The unit will operate as a stand-alone business of Santa Clara-based Intel (NASDAQ:INTC). Infineon’s chips are used in smart phones such as the ones made by Cupertino-based Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).

The technology will expand Intel’s Wi-Fi and 4G WiMAX offerings and be used in Intel Core processor-based laptops and Atom processor devices, including smart phones, netbooks, tablets and embedded computers.

"The global demand for wireless solutions continues to grow at an extraordinary rate," Paul Otellini, Intel’s president and CEO, said in the announcement. "The acquisition of Infineon’s WLS business strengthens the second pillar of our computing strategy — Internet connectivity — and enables us to offer a portfolio of products that covers the full range of wireless options from Wi-Fi and 3G to WiMAX and LTE business

House Democrats and Republicans have been tussling over whether to overhaul technology rules that prohibit lawmakers from using Skype to chat from their offices with the people they govern.

Their obstacle: A 2006 ban on running peer-to-peer applications behind House and Senate firewalls. Such programs allow computers to share files (remember Napster?), which could pose a security risk.

Skype is a peer-to-peer (P2P) program, but its software is a different animal from the popular-with-pirates media swapping applications that gave the P2P field a reputation as the Internet’s Wild West. While Skype users can send files directly to others, the company says it’s impossible to share documents accidentally — as users could with file-sharing programs like LimeWire.

Skype has fans on Capitol Hill: House Minority Leader John Boehner, R.-Ohio, and Michele Bachmann, R.-Minn., have championed the Republican-led fight to change Congress’ peer-to-peer ban. They object to using taxpayer money to rent old, expensive video-conferencing equipment when Skype offers a better and cheaper option.

Back in April, Boehner and other Republicans sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Administration Committee Chairman Robert Brady, D-Penn., urging them to "make Congress more open" with Skype.

"We are certain that Skype, an increasingly relevant communication tool for Americans already widely used in the private sector, could be easily implemented in Congress in a manner that would not reduce the security of the House IT infrastructure," they wrote. "Rather than lagging behind, let’s move one step closer into the future of congressional communications."

Pelosi passed that letter on to the bipartisan House Committee on Administration, which will ultimately make the decision on whether to allow Skype. She asked the committee to determine whether Skype can be used without compromising House security.

Four months later, that evaluation is still creeping along. Staci Pies, Skype’s director of government and regulatory affairs, said the company is working with lawmakers to answer their technical questions about the Skype’s software instant payday loan.

She spotlighted the talks in a recent post on Skype’s blog, writing that Washington sorely needs better communication: "Too often, the public is left scratching their heads, wondering, ‘D.C… can you hear me now?’"

Republicans, frustrated with the talks’ glacial pace, are tossing fuel on the fire. "House Republicans are listening to Americans and have asked to use Skype to communicate, but Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats continue to block its use," Bachmann wrote recently in an online discussion.

Meanwhile, Democrats are staying mum about the decision’s timeline. "We are engaged in ongoing discussions with Skype to address the specific security concerns," said a spokesman for Pelosi.

While the video-chat scuffle wears on, plenty of lawmakers are adopting the technology on their own. Rep. Bobby Bright, D-Ala., held a Skype conference recently with soldiers deployed in Iraq, while Bachmann made a Skype appearance earlier this month in support of her colleague Roy Blunt’s Senate run.

But even some of Skype’s fans are staying away from taking a stand on the service. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D.-Vt., who regularly chats online with school classes in Vermont, doesn’t have a view on whether the Skype ban should be lifted, according to his spokesman.

But he likes the technology: "It’s a further dimension of real-time connection. It ties him to the students," Leahy’s representative said.

"The whole thing seems ridiculous," policy blog Techdirt grumbled about the wrangle. "Did Congress also have to get approval before Representatives were allowed to use the telephone? It’s difficult to understand why forward-looking elected officials need to get special permission to try out communication tools that can help them better represent their constituents."

The real kicker is that Skype fans on Capitol Hill still have an easy way to take advantage of the technology: Even if the software is blocked on their desktops, lawmakers can use Wi-Fi networks or their mobile phones to get around the ban.  

Source

The city-built and owned club was built for $7 million and includes energy efficiency measures and a donated solar power system.

The building is Chandler’s second LEED certified system. Its fire administration building was the first.

Source

From July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010, ridership totaled 1.277 million, which was a 3.9 percent increase over the previous fiscal year’s 1.229 million trips.

Pennsylvania completed $145 million in improvements along the 104-mile line, which runs between New York and Harrisburg by way of Philadelphia, in 2006 through a joint effort with Amtrak and the Federal Transit Administration one hour payday loan. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation launched a website to promote ridership on the Keystone Line in August 2008.

In January, the state was awarded $27 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding to make high-speed improvements along the corridor.

Source

Sergei Tsurikov, 26, of Tallinn, Estonia, was arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge E. Clayton Scofield III, on federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud, computer fraud, and aggravated identity theft.

Tsurikov was indicted by a federal grand jury on these charges in November 2009, along with Viktor Pleschuk, 29, of St. Petersburg, Russia, Oleg Covelin, 29, of Chisinau, Moldova, and an unidentified individual. The indictment also charged Igor Grudijev, 32, Ronald Tsoi, 32, Evelin Tsoi, 21, and Mihhail Jevgenov, 34, each of Tallinn, Estonia, with access device fraud offenses.

During November 2008, Pleschuk, Tsurikov, and Covelin allegedly obtained unauthorized access into the computer network of RBS WorldPay, the U.S. payment processing division of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC in Atlanta. The indictment alleges the group used sophisticated hacking techniques to compromise the data encryption used by RBS WorldPay to protect customer data on payroll debit cards.

Once the encryption on the card processing system was compromised, the hacking ring allegedly raised the account limits on compromised accounts and then provided a network of “cashers” with 44 counterfeit payroll debit cards, which were used to withdraw more than $9 million from more than 2,100 ATMs in at least 280 cities worldwide, including cities in the United States, Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan and Canada. The $9 million loss occurred within a span of less than 12 hours.

The hackers then allegedly sought to destroy data stored on the card processing network in order to conceal their hacking activity.

The indictment alleges the “cashers” were allowed to keep 30 to 50 percent of the stolen funds, but transmitted the bulk of those funds back to Tsurikov, Pleschuk and other co-defendants, using means such as WebMoney accounts and Western Union.

Pleschuk and Tsurikov allegedly monitored the fraudulent ATM withdrawals in real-time from within the computer systems of RBS WorldPay. Once the withdrawals were completed, Pleschuk and Tsurikov allegedly attempted to conceal their activities in the RBS WorldPay computer network by destroying and attempting to destroy data.

Tsurikov was not only an alleged hacker, but also distributed fraudulently obtained debit card account numbers and PIN codes to Igor Grudijev, who, in turn, allegedly distributed the information to defendants Ronald Tsoi, Evelin Tsoi, and Mihhail Jevgenov in Estonia. Together, Ronald Tsoi, Evelin Tsoi, and Mihhail Jevgenov allegedly withdrew funds worth $289,000 from ATMs in Tallinn, Estonia.

The indictment contains sixteen counts and seeks forfeiture of more than $9.4 million of proceeds of the crimes from the defendants.

Source

Dow Jones industrial average (INDU), S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq (COMP) futures were sharply lower ahead of the opening bell. Futures had already been pointing to a weak open but turned decidedly lower following the GDP report.

Futures measure current index values against perceived future performance.

Stocks slipped Thursday as cautious comments from a regional Federal Reserve president about the health of the economy spooked investors.

"The market is now focusing on economic activity," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners. "The earnings story is basically over at this point, with earnings season turning out to be much better than expected."

Economy: Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation’s economic activity, rose at a 2.4% annual rate in the second quarter, down from an upwardly revised 3.7% in the first quarter.

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected GDP to show a 2.5% annualized rate increase.

The Chicago PMI, a regional reading on manufacturing, is due out in the morning with economists forecasting it to have fallen to 56.3 in July from 59.1 in June, according to a consensus estimate from Briefing.com.

A revised reading on consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan is also due out. That reading is expected to have risen to 67.5 in July, up from the previously reported 66.5.

Earnings: Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500) posted second-quarter results that topped forecasts and said profit tripled in the quarter, but shares of the company fell modestly in pre-market trading.

Companies: The Walt Disney Company (DIS, Fortune 500) said early Friday it will sell Miramax Films for about $660 million to an investors group, Filmyard Holdings. Shares of Walt Disney were down nearly 1% ahead of the market open.

World markets: European stocks declined in morning trading. The CAC 40 in France fell 1%, the FTSE 100 in Britain slipped 1% and Germany’s DAX dropped 0.9%.

Asian markets finished lower. The Shanghai Composite fell 0.4% and the Hang Seng lost 0.3%, while the Nikkei in Japan tumbled 1.6%.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar was up versus the euro and the British pound, but down against the Japanese yen.

U.S. light crude oil for September delivery fell $1.33 cents to $77.03 a barrel.

COMEX gold’s December contract gained $1.40 to $1,172.60 per ounce.

Bonds: Treasury prices rose, pushing the yield on the 10-year note down to 2.93% from 2.99% late Thursday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

How much of a hit did you take in the recent correction? Are you worried about a bear market? What changes have you made in your portfolio and what changes do you plan on making for the rest of the year? E-mail your story to realstories@cnnmoney.com and you could be featured in an upcoming article. For the CNNMoney.com Comment Policy, click here. 

Source

RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed homes, said that California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada continue to lead the nation in the rate of foreclosures. Las Vegas was the worst-hit city.

But now unemployment has replaced toxic mortgages as the leading cause of foreclosures throughout the country, according to spokesman Rick Sharga.

"Las Vegas has seamlessly shifted from having a high level of foreclosures due to bad loans," said Sharga, "to defaults caused by a high level of unemployment." Some 14.5% of its work force was idle in June, up 2.1 points from last June.

Las Vegas had one filing for every 15 households in the metro area. The second highest rate was in Cape Coral/Fort Myers, Fla., with one for every 20 households. Two California cities, Modesto and Merced, tied for third with one filing for every 22 households.

The good news is that most of the worst-hit cities have actually seen their foreclosures rates decline, as the subprime crisis fades.

But while those cities have seen slight improvement, other areas are getting hit harder by the economy.

"Look at a place like Salt Lake City," said Sharga. "The foreclosure rise there appears to be entirely related to the economy," not because people can’t afford their subprime loans.

Salt Lake’s unemployment is up this year, rising 0.2% to 7.1% in June, even as the national unemployment rate dropped 0.2% to 9.5%.

Lenders filed foreclosure notices for one in every 48 Salt Lake City households during the first six months of 2010, a 55% increase over the same period in 2009.

Besides Salt Lake City, other metro areas where foreclosures have soared primarily due to the economy include Chicago, which saw filings climb 23% year-over-year to one in every 48 households. Charleston, S.C.’s, rate climbed 17% to one in every 68 homes, while Albuquerque saw a 157% jump in filings to one in 80 households.

Each of these cities has rising unemployment. Chicago’s unemployment stood at 10.6% in June, more than a point above the national rate, while Albuquerque’s unemployment jumped to 8.9% from 7.9% in the last 12 months and Charleston’s rate stands at 9.5%.

Still, the report found that there are some remarkably untroubled markets, many of them in the Northeast, Midwest and Texas, where home prices never really bubbled during the boom and have not fallen very far during the bust.

Utica, N.Y., had the lowest filing rate of any of the 206 cities in the report, just one in 4,859 households. Burlington, Vt., recorded one foreclosure for every 3,305 homes, while Charleston, W.Va., had a rate of one in 2,799 households. 

Source

Feinberg will publish his review of pay practices for top executives at 419 companies that took taxpayer funds under the Troubled Asset Relief Program between October 2008 and February 2009, the Treasury Department said Thursday.

The announcement will represent one of Feinberg’s most sweeping efforts since he was appointed by President Obama as special master last summer. It is also very likely his last as he becomes fully immersed in paying claims related to the BP (BP) oil spill.

His latest report on banker pay, announced in March, sought information about each company’s most senior executives and the next 20 most highly-paid employees.

Much of Friday’s announcement is expected to focus on executives that earned more than $500,000. As a result, hundreds of community and regional banks that also took TARP funds were likely spared of any scrutiny by Washington’s pay czar.

The report will also represent the latest in a series of rulings by Feinberg.

Last October, Feinberg slashed pay for top executives at the seven companies that were rescued more than once by the federal government — AIG (AIG, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), General Motors, GMAC, Chrysler and Chrysler Financial paydayloans.

He quickly followed that up just two short months later by capping salaries for lower-level executives at those same firms at $500,000. Both rulings served as benchmark for employee pay levels in 2010.

The issue of compensation has remained a subject of intense interest, both in Washington and on Main Street, particularly as unemployment levels remain stubbornly high and as foreclosures continue at a rapid clip.

So far however, pay levels, particularly among Wall Street firms, appear to be recovering as many financial companies have returned to profitability.

Last year, bonuses paid to Wall Street workers rose by 17% to an estimated $20.3 billion, according to New York State’s Deputy Comptroller.

Many leading compensation experts anticipate bonuses at securities firms will continue their ascent in 2010, but will likely remain below the record levels seen just before the crisis struck.

Early indications suggest that Wall Street firms are at least moving cautiously for fear of inciting another public backlash over pay.

Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) said its bonus pool shrank by 18% from a year ago as it set aside $9.3 billion to pay salaries, benefits and year-end bonuses.  

Source

Pemble, who also was elected to the bank’s board of directors, will be responsible for the operations of the bank, focused on long-term strategy. She will report to William Sedgeman Jr., chairman and chief executive officer.

Pemble resigned in June as senior executive vice president and chief credit officer of Florida Bank and its parent company, Florida Bank Group Inc.

Community Bank of Manatee, with $250 million in assets and five offices in Manatee and Hillsborough counties, received $15 million in new capital late last year easy payday loans. An additional $1.7 million in capital was received during the second quarter, a statement from the bank said. The capital infusions have positioned the bank to get through difficult times now and given it potential for growth, Pemble said.

Source