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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages declined to an average 4.85 percent this week from 4.90 percent last week.
WASHINGTON >> Long-term U.S. mortgage rates dipped slightly this week, taking a pause after weeks of steady increases stoked by rising interest rates.
Home borrowing rates remain at their highest levels in more than seven years, with the key 30-year rate approaching 5 percent. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages declined to an average 4.85 percent this week from 4.90 percent last week.
Last week’s average was the highest level for the benchmark rate since spring 2011. A year ago it stood at 3.88 percent.
The average rate on 15-year, fixed-rate loans eased to 4.26 percent this week from 4.29 percent last week.
StarKist faces $100M fine for price fixing
SAN FRANCISCO >> StarKist Co. agreed to plead guilty to a felony price-fixing charge as part of a broad collusion investigation of the canned tuna industry, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.
The DOJ said StarKist faces up to a $100 million fine when it is sentenced. Prosecutors allege that the industry’s top three companies conspired between 2010 and 2013 to keep prices artificially high.
The scheme came to light when Thai Union Group’s Chicken of the Sea attempt to buy San Diego-based Bumble Bee failed in 2015, according to court records. Chicken of the Sea executives then alerted federal investigators, who agreed to shield the company from criminal prosecution in exchange for cooperation.
Kleenex to re-brand ‘Mansize’ tissues
LONDON >> Kleenex will re-brand its “Mansize” tissues after consumers complained the name was sexist — touching off a social media conversation about what’s in a name.
The company behind Kleenex, Kimberly-Clark, said Thursday that the product, which is sold only in the U.K., will now be called “Kleenex Extra Large.” Packages for the tissues describe them as “confidently strong” and “comfortingly soft.”
Kimberly-Clark told Britain’s Daily Telegraph that it in “no way suggests” that being both soft and strong was “an exclusively masculine trait, nor do we believe that the Mansize branding suggests or endorses gender inequality.”
The tissues, which had been on shelves for 60 years, were launched at a time when large cotton handkerchiefs were still very popular, and the brand offered “a unique disposable alternative,” the company said. It remains one of their most popular products, with over 3.4 million people buying the tissues every year.
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ON THE MOVE
Kaiser Permanente Hawaii has added the following new doctors to the hospital’s facilities on Oahu as well as Maui:
>> Dr. Ramesh Kumar practices and specializes in neurosurgery at the hospital’s Moanalua Medical Center. Kumar had the opportunity to finish his neurological surgery residency at University of Colorado Denver, School of Medicine in Denver.
>> Dr. Jason Suszko works at Kaiser Permanente Honolulu Medical Office specializing in dermatology. He was previously a locum tenens dermatologist at Kaiser Permanente Northwest in Portland, Ore., as well as Kaiser Permanente Hawaii on Maui.
>> Dr. Zachary Thielen specializes in orthopedics at Wailuku Medical Office. Thielen finished his orthopedic surgery residency at University of California, San Francisco, and completed a knee and hip arthroplasty fellowship at Hoag Orthopedic Institute in Irvine, Calif.
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