Talmer announces secondary offering

Talmer announces secondary offering

TROY, MICH.

Talmer Bancorp Inc. announced Tuesday a secondary offering pursuant to which funds affiliated with WL Ross & Co. LLC have agreed to sell 9,664,579 shares of the Talmer Class A common stock in an underwritten public offering.

Talmer will not issue any shares in the offering and will not receive any proceeds from the offering. Closing of the offering is expected to occur on or about Aug. 31, subject to customary closing conditions.

Oil refinery in Indiana is restarted

SOUTH BEND, IND.

A large Indiana oil refinery whose unplanned shutdown for repairs earlier this month caused gasoline prices in the Great Lakes region to spike restarted Tuesday, leading experts to predict a quick drop in prices.

BP issued a news release Tuesday saying it has safely restarted a large crude- distillation unit at its refinery in Whiting, 15 miles southeast of Chicago. The unit had been shut down since Aug. 8 for unscheduled repair work. Gas prices were about $2.38 on Aug. 9.

Budget report sees shrinking deficits, but only for now

WASHINGTON

An unforeseen flood of revenue is shrinking federal deficits to the lowest level of President Barack Obama’s tenure, Congress’ nonpartisan budget adviser said Tuesday. But in a report that will fuel both parties in their autumn clash over spending, the analysts also warned that perilously high shortfalls will roar back unless lawmakers act.

Two weeks before Congress returns from recess, the Congressional Budget Office said it expects this year’s federal deficit to fall to $426 billion. That’s $60 billion less than it expected in March, thanks to greater-than-expected individual and corporate income-tax collections, and less than a third of the record $1.4 trillion gap of 2009 as the government tried fighting off the Great Recession.

Carnegie-Mellon student pleads guilty to making spy app

PITTSBURGH

A Carnegie Mellon University student has pleaded guilty to developing and selling malicious software that allowed others to remotely control Google Android smartphones, including using the phones’ cameras to spy on their owners.

Morgan Culbertson entered the plea Tuesday to a conspiracy charge in Pittsburgh federal court.

The 20-year-old Culbertson is from the suburb of Churchill and is one of 12 people living in the United States charged by federal prosecutors in the takedown of the Darkode.com cybercriminal marketplace in July.

The online forum was a place where authorities say computer hackers bought and sold malicious software, and otherwise advertised for help in schemes designed to infect computers and cellphones with software that could cripple or illegally control the devices.

Staff/wire reports