The National Transportation Safety Board recommended that data recorders be required in all passenger vehicles. The recommendation came in a report of probable cause of a car crash that killed 10 people and injured 63. Investigators concluded the 86-year-old driver had stepped on the gas instead of the brake and plowed into a farmers market in Santa Monica, Calif., but they came to that determination without testimony from the driver, who refused on his lawyer's advice to talk with the investigators. The NTSB recommended black boxes two months after the top federal auto safety agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said it saw no need to require them because automakers are adding them voluntarily to more models.
Refinance Cash-Outs Drying Up
Freddie Mac said the amount of home equity converted into cash by home loan refinancing probably will fall 48 percent to a four-year low in 2004 as interest rates rise and lending drops. The federally chartered mortgage finance company expects so-called cash-out loans, or mortgages refinanced at higher balances, to tumble to $71.7 billion this year from a record $138.1 billion in 2003.
The Rio Carbon is Rio Audio's MP3 and Windows Media Audio player. Shaped like a slim wedge and weighing 3.2 ounces, it uses Seagate Technology's new 5-gigabyte hard drive. It touts up to 20 hours of playback time on a rechargeable battery. The Rio Carbon will cost $249 and is expected to be the first of many audio players to compete against the popular 4-gigabyte iPod Mini.
(Photo From Rio Audio Via Ap)
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Wachovia said the Securities and Exchange Commission may take enforcement action related to alleged improper mutual fund trading and to stock purchases made by current and former executives following the April 2001 announcement that First Union agreed to buy Wachovia. The SEC also may take action against Wachovia, the fifth-largest U.S. bank, related to alleged rapid trading of mutual fund shares by a former employee and an outside broker and trading by a former manager in the fund he oversaw.
Pfizer, the world's biggest drugmaker, sued five Internet pharmacies and sought to seize the domain names of more than two dozen others to stop the sale of counterfeit Viagra, the top-selling male impotence drug. About 20 percent of men who buy erectile dysfunction medicines do so over the Internet, Pfizer said, citing a national survey of 676 men older than 35.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration must disclose illness and injury rates for employers with the worst safety records, a federal judge ruled. The ruling came in response to a 2002 Freedom of Information Act request by the New York Times. The newspaper had asked for records on 13,000 companies, but OSHA denied it, saying the data was confidential. OSHA's parent, the Labor Department, said providing the information would be too labor intensive.
Fidelity Brokerage Services agreed to pay fines of $1 million to the SEC and $1 million to the New York Stock Exchange to settle allegations that employees in nearly two dozen of its branch offices altered and destroyed documents, including applications to open brokerage accounts, authorization letters for trades and other financial documents, prior to annual inspections. Boston-based Fidelity Brokerage, a division of Fidelity Investments, neither admitted nor denied the allegations and was censured by the NYSE. As a result of Fidelity's internal investigation, 13 employees were fired.
UAL, the parent company of United Airlines, asked a bankruptcy court judge to halt pension lawsuits by the International Association of Machinists while the company reorganizes. The union filed suits in New Jersey and Illinois protesting the company's decision to halt contributions to its employee pension plans while in bankruptcy reorganization.
Anthem sued California's insurance commissioner for blocking its proposed $16.4 billion merger with WellPoint Health Networks, a deal that would create the nation's largest health insurer.
More than 9,000 Caterpillar workers will strike Thursday if negotiations that began nearly eight months ago fail to yield a new contract with the heavy equipment giant, United Auto Workers officials said. Both sides said they remained hopeful that talks can avoid a repeat of the bitter, 6 1/2-year stalemate that spawned two failed strikes before the two sides agreed to their last contract.
321 Studios, a maker of software that enables users to copy DVDs and computer games, folded under the mounting weight of lawsuits by deep-pocketed movie studios and video game producers. In a posting on its Web site, 321 Studios announced "it has ceased business operations including, but not limited to, the sale, support and promotion of our products."
