NATIONAL

SunTrust Banks to cut 2,400 jobs as part of restructuring

SunTrust Banks Inc., which announced a restructuring plan earlier this year, said it expects to eliminate about 2,400 jobs, or 7.2 percent of its work force, by the end of 2008.

Costs associated with the move will lead it to take a third-quarter pretax charge of $45 million, the bank said.

DVD UPGRADE Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. will offer next-generation DVDs in the HD DVD format and drop support for Blu-ray.

Monday's announcement affects the upcoming DVD releases of the blockbusters Shrek the Third and Transformers, along with movies distributed by Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films.

Movies directed by Steven Spielberg, however, will continue to be released in both formats.

WELLS FARGO PROBLEMS Service problems disabled ATMs and online accounts at Wells Fargo & Co. for at least 24 hours starting Sunday afternoon, leaving some customers of the nation's fifth-largest bank nationwide unable to get cash or use debit cards to pay for goods.

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo would not say how many customers or machines were affected but acknowledged that services were down throughout the company - from personal banking Web sites and ATMs to the processing of mortgage and student loans.

SKYPE OUTAGE A two-day outage that left millions of Skype users unable to use the popular Internet phone service was caused by an abnormally high number of restarts after people had downloaded a Windows security update, the company said Monday.

The worldwide outage, which began Thursday and ended Saturday, left millions of Skype users unable to log on to make phone calls or send instant messages.

PROMOTION Mark Redmiles, a lawyer who spent more than a decade in Denver in private practice, has been named deputy director of the executive office for U.S. Trustees. Redmiles served as chief of the U.S. Trustee program's civil enforcement unit.

LOCAL

Couple earmarks $1.6 million for CU art museum

Don and Karen Ringsby have earmarked $1.6 million of their $2.4 million charitable remainder trust to benefit the University of Colorado Art Museum, museum officials announced Monday. It is the largest endowed donation the museum has ever received and will help support exhibitions, collections and programming.

PLANE SWITCH Frontier Airlines will switch to its new turboprop planes on most of its routes between Denver and Albuquerque.

Frontier's subsidiary Lynx Aviation will operate the flights starting Oct. 24, according to the carrier's Web site. Lynx will fly four daily round-trip flights between the destinations.

Frontier also will fly a larger Airbus 318 on one round-trip flight each day. Frontier has announced that Lynx also will fly to cities in Montana, Kansas, Iowa and South Dakota.

BOLO BOUGHT Denver-based Bolo Systems, a provider of financial, land and production accounting services for the oil and gas industry, has been purchased by WellPoint Systems, Inc., a publicly traded Canadian company.

ECONOMY

Economic gauge increases

A closely watched gauge of future economic activity edged up in July, reversing the previous month's decline.

The recent erratic pattern reflects uncertainty in a U.S. economy roiled by a credit crunch.

The Conference Board said Monday its index of leading economic indicators rose 0.4 percent in July, as analysts were expecting.

The index fell 0.3 percent in June, after rising 0.2 percent in May.

The report is designed to forecast economic activity during the next three to six months.

The index has bounced up and down the past few months, with offsetting gains and drops suggesting that economic growth is likely to continue but likely at a slower pace.

Including the latest information, the cumulative change in the index over the past six months totals an increase of 0.1 percent.

THIS JUST IN...

• The Colorado Ethics in Business Alliance is accepting nominations for its 2008 CEBA Awards, which recognizes and celebrates organizations and individuals who exemplify excellence in ethics. Nominations will be accepted until Sept. 14 at cobusethics.org or by calling 303-283-6002.

• Jon Terry, managing broker of RealtyProfessionalsUSA. com, was named one of the "Top 50 Realtors on the Rise" by Real Estate magazine for his sales figures, innovative marketing strategies and community involvement.

• Steve Federico was named medical director of Denver Health's 12 Denver Public Schools-based Health Centers.

• Colorado Kayak Supply, headquartered in Buena Vista, was named 2007 Retailer of the Year at the 19th annual Canoe & Kayak Paddlesports Industry and Outdoor Retailer Awards ceremony held in Salt Lake City.

• Tanya Breeling was selected to serve as vice president of Denver-based Young Americans Bank.

• The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hired Jennifer Wells as employment coordinator at its regional office in Lakewood.

• Old Dominion Freight Line Inc. added Stanley Pohl as a district sales representative to its service center in Commerce City.

• The Littleton office of Brock and Co. Certified Public Accountants PC promoted Jonathan Wentzel to senior accountant.

• Colorado Public Radio received grants totaling $560,700 from the Colorado Health Foundation, the Sturm Family Foundation and American National Bank to support its commitment to deepening and extending local news coverage.

• UMB Bank Colorado named Ryan Chase as vice president and private banking client manager.

• KeyBank National Association, Colorado, added Tanya Dyjak as a private banker to the downtown Denver location.

• South Metro Obstetrics and Gynecology added Ann Granadillo to its medical practice.

• Starz Entertainment, headquartered in Douglas County, promoted Stephan Shelanski to executive vice president, programming.

• Richard B. Benenson has rejoined Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck as of counsel in the Denver office.

• Denver resident Bill Herr was appointed vice president of business development for Austin, Texas-based Direct Impact. Herr will remain based in Denver.

Rocky staff and wire reports

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