NEW YORK (AP) -- TV shows
were replaced by the hiss of static in perhaps 1 million U.S. homes Friday as
stations ended their analog broadcasts and abandoned the transmission
technology in use for decades.
The vast majority of
households that rely on antennas for their TV signals were prepared for the
shutdown, but many people remained vexed by the challenge of setting up digital
reception.
Any set hooked up to cable
or a satellite dish is unaffected by the end of analog broadcasts, but around
17 million U.S. households rely on antennas. Nielsen Co. said poor and minority
households were less likely to be prepared for Friday's analog shutdown, as
were households consisting of people younger than 35.
Historic anti-smoking bill aims
at stopping teens
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Historic
anti-smoking legislation sped to final congressional passage on Friday -- after
a bitter fight lasting nearly a half-century -- and lawmakers and the White
House quickly declared it would save the lives of thousands of smokers of all
ages. Even more important, they said, the measure could keep countless young
people from starting in the first place.
President Barack Obama,
admittedly still struggling with his own nicotine habit, saluted passage of the
bill, which he will soon sign.
Specifically, the measure
for the first time will give the Food and Drug Administration authority to
regulate what goes into tobacco products, demand changes or elimination of
toxic substances and block the introduction of new products.
Stocks end mixed as
commodity, tech stocks retreat
NEW YORK (AP) -- The stock
market's rally is on hold and it's not clear what might get it moving again.
Stock indicators barely
budged this week after big gains in the prior week. The Dow Jones industrial
average did manage to push into the black for the year with a modest gain on
Friday but many traders are still cautious.
The continuing crop of
better-than-expected economic news has lost its ability to incite the kinds of
big gains the market was enjoying back in March, early in a three-month rally
that has brought the Standard & Poor's index up almost 40 percent.
Those kinds of gains might
normally take years to occur, so it's understandable that traders would become
tired of hitting the "buy" button. Also, the market's enthusiasm
about the economy has been checked recently by unease about inflation and
rising interest rates.
Gas prices rise for 45
straight days
NEW YORK (AP) -- Gas prices
rose Friday for the 45th consecutive day as summer travelers hit the highways
and refineries hold back on fuel production.
Pump prices added less than
a penny overnight to a new national average of $2.639 a gallon, according to
auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service.
Gas is 37.2 cents a gallon
more expensive than last month. Yet prices have risen all year after slumping
to around $1.60 in December.
Crude prices are surging as
well, but not as consistently as gasoline.
GM, Chrysler executives
defend dealership closings
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Under
withering criticism in Congress, General Motors and Chrysler executives on
Friday called the closings of hundreds of dealerships painful steps needed to
right-size the auto giants. Down-on-their luck dealers said the moves would needlessly
devastate their local economies and livelihoods.
GM CEO Fritz Henderson told
the House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight and investigations
subcommittee the dealer cuts were "quite painful" but necessary to
save over 200,000 jobs at GM's remaining dealers. Chrysler Deputy CEO Jim Press
said the cuts were part of the shared sacrifices by the United Auto Workers
union, bondholders and others needed to avoid liquidation.
But the committee also heard
from hard-hit shutout dealers such as Frank Blankenbecker III of Waxahachie,
Texas, and the carmakers' explanations won few converts from House members.
Stalled carbon capture coal
plant in Ill. gets OK
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The
Energy Department is moving forward on a futuristic coal-burning power plant in
Illinois that the Bush administration had declared dead.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu
said Friday that reviving the FutureGen plant is an important step that shows
the Obama administration's commitment to carbon-capture technology.
The Energy Department will
commit more than $1 billion to the project, under the agreement announced on
Friday, with the government's contribution drawn almost entirely from federal
economic stimulus funds.
Drugmakers rush to produce a
swine flu vaccine
LONDON (AP) -- With swine
flu now an official pandemic, the race is on among drugmakers to produce a
vaccine.
GlaxoSmithKline said
Thursday after the World Health Organization declared a global flu epidemic
that it would be ready within weeks to begin large-scale vaccine production.
Sanofi-Aventis also said it had started working on its own version. On Friday,
Swiss pharma giant Novartis announced it had created an experimental vaccine
that has not been tested in people. Novartis' vaccine was made via a cell-based
technology that may prove faster than the traditional way of making vaccines,
which relies on chicken eggs.
WHO and others estimate that
about 2.4 billion doses of pandemic vaccine could be available in about a year.
EU: browser-free Windows
gives no real choice
BRUSSELS (AP) -- European
Union regulators said Microsoft Corp. was offering less choice, not more, by
vowing to sell the next version of Windows without any Web browsers at all.
Microsoft said Thursday that
it would remove its Internet Explorer browser -- and not include any
alternatives -- in the Windows 7 software it will sell from Oct. 22 in Europe
to soothe EU antitrust concerns.
The company is trying to
avoid new EU fines, on top of a previous euro1.7 billion fine, after being
earlier charged with unfairly using its operating system monopoly to squeeze
into other software markets.
China's May retail sales,
industrial output up
BEIJING (AP) -- China's
retail sales, bank lending and industrial output grew in May as the government
spent heavily on a stimulus to boost the world's third-largest economy as
exports plunged, data showed Friday.
The latest report, on top of
figures Thursday showing May investment rising, suggested the stimulus spending
was helping to make up for a collapse in demand for exports that wiped out
millions of Chinese factory jobs.
Retail sales rose 15.2
percent in May from a year earlier, up from April's 14.8 percent growth, the
National Bureau of Statistics reported. Industrial output rose 8.9 percent,
rebounding from April's lackluster 7.3 percent and exceeding March's 8.3
percent rate.
By The Associated Press
The Dow Jones industrial
average rose 28.34, or 0.3 percent, to 8,799.26. It was the Dow's highest close
since Jan. 6.
The broader S&P 500
index rose 1.32, or 0.1 percent, to 946.21, and the Nasdaq composite index fell
3.57, or 0.2 percent, to 1,858.80.
Benchmark crude for July
delivery fell 64 cents to settle at $72.04 on the New York Mercantile Exchange,
the first time oil prices have fallen in several days.
In other Nymex trading, gasoline
for July delivery fell 2.18 cents to settle at $2.0431 a gallon and heating oil
dropped 1.59 cents to settle at $1.8375. Natural gas for July delivery slid 7.6
cents to settle at $3.857 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, Brent prices fell
87 cents to settle at $70.92 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.