Faced with lurking dangers to the budding recovery, Federal Reserve policymakers are sure to leave a key interest rate at a record low to entice Americans to spend more and...

Oil prices fell slightly to near $79 a barrel Wednesday in Asia despite an unexpected drop in U.S. crude supplies which suggested demand may be picking up.Benchmark ...

Microsoft Corp. is giving its MSN Web portal a long-overdue makeover and says it hopes the new site will funnel more people to Bing, the software maker's search engine....

U.S. retail sales figures from a key data service show signs of a rebound in October from last year's plunge.SpendingPulse, a service of MasterCard Advisors, reports...

Ranchers who live along the route of a crude oil pipeline that TransCanada Keystone wants to build across western South Dakota said Tuesday they are worried about oil spill...

Canada's largest circulation daily has launched what its publisher said will likely be the biggest restructuring in the newspaper's history by offering voluntary buyouts to...

CBS Corp., the broadcast network controlled by Sumner Redstone, reports its third-quarter earnings Thursday. The following is a summary of key developments and analyst opin...

Some semiconductor stocks finished lower Tuesday after a Morgan Stanley analyst downgraded the sector and individual stocks including Intel Corp. on a prediction that a boo...

Alaska Air Group Inc. said Tuesday that its planes were fuller in October as passenger traffic rose 3 percent at its Alaska Airlines unit while the carrier trimmed availabl...

Pizza chain Papa John's International Inc. said Tuesday that its third-quarter profit rose 52 percent as lower sales were offset by a gain on consolidating the results of f...

What goes well with Slim Jims and Slurpees? 7-Eleven wine, naturally.The convenience store chain announced Tuesday it is getting into the value wine business, releas...

China's planning agency has approved plans for a Disney theme park in Shanghai, the Walt Disney Co. said Wednesday, a major step toward setting a deal for the long awaited ...

T-Mobile USA Inc. said about 5 percent of its subscribers are still having problems with its phone and data services as of Tuesday evening.The wireless carrier said ...

As the recession took a toll on many companies, many shoppers moved to private label or store brand products to save money. The trend had some food companies worried and th...

Kraft Foods Inc. is still interested in acquiring Cadbury PLC but plans to deliver solid results with or without the British candy maker, Kraft said Tuesday.Kraft ha...

AT&T Inc. is suing Verizon Wireless over its competitor's "There's a Map for That" commercials, saying in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that the ads are misleading and amount...

Tw telecom inc., formerly Time Warner Telecom, said Tuesday that it turned a profit in the third quarter, reversing a year-ago loss, but warned that turnover among smaller ...

T-Mobile subscribers are having problems sending text messages and receiving phone calls.David Beigie, a T-Mobile spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement that the c...

Shares of Pacer International Inc. jumped nearly 20 percent in Tuesday aftermarket trading after the logistics services provider said it has resolved a dispute with Union P...

Overstock.com Inc. said on Tuesday that it lost $787,000 in the third quarter, about half the size of its loss during the same period a year earlier.The online retai...

Discovery Communications Inc. said Tuesday that its net income for the third quarter fell 29 percent as an increase in operating costs offset a slight uptick in revenue for...

Crown Castle International Corp., which owns and operates cell phone towers, on Tuesday reported a third-quarter loss roughly flat with year-ago results, as higher sales fa...

Natural gas distributor El Paso Corp. on Tuesday posted an 87 percent plunge in third-quarter profit, hurt by lower natural gas.The company also announced cost-cutti...

Automakers released October U.S. sales figures Thursday. These were the top-selling vehicles, as well as the total number sold and the percent change in sales from October ...

Big 5 Sporting Goods Corp. said Tuesday its profit rose 80 percent in the third quarter as sales climbed and it better managed inventory.The company's stock jumped 6...

Stec Inc. reported a 20-fold increase in third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, as a sharp rise in revenue boosted the bottom line.But the maker of data storage devices ...

Honda Motor Co. says it has begun mass production in Ohio of its new crossover utility vehicle.The automaker says the 2010 Honda Accord Crosstour began rolling off t...

Inpatient rehabilitation services provider HealthSouth Corp. posted a greater third-quarter profit on Tuesday, and raised its expectations for the remainder of the year.Jury awards $20 million in Texas hotel tax dispute

A group of online travel services companies plans to appeal a $20 million verdict awarded to more than 170 Texas cities in a dispute over hotel occupancy taxes.The 2...

NTELOS Holdings Corp.'s board on Tuesday raised its quarterly dividend by 8 percent to 28 cents per share.The new dividend is payable Jan. 12, 2010, to shareholders ...

Natural gas producer El Paso Corp. on Tuesday slashed its dividend and announced several other measures to save or raise cash.The company said its quarterly dividend...

AT&T Inc. is suing Verizon Wireless over its competitor's "There's a Map for That" commercials.AT&T filed the suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern Di...

Digital River Inc., which offers help with online sales technology, forecast fourth-quarter earnings below analysts' expectations and said it is still evaluating the impact...

Digital River Inc., which helps companies sell stuff on the Internet, said Tuesday that third-quarter profit fell and it was still figuring out a response to the loss of a ...

The owners of Philadelphia's two major dailies are waging a late-stage battle to keep the newspapers from creditors in a looming bankruptcy auction.Under a key rulin...

American Tower Corp., one of the nation's largest owner of cell phone towers, on Tuesday said net income for the third quarter rose 11 percent on the back of strong growth ...

General Motors Co. said Tuesday it will keep its European Opel unit and restructure it instead of selling a 55 percent stake to Canadian auto parts maker Magna Internationa...

The following stocks were among those that moved substantially or traded heavily Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange:NYSE:Burlington Northern Santa Fe, up ...

Buffett's big bet: $34B on 2nd-largest railroadNEW YORK (AP) — The biggest name in investing is making what he calls an "all-in wager" on the U.S. economy — $34 ...

...

Workers at the Hawaiiana Hotel in Waikiki were recently informed of the hotel's foreclosure, bankruptcy and sale.General manager Lisa Hookano-Holly says she knows no...

Jeans maker True Religion Apparel Inc. said Tuesday profit fell in the third quarter even as sales rose, in part because year-earlier results were boosted by tax gains....

Mazda North American Operations said Tuesday its October U.S. sales fell as demand declined for its Mazda5 and Mazda6 models.BY THE NUMBERS: Mazda sales fell 8.4 per...

...

Treasury prices continued to drop Tuesday as stocks reversed early losses. Trading was cautious ahead of announcements from the Federal Reserve on interest rates and detail...

The legal war between former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean and pageant organizers is over.A joint statement released Tuesday says Prejean and the organizers of ...

Kia Motors America said Tuesday its October U.S. sales rose on strong demand for its Kia Forte compact and Rio subcompact.BY THE NUMBERS: Kia sales rose 45.3 percent...

Wendy's/Arby's Group Inc. reports results for the third quarter on Thursday morning. The following is a summary of key developments and analyst opinion related to the perio...

The American Cancer Society cannot present witnesses to testify on the dangers of secondhand smoke in a trial that will determine whether South Dakota's smoking ban will be...

Employee benefits and disability insurance provider Unum Group said Tuesday its third-quarter profit more than doubled because its investments performed better than they di...

Starbucks Corp. reports its results for the third quarter Thursday afternoon. The following is a summary of key developments and analyst opinion related to the period.<...

Hyundai Motor America said Tuesday its October U.S. sales rose by nearly half, crediting market share gains and interest in its 2010 model year vehicles.BY THE NUMBE...

Lawsuits against two meat companies claim a Massachusetts girl and a Rhode Island boy were sickened by ground beef contaminated by E. coli bacteria.The lawsuits file...

Kraft Foods said Tuesday that slower sales, lower retail food prices and the comparison with a gain a year ago helped cut its third-quarter profit 40 percent, but the compa...

...

The Honolulu Board of Realtors reports sales of existing single-family homes and condominiums on Oahu were robust last month, while prices were down.The board said T...

Investors sidestepped some of their doubts about the economy and bought energy and industrial stocks as commodity prices rose.Stocks ended back-and-forth trading mos...

A Denver public television station is planning a nonprofit investigative news operation with a Web site and on-air program.KBDI-TV said this week it will launch the ...

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire is on her second trade mission to the nation's capital.Gregoire, joined by a delegation of the state's business leaders and the state ...

AirTran Airways said Tuesday that it boosted the number of seats available on its flights in October by 7 percent, but passenger traffic only picked up 5.2 percent year-ove...

The dollar was mixed Tuesday amid major bank restructurings in Europe, while U.S. factory orders rebounded and investors looked ahead to central bank meetings in the U.S. a...

Kraft Foods said slower sales and lower retail food prices cut into its third-quarter profit, but the company raised its forecast for the year Tuesday.The company sa...

Independent energy producer Stone Energy Corp. stepped up production to post a 49 percent gain in third-quarter profit that handily beat analysts' forecasts.For the ...

In a Nov. 2 story about a hearing for the South Dakota portion of a proposed crude oil pipeline, The Associated Press erroneously reported that the project's construction m...

Mitsubishi Motors North America said Tuesday its October sales tumbled, blaming a continued tough sales environment.BY THE NUMBERS: Mitsubishi sales dropped 48.3 per...

Amusement park operator Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. said Tuesday that profit rose in the third quarter from a year-ago period hurt by charges, but weaker-than-expected rev...

Phone company Windstream Corp. said Tuesday it's buying NuVox Inc. for $643 million in stock and cash.Windstream said the purchase of NuVox, a phone company that ser...

Investors sidestepped some of their doubts about the economy and bought energy and industrial stocks as commodity prices rose. Stocks ended back-and-forth trading mostly hi...

Osiris Therapeutics Inc. said Tuesday it received a $15 million payment from NuVasive Inc., the final milestone fee linked to the sale of Osiris' bone graft stem cell busin...

Lawmakers kept haggling Tuesday in their effort to alleviate California's water woes, as the Legislature prepared to vote on a package of bills that appears to lack the sup...

A year after Mayor Michael Bloomberg orchestrated a change to city law so he could run for a third term, voters decided Tuesday whether to keep the billionaire in office fo...

The Hartford Financial Services Group on Tuesday posted a much narrower loss for the third quarter, as its investment losses shrank as financial markets improved.The...

...

Investors sidestepped some of their doubts about the economy and bought energy and industrial stocks as commodity prices rose.Stocks ended back-and-forth trading mos...

Sprint Nextel Corp. says it plans to trim jobs "in the dozens" from its wholesale division amid slowing business.The nation's third-largest wireless provider confirm...

Frontier Communications Corp. on Tuesday posted an 11 percent increase in third-quarter net income as the rural phone company aggressively lowered costs in the face of fall...

A federal Agriculture Department official in southeastern Minnesota is announcing $17 million in grants to address the needs of beginning farmers and ranchers.Deputy...

Billionaire Warren Buffett likes to compare his company to a masterpiece that he's been painting for nearly five decades, and the deal he announced Tuesday will permanently...

Drilling and construction services provider Layne Christensen Co. said Tuesday it bought water infrastructure company W.L. Hailey & Co. for $15 million.The acqui...

Using stimulus dollars as bait, President Barack Obama is coaxing states to rewrite education laws and cut deals with unions as they compete for $5 billion in school reform...

Coal mining companies from Appalachia to Missouri are seeing plenty of rebounding demand, just not here at home.Fresh from reporting third-quarter earnings, coal pro...

Allis-Chalmers Energy Inc. said on Tuesday that it lost $10.3 million in the third quarter as the oilfield services provider dealt with a drop in rig count, falling equipme...

One of the huge pine trees that surrounded Sieglinde Poegel's home of 42 years crashed through the roof and landed in her living room during the ice storm that crippled muc...

After months of roller-coaster results, the U.S. auto industry showed signs of stability in October.Total sales of cars and light trucks were unchanged at just over ...

Thousands of small businesses that rely on Alabama Power Co. will get a break on their electric bills in the new year. Savings for other customers may also be ahead....

North Carolina lawmakers returned Tuesday to resume conversations on overhauling the state's tax system as soon as next spring after House and Senate Democrats couldn't agr...

Kirstie Alley is going to star in a new A&E reality "docu-series" about her life as a single mom and her efforts to lose weight.The network has ordered 10 half-h...

Sara Lee Corp. reports earnings for its fiscal first quarter on Thursday before the market opens. The following is a summary of key developments and analyst opinion related...

Virtual storage provider 3Par on Tuesday named Michael M. Clair to its board as an independent outside director.Clair, a technology investor and consultant to Silico...

Omnicare Inc., which dispenses drugs to nursing homes and long-term care facilities, will pay $98 million to settle allegations it paid kickbacks to nursing homes to gain t...

Gold prices surged to a new high Tuesday on news that India's central bank bought $6.7 billion worth of gold from the International Monetary Fund.December gold jumpe...

A leaner DuPont chemical company is pushing hard into China and other developing countries and said Tuesday it is in position to outperform markets that have been rattled b...

The best way to solve Ohio's 10 percent unemployment rate was at the heart of Tuesday's election as voters decided whether to reverse their two-decade old opposition to gam...

A California debt collection company has agreed to a $2.55 million judgment to settle a lawsuit brought by thousands of Pennsylvanians who claim they were wrongly led to be...

Consulting firm Charles River Associates on Tuesday named Monica Noether its chief operating officer.Noether, 56, succeeds Paul Maleh, who will become president and ...

Los Angeles Clippers owner and real estate mogul Donald Sterling has agreed to pay a record $2.725 million to settle allegations by the government that he refused to rent a...

Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by The Nielsen Co., for Oct. 26-Nov. 1. Listings include the week's ranking, with viewership for the week and season-to-date rankings...

The World Series gave the Fox network world-class ratings last week as the New York Yankees squared off against the Philadelphia Phillies in four much-watched games....

Netflix Inc. on Tuesday priced a senior notes offering.The DVD-by-mail company said it will sell $200 million aggregate principal amount of its 8.5 percent senior no...

United Airlines spent $510,000 in the third quarter lobbying on legislation including the cap-and-trade bill that was taken up in the Senate this week, according to a recen...

Investors sidestepped some of their doubts about the strength of an economic recovery and pushed into energy, industrial and materials stocks as commodity prices rose.<...

Officials at the Port of Baltimore say cruise ship traffic is up this year.Port officials say 60 cruises have sailed so far this year, up from 27 last year. And they...

The state of Florida is suing online travel reservation companies over hotel taxes, the latest in a string of lawsuits nationwide claiming the sites owe local authorities m...

Maine residents faced a full slate of ballot measures beyond the closely watched gay marriage vote on Tuesday.Residents casted votes on questions involving taxes, me...

A look at economic developments and activity in major stock markets around the world Tuesday:___LONDON — The British government moved to break up the countr...

The president of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota says health care reform measures in Congress would accelerate increases in insurance costs.Paul von Ebers tol...

The final round of ticket sales for the 2010 Winter Olympics begins Saturday.There are more than 100,000 tickets available for events in Vancouver, such as curling a...

The owners of Philadelphia's two major dailies are waging a late-stage battle to keep the newspapers from creditors in a looming bankruptcy auction.Senior lenders no...

Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri has signed legislation closing a loophole that made indoor prostitution legal and allowed more than 30 suspected brothels to operate around t...

GM reported its first monthly gain in U.S. sales in almost two years while Toyota and Ford also improved, a sign the auto industry it starting to crawl back from a yearlong...

The White House says detainees at Guantanamo Bay are not receiving vaccinations against the swine flu vaccine.Robert Gibbs on Tuesday said concern that terrorism sus...

Men may protect more than their hearts if they keep cholesterol in line: Their chances of getting aggressive prostate cancer may be lower, new research suggests.One ...

Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. said Tuesday its October sales declined 3.5 percent from the year-earlier level as stronger luxury and hybrid volumes offset weaker light truck sa...

Treasury prices continued to drop Tuesday as stocks moved off their lows for the day. Trading was cautious ahead of announcements from the Federal Reserve on interest rates...

The state of Florida is suing online travel reservation companies over hotel taxes, the latest in a string of suits nationwide claiming the sites owe local authorities mill...

General Motors Co. says its October sales rose 4.7 percent over the same month last year, a sign that the U.S. auto market was starting a slow recovery from its yearlong sl...

The star prosecution witness in the fraud trial of Minnesota businessman Tom Petters wept Tuesday as she explained her decision to go to federal investigators.Deanna...

Investors worried about the economic recovery drew only modest comfort from billionaire investor Warren Buffett's decision to buy one of the nation's largest railroads....

Frontier Communications Corp. on Tuesday posted an 11 percent increase in third-quarter net income as the rural phone company aggressively lowered costs in the face of fall...

Attorney General Bill McCollum urged Florida lawmakers Tuesday to make it tougher for former felons to get occupational licenses for jobs involving children, seniors and di...

Managed care provider Cigna Corp. reports results for the third quarter on Thursday. Here are some key developments and analyst opinions related to that period.OVERV...

A premier Dublin golf club can continue to bar women from membership, the Irish Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in a discrimination case inspired by similar protests against me...

TV station owner Belo Corp. fell to a third-quarter loss, hurt by the weak advertising market and a one-time accounting charge.The company said Tuesday it took a $15...

A key lawmaker said Tuesday that recent court decisions blocking suspensions of two NFL players threaten to undermine progress made in reducing performance-enhancing drug u...

Ferro Corp. said on Tuesday that it set a price of $5.60 per share for an offering of about 35.8 million shares, an increase in the size of the offer.The offering pr...

China has seen a tenfold increase in syphilis cases over the past decade, as migrant workers made enough money in the country's economic boom to hire more prostitutes, a se...

Window and door manufacturer Harvey Building Products has announced plans to close its Springfield facility and move about 100 jobs to other locations in New England.October Auto Sales: Daimler sales rise

Daimler AG said its U.S. sales last month increased 9.4 percent, led by a jump in Mercedes Benz volumes, as a more stable economic environment fueled increased purchases of...

Chrysler Group LLC says its October sales fell 30 percent below the same month last year. But they improved from September when the U.S. auto industry had a hangover from t...

The head of Rhode Island-based Citizens Financial Group says it won't be sold by its parent company, the Royal Bank of Scotland, as a condition of the British government po...

Cablevision Systems Corp. is seeing traditional advertisers return to the market, including companies from the battered automotive and financial-services industries....

Stanley Inc., a government contractor, said Tuesday it is part of a team with Harris Corp. that will receive a $196.5 million contract from an office of the Department of S...

Arkansas finance officials said Tuesday that the state collected $17.8 million less than expected last month, as state agencies prepared to detail their plans for cutting b...

Vornado Realty Trust on Tuesday said its third-quarter profit rose 15 percent, benefiting from the sale of an office building in Washington, D.C. and its investment in Toys...

Freight forwarder and logistics company Expeditors International of Washington Inc. said on Tuesday that its third-quarter profit dropped 33 percent as freight haulers rais...

The British government moved Tuesday to break up the country's two biggest retail banks, imposing a major shakeup on the financial sector as it exacts payback for last year...

Bernard Madoff's longtime auditor pleaded guilty to securities fraud charges Tuesday, saying he failed to do his job to verify the disgraced money manager's financial recor...

Oil prices rose Tuesday as the Federal Reserve began a two-day policy meeting on interest rates.The U.S. government stepped in to bail out faltering banks and other ...

Technology company Spring Design said Tuesday it filed a lawsuit against Barnes & Noble alleging it misappropriated trade secrets and violated a nondisclosure agreement...

Parker Drilling Co. said Tuesday its third-quarter profit fell sharply on lower revenue as the industry continued to remain weak, but the oil drilling contractor still post...

Strong demand for cars and crossovers lifted Ford's U.S. sales 3 percent in October, a positive sign for automakers who are hoping a healthier economy will draw buyers back...

Magellan Midstream Partners LP, which transports, stores and distributes refined petroleum products, on Tuesday said its third-quarter earnings tumbled 22 percent as reboun...

The Ambassador Theatre Group said Tuesday it has completed a 90 million pound ($147 million) deal that makes it one of Britain's biggest theater groups.The company â...

A key aide to a businessman accused of a multibillion-dollar fraud says investors who thought their money was going toward merchandise sales were funding millions in employ...

Marvel Entertainment Inc. said Tuesday its third-quarter profit fell 60 percent as it took in less money than last year from licensing its comic book characters for movies....

Agriculture futures were mostly lower Tuesday in early trading on the Chicago Board of Trade.Wheat for December delivery lost 8.75 cents to $5.08 a bushel, while Dec...

Tennessee's budget woes will likely make layoffs of state employees unavoidable, Gov. Phil Bredesen said Tuesday."This will be my toughest budget year," said the Dem...

Mayor Frank Jackson's campaign for election to a second four-year term has focused on maintaining city services and avoiding tax increases amid a recession that hurt the ci...

Merck & Co. is set to complete its $41 billion acquisition of Schering-Plough Corp. later Tuesday, creating the world's second-largest drugmaker, behind Pfizer Inc....

Some businesses are finding that the best price they can charge is nothing at all.From minor league baseball teams letting kids eat free to banks making a $100 depos...

European Union leaders are looking for momentum on a global climate change deal out of a summit with President Barack Obama on Tuesday.The White House meeting comes ...

World stock markets mostly fell Tuesday amid renewed concerns about the banking sector after Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland got more government help and Switzerland's UBS...

A nuclear power reactor in the New York City suburbs has been shut down because of an electrical fault, federal regulators said Tuesday.Nuclear Regulatory Commission...

Disgraced money manager Bernard Madoff's longtime auditor pleaded guilty to securities fraud and other charges Tuesday in a cooperation deal that could leave him behind bar...

New Jersey drugmakers Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. have made their longtime partnership permanent.The companies say Merck's $41 billion purchase of Sche...

TIGHT-FISTED?: A third of U.S. adults said they would spend less this year than they did in 2008 on gifts, while 49 percent would spend about the same amount, according to ...

The dollar mostly rose Tuesday as major bank restructurings in Europe and worries over slow growth made the currency more attractive to investors seeking safety amid centra...

The North Carolina Court of Appeals has sided with the state treasurer's office in a public records lawsuit that accused officials of withholding documents about the state'...

The U.S. Army is financing a new research center at the University of Illinois to develop technology for computer networks used on battlefields and in other similarly diffi...

Martin Marietta Materials Inc., a maker of construction materials, said Tuesday its third-quarter net income slid 16 percent as delays in infrastructure projects hurt reven...

Republican legislators are trying to muster support for a bill that would repeal new minimum car insurance levels in Wisconsin.The state budget Gov. Jim Doyle signed...

A South Carolina poultry plant raided by immigration agents last year has agreed to change its hiring practices to avoid federal charges of knowingly employing illegal immi...

The Oregon treasurer's office says national credit rating firms are reporting that the state remains a safe credit risk at a time when many others are being warned about po...

Oil prices edged lower Tuesday as a stronger dollar cooled the money flow into energy markets that has propped up crude prices for months.Since oil is largely bought...

Four years after two former utility company executives were last tried, federal prosecutors are trying to get their case back on track.They've asked U.S. District Ju...

A senior Chinese public health official says the tenfold growth in the number of syphilis cases over the past decade in China has been driven by the country's rapid economi...

Russia and Slovakia tightened their borders with Ukraine on Tuesday as the World Health Organization began investigating a suspected swine flu outbreak.The death tol...

ATM maker Diebold Inc. on Tuesday posted a third-quarter loss as it absorbed a big loss on the sale of its voting machine business. It also cut its full year profit and rev...

Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff's (MAY'-dawfs) longtime auditor has entered a guilty plea in a federal court in Manhattan.David Friehling (FREE'-ling) entered a p...

G.I. Joe and the Transformers came to Viacom Inc.'s rescue in the third quarter, helping boost the company's earnings 15 percent with strong box office returns.Viaco...

New Hampshire's revenues continue to come in below projections.The state received almost $12 million less in October than projected.Administrative Services Co...

Nevada state utility regulators plan a public meeting in Reno to hear from residents about electric, gas, telephone, railroad and water service in northern Nevada.Th...

The chairman and CEO of Landry's Restaurants Inc. finally got what he was after Tuesday, as the restaurant owner's board approved his $1.2 billion all-cash offer to buy the...

The Public Utilities Commission gets comments from the public Tuesday evening in Pierre on the $920 million, 313-mile stretch of the Keystone XL pipeline that TransCanada K...

A good-government group is calling for an ethics investigation into how New York Gov. David Paterson got his Yankees tickets for the first game of the World Series.P...

Seven new grants from a company building a huge natural gas pipeline will help protect bird habitats in Indiana.The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Conservation ...

Arguments for and against casinos bombarded Ohioans via the airwaves, phone lines and news media for weeks.But the state's first citizen, and the bearer of its most ...

ArcelorMittal SA, the world's largest steel maker, told trade unions Tuesday that it does not plan to shut down any of its European plants.The company and workers' r...

Legendary investor Warren Buffett is making what he calls an "all-in wager" on the U.S. economy — $34 billion to buy a major railroad that hauls everything from corn to c...

American businessman Stan Kroenke has moved within a fraction of launching a mandatory takeover bid for Premier League club Arsenal.Kroenke, the London club's larges...

Gov. Bill Richardson predicted that New Mexicans will face higher taxes next year to deal with the state's continuing budget problems."It's inevitable," Richardson s...

Johnson & Johnson said Tuesday it will trim layers of management, cut thousands of jobs, and set other restructuring moves in order to save up to $900 million next year...

Brett Favre's return to Green Bay was must-see viewing for NFL fans.Fox's national game Sunday, which was mainly the Vikings' 38-26 win over the Packers, was the net...

Johnson & Johnson said Tuesday it will cut up to about 8,000 jobs and streamline its operations in an effort to cut costs as it braces for changes in the health care in...

A top Wyoming official says various federal agencies gave the state conflicting instructions about how to calculate the number of jobs the federal economic stimulus program...

Hall of Famer Bill Walton won't return as an analyst for ESPN's NBA coverage.Walton said in a statement Monday that "it is time to dedicate the rest of my life to se...

Wet weather continues to hinder South Dakota's row-crop harvest.The weekly crop report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture says statewide last week there were on...

Rain and snow continue to delay the harvest of late season crops in North Dakota.The U.S. Department of Agriculture says statewide, on average, there were three days...

Maine's Insurance Bureau says workers' compensation rates will decrease by an average of 7 percent.Insurance Superintendent Mila Kofman said Monday that an industry ...

DuPont expects earnings growth next year by concentrating on key areas such as food production, environmental protection and emerging market opportunities.The compan...

Federal prosecutors are giving a South Carolina poultry plant facing immigration violations two years to get in line with federal practices.U.S. Attorney Walt Wilkin...

A rise in factory orders is doing little to ease investors' concerns about the economy.The Commerce Department is reporting Tuesday that orders to U.S. factories reb...

Managed care company Aetna Inc. said Tuesday it has completed a $70 million acquisition of employee assistance program provider Horizon Behavioral Services LLC.Hartf...

Dow Chemical Co. on Tuesday said chief financial officer Geoffery Merszei will leave that post and take on the roles of president of Dow Europe, Middle East and Africa, cha...

HSBC Holdings PLC says it is cutting 1,700 positions from its British work force.The bank says the biggest cuts will come in its credit card and collections operatio...

The two largest health systems in the Dakotas became one Monday, forming what officials said is the nation's largest not-for-profit rural health care provider.The Fa...

Investors worried about the economic recovery drew only modest comfort from billionaire investor Warren Buffett's decision to buy one of the nation's largest railroads....

Making a $34 billion bet on the future of the U.S. economy, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. on Tuesday agreed to buy Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp."Berk...

A leading government health figure says tests on millions of people who have received the H1N1 flu vaccine show that it's safe and effective.Dr. Anthony Fauci of the...

An attorney for a man who lost out on a $1 million jackpot says the Texas Lottery Commission still considers the store clerk who allegedly stole the ticket to be the winner...

Same-sex couples who identify as married are similar to straight spouses in terms of age and income, and nearly one-third of them are raising children, according to Census ...

Lawmakers are moving to ban the use of computer laptops and other personal electronic devices in airline cockpits to prevent another incident like the Northwest Airlines pl...

Serious safety issues continued to plague a southern Illinois Veterans Affairs hospital even after major surgeries were suspended two years ago because of a spike in patien...

Real estate developer The St. Joe Co. on Tuesday said its third-quarter loss narrowed despite higher expenses, as it sold off some of its holdings.The company posted...

Of the many countries participating at the Vancouver Olympics, add Colbert Nation to the list.On Monday's "The Colbert Report," Stephen Colbert announced his show ha...

Lawyers for Kate Winslet say the actress has accepted 25,000 pounds (more than $40,000) in damages after the Daily Mail falsely reported in January she lied about her exerc...

A mother watched with dread as a nurse inserted a tube in her baby's head. Blood streamed into the anemic 4-month-old who already has malaria, the mosquito-borne disease th...

Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff's (MAY'-dawfs) longtime auditor is expected to plead guilty to securities fraud and other charges that could leave him behind bars for ye...

One of America's best-known entertainment news shows is launching an Asian edition.Los Angeles-based E! Entertainment Television will launch a weekly half-hour editi...

A Southern California man who aimed a laser beam at two airliners as they approached an airport has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison for disrupting the fligh...

Bug spray that produces a fog to kill insects is likely to blame for the death of a 10-month-old South Carolina boy, and his 2-year-old brother was critically injured by th...

A team of California rocketeers has won a $1 million prize in a simulated lunar landing contest backed by NASA.The X Prize Foundation said Monday that Mojave, Calif....

Marathon Oil on Tuesday followed a pattern established by peers during the third quarter, reporting a plunge in profit compared with the same period last year but improving...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's finance director is stepping down after four years, leaving the administration to fill a key vacancy as the state faces what is expected to be ...

The book price wars are no longer just for pre-orders.Amazon.com was offering hardcovers of John Grisham's "Ford County" and Barbara Kingsolver's "The Lacuna" for ju...

Federal prosecutors say statements from a Washington man accused of threatening a Colorado abortion doctor's family should be admitted in court.Donald Hertz of Spoka...

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge reopened Monday, but transportation engineers said their work may not be finished.The heavily used span was closed Oct. 27 after...

Hollywood loves money. So does Ebenezer Scrooge. So what better way to launch the holiday season than putting the old money-grubber at the head of the line to separate movi...

Travelers are still vacationing, but they're spending less when they do, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. said in reporting that its third-quarter profit and revenue tumbled be...

U.S. stock futures are recovering from their lows Tuesday after billionaire investor Warren Buffett agreed to buy the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad and Viacom poste...

October's new vehicle sales were set to be announced on Tuesday amid expectations of an increase from September's levels, which were hurt by a Cash for Clunkers hangover.Ahead of the Bell: E-Trade Financial

E-Trade Financial Corp. withdrew its application to obtain money from the government's $700 billion financial bailout program launched last fall, according to a regulatory ...

Cablevision Systems Corp. on Tuesday said its third-quarter profit more than tripled as a sluggish economy didn't deter subscribers from signing up for its digital cable, I...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has added the U.S. Magnesium site near Utah's Great Salt Lake to the federal Superfund list.The EPA's announcement Monday ma...

Rhode Island's largest hospital was fined $150,000 and ordered to take the extraordinary step of installing video cameras in all its operating rooms after it had its fifth ...

Making a $34 billion bet on the future of the U.S. economy, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. on Tuesday agreed to buy Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp."Berk...

The communications director for California Attorney General Jerry Brown resigned Monday after it was revealed he had secretly recorded telephone conversations with reporter...

Schools are doing a better job of identifying students who are eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches, but some states are much better than others, the Agricultu...

When a fire destroyed the beloved, centuries-old Putney General Store 18 months ago, some people here cried.The creaky wooden building where locals arrived for coffe...

MasterCard Inc. said Tuesday its third-quarter profit was bolstered by continued cost-cutting measures and an increase in the number of transactions it processed.How...

Grand Teton Lodge Co. has settled a lawsuit over a 2006 rafting accident on the Snake River that killed three people.U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson of Cheyenne ann...

Most Nebraska agencies will feel some pain over the next year and a half if lawmakers adopt the widespread spending cuts Gov. Dave Heineman proposed on Monday.Heinem...

A federal animal disease lab headed to Kansas will likely bring along companies looking to profit from that research, Sen. Sam Brownback said Monday.Brownback, along...

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter is asking state legislators for a 6 percent increase in transportation funding, one of the few bright spots in next year's budget plan.Ritt...

The fate of a new water supply and management plan for California remained murky despite a scheduled floor debate in the Legislature.A package of bills intended to p...

Johnson & Johnson said Tuesday it will trim layers of management, cut jobs, and set other restructuring moves in order to save up to $900 million next year.The N...

Consumer prices in Russia stayed flat in October for a third straight month of zero inflation, the federal statistics agency said Tuesday, opening the door for further inte...

Global wages fell in the United States and some other wealthy nations in the second quarter of the year, raising questions about whether workers are sharing in any economic...

Johnson & Johnson says it will trim layers of management and set other restructuring moves in order to save up to $900 million next year.The New Brunswick, N.J.,...

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is sending a plan to split the iconic company's Class B shares to a shareholder vote as part of its plan to buy the Burlington Nort...

Making a $34 billion bet on the future of the U.S. economy, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. on Tuesday agreed to buy Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp."Berk...

Oil prices fell to near $77 a barrel Tuesday, affected by sagging equity markets and the dollar's gains on the euro.By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for...

African countries ended a boycott of meetings at U.N. climate negotiations on Tuesday, after winning promises for more in-depth talks on how much rich nations need to cut g...

The first interview with Rihanna about Chris Brown's assault on her is airing this week on ABC.The network says the pop star's one-on-one with Diane Sawyer will air ...

Archer Daniels Midland Co. said Tuesday that its first-quarter profit tumbled 53 percent as the global recession dragged down demand for crops and ethanol, but demand is im...

Viacom Inc. posted a 15 percent jump in third-quarter profit Tuesday as a stronger film slate from its Paramount Pictures movie studio helped offset continuing declines in ...

Britain pressed ahead Tuesday with a fresh wave of restructuring in its crisis-ravaged banking system, as Lloyds Banking Group PLC sought at least 21 billion pounds ($34.2 ...

Nokia Siemens Networks said Tuesday it will lay off up to 5,700 workers globally as part of a move to cut annual costs by euro500 million ($740 million).The mobile n...

Ford Motor Co., which surprised the market by posting a third-quarter profit, said Tuesday that two of its senior executives are retiring.John Parker, executive vice...

Medco Health Solutions Inc., the largest U.S. pharmacy benefits manager, said Tuesday its profit rose 13.5 percent as the company gained new clients and benefited from pric...

World stock markets mostly fell Tuesday amid renewed concerns about the banking sector after Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland PLC got more government help and Switzerland's...

U.S. stock futures are down sharply Tuesday, following selloffs in Asia and Europe, as concerns mount about the sustainability of an economic rebound.European shares...

Air New Zealand has ordered 14 Airbus single-aisle A320 aircraft worth $1.07 billion at catalog prices to replace Boeing jets, the European plane maker said Tuesday....

Australia's central bank raised its key interest rate Tuesday by a quarter percentage point for the second month in a row, declaring the global downturn over and warning th...

Swiss bank UBS AG reported a third-quarter net loss of 564 million Swiss francs ($542 million) Tuesday, blaming accounting charges of 2.15 billion francs for keeping it in ...

The Philadelphia transit system's largest union went on strike early Tuesday, stalling the city's bus, subway and trolley operations a day after the World Series shifted to...

Factory orders are expected to show a gain in September in a further sign of a revival in manufacturing that should help support the overall economy.Economists surve...

World stock markets were lower Tuesday despite improvement in U.S. manufacturing as doubts lingered about the durability of a rebound in the world's largest economy....

German carmaker BMW AG said Tuesday its net income fell 74 percent in the third quarter as it continued to be affected by the global economic downturn.BMW, the world...

African countries suspended meetings at U.N. climate talks Tuesday to protest what they call the low targets that industrial countries have set for reducing greenhouse gas ...

The European Commission on Tuesday predicted that the EU and eurozone will grow in 2010 at a modest rate of 0.7 percent as the economy moves from a sharp recession to a hes...

A Vermont slaughterhouse ordered closed Friday after video showed calves kicked, shocked and cut while conscious had its operating license suspended three times earlier thi...

The Lawry's restaurant chain agreed Monday to pay more than $1 million to settle a federal lawsuit that claimed it barred men from waiting tables at its high-end steakhouse...

Tax and finance software maker Intuit Inc. on Monday said it completed its purchase of the Web site Mint.com.With closing of $170 million deal, which was announced i...

A jury found Dell Inc. liable Monday for $12.8 million in damages over unfair competition and conspiracy claims in a lawsuit involving the city's problematic crime camera s...

The founder of the online gambling site BetOnSports.com was sentenced Monday to more than four years in prison, ending a lengthy investigation and prosecution into one of t...

Fiber-optic network provider Qwest Communications International Inc. said Monday it will save about $100 million by stopping contributions to the pension plans of active ma...

Former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio says a federal judge should start from scratch in reconsidering his sentence for insider trading.Nacchio was sentenced in 2007 to six...

Asian stock markets were mostly lower Tuesday despite improvement in U.S. manufacturing as doubts lingered about the durability of a rebound in the world's largest economy....

A third leading Chinese movie studio is aiming for a listing — this time on the New York Stock Exchange — as the country's entertainment companies turn to the capital m...

Tribune Co., owner of The Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and several other news outlets, will not use most Associated Press content next week to test whether the fi...

Tool makers Stanley Works and Black & Decker Corp. are betting that together they can wring out more profit and better position themselves for a housing market recovery...

Oil prices hovered near $78 a barrel Tuesday in Asia as investors welcomed new U.S. manufacturing and construction figures as positive signs of an economic recovery....