Lopez said.