Latest Business Wires

Asian carp may have breached an electronic barrier designed to prevent the giant invaders from upsetting the ecosystem in the Great Lakes and jeopardizing a $7 billion sport fishery, officials said Friday.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Friday it is dropping a clause from its credit card contracts that required disputes with customers to be handled through binding arbitration, a move that could lead to consumers filing class-action and other lawsuits.

Just two years after hitting a record low, the unemployment rate in Alabama climbed to 10.9 percent in October, the highest it has been in more than 25 years, state officials announced Friday.

Duke Realty Corp. said Friday it renewed an unsecured revolving credit facility, which now has a borrowing capacity of $850 million.

More than 1,300 people have already voted on whether to let the Charles Town Races & Slots put table games in its casino.

Tennessee's new law allowing people with handgun permits to be armed in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol is unconstitutionally vague, a judge ruled on Friday.

Pat Farnelli says there's something in the water at her house. The last time she drank it, she says she vomited four times. It's made her children sick, too.

Former U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt pushed Friday for Iowa to expand its focus on public health, arguing the state has the medical infrastructure in place to make it a leader in the field.

Senators are calling on General Motors and Chrysler to release more details on ongoing talks over the automakers' plans to close thousands of auto dealerships as part of their bankruptcies.

Chiropractors get a lift in the Senate health care bill, thanks to a senator from the state practitioners consider the birthplace of their profession — Iowa.

UPS Inc., the world's largest shipping carrier, is hiking 2010 rates for ground packages by an average of 4.9 percent.

Holiday travelers waited a little longer to book their flights this year, likely holding out for better deals and waiting to see if they would still have a job. And some aren't going at all.

Becton Dickinson and Co. said Friday it bought molecular diagnostic test maker HandyLab Inc. for $275 million.

The state has decided not to appeal a judge's decision that allows South Dakota's new smoking ban law to be referred to a public vote in the 2010 election.

Car parts maker TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. said Friday that it completed a previously announced private debt offering.

Institutional pharmacy services provider PharMerica Corp. said Friday it named Geoffrey G. Meyers its the board of directors.

Power plant owner NRG Energy Inc. on Friday said it has called for the partial redemption of its 4 percent convertible preferred stock, aiming cut nearly half of its outstanding preferred stock shares.

Shares of Verigy Ltd. rose Friday after the maker of chip testing equipment turned in a stronger-than-expected performance in the fourth quarter.

At a time of budget cuts, Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter's administration last year paid employees and outside contractors $1.1 million to lobby Colorado lawmakers on legislation ranging from renewable energy tax credits to increasing motor vehicle license fees.

West Virginia's Legislature ended its special session Friday with tweaks to the gas tax and state energy policy among the final bills to pass.