With retail sales, factory orders and manufacturing metrics indicating we may be exiting the economic soft patch, the second half was off to a promising start. That is until the only metric that matters – jobs – was released. Friday’s Labor Department report was a ...
For many businesses across America, the economic recession over the past couple of years has been devastating. For others, though, business has been, well, fantastic, in spite of hard times. At least that’s the reasoning behind international salon chain Fantastic Sams’ ...
For Cami Baker, of Allenstown, being on national television is just another day in the fast-paced world of real estate. “It’s an experience that can’t be replaced,” she said about her experiences on not just one, but two national television programs. As ...
SEATTLE – Tom Maier smoked Winston cigarettes for 40 years. Now in his 60s, he has decided to start rolling his own cigarettes at Cheap Smokes in White Center, near Seattle, to save money. He said he didn’t think he’d like the taste. But it “turns out I ...
WASHINGTON – Senate negotiators on Thursday announced a final deal that ends a 45-cent-per-gallon tax credit for ethanol by the month’s end. The measure now goes to the House of Representatives, where the nation’s formidable farm lobby is expected to fight to keep ...
LOS ANGELES – Stung by a new breed of sophisticated thieves, the nation’s major retailers are fighting back. Well-organized crime rings have added tough new challenges for merchants who have long contended with petty shoplifters and their own light-fingered employees. ...
NEW YORK – JPMorgan Chase & Co. is set to pay $228 million to settle accusations that it frequently manipulated a bidding process in order to win investment business from municipalities. The bank’s Wall Street division is admitting wrongdoing and paying the money to ...
LOS ANGELES – Europe’s debt crisis is going from bad to worse – again. Investors dumped government bonds of Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain on Wednesday, driving market yields up sharply, after Moody’s Investors Service slashed Portugal’s ...
Carm’s Gift Shoppe first opened its doors in June 1991, when Carmella Norris’ knack for craft-making turned into a side hobby that eventually evolved into a store. Two summers later, in July 1993, the shop moved from Hollis to its current address in Pennichuck Square along ...
Employers generally cannot prohibit employees from discussing wages and benefits among themselves or with current or potential union representatives. This is the case even if the employer is not a union shop. This point was the subject of a decision from the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ...
MERRIMACK – Add two new customers to GT Solar’s base of worldwide consumers looking for productive polysilicon production equipment. GT Solar International Inc. announced Tuesday that it received $81.7 million in new orders for polysilicon production equipment and ...
Things are looking up for unemployed workers in New Hampshire. U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen announced Tuesday that New Hampshire has won a $675,314 competitive On-the-Job Training grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. After earning an initial $972,474 award from the Department of Labor on June ...
After being laid off from his IT job in 2001, Ravi Singh decided to open Global Flavors, the south Nashua market specializing in Indian foods and spices. Ten years later, Singh added to his shop with an Indian fast-food restaurant – Kurry Masala Express – that opened three ...
DETROIT – The Detroit Three sold 50.2 percent of the light vehicles purchased by U.S. consumers last month, capturing a majority of the market for the first time since August 2009, as the effects of Japan’s March earthquake continued to rock the auto industry. Chrysler led ...
DETROIT – Direct Brands plans a $215 million opening bid for Borders Group, the nation’s second-largest bookseller, in a bankruptcy court auction. Once sold, likely later this month, the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based bookseller will morph into something different, said turnaround ...
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Small businesses looking to grow say they’re running into challenges when they seek financing: Loans are harder to secure, and sometimes are more expensive than before the recession. Lending is picking up around the country. But it hasn’t thawed ...
ASHLAND – Dozens of dams in the state are doing nothing but holding back water or sitting there looking pretty. But if an Ashland company has its way, those dams will also help power the state. “As far as renewable energy goes, it’s a huge opportunity because ...
So that release from the strategic oil reserve certainly did the trick. When I said it was a political move whose impact would be fleeting, even I didn’t envision it having the half life of a tsetse fly. After causing speculators to scurry for an afternoon, oil quickly returned to ...
SAN JOSE, Calif. – Reacting swiftly to an online sales tax signed into law Wednesday by California Gov. Jerry Brown, Amazon.com and Overstock.com announced they are severing their relationships with California affiliates to avoid having to collect the tax. Under federal law, states ...
BOSTON – New Hampshire’s unemployment rate in May may have been 4.8 percent, but it was the lowest rate in New England and the third-lowest in the country, according to the New England Regional Office of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. New Hampshire’s jobless ...