180 in limbo at Toano bottle plant (Virginia Gazette)
Up to 180 Owens-Illinois workers have been told to take the holidays off. The catch is they haven’t been told when to return. No one is explaining why the furlough, but two factors are in play. Beer consumption continues to decline, and InBev isn’t wasting any time cutting costs. Owens-Illinois and Ball Metal split about 50-50 in providing packaging for Williamsburg’s Anheuser-Busch InBev plant.
Opinions mixed on dealing with excess Dominion Power earnings (Virginian-Pilot)
The law that regulates rates and addresses any company overearnings was passed by the General Assembly in 2007. The law allows the SCC’s three-judge panel to order a refund, which would return less than 60 percent of the extra earnings to customers, or cut the company’s rates going forward without giving refunds for overpayment.
November existing-home sales surge (Washington Post)
Federal programs designed to jump start the housing market helped boost sales of previously owned homes to their highest level since February 2007 and whittle down the excess supply of homes on the market in November.
Small-business owners pass on entreprenurial spirit to family (USA Today)
Nearly half of business founders had a parent who started a small business first, according to a Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation report released last summer. Slightly more than 15% had siblings who launched a business before they did.
Seeking Alpha — and Users: 6 New Financial Web Sites (WSJ)
As the still-feeble U.S. economy stumbles to its feet, some entrepreneurs are applying lessons from the economic crisis to new websites that provide financial information and data.
The Dumbest Products of the Decade (Inc.)
Some real good ones on this list, like Crocs, Bluetooth and the Boyfriend arm.
