It's proving to be a good year for consumers who are fed up with being hit from all sides by spam - marketing messages they neither asked for nor want. The latest "leave me alone" tool to come our way are new regulations - effective from Wednesday - which make it compulsory for companies which send SMSes within South Africa to give consumers an easy opt-out. All you have to do is hit reply, enter the word "Stop" and then send. Standard SMS rates will apply. The regulations have been introduced by industry regulator the Wireless Applications Service Provider Association (Waspa), to spare consumers having to go through the process of lodging complaints on the Waspa website. .

Stop junk mail before it's garbage

Each year, more than 100 million trees are chopped up and 28 billion gallons of water are used to create the paper that goes into junk mail, according to the company GreenDimes. And Alameda County garbage officials estimate that 5 percent of the waste sent to landfills is junk mail.

You can go a long way toward reducing the amount of garbage you create by getting off the mailing lists used to send such unsolicited mail.

You can find a company to do the legwork for you. Companies like GreenDimes, www.greendimes.com, can notify all the mailing list companies in exchange for a fee -- about $36 a year for GreenDimes.

You can also do it yourself. You can get help by ordering a kit at www.stopjunkmail.org or call (877) 786-7927.

You should also write to request that your name is removed from mailing lists.

Restaurantpartner.com Provides Restaurants and Foodservice Professionals the Future to On-Demand Marketing Solutions

Restaurantpartner.com, a new membership based website launched June 25th, offers restaurants and foodservice professionals a one-of-a-kind, self serve marketing office and resource center.

The Restaurantpartner.com Marketing Office brings the power of a professional marketing department right to a member's computer. It allows members to create their own custom direct marketing campaigns through an online Direct Mail Center and Email Builder.

'ASR Records Adds to Team

'ASR Records formally announced the addition of Roxann Stout and Jahmal Brown to the label staff. Ms. Stout will direct and develop initiatives related to the label's Booking Department. Mr. Brown will provide the label with specialized Internet Technologies skills related to the label's online portal.

Roxann Stout will be working with qualified talent buyers toward booking 'ASR Records Artists at festivals and events worldwide. She is a trained musician, studying classical piano for 12 years, classical voice, and saxophone for 7 years. She was a state champion vocalist and won the Women's Federated Competition for 2 straight years. Her promise as a vocalist was so impressive that Ms. Stout was awarded a vocal scholarship from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston.

AlphaGraphics seeks investors to open stores in EP

Salt Lake City-based franchising company AlphaGraphics is in the midst of a major expansion effort and has its sights set on El Paso.

The company, which provides marketing and visual communications solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses, plans to open its first El Paso location in the next six months to a year, said Art Coley, senior director of franchise development.

The company hopes to have three to four El Paso stores, all of which will be franchises, within three years, he added.

"The shortest and simplest way (to describe us) is we are a solution provider," Coley said. "We provide marketing and visual communications for small- and medium-sized businesses. What does that mean? Everything from Web sites, e-mail campaigns, direct mailing, printing services for business cards and letterheads.

Watch List (July 15-21): More Aggressive Loans, More Defaults

In this week's issue we report: that commercial loan defaults should start increasing soon; that the outlook for subprime backed bonds has also turned decidedly negative; and update you on the mounting cost of the alleged fraudulent Penland project in North Carolina and the forced bankruptcy of an office campus owner in Philadelphia. Plus we give you news you'll find only here and the latest facility closures, mass layoffs and properties on The Watch List. Office Loan Defaults Likely To Rise Loan defaults for U.S. CMBS are likely to begin ticking up as deals issued over the last few years contain larger concentrations of interest-only (IO) loans and loans with a higher amount of debt, according to the latest CMBS loan default study by Fitch Ratings. Though CMBS loan defaults fell 15% by balance last year to $1.57 billion, cumulative CMBS loan defaults increased to $13 billion (3.29% of Fitch's default study universe).