Business
Hard drives missing in utility case
BY BILL W. HORNADAY
Computer hard drives said to hold key evidence in a state investigation of alleged fraudulent natural gas pricing by Center-Point Energy Inc. and affiliates are missing from a law firm that represents the Houston-based utility. - Thursday, August 21, 2008
Utility testing monitor system
BY BILL W. HORNADAY
Oklahoma Gas & Electric is testing a home-based energy management system that, if successful, will be rolled out companywide, including to Fort Smith-area customers. - Thursday, August 21, 2008
U.K. panel: Break up airport firm
BY STEVE ROTHWELL BLOOMBERG NEWS
BAA Ltd., the owner of Heathrow Airport, provides poor service and has failed to plan for extra capacity, the U.K. Competition Commission said Wednesday, recommending the company be stripped of London’s Gatwick and Stansted airports and either Glasgow or Edinburgh airport in Scotland. - Thursday, August 21, 2008
Fed chief likely faces forum hot seat
BY JEANNINE AVERSA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Thrust into the role of financial firefighter, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has taken unprecedented steps over the past year to battle the nation’s worst credit and financial crises in decades. - Thursday, August 21, 2008
Bailouts hinge on rollover of debts
BY DAWN KOPECKI BLOOMBERG NEWS
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s success in repaying $223 billion of bonds due by the end of the quarter stands to be the determining factor in whether they avoid a federal bailout. - Thursday, August 21, 2008
MARKET REPORT : Dow rises 68.88 after bumpy ride
BY TIM PARADIS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Wall Street scored a moderate gain after a volatile session Wednesday that saw the major indexes ratchet up and down on the seesawing price of oil and mixed feelings about the financial sector. - Thursday, August 21, 2008
Mortgage plan set for IndyMac borrowers
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Troubled home borrowers with loans from IndyMac Federal Bank can switch to fixed-rate mortgages under a new plan from federal regulators, who seized the bank last month after it became the largest regulated savings and loan to fail. - Thursday, August 21, 2008
AERT reports widened loss
BY LAURIE WHALEN
Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies Inc. reported a widened second-quarter net loss Tuesday, blaming the poor performance on $6.6 million of payments for legal transactions, regulatory compliance and debt service. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Hospital accord expected in days
BY LAURIE WHALEN
SILOAM SPRINGS — An agreement between the city and Community Health Services to finance a $35 million hospital to be built in the next three years will be signed by the end of the week, a city official said Tuesday. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Target’s quarterly profit off 7.6%
BY ANNE D’INNOCENZIO THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Target Corp. posted a 7.6 percent drop in second-quarter profit Tuesday and offered a cautious outlook for the third quarter as its customers focused on necessities and had trouble making their monthly credit card payments. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Bailout worries extend mortgage giants’ drop
BY ALAN ZIBEL THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Whether or not the government is actually on the verge of taking over mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, investor fears that a bailout is imminent could turn such a worst-case scenario into reality. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Crude jumps past $114 after dollar weakens against euro, heating oil rallies
BY STEVENSON JACOBS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Oil prices rebounded Tuesday, jumping back above $114 barrel after the dollar weakened against the euro and a rally in heating oil pulled new buyers into energy markets. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
MARKET REPORT : Economic doldrums drain market
BY MADLEN READ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Wall Street fell sharply for a second straight session Tuesday after a hefty jump in wholesale inflation and a drop in new-home construction gave investors more reason to believe an economic recovery is far off. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Earnings report
Companies reporting quarterly earnings Tuesday include: Cargill Inc., the second-largest privately held U.S. company, a profit of $1.05 billion, up from $628 million a year ago. Revenue for the full year rose 36 percent to $120.4 billion. The company does not have public shareholders and releases limited financial information. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Report sinks mortgage giants’ shares
BY DAWN KOPECKI BLOOMBERG NEWS
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tumbled to about 18-year lows in New York trading Monday on concern the government will be forced to bail out the mortgagefinance companies, wiping out common stockholders. - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Century deal in state not in cards
BY DAVID SMITH
Truman Arnold never seriously considered selling his 13-year-old, $1.5 billion Century Bancshares Inc. to an Arkansas bank, the Texarkana, Texas, businessman said Monday. - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Builder confidence stuck at low
BY BOB WILLIS BLOOMBERG NEWS
Conf idence among U.S. homebuilders was unchanged in August at a record low, signaling there is no relief in sight from the worst housing slump in a quarter century. - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
3 firms set to team on unloading oil in Gulf
BY JOHN PORRETTO THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOUSTON — Three companies plan to build an oil terminal and pipeline network off the Texas Gulf Coast capable of handling nearly 20 percent of the nation’s daily imported oil. - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Buyers’ satisfaction with U.S. cars falls
BY DAN STRUMPF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — U.S. car buyers are growing less satisfied with their purchases from domestic automakers while their Asian and European competitors continue to improve, according to a recent survey. - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
EA seen backing off hostile bid for maker of Grand Theft Auto
BY BARBARA ORTUTAY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Video-game publisher Electronic Arts Inc. is retracting its hostile bid for smaller rival Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., but a deal — and a friendly one at that — is likelier than ever. - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
MARKET REPORT : Mortgage worries weigh on stocks
BY TIM PARADIS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Wall Street retreated Monday after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fell to their lowest levels in nearly 20 years on concerns that the government might need to bail out the mortgage financiers. - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Automakers survey
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The American Customer Satisfaction Index is a quarterly survey by the University of Michigan that measures customer satisfaction in various industries. The latest autoindustry survey, released today, questioned about 5,500 vehicle owners by telephone and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 points on individual manufacturers. The average score was 82 out of 100 points. Company-brand Score Toyota Motor Corp.-Lexus.......... 87 BMW AG.................................... 87 Toyota Motor Corp.-Toyota 86 Honda Motor Co......................... 86 General Motors Corp.-Buick 85 General Motors Corp.-Cadillac.. 85 General Motors Corp.-Saturn.... 85 Ford Motor Co.-Lincoln /Mercury 83 Hyundai Motor Co...................... 83 General Motors Corp.-GMC...... 83 Daimler AG-Mercedes-Benz...... 82 Nissan Motor Co. ....................... 82 Average-All Automakers............ 82 Volkswagen AG......................... 81 General Motors Corp.-Pontiac.. 80 Ford Motor Co.-Ford................. 80 Chrysler LLC-Chrysler........ - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Scientists’ materials turn light, disappear
BY JOHN JOHNSON JR. LOS ANGELES TIMES
Long the stuff of fantasy, practical invisibility shields have been brought a step closer to reality by researchers who say they have engineered materials that can hide an object by bending ordinary light like balloon animals at a circus. - Monday, August 18, 2008
T-Mobile to roll out smart phone using Google’s Android
BY LAURA M. HOLSON AND MIGUEL HELFT THE NEW YORK TIMES
T-Mobile will be the first carrier to offer a mobile phone powered by Google’s Android software, according to people briefed on the company’s plans. The phone will be made by HTC, one of the world’s largest makers of mobile phones, and it is expected to go on sale in the United States before Christmas, perhaps as early as October. - Monday, August 18, 2008
GM crew working feverishly on Volt
BY TOM KRISHER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Early versions of the Chevrolet Volt’s battery packs are powerful enough to run the high-stakes rechargeable car, but dozens of issues remain before General Motors Corp. can start selling the revolutionary vehicle in 2010 as planned. - Monday, August 18, 2008
TV on cell phones a sticky issue
BY PETER SVENSSON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Picture whipping out a cell phone and catching up with Lost or Jeopardy!, or watching the local TV news, all for free. - Monday, August 18, 2008
Toyota developing a plug-in gas hybrid
BY TOM KRISHER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — The man running much of Toyota Motor Corp.’s research on rechargeable electric vehicles says the company’s approach is the least costly way to get great mileage and performance in the near term. - Monday, August 18, 2008
Best Buy to stock hard-to-find iPhones
BY MICHELLE QUINN AND ALANA SEMUELS LOS ANGELES TIMES
The pending arrival of the iPhone 3G in Best Buy stores across the country signals that shortages of the Apple Inc. devices are easing, analysts say. - Monday, August 18, 2008
TECH SPOTLIGHT : Tiny PrintStik portable printer works with PC, BlackBerry; Nano headphones rock
MELISSA L. JONES
It’s the end of the summer and the start of school. Finally, things start to slow down. - Monday, August 18, 2008
ON COMPUTERS : E-mail shift to new account flagged man as spammer
BOB AND JOY SCHWABACH
After we wrote about using Gmail to filter out spam messages, we heard from Greg, a reader who was receiving a stunning 25,000 e-mail messages a month. Most of that was spam, of course. (According to Symantec, 78 percent of all email is spam.) Gmail has a great spam filter, so Greg transferred all his incoming e-mail to a Gmail account (they’re free). Almost immediately, his incoming spam dropped to near zero. Unfortunately, his outgoing mail also dropped to near zero. Greg is in the furniture business, and he started getting phone calls from angry customers asking why he hadn’t e- mailed them the information they requested. - Monday, August 18, 2008
