EPA delays decision on 15% ethanol gas blend The Environmental Protection Agency says it will wait until this fall to decide whether car engines can handle higher concentrations of ethanol in gasoline. The agency had been expected to decide by this month whether to increase the maximum blend from 10 to 15 percent. The EPA said that initial tests "look good" and should be completed by the end of September. A decision will come after the Energy Department completes the testing of the higher blend on vehicles built after 2007. Ethanol groups expressed disappointment with the delay.
Feds tout nearly 500 mortgage fraud arrests The Justice Department said investigators have made nearly 500 arrests since March in a major crackdown on mortgage fraud. The nationwide initiative, called Operation Stolen Dreams, is the largest collective enforcement effort aimed at confronting the problem of mortgage fraud, Attorney General Eric Holder told a news conference. It involves 1,215 criminal defendants in cases that uncovered more than $2.3 billion in losses.
AOL sells Bebo, reportedly at near-total loss AOL said that it sold Bebo, its struggling social networking site, to Criterion Capital Partners, a private equity fund based in Los Angeles, for a fraction of what AOL paid for the site two years ago. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but reports pegged its value at $10 million or less. AOL paid $850 million to a pair of British entrepreneurs for the company in March 2008. AOL once had high hopes that Bebo would help it to regain momentum, especially with younger audiences and advertisers, and to catch other fast-growing Internet franchises.
Uh-oh! Some SpaghettiOs being recalled Campbell Soup Co. is recalling 15 million pounds of SpaghettiOs with meatballs because of possible underprocessing. The U.S. Agriculture Department announced the recall late Thursday. The company is recalling certain lots of three varieties of the pasta product often consumed by children: SpaghettiOs with Meatballs, SpaghettiOs A to Z with Meatballs, and SpaghettiOs Fun Shapes with Meatballs (Cars). The recall dates back to December 2008.
Co-chief of struggling MySpace is leaving After just four months on the job, co-president Jason Hirschhorn is leaving the struggling social networking site MySpace. Mike Jones, the other co-president who shared the title and an office, will now lead the company as president. Hirschhorn confirmed his departure on Twitter. Hirschhorn, Jones, and former CEO Owen Van Natta joined MySpace in April of last year. Van Natta, formerly chief revenue officer of rival Facebook, quit in February and Hirschhorn and Jones took over.
Caterpillar investing millions in production Caterpillar Inc. said it plans to invest almost $700 million during the next four years to start producing mining shovels and expand production of its trucks at plants in Illinois and India. The world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment said it plans to add a new mining shovel production line at its Aurora, Ill., plant and expand truck production in Decatur, Ill., and Chennai, India. The Aurora plant is likely to gain about 300 jobs through 2014.
Lower costs to help Aetna beat forecasts Aetna Inc., the third-largest U.S. health insurer, said it expects to beat analyst estimates for adjusted second-quarter earnings, thanks to lower-than-expected medical costs. The company will top the consensus estimate of analysts for operational earnings of 68 cents a share, Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. At an investor conference today, Chief Financial Officer Joseph Zubretsky said Aetna will update its 2010 profit projections on a July 28 conference call.
Fed's emergency lending is lowest since '08 Bank borrowing over the past week from the Federal Reserve's emergency lending program fell to the lowest point since before the credit crisis struck with force in the fall of 2008. The decline provided further evidence that credit markets are improving. The Fed said that banks averaged $104 million in borrowing for the week ended Wednesday. That was down by $1 million from the average of $105 million for the previous week.
