Category: Business

By Nathan Bomey, Detroit Free Press – DETROIT — Consumers bought new vehicles in August at the strongest clip in more than four years — the most convincing evidence yet that the industry’s…

By Claudia Buck, The Sacramento Bee – When it comes to managing our money, we’ve all got questions. This week, Walt Romatowski, a certified financial planner with Castellan Financial Advisors in Roseville, Calif.,…

By Jessica Guynn, Los Angeles Times – SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook shares scraped a new low Tuesday. The new drag on the already leaden stock: Analysts from two of Facebook’s largest underwriters on…

By Richard Burnett, Orlando Sentinel – ORLANDO, Fla. — As Europe’s debt crisis reached a boil earlier this year, John Began jettisoned his investments in stock funds with foreign holdings. The 77-year-old retiree,…

By Gregory Karp, Chicago Tribune – CHICAGO — After decades of relatively little change, aircraft cabins in the United States are undergoing a renaissance that promises to make the flying experience more…

By Steve Alexander, Star Tribune (Minneapolis) – MINNEAPOLIS — To keep up with the times, companies are allowing their employees to use personal smartphones and tablet computers at work. But the trend, called…

By Tony Pugh, McClatchy Newspapers – WASHINGTON — Two weeks after Allen Black bought a brand-new Nissan Altima, his coal mining job at Booth Energy in Martin County, Ky. was abruptly eliminated….

By Bonnie Miller Rubin, Chicago Tribune – CHICAGO — Ken Waltz works at Alexian Brothers Health System and can’t remember the last time he took a day off. He’s not a physician…

Larry Peterson, Creston News Advertiser, Iowa – Last weekend’s rainfall exceeding one inch was a drop in the bucket, literally, compared to what’s needed to salvage the effects of the drought of 2012…

By Gail MarksJarvis, Chicago Tribune – After leaving employees to fend for themselves with retirement savings plans in the 2008 financial crisis, companies are now giving employees extra money to stash away for…

Diane Heldt, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa – Former Republican presidential hopeful and businessman Steve Forbes will speak at the University of Iowa Sept. 12. The UI’s John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center will…

By Don Lee, Tribune Washington Bureau – WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke gave a spirited defense of Fed policies and left little doubt that the central bank was preparing new…

By Gregory Karp, Chicago Tribune – Older children want fancy cellphones, vehicles to get around and the latest video games and consoles. And, no doubt, some will want the new LeBron James basketball…

By Nathan Bomey, Detroit Free Press – After General Motors closed its Janesville, Wis. plant more than three years ago, Jim Milbrandt didn’t blame Barack Obama, Paul Ryan or any other politician. Milbrandt,…

By Andrew Tangel, Los Angeles Times – NEW YORK — Wall Street investors aren’t the only ones feeling the sting of Facebook Inc.’s falling stock: So are some of the country’s troubled government…

By Marc Lifsher, Andrea Chang and Ricardo Lopez, Los Angeles Times – The California tax man cometh, and he’s headed for the Internet. State tax collectors are preparing to crack down on renegade…

By David Undercoffler, Los Angeles Times – Cadillac’s all-new flagship sedan, the XTS, is apparently a little confused about the difference between intern and interim. You and I both know that someone in…

By Kirk Ladendorf, Austin American-Statesman – AUSTIN, Texas — Dell Inc.’s journey toward business transformation has run into a rough stretch of road. The Round Rock, Texas-based computer maker is shrinking this…

By Claudia Buck, The Sacramento Bee – “Hi to you my lovely facebook friend’s this is my New account now i got a Trojan virus on the other account so that why…

By Brandon Bailey, San Jose Mercury News – SAN JOSE, Calif. — Score this round in the battle for world domination: Apple 1, Google 0. While Apple won a billion-dollar jury verdict…

By Brandon Bailey, San Jose Mercury News – SAN JOSE, Calif. — Even as their company has lost nearly half its market value, Facebook executives have had little to say in public…

By Shan Li, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — Shoppers hit the malls for back-to-school shopping in August and handed retailers a healthy boost despite continued worries about the job market…

By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times – WASHINGTON — The nation’s largest banks have provided nearly 140,000 homeowners with a total of $10.6 billion in relief under a $25 billion national settlement…

By Gregory Karp, Chicago Tribune – CHICAGO — BP has released information on which Midwest service stations sold recalled gasoline that left thousands of motorists with hefty auto-repair bills during the past…

By Andrew Tangel, Los Angeles Times – Don’t look for them on bus benches or in the Yellow Pages, but hedge funds soon could be running ads. For more than 30 years,…

By Don Lee, Los Angeles Times – WASHINGTON — The government said U.S. economic growth in the second quarter was a little better than previously thought, but it didn’t change the overall…

By Eileen Ambrose, The Baltimore Sun – Baltimore police arrested five people last week accused of impersonating city tax collectors and going to the homes of elderly residents to rob them. These…

By Salvador Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — NASA is relying on a small team of engineers at its Ames Research Center at California’s Moffett Field to develop three nanosatellites…

Americans urged to make lifelong commitment on Sept. 19 IOWA, AUG. 15, 2012 — Wireless provider AT&T*, seeking to bring attention to a serious road-safety problem, today urged all Americans to pledge…

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) today announced that the City of Coralville received $750,000 from the U.S. Department of Transportation to construct a portion of the Intermodal Transportation Facility. This…

By Ely Portillo, The Charlotte Observer – CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Nothing draws shoppers quite like a sale. That’s what Mooresville, N.C.-based Lowe’s Cos. and some other major retailers have discovered, as they…

By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times – WASHINGTON — The ads promised that if you used the Ab Circle Pro machine just three minutes a day, you’d lose weight fast. But the…

By Nathan Bomey, Detroit Free Press – DETROIT — General Motors received a credit rating upgrade from one of the three major ratings agencies Friday in a vote of confidence that the…

By Howard Mintz, San Jose Mercury News – SAN JOSE, Calif. — In a verdict that would have warmed the heart of late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, a federal jury on Friday…

Adam Harringa, Austin Daily Herald, Minn. – OSHA has slapped Quality Pork Processors in Austin with three safety violations. The violations, which the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration has deemed “serious,”…

By Hajime Yamagishi, The Yomiuri Shimbun – SAO PAULO — Toyota Motor Corp. is scheduled to launch production in September of locally assembled small vehicles at a new factory in Brazil as…

Adam Harringa, Austin Daily Herald, Minn. – Despite a major drought and high grain prices this summer, Hormel Foods Corp. reported a huge increase in third quarter earnings. Hormel claimed Thursday morning…

By David Lazarus, Los Angeles Times – Amid all the chatter about whether Paul D. Ryan’s proposed changes would, as Democrats say, “end Medicare as we know it,” one group has been…

By Janet I. Tu, The Seattle Times – SEATTLE — For the first time in 25 years, Microsoft Corp. is changing its corporate logo. Microsoft, which has used its solid, boldfaced, italicized…

By Jessica Guynn, Los Angeles Times – SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook has rolled out new iPhone and iPad apps rebuilt from the bottom up in a drive to boost speeds and give…