Evansville-based Springleaf Finance announced Monday it is closing about 150 branch offices in 25 states, resulting in 360 jobs lost.

Those offices include locations in Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing posted Monday.

Affected states were listed in the filing, but specific branch locations were not.

This is the third time this year the financial services company, formerly known as American General Finance, announced layoffs.

On Feb. 2, Springleaf announced it would close about 60 branch offices in 15 states. A few weeks after that, Springleaf had layoffs at its Evansville headquarters.

With this most recent announcement, the three rounds of layoffs add up to 690 employees, Monday’s filing said.

The company said it expects the three rounds of layoffs will result in a total pretax charge of $20.5 million.

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The state architectural licensing board and a two-firm architect team designing CCISD’s new middle school didn’t reach an agreement on proposed settlements Tuesday in the wake of investigation findings by the state board.

Staff at the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners, including executive director Cathy L. Hendricks, met with architects James Ian Powell, Irene Nigaglioni and Joel Hernández, all of statewide firm PBK Architects; and Corpus Christi architect Raymond Gignac of Gignac & Associates.

The architects each face proposed penalties, ranging from a $5,000 fine to a two-violation combined fine of $10,000, in connection with the state board’s investigation.

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“Getting good marketing help is one of the biggest challenges facing small businesses today,” according to Anita Campbell, CEO of Small Business Trends.  Anita acknowledges that, “marketing is more challenging today than ever” and “business success is all about finding the right outside service providers and using them wisely.”

A common theme with small business owners is that they can’t afford the expense of marketing help. I’ve learned that whenever someone says they “can’t afford” something it usually means they don’t see the value of it. Savvy owners and managers do see the value of good marketing help. The problem is: finding and qualifying it.

Referrals are certainly a logical way to do it. And, often times they work out fine. On the other hand, what’s right for one business may be wrong for yours. If you understand that a m

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FORT WORTH, Texas _ American Airlines is “blaming labor agAAin,” the carrier’s workers said as they marched in front of Terminal D at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport on Tuesday.

About 300 flight attendants, mechanics and ground crew workers protested American Airlines’ restructuring plan that would layoff 13,000 employees, terminate pensions and shut down its Alliance Fort Worth maintenance facility.

Protesters held signs that said American needed to pay its pensions and that corporate greed at the carrier needs to end, referring to executive bonuses that management received in previous years.

“I have 14 years of service and if (management) gets what they want, I won’t have a job,” said Aaron Morrison, a wheel and brake shop mechanic who drove from Tulsa, Okla., to attend the protest.

The demonstration also attracted a few pilots and a couple of other local unions who were showing their support for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants and the Transport Workers Union.

Mary Ellen Matter, a flight attendant at Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, marched with her sister, Ruth Hammack, who is a flight attendant at American.

“(Management) keeps pushing them and taking things away,” Matter said.

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PROVIDENCE – Providence has been selected to host the American Hockey League All-Star Classic in January 2013.

“The American Hockey League is excited to be returning to one of its founding cities for the 2013 All-Star Classic,” said league President and CEO David Andrews in a news release Feb. 8.

“Providence has been part of the fabric of our league since our first season in 1936, and the Bruins organization has been a principal member for the last two decades. We’re looking forward to working with the team and the city to make this a memorable event.”

The festivities will take place Jan. 25, 2013, through Jan. 28, 2013, at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center; ticket sales and event times will be announced at a later date.

It is the third time that Providence has hosted an AHL All-Star event; the first was an All-Star Game held in 1956 at the Rhode Island Auditorium. The then-Providence Civic Center hosted the first AHL All-Star Classic since its reinstatement in 1995.

Sched

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Bill Stone, chairman and chief executive officer, SS&C Technologies.

When financial services company SS&C announced last March that it intended to establish an Evansville office, it caused ripples of excitement through the local business community and in at least one college classroom.

SS&C is a publicly held Windsor, Conn.-based company that provides software and related services to the financial services industry. The company has 27 offices around the world, and its 5,000 clients have a combined $16 trillion in assets under management.

“When I told my students that SS&C was coming, a cheer went out,” said Peter Sherman, assistant dean and associate professor of management at the University of Evansville’s Schroeder Family School of Business Administration.

That attitude is a big part of what attracted SS&C to Evansville in the first place, said company founder, President and Board Chairman Bill Stone.

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