Briefcase
Hecla to pay dividends
Hecla Mining Co. will start paying quarterly dividends on common stock, based on the price of silver.
The initial quarterly dividend is expected to be 3 cents, if Hecla’s average realized silver price is $40 during the third quarter. All dividends paid out would increase or decrease by 1 cent per share for each $5 per ounce change in the price of silver.
Subject to the board of directors’ approval, Hecla expects to pay its initial dividend before the end of the fourth quarter, based on third-quarter silver prices.
Dividend payments will be at the board’s discretion, Hecla officials said, with no guarantee that dividends will be paid for any particular quarter.
Becky Kramer
2 N.M. hotels to be Red Lions
Spokane’s Red Lion Hotels Corp. on Tuesday announced it has signed a franchising deal for two hotels in New Mexico. These are the first two hotels in New Mexico to be operated as Red Lion locations, a press release said.
The hotels are the Best Western Inn & Suites of Gallup, a 129-room hotel 130 miles west of Albuquerque, and the 192-room Best Western Inn & Suites in Farmington in the Four Corners area of New Mexico.
They’ll be known as the Red Lion Hotel Gallup and the Red Lion Hotel Farmington. Both are owned by Positive Investments, Inc., which also operates the Red Lion Hotel Oakland International Airport in Oakland.
Red Lion Senior Vice President of Lodging Development Rich Carlson said the two locations were chosen to help Red Lion continue a strategic expansion in key areas of the West.
Tom Sowa
Airline groups oppose fee hikes
LOS ANGELES – The Obama administration’s plan to increase fees and taxes on commercial passengers and corporate jets to help reduce the nation’s debt has sparked loud protests from the airline industry.
To help cut the nation’s debt, the administration has suggested doubling the aviation security fee imposed in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Each passenger is now charged $2.50 for each leg of a trip, with a maximum of $5 for a one-way trip. Under the proposal, the charge would be replaced with a standard $5-per-trip fee in 2012, with annual increases of 50 cents from 2013 to 2017.
The fee could bring in an additional $8.8 billion over five years and $24.9 billion over 10 years.
The administration also wants to raise a fee of $60 per flight to $100 per flight for all corporate planes that fly in controlled airspace, generating an estimated $11 billion over 10 years.
Los Angeles Times