Vanguard Caged By Bankruptcy
Vanguard Airlines grounded its aircraft and dismissed its employees on July 30th. Over 1,000 employees were let go with little more forewarning than the general knowlege their employer was in trouble. The company had been close to folding before and had found extra financing at the last minute, said CEO Scott Dickson. They had hoped to do the same this time as well. The airline had struggled since its founding in 1994 to become a profitable business.

Birch Files To Restructure Debt
Birch Telecom announced its filing of Chapter 11 as the concluding step of its debt restructuring. The company will reduce its institutional debt from $310 million to $100 million by exchanging it for equity in the company. With a strong improvement in operating cash flow over the last year, the company expects to quickly emerge from Chapter 11 status.

Also effected by the industry, BizSpace Inc., founded in 1996, has closed its doors. The telecommunication industry pulled down the Internet publishing company, which had 14 employees operating nine Web sites in the industry before it closed on July 31.

The Dodson Group Resizes
The Dodson Group reduced its work force by 63 positions due to the need to reduce expenses and remain competitive in the insurance industry. Six employees were bridged into retirement and all were offered severance packages.

Area Banks Building Branches
Gold Bank, of Leawood, announced plans to buy four Encore Bank branches in Johnson County. Deposits for those branches total $144 million, and the sale is expected to close by Sept. 30. The Encore branches would expand Gold Bank’s coverage in Fairway, Mission and Prairie Village.

Valley View Bancshares Inc. completed its acquisition of Guaranty Bank & Trust earlier this year and is now planning to merge the bank’s five branches into two of Valley View’s banks. Security Bank of Kansas City will acquire Guaranty’s Kansas City, Kan., branches while First Bank of Missouri, based in Gladstone, will obtain one branch in Pattonsburg and two in Clay County.

Lafarge Unveils New Plant
Lafarge North America is digging in for the long haul in Sugar Creek. Its new $200 million, state-of-the-art cement plant sits on a 700-foot-deep mine that is estimated to provide resources for more than 100 years.

The plant is capable of producing one million tons of finished cement annually and will allow the company a more competitive stance in the industry. For the Kansas City economy the plant will also produce an estimated $9 million in payroll per year. The new technology employed at the plant will serve as a model for future cement production facilities throughout the industry, according to John Stull, president of Lafarge North America River Region.

PB&J Joins Up With Red Robin
PB&J Restaurants have signed an exclusive development agreement with Colorado-based Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Spirits for the state of Kansas and multiple counties in Missouri. The deal calls for an initial seven new restaurants in the area. One will open in southern Johnson County and one in Independence, Mo., as soon as the beginning of 2003. The Red Robin Gourment Burgers chain operates 191 restaurants in 24 states and Canada..

Sprint To Layoff 1,100 More
Continuing to focus on meeting its financial commitments and reduce operating expenses, Sprint announced that it would reduce the Global Markets Group by 1,100 employees. The Sprint E|Solutions group will be merged into the Sprint Business and Network Services departments. The telecommunication company will also discontinue its three-year primary sponsorship of NASCAR driver Kyle Petty at the end of the 2002 season..

DED Regional Offices Close
Budget cuts have been a strain on most state agencies this year. The Missouri Department of Economic Development general revenue funding dropped from $63.5 million to $41 million in fiscal year 2002 and has forced the closing of its seven regional offices. The offices were located in Trenton, Moberly, Dexter, Houston, Springfield, Kansas City and St. Louis and housed 41 employees.

CORRESPONDENT

Washington, D.C.
Congress works to shore up accounting ethics
The House voted 423 to 3 and the Senate voted 99 to 0 to pass the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002. The bill, which President Bush has stated his intent to sign into law, tightens the reins on accounting practices by holding top executives to a higher level of respons- ibility for their companies’ accounting documents. Financial statements are to be accompanied by a written statement signed by the CEO and CFO that certifies their accuracy. The consequences for falsifying the documents are the loss of any bonus, incentive-based compensation or profits realized from the sale of securities in the 12 months following the issued financial reports.

The legislation also creates a five-member oversight board that will have the power to investigate, subpoena and discipline accountants who examine public companies financial documents to ensure adherence to FASB standards.

Jefferson City
Holden signs new insurance regulations
A bill restricting the use of credit information by insurers was signed into law by Gov. Bob Holden. The bill, which takes effect July 1, 2003, prohibits insurers from taking adverse action against an applicant or currently insured individual when the credit information is the only underwriting factor.

The bill also provides against adversely using credit-report information that the insurer knows to be in current dispute or using the number of insurance inquiries an applicant has made from being used negatively in scoring formulas.

Topeka
Funds for Kan-Ed network
Added telephone fees will pay for the continued construction of the Kan-Ed network. The network was established in April 2001 and is working to link all schools, libraries, hospitals and cities with high-speed connections to increase economic and educational development.