Report: Interim consumer chief considered The Obama administration is considering appointing legal scholar Elizabeth Warren to run a new consumer bureau on a temporary basis to avoid a potentially bruising confirmation battle in the Senate, the New York Times reported. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is to be led by a director appointed by the president with the consent of the Senate. The Times, citing unnamed people briefed on the appointment process, said the White House was exploring ways to have Warren run the bureau without enduring a confirmation battle.
Harley workers OK concessionary contract Harley-Davidson Inc.'s three Wisconsin unions approved a labor contract laden with steep concessions, reacting defensively after the motorcycle company threatened to move hundreds of jobs out of the state. The proposed deal freezes employees' pay, slashes hundreds of production jobs and assigns large volumes of work to part-time workers. But it also saves hundreds of other jobs. About 1,140 union members from a suburban Milwaukee plant voted, approving the contract by 55 to 45 percent. In northern Wisconsin, 293 workers at the Tomahawk plant voted, approving it 73 to 27 percent.
Airlines' July on-time rate down from year ago U.S. airlines were late more often in July than a year earlier, but there were only three planes stuck for more than three hours, the government said. Although there were more late flights in July, the on-time rate for the country's biggest airlines in the first seven months of this year was the third best in 16 years. The nation's largest airlines operated 76.7 percent of flights on time in July, down from 77.6 percent in July 2009. The on-time rate in July was better than the month before, as incidents of severe weather that delayed planes declined.
HP to spend $1.5B for network security firm Hewlett-Packard Co. wants to have the answer to all of its customers' technology problems. So it is buying network security provider ArcSight Inc. to help them respond to the growing threat posed by hackers, computer viruses and digital fraud. The $1.5 billion deal extends HP's recent spate of acquisitions and could help signal that even after ousting CEO Mark Hurd, it hasn't lost its footing in the effort to win fatter profit margins beyond the personal-computer business. Shares of HP, based in Palo Alto, Calif., added 8 cents to $38.28.
Dollar Thrifty accepts sweetened Hertz bid Dollar Thrifty has accepted a new bid of about $1.43 billion from Hertz, which is battling Avis to acquire the rental car company and a bigger stake of the vacationers' market. Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc.'s board said late Sunday that it accepted Hertz Global Holdings Inc.'s new $50-per-share offer -- up from the $41 it offered in April -- and amended the companies' merger agreement. The offer was made in an attempt to thwart a $1.3 billion counteroffer by Avis Budget Group Inc.
For seafood at Whole Foods, green is good Whole Foods Market Inc. launched a new color-coded rating program that measures the environmental impact of its wild-caught seafood. Similar to a stoplight, seafood is given a green, yellow or red rating. A green rating indicates the species is relatively abundant and is caught in environmentally friendly ways. Yellow means some concerns exist with the species' status or the methods by which it was caught. And a red rating means the species is suffering from overfishing, or the methods used to catch it harm other marine life or habitats.
YouTube experimenting with live streaming YouTube is making its long-expected foray into live streaming by launching an experimental trial with four new media partners. The new live streaming platform will be previewed in a two-day trial, but is expected to later grow considerably across the Google Inc.-owned website. Four YouTube partners will participate: the celebrity-focused Young Hollywood; the online television outlet Next New Networks; the how-to guide Howcast; and Rocketboom, the Internet culture vlog.
Tribune creditors seeking to sue Sam Zell Tribune Co.'s junior creditors are asking a bankruptcy judge for the right to sue Sam Zell and others involved in his 2007 buyout that left the company loaded with debt. The request made by the official committee of unsecured creditors came in a court filing, though it did not signal an imminent lawsuit. The committee said the unsecured creditors do not want to interfere with ongoing negotiations with Tribune over its Chapter 11 reorganization plan.
