10/09/02

Four northern Ohio members of Congress have joined with the consumer watchdog group Ohio Citizen Action in urging FirstEnergy Corp. to investigate whether converting the Davis-Besse nuclear power station to coal or oil would be feasible. Democratic U.S. Reps. Dennis Kucinich and Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Cleveland, Rep. Sherrod Brown of Lorain and Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Toledo have written to the company. FirstEnergy spokesman Ralph DiNicola said the utility is focused on repairing and restarting the plant near Toledo as a nuclear facility early next year. Davis-Besse has been shut down since February.

ACCOUNTING

Creative Financial

buys part of firm

Creative Financial Staffing of Northeastern Ohio Ltd., an affiliate of Canton accounting firm Bruner-Cox LLP, has acquired for undisclosed terms the Cuyahoga County territory of the Independence office of accounting firm Crowe, Chizek and Co. LLP. Creative Financial is a temporary- and permanent-placement service for financial professionals, such as certified public accountants. The placement service initially partnered with Crowe Chizek to open its first office in South Bend, Ind., in 1994. The service partnered with Bruner-Cox in 1996.

REAL ESTATE

Boykin sets price

on depositary shares

Boykin Lodging Co. has priced a public offering of $45 million of depositary shares. Each depositary share represents a tenth fractional interest in a share of the company's 10½ percent Cumulative Preferred Shares, series 2002-A. The sales price is $25 per depositary share. Annual dividends on the depositary shares will be fixed at $2.625 per share and will be payable quarterly. The proceeds of the offering will be used to repay existing debt. Boykin is a Cleveland-based real estate investment trust.

SOFTWARE

CardinalCommerce

expands in Europe

CardinalCommerce Corp. in Mentor is part of a consortium of software makers that will provide online credit and debit card authentication to banks and retailers in Europe. CardinalCommerce is working with Safe3w Inc. in Israel and Worldwide Trust in Athens, Greece, to authenticate the identities of people who want to buy things from merchant customers of Delta Singular, the largest Visa and MasterCard processor in southeastern Europe. Separately, CardinalCommerce will provide its Cardinal Centinel authentication software to merchant customers of Innovative Merchant Solutions in Calabasas, Calif.

INTERNET

Washington ISP

enters Cleveland

A Washington-based high-speed Internet service provider announced yesterday that it has expanded its services in Cleveland. Speakeasy (www.speakeasy.net) established an advanced Network Access Point in the city, which should allow the company to offer faster broadband service, said Daniel Pickford, Speakeasy's director of network operations. The company serves businesses and high-end home consumers.