PROGRESS ENERGY ELECTS CHAIRMAN: Progress Energy Inc. president and chief executive Bob McGehee was elected chairman following the Raleigh, N.C., utility's annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday. McGehee, 61, succeeds Bill Cavanaugh, 65, who retired this year as chief executive. Progress is the parent of Progress Energy Florida of St. Petersburg.
FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL VS. AT&T: Attorney General Charlie Crist met Wednesday with representatives from AT&T to hear what the company is doing to correct its erroneous billing of 1-million consumers for long-distance services they don't have. Bill Stake, vice president of sales and customer care at AT&T Consumer, the company's residential and small-business division, said the company is striving to credit all wrongly billed customers by no later than their June bills. Crist said he plans to proceed with a previously announced lawsuit, which asks for civil penalties on AT&T of up to $10,000 for each billing error.
INSURANCE AGENCY APPEALS STATE ORDER: E.S. Thomas & Associates, a Tampa insurance agency, has filed a notice in Tampa's 2nd District Court of Appeal that it intends to appeal a 2-week-old state order canceling its 1995 contract with WellCare HMO in the midst of pending litigation. Thomas filed suit against WellCare in 2001 for breaching the contract by not allowing it to sell WellCare's Medicare HMO policies. Insurance commissioner Kevin McCarty ruled April 29 that because Thomas' fees were so high, honoring the contract would have endangered the financial health of WellCare. McCarty's office said Thomas' notice of appeal was under review.
HOME SALES CLIMBING: Single family home sales continued their steady climb in value statewide through the first quarter of the year, up 13 percent according to the Florida Association of Realtors. In their latest quarterly report, the real estate sales organization noted that more than 50,000 homes changed hands in the state during the first three months of the year, an increase of 21 percent in resale activity. The median sales price of a home in Florida was $146,900 in the first quarter of last year, but is now up to $166,100. In 1999, the figure was 101,900. That's a 63 percent jump in five years. Florida markets reporting a boost in resale activity for the quarter compared to first quarter 2003 include Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, where 8,060 homes changed hands for a 30 percent increase. In the same period last year, the area rose 8 percent, to $149,300.
LAWYERS DEMAND MICROSOFT LEGAL FEES: Lawyers who persuaded Microsoft Corp. to settle their class-action lawsuit accusing the company of price fixing are asking for $258-million in legal fees, the largest amount ever in an antitrust case. At a hearing Wednesday, a San Francisco judge said he would rule as soon as possible. It amounts to about $3,000 an hour for one lawyer, more than $2,000 an hour each for 34 other attorneys and $1,000 an hour for administrative work.
WAL-MART TO CASH PREPRINTED CHECKS: Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, said customers can now cash preprinted payroll or government-issued checks at stores in 44 states. Wal-Mart said it will charge $3 to cash the checks, except in states where law requires a percentage-based fee. In those states, the charges won't be more than $3, Wal-Mart said. The service will be available at designated registers. "We began offering the service in select states in 2002," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Danette Thompson said. Wal-Mart would ultimately like to offer the service in all of its stores, Thompson said. Licensing is pending in the six states where the service isn't currently available: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Nevada, New York and Rhode Island. Shares of Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., have risen 5.2 percent in the past year.
BAHAMA BREEZE CLOSINGS: Darden Restaurants Inc. has closed six struggling Bahama Breeze restaurants in Arizona, Texas, Colorado and New York. The restaurants - in Phoenix, Dallas, Austin, Texas, Rochester, N.Y., and two in Denver - employed about 500 workers. They were given the opportunity to transfer to other Bahama Breeze or Darden-owned restaurants, Darden spokesman Mike Bernstein said Tuesday. The closings leave the $4.7-billion company with 32 Bahama Breeze locations in 14 markets. A manager at the Bahama Breeze in Tampa said he had not heard of any changes locally.
DAIMLER TO SHED STAKE IN HYUNDAI: DaimlerChrysler AG, the world's fifth-biggest carmaker, plans to sell its stake in South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. and scrap a venture to make trucks in a further setback to chief executive officer Juergen Schrempp's Asian strategy. Schrempp, 59, bought stakes in Hyundai Motor and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. in 2000 to win more of the world's fastest-growing auto markets. The effort, which contrasted with Toyota Motor Corp.'s method of setting up local plants under its own control, fell apart over management squabbles with Hyundai and customer loan defaults at Mitsubishi Motors.
WAL-MART TO PAY $3.1-MILLION FINE: Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation's largest retailer, will pay a $3.1-million fine to settle a Clean Water Act violation stemming from excessive storm water runoff from its construction sites, federal officials said Wednesday. Wal-Mart also agreed in the settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency and Justice Department to improve runoff controls at the more than 200 sites each year where the company builds stores, including Sam's Club outlets.
