Sacramento Blogs

Folsom Lake Bank announced that it has joined the MoneyPass ATM nationwide network. Customers now have surcharge free access to cash from over 12,000 ATMs nationwide. Within a 10 mile radius customers will find 19 ATM locations to obtain cash without paying a surcharge. It’s the small things that make a big difference in life like access to an ever growing network of ATMs in thousands of locations coast to coast.
MoneyPass is a network of Elan Financial Services, one of the nation’s leading providers of complete outsourced solutions for payments, ATM and debit card processing for financial institutions. MoneyPass provides nearly 12,000 surcharge-free ATMs across the United States.

Folsom Lake Bank is a locally owned and locally operated, full service commercial banking organization focusing on small business owners, professionals and individuals in the communities surrounding Folsom Lake.

KB Home posted a larger than expected loss of $772 million in the quarter that ended November 30, much of it due to tax charges the company took to write down the value of unsold inventory and joint ventures. KB’s loss during the same quarter last year was $79 million.

KB was the Sacramento region’s top builder through the first 11 months of 2007.

The company produced 8,132 homes in this quarter, down 22 percent from 10,386 in the year ago period. The average selling price in this quarter was $247,800, down 12 percent from $280,000 in the year-ago period, according to a release.

Four new Roni Deutch Tax Center franchises have opened in the Sacramento area, along with 20 others across the United States.

The Deutch tax centers are a new business spinoff of the Law Office of Roni Deutch, a Sacramento based attorney who runs a tax resolution firm that advertises nationwide.  Deutch opened her first tax center two years ago, and building on her notoriety from her many commercials, began franchising them last year.

In addition to income tax services, the tax centers will offer small-business services such as accounting, payroll and insurance.

In celebration of National Glaucoma Awareness Month, Glaucoma Research Foundation (GRF) will commemorate its 30th Anniversary with a gala benefit at the Westin St. Francis Hotel Tower in San Francisco, January 23, 2008. The annual event, “Speeding the Cure. Spreading the Word.” serves as the showcase for recent advances in GRF funded research.

Glaucoma is the leading cause of preventable blindness. With an aging population, millions worldwide risk blindness from glaucoma if nothing is done.  At highest risk are African Americans (where the disease strikes earlier and progresses more aggressively), Hispanics/Latinos, Asians, anyone over the age of 60, and everyone with a family history of glaucoma.

To meet the growing demand from brides  and grooms to be, the Wedding Planning Institute is partnered with hundreds of colleges and universities across the United States and in other countries to offer hands on training and certification for wedding planners. The program is designed to assist both aspiring and existing wedding planners with starting or building their wedding planning careers. The Wedding Planning Institute’s Certification is internationally recognized by The Association for Wedding Professionals International and is offered through hundreds of colleges both as a classroom and online course. Students have the opportunity to assist at real weddings, as well as tour venues and meet with professional wedding vendors.

Colleges and universities across the U.S. are supporting the growing demand for wedding planners by offering 10 week classroom sessions for spring, summer and fall of 2008. Students can attend evening classes and receive their professional certification at the end of the 10 weeks. All graduates of the program can participate in job placement assistance and bridal referral leads from WPI.

The company’s mission is to provide busy couples with the best wedding resources available, along with the tools to help build stronger marriages such as relationship education during the wedding planning process.

Brides can now check, verify, and/or review every wedding vendor they might need or use for the biggest day of their life from the dressmaker to the florist at one convenient location. WeddingSolutions.com has added Wed Reviews to its comprehensive roster of wedding information. For the first time, newly married couples can publicly praise the providers they used for their wedding if they did a great job, or warn other brides if they did not.

Couples can rate their wedding service providers in four major categories: Price, Professionalism, Service and Quality. The reviewers have the option of allowing others to contact them for further explanation. Similarly, Wedding Service providers can defend themselves by telling their side of the story.

The Wed Reviews section of WeddingSolutions.com will be instrumental in helping engaged couples make the right decision when hiring wedding vendors. http://www.weddingsolutions.com/wed_reviews/ “Getting references from service providers doesn’t help that much since they tend to give names of only those customers who they know were happy with their services,” says Alex Lluch, President of WeddingSolutions.com. “This makes it very difficult for a bride to know if the service provider they are thinking to hire will perform according to their expectations. WeddingSolutions.com is determined to do something about this.”

Alliance Title Company has closed all its offices in California.

The title company had six offices in Placer County and three in Sacramento.

The California insurance regulator said Alliance’s closing and escrow accounts were being handled by Financial Title Company offices in many areas and also at First American Title Company.

Alliance Title, based in Campbell California, was a fast-growing player during the real estate boom of the past decade, when it grew from five branches to nearly 200. At its peak it had more than 2,000 employees.

Title companies are facing tough times because of the current real estate market. The number of home sales has been declining and with it the number of escrows that close. Title companies only get paid when an escrow closes, so when deals fall through, the title company doesn’t get paid for the time it has spent.

Additionally, the sales market is predominantly banks selling their foreclosed properties. The banks often don’t use a local title company, they process most of their escrows though just a few specialized escrow offices, usually located in Southern California.

The University of California Davis has received a federal grant of almost $1 million to lead the University of California system’s efforts to reduce violence against women.

The Office on Violence Against Women (within the U.S. Department of Justice) gave the university $999,369 for a three year project that will strive to reduce the incidences of campus based violence against women, including sexual assault and stalking, along with domestic and dating violence.

US Airways is adding more meals on its flights, but they are charging extra for them.

The airline said it is using “higher quality” ingredients and also offering passengers more options.

The new “Inflight Café” snack boxes and meals will range in cost from $5 to $7.

US Airways new menu was developed by LSG Sky Chefs and features a snack box  and a selection of fresh meals that will change occasionally, perhaps every two months to offer customers some variety.

General Growth Properties Inc. has started construction on its 1.1 million square foot shopping mall in Elk Grove.

The Elk Grove Promenade shopping center will have more than 100 stores to be built on 107 acres off the new Grant Line Road interchange and Highway 99. New tenants of Elk Grove Promenade will include a Macy’s department store, a 16-screen Cinemark Theatre and a Barnes & Noble bookstore. The center also will contain 450,000 square feet of specialty retail stores, six nationwide  restaurants with outdoor seating, a 20,000 square foot food pavilion with seating for over 800 people,  Non-retail features include a performance stage for concerts, outdoor fireplaces, water features and bike paths.

Elk Grove Promenade is expected to open in fall 2008.  The new mall is expected to generate about 3,500,000 dollars in annual sales tax revenue in its first full year in business.

The project has been under consideration for many years. Originally it was envisioned as a traditional enclosed mall, but national trends have moved away from enclosed malls in favor of open air centers.

General Growth is a real estate investment trust. It owns or manages more than 200 regional shopping malls in 45 states.