Business category, Page 268
Great Recession having effect on U.S. Christmas tree supplies this year
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Customers searching for the perfect Christmas tree typically glance at Sandy Parsons’ limited offerings, then keep walking. Parsons never got her order for 350 trees from a North Carolina farm. Supplies were short, she was told. Instead, she was shipped some smaller ones for her lot at...
Pound and stocks jump on U.K. election, talk of U.S.-China deal
BANGKOK — Stock markets and the British pound rose Friday after Britain’s Conservative Party claimed a big win in the country’s general election, easing uncertainty over Brexit, and amid talk of a China-U.S. trade deal. The British pound jumped to $1.3470 from $1.3150 late Thursday but then eased back to...
Indoor lettuce growers find a wedge to market amid another E. coli outbreak
MINNEAPOLIS — The latest outbreak of E. coli in romaine lettuce has sickened more than 100 people nationwide and left others wondering if raw salad is safe. As food-safety investigators clear the vegetable aisle of contaminated lettuce, authorities provided more guidance on how to shop for safer product. Consumers should...
U.S., China near deal that would suspend planned tariffsVideo
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration and China are close to finalizing a modest trade agreement that would suspend tariffs that are set to kick in Sunday, de-escalating their 17-month trade war. “We’re close to a deal,” said Myron Brilliant, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s head of international affairs, who has...
Southwest Airlines to share $125M from Boeing settlement with workers
DALLAS — Southwest Airlines will share about $125 million from a Boeing settlement with its workers. The Dallas carrier has been among the hardest hit by the grounding of Boeing’s Max 737 airplanes in March after a pair of deadly crashes. Without the planes, Southwest has said that it will...
Cheerios changes shape for new marketing campaign
MINNEAPOLIS — Out with the “O” and in with the heart. General Mills is replacing the most recognizable shape in the cereal kingdom, the Cheerios’ “O”, with heart-shaped pieces. It’s all a part of the food maker’s ongoing marketing campaign that claims its whole-grain cereals can be good for heart...
Facebook, Google drop out of top 10 ‘best places to work’ list
SAN FRANCISCO — Big tech companies such as Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, long seen as some of the world’s most desirable workplaces offering countless perks and employee benefits, are losing some of their shine. The Silicon Valley companies dropped out of the Top 10 “best places to work”...
S&T Bank branches will open in Philadelphia’s western suburbs in 2020
The S&T Bank purchase of DNB First, which closed last week, will result in 14 new S&T branch offices opening in southeastern Pennsylvania early in 2020, according to the state Department of Banking and Securities. Indiana-based S&T Bancorp Inc., the holding company for S&T Bank, received the necessary regulatory approval...
Fed leaves low rates alone and foresees no moves in 2020
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate alone Wednesday and signaled that it expects to keep low rates unchanged through next year. The Fed’s decision follows three rate cuts earlier this year. It reflects its view that the U.S. economy has so far withstood the U.S.-China trade...
Exxon Mobil prevails in lawsuit over climate regulations
NEW YORK — Exxon Mobil won Tuesday in a closely watched lawsuit over the costs of climate change, with a judge saying there was no proof the energy giant duped investors about the toll that regulations could take on its business. New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office didn’t prove...
U of Phoenix agrees to $50M settlement over false ad claims
The University of Phoenix and its parent company have agreed to pay $50 million in cash and cancel $141 million in student debt to settle allegations of deceptive advertisement brought by the Federal Trade Commission. The deal, announced Tuesday, settles a dispute over an ad campaign the for-profit college unrolled...
Ex-Fed Chair Volcker dies, tamed inflation with recession
Paul Volcker, who as Federal Reserve chairman in the early 1980s elevated interest rates to historic highs and triggered a recession as the price of quashing double-digit inflation, has died, according to his office. He was 92. Volcker took charge of the Fed in August 1979, when the U.S. economy...
Fed is likely to reinforce a message of continued low rates
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve is expected to send a clear message when its latest policy meeting ends Wednesday: Interest rates will likely stay ultra-low for the foreseeable future. Behind that message is a view that has gained support at the Fed as the U.S. economic expansion has entered a...
Oakmont food truck looks to small loans for big expansion
An Oakmont food truck seeking to make the leap to a full restaurant and bar isn’t going about raising money for the jump in the traditional fashion. Ken Shields, a full-time IT worker and grilling hobbyist who founded the Oakmont Barbeque Company food truck, could go to a bank or...
FAA seeks to fine Boeing $3.9 million for faulty jet parts
Safety regulators want to fine Boeing $3.9 million, saying that the company installed wing parts on 133 planes even though it knew the parts were faulty. Boeing said Friday that all the affected planes in use have been inspected and fixed. A spokesman said the company is not aware of...
Jury: Elon Musk did not defame British caver in tweet
LOS ANGELES — Elon Musk defeated defamation allegations Friday from a British cave explorer who claimed he was branded a pedophile when the Tesla CEO called him “pedo guy” in an angry tweet. Vernon Unsworth, who participated in the rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped for weeks...
OPEC countries, Russia to cut oil output, pushing up prices
The OPEC oil-producing countries and ally Russia said Friday they have agreed to cut crude production, prompting a surge in global crude prices that they hope to sustain into next year. The group decided to cut output by an extra 500,000 barrels a day as they try to support the...
Amazon says delivery times back to normal after delays
NEW YORK — Amazon said Friday that it’s back to delivering its packages on time after bad weather and a rush of orders caused some delays earlier in the week. “We quickly rebalanced capacity and it’s all systems go now,” tweeted Amazon executive Dave Clark, who oversees Amazon’s warehouse and...
Ford recalls big pickups; tailgates can open unexpectedly
DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. is recalling nearly 262,000 heavy-duty pickup trucks in the U.S. and Canada because the tailgates can open unexpectedly. The recall covers F-250, F-350 and F-450 trucks from the 2017 through 2019 model years. All the trucks have electric tailgate latch release switches in the tailgate...
U.S. gains a robust 266,000 jobs; unemployment falls to 3.5%
WASHINGTON — Hiring in the United States jumped last month to its highest level since January as U.S. employers shrugged off trade conflicts and a global slowdown and added 266,000 jobs. The unemployment rate dipped to 3.5% from 3.6% in October, matching a half-century low, the Labor Department reported Friday....
Coffee so strong you can build car parts out of it
CHICAGO — McDonald’s coffee bean remnants are getting a second purpose in life in the form of car parts. Researchers from Ford, the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker, are using McDonald’s coffee chaff — the waste left over after the roasting process — to make headlamp housings and other auto components. Ford...
Uber reports more than 3,000 sexual assaults on 2018 rides
SAN FRANCISCO — More than 3,000 sexual assaults were reported during U.S. Uber rides in 2018, the company said in a long-awaited safety report. That figure includes 229 rapes across the company’s 1.3 billion rides. Uber noted that drivers and riders were both attacked, and that some assaults occurred between...
Pittsburgh woman to lead new nursing school at Grove City College
Janey A. Roach, a Pittsburgh native and former UPMC nursing director, has been named the first director of the new Charles Jr. and Betty Johnson School of Nursing at Grove City College. Roach, who has extensive experience as a nurse, educator and administrator, will oversee the college’s newest academic school...
State grants available to Pa. businesses looking for skilled workers
The state is making $4.6 million in grants available to Pennsylvania businesses that want to form partnerships to improve the quality of worker education and workforce development. The PAsmart Next Generation Industry Partnership Grant program is designed to address the state’s deficit in adequately trained workers in industries such as...
Google co-founders step down as execs of parent AlphabetVideo
SAN FRANCISCO — The co-founders of Google are stepping down as executives of its parent company, Alphabet, ending a remarkable two decades during which Larry Page and Sergey Brin shaped a startup born in a Silicon Valley garage into one of the largest, most powerful — and, increasingly, most feared...
