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Gov. Linda Lingle said she will ask a bankruptcy judge not to allow Aloha Airlines to shut down until she is satisfied the airline "exhausted all possible avenues for continuing its operations."

"We are deeply disappointed that Aloha Airlines has made the decision to cease operations of their interisland and transpacific passenger flights," Lingle said in a statement. "Our main concerns are threefold - first and foremost the 1,900 employees and their families, the need for continued air service for our residents and visitors, and protection of the state’s long-term fiscal and economic interests.

Lingle, a Republican, also said the state will ask the judge to make Aloha "provide sufficient time and proper notification to employees of the shutdown and that all additional steps be taken to protect the interests and rights of Aloha employees."

Federal law requires that most workers be given 60 days notice if their jobs are to end permanently under the closing of a plant or business.

Lingle said she will also ask to have Aloha’s financial information reviewed by the judge "to determine whether the shutdown is in fact necessary."

A hearing on the Aloha bankruptcy is scheduled for Monday afternoon in federal court in Honolulu guaranteed approval cash advance loans.

In the meantime, the state has assigned a special labor department team to help the 1,900 Aloha employees who could be almost immediately out of work.

Governor Lingle has also activated a Rapid Response Team to assist the approximately 1,900 employees that could lose their jobs as a result of Aloha Airlines’ decision to discontinue operations of its interisland and transpacific passenger service.

"Aloha Airlines employees, some of whom have multiple family members working for the company, have sacrificed a lot for the company through the years. They have been loyal and dedicated in providing quality service to their customers and they have been an important part of our community for generations. Their dedication to excellence has allowed Aloha to be recognized as one of the nation’s best airlines in on-time service. We fully understand the urgency Aloha’s decision has created for the employees and their families, and we will do everything we can to assist the employees during this very difficult time," Lingle said in a statement.

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Walnut Creek law firm Archer Norris is increasing its reach in Southern California, moving into larger offices in Newport Beach and adding three new lawyers.

The firm announced late Thursday that it had added three new attorneys in Southern California, two in Newport Beach and one in Los Angeles. The firm moved earlier this month into expanded offices in Newport Beach, more than tripling its space there from 1,800 to 6,400 square feet.

With the additions the firm will have 85 attorneys and offices in Los Angeles, Newport Beach, Sacramento and Walnut Creek electronic check payday advance.

The new hires include Stephanie Kitzes, a transactional attorney who joins as of counsel in Newport Beach from the firm Murtaugh, Meyer, Nelson & Treglia in Irvine.

Louis Chao, a construction litigation attorney, joins as of counsel in Los Angeles from the firm of Sabaitis O’Callaghan LLP.

Daniel McKenzie, a civil litigator, joins as an associate in Newport Beach from The Reeves Law Group in Santa Ana.

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The region’s main business attraction group is headed to Great Britain to recruit foreign investors and businesses.

The Greater Phoenix Economic Council is spearheading the trip to London and Cambridge. The goal is to attract aerospace, biomedical and technology investments and businesses.

The five-day trip will start March 31. Investment banking firm Columbia West Capital LLC and the Squire Sanders & Dempsey LLP law firm are co-hosting the trip and recruitment events along with GPEC payday loan.

GPEC reports that the sluggish U.S. economy has reduced domestic business expansions and relocations, but that international investments in the U.S. are up in part due to the weak dollar.

For more: www.gpec.org.

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The University of Hawaii has secured an additional $10 million for a biosafety laboratory in Kakaako.

The project in 2005 received $37.5 million, including a $25 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and $12.5 million from the state in matching funds.

UH had said previously that construction costs had increased the project's overall cost by about $10 million.

NIH, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, kicked in another $7.5 million, and UH is adding $2.5 million to complete the Pacific Regional Biosafety Laboratory.

The university applied for the additional funding from NIH overnight payday loans.

Construction of the three-story, 38,400-square-foot building initially was scheduled to begin in summer 2007 and be completed by the end of 2009, with the lab beginning operations the following year.

A new start date for construction has not been set.

The lab, which will be built next to the John A. Burns School of Medicine, will house researchers to study infectious diseases threatening Hawaii and the Pacific.

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Central banks from 16 Asian nations may invest more of their $1 trillion of foreign reserves in the region's debt as Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts reduce returns on U.S. assets.

“This is something that most of us, that are not yet investing in, will be looking at,'' Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco said in a March 23 interview in Jakarta. There can be “some kind of shift'' to Asian sovereign bonds, Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said in a separate interview on March 22, after a weekend meeting of policy makers from the region.

Asian countries pummeled by a financial crisis in 1997-98 have spent the past decade hoarding reserves to help protect their economies from external disturbances. A looming U.S. recession means the world's biggest economy may no longer be the best place for the region to invest those funds.

Indonesia's 10-year dollar-denominated bonds, for example, have a yield of 6.06 percent compared with 3.33 percent for similar maturity U.S. Treasuries. Local-currency Philippine debt maturing in 2018 yielded 7.16 percent as of March 19.

“Given the volatility in the U.S. dollar, some diversification won't hurt,'' said David Cohen, an economist at Action Economics in Singapore. “Even if the U.S. does slide into a recession, continued growth in places like China'' may help maintain economic expansion in the region.

U.S. Slowdown

Growth in the U.S. economy slowed to 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier. Half of the economists in a Bloomberg News survey this month expect a U.S faxless payday advance. recession this year. China's economy expanded 11.2 percent in the three months ended Dec. 31, the fourth straight quarter above 11 percent.

The dollar fell to a record low against the euro on March 17 before posting its first weekly advance against the European currency on March 21.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has cut its benchmark interest rate by 3 percentage points since September to help avert a recession in the world's largest economy, amid its worst housing slump in 16 years.

Governors from the South East Asian Central Banks grouping, or SEACEN, include Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar, South Korea, Mongolia, Fiji, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan. They manage about $1 trillion in reserves, according to Bloomberg data.

Sri Lanka's Cabraal said he is looking at “possible avenues to invest in other Asian countries.''

“It wouldn't have been on the agenda some years ago, but it is now very much on the agenda,'' Cabraal said. “You can see quite a clear shift in the mindset.''

Tetangco from the Philippines said central banks in the region will have to make decisions about investing more in Asian debt “at some point in the future.''

“We are looking at the opportunities for diversification into high-quality assets such as sovereign or quasi-sovereign securities,'' he said.

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Everything from large walk-in freezers to small file cabinets from a Hawaii supermarket will be up for bid at a public auction on Maui next weekend.

The March 29 auction at the former Star Market store at Maui Mall aims to sell all of the supermarket's furnishings.

Some of the freezers and other refrigeration items would cost tens of thousands of dollars to purchase new.

An inventory list on auctioneer Joe Teipel's Web site, www.joeteipel.com, lists an 8-year-old, 30-foot, walk-in freezer that would cost $15,000 to buy new. But Teipel says such an item likely will sell for between $1,500 and $3,000, which is just nickels and dimes on the dollar.

While most people don't have room for walk-in freezers or such items as display units or an 84-foot "chill merchandiser," Teipel said the likely buyers would be equipment rebuilders, who refurbish the machines and resell them to restaurants, hotels and other grocery stores quick payday loan. Local families are more likely to bid on the small items, such as file cabinets or folding ladders, he said.

The Star Market location at Maui Mall will become the home of Maui's first Whole Foods Market, which expects to open by early next year.

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Budget carrier Skybus is cutting five flights from Piedmont Triad International Airport in an effort to deal with rising fuel costs, the carrier announced today.

Effective April 15, service from PTI to these five cities will be changed or discontinued:

–Gulfport/Biloxi, Miss., service will be discontinued.

–Gary, Ind., Wilmington, Del., Punta Gorda, Fla., and New York/Stewart service will be reduced from two daily nonstops to one.

Customers holding reservations on discontinued routes will be notified by e-mail and will receive automatic refunds. Passengers holding reservations in cases where service is reduced from two flights to one will be given the option of rebooking on the remaining flight, changing their reservation to a different day, or receiving a refund fast payday loan no faxing.

"With oil prices well above $100 a barrel and showing no signs of any significant decrease, we had a choice - we could sit back and hope things get better, or we could take aggressive action to deal with this industry-wide problem," Skybus CEO Bill Diffenderffer said.

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Credit card services provider Alliance Data Systems Corp. said affiliates of Blackstone Group L.P. are in breach of their acquisition agreement and are not using their "best efforts" to complete the $6.4 billion deal.

Dallas-based Alliance Data (NYSE: ADS) said the affiliates, Aladdin Solutions Inc. and Aladdin Merger Sub Inc., must "cure the breach" and complete the agreement for the affiliates to buy Alliance Data.

The company said Blackstone's affiliates have prolonged negotiations with federal agencies and "have not satisfied their contractual obligations under the merger agreement to use reasonable best efforts to obtain the requisite regulatory approvals to complete the transaction."

Alliance Data said Blackstone has developed a case of "buyer's remorse" and is attempting to "run out the clock" on the deal. Under the terms of their initial agreement, the deal will be terminated if the companies don't complete it by April 17.

Alliance Data said it has attempted to facilitate the deal by reducing the price of the transaction and agreeing to provide $465 million in credit support to satisfy banking regulators. It said Blackstone rejected the proposal and suggested that Alliance Data provide additional concessions and subsidies easy fast cash. The company did not provide details on those concessions.

Alliance Data said it continues to work to complete the deal.

A Blackstone spokesman told Reuters said the firm has complied fully with all of its obligations under the merger agreement and any claims to the contrary were "absurd."

On May 17, 2007, New York-based Blackstone agreed to buy Alliance Data for $81.75 a share, valuing the deal at about $6.4 billion. However, Blackstone in January backed away from the agreement, citing restrictive regulations by the Office of the Comptroller of Currency, which regulates the bank that issues Alliance Data's credit.

Alliance then sued Blackstone, but later dropped the lawsuit after Blackstone reassured the company that it would work to close the acquisition.

Blackstone is an international private equity group specializing in corporate private equity, real estate and financial advisory. Aladdin Solutions and Aladdin Merger Sub were formed by Blackstone especially for the acquisition.

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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is being forced to throw out four decades of monetary history by a financial system choking on miscalculated risks and a deepening recession.

Bernanke and the four Fed governors voted yesterday to become creditors to Bear Stearns Cos., a securities firm that isn't a bank, by invoking a law that hasn't been used since the 1960s. Three days earlier, the Fed said it would swap Treasury notes on its balance sheet for privately issued mortgage-backed securities held by Wall Street firms.

“It's a re-drawing of the relationship of the Federal Reserve with the rest of the financial system,'' said Vincent Reinhart, former director of the Division of Monetary Affairs at the Board. Risks of so-called moral hazard, where firms will now come to count on bailouts by a federal agency, “are considerable,'' he said.

The cost of doing nothing may have been even greater, say other former Fed officials. Bernanke is attempting to keep the nation's financial machinery working as record home foreclosures make investors reluctant to hold even bonds backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, government-chartered firms. The 54-year-old Fed chairman is also trying to contend with a worsening economic slump: Reports this week showed that retail sales unexpectedly fell and consumer confidence slid to a 16-year low.

Meyer's Experience

“As a governor, you never want to be placed in this position,'' said former Fed governor Laurence Meyer, who served during the central bank's coordination of the rescue of hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management LLC in 1998. “Everybody has to be uncomfortable with this. But it is always, compared to what? Just imagine what would have happened today if this action hadn't been taken.''

Even with the bailout, stocks retreated. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 2.1 percent yesterday to 1,288.14. The S&P Financials Index lost 4.1 percent. Bear Stearns tumbled $27, or 47 percent, to $30. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. also declined.

“It has really spooked the market,'' Gregory Peters, head of credit strategy at Morgan Stanley in New York, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “It has unraveled so fast that investors are worried about the next shoe dropping.''

Bear Stearns is a market maker in mortgage bonds, a primary dealer in U.S. Treasury notes and clears or settles securities transactions for other brokers and investment funds. While it doesn't take deposits from the public, it's as intertwined with the financial system as any bank payday loans in one hour.

Cost of Lending

“Most lending happens outside of bank balance sheets,'' said Mark Gertler, who has written papers on central banking with Bernanke and is a professor of economics at New York University. “We are seeing financial innovation, so you should expect innovation in the lender of last resort facility.''

Still, some economists said, the Fed may encourage risky behavior by backstopping financial institutions. Willem Buiter, a London School of Economics professor and former Bank of England policy maker, called the Fed's move “socialism for the rich, which is both inefficient and morally objectionable.''

Only last week, senior bank supervisors from the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and Switzerland blamed the crisis on poor communication, bad risk analysis and an under-estimation of liquidity needs by large financial institutions.

“There is no doubt the Fed has been nervous about extending its lending reach beyond banks that have a role in the payment system,'' said Marvin Goodfriend, a former senior policy adviser at the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank and now an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. “Is the credit crisis so bad that it requires a breach of longstanding conventions?''

Navigating the Storm

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said the Fed is trying to navigate through a once-in-a-generation financial and economic storm.

Panic selling is lowering the value of stocks and bonds, spurring more selling. Unemployment is rising, reducing incomes and spending, and falling asset prices — including homes — are leading to a contraction in credit.

“That three-way combination feels like something we have not seen in this country in a very, very long time,'' Summers, now a professor at Harvard University, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Washington. “It's a near-certainty we are in a recession and there is a real prospect that it could be a serious one without strong policy action.''

Fed officials meet to set interest rates on March 18. Futures traders put the chances of a 1 percentage point cut at 50 percent. A reduction of that magnitude would be the first in the two decades since the federal funds rate has been used to steer the economy.

“The name of the game is preventing disaster,'' said NYU's Gertler. “By letting one house burn down, you might have the whole neighborhood burn down. You want to avoid that.''

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Hawaiian Airlines has raised its round-trip airfares for flights between Hawaii and the Mainland by $30 to offset the rising costs of operations.

The increase airfares is effective immediately for travel starting on or after May 1.

"The costs of providing our product continue to rise, and this modest increase will help preserve the high quality of our service," said Glenn Taniguchi, senior vice president of marketing and sales 1500 payday loans.

Shares of parent company Hawaiian Holdings (Amex: HA) were down 2 percent to $4.78 in afternoon trading.

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