LOCAL

LOCAL
E-newsletter publishing
BOARDMAN -- Farris Marketing of Boardman has partnered with marketing guru and best-selling business author Harry Beckwith to publish Invisible Ink, a marketing and sales-related E-newsletter.
It targets more than 100,000 CEOs, business owners, sales and marketing executives, and the business-to-business press.
The monthly E-publication will be delivered free to those who register at www.FarrisMarketing.com or www.HarryBeckwith.com.
REGION
Wheeling-Pitt to take hitin fourth-quarter profits
WHEELING, W.Va. -- Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. said Monday it expects to take a $23 million hit to its fourth-quarter earnings because of an accident that shut down an Ohio furnace for 12 days in December.
Company officials said profits to be reported March 14 are likely to be a fraction of the $35.6 million Wheeling-Pitt made in the third quarter of 2004.
Production fell by about 10,000 tons after duct work and equipment collapsed Dec. 9 in Mingo Junction, Ohio, damaging electrical lines and injuring two workers, president and chief executive James G. Bradley said.
First-quarter shipments this year also will suffer, with a likely drop of about 85,000 tons, he said in a prepared statement.
It was the second straight quarter Wheeling-Pitt had to curtail shipments. In September, the remnants of Hurricane Ivan caused widespread flash flooding, and the company lost about 26,000 tons in production. Still, the third-quarter profit translated to $3.42 per share. Net sales for the quarter totaled $401.8 million on shipments of 535,575 tons of steel.
NATION
Tyco trial testimony
NEW YORK -- Tyco International Ltd.'s ex-head of human resources testified Monday that she was never asked to hide details of compensation paid to top executives L. Dennis Kozlowski and Mark H. Swartz from the company's board of directors.
In her third day on the stand, Patricia Prue, senior vice president of human resources at the Bermuda-based conglomerate from 1998 to 2002, said Kozlowski, Tyco's former chief executive, and Swartz, its ex-chief financial officer, never instructed her to keep details of million of dollars in bonuses paid to them from the company's directors.
However, Prue previously testified that she never brought the bonuses to the board's attention and never questioned a key director about the now-disputed sums.
Prosecutors claim the ADT Automotive bonus and other compensation to Kozlowski and Swartz was unauthorized by Tyco's board and was thus stolen.
Kozlowski, 58, and Swartz, 44, are on trial in New York State Supreme Court, facing charges of grand larceny, securities fraud and other crimes in connection with giant bonuses and other compensation they received while working as Tyco's top executives.
Bankruptcy plan OK'dfor Trump Hotels
WASHINGTON -- A bankruptcy court Monday blessed an agreement between Donald Trump and shareholders of Trump Hotels & amp; Casino Resorts Inc. on reorganizing the company.
Many of the objections raised over the plan, which shareholders viewed as enriching majority stakeholder Donald Trump, were addressed in an amended version of the plan filed Sunday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden, N.J.
Judge Judith Wizmur approved the disclosure statement, moving the company a step closer to exiting bankruptcy protection.
Under the latest plan, Trump will continue to serve as the company's chairman, which will be renamed Trump Entertainment Resorts Holdings LP.
Vindicator staff/wire reports