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The U.S. hospitality industry will take a hit in 2009, according to a new forecast from the Travel Industry Association.

TIA predicts that leisure travel will fall 1.3 percent nationally in 2009, and business travel will decline 2.7 percent.

Travelers surveyed by TIA said they intend to cut spending on food, beverages, entertainment and souvenirs, and shorten length of stays, reducing the amount of money visitors leave behind in top destinations.

Overseas travel, which excludes visitors from Canada and Mexico, is expected to slide 3 percent, according to TIA. But the group said it expects international traffic will finish 2008 up 9 american cash advance.1 percent from 2007.

Domestic travel, by contrast, will end the year down 1 percent, followed by a 1.7 percent decline in 2009. TIA said the forecast shows that leisure travel volume remains stable for 2008, down just 0.2 percent and is expected to decline modestly in 2009, down 1.3 percent.

The TIA forecast is based on interviews conducted with 2,291 American adults during the week of Oct. 13.

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Honolulu District has awarded a $1.2 million contract to Alutiiq-Mele.

The Honolulu-based company was awarded the contract to build an addition to a building at Fort Shafter Flats easy online payday loans.

Alutiiq-Mele is a 8(a) minority-owned company.

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The Federal Reserve boosted the interest rate it pays banks for the excess cash they keep on deposit, aiming to prevent its record injection of funds into the financial system from affecting its monetary policy.

“The rate on excess balances will be set equal to the lowest Federal Open Market Committee target rate in effect during the reserve maintenance period,'' the Fed said in a statement. The federal funds target stands at 1 percent.

The central bank will also pay interest on required reserves at the average federal funds rate. Fed officials are trying to fine-tune their interest-on-reserves rate as their liquidity facilities continue to over-supply the banking system with cash. Today's announcement marks the second adjustment in two weeks.

“This should keep all those excess reserves from pushing the effective federal funds rate down as low as it has been,'' said Brian Sack, vice president at Macroeconomic Advisers LLC in Washington and a former Fed Board economist. “The committee would like the federal funds rate to be closer to the target.''

The Fed's liquidity facilities make it difficult for central bankers to estimate how much cash they are oversupplying low fee pay day loans. For the two weeks ending Oct. 22, excess reserves averaged $282 billion, up from $136 billion in the prior two-week period ending Oct. 8.

The effective federal funds rate averaged 0.27 percentage point since policy makers cut the benchmark lending rate Oct. 29 to 1 percent. The Fed's previous target rate on excess reserve balances was 0.35 percentage point below the federal funds target.

The Fed started paying interest on reserves last month after gaining authority under the $700 billion financial-rescue bill passed by Congress.

“We're not quite sure what we have to pay in order to get the market rate, which includes some credit risk, up to the target,'' Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told economists Oct. 7. “We're going to experiment with this and try to find what the right spread is.''

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Graham Corp. reported second-quarter net income was unchanged from a year ago while sales increased by 4 percent.

The Batavia-based manufacturer (NYSE: GHM) of equipment to the oil, petrochemical and power industries, reported profits of $4.4 million, or 43 cents per share.

Net sales of $23.9 million were up $800,000 from $23.1 million year-over-year.

Graham officials cited the rapid changes in oil prices as having an impact on orders. International sales account for 37 percent of sales, up from 33 percent while domestic orders were down to 63 percent from 67 percent in the quarter bad credit cash loan. The company said 59 percent of orders in first half of fiscal 2009 from international markets, primarily Asia.

For the remainder of the year, Graham still anticipates revenue growth in the 15 to 20 percent range though that figure may trend toward the lower end.

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At least one Church Street Station tenant says his business is hurting because of the entertainment complex’s ­financial troubles and ­legal woes.

John Dobson, CEO of Brick & Fire Pizza and Wine Co., said he already lost thousands of dollars when the bankruptcy hearings of previous owner F.F. Station LLC — Lou Pearlman’s former company — seized his security deposit and first and last months’ rent.

Orlando developer Cameron Kuhn bought the property in 2007, but now faces a possible foreclosure on it by mortgage holder Tremont Net Funding of Boston.

As a result, Dobson’s restaurant may leave Church Street Station freecreditreport.com. “I’m trying to make a plan with Tremont or Kuhn, to give them a percentage of our revenue or let us pay a lower base rent,” Dobson said. “There’s no way anyone can afford $30 per square foot here with the economy and the circumstances surrounding Church Street Station.”

If he is can’t reach an agreement, he says he’ll cut his losses and move.

Related story: Kuhn, lender fight over naming receiver for Church St. Station

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Insurance companies may be next to get capital from the government as part of the $700 billion bailout approved by Congress, but The Travelers Cos. won’t be one of them.

The St. Paul insurer sent a letter Tuesday to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to inform him that it would neither seek nor accept any money under the Capital Purchase Program.

“Travelers does not require or intend to request any such assistance,” Chief Executive Jay Fishman said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, adding that Travelers (NYSE:TRV) is “strong, resilient and well capitalized” and did not need the help 1 hour cash loans.

It also suggested that private market solutions should be found for other insurance companies that are interested in receiving government funding, so that federal funds could be preserved for “more acute problems.”

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Former General Electric Co. Chief Executive Officer Jack Welch said the U.S. economy will start to improve in late 2009 after struggling for the next three quarters.

“We are going to have some very tough times,'' Welch said on the ABC News “This Week'' program. “The fourth quarter of this year could have negative growth in the three to four percent range.''

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index is heading for its steepest monthly decline since 1938 on concern the global economy will slide into a recession. In the U.S., the collapse of the subprime-mortgage market and a freeze in lending has already triggered the failure of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and government takeovers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Welch said “oh my God, no'' when asked whether Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE was at risk of failing internet pay day loan.

“It just happens to have a financial component,'' he said. “Anything with the word finance in it right now is part of this fear element'' taking hold in equity markets.

GE, whose businesses include jet engines, health care and the NBC television network, has fallen 52 percent this year to $17.83 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Welch, 72, said prospects for the company and the economy will improve once markets start to absorb the effects of the $700 billion rescue package approved by Congress this month. He predicted U.S. financial markets will have a “better foundation'' because companies and consumers will cut back on debt and lawmakers will improve regulation.

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The NBA Board of Governors has voted to allow the Palms casino in Las Vegas to accept bets on all league games — except those involving the Sacramento Kings — even though the Maloof family owns both the Kings and the casino, the NBA said in a news story posted on its Web site.

In the story on NBA.com, casino operator George Maloof Jr free credit report online. said Thursday’s vote was unanimous and follows his six-month effort to get the NBA to allow wagering at his casino on league games. Betting at other casinos on NBA games is already commonplace.

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Tompkins Financial Corp., the parent of Bank of Castile, reported a 16.6 percent increase in third quarter earnings over the same period in 2007.

A 15.7 percent increase in diluted earnings per share to 81 cents was a record, the Ithaca-based company said.

Earnings, or net income, totaled $7.9 million, compared to $6.8 million in 2007.

Noting unprecedented challenges posed by the current economic crisis that has driven big banks’ earnings and stock values down, President and CEO Stephen Romaine said in a statement that “the markets we serve have been impacted to a lesser extent than many areas around the country cash advance flexible payments.”

He said the $2.7 billion-asset company (AMEX: TMP) has been able to grow while avoiding “high profile risky loans and investments that have resulted in significant losses for many in our industry.”

That growth included the acquisition last May of Sleepy Hollow Bancorp in the Hudson Valley region.

Tompkins Financial operates 45 banking offices through its subsidiary banks - Tompkins Trust Company, Bank of Castile, and Mahopac National Bank.

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MSDG Nashville LLC has purchased 5.5 acres on Great Circle Road at Athens Way in the Metro Center area for $1.575 million.

MSDG is a general contractor, specializing in non-industrial commercial construction.

Charley Hankla with Colliers Turley Martin Tucker represented the seller, United Methodist Publishing House, and David Baker of Baker Storey McDonald Properties represented the buyer no fax payday advances.

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