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Jobless rate in Gulf Coast likely to surge
Sep 2 2005 10:01PM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The jobless rate in the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast is expected to spike to 25 percent or higher, and when the long rebuilding process begins it's likely the same people the economy had left behind before the storm _ the unemployed and working poor _ will have the most trouble getting back on their feet.
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U.S. may have to reconsider oil stockpile
Sep 2 2005 6:43PM (CT)
PARIS (AP) - The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina could force the U.S. to reconsider its oil stockpiling policy, the deputy head of the International Energy Agency said Friday as 26 governments agreed to release emergency reserves to cope with the disaster.
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Churchill Downs' winter meet may be moved
Sep 2 2005 6:18PM (CT)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Churchill Downs Inc. has canceled the scheduled winter meet at the Fair Grounds race track in New Orleans, parts of which remain under water in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
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Albertson's considers selling company
Sep 2 2005 5:57PM (CT)
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Albertson's Inc. said Friday it was considering putting itself up for sale as well as other alternatives as the nation's second-largest supermarket chain contends with sales that have lagged many of its rivals. Its shares surged 11 percent.
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Nations to release 60M barrels of oil, gas
Sep 2 2005 5:51PM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States and European nations will tap oil and gasoline stockpiles for 2 million barrels a day, hoping to stem growing gasoline shortages because of disruptions from Hurricane Katrina that have caused fuel prices to soar and some gas stations to run dry.
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Microsoft, Google trade salvos over exec
Sep 2 2005 5:36PM (CT)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer vowed to "kill" Internet search leader Google Inc. in an obscenity-laced tirade, and Google chased a prized Microsoft executive "like wolves," according to documents filed Friday in an increasingly bitter legal battle between the rivals.
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Truckers hit with higher diesel costs
Sep 2 2005 5:26PM (CT)
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) - Diesel fuel supplies were tight this week because of Hurricane Katrina, but even truckers who had no problem filling up were paying higher prices.
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Katrina clouds holiday shopping outlook
Sep 2 2005 5:12PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - Before Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, the outlook for the holiday shopping season was already uncertain as consumers tried to fit higher gasoline prices into their budgets. The worries only escalated this past week in the aftermath of the hurricane, which threatened to take a toll on the economy as a whole.
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SEC may dissolve investor-education fund
Sep 2 2005 5:10PM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Securities and Exchange Commission won court approval to dissolve a $55 million foundation set up with the proceeds of a landmark settlement over stock analyst research, and transfer the money to the NASD Investor Education Foundation.
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SEC backs suit against Bank of America
Sep 2 2005 5:04PM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Bank of America Corp. disclosed Friday that the Securities and Exchange Commission staff plans to recommend enforcement action against its brokerage unit because of improper stock trading.
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Banks give reprieve to stricken homeowners
Sep 2 2005 5:00PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - With tens of thousands of homeowners in four states displaced by Hurricane Katrina, some banks and finance companies are allowing customers to forgo monthly mortgage payments for 90 days without incurring late fees or other penalties.
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Banks set up numbers for Katrina victims
Sep 2 2005 4:59PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - Banks and finance companies are asking their customers to contact them if they have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
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Treasurys hold steady, brush off jobs data
Sep 2 2005 4:52PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. Treasury prices closed little changed Friday. A respectable report on hiring for August drove prices down early, but they rebounded before trading desks closed early ahead of the Labor Day weekend.
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Banks give reprieve to stricken homeowners
Sep 2 2005 4:50PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - With tens of thousands of homeowners in four states displaced by Hurricane Katrina, some banks and finance companies are allowing customers to forgo monthly mortgage payments for 90 days without incurring late fees or other penalties.
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Friday's Commodities Roundup
Sep 2 2005 4:43PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - Crude-oil and gasoline futures fell hard Friday, as traders who profited enormously on the supply crunch following Hurricane Katrina cashed out of the market ahead of the long weekend.
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Verizon Wireless sues two telemarketers
Sep 2 2005 4:40PM (CT)
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Verizon Wireless has sued a pair of telemarketing companies, accusing them of illegally soliciting the company's cell phone users and making more than 1.2 million calls to its customers this summer.
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Judge approves settlement in Westar case
Sep 2 2005 4:29PM (CT)
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) - A federal judge has approved a $32.5 million settlement of class-action lawsuit brought by shareholders of Westar Energy Inc. over a failed merger plan.
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Farm bureau: Agriculture costs to top $2B
Sep 2 2005 4:27PM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Hurricane damages to farm-related industries will cost more than $2 billion and could increase food prices, according to estimates by American Farm Bureau Federation.
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Northwest pilots have most to lose
Sep 2 2005 4:17PM (CT)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Northwest Airlines pilots have already taken one pay cut. Now they're negotiating another because the alternative is worse _ Northwest goes bankrupt and dumps its pensions on the federal government.
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ShopKo takeover faces stiff opposition
Sep 2 2005 4:07PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - The $1 billion takeover of discount retailer ShopKo Stores Inc. by buyout firm Goldner Hawn Johnson & Morrison may be in jeopardy after proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services recommended that stockholders vote against the proposed leveraged buyout.
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Student finds term paper for sale online
Sep 2 2005 4:00PM (CT)
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Blue Macellari wrote the term paper back in 1999 while studying abroad, so the Duke University graduate student didn't understand why it was found on someone else's Web site _ or why it was for sale.
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Delta stock briefly falls below $1
Sep 2 2005 3:54PM (CT)
ATLANTA (AP) - Delta Air Lines Inc.'s stock briefly fell below $1 Friday amid the havoc of Hurricane Katrina and the bleak financial picture for the nation's third biggest carrier.
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Higher gas prices pinch business owners
Sep 2 2005 3:53PM (CT)
CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) - Skyrocketing gas prices have 19-year-old Chris Mazzotta considering a career change. Mazzotta has delivered pizzas for No Anchovies in Cromwell for the past two years, but his gas stipend of 50 cents per delivery is no longer covering his fuel costs.
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Jobless rate in Gulf Coast likely to surge
Sep 2 2005 3:41PM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The jobless rate in the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast is expected to spike to 25 percent or higher, and when the long rebuilding process begins it's likely the same people the economy had left behind before the storm _ the unemployed and working poor _ will have the most trouble getting back on their feet.
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Katrina clouds holiday shopping outlook
Sep 2 2005 3:11PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - Before Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, the outlook for the holiday shopping season was already uncertain as consumers tried to fit higher gasoline prices into their budgets. The worries only escalated this past week in the aftermath of the hurricane, which threatened to take a toll on the economy as a whole.
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IRS lifts taxes on some diesel fuel
Sep 2 2005 2:57PM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Internal Revenue Service acted Friday to expand the nationwide supply of diesel fuel by letting more vehicles use fuel intended for farm equipment and government vehicles.
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US Air-PBGC deal on Chapter 11 claims OK'd
Sep 2 2005 2:33PM (CT)
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - A federal court Friday approved a deal between US Airways Group Inc. and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. that resolves the agency's nearly $2.7 billion in claims in the bankruptcy case, and ensures its support for the airline's reorganization plan.
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India to create new agency for drug trials
Sep 2 2005 2:05PM (CT)
BANGALORE, India (AP) - India's government says it plans to create a new agency it hopes will ensure clinical drug trials conducted in the country meet the standards of U.S. and other international regulators.
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S&P: chances of recession have doubled
Sep 2 2005 1:58PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - The likelihood of a recession has doubled in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, credit rating agency Standard & Poor's said Friday.
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White House to release 30M barrels of oil
Sep 2 2005 12:39PM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Twenty-six countries in an international energy consortium will release more than 60 million barrels of crude oil and gasoline to relieve the energy crunch caused by Hurricane Katrina in the United States.
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Hurricane Katrina helps coffee growers
Sep 2 2005 12:13PM (CT)
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Hurricane Katrina may have destroyed about 1.5 million sacks of coffee stored at warehouses in New Orleans, raising the global price of coffee and benefiting coffee growers across the world, officials said Friday.
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Old Mutual launches $6.02B bid for Skandia
Sep 2 2005 12:12PM (CT)
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - South African financial services group Old Mutual PLC on Friday launched a 44.9 billion kronor ($6.02 billion) takeover bid for Swedish insurer Forsakrings AB Skandia.
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W.Va. travel agent handles FEMA deployment
Sep 2 2005 12:11PM (CT)
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - When everyone else is trying to get away from a natural disaster, National Travel Inc. is trying to find ways to get thousands of relief workers in.
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Oreck expects Gulf plant to restart in days
Sep 2 2005 11:56AM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - Oreck Corp., the New Orleans-based maker of vacuum cleaners, expects to reopen its plant within the next 10 days as it temporarily relocates its headquarters to Dallas.
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Europe motorists bemoan soaring gas prices
Sep 2 2005 11:56AM (CT)
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Grumbling European motorists watched gas-pump dials spin to extraordinary levels Friday as prices soared this week after Hurricane Katrina crippled fuel supplies in the United States.
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Aide to Brazil's finance minister resigns
Sep 2 2005 11:49AM (CT)
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - The top aide to the architect of Brazil's market-friendly economic policy resigned after denying he took part in a corruption scandal shaking the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Finance Ministry said Friday.
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Katrina leaves thousands without jobs
Sep 2 2005 11:42AM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of people are finding themselves out of work and their livelihoods in limbo following the wrath of Hurricane Katrina.
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SEC files civil complaint against ex-CEO
Sep 2 2005 11:28AM (CT)
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - The former chief executive of Transkaryotic Therapies Inc. is charged in a civil complaint with reassuring investors about failed drug trials to artificially inflate the stock price, then selling off his own shares.
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Italian government OKs central bank reform
Sep 2 2005 9:55AM (CT)
ROME (AP) - Premier Silvio Berlusconi's Cabinet on Friday approved a reform plan for Italy's central bank that includes a seven-year fixed term for the Bank of Italy governor.
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Hannover Re estimates damage at $30B
Sep 2 2005 8:18AM (CT)
BERLIN (AP) - German reinsurer Hannover Re said Friday that insured losses caused by Hurricane Katrina could amount to $30 billion, the highest estimate so far of damage.
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EU nations to offer oil from reserves
Sep 2 2005 8:17AM (CT)
NEWPORT, Wales (AP) - European nations are offering to provide oil to the United States from their strategic reserves to offset shortages in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, an EU official said Friday.
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Nokia names Oistamo to head of mobile unit
Sep 2 2005 8:07AM (CT)
HELSINKI, Finland (AP) - Nokia Corp., the world's largest cell phone maker, on Friday named company insider Kai Oistamo to succeed Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo as head of the mobile phones unit on Oct. 1.
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L'Oreal first-half profit declines
Sep 2 2005 7:52AM (CT)
PARIS (AP) - L'Oreal SA, the world's largest cosmetics maker, said Friday that its net profit for the first half of the year fell 5.8 percent, hurt by a drop in earnings in its luxury products division.
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China bureau urges easing on credit curbs
Sep 2 2005 7:29AM (CT)
SHANGHAI, China (AP) - China should loosen credit in the second half of this year amid signs that the booming economy is beginning to slow, the country's top economic planning bureau says.
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Air France-KLM posts net profit fall
Sep 2 2005 6:41AM (CT)
PARIS (AP) - Air France-KLM said Friday that its first-quarter net profit fell to 112 million euros ($139 million) from 536 million euros a year ago, when earnings were boosted by a huge one-time gain, but operating profit rose 27 percent on strong passenger traffic.
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Railroads in limbo after Hurricane Katrina
Sep 2 2005 5:42AM (CT)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The grain elevators that take in corn, soybeans and wheat from Midwest farmers and the railroads that move it are waiting to see what impact Hurricane Katrina will have on them.
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Thousands complain to feds on gas gouging
Sep 2 2005 5:31AM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawmakers are demanding an investigation into gasoline prices after thousands of motorists called a government hotline to complain of price gouging.
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Oil prices fall as U.S. facilities restart
Sep 2 2005 4:43AM (CT)
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) - Crude oil prices eased Friday and gasoline futures fell for the first time in a week as investors engaged in mild profit taking. Providing some reassurance was news that several energy facilities on the U.S. Gulf Coast started up again after Hurricane Katrina.
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China wants more textile talks with U.S.
Sep 2 2005 4:40AM (CT)
SHANGHAI, China (AP) - China said it hopes to hold more talks with the United States over efforts to restrain surging imports of Chinese textiles, as President Hu Jintao prepared Friday to leave on an official trip to Washington.
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Japanese stocks hit new high; dollar down
Sep 2 2005 4:23AM (CT)
TOKYO (AP) - Japanese stocks rose at a four-year high Friday, extending gains from the previous day as optimism about the Japanese economy and continued foreign investor buying lifted shares in the oil, pharmaceutical, real estate and retail sectors. The U.S. dollar fell against the yen and euro.
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Hurricane Katrina takes a toll on jobs
Sep 2 2005 4:23AM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of people are finding themselves out of work and their livelihoods in limbo following the wrath of Hurricane Katrina.
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Thousands complain to feds on gas gouging
Sep 2 2005 4:22AM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawmakers are demanding an investigation into gasoline prices after thousands of motorists called a government hotline to complain of price gouging.
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Japan considers releasing oil reserves
Sep 2 2005 2:55AM (CT)
TOKYO (AP) - Japan is in talks with the International Energy Agency on measures to help ease petroleum supplies in the U.S. Gulf Coast area, including a possible release of some of Japan's strategic oil reserves, a trade ministry official said Friday.
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Boeing Machinists decide to strike
Sep 2 2005 2:38AM (CT)
SEATTLE (AP) - Machinists at Boeing Co. voted overwhelmingly Thursday to strike, rejecting a three-year contract proposal their leaders had deemed "insulting."
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Feds won't prosecute MCI in WorldCom suit
Sep 2 2005 1:47AM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - Federal prosecutors said Thursday they will not prosecute MCI, the post-bankruptcy version of WorldCom, for the $11 billion fraud carried out at the telecommunications firm.
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