AP State Business News

The media moguls attending an annual powwow staged by investment bank Allen & Co. used to be able to rest comfortably in the Idaho mountains as they mulled their next moves.

With its IOUs and plans to close state offices three days a month, California gets all the attention as lawmakers fight to write a budget set off balance by a $26.3 billion deficit.

Shane Kee loves to tinker with his purple and white 1970 Chevrolet pickup truck but recently turned down a job offer to turn wrenches at a Chevy dealership. It's just too risky with so many dealerships closing these days.

As lawmakers in cash-strapped states wrestled this year with revenues that kept on falling, both campaign promises and long-standing reform efforts got pushed to the side. There just wasn't enough time or money to expand health care or improve education - or, in Rhode Island, finally get around to banning indoor prostitution - while also passing a budget.

Think of the most popular brands in celebrity news, and you'll probably come up with a small list that includes Entertainment Tonight, US Weekly and People.

French unions for the software company Oracle Corp. say the company has told them it plans to cut between 850 and 1,000 jobs in Europe in response to slowing growth.

A federal judge has granted the Securities and Exchange Commission's request to continue freezing the assets of a California financier charged in a fraud case involving hundreds of millions of dollars.

Business consultant Katrina Kennedy has taken her young son out of preschool and put a family vacation on hold. Dairyman Mike O'Kelly is wondering whether he is going to have to let employees go.

A federal judge in Los Angeles has granted the Securities and Exchange Commission's request to continue freezing the assets of a California financier charged in a fraud case involving hundreds of millions of dollars.

Concert promoter AEG Live's chief executive said Thursday that insurance will help cover any losses on the now-canceled Michael Jackson concert series if the pop star died accidentally - including of a drug overdose - but not if he died of natural causes.

California is cutting off applications for a tax credit that was designed to promote sales of new homes.

Chase bank said Thursday it would accept government IOUs from California through July 10 to help its customers as the state deals with a financial crisis.

Several states are facing the prospect of government shutdowns and program cuts as they enter the first weekend of the fiscal year and July Fourth holiday without a budget in place.

The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the United States rose by 11 this week to 928, the third consecutive week for an uptick after months of declines.

California's Democratic-led Legislature is putting union interests over taxpayers' well-being, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday as the state started printing IOUs for the first time in nearly 20 years.

In a big break for online shoppers, Web retailers generally don't have to charge sales taxes in states where they lack a store or some other physical presence.

Dish satellite TV customers can continue using their digital video recorders while a court battle continues with TiVo Inc. over a patent, the companies said Thursday.

Casino operator Las Vegas Sands says it has laid off nearly 200 people in Las Vegas.

At least 12 people, two of them suffering kidney failure, have been hospitalized in connection with a possible E. coli outbreak in beef suspected of having sickened people in nine states, federal health officials said Wednesday.

States from coast to coast began a new fiscal year Wednesday with no budget plans and with cash quickly running out, sending some to the brink of shutdown and forcing others to furlough workers and cut services.

California's controller will start paying many of the state's bills with IOUs as soon as Thursday after lawmakers failed to close the state's worsening budget deficit, adding a new measure of indignity to a state sinking deeper into dysfunction.

A federal agency has filed a lawsuit against shopping mall owner Simon Property Group Inc., alleging it discriminated against Hispanic employees at its Forum Shops at Caesars on the Las Vegas Strip.

In a perverse twist of medical fate, Farrah Fawcett has become the poster girl for anal cancer, a rare disease often linked to a sexually transmitted virus.

Google has quietly dropped a feature that allowed people mentioned in news stories to comment on the articles.

The Obama administration is expanding a program to stave off foreclosure for borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth.

The Pacific Corporate Group, a company that helps big government pension funds decide how to invest their money, has agreed to pay $2 million to extract itself from a corruption investigation in New York.

Facebook is overhauling its privacy controls over the next several weeks in an attempt to simplify its users' ability to control who sees the information they share on the site.

When Michael Jackson went into cardiac arrest, rescuers took him to a place known for bringing the dead back to life. A world-renowned surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center has pioneered a way to revive people that most doctors would have long written off, including a woman whose heart had stopped for 2 1/2 hours.

Michael Jackson's album sales have exploded - three of his albums are in the top three spots and 2.3 million tracks have been downloaded in the United States since his death, Nielsen SoundScan said Wednesday.

Slot machine maker International Game Technology has named Eric Tom executive vice president for North America sales and marketing.

Lawmakers around the nation spent Tuesday in grueling, around-the-clock budget sessions as they struggled to avoid government shutdowns and other painful cuts, with the most dramatic negotiations unfolding in California amid a historic $24.3 billion deficit.

The first hints about Michael Jackson's final wishes surfaced Tuesday in a will he signed nearly seven years ago to the day, and although details won't be available until the document is filed in a court, there's nothing to indicate that its instructions are at odds with the hasty arrangements made by the singer's mother and father.

California's budget shortfall isn't just an abstract problem involving some out-of-whack numbers. It's a serious crisis that's threatening to hurt people in the wallet - in July alone, the state is talking about handing out $3 billion in IOUs to everyone from contractors to welfare recipients.

President Barack Obama on Tuesday promised that the White House will do its part to support grassroots organizations that are successful in their efforts to improve communities.

George Clooney has lined up a new home for his production company.

Lack of bucks means less bang this July Fourth for many cash-strapped cities.

In a rare reversal, China's government gave in to domestic and international pressure and backed down Tuesday from a rule that would have required personal computers sold in the country to have Internet-filtering software.

Farmers planted an unexpectedly large crop of corn and soybeans this year, easing some fears of rising food costs.

The Environmental Protection Agency took a major step toward tougher reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks Tuesday by giving California the green light to impose new requirements that could become the national model for combatting tailpipe pollution linked to global warming.

Layoffs tied to the troubled housing and autos industries clobbered the West and Midwest in May and helped raise unemployment rates in all the largest metropolitan areas for the fifth straight month.

Internet pioneer Yahoo Inc. plans to open an East Coast regional data center near Buffalo.

Several key mortgage companies that benefited from federal bailout funds have yet to sign onto the Obama administration's plan to help more homeowners avoid foreclosure.

Media coverage of Michael Jackson's death began receding following an extraordinary worldwide outpouring, with the shock wearing off and the pace of new developments slowing.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking to permanently freeze the assets of a California financier accused of bilking investors until his fraud trial is over.

McClatchy & Co., one of the companies hardest hit by the crisis in the newspaper industry, was honored for its coverage of the economic meltdown.

The Obama administration is developing plans to seek up to 1,500 National Guard volunteers to step up the military's counter-drug efforts along the Mexican border, senior administration officials said Monday.

Minutes after any big celebrity dies, Internet swindlers get to work. They pump out specially created spam e-mails and throw up malicious Web sites to infect victims' computers, hoping to capitalize on the sudden high demand for information.

Forty-four coal ash storage sites near 26 communities have been targeted for inspection after federal officials identified the ponds as potential threats to nearby residents.

"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" finished its first weekend with a whopping $108 million domestic haul and did $200.1 million for its first five days.