News In Brief

MID-DAY UPDATE: Unemployment and genetically-modified food

Chau Tu Nov 30, 2010

The two million long-term unemployed could find themselves cutting back drastically if unemployment benefits ends today, and this could affect local businesses in a big way. TARP was expected to cost taxpayers $700 billion. Now we have an updated cost of just $25 billion.

Small businesses are discovering that beyond the environmental factors, going green is helping out their bottom line, too. As food safety moves toward the legislature, bioengineers are already creating new kinds of foods to regulate. Take the “botox apple,” which won’t brown after cutting. Will genetically modified food catch on?

Swiss Re has issued a report, saying that the cost of this year’s global catastrophes is $220 billion.

Ireland offers a new public attraction in the National Leprechaun Museum, the world’s first to honor the small being.

Comcast is slapping new fees on Level 3 communications — that’s the company that helps Netflix stream video to customers. The new fees could increase the price we pay to stream movies online.

European investigators opened an inquiry into whether Google illegally pushes competitors out of its search results. It’s the first major investigation into the online company’s business practices.

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