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The BlackBerry Torch isn’t setting the smartphone world ablaze.

Research In Motion and AT&T sold no more than 150,000 of the devices over the weekend, according to estimates by RBC Capital Markets and Stifel Nicolaus analysts. By comparison, Apple’s iPhone 4 sold 1.7 million units in its first weekend of sales.

The Torch, a touch-screen smartphone with a slide-out keyboard, went on sale Thursday for $199 with a new two-year contract, but Amazon.com (AMZN, Fortune 500) immediately slashed the price of the Torch in half to $100 (see correction below). That’s the same price Amazon is offering on the three-month old BlackBerry Bold 9650.

Wirefly, LetsTalk.com and other mobile phone outlets also are selling the Torch at a much steeper discount than other phones that just launched. For example, the Motorola Droid 2 (which also launched Thursday) goes for $150 on Amazon and Wirefly, while the back-ordered Droid X sells for $180 on each site. Each carries a list price of $199, just like the Torch.

RIM hailed the BlackBerry Torch as the "best BlackBerry ever" earlier this month, and it’s unquestionably the company’s most advanced smartphone. But AT&T (T, Fortune 500), the phone’s exclusive carrier, also offers Apple’s (AAPL, Fortune 500) iPhone. At the same $199 price point and the same data charges, customers would really have to love the new BlackBerry operating system and the Torch’s pull-out keyboard to choose a Torch over an iPhone.

Some analysts weren’t surprised by Amazon’s price chop and predicted that AT&T (T, Fortune 500) would likely follow suit.

"The device will ultimately have to sell in the marketplace side-by-side with Apple’s iPhone," Sanjiv Wadhwani, analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, said in a research note. "To sustain U.S. sell-through momentum into the November quarter, we believe the price of $199 on contract will have to fall."

RIM declined to comment cash till payday. "The Torch is a breakthrough device and we think businesses and consumers will love it," said Mark Siegel, a spokesman at AT&T.

The first BlackBerry to run RIM’s modernized operating system, BlackBerry OS 6, the Torch offers a full Web browser, as well as other features common on most of today’s smartphones like social networking integration, universal search and multiple home screens. It includes a 5 megapixel camera, built-in GPS, and video recording at up to 640×480 resolution.

That didn’t appear to be enough to wow too many customers. Wadhwani said that Torch buyers are mostly BlackBerry loyalists, smartphone customers who use e-mail more than any other application, and physical keyboard lovers. Though RIM said it is working hard to improve its app store, its offerings are still very slim compared to the iPhone or Google’s (GOOG, Fortune 500) Android phones.

"The new device will be more competitive in retaining at-risk enterprise customers and driving incremental opportunities in the rapidly expanding consumer market," he said.

That’s not exactly the "game changer" language that RIM and AT&T spouted a few weeks ago.

BlackBerry went through a similar ordeal with Verizon Wireless’ BlackBerry Storm and subsequent Storm 2. The Storm was RIM’s first try at a touch-screen, but without a physical keyboard, it never appealed to RIM’s core customers and failed to live up to the "iPhone killer" hype.

Shares of RIM (RIMM) fell more than 1% on Tuesday.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Amazon had cut the price of the Torch. The Torch has sold at $100 on Amazon since its launch last Thursday. 

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Daily parking in Honolulu is nearly $2 more than in downtown Manhattan, according to a survey out this week.

The median price of parking for one day in Honolulu is $32.75, ranking the city second on the list of most expensive cities in which to park.

Honolulu’s daily prices were more than the $31 median found in Manhattan but not as much as the wallet-crippling $40 forked over in New York City’s Midtown area.

The median monthly rate for an unreserved stall in Honolulu rose 4.7 percent, or $10, to $222.33 in the 12 months ending in June compared with the preceding year.

This year’s median monthly rate made downtown Honolulu the ninth most expensive area out of 44 major metropolitan markets surveyed by commercial real estate firm Colliers International no fax payday loans.

Midtown New York topped the list with a median rate of $538.

Nationwide, the average price for monthly parking was $161.56, up 1.1 percent year over year.

With the economic recovery unfolding in slow motion, parking rates are expected to show little change over the next 12 months, Colliers said. Rates are expected to trend upward beginning in the second half of 2011, however.

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As with fast payday loans, this recently used to be the case, but competitive lenders and higher demand has taken this loan type to mainstay levels.

A year ago, California dealt with its budget crisis by handing out hundreds of thousands of IOUs to contractors and taxpayers. This year, it’s threatening to cut state workers’ wages to the bone.

Most of California’s 240,000 state employees could see their salaries temporarily cut to the federal minimum wage because government officials can’t reach agreement on a new fiscal-year budget for the financially troubled state.

It’s the latest manifestation of state budget dysfunction, and workers have found themselves caught in the crossfire as the state’s Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, tussles with the Democrat-led legislature.

With no end in sight to the impasse, Schwarzenegger’s administration last week moved to to cut 200,000 state workers’ wages to $7.25 an hour unless a budget is reached soon.

The salary reductions would cut across all job types and pay scales — from a lifeguard who makes $16 an hour to an accountant who nets $6,000 a month. The average California state worker’s salary was $65,484 last year.

Affected workers would receive back pay when the budget is passed. But state employees have already gotten the short end of the stick. Some have been forced to accept furloughs that have decreased their salaries by an average of 14%.

To help close the $19.1 billion budget shortfall for the fiscal year that began July 1, Republican lawmakers have proposed severe cuts to state social services such as welfare and Medicare, instead of hiking taxes.

By contrast, Democrats oppose the program cuts and instead want tax increases on industries like oil production. They have also proposed a delay to some corporate tax breaks.

Workers will at least receive minimum wage thanks to a 2003 California Supreme Court ruling, which said the state can withhold salaries during budget impasses as long as it complies with federal law payday loans. (Read ‘Stimulus: The big bang is over.’)

Controller sues over cuts: State Controller John Chiang has refused to carry out the cuts, saying he would wait until he completes an appeal of another court’s ruling on a similar pay cut order from 2008.

Schwarzenegger’s office sued Chiang on Tuesday, seeking an injunction to force him to make the cuts. Chiang promptly filed a cross-complaint alleging the order violates federal and state law.

"Withholding pay from state employees until a budget is enacted does nothing to solve the budget deficit, but will only make it worse," Chiang’s office said in a separate statement. Chiang has also said the payroll computers aren’t equipped to make the pay cuts.

A spokesman for Schwarzenegger said that an appellate court ruling on Friday upheld a trial court’s decision that Chiang must enact the cuts. "That’s the law here, and despite several courts’ rulings, he’s still going to defy the law," the spokesman said.

The Service Employees International Union, the largest union of California state workers, said in a statement that the cuts will only add to the state’s budget crisis. The union claimed that it negotiated an agreement last year that would have saved the state some money, "but the governor walked away from that deal." 

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DunnhumbyUSA has promoted Chief Operating Officer Stuart Aitken to CEO, the company said Tuesday.

Aitken joined Dunnhumby in August 2009, replacing Simon Hay, who returned to the company’s parent corporation in London. He had previously been chief marketing officer for arts and craft retailer Michaels Stores Inc.

During Aitken’s tenure, Dunnhumby opened an office in New York, expanded its partnership with Macy’s Inc. and in partnership with Dunnhumby Canada, signed Canadian Tire as a client.

“Stuart’s keen sense of what matters most to customers is helping us strengthen our connection with our loyal shoppers,” said Don Becker, executive vice president for Kroger Co paydayloans. Cincinnati-based Kroger (NYSE: KR) is a part-owner of Dunnhumby USA and its largest client.

DunnhumbyUSA, headquartered downtown, has more than 350 employees and 2009 revenue of $190 million. The company is in the process of adding more than 150 new employees to its U.S. operations.

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A California appellate court on Friday backed the Schwarzenegger administration’s attempt to cut pay for 240,000 state workers to the federal minimum wage until a state budget is signed — but it doesn’t look like the order will take effect any time soon.

This is the second time the governor has attempted to take this action and state Controller John Chiang is balking again.

The ruling comes a day after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger again ordered the pay cut until this year’s budget is signed, but it’s unclear whether it will be implemented any time soon.

Friday’s ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed two years ago, when Schwarzenegger first attempted to cut state worker pay while lawmakers debated a budget fix. Chiang, who issues state checks, refused to comply with the order, citing the state’s outdated computer systems.

The administration sued and won at the trial court level, but Chiang appealed and the order was never implemented. The Third District Court of Appeal agreed with the trial court Friday.

“We … conclude the Department of Personnel Administration has the authority to direct the controller to defer salary payments in excess of federally-mandated minimum wages when appropriations for the salaries are lacking due to a budget impasse,” the ruling states check cash advance.

If the controller disagrees, he “may seek judicial resolution in court but may not simply disregard the DPA directive,” the appeals court concludes.

Chiang is going back to court, he said in a statement Friday.

“This is not a simple software problem. Reducing pay and then restoring it in a timely manner once a budget is enacted cannot be done without gross violations of law unless and until the state completes its overhaul of the state payroll system and payroll laws are changed,” he said in a news release.

“I will move quickly to ask the courts to definitively resolve the issue of whether our current payroll system is capable of complying with the minimum wage order in a way that protects taxpayers from billions of dollars in fine and penalties.”

The next step: The California Supreme Court.

Schwarzenegger has cited a 2003 state Supreme Court as grounds for the move, but Chiang argues it never addressed the feasibility issue.

“It would be highly unusual for the California Supreme Court to overturn its own decision,” countered Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear in a news release.

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Gasoline prices in Florida are expected to drop again this week as crude oil prices continue their downward trend for the third straight week amid concerns that Europe’s financial crisis will worsen, AAA said.

Crude oil closed Friday at $70.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In the past few weeks, the European crisis has pushed the value of the euro down 12 percent against the dollar and is one of the major factors that has caused the price of crude to decrease. At the same time, U.S. stockpiles of crude grew for the 15th week, AAA said.

“The possibility that Europe’s financial problems will slow global demand at a time when U.S. demand is already slow to rise has investors worried,” said Jessica Brady, manager of AAA public relations no credit check payday loans. “The lack of demand can be seen in the constant increase in U.S. stockpiles of crude that are now well above 362 million barrels.

“Lower retail gasoline prices are always welcomed by consumers, and they can expect to see just that as retail prices drop again this week.”

The national average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline is $2.80, while Florida’s average is $2.79, bothof which reflect a seven-cent decrease from last week.

In Orlando, a gallon of self-serve regular averages $2.70, down 9 cents from a week ago.

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Just before 3 p.m. ET Thursday, shares of Procter & Gamble appeared to have fallen 37%, helping trigger a massive 900-point sell-off in the Dow Jones industrial average.

The huge drop in P&G’s stock - reportedly from more than $60 to less than $40 - is widely believed to have been a trading glitch.

Several other stocks had huge drops in their price at that time as well, including Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500), Accenture (ACN), 3M (MMM, Fortune 500) and Oxford Industries (OXM).

At around 2:45 p.m. ET, P&G’s (PG, Fortune 500) stock had fallen 10% to $56 on the New York Stock Exchange, triggering a "circuit breaker." At that point, the NYSE slowed the trading of the stock for less than a minute. During that short time, other stock exchanges were allowed to trade P&G’s stock price on their own, instead of getting the price from NYSE.

According to Procter & Gamble and the NYSE, the Nasdaq stock exchange may have misprinted a quote of $39.37 a share. It is also possible that the electronic trades actually occurred, but they were made in error.

Late on Thursday Nasdaq said it had no technology or system issues associated with the trading that occurred between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m. ET.

But the exchange said that because it coordinates with other US Exchanges, "all trades executed between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m. ET greater than or less than 60%" of the stock price as of 2:40 p.m. ET or immediately prior to that time will be cancelled.

Procter & Gamble is a Dow component, and the reported 37% drop in P&G’s stock contributed 172 points to thedrop in the Dow.

"The market was down 400 points before we went into a slowdown," Lawrence Leibowitz, NYSE’s chief executive, told CNN. "A lot of the movement when the market went down 1,000 points was due to stocks trading at strange prices low fee pay day loans. Then it went all the way back up to where we started."

Leibowitz said that stocks are very thinly traded in such situations, which can lead to wild volatility.

That’s exactly what happened with Procter & Gamble and a handful of other stocks.

Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) traded down 22% to $199.25 before recovering.

Accenture (ACN) fell from $40.13 at 2:45 p.m. all the way to just 1 cent before quickly rising back to $39.57.

Oxford Industries (OXM) also tanked to $1.34 before soaring back to $19.51 a minute later.

3M (MMM, Fortune 500), a Dow component, momentarily fell $18.61. That 21.5% drop in 3M’s stock alone represented a 143-point decline in the Dow.

"I don’t know if it was a faulty trade," said Leibowitz. "We may find out that those trades were erroneous. A lot of times, those trades will get cancelled later on."

Procter & Gamble confirmed that the drop in its stock price was on the electronically traded Nasdaq exchange.

"Today’s low trade was $56," said Jennifer Chelune, spokeswoman for P&G in an e-mailed statement. "Any trade reported below that would have been on the Nasdaq and we’re looking into whether those were errors."

The SEC and CFTC said they "are working closely with the other financial regulators, as well as the exchanges, to review the unusual trading activity that took place briefly this afternoon. We are also working with the exchanges to take appropriate steps to protect investors pursuant to market rules."

The regulators said they will make their findings public along with recommendations for appropriate action.  

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With unemployment high and personal wealth diminished, how was it that strapped consumers were paying down their credit card debt last year?

It turns out they probably weren’t. The bulk of 2009’s drop in credit card debt instead came because banks were forced to write off loans consumers failed to pay, according to an analysis of Federal Reserve data instant credit report.

Loans are typically charged off by banks once they’re 180 days past due, under the assumption that the debt won’t be repaid.

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Knight Security Systems has won a contract with the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services to install security cameras at the San Antonio State Supported Living Center.

This is a home that cares for 300 mentally disabled people in San Antonio. The video cameras should help ensure residents are being kept safe.

The work is being done in San Antonio as part of a statewide contract between Aging and Disability Services and Houston-based Knight. In all, a total of 12 state-supported living centers will receive the company’s cameras.

The contract is worth $12 million.

Knight will install a total of 3,200 video cameras in 335 buildings.

Founded in 1983, Knight Security Systems has worked with more than 3,000 Texas customers since its inception.

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Salt River Project will build a 20-megawatt photovoltaic facility southeast of Phoenix that will come online in 2011.

The solar power station, to be built by Iberdrola Renewables, will be capable of powering about 4,500 homes.

SRP and Iberdrola have a partnership that extends to the Dry Lake Wind Farm, a 63-megawatt wind farm built on a combination of public and private land.

Mark Bonsall, SRP’s associate general manager for commercial and customer services, said the project is another step to bring renewable projects online.

"We are actively pursuing this project because it is not only good for SRP, but it is good for our customers and for the environment," said Bonsall. "We want to be in a position to offer our customers a new, lower-cost solar energy option by giving them the opportunity to purchase the green power directly from this solar facility payday loan companies. SRP will utilize whatever output may not be subscribed by our customers, if any."

Because it is a quasi-government entity, SRP is not required to meet the Arizona Corporation Commission’s requirement to have 15 percent of its power provided through alternative forms of energy by 2025. Still, SRP officials have said they intend to honor those standards.

The agreement will call for Iberdrola to own the power plant and sell the power to SRP, from which individual homeowners could buy into the deal.

The transaction is expected to go before the SRP Power Committee at its meeting in December and before SRP’s full board of directors in January 2010.

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