IN BRIEF
Hard Rock Hotel taps M Resort executive as new president
M Resort executive Joseph Magliarditi has been selected as president and chief executive officer of the Hard Rock Hotel, Morgans Hotel Group announced Tuesday.
Magliarditi, M Resort's chief operating officer, has been with the hotel-casino since the property's opening in March 2009. He also served as an executive with the Marnell Sher Gaming company, which operates hotel-casinos in Laughlin and Pahrump.
Magliarditi replaces Randy Kwasniewski, who was found dead in his Summerlin home March 9 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
In a statement, Hard Rock officials said Magliarditi brings more than 16 years of hotel and gaming experience to the resort.
"I am excited to join the Morgans Hotel Group and Hard Rock teams," Magliarditi said in a statement.
Before joining M Resort and Marnell Sher Gaming, Magliarditi was chief operating officer of a software company. In gaming, Magliarditi was an executive with Harrah's Entertainment and the Rio.
Harrah's Entertainment chief's pay falls drastically in 2009
The chief executive of casino operator Harrah's Entertainment Inc. was paid $5.97 million in 2009, less than one-sixth as much as the $39.6 million he made in 2008.
An Associated Press calculation based on a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday shows that privately held Harrah's CEO, Gary Loveman, received salary of $1.9 million, a $3 million cash bonus and just more than $1 million in perks in 2009.
He got no stock or options, which made up more than $36 million of his pay in 2008.
The AP calculation aims to isolate the value company boards place on CEOs' total compensation. It includes salary, bonus, incentives, perks and the estimated value of stock options and awards at the time they are granted.
NEW YORK
Consumer confidence rises for third straight month in May
Americans' confidence in the economy rose in May for the third straight month, fueled by growing optimism about future job prospects.
The Conference Board, based in New York, said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index rose to 63.3, up from a revised 57.7 reading in April. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected 59.
The increase was boosted by consumers' outlook over the next six months, one component of the index, which soared to 85.3 from 77.4, the highest seen since it reached 89.2 in August 2007, before the economy entered in a recession.
The index -- which measures how consumers feel about business conditions, the job market and the next six months -- has been recovering fitfully since hitting an all-time low of 25.3 in February 2009.
A reading above 90 signals the economy is on solid footing; above 100 signals strong growth.
NEW YORK
Data: Home prices 0.5 percent lower in March than February
Tax credits and historically low mortgage rates have failed to lift home prices so far this year. Prices fell 0.5 percent in March from February, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city index released Tuesday.
Prices in 13 of the 20 cities tracked by the index fell. Only six metro areas recorded price gains. One, Boston, came in flat.
Las Vegas was the only city to still post a double-digit annual rate of decline at the end of March 2010. San Diego, in contrast, has had 11 consecutive months of increasing home prices.
In the first quarter of 2010, U.S. home prices fell 3.2 percent compared with the fourth quarter.
