Amazon makes MP3 catalog available to iPhone users

SEATTLE (AP) - Amazon says iPhone and iPod Touch users will be able to buy music from its digital store for the first time beginning Thursday. Amazon.com Inc. said Thursday that its MP3 library has 22 million songs available. Steve Boom, vice president of Amazon Music, says that since the launch of the Cloud Player app for the ...

Tax fraud popular pastime among prison inmates

Yelp to add restaurants' health-inspection grades

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Reviews site Yelp is adding restaurants' health-inspection grades to its site, giving users yet another filter through which they can decide where to eat. Yelp Inc. said Thursday that city-provided health-score information will be available in San Francisco first. Restaurant grades in New York City will be added in the coming weeks. San Francisco-based ...

Intel 4Q profit down, beats Street

Boeing plans to carry on with 787 production

SEATTLR (AP) - Boeing plans to keep building its flagship jetliner while engineers try to solve battery problems that have grounded most of the 787 fleet.

EBay's 4th quarter performance caps firm’s best year yet

Business CEOs call for raising retirement age for Social Secuirty, Medicare to 70

Germany to bring home gold stored in US, France

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Wal-Mart to hire 100,000 veterans

Chipotle Mexican Grill adding catering service

DENVER (AP) - Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. is adding catering service. The Denver-based chain says its catering service will be available in Colorado starting Monday and will roll out to all of its markets in coming months. Chipotle already has been selling mix-and-match "burritos by the box" for smaller catering orders. But the catering service is designed to ...

Facebook unveils new social search feature in bid to compete with Google

Disney unveils own ' Skylanders'-like franchise

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GPS bottles may combat pill bandits

Apps can’t replace smell, touch of auto shows

DETROIT (AP) - Why go to a crowded auto show when you can glimpse dozens of new models on the internet?

Meg Whitman's pay for first year at HP: $15M

SANTA CLARA (AP) - Meg Whitman could get more than $15 million for her first year as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, according to company filings.

Quick & dirty Social Security

Wal-Mart returns job to worker who stopped attack

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - Kristopher Oswald said he did the right thing when he interrupted the assault of a woman in a Michigan Wal-Mart parking lot, even though it violated the national retailer's policies for employees. And after firing Oswald from the Hartland Township store, northwest of Detroit, Wal-Mart has decided to give him his job back. "We looked into the situation, reviewed the facts, talked to witnesses," Brooke Buchanan, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart ...

J.C. Penney to open stores Thanksgiving

NEW YORK (AP) - J.C. Penney is opening its doors on Thanksgiving evening to kick off the holiday shopping season, as the beleaguered retailer hopes to get back in the game for the crucial selling period.

Safeway boosting its buyback by $2B

PLEASANTON (AP) - Grocery store operator Safeway is boosting its stock repurchase program by $2 billion. Its stock gained nearly 5 percent in Friday premarket trading. Safeway Inc. said Friday that it had about $800,000 remaining under its previously authorized buyback through the end of the third quarter. Last week the chain announced that it plans to exit the Chicago market by early next year. Safeway said that shedding its Dominick's stores in the Chicago ...

Google stock crosses $1,000 mark

LG G Pad tablet to sell for $350 in US on Nov. 3

NEW YORK (AP) - LG says it will start selling a tablet with a high-definition screen starting Nov. 3 in the U.S. for $350, putting the price in line with Apple and Samsung tablets of similar size. The G Pad 8.3 was selling for more than $500 in South Korea. The device has a screen that measures 8.3 inches diagonally. It's in full HD, similar to Google's Nexus 7 and Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle Fire HDX. ...

Union Pacific 3Q profit rises 10 percent over 2012

\OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Union Pacific said its third-quarter profit rose 10 percent as higher shipping rates helped the railroad offset flat volume overall and the traffic disruptions caused by last month's flooding in Colorado.

Verizon profit soars as number of devices grows

NEW YORK (AP) - Verizon's third-quarter net income jumped 40 percent to beat Wall Street expectations as it continued to add more wireless devices to its network.

Google's 3Q earnings rise 36%, stock surges

MOUNTAIN VIEW (AP) - Google's third-quarter results may have proven that a deepening decline in the Internet search leader's average ad prices matters less than how frequently people are clicking on the commercial pitches.

Pot tax opponents in Colorado report free marijuana

DENVER (AP) - An organization that gave away free marijuana cigarettes as a way to protest possible taxes in Colorado has filed an unusual campaign finance report, after a watchdog group said the pot qualified as a campaign contribution. The group No Over Taxation reported Tuesday that the joints were worth a total of $1,250 and were paid for by a lawyer funding its campaign. The filing came in response to a complaint from Colorado ...

Obama health target: 500,000 signups by Oct. 31

WASHINGTON (AP) - For the first month alone, the Obama administration projected that nearly a half million people would sign up for the new health insurance markets, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. But that was before the markets opened to a cascade of computer problems.

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Business Briefs

ENTERPRISE ENTERS MOTORCYCLE RENTAL BIZ IN VEGAS: LAS VEGAS (AP) - Enterprise Rent-A-Car is taking a leap into the motorcycle business with a new, Las Vegas-based fleet of Harley-Davidsons.

Microsoft releasing Windows 8.1

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Microsoft is releasing its long-awaited Windows 8.1 upgrade as a free download starting Thursday. It addresses some of the gripes people have had with Windows 8, the dramatically different operating system that attempts to bridge the divide between tablets and PCs.

Student loans hit repayment snags

WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal officials have received more than 3,800 complaints in the last year from borrowers of private student loans, with common problems related to payment processing and requests for loan modifications.