AP State Business News

Canadian investor Arthur Wong is buying condos in Las Vegas and Phoenix like a shopper at Costco: In bulk, with slashed prices.

In a sharp improvement, more than half of U.S. states added jobs in October, though economists said many of the gains likely occurred in temporary employment.

A deal for Comcast Corp. to buy a controlling stake in NBC Universal and create one of the most powerful media companies in the world is taking longer than expected as the current owners tussle over price.

The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. this week has risen by 12 this week to 1,113.

California's unemployment rate rose to 12.5 percent in October to set another modern record, even though more than 25,000 Californians found jobs, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday.

Some of the computer industry's biggest players - such as IBM Corp., Intel Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. - have wowed Wall Street this fall with stronger-than-expected profits.

President Barack Obama has nominated a former press secretary to President George W. Bush and a past chairman of CNN to the Broadcasting Board of Governors. The independent agency oversees nonmilitary international broadcasts sponsored by the federal government, including Voice of America.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has recalled some pumpkin cheesecake pies because they may contain pecans that were not declared on the products' packaging.

A Nebraska philanthropist facing criminal charges stemming from almost $15 million in Las Vegas gambling debts moved Thursday to turn the tables against casino giant Harrah's Entertainment.

Nevada gambling regulators have approved a casino license for the centerpiece casino at the $8.5 billion CityCenter complex on the Las Vegas Strip.

EBay has completed its sale of Skype for about $2 billion to an investor group that included the founders of the Internet phone service.

The Biggest Little City in the World isn't going to be "a little left of center" after all.

The Homeland Security Department will give a seal of approval to businesses volunteering to use an electronic program to check workers' immigration status.

The Homeland Security Department wants to expand speedy screening of preapproved, low-risk air travelers arriving in the United States to most international airports in the country.

Home sales, median prices in October compared to a year ago in selected California counties:

A federal jury on Thursday found the former head of the country's largest drug distributor guilty of fraud, nearly 10 years after he played a central role in one of the costliest corporate accounting scandals of the time.

A tracking firm says the median home price in California increased more than 2 percent last month from September to its highest level in nearly a year.

Shoppers spent more money at low-price Old Navy stores in the third quarter, helping Gap Inc.'s profit climb 25 percent compared with last year, the retailer said Thursday.

A group of major national research libraries says users now can search the full text of 1.6 billion pages from 4.6 million digitized volumes.

A California-based holding company has agreed to a $135 million deal to acquire James Construction Group LLC, one of the largest privately held construction companies in the Southeast.

Consumers will have to wait until next year's holiday shopping season to find out if Google Inc.'s new operating system can deliver on its promise to make low-cost computers run faster.

The former chairman of McKesson Corp. has been convicted of securities fraud after a retrial of a $9 billion accounting scandal case dating back a decade.

The median home price in California reached its highest level in nearly a year, a fresh sign that the housing market is undergoing a sustained recovery, a tracking firm said in a report released Thursday.

Shareholders approved the formation of a new company out of DirecTV Group Inc. and some of Liberty Media Corp.'s entertainment businesses, as the chairman of both firms dampened speculation about a sale to a big phone company.

It's an issue that Democrats would rather not deal with as they shape a health care overhaul. Yet a new Associated Press poll says most Americans support curbs on medical malpractice lawsuits.

Yahoo Inc. is jumping on the Twitter bandwagon in its latest attempt to get people to use its Internet search engine more frequently.

A tracking firm says the median home price in Northern California jumped nearly 7 percent last month from September.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein is encouraging the Obama administration to adopt new energy efficiency standards for televisions, similar to those just approved in her home state of California.

For the second time in a little more than a year, a glitch at one of the two centers that handle flight plans for the nation's air travel system set off delays and cancellations for passengers around the country.

The foreclosure crisis likely will persist well into next year as high unemployment pushes more people out of homes, pulls down housing prices and raises concerns about the broader economic recovery.

California regulators have adopted the nation's first energy-efficiency standards for televisions, a move that will eventually ban power-hungry sets from the state's store shelves.

Are cramped chickens crazy chickens?

The corporate glass ceiling remains firmly in place at companies based in California, according to a study released Wednesday.

Two Web sites that sold songs by The Beatles for 25 cents apiece should remain shut down indefinitely, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

Wells Fargo & Co. on Wednesday agreed to repay customers about $1.4 billion to settle a lawsuit and regulatory investigations alleging the company improperly marketed risky investments as safe.

Sony Corp. says some customers who pre-order its newest e-reader may not get the gadget in time for the holidays.

Two-year-old airline Virgin America touched down Wednesday in Florida, marking one of its most ambitious expansion moves yet with a lavish welcoming ceremony that included Virgin Group Ltd. founder and billionaire Richard Branson.

Casinos are buying fewer slot machines than they have in a decade as they stretch their spending, a slot machine maker said Wednesday.

Three subsidiaries of Wells Fargo & Co. have agreed to repay customers about $1.4 billion to settle a lawsuit alleging the company improperly marketed risky investments as safe.

Despite multiple attempts to balance California's budget, the state can still expect to confront shortfalls approaching $20 billion during each of the next five years, according to a long-range forecast released Wednesday.

The video game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" is blasting its way into entertainment history.

The North American Securities Administrators Association says Wells Fargo has agreed to repurchase about $1.3 billion in soured auction-rate securities from clients.

DirecTV Group Inc. chose the vice chairman of PepsiCo Inc. as its chief executive Wednesday, filling a vacuum created when its former chief left just as the nation's largest satellite TV provider was in the midst of a spinoff.

A new forecast says California is facing a $21 billion budget gap this year.

Cell phone handset maker Sony Ericsson will move its North American headquarters from North Carolina to Atlanta and close a half-dozen sites worldwide as it retrenches against what it expects will be a tighter market and cuts about 1,600 jobs globally.

Shares of Fortinet Inc. rose sharply in the company's first day of trading on the Nasdaq, another sign that the recently moribund IPO market is coming back to life.

Users of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 video game consoles can now brag about their achievements on Facebook as both systems integrate the social network this week.

California regulators adopted the nation's first energy-efficiency standards for televisions Wednesday in hopes of reducing electricity use at a time when millions of American households are switching to power-hungry, wide-view, flat-screen, high-definition sets.

The National Urban League is teaming with a small-business financial specialist to offer loans to companies unable to get approved by banks.