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Today’s headlines
Robert Trigaux
Home-builder survey benefits consumers
Purchased a new home recently in the Tampa Bay area? Thinking of buying one?

Dow sinks below 8,000
Concern over Iraq and earnings jitters send markets near longtime lows.

Jabil: Cuts strengthen company
As the electronics company reports lower yearly earnings, it says its job reductions prepare it for growth.

IMRglobal hopes fade after founder departs
Since it was sold last year, the company's work force has been halved and its complex put up for sale.

Law firms chase activist squatter off two Internet sites
The Coloradan who had the names says he has registered 6,000 for free speech's sake.

Beleaguered HealthSouth says it's under SEC scrutiny
HealthSouth Corp. said Thursday that it is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the wake of recent disclosures that its earnings would be sharply lower than expected and that its founder and chairman, Richard Scrushy, had sold half his stake in the firm a few weeks before the profit warning.

Business today
US AIRWAYS INVESTMENT: Alabama's public-employee pension fund has offered to invest $240-million in a restructured US Airways Group, topping by 20 percent an offer made in August by private-equity firm Texas Pacific Group. The offer was sent Wednesday and was being filed in federal bankruptcy court in Alexandria, Va. The Retirement System of Alabama would receive a 37.5 percent stake in the airline, assuming it successfully emerges from bankruptcy.