30-year mortgage falls to 3.98%
WASHINGTON >> The average U.S. rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage was mostly unchanged this week, as the cost of home-buying and refinancing stayed near record lows.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year loan fell slightly to 3.98 percent from 3.99 percent last week. In February the rate touched 3.87 percent, the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.
The average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage also fell, to 3.21 percent from 3.23 percent. That’s above the record low of 3.13 percent hit last month.
Hawaii to get part of WellCare settlement
Hawaii will receive nearly $1.2 million of a $137.5 million settlement to resolve civil claims against WellCare Health Plans Inc., which operates Ohana Health Plan for the state’s Medicaid population, according to the Department of the Attorney General.
The civil settlement resolves lawsuits that claimed Tampa-based WellCare inflated what it said it spent on medical care to avoid returning money to Medicaid, the government medical assistance program for low-income patients.
Besides Hawaii, states sharing in the settlement are Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, New York and Ohio.
Hawaiian’s passenger count rises 6.1%
Hawaiian Airlines carried more passengers in March than it did a year ago as the number of available seats increased.
The state’s oldest carrier transported 776,659 people, up 6.1 percent from 732,066 in March 2011. Its load factor, or the percentage of seats filled, slipped 0.1 percentage point to 84.9 percent from 85.0 percent.
Available seat miles, or one seat transported one mile, jumped 14 percent to 1.1 million from 956,457 while revenue passenger miles, or one paying passenger transported one mile, increased 13.8 percent to 925,632 from 813,426.
Retailers’ March sales surprisingly brisk
NEW YORK » Retailers from discounter Target to department store chain Macy’s reported better-than-expected sales in March in the latest sign that Americans are feeling better about the economy.
A combination of warm weather and high demand for spring fashions boosted revenue for the month, but analysts say there’s much more than higher temperatures at play: Americans who cut back on spending in the slow economic recovery are encouraged by the improving job market.
Even though only a handful of retailers report monthly figures, industry watchers say March figures are reason to be optimistic. That’s because the numbers offer a snapshot of consumer spending, which accounts for more than 70 percent of all economic activity.
New-look J.C. Penney lays off 600 workers
NEW YORK » Two months into J.C. Penney’s transformation, its workers are starting to feel the pain.
The midprice department store chain said Thursday that it has laid off 600 workers, or 13 percent of the staff at its headquarters in Plano, Texas, as the company looks to streamline operations amid a major reinvention of the business.
Penney also will eliminate 300 more jobs at its customer call center in Pittsburgh when it closes the center July 1.
The moves come as the company’s new CEO, former Apple Inc. executive Ron Johnson, transforms every aspect of Penney’s business, from pulling back on constant promotions to rethinking the brands it carries.
Copyright case against YouTube is revived
NEW YORK » A federal appeals court revived a 5-year-old copyright case against YouTube on Thursday, finding that a jury might conclude the online video service knew it was infringing rights when it allowed the distribution of videos of popular television shows and other programs.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan decided the case after hearing lawyers several months ago debate whether the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act shields a company like YouTube from broad copyright claims. Google Inc. paid $1.76 billion for YouTube in 2006, just months after the video service was launched in December 2005.
The appeals decision pertained to several lawsuits filed against YouTube, including one in which Viacom Inc. claimed YouTube committed "rampant copyright infringement," and others in which The Football Association Premier League Ltd. and various film studios, television networks, music publishers and sports leagues joined to challenge YouTube’s practices.
Judge throws out McDonald’s toy lawsuit
Children in California will still be able to get toys with their Happy Meals.
A San Francisco judge has dismissed a proposed class-action lawsuit that sought to stop McDonald’s Corp. from using toys to market its meals to children in the Golden State. The suit was filed in late 2010 by Monet Parham, a California mother of two, and The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group based in Washington.
The suit claimed that the world’s biggest hamburger chain was violating consumer protection laws and exploiting children’s vulnerability by using toys to lure them to eat nutritionally unbalanced meals that can lead to obesity.
On the Move
Central Pacific Bank has appointed the following employees:
>> Scott Kurosawa to vice president and senior business banking team manager for the West/Kalihi team. He has more than 20 years of banking experience.
>> Susan Utsugi to senior vice president and business banking department manager. She has been with the bank since 2000.
Hau‘oli Mau Loa Foundation has awarded $452,500 to Hale Kipa which will be used for capacity-building as well as to support operations of the organization’s facilities throughout Hawaii. Hale Kipa helps expand opportunities for the less fortunate, mostly children, and sees to enhance stewardship, preservation and protection of the environment.
SunPower Corp., a top manufacturer of high-performance solar technology, has named RevoluSun its Residential National Top Producer of the Year. RevoluSun, a SunPower elite dealer, was one of 400 solar companies nationwide to receive the award.
