GM is dropping Petersburg dealer (Petersburg Progress-Index)
Floyd Francis said he has “no problem with that decision — We feel like it was fair, we feel like it was pretty much equal for everybody,” he and the other principals in the family-owned business believe the GMC Truck decision was anything but fair.

Contract voted in at Covington’s MeadWestvaco paper mill (Roanoke Times)
Frequently bitter conflict, both between union negotiators and the Richmond-based company and between two rival unions, preceded Wednesday’s vote. And it seems conflict is destined to continue at the sprawling and routinely odoriferous paper mill, which is the largest employer and taxpayer for both Covington and Alleghany County.

As Owner Struggles, Landmark Mall Languishes (Washington Post)
This is what a dying mall looks like: Long stretches of vacant storefronts and blank walls. A department store with empty shelves preparing to shut down for good. A little boy running around the children’s play area alone. Landmark Mall in Alexandria is part of a growing list of ailing shopping centers across the country that have borne the brunt of the recession.

Joblessness Hits 9.5%, Deflating Recovery Hopes (NY Times)
The American economy lost 467,000 more jobs in June, and the unemployment rate edged up to 9.5 percent in a sobering indication that the longest recession since the 1930s had yet to release its hold.

Why Your Gut Is More Ethical Than Your Brain (Fast Company)
Looking back on the subprime-mortgage debacle, it seems the only accurate information in the whole ecosystem was Francis’s bad feeling. And one suspects other people had it, too. What if a few dozen others in the chain had listened to that feeling?