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AP Business NewsBrief at 6:12 p.m. EDT(Associated Press Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Recession risks up amid slow growth, debt standoffWASHINGTON (AP) _ The economy is at risk of slipping into another recession. It nearly stalled in the first six months of the year, the government reported Friday. Economic growth was feeble in the second quarter and practically non-existent in the first. Investors pulling money out as deadline nearsGrowing nervous as a possible government default draws ever closer, more and more ordinary investors are calling their brokers and moving their money out of stocks and mutual funds for fear of a plunge in the market next week. The stock market declined for a sixth straight day Friday as financial advisers fielded a new round of calls and emails from clients wondering whether to get out or sit tight. Markets on edge as debt limit debate drags onThe word of the day in financial markets: Anxious. On Friday, traders did something they rarely do: they sold what are considered to be the world's safest short-term investments. Traders typically buy short term U.S. Treasurys on Friday because they want their money in a safe place in case something happens over the weekend to rattle markets. Phone companies present rural broadband planWASHINGTON (AP) _ AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and four other telecom companies are offering a proposal to overhaul an $8 billion federal phone subsidy program in order to pay for high-speed Internet access in rural and other underserved areas. They say the plan, which was filed with the Federal Communications Commission on Friday, would bring broadband service to nearly all Americans within five years. House nears vote on GOP debt bill; Dems opposeWASHINGTON (AP) _ Partisan to the core, Congress groped uncertainly Friday for a way to avoid a government default threatened for early next week. "We are almost out of time," warned President Barack Obama as U.S. financial markets trembled. At one end of the Capitol, Speaker John Boehner and House Republicans pushed toward a vote on veto-threatened legislation rewritten overnight to win the support of conservative holdouts demanding action on a constitutional balanced-budget amendment. US weighing payment priorities if default comesWASHINGTON (AP) _ If the government can't pay all its bills come Wednesday, odds are it will pay bondholders. Social Security and Medicare recipients will be high on the must-pay list, too. Likely losers: federal workers in jobs deemed non-essential, private contractors and state and local governments. It seems politically certain that active-duty members of the military would be paid, but there are no guarantees as the government decides which of its 80 million monthly payments to make and which to set aside. NY Post staff told to keep docs amid hacking probeLOS ANGELES (AP) _ New York Post staffers have been told to preserve any documents that relate to phone hacking or payoffs to officials, as News Corp. prepares for a probe into its U.K. operations to reach across the Atlantic. Post editor Col Allan sent a memo to staff Friday asking them to comply with company lawyers. Experts say medical device review system 'flawed'WASHINGTON (AP) _ Federal health regulators asked the country's leading medical experts two years ago to recommend ways to improve the government's system for approving most medical devices, ranging from pacemakers to X-ray scanners. On Friday the experts came back with a surprise answer: scrap it because it fails to protect patients. Even more surprising, FDA summarily dismissed the idea. The Institute of Medicine's panel said in a report that the U.S. government should abandon the 35-year-old system used to clear medical devices because it provides little assurance that the implants are actually safe. Merck plans more job cuts; 2Q profit risesMerck & Co. plans to cut as many as 13,000 more jobs under a new round of restructuring as the drugmaker prepares for generic competition for its top-selling drug and slower revenue growth in the U.S. and Europe. The announcement came Friday as Merck reported a higher second-quarter profit than a year ago. Merck's stock fell more than 2 percent. Google buys about 1,000 IBM patentsNEW YORK (AP) _ Google Inc. has bought about 1,000 pending and issued patents from IBM Corp. in its quest to shore up its defenses against suits by other technology companies, according to documents filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Google and IBM spokesmen wouldn't comment Friday on the purchase. (c) 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |