Financial advice bus tour makes a stop

Volunteer advisers will offer free financial advice from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today from a bus at Washington Street and Cookson Place along Burnside Park in downtown Providence. The yearlong YourMoneyBusTour is sponsored by TD Ameritrade Institutional, the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors Consumer Education Foundation and Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine to help people across the nation with alarming rates of debt, negative savings and other economic concerns. The bus, which recruits local advisers at each stop, has attracted hundreds of people seeking answers. Free tool kits have information about debt reduction and saving.

FM Global opens insurance office in Mexico

FM Global, based in Johnston, has opened an insurance operations office in Monterrey, Mexico, to serve a growing number of clients in the region and to enhance the availability of its products and services. The company will conduct business in the region as FM Global de Mexico, a new insurance subsidiary, and will provide loss-prevention services throughout Latin America from the Monterrey hub. FM Global has 57 offices serving companies in more than 130 countries. “The opening of our Monterrey office is part of our long-term commitment to serving companies operating in the region, will increase our ability to deliver local insurance products in Mexico and will allow us to better deploy loss-prevention engineering and claims services in Latin America,” said Hector Pliego, head of FM Global de Mexico.

Sports Authority to open Warwick Mall store

Sporting-goods retailer Sports Authority will open a 40,000-square-foot store in Warwick Mall next spring, according to Aram Garabedian, one of the mall’s managing partners. The privately held retailer will open a store on the mall’s south side, above the Target store. Both stores are taking up space once occupied by a Macy’s outlet, which moved to the mall’s north end in 2006. Since then, the mall’s owners have reconfigured the former Macy’s space, creating an access from the concourse to its second floor. Sports Authority will share the second floor with a second store, which is yet to be leased. Sports Authority operates more than 400 stores in 45 states, including one in Warwick.

Small businesses hard-hit in reeling economy

Small businesses have been among the hardest hit during the recession in Rhode Island and typically have fewer resources to cope with a prolonged economic downturn than larger companies. For example, Joe Viele, co-owner of Liberty Rental in South Kingstown, said his equipment rental business has declined because contractors and construction companies are focusing on smaller jobs. “They’re still my customer, but let’s face it — if someone carves out a 30-lot subdivision, there’s job security for the future,” Viele said. “If they’re doing an addition on a house that takes three-and-half months, that’s less security for less time.”

Langevin still behind new stimulus measure

U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin yesterday sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reiterating his strong support for a new stimulus measure to extend unemployment benefits and spur job creation. “This economic situation has taken a toll on our state’s social service centers, food pantries and homeless shelters, and it is clear that the worst is yet to come. For these reasons, I fully support a stimulus package that includes extension of unemployment benefits, infrastructure projects that will create jobs, funding for emergency food assistance and provisions that further help homeowners.”

Carcieri on board with Pickens’ energy plan

Governor Carcieri has signed a pledge to join T. Boone Pickens’ campaign to break America’s addiction to foreign oil. “The only way this nation is going to end its dependence on foreign energy sources is to develop a real plan and embrace our domestic resources,” said Carcieri. “I believe the Pickens plan includes the right components to realistically break that dependency in the near term. Rhode Island has taken the first step to make this country energy independent with the announcement of our offshore wind project.” In a statement, Pickens said, “Governor Carcieri is a visionary who has helped his state harness energy resources in its own backyard, rather than importing more oil from overseas … Using domestic resources means creating more domestic jobs while securing affordable and stable energy alternatives that will help decrease the country’s 70-percent dependency on foreign oil imports. I salute the governor for his leadership — he will be a valuable member of my army as we work with the next president and Congress to enact real energy reform.”

Bio-Detek CPR device to be used in Arizona

Pawtucket-based Bio-Detek, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of ZOLL Medical Corp., of Chelmsford, Mass., has announced that the Bio-Detek pocket cardiopulmonary resuscitation device will be used in an Arizona statewide campaign to teach 6th through 12th graders how to perform continuous chest compression CPR in the event of a sudden cardiac arrest. The goal is to teach the technique to children so they can perform it properly and train family members. The device fits under a rescuer’s hand and both prompts specific steps to take and coaches the rescuer in chest compressions by measuring the actual depth of each compression and providing audio and visual feedback. The device is part of a training package being sent to approximately 1,800 schools in the state. Bio-Detek manufactures pacing, defibrillation and multifunction electrodes for the medical-device industry.

Patrick wants little-used state plane sold

Massachusetts Governor Patrick is ordering a little-used state airplane sold as part of his sweeping budget cutting plan. But unlike Alaska’s $2-million state-owned jet, Massachusetts’ official aircraft is a Cessna, purchased in 1974 for just $22,000. It’s sitting in a hangar in Norwood and is owned by the Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission, which at one time used it to travel to small airports for inspections. The last time anyone logged hours on the plane was a year ago. Officials said the airplane could sell for between $40,000 and $60,000 — and save taxpayers nearly $28,000 a year in maintenance and storage.

Vermont ski areas looking for winter help

Vermont’s ski resorts are gearing up for the winter by hiring seasonal workers and Okemo Mountain Resort and Killington Resort held job fairs on Saturday. The resorts are looking for workers to fill dozens of open positions ranging from food service to reservations to housekeeping and lift operations. Killington communications manager Tom Horrocks said local people have a good shot at landing a job since the resort’s foreign work force will account for between 12 percent and 15 percent of its employees this year.

Longs Drug Stores accepts CVS stock offer

Woonsocket-based CVS Caremark Corp. has announced that its tender offer for shares of common stock of Longs Drug Stores Corp. at a price of $71.50 per share has been successful. The offer period expired at 6 p.m. Friday. As of the expiration of the offer, a total of approximately 27,749,072 shares of Longs were validly tendered and not withdrawn, representing approximately 76.51 percent of the outstanding shares. All conditions of the offer have now been satisfied. Accordingly, CVS Caremark has accepted for purchase all shares that were validly tendered and was to deposit the funds for payment with the depositary on Monday. In accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, the financial results of Longs will be consolidated into the financial statements of CVS Caremark immediately upon purchase of the tendered shares. Closing of the merger (which will involve the purchase by CVS Caremark of the remaining shares not yet tendered by Longs shareholders) is expected to occur this month.