Cease-desist order terminated at UCFC

July 10, 2013 at 12:00a.m.

youngstown

Federal regulators have formally terminated a highly restrictive cease-and-desist order at United Community Financial Corp., the holding company of The Home Savings and Loan Co.

The order, in effect since August 2008, was placed on the company after regulatorsSFlbdetermined that it was taking on too much risk in its lending portfolio. It allowed regulators more oversight at the bank and curbed certain operations until UCFC corrected financial matters at the company.

UCFC still has an understanding with the Federal Reserve that it will not pay dividends, repurchase shares or take on debt without the central bank’s approval.

A lifting of the order demonstrates that recent moves at the bank, to clean up its balance sheet and raise capital with stock offerings, were enough to convince regulators that its operations have improved, said Patrick Bevack, president and CEO of UCFC and Home Savings.

Natural-gas well leaking off La. coast

new orleans

Natural gas leaked Tuesday from a well at a platform producing oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico about 75 miles off the Louisiana coast after a crew working to temporarily plug the well lost control of it, the Coast Guard said.

Coast Guard Lt. Lily Zepeda said the well did not blow out and there was no explosion or fire on the platform. People on the platform were evacuated, but it wasn’t clear how many.

Zepeda said a mixture of water and gas was leaking from the well, which is in water 144 feet deep. An aerial survey Tuesday revealed a rainbow sheen four miles wide and three-quarters of a mile long on the Gulf surface, she said.

There is no indication the leak will take on the scale of the 2010 blowout of BP’s Macondo well about 100 miles to the east, Zepeda said. The BP blowout resulted in more than 200 million gallons of oil escaping from the well, a mile deep in the Gulf.

30 arrested during miners’ union protest

fairmont, w.va.

Thirty people were arrested Tuesday as some 5,000 coal miners and their families protested bankrupt Patriot Coal Corp.’s plans to cut benefits, a plan the United Mine Workers of America says amounts to a broken promise to tens of thousands of workers who made Patriot’s predecessor companies profitable for decades.

The rally on a football practice field at Fairmont State University in north-central West Virginia was the 14th protest so far, but UMWA President Cecil Roberts promised there will be many more. The next will be back in St. Louis, where Patriot and several other coal operators are headquartered.

Roberts was arrested and put on a bus, along with 29 supporters who had volunteered to be charged with illegal assembly. They included AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker, union leader and West Virginia Delegate Mike Caputo.

Vindicator staff/wire reports

Selected local stocks

STOCK, DIVIDENDCLOSECHANGE

Aqua America, .76, 32.33 .52

Avalon Holdings,3.65—.03

Clear Channel, .61 28.22 —.02

Cortland Bancorp, 10.25.00

Farmers Nat., .126.36 .06

First Energy, 2.20, 36.80.29

FirstMerit Corp., .64,20.95 .01

First Niles Financial, .32,10.00.00

First Place Fin., .0049.00

FNB Corp., .48,12.90.00

General Motors,34.92.28

General Electric, .76,23.63.31

Motors Liquidation, .0422.00

Huntington Bank, .20, 8.45—.03

JP Morgan Chase, 1.52,54.89.19

Key Corp, .22,11.88—.03

LaFarge, 15.37 .14

Macy’s, 1.00, 50.38.11

Parker Hannifin, 1.80, 98.011.61

PNC, 1.76,76.25—.10

RTI Intl. Metals,29.521.00

Simon Prop. Grp.,4.60,161.732.51

Stoneridge 12.53 —.13

United Community Fin. 4.53.07

Selected prices at 4 p.m. Tuesday. Provided by Stifel Nicolaus. Not to be construed as an offer or recommendation to buy or sell any security.