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The Orlando City Council received an $8.4 million federal grant that will allow it to retain 46 firefighter positions that would have been eliminated as part of budget cuts due to the recession.

The funding is part of the federal government’s Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response program. The grant will cover the firefighters’ salaries and benefits for a two-year period with no matching funds required.

“Securing this grant took a collaborative, bipartisan effort from Central Florida’s elected leaders,” said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer Faxless payday loans. “I want to specifically thank U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, U.S. Sen. George S. LeMieux, U.S Rep. Corrine Brown, U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson and U.S. Rep. Suzanne M. Kosmas for their willingness to partner with us to obtain this critical funding.”

The SAFER grant is expected to be distributed to the city of Orlando later this year.

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Reps. Patricia Todd and Earl Hilliard stood alongside Crestwood community leaders Friday to speak out against Trinity Medical Center’s proposed move to U.S. 280.

Todd called the planned move to HealthSouth’s empty Digital Hospital “despicable,” while Al Rutledge, president of the Killough Springs Neighborhood Association, said Trinity is moving to get closer to a wealthier population of Birmingham, leaving the Crestwood area underserved.

“It’s the money, let’s just face it,” he said. “They want to say they are following their constituents or whatever but that’s not the case.

Trinity Medical, which has been looking to replace its 40-year-old facility for several years, first made plans to build a $316 million hospital on Grants Mill Road off Interstate 459 in Irondale. It later scrapped that plan to relocate in HealthSouth’s hospital that was left unfinished after a massive accounting fraud scandal.

Several area hospitals are opposing Trinity’s move to the HealthSouth facility and a hearing with an administrative law judge is expected in the next 30 days to determine whether Trinity can go forward with receiving state approval installment payday loans.

Keith Granger, CEO of Trinity, said greater opportunities for health care service resides in the new facility.

“When you look at the overall activities of Trinity Medical Center…we serve many communities, and we serve a much larger neighborhood,” he said. “Patients from all over the state – they are looking for accessibility and technology.”

Trinity Medical currently occupies a facility dating back 40 years, which Granger said would be much more difficult to update technologically. He said the present concerns of neighbors have been heard.

“We certainly want to be sensitive to the community, but it’s compelling to look to the future,” he said. “We’ll do everything in our power to be a good neighbor and hopefully help in any way for future options here.”

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General Electric reported quarterly earnings that rose from a year earlier and said its finance arm, GE Capital, continues to show signs of stabilization.

The Fairfield, Conn.-based company said net income jumped 16% to $3.1 billion. Earnings from continuing operations rose 14% to $3.3 billion, pushing earnings per share to 30 cents. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast a profit of 27 cents per share for the quarter.

Sales fell 4% to $37.4 billion in the quarter, missing the $38.4 billion in revenue expected by analysts.

"GE’s economic environment continues to improve," said GE Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt in a statement, adding that the company is "on track for solid earnings growth."

The company said "losses have peaked" at its closely watched GE Capital division, which accounts for more than a third of overall revenue. The lending unit saw sales slip 3% to $12.3 billion, but profit surged 93% from a year earlier to $830 million.

The commercial real estate business remained "the one tough area in GE Capital," losing another $524 million in the second quarter, which GE said was in line with expectations.

But based on the unit’s overall recovery in the quarter, GE Capital won’t need contributions from the industrial side of the business, the Immelt said druing a post-earnings call with investors.

NBC Universal’s revenue rose 5% to $3.75 billion, while profit jumped 13% to $607 million in the quarter. At its home and business division, sales climbed 4% to $2.25 billion as profit rose 59% to $143 million.

Orders on the rise: The company cited growth in orders as another bright spot in the quarter, with total orders up 8% to $19.2 billion, boosted by improved demand for oil and gas, and health care equipment. Equipment orders jumped 17%, with a 20% increase in orders at the energy infrastructure division and a 14% rise in technology infrastructure orders.

The company saw its first growth in commercial orders since the third quarter of 2008, and GE expects there will be single-digit orders growth in the second half of the year, Immelt said.

Dividend hike on the way: GE reiterated its expectations to grow earnings and dividends "in 2011 and beyond." In February of 2009, the company cut its dividend by 68% to 10 cents per share, and investors have been looking for clues about when it will be raised.

Immelt said on the conference call that GE expects to pay a "normal" dividend of 45% of earnings in 2012 but he didn’t give a specifc per-share figure.

"We’re trying to be thoughtful about it and cautious about it," he said. "We do believe we’ll have the capital flexibility in the years to come."

Cash on hand: The company continued to build up its cash reserves, putting aside another $74 billion during the quarter.

"The cash story and the balance sheet shrinking story is a very positive story for GE and our investors," said Immelt.

By the end of the year, GE expects to have $25 billion in cash at the parent level. But on the company’s earnings call, UBS analyst Jason Feldman asked how much of a "backstop" GE really needs.

"Clearly we are going to have more cash in the future than we did in the crisis," Immelt answered. "We are going to have the flexibility to do what we want with the company."

GE brought in $3.8 billion in cash from industrial operations and said it is on track to generate $13 billion to $15 billion this year. But at the same time, industrial sales fell 6% to $24.4 billion in the quarter.

Shares of GE (GE, Fortune 500) slid 3.3% after the market open. The stock had jumped 3.5% immediately after the company released its results.  

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Charles Schwab's second-quarter profit was flat year over year, but beat analysts' estimates.

The San Francisco brokerage said Friday that it had net income of $205 million, or 17 cents per diluted share, in the second quarter compared with $205 million, or 18 cents per diluted share, a year ago.

Schwab’s (NASDAQ: SCHW) second-quarter revenue was $1.08 billion, compared with $1 payday loan online.085 billion a year earlier.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected earnings of 15 cents per share on $1.06 billion in revenue.

The company's shares closed up 4.05 percent at $15.14 in trading Friday.

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Former Houston Oilers quarterback Warren Moon has dropped back and thrown a deep pass into the world of sports and entertainment marketing.

Moon has opened a new company, Sports 1 Marketing, in Irvine, Calif., and has hired Dave Meltzer, formerly with high profile sports agent Leigh Steinberg to serve as chief executive officer. Moon is president of the firm.

Sports 1 Marketing will offer services for corporate or event clients with athletes and coaches to formulate advertising and sponsorship campaigns.

“Starting this business is something that I’ve been thinking about doing for quite some time, and I am confident that both the timing and the sports business environment are properly aligned,” said Moon.

Moon chose the name Sports 1 to mirror the uniform number he wore as a college football player with the University of Washington and as a professional. He played six seasons with the Canadian Football League’s Edmonton Eskimos before joining the National Football League’s Houston Oilers, where he played from 1984-1993 online payday loans. He retired in 2000 and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005.

Added Meltzer, “I am delighted to be joining forces with one of the greatest players, community activists and businessmen in recent NFL annals,” said Meltzer.

Moon, who had worked as a broadcaster for Seattle Seahawks games last season, signed a deal in April to promote a California energy drink, FITT Energy with Reservatrol, which is featured on the new Sports 1 Marketing Web site.

FITT Energy is made by Who’s Your Daddy Inc. (OTCBB: WYDI), of Mission Viejo, Calif.

Moon can be seen here promoting the product, wearing his Oilers football team uniform.

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The British government is partnering with Facebook Inc. to solicit ideas from the public on ways to cut the budget deficit and make government spending more efficient.

“The Spending Challenge,” announced jointly by Facebook and British Prime Minster David Cameron, will give the 26 million British Facebook users access through the Democracy UK page to "microsites" specially tailored to focus on key issues, as well as to official government websites.

More than a million people used the Democracy UK Page during the 2010 General Election campaign no fax payday advance.

“There's enormous civic spirit in this country where people want to take control and do things in a different way. We are giving people an opportunity with Facebook and I am sure that they will take it," Cameron said in a statement.

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General Electric Co. backed away Thursday from comments reportedly made by its CEO critical of President Obama and China.

The company said Jeffrey Immelt’s remarks to Italian executives in Rome were taken out of context and didn’t reflect GE policy.

The company responded to an article in the Financial Times in which Immelt is said to have told the audience that Obama doesn’t like business and business doesn’t like Obama.

"People are in a really bad mood (in the U.S.)," the paper quoted Immelt as saying. "We (the U.S.) are a pathetic exporter … we have to become an industrial powerhouse again but you don’t do this when government and entrepreneurs are not in synch."

Immelt also said China is becoming increasingly protectionist and doesn’t want any non-Chinese businesses "to win," according to the newspaper payday loans.

"The comments attributed to GE CEO Jeff Immelt by the FT were taken out of context and, in some instances, inaccurately reported," GE spokeswoman Anne Eisele said in a statement. "Mr. Immelt’s comments at a private dinner focused on the relationship between business and government in general and did not single out President Obama."

Eisele also said the "reporting of Jeff’s comments don’t reflect GE policy."

A Financial Times spokeswoman said "we stand by the accuracy of the report." 

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A professor at the University of North Florida has been awarded a National Institute of Health grant for $145,000 to study knee pain.

Michelle Boling, an assistant professor in the Department of Clinical and Applied Movement Sciences at the UNF, will study the structural and biomechanical as well as demographic and psychosocial risk factors associated with patellofemoral pain syndrome. The syndrome is one of the most common causes of knee pain.

She is collaborating with researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, College of Charleston, Uniformed Services University and the United States Military Academy.

“We hope that the findings from this investigation may be used to develop injury prevention programs to decrease the risk of developing PFP,” said Boling cash advance in one hour.

She hopes to learn if risk factors for the condition are gender-specific. It affects approximately 25 percent of the physically-active population, with females being 2 to 3 times more likely to develop it than their male counterparts.

Boling has been a faculty member at UNF since 2008 and has previously received a Transformational Learning Opportunity Grant from UNF, a University of North Carolina Future Faculty Fellowship and an Outstanding Alumni award by the University of Kentucky College of Health Sciences.

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