| Stax lives!
MEMPHIS — There's almost nothing in this world cooler than driving down McLemore Avenue blasting "Green Onions," the 1962 hit by Booker T. and the MGs that let the world know there was an imposing musical force coming from a South Memphis neighborhood. It was a time of racial upheaval in the South, but a full year before Martin Luther King Jr. took his dream of equality to the nation's capital, a group of young white and black men and women were building a legendary record company out of an old movie theater. During the '60s, Stax Records was a big pot of spicy, Southern, help-yourself stew to Motown's candlelit steak dinner. Where Motown's dream machine was driven by the ruthlessly ambitious Berry Gordy, whose master plan was to sweeten soul music and sell it to white America, Stax Records just kinda happened.
After 28 years, Weis leaving HP
Hewlett-Packard executive and longtime Vancouver resident Bob Weis is leaving the company after 28 years. Weis was among a stalwart group who marketed HP's now wildly successful inkjet printer line when it was introduced in the late 1970s. Colleagues remember Weis lugging the Vancouver division's first product, the HP 2675, through airports from one prospective client to the next. Weis later became general manager for the Vancouver site and vice president for the Americas Consumer Operations for HP's Imaging and Printing Group. Weis, 51, said he has accepted early retirement and will leave HP on May 31. Meanwhile, several analysts last week moved HP stock into the "buy" category based on the company's continuing market prospects and cost-cutting opportunities. With a share price at 12.8 times earnings, one analyst predicted HP stock would head into the high $40s in fiscal 2008.
Mortgage pros scramble to modify loans
NEW YORK (AP) - As home foreclosures mount, mortgage companies are knocking on doors, sending letters and making phone calls with a simple message for struggling homeowners: They'd rather modify your loan than foreclose. EMC Mortgage Corp., which has a $78 billion loan portfolio that includes subprime loans to homeowners with weak credit, this week launched a 50-person team it calls "the Mod Squad." Members will spend an unlimited time on the phone with troubled borrowers, sifting through their bills to compute a workable monthly payment. In an industry that often rewards workers for getting off the phone quickly, each team member has time to speak to as few as three people a day. "You can't just run this like a call center; it needs to be run like a counseling center," said John Vella, president and CEO of EMC.
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