On Wednesday September 8, 2010, 5:50 pm EDT
BP report blames itself,
others for oil spill
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- BP took
some of the blame for the Gulf oil disaster in an internal report issued
Wednesday, acknowledging among other things that it misinterpreted a key
pressure test of the well. But in a possible preview of its legal strategy, it
also pointed the finger at its partners on the doomed rig.
The highly technical,
193-page report attributes the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history and the
rig explosion that set it off to a complex chain of failures both human and
mechanical. Some of those problems have been made public over the past 4 1/2
months, such as the failure of the blowout preventer to clamp the well shut.
The report is far from the
definitive ruling on the cause of the catastrophe. For one thing, government
investigators have not yet begun to fully analyze the blowout preventer, which
was raised from the bottom of the sea over Labor Day weekend.
Obama: Don't extend tax
breaks for wealthiest
CLEVELAND (AP) -- President
Barack Obama strongly defended his opposition to extending Bush-era tax breaks
for the wealthiest Americans on Wednesday and delivered a searing attack on
Republicans and their House leader for advocating "the same philosophy
that led to this mess in the first place."
Obama said the struggling
U.S. economy can't afford to spend $700 billion to keep lower tax rates in
place for the nation's highest earners despite a call by House Minority Leader
John Boehner and other GOP leaders to do just that.
Obama's comments came as
the administration rolled out new proposals designed to re-ignite a sputtering
recovery, including new tax breaks for businesses and $50 billion for U.S.
roads, rails and airports.
Fed survey sees slower growth
in East and Midwest
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The
economy lost strength in late summer as factory production weakened in areas of
the East Coast and Midwest.
A survey the Federal
Reserve released Wednesday found the slower growth spreading to more regions of
the country.
Of the 12 regions the Fed
tracks, economic activity slowed or was mixed in five -- New York,
Philadelphia, Richmond, Atlanta and Chicago. Activity elsewhere was described
as modest or pointed to positive developments.
In the Fed's previous survey
in late July, only two regions -- Atlanta and Chicago -- had reported slower
growth.
Stocks resume rally as
European debt worries ease
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks
resumed their rally Wednesday after a successful auction of Portuguese
government debt eased worries about Europe's financial system.
The Dow Jones industrial
average gained 46 points, and broader indexes also rose. European markets
reversed their losses after the results of the auction were announced.
Major indexes pulled back
from their highs in the afternoon after the Federal Reserve said more regions
of the country saw slower growth late in the summer. The Fed's "beige
book" report on regional economic activity showed five of the 12 regions
tracked by the Fed showed mixed or slowing activity compared with just two
during the most recent report in July.
Job openings rise for first
time since April
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Job
openings rose in July after two months of declines, a positive sign that
companies could step up hiring in the coming months.
The Labor Department says
the number of jobs advertised rose by 6.2 percent to 3.04 million. That's the
highest total since April, when temporary census hiring inflated that month's
figure. Even with the increase, total openings remain far below the 4.4 million
that existed in December 2007, when the recession began.
The report, the Job
Openings and Labor Turnover survey, indicates heavy competition for jobs. In
July, 4.8 unemployed people, on average, were vying for each opening. That's an
improvement from the peak of 6.3 in November 2009. But it's far more than the
1.8 unemployed people competing for each opening when the recession began.
Consumers cut back on
credit card use once again
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Consumer
borrowing fell again in July as households cut back on their credit card use
for a 23rd consecutive month, adding more drag on an economy struggling to
mount a sustained rebound.
Borrowing dropped at an
annual rate of $3.6 billion in July, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday.
That marked the 17th drop in credit in the past 18 months.
Americans did boost
borrowing for auto loans in July but this gain was offset by further reductions
in the category that includes credit cards.
Google search accelerates
with 'instant' results
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) --
Google Inc. stepped on its Internet search accelerator Wednesday by adding a
feature that displays results as soon as people begin typing their requests.
The change, called
"Google Instant," is the closest the 12-year-old company has come yet
to realizing its founders' ambition to build a search engine that reads its
users' minds.
The achievement wasn't lost
on Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who jokingly told reporters that the
company's lightning-quick computers are morphing into the "other
third" of people's brains.
The shift means Google
users will begin to see an ever-evolving set of search results appearing on
their computer screens, potentially changing with each additional character
typed.
AP Source: New GM CEO wants
automaker to beat BMW
DETROIT (AP) -- The New CEO
of General Motors Co. told employees that the automaker needs to make cars and
trucks that are better than those of competitors such as BMW.
Former telecommunications
executive Daniel Akerson, in his first webcast to employees since taking over
as CEO Sept. 1, said the company needs to go into "attack mode" to
stay ahead of rivals, according to a worker who watched the speech on
Wednesday.
Akerson told employees that
GM needs to keep competitors on their heels rather than responding to what they
do, said the worker, who asked not to be identified because the webcast was not
public.
AP Exclusive: Back to work
after salmonella case
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The
peanut industry executive whose filthy processing plants were blamed in a
salmonella outbreak two years ago that killed nine people and sickened hundreds
more is back in the business.
Stewart Parnell, former
president of the now-bankrupt Peanut Corp. of America, is working as a
consultant to peanut companies as the federal government's criminal
investigation against him has languished for more than 18 months, The
Associated Press has learned.
Parnell, who invoked the
Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying before Congress in February 2009, once
directed employees to "turn them loose" after samples of peanuts had
tested positive for salmonella and then were cleared in a second test,
according to e-mails uncovered at the time by congressional investigators.
Oracle plans to give Hurd
$950,000 annual salary
NEW YORK (AP) -- Oracle
Corp. plans to pay newly appointed co-President Mark Hurd a base salary of
$950,000 annually and said the ousted Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO is eligible for a
target bonus of $5 million in the current fiscal year.
Oracle released the details
of Hurd's pay package in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission
on Wednesday.
Hurd's pay package includes
stock options totaling 10 million shares. The company said Hurd's options will
carry an exercise price equal to the market value of the shares on the date
they are granted, which the filing did not specify. If he stays with the
company, Hurd will be awarded options to buy another 5 million shares each year
for the next five years.
Appeals court dismisses
Boeing-CIA lawsuit
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A
sharply divided federal appeals court dismissed a lawsuit challenging Boeing
Co.'s role flying terrorism suspects to secret prisons around the world as part
of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals cited national security risks in its 6-5 ruling.
The lawsuit was filed by
five men suspected of terrorism who were arrested shortly after the Sept. 11
attacks and say they were flown to secret prisons where they were tortured. The
men sued Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Dataplan in 2007, alleging that the program
-- called "torture flights" by critics -- amounted to illegal
"forced disappearances."
By The Associated Press
The Dow Jones industrial
average gained 46.32, or 0.5 percent, to close at 19,387.01. The Dow had been
up as much as 86 points earlier in the day before paring those gains after the
Fed's regional economic report came out.
The S&P 500 index rose
7.03 or 0.6 percent, to 1,098.87, while the Nasdaq rose 19.98, or 0.9 percent,
to 2,228.87
Benchmark crude for October
delivery rose 58 cents to settle at $74.67 a barrel on the New York Mercantile
Exchange.
In other Nymex trading in
October contracts, heating oil rose 0.74 cent to settle at $2.0817 a gallon and
gasoline gained 0.65 cent to settle at $1.9394 a gallon. Natural gas for
October delivery fell 3.8 cents to settle at $3.814 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, Brent crude rose
43 cents to settle at $78.17 on the ICE Futures exchange.