Briefs: GM to offer buyouts to 5,200 workers
DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. is offering buyouts and retirement incentives to 5,200 hourly workers represented by the United Auto Workers. GM would not reveal how many workers it expects to leave under the program, but said 5,200 are eligible, spokesman Dan Flores said Tuesday. More than 34,000 GM workers left last year by way of retirement or buyouts, he said. The program announced Tuesday will be offered to all UAW-represented hourly employees working at GM's service and parts and operations.
Exelon to apply for license in Texas
NEW YORK -- Exelon Corp.'s nuclear unit said Tuesday it would apply for a license for a new nuclear plant at a site in Victoria County in southeast Texas. It will be the fifth recent license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by a U.S. company for new nuclear generating units. Prior to that, no new applications had been filed since 1977. Exelon Nuclear said it expects to submit the application in September.
Wendy's challenges rivals with burger
LOS ANGELES --Wendy's International Inc. Tuesday introduced a 99-cent double cheeseburger, which the company hopes will help it compete with bigger rivals McDonald's and Burger King. In a statement, Wendy's said the new "Stack Attack" burger would help reel in cash-strapped consumers. The move comes as Burger King plans to test a $1 double cheeseburger that is larger than McDonald's comparable product in several markets next year.
Sprint tags Hesse as new CEO
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Sprint Nextel Corp. on Tuesday named Dan Hesse, chairman and chief executive officer of wireline company Embarq Corp., as its new president and CEO, effective immediately. Hesse, who has led Overland Park, Kan.-based Embarq since Sprint spun it off as a separate company 1½ years ago, replaces Gary Forsee, who was ousted from the nation's third-largest wireless provider in October following several quarters of falling subscriber numbers.
Tribune settles circulation case
NEW YORK -- Media group Tribune Co. has agreed to pay $15 million in a settlement with federal prosecutors after two of its newspapers, Newsday and Hoy, admitted to inflating circulation numbers. Newsday Inc. and Spanish-language newspaper Hoy Publications admitted that between 2001 and 2004, employees inflated circulation numbers in books and records and lied to the Audit and Bureau of Circulations, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn said in a news release Tuesday. The agreement, under which the two newspapers will avoid prosecution by the U.S. Attorney's Office, was reached after they set aside up to $90 million to compensate advertisers misled by the false numbers. So far $83 million has been paid.
Allstate reports wildfire losses
NORTHBROOK -- Allstate Corp. said Tuesday October's California wildfires plus other disasters have hiked the insurance company's fourth-quarter catastrophe losses by about $100 million. Allstate said it received more than 7,000 claims from the Southern California wildfires, resulting in approximately $315 million to $335 million in wildfire-related catastrophe losses to be recorded in fourth quarter 2007, which ends Dec. 31. In addition, wind and hail in the Northwest and ice storms in the Midwest have pushed the company's total catastrophe losses in October and November to between $360 million and $400 million. That's about $100 million above catastrophe losses for the full fourth quarter of 2006.
Boeing earns contract bonus
WASHINGTON -- Boeing Co. for the first time got all of its potential bonus this year for managing the ground-based U.S. missile defense program, cutting costs and improving the system' s efficiency, according to Lieutenant General Henry Obering, head of the U.S. missile defense agency. Obering, in a two-page letter to Boeing President James Albaugh, said Chicago-based Boeing and its subcontractors will share $330.5 million. The top subcontractors include Northrop Grumman Corp. and Raytheon Co.