In Brief

Trop posts $10.8 million loss as renovation saps revenue

The Tropicana Las Vegas suffered a $10.8 million loss in the second quarter, saying its current renovation project caused revenues to decrease.

The Tropicana, which is controlled by Canadian investment company Onex Corp. and former MGM Grand executive Alex Yemenidjian, said its net revenues in the quarter that ended June 30 declined 33 percent to $13.8 million compared with the second quarter of 2009.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Tropicana officials said visitor volume decreased while the company worked on a $147 million hotel-casino renovation and upgrade.

The company believes its net revenues will be impacted throughout the rest of the year as the hotel-casino completes its renovation. The project is expected to be completed in phases through the second quarter of 2011.

Stratosphere parent posts net loss of $7.7 million in quarter

Stratosphere owner American Casino & Entertainment Properties reported a net loss of $7.7 million for the second quarter.

The company also owns the two Arizona Charlie's casinos and the Aquarius in Laughlin.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, American Casino said it wrote down the value of the Stratosphere because the resort suffered decreases in hotel occupancy, average daily room rate and overall guest spending. The Stratosphere's net revenues fell 10.5 percent and the company took a non-cash impairment charge of $2 million on the resort.

American Casino's net loss in the quarter that ended June 30 compared with a net loss of $844,000 in the second quarter a year ago. Companywide, net revenues fell 8 percent to $86.6 million in the quarter.

Net revenue at the Stratosphere during the quarter was $38.7 million, down from $43.2 million. The Stratosphere's hotel rooms averaged $42.87 a night in the quarter, down from $44.93 in the same period a year ago.

LOS ANGELES

Las Vegas still leads nation with highest foreclosure rate

Nevada and Las Vegas continued to lead the nation in foreclosures in July with one in every 82 households in the state receiving a foreclosure notice. That was up nearly 7 percent from June but down nearly 30 percent from the same month a year ago.

Las Vegas continued to be the city with the highest foreclosure rate in the U.S., with one in every 71 homes receiving a foreclosure notice in July -- more than five times the national average.

Nationally, the number of U.S. homes lost to foreclosure surged in July, with lenders repossessing 92,858 properties last month, up 9 percent from June and an increase of 6 percent from July 2009, RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

Banks have stepped up repossessions this year to clear out the backlog of bad loans. July makes the eighth month in a row that the pace of homes lost to foreclosure has risen on an annual basis.

WASHINGTON

Administration launches homeowner aid program

The Obama administration is providing $3 billion to unemployed homeowners facing foreclosure in the nation's toughest job markets, including $34 million earmarked for Nevada.

The Treasury Department said Wednesday it will send $2 billion to 17 states that have unemployment rates higher than the national average for a year. They will use the money for programs to aid unemployed homeowners. Some of those states have already designed such programs.

Another $1 billion will go to a new program being run by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It will provide homeowners with emergency zero-interest rate loans of up to $50,000 for up to two years.

The administration was required to launch the HUD emergency loan program by the financial regulatory bill signed by President Barack Obama last month.

NEW YORK

Airline employment falls
as passenger traffic jumps

U.S. airlines have cut jobs for two straight years, the government said Wednesday, as accelerating layoffs and outsourcing sped up a downward slide that started in 2001.

The industry has now lost one of every four U.S. employees it had a decade ago -- before the last two recessions and the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics said the level of U.S. airline employment in June was the second lowest in 20 years. In that same time period, annual passenger traffic has jumped about 65 percent.

Job losses at U.S. airlines have picked up since 2008 because the recession forced carriers to cut thousands of jobs here and ship more overseas. The industry has lost 54,000 jobs, or 16 percent of its work force, in the last two years.

Faced first with soaring fuel costs and then a slump in travel demand between 2007 and 2009, airlines dropped routes that weren't profitable. For passengers, there are fewer flights to choose from, so planes are more full. Diminishing staff and fuller flights are adding to the stress among flight attendants, pilots and other workers.