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John Brackenbury notified Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. on Aug. 23 that he will retire from his board and committee posts with the company and its U.K. subsidiaries, the company said Friday in a regulatory filing.

He will leave the board effective Oct. 5, when the company will hold its 2010 annual stockholders meeting at its Creve Coeur, Mo., headquarters, and won’t stand for re-election. Brackenbury’s retirement from the board isn’t the result of any disagreement with the company, according to the filing.

Brackenbury, 72, had been a director since January 2004 and was on Isle of Capri’s stock option and compensation committee. He has more than 40 years’ experience in the leisure industry in the U.K., and has served as chairman of trade group Business in Sport & Leisure since 1985 free business cards.

Isle of Capri began exiting its international operations with the sale last April of its casino in Coventry in the U.K.

Isle of Capri (Nasdaq: ISLE), led by Chairman and Chief Executive James Perry, reported $999.8 million in net revenue in fiscal 2010, which ended April 25. The company owns and operates riverboat, dockside and land-based casinos at 15 locations in Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Colorado, Iowa and Florida.

The company plans to build a $125 million casino north of downtown Cape Girardeau, Mo., if it’s successful in winning Missouri’s 13th and final gaming license.

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San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed on Friday asked county leaders to delay picking an ambulance service provider, saying the county has offered few details on how the two companies vying for the five-year, $375 million contract can afford to deliver their promised services.

Reed issued the warning in a letter to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, whose members appear ready to pick Rural Rural/Metro Corp. as its new provider on Tuesday and drop its longtime ambulance company, American Medical Response Inc.

In his letter, Reed asked the supervisors to delay any decisions until a more “detailed analysis” of the two companies’ bids can take place.

Among other things, Rural/Metro (NASDAQ:RURL) has offered to pay the paramedic training costs for 15 members of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety within the first two years of its ambulance contract, according to a recent county government staff report. Sunnyvale, the report noted, is the only city in the county without first response paramedic services.

Meanwhile, AMR or its predecessors have contracted with the county since 1979. According to its website, AMR employs 480 paramedics and emergency medical technicians in the county and responds to an average of 115,000 calls annually.

“I urge you to take more time to ensure that the proposals are fiscally viable,” Reed wrote, adding there is too much “at stake” to do otherwise.

According to the recent county staff report, Rural/Metro and AMR were the only two companies to respond to the county’s request for ambulance service proposals. The RFP was issued in mid-April.

An evaluation committee scored their proposals. The staff report said Rural/Metro won in six of nine categories, including clinical care, ambulance deployment plan and price. For instance, Rural/Metro proposed charging $35 per mile for each transport, far less than AMR’s $90 per mileproposal saving account payday loan.

AMR, however, scored 90 out of 90 possible points in the “finance” category. Rural/Metro scored 67.5.

Rural/Metro is a nationwide ambulance contractor based in Scottsdale, Ariz.

In January, for instance, its longtime CEO abruptly resigned, and in April, the Arizona Republic reported the company “ousted” two high-ranking executives. One of those executives was fired over alleged expense-reimbursement violations, according to the news report.

Metro reportedly took on a heavy debt load in the 1990s during a nationwide, acquisition-fueled expansion but appears to have since righted itself. In 2006, the company’s credit rating with Moody’s Investors Service stood at B2, a “junk” quality that is five levels below investment-grade. Moody’s later upgraded the rating after the company improved financially.

In its most recent earnings report, Rural/Metro recorded a $4.4 million profit for the three months ending March 31, nearly three times higher than the $1.6 million profit during the same period a year earlier.

Liz Merritt, a company spokeswoman, could not immediately be reached for comment Friday night.

Santa Clara County Executive Jeff Smith is seeking approval from the Board of Supervisors next week to negotiate a first response and paramedic ambulance transportation contract with Rural/Metro. The board is slated in December to vote on approving a contract.

The county’s existing contract with AMR expires on June 30 of next year. AMR, which operates in 37 states and Washington, D.C, is owned by Greenwood Village, Colo.-based Emergency Medical Services Corporation (NYSE:EMS).

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Universal Orlando announced Aug. 6 that it is raising its one-day, one-park admission to $82 from $79, just a day after theme park-competitor Walt Disney World raised its prices on Aug.5.

In addition, many of the park’s other ticket options have received a $5 increase, except for the two-day, park-to-park ticket, which remains unchanged at $145. The Florida resident online specials remain unchanged. All price changes are effective Aug. 7.

The company’s goal is to continue to deliver high-end entertainment at a great value, “while keeping an eye on the marketplace,” said Tom Schroder, a Universal Orlando spokesman.

This marks the fifth consecutive year Universal and Disney have bumped up ticket costs.

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The parent company of First Community Bank said Monday that its stock was being delisted by NASDAQ, effective at the open of business Wednesday.

First State Bancorp (NASDAQ: FSNM ) made the announcement in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The stock closed at 36 cents per share Monday.

First Community lost $25.7 million in the first quarter, $110.5 million in 2009, and $153 million in 2008. It has been trying to raise capital to boost its reserves.

First Community President and CEO Pat Dee said the delisting was “another little bump in the road” for the bank, which has been under a regulatory order from the Federal Reserve Bank since the summer of 2009.

“The good news for our shareholders is that they can continue to trade the shares on the over-the-counter market,” Dee said. “This will not affect the day-to-day operations of the bank.”

The bank announced earlier this month that it had ended an unsuccessful effort to buy back $95 million in trust preferred securities at 15 cents on the dollar Internet Payday loans. The bank holding company announced June 9 that it was attempting to buy back the securities in an effort to rid itself of debt and recapitalize the bank.

The securities, bought by investors between 2002 and 2007, were used to capitalize the bank. The repurchase offer ended at 5 p.m. July 7.

In May, First State revised its first quarter financial statements to add $10 million to its loan loss reserves. That move dropped First Community’s ratio of total capital to risk-weighted assets to 7.53 percent, which put the bank into the undercapitalized category for federal regulatory purposes.

First Community is New Mexico’s third largest bank, with $2.7 billion in assets.

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BCSB Bancorp Inc. swung to a profit of $607,000, or 14 cents a share, during the third quarter. That compares with a loss of $418,000, or 20 cents a share, the parent company of Baltimore County Savings Bank posted in the year-ago period.

BCSB Bancorp (NASDAQ: BCSB) said non-performing assets, consisting primarily of commercial loans, increased to $13.9 million as of June 30, up from $8.3 million on Sept. 30, 2009. That was also up from $2.4 million on June 30, 2009.

“Although our troubled loans have risen, asset quality remains strong overall,” Joseph J no fax payday loans. Bouffard, BCSB Bancorp’s CEO, said in a statement. “Management continues to be proactive in establishing what are believed to be appropriate reserve levels. We remain very well capitalized and are favorably positioned to weather these difficult economic conditions.”

BCSB Bancorp operates 18 branches in Baltimore City, and Baltimore, Harford and Howard counties.

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A heated battle between two of the nation’s largest drug chains came to an end Friday after a compromise under which Walgreens will continue participate in CVS Caremark’s pharmacy benefit management network.

The drugstores did not disclose financial terms of the new contract. Shares Walgreens (WAG, Fortune 500) were up about 8% in pre-market trading, and CVS’ (CVS, Fortune 500) stock was 5% higher.

"The agreement makes good business sense, provides the framework we need to operate our business going forward, and assures choice and convenience for the many consumers who look to us for quality pharmacy care," said Walgreens executive vice president of pharmacy Kermit Crawford in a statement.

CVS’s president Per Lofberg added that his company is also "pleased" to have reached a solution.

Earlier this month, Walgreens said it was no longer willing to participate in a new or renewed benefits plan from its rival’s drug benefits unit, citing a list of criticisms including unpredictable drug reimbursement rates.

Another complaint was related to CVS Caremark’s Maintenance Choice plan, which requires patients with chronic conditions to fill prescriptions at CVS or through Caremark mail services, instead of at Walgreens or other pharmacies.

Drug benefits provider Caremark merged with retail pharmacy CVS in 2007, and CVS CEO Tom Ryan promised at the time that the Caremark business would not favor one pharmacy over another. But Walgreens’ gripe about Caremark’s preferential treatment of CVS stores was echoed by other drugstores.

In response to the Walgreens announcement, CVS dropped the rival from its pharmacy benefits plan last week.  

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BP’s U.S. shares rallied Thursday after the London-based company said "is not aware of any reason" for a 16% plunge in the shares the day before.

On Day 52 of the Gulf oil spill, BP (BP) issued a statement saying it "faces this situation as a strong company" and it will "continue to keep the market fully informed of further developments."

BP said it is "generating significant cash flow" and has a "strong and valuable" oil reserve, both of which will help it survive the response to the spill.

The statement helped push BP’s U.S. shares up 12.3% to close at $32.78, but its London stock closed more than 6.7% lower.

BP’s shares tumbled $5.48 to $29.20 Wednesday on volume nine times above normal. The drop came amid some speculation about the company’s future — in a Fortune interview, oil analyst Matt Simmons said BP’s "lawsuits, cleanup and other expenses" will force the company into bankruptcy within the month.

It’s been more than seven weeks since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, killing 11 people and causing the oil spill.

On April 19, the day before the disaster, BP shares closed at $58.86. Since that time the stock has plunged by 50.4%.

Below book value: Even with Thursday’s surge, BP shares are still trading below their book value, an important metric for investors.

The book value is a company’s hard assets - in BP’s case, its oil fields and rigs - minus its intangible assets and its liabilities. BP’s book value is $33.25 per share.

When a stock price is trading below its book value, it shows that investors have little confidence that the company is worth even as much as its assets.

Unrealistic fears? But a report from Oppenheimer Equity Research called Wednesday’s sell-off "panic selling," adding, "investors dumped BP shares on fear of unrealistically high potential liabilities ."

The report said BP shares currently price in $60 billion worth of potential liabilities, "which we think is very unrealistic."

Oppenheimer also shrugged off fears that the company will go bankrupt, be acquired by a rival or fire chief executive Tony Hayward.

"Driving BP out of business would not clean the Gulf Coast, pay plaintiffs or help its 23,000 employees," the report said. "We think such action is both unnecessary and unlikely."

Dividend worries: In addition to the bankruptcy fears, there’s concern about BP’s quarterly dividend that is slated to be paid out June 21.

Last week, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., sent a letter to BP chief executive Tony Hayward saying it was "unfathomable that BP would pay out a dividend … before the total cost of [the] oil spill cleanup is estimated."

Schumer and Wyden cited a Credit Suisse report that said the total cleanup cost could reach $37 billion if oil continues gushing until a relief well is completed in August.

On Tuesday, a group of 50 House Representatives sent a letter outlining similar points.

Oppenheimer’s report said BP’s balance sheet isn’t an issue, with projected operating cash flow of $34 billion in 2010 and $37 billion in 2011.

"While we think BP can financially sustain the dividend, we are not sure if it can do so politically," the report said.

The report noted BP pays one of the highest dividends in its sector. In fact, even if BP slashed its dividend by 50% it would still be the highest yield among its competitors. 

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State and federal officials have brokered a deal with CSX Corp. to build a high-speed rail line running from Buffalo to Albany, ending months of negotiations.

The breakthrough removes a major obstacle confronting the state as it continues to try to develop high-speed rail.

"This is welcome news and helps give us confidence that high-speed rail will be coming to Upstate New York," said said U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, who announced the deal.

Back in January, the state was awarded $153 million in federal funding for high-speed rail improvements.

The state and CSX, however, had fought over what the speed limit would be set at on the new high-speed rail line. The state wanted 110 mph as the maximum speed, while CSX wanted 90 mph.

In negotiations, CSX agreed to the 110 mph speed limit. More details of the agreement were not immediately released.

“I appreciate CSX’s readiness to do their part to make the promise of high-speed rail in New York a reality,” said Slaughter savings account payday advance.

Currently, trains traveling in the Buffalo-Albany corridor average less than 60 mph, and hit max speeds of close to 80 mph in certain stretches.

The trains will run on a right-of-way owned by CSX, a freight shipping giant.

To date, New York state has received $151 million of stimulus money for high-speed rail—a fraction of what was awarded to other states much farther along in the planning and development process.

Advocates have touted it as a key economic development tool for the state. For years, the state has studied and pursued high-speed railways, but made little progress.

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Facebook confirmed Tuesday that it will simplify its privacy settings, in a move aimed at quelling growing concerns over how much user information is exposed online.

"I can confirm that our new, simpler user controls will begin rolling out tomorrow (Wednesday). I can’t say more yet," Andrew Noyes, a Facebook spokesman, said in a statement.

The popular social networking site, which boasts nearly 500 million users, has been under fire in the past few months for confusing privacy policies and technical glitches that exposed users’ private data.

Currently, Facebook has about 170 different privacy options that govern access to personal data users post online, including birth dates, e-mail addresses and employment information.

In early May, a technical mishap allowed a number of users to view friends’ private chats. That came less than three months after some Facebook users received private messages that weren’t intended for them, the result of another technical glitch.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has admitted to making some mistakes on privacy and promised to fix the problems.

"There needs to be a simpler way to control your information," Zuckerberg wrote in an op-ed piece published Monday in the Washington Post. "In the coming weeks, we will add privacy controls that are much simpler to use. We will also give you an easy way to turn off all third-party services," he said.

Meanwhile, Facebook has invited members of the House and Senate to attend a briefing in Washington on Thursday to go over the new privacy tools and answer questions.

The site’s recent privacy problems have drawn the ire of some particularly vocal lawmakers.

In April, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, and three other Senators called on Facebook in a sharply worded letter to stop sharing users’ personal information with third party Web sites.

Schumer subsequently urged the Federal Trade Commission to provide guidelines for social networking sites, including Facebook, on how private information submitted by online users can be used and disseminated.

But Facebook is not the only Internet powerhouse struggling with privacy issues.

In February, Google modified an automated feature on its social network service, Google Buzz, following a backlash from users whose contacts were revealed to the public without their authorization.

"The rules of engagement with social media sites keep changing and this has created an environment where users are often forced to learn through trial and error," said Mary Madden, senior researcher at the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

"Personal information has become a form of currency that we exchange in order to participate in the economy of networking today," she continued. "And while many services are free to use, we pay for access to these tools with the information we share."

– CNN’s Laurie Segall contributed to this report.  

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Two weeks after the stock market’s record dive, regulators have a plan to keep it from happening again by essentially calling "time out" when trading gets too chaotic. The question is whether that will work.

The big exchanges say new curbs on trading known as "circuit breakers" will help prevent runaway market drops. But not everyone is convinced. To some market watchers, the rules are too limited. To others, the rules go too far.

The reality is that we may not know who’s right until there is another wild trading day like the one that stunned Wall Street May 6. Intense selling sent the Dow industrials down to a loss of almost 1,000 points in less than 30 minutes.

Under the plan announced Tuesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, trading of any Standard & Poor’s 500 stock that rises or falls 10 percent or more within a five-minute period would be halted for five minutes. The idea is that by giving investors a break, they’ll be less likely to set off a chain reaction of human and computerized selling.

That’s one of several possible causes of the May 6 plunge. The drop, which some are calling a "flash crash," briefly wiped out $1 trillion in market value as some stocks traded as low as 1 cent. What if the new circuit breakers were in place that day?

"I believe that day would’ve played out significantly different," said Joe Ratterman, CEO of the third-largest U.S. stock exchange, BATS Exchange, which helped devise the new rules.

"There would’ve been chaos," he said, "but that pausing would’ve created enough breathing room for people to realize that the falling prices weren’t based on fundamentals," or economic news.

Still, given that regulators have yet to determine the cause of the market’s dive, some market watchers question how they can be so sure they can prevent another drop.

"I’m absolutely skeptical," said J.W. Verret, a former SEC defense lawyer who teaches law at George Mason University.

He called circuit breakers a "blunt instrument" that could interfere with the markets’ role in determining what a price should be. "Sometimes a stock needs to drop."

Others say the new SEC rules don’t go far enough.

The circuit breakers will apply to all 50 or so U.S. exchanges. But they would only kick in for 500 of the some 8,000 publicly traded U.S. stocks. After a six-month trial, the SEC and the exchanges could expand the rules to include more. In the meantime, some traders aren’t happy with the unequal treatment.

"If you’re going to put in circuit breakers, then put them across the board," said Ted Weisberg of Seaport Securities.

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