In the mood to stitch a perfect game?
Itchin’ to stitch while others pitch? On Saturday, the Colorado Rockies will hold their second annual Stitch N’ Pitch event where hundreds of fans sit together in the stands and knit, crochet and embroider while catching a ballgame. It’s not just the Rockies that hold such an event. The National Needlearts Association says that 75 percent of Major League Baseball sponsors a Stitch N’ Pitch day.
“With over a million hits to in its first few months, we knew this program was going to be something special,” said the association’s executive director, Patty Parrish, in a statement.
The Rockies play the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday. For Stitch N’ Pitch tickets, which cost $19 for upper-level seating, call 303-312-2224.
State’s jobless rate falls a tad in June
Colorado’s unemployment rate dipped one-tenth of a percentage point to 3.5 percent in June as the labor market remained largely unchanged, state labor economists said.
During the first half of the year, the economy has been stable, with the jobless rate ranging from 3.5 percent to 4.1 percent, said Donald Mares, executive director of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
The national unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in June, unchanged from May.
Frontier to scratch Denver-Reno flights
Frontier Airlines is discontinuing its daily flights between Denver and Reno, Nev., effective Sept. 5.
“We’ve been there a long time trying to make it work,” said Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas. “We just couldn’t get the traction and profitability that we needed.”
Denver-based Frontier flies the route with an Airbus A319 plane. Hodas said Frontier is changing its business model, slowing down growth with its Airbus planes and expanding its flights on shorter routes with regional jets and Q400 turboprop planes.
Whole new deadline for Whole Foods buy
Whole Foods Market Inc., the largest U.S. natural-foods grocer, extended its tender offer for shares of Boulder-based Wild Oats Markets Inc. for a fifth time after U.S. regulators moved to block the planned acquisition.
The new deadline is Aug. 10. As of Thursday, 57 percent of Wild Oats shares had been tendered and not withdrawn, Whole Foods said in a statement. The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit last month to stop the purchase on antitrust concerns.
Whole Foods agreed in February to buy Wild Oats for $565 million. The FTC claims the combination of the two biggest grocers for natural and organic foods would control too much of that market and reduce competition.
First Data buyout continues on track
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.’s $26 billion acquisition of First Data Corp. is on track to close in the third quarter, the head of the money transaction processing company said.
First Data obtained committed bridge financing for debt and equity portions of the transaction and most of the required regulatory approvals, said Ric Duques, chairman and chief executive officer.
“The few remaining regulatory approvals are progressing smoothly, and we do not anticipate any of them will delay our closing beyond the third quarter,” he said.
Shareholders will vote July 31 in New York on the proposed sale to an affiliate of the privately held equity firm. KKR has offered $34 a share, a premium of about 26 percent over First Data’s closing price on March 30.
