Fast-food restaurant employees protested in New York City on Thursday, demanding higher pay and the right to form a union - the latest attempt by lower-wage workers in the United States to increase their compensation.
The campaign, called “Fast Food Forward,” seeks to roughly double hourly pay to $15 an hour and is being billed as the largest attempt to unionize U.S. fast-food workers.
Leading the effort is New York Communities for Change, a group that has helped unionize low-wage carwash and grocery workers in New York.
Strikes were scheduled at McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and Domino’s restaurants around the city throughout the day.
READ ON: Fast-food workers in New York protest for higher wages
New single-family home sales fell slightly in October and the government revised sharply lower its estimate for the prior month’s sales, casting a small shadow over what has been one of the brighter spots in the U.S. economy.
The Commerce Department said on Wednesday sales dropped 0.3 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted 368,000-unit annual rate.
Government data for new home sales are subject to substantial revisions. Indeed, the Commerce Department cut its estimate for sales in September by 20,000 to a 369,000-unit rate.
READ ON: New U.S. home sales edge down, prior estimate revised lower
The British oil company BP Plc and its affiliates have been suspended from new contracts with the U.S. government due to the criminal charges in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Wednesday.
Earlier this month, BP plead guilty to criminal misconduct in the Gulf of Mexico disaster, the worst oil spill in U.S. history, and agreed to pay record penalties of $4.5 billion.
The temporary contract suspension stems from those charges, the EPA said.
Hostess Brands Inc, its lenders and the unions representing its striking workers, agreed to start mediation hearings on Tuesday at the urging of a bankruptcy court judge.
A hearing on Monday during which the bankrupt maker of Twinkies snack cakes and Wonder Bread was set to ask for permission to liquidate was quickly adjourned until Wednesday after the judge urged the parties to mediate in private.
The mediation will begin on Tuesday.
READ ON: Hostess, union agree to mediation at judge’s urging
Apple Inc sold 3 million of its new iPads in the first three days the tablet computers were available, driving optimism for a strong holiday quarter despite intensifying competition.
Sales of the 7.9-inch iPad mini and fourth-generation 9.7-inch version, both Wi-Fi only models, were double the first-weekend sales of the Wi-Fi iPad sold in March, Apple said on Monday.
Apple did not break out numbers for the crucial iPad mini, a smaller version of the original tablet designed to spearhead its foray into a segment now dominated by Amazon.com Inc and Google Inc.
Analysts estimate that about 2.3 million of the new iPads sold over the weekend were the mini-tablets, surpassing expectations of 1 million to 1.5 million.
New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Monday launched an investigation into post-Sandy price gouging after receiving hundreds of complaints from consumers across the state.
Schneiderman said his office has received complaints from consumers from areas of the state hit hardest when the massive storm struck one week ago - New York City, the Hudson Valley and Long Island.
The largest number of complaints are related to increased gasoline prices, he said in a statement, but consumers also have reported possible gouging for emergency supplies like generators, hotels raising rates due to “high demand,” as well as increased prices for food and water.
READ ON: New York AG launches post-Sandy price-gouging inquiry
U.S. stock markets to close on Monday, possibly Tuesday
U.S. stock trading will be closed on Monday and possibly Tuesday in response to Hurricane Sandy, NYSE Euronext said late on Sunday.
NYSE Euronext, which runs the New York Stock Exchange, had previously said that electronic trading would remain open and that only the exchange’s trading floor would close.
In a statement, the company said that “the dangerous conditions developing as a result of Hurricane Sandy will make it extremely difficult to ensure the safety of our people and communities, and safety must be our first priority.”
LIVE COVERAGE: Updates on Hurricane Sandy
Google has officially released their Q3 earnings report, adding that the initial report was erroneously released early and “financial results reported in the prior Form 8-K have not changed.”
Quote from Larry Page: “We had a strong quarter. Revenue was up 45 percent year-on-year, and, at just fourteen years old, we cleared our first $14 billion revenue quarter. I am also really excited about the progress we’re making creating a beautifully simple, intuitive Google experience across all devices.”
READ ON: Google filing error shocks investors, exposes process
Google Inc reported net revenue of $11.3 billion for the third quarter, below Wall Street’s expectations.
The surprise announcement, which had been expected after the market close, helped send its shares down 9 percent to $688.
Citigroup Inc Chief Executive Vikram Pandit resigned abruptly on Tuesday, effective immediately, a shock change at the top of the No. 3 U.S. bank just one day after a surprisingly strong quarterly earnings report.
Analysts and investors quickly raised red flags about the timing, saying it did not appear to be a natural transition and rather suggested some sort of dispute at the bank.
But Citigroup shares rose 1.5 percent in morning trading as some investors said they were not sorry to see the one-time hedge fund executive leave.
A statement from Chairman Michael O’Neill said Michael Corbat, previously chief executive for Europe, Middle East and Africa, would succeed Pandit as CEO and as a board member.
Within minutes of the bank’s announcement, Pandit’s name was gone from Citigroup’s website.
READ ON: Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit resigns
