Today’s News
Women who own businesses are finding it more difficult to get bank loans
NEW YORK (AP) — Getting a bank loan is still a struggle for many women who own businesses. Kirsten Curry has had three rejections in the past six months and is waiting to hear from a fourth bank. Curry, owner of Seattle-based Leading Retirement Solutions, has applied to national banks, a regional bank and a credit union. The problem is that her eight-year-old retirement advisory firm lost money last year as it invested in technology [...]
Ohio is 7th in the nation for number of organic farms
Ohio has experienced double-digit growth in the number of organic farms, the amount of organic land in production, and the volume of organic sales, according to a government survey of U.S. organic farms. The state’s overall rank — seventh out of all states — illustrates the Buckeye State’s role in organic production in economic development. The United States Department of Agriculture’s National Agriculture Statistics Service’s “2016 Certified Organic Survey,” showed the state’s organic sales increased [...]
Crew fan bars react to team’s possible relocation to Austin
Walt Keys got the unexpected news in an early morning text message on Tuesday. It was then that the co-founder of Land-Grant Brewing Co. learned the Columbus Crew SC was considering a relocation to Austin, Texas, after the 2018 season. “It was a surprise,” Keys said. “It's something we weren't expecting to have to deal with this week.” The owners have been long-time fans of the first chartered team in Major League Soccer. Keys said [...]
One of the tightest housing markets awaits California wildfire victims
PETALUMA, Calif. (AP) — As firefighters gain on wildfires burning in Northern California’s wine country, the many thousands who lost their houses, condos and apartments in those fires will have to find a new place to live in one of the toughest housing markets in the nation. In San Francisco, an average one-bedroom apartment rents for more than $3,000 a month and the median home price is about $1.5 million. The climbing cost of living [...]
Lawmakers want loophole for drug dealers closed
Prompted by the ongoing public health crisis resulting from opioid addiction’s grip on the Buckeye State, a pair of Republican lawmakers are hopeful their bill will aid in pinning manslaughter charges on drug dealers whose clients die from an overdose. House Bill 141, introduced in the Ohio House of Representatives earlier this year, would close a loophole in state law that gets drug dealers off the hook. “Current law hinders prosecutors from charging these dealers [...]
Talk of ‘no deal’ Brexit rises as divorce negotiations linger on
LONDON — As Brexit negotiations between Britain and the European Union stutter and stall, one question looms larger and larger: What if there is no deal? It’s an increasingly plausible prospect that stirs fear in many U.K. politicians and businesses — and hope in the hearts of staunch Brexit supporters. Divorce talks have limped through five rounds without a breakthrough, and Britain is due to leave the EU in less than 18 months, on March [...]
Home construction tumbled 4.7% in September, biggest drop in six months
WASHINGTON (AP) — Construction of new homes fell 4.7 percent in September, the biggest decline in six months, reflecting weakness in both single-family activity and apartment building. The September result left construction at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.13 million units, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. It was the sharpest decline since a 7.7 percent fall in March. Homebuilding has been sliding this year, but economists remain optimistic that the low level of unemployment [...]
Columbus startup community is recognized in report
Columbus was recognized as a “rising star” in a recent report that examined how cities turn capital into successful technological industries. But the city, along with Tampa, Fla., just missed the top 25 ranking in the “Innovation that Matters” report the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Free Enterprise, C_TEC and 1776 released last week. The report offers an index to compare how well cities focus on the next wave of startup, technology-driven companies that develop [...]
Ohio leaders want to deliver on Amazon HQ bids
CINCINNATI — From hurricane-free weather to cool new brew houses, Ohio leaders are promising Amazon they can deliver what the e-commerce giant would like for its second headquarters. Sales points highlight affordable housing in trendy neighborhoods and safety from natural calamity as the state and its major cities vie with competitors from across the country salivating over the potential boost of hosting the company and some 50,000 workers. Ohio’s congressional delegation has made a bipartisan [...]
Campus soul-searching: Corruption probe prompts reviews of NCAA teams
The spate of arrests, details of under-the-table bribes to teenagers and the expected downfall of one of the sport’s best-known coaches has triggered uncomfortable soul-searching among the institutions at the heart of college basketball, including internal reviews by more than two dozen schools of their own prominent programs. At stake is the future of a business that, over the span of 22 years ending in 2032, will produce $19.6 billion in TV money for the [...]
Legal News
Bill designed to increase awareness of pet shelters
Supporters of a Grove City lawmaker’s push to designate shelter animals the official pet of Ohio further sold the idea to House committee members during [...]
‘We Card’ campaign proposed to run in the fall each year
A suburban Columbus lawmaker presumably envisions a retail campaign blitz in service stations, convenience stores and corner shops come next September if the “We Card” [...]
Ohio House passes legislation that would rename part of state highway after Ohio-born singer, actor Roy Rogers
Lawmakers in the Ohio House of Representatives by a 91-1 vote recently passed a bill that would name a section of a state highway in [...]
Business News
Netflix is sinking deeper into debt in relentless pursuit of subscribers
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Netflix is sinking deeper into debt in its relentless pursuit of more viewers, leaving the company little margin for error as [...]
Discount theaters leave central Ohio as streaming services cut into business
Second-run movie theaters are no more in central Ohio. Cinemark USA Inc. converted its Carriage Place Movies 12 theater near the Bethel and Sawmill roads [...]
Year-round costume shops embrace Halloween
Despite competition from the internet and pop-up costume shops, year-round costume stores continue to haunt central Ohio this Halloween season. Costume Holiday House’s Columbus location [...]
Real Estate
Ohio program to help avoid foreclosure is expanded
A fund initiative by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency has expanded its programs to assist homeowners with certain types of disabilities to decrease the number [...]
Luxury auto collections call for luxurious homes of their own
One may never suspect that the unassuming gabled carriage house sitting a pergola’s length away from a Federal-style Connecticut home is a state-of-the-art garage for [...]
New apartment building in Denver caters to traumatized homeless people
DENVER (AP) — Sunlight fills every corridor, the exit visible even from the opposite end of the apartment building. Its 60 bedrooms have no doors [...]
Politics
US, states struggle to pay spiraling cost of fighting fires
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The long and brutal 2017 wildfire season is stressing the state and federal agencies that have to pay for the army of [...]
Trump pledges to religious values, ‘Merry Christmas’
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump assured a high-profile gathering of Christian conservatives on Friday that his administration will defend religious organizations, promising a return [...]
Houston asks veteran oilman to help with hard choices after Hurricane Harvey
HOUSTON (AP) — As Houston confronts the immediate and long-term crisis created by Hurricane Harvey, it’s turning once again to an oilman. The choice of [...]
