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After weeks of speculation, BP Plc formally announced Tuesday that Tony Hayward will resign as chief executive on Oct. 1 and be replaced by American Robert Dudley.

Hayward took the helm in 2007 but has been harshly criticized as of late for his handling of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, which killed 11 workers, and the subsequent disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Many accused him of acting insensitive to the effects of the tragedy on Gulf residents.

In a statement issued the same day that the British oil giant posted a second-quarter net loss of $17.2 billion, BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg noted that Hayward’s success in driving BP’s performance “was so widely and deservedly admired.”

However, he said that BP “will be a different company going forward, requiring fresh leadership supported by robust governance and a very engaged board.”

Dudley, 54, is also a BP director is currently in charge of the recently-established unit responsible for Gulf clean-up operations and compensation programs.

He joined BP from Amoco after the merger of the two companies in 1998 Online payday loans. He was president and CEO of BP's Russian joint venture, TNK-BP, until 2008.

"I am honored to be given the job of rebuilding BP's strengths and reputation but sad at the circumstances," Dudley said.

Dudley will be based in London and will hand over his present duties in the US to Lamar McKay, chairman and president of BP America.

Hayward will remain on the BP board until Nov. 30. BP also plans to nominate him as a non-executive director of TNK-BP and will pay him about $1.6 million, a year's salary, in lieu of notice.

Commenting on the decision to step down, Hayward said: "The Gulf of Mexico explosion was a terrible tragedy for which - as the man in charge of BP when it happened - I will always feel a deep responsibility, regardless of where blame is ultimately found to lie.”

The Houston Business Journal is providing continuous coverage of the Gulf oil spill.

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Two Tampa Bay companies will be looking for new members of their boards of directors, following the resignation or retirement of current directors.

Hans Beyer and Dale Phillips resigned from the board of directors of Deer Valley Corp. At Superior Uniform Group Inc. Manuel Gaetan separately told the board he would retire effective July 31.

Beyer, a Deer Valley director since 2006, is a partner at Saxon Gilmore Carraway Gibbons Lash & Wilcox PA where he oversees and manages complex legal matters.

Phillips, who also joined the Deer Valley board in 2006, is managing director of TotalCFO LLC.

Deer Valley (OTCBB: DVLY), a Tampa firm that designs, manufactures and finances factory-built homes, will fill the board vacancies, Charles Master, chief executive officer, said in a statement no fax payday loans.

Gaetan, who served on the Superior Uniform (NASDAQ: SGC) board since 1991, is president and chief executive officer of MGR Enterprises LLC, a business consulting firm. He stepped down to pursue other interests, according to a statement from Superior Uniform, a Seminole company that makes and sells uniforms and accessories.

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The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is seeking a funding increase of 9.8 percent from the Allegheny Regional Asset District.

The library system, which is predicting a budget shortfall of $1.724 million for 2011, is asking RAD for $19.3 million for operating expenses, which is $1.7 million more than the current budget.

“Given the status of various efforts to secure long-term funding, we view 2011 as another year requiring stop-gap funding until a long-term funding solution can be agreed upon and implemented,” Barbara K. Mistick, president and director of the library, said in a prepared statement. “We are exploring every option we can to avoid significant reductions in public service to our library customers and, consequently, we feel we must continue to advocate and seek increased funding from local revenue sources.”

RAD will make its final funding decisions in the fall. Its revenue comes from one half of Allegheny County’s 1 percent sales tax.

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Hotels in the Sacramento region reported the occupancy rate increaseed almost 6 percent in May, as the summer season started.

The occupancy rate climbed to 65.5 percent in May, compared to 62 percent a year ago, according to PKF Consulting, an industry research group in San Francisco.

Average daily rate at local hotels was $91.28 in May, down from $96 paperless payday loans.84 in May 2009.

In the first five months, the occupancy rate was 60.5 percent, up slightly from a year earlier. The average room rate through the first five months was $92.18, down 7.3 percent from $99.42 in May 2009.

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Google said Friday that it has renewed its license with the Chinese government to continue operating in that country, ending a standoff over censorship.

"We are very pleased that the government has renewed our [Internet content provider] license and we look forward to continuing to provide Web search and local products to our users in China," said Google on its blog.

Google did not make any concessions regarding censorship, Tokyo-based Google spokeswoman Jessica Powell said.

"I don’t think we gave anything up," she said. "We asked the government to renew our license to make some products that don’t require any censorship. We are going to continue to offer uncensored Web search with google.com.hk."

Google’s (GOOG, Fortune 500) stock jumped 4% in pre-market trading, while shares of Baidu (BIDU), the lead search engine in China, fell more than 7%.

The search giant had agreed last week to stop its system of automatically redirecting users of the Chinese site, google.cn, to its Hong Kong search engine, Google.com.hk. The move had displeased the Chinese government same day payday loans.

Colin Gillis, analyst and research director for BGC Partners, said that under the new system, Google users on the Chinese mainland will have to deliberately access the uncensored Hong Kong domain, without being automatically sent there.

"Now mainland users have to click a link to the hk site," he said. "It makes the mainland user more of an active participant in accessing unfiltered Google search results."

The renewing of Google’s ICP license allows the company to continue operating in the communist country, despite its penchant for censorship of Web material.

Without an ICP license, Google said it "would effectively go dark in China."

Gillis said there was little risk that China wouldn’t renew the license, because "China wants to control Google."

The announcement came one day after the U.S. Treasury said that China did not "manipulate" its currency. 

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Attendance at Summerfest in 2010 increased 2.5 percent over last year and was profitable for another consecutive year, according to preliminary data for the 11-day music festival released by Milwaukee World Festival Inc. Friday.

Officials said that data also indicates that Summerfest also increased revenue in key categories and grew sponsorships.

Combined revenue totals derived from gate and concert ticket sales for the festival, as well as food and beverage commissions, exceeded last year’s totals in the same categories by 1.3 percent. Dollar figures were not disclosed.

Attendance was 856,254, or 20,575 more than last year’s attendance of 835,679 and 25,230 more than Summerfest 2008 attendance of 831,024.

Milwaukee World Festival President and CEO Don Smiley noted that this year’s overall results were consistent with 2010 objectives and business plan, which called for profitability while maintaining comfortable attendance levels for Summerfest fans.

“Between the great talent lineup, excellent weather and aggressive sales and marketing programs for festivalgoers and sponsors, we managed to grow our numbers while the economy continues to present significant challenges,” said Smiley.

He also noted the emphasis on paying to get quality musical talent, including increased spending on talent on ground stages by 3 fast cash advance loan.5 percent, while keeping admission ticket prices the same for the fifth consecutive year.

Overall sponsorships of stages, various areas throughout the grounds and ticket promotions increased. Sponsorships included new marketing partnerships with Johnson Controls, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram Trucks, TheCOOLTV, Klement’s and others. Summerfest grew its account base in business group sales from 505 accounts in 2009 to 631 accounts this year to help drive corporate ticket revenue.

New initiatives this year included the launching of a sit-down restaurant on the waterfront, Sazama’s Lakeside Grille.

Excluding independent restaurant, exhibitor and vendor staff, Summerfest employed approximately 2,000 workers in preparing and operating the event, equating to a nearly $1.6 million payroll. Summerfest also was supported by over 400 volunteers.

A recent study conducted by a third party research firm indicated Summerfest generates approximately $180 million in direct and indirect economic impact for the community.

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Self-heating food package maker HeatGenie Inc. has received $400,000 of a planned $450,000 round of funding.

Austin-based HeatGenie collected the capital from eight investors, according to a July 2 filing with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

HeatGenie, which was founded in 2007 as Ironbridge Technologies Inc., employed eight workers as of late May. Its product is designed to heat prepared foods in a special container using a flameless, thermal reaction.

In May, the company received its third round of funding from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, increasing the total capital from that one source to $1 million.

Earlier this year, HeatGenie hired as its CEO Gary Forni, who was previously in marketing roles at both Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) and California-based Marvell Semiconductor Inc. The company also enlisted Chief Financial Officer Patti Soch, previously vice president of finance and operations for Austin-based Phurnace Software Inc low fee payday loans., which in January was bought by Houston-based BMC Software Inc. (Nasdaq: BMC).

The HeatGenie product is based on technology developed by company founder and Chief Technology Officer Brendan Coffey. Its business model is to generate revenue by licensing the technology to container companies and heat manufacturers

In July 2009, HeatGenie received a $500,000 award from the ETF, eight months after it received its initial $250,000 investment. In early 2009, the company also received $100,000 from the National Science Foundation for small business innovation research.

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Gov. Bill Richardson has appointed Theresa Becenti-Aguilar to fill the currently vacant District 4 seat on the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission.

Ex-commissioner Carol Sloan represented District 4 until June 28, when the state Supreme Court voted to remove her because of her two felony convictions. Sloan was found guilty in April of aggravated battery and aggravated burglary for attacking a woman she believed was having an affair with her husband.

District 4 encompasses central and northwestern counties. Becenti-Aguilar will serve through December to finish out Sloan’s term on the Commission, which regulates utilities, the insurance industry and transportation.

Becenti-Aguilar won the Democratic nomination in June for the District 4 PRC seat, which is on the ballot in next November’s election.

Becenti-Aguilar has served as the Native American liaison for the PRC, where she works to assist New Mexico’s pueblos and tribes with having their concerns addressed by the Commission low fee cash advance. She also established the Tribal Working Group, which facilitates interaction among tribal leaders, PRC commissioners and the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department regarding telecommunication and utilities tax exemptions for American Indians.

Becenti-Aguilar was a constituent services representative for seven years under Tom Udall – former Democratic congressman and now a member of the U.S. Senate – to strengthen Udall’s relations with the tribes. She also worked for eight years as an executive assistant in the litigation division of the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office.

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Google Inc. said late Monday that it will stop automatically redirecting visitors from in China site to one in Hong Kong, a practice it started in March to defuse its censorship fight with Beijing.

The company said Chinese officials threatened not to renew their license to operate an Internet site in their country if they continued to redirect traffic to the unfiltered site in Hong Kong where censorship restrictions are more relaxed.

The license was set to expire on Wednesday.

The new plan is to show a message telling visitors at the China site that Google had moved to the Hong Kong Web address. It's not clear if this will be enough to satisfy officials in Beijing.

"Ever since we launched Google.cn, our search engine for mainland Chinese users, we have done our best to increase access to information while abiding by Chinese law payday loan online. This has not always been an easy balance to strike, especially since our January announcement that we were no longer willing to censor results on Google.cn.," Google's Chief Legal Officer David Drummond said on the company's official blog.

Google's dispute with Chinese officials began after it said it would no longer go along with requirement that it censor its search results and sites in that country. This came in the wake of a hacking incident the company said originated in China that targeted human rights activists.

For more of the Business Journal's in-depth coverage of Google's China situation, click here.

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Harvard Pilgrim Health Care won its appeal against the state Division of Insurance’s rejection of premium increases that were set to take effect.

This means that the health insurer could decide to retroactively charge small businesses the difference between the rates they have been paying over the past few months, and the newly approved rates, which range, on average, from 8.3 percent to 11.7 percent — very small businesses would likely see steeper hikes.

“Certainly the carrier does have the right to retroactively impose these rate increases. We hope they won’t, that Harvard Pilgrim would think about this. The world has changed, regardless of this decision, and business and government are going to be scrutinizing these rates,” Barbara Anthony, Undersecretary of the Office of Consumer Affairs said.

A spokeswoman for Harvard Pilgrim said that no decision had been made yet about how to recoup the lost revenue from three months of dis-allowed rate increases. She said that businesses, for now, should just continue to pay last year’s rates, which the DOI required insurers to keep in place as the appeals process played out.

Neighborhood Health Plan has reached a compromise with the DOI — other insurers, including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Tufts Health Plan and Fallon Community Health Plan are still awaiting decisions by the appeals panel on their rate increases.

Anthony said the Patrick administration disagrees with the independent appeal panel’s decision, but that the DOI will keep up the scrutiny of a new round of rate increases, set to take effect July 1. The DOI cannot appeal the decision of the panel. However, the Attorney General’s office can launch a suit in superior court and Anthony said the agencies would be in conversations about that possibility.

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