http://http://www.kentucky.com/473/index.xml News, sports, and entertainment from Kentucky.com en-us Copyright 2009 Kentucky.com Business - Wire 60 Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:55:05 EST http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's Workbench interactive-ops@herald-leader.com http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030337.html http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030337.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:24 EST
But the world's top three carbon polluters - the United States, China and India - have not indicated whether their leaders will attend the meeting, and that could have a big impact on its chances of reaching a deal.

The nations that plan to send their leaders to Copenhagen include Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Spain and the United Kingdom, a Danish official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not an official spokesman.

At a party convention in Odense, Denmark, Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said Sunday he was encouraged by the fact that "more than 60" leaders had confirmed their participation.

"This shows that heads of sate and government are ready to fly in, realizing that the political momentum is pointing towards Copenhagen as the place ... to address the outstanding issues so we can conclude an ambitious deal," he said. "To cut through the outstanding issues and make an ambitious deal, then the active involvement of heads of state and government is crucial."]]> http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030360.html http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030360.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:31 EST
He wants to establish industry rules for frequent flier programs that are billed as a free benefit to help attract and retain customers. There are few restrictions now on how airlines can manage and redeem the miles.

Schumer says he suspects consumers are actually paying for frequent frier programs through air fare and fees. If so, he said rules are needed to protect consumers. He's asking the Department of Transportation to review the complaints.

"As the holiday travel season approaches, we cannot let airlines and credit card companies continue to fly off with hard-earned frequent flier miles," Schumer said in an announcement scheduled for Sunday. "When a consumer accumulates valuable frequent flier miles, they should not have to constantly worry that they are going to expire with little or no notification from the airline."

InsideFlyer magazine finds the lack of consumer protections on frequent flier miles a common concern. Complaints include miles expiring without clear notice and a frequent change in the value of the miles, according to magazine spokeswoman Michelle O'Neill.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030413.html http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030413.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:24 EST
About 150 employees were sent home Saturday afternoon after the radiation was detected at the central Pennsylvania plant.

Officials say there is no public health risk.

Exelon Nuclear spokeswoman Beth Archer says investigators are searching for a cause of the release. She says the radiation was quickly contained.

Tests showed the contamination was confined to surfaces inside the building.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030483.html http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030483.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:24 EST
Employers already are squeezed by tight credit, rising health care costs, wary consumers and a higher minimum wage. Now, the surging jobless rate is imposing another cost. It's forcing higher state taxes on companies to pay for unemployment insurance claims.

Some employers say the extra costs make them less likely to hire. That could be a worrisome sign for the economic recovery, because small businesses create about 60 percent of new jobs. Other employers say they'll cut or freeze pay.

- Chuck Ferrar, who owns a liquor store in Annapolis, Md., expects to pay $9,000 in unemployment taxes next year, up from $3,000 this year. Health care costs for his employees will rise by $8,000, or 17.5 percent. "When you start adding this up, it turns into real money," he said. "If I lose an employee through attrition, I will not replace him. You can't afford to do it."

- Sam Schlosser, owner of Plymouth Foundry Inc. in Plymouth, Ind., said his unemployment tax bill could double next year. Revenue at the family-owned company, which makes iron castings for machine parts, has fallen about 50 percent, he said. In case of higher taxes, his company may have to consider layoffs, he said.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030502.html http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030502.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:24 EST
The group, which surveyed 1,350 households, said there will be about 33.2 million people traveling by car this year - a 2.1 percent increase from last year.

But there will be a 6.7 percent decrease in the number of air travelers, totaling 2.3 million this year, continuing a decade-long decline of Thanksgiving air travel.

In the report released Wednesday, AAA officials said the expected increase reflects improved consumer confidence from a year ago, when Thanksgiving travel dropped 25 percent following the country's housing and economic problems. Americans may feel more financially secure and be more willing to travel, the report says.

"The economy is still very clearly weighing heavily on the minds of Thanksgiving travelers this year, and that's evidenced by the very small increase that we expect to see in total travel," said Geoff Sundstrom, a spokesman for AAA's national office in Heathrow, Fla.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030341.html http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030341.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:21 EST
Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad says exports averaged 1.877 million barrels a day in October, grossing $4.187 billion with an average price of $71.94 a barrel.

September oil exports stood at 1.956 million barrels a day and yielded $3.877 billion with an average price of $66.05 a barrel.

Jihad told The Associated Press Sunday the slip in exports was due to two insurgent attacks on the pipeline that sends crude to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, causing a nine-day disruption.

Oil sales account for about 95 percent of Iraq's total revenue.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030381.html http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030381.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:54 EST
Republicans pointed to the guidelines as evidence the Democrats' proposals for a health care overhaul would yield limits on mammograms and a rationing of care. Democrats dismissed those worries and said Republicans were stoking fears without facts.

Under the Democratic plan, a new independent institute would advise the health secretary. However, the health secretary would not be required to deny or extend coverage in a government-backed health plan based on recommendations from the institute.

A government-appointed panel said last week that women generally should begin routine mammograms in their 50s, rather than their 40s - sparking cries of outrage and claims a taxpayer-funded health care option wouldn't pay for the screenings.

"I'm saying very powerfully ignore them, because unequivocally ... this will increase the number of women dying of breast cancer," said Dr. Bernadine Healy, a director of the National Institutes of Health under Republican President George H.W. Bush. "Women in their 40s have a very aggressive kind of breast cancer. They tend to progress fast. And to not screen women in that age group is astounding to me, and it goes against the bulk of individuals who are actually caring for patients.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030467.html http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030467.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:44 EST
As the world has talked for a dozen years about what to do next, new ship passages opened through the once frozen summer sea ice of the Arctic. In Greenland and Antarctica, ice sheets have lost trillions of tons of ice. Mountain glaciers in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa are shrinking faster than before.

And it's not just the frozen parts of the world that have felt the heat in the dozen years leading up to next month's climate summit in Copenhagen:

-The world's oceans have risen by about an inch and a half.

-Droughts and wildfires have turned more severe worldwide, from the U.S. West to Australia to the Sahel desert of North Africa.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030488.html http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030488.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:44 EST
Here's why: Since April 1, new auditing rules have made it easier for newspapers to count a reader as a paying customer.

These looser standards are especially helpful to a newspaper if it sells an "electronic edition." That can include a subscriber-only Web site, such as what The Wall Street Journal has, or it can be a digital replica of a newspaper's printed product. Several dozen publications, including USA Today, sell access to these daily "e-editions" that show how the news was laid out in print.

Under the new auditing standards, if a newspaper sells a "bundled" subscription to both the print and electronic editions, the publication is often allowed to count that subscriber twice.

If not for these rules, the industry's numbers would look even worse. Average weekday circulation at 379 U.S. newspapers fell 10.6 percent during the six months ending in September. That was the steepest decline ever recorded by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the organization that verifies how many people are paying to read publications.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030503.html http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030503.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:44 EST
All the while, the Republican governor has criticized President Barack Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan as ineffective in creating jobs even though the state isn't spending all the money it's been given. Half the funding had arrived by July, but state officials say it will only start flowing this week to agencies ready to spend it.

Rhode Island was among five states that had not started spending their weatherization funding money by late September, according to an analysis of federal records by the National Association for State Community Services Programs. The others were Alaska, Indiana, Vermont, Wyoming and the District of Columbia.

Jeanne Gattegno, president of Westbay Community Action, a charitable agency that helps Kent County residents become self-sufficient, attributed the delays to complex rules governing the stimulus program and state officials trying to cope with a sudden influx of cash.

"We were surprised it took this long, but it's here now at last," Gattegno said.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030343.html http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030343.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:26 EST
Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company and Deutsche Bahn AG will develop a metro system in Qatar's capital, a national railroad network for passenger and freight traffic, and a long-distance connection to neighboring Bahrain.

The project will take about 15 years to complete.

The deal was signed on Sunday in Doha by Qatari Diar's chief executive and managing director Ghanim Bin Saad al-Saad and Deutsche Bahn's chairman and chief executive, Ruediger Grube.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030412.html http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030412.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:04 EST
Britain's Sunday Times cited an unnamed industry source as saying Cadbury is reluctant to do a deal unless Hershey raises its valuation of the company, which makes the Dairy Milk chocolate bar.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Hershey Co. is preparing a bid, but that it won't be ready for around two weeks. It said the offer is expected to include at least $10 billion in cash from Hershey, plus $2 billion in new Hershey shares and another $3 billion to $5 billion in cash from investors in exchange for equity in Hershey.

That bid would top a recent $16.5 billion hostile offer by Kraft Foods Inc. for the British confectioner.

Both Kraft and Hershey are seeking access to Cadbury's presence in developing markets, including in Mexico and India. About 250 million bars of the company's famous Dairy Milk are sold every year in 33 countries.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030478.html http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030478.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:24 EST
The energy efficiency program for state offices was aimed at promoting the idea publicly. But the payoff halfway through the fiscal year is also a boost for the cash-strapped state.

State General Services Commissioner John Egan says the savings include a new natural gas contract and retrofitting more state buildings to be more energy efficient.

Halfway through the fiscal year, Egan says the state's energy bill is down 5.15 percent compared to the first half of last year and down more than 13 percent from 2007.

The strategies used in more than 50 state buildings include:]]> http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030498.html http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030498.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:49 EST
Despite some recent improvements, the Big Apple's three major airports continue to be the country's worst air travel bottleneck.

Through the first nine months of the year, they ranked first, second and third worst in on-time arrivals among the 31 major U.S. air hubs, according to federal statistics.

The problem doesn't affect just New Yorkers. Because such a large percentage of the nation's flights pass through the city sometime during any given day, delays here have a tendency to ripple elsewhere.

In 2007, nearly three-quarters of all delays in the U.S. could be traced to a problem in New York, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The logjam has received a lot of attention over the past two years, with mixed results.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030504.html http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1030504.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:44 EST
The uncertainty, which follows some downbeat reports on housing and employment, will likely mean choppy trading, especially as volume dwindles during the holiday season.

In this week, which will be abbreviated due to Thanksgiving, investors will look to reports on home sales, unemployment and consumer confidence and the start of the holiday shopping season on Friday for more insight into the direction of the economy.

The government also will revise its early estimate of the gross domestic product that said the economy grew at an annual pace of 3.5 percent during the third quarter. Many analysts now expect a smaller increase in GDP because of recent reports on housing and retail sales.

If more reports signal a slow economic rebound, investors could continue selling stocks and buying safe-haven assets like the dollar and short-term Treasurys, as they did last week.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1029401.html http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1029401.html Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:07 EST
For the first time, federal regulators are expected to prohibit the catching of bigeye - Hawaii's favored tuna variety - in waters west of the islands once the fishermen hit their annual catch limit. They're on course to do that around the first or second week of December.

The potential for a shortage has produced anxiety here among consumers, fishermen, wholesalers and retailers, leaving them to wonder if they'll be able to get hold of the tuna, or ahi.

"We may not have as much fish. In terms of quality, I don't know how it's going to compare to what we normally have," said Brooks Takenaka, assistant general manager at United Fishing Agency, which runs Honolulu's fish auctions. "Those are questions nobody has any answers to right now."

The tradition began with Japanese immigrants who arrived here a century ago to work on the sugar plantations but has since spread to the numerous other ethnic groups. The custom in Japan is to eat tai, or sea bream, for good luck. But this fish isn't found in waters around Hawaii so the immigrants substituted ahi.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1029441.html http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1029441.html Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:06 EST
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The Senate Democratic bill (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act):

WHO'S COVERED: About 94 percent of legal residents under age 65 - compared with 83 percent now. Government subsidies to help buy coverage start in 2014. Illegal immigrants would not receive assistance.

COST: Coverage provisions cost $848 billion over 10 years.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1029295.html http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1029295.html Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:51 EST
Medvedev's statement marked a rare criticism of the United Russia party led by his predecessor and mentor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. United Russia is a power base for Putin, who has not ruled out a return to the presidency in 2012.

Speaking before a major party meeting in St. Petersburg also attended by Putin, Medvedev accused some of United Russia's regional branches of using their dominance and official connections to shape the election results in their favor.

He said the party must "free itself of such people and shed such bad political habits."

"Elections must express the people's will in free competition between ideas and programs, but they turn into a different story when democratic procedures are mixed with administrative ones," he said. He did not elaborate.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1029420.html http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1029420.html Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:36 EST
But she can look through the window from her kitchen table, just past her backyard with its swingset and pet llama, and see an ominous sign on a neighboring fence: "Danger: Uranium Mine."

For almost a decade, people who make their homes in this rural community in the Mason Valley 65 miles southeast of Reno have blamed that enormous abandoned mine for the high levels of uranium in their water wells.

They say they have been met by a stone wall from state regulators, local politicians and the huge oil company that inherited the toxic site - BP PLC. Those interests have insisted uranium naturally occurs in the region's soil and there's no way to prove that a half-century of processing metals at the former Anaconda pit mine is responsible for the contamination.

That has changed. A new wave of testing by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found that 79 percent of the wells tested north of the World War II-era copper mine have dangerous levels of uranium or arsenic or both that make the water unsafe to drink.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1029654.html http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/1029654.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:54 EST
The dispute among Democrats foretells of a rowdy floor debate next month on legislation that would extend health care coverage to roughly 31 million Americans. Republicans have already made clear they aren't supporting the bill.

Final passage is in jeopardy, even after the chamber's historic 60-39 vote Saturday night to begin debate.

"I don't want a big-government, Washington-run operation that would undermine the ... private insurance that 200 million Americans now have," said Sen. Ben Nelson, a conservative Nebraska Democrat.

Nelson and three other moderates - Democratic Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Connecticut independent Joe Lieberman - agreed to open debate despite expressing reservations on the measure. Each of them has warned that they might not support the final bill.]]>