Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Business Today

Sirata picking up gas tabs for its guests

By wire services
Published September 10, 2005

The Sirata Beach Resort will pay guests the cost of their gas to get back home through the end of September.

The "split the gas" promotion allows one gas credit per room and requires a minimum two-night stay. Guests qualify only if they book reservations through the resort's Web site (www.sirata.com) The Sirata will reimburse guests at a rate of 12 cents per mile.

The chief executive of General Reinsurance Corp., a senior vice president and a former senior vice president have been notified that they could face civil charges as a result of a federal probe of the firm's nontraditional insurance products, parent Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said Friday. The executives received Wells notices Thursday from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The notices give the executives chances to respond before the SEC staff makes its formal recommendation.

Negotiators for striking Northwest Airlines mechanics on Friday weighed a demand from the carrier for roughly 3,500 union layoffs, up from the 2,000 in a proposal that prompted the strike. Northwest has said rising fuel prices were forcing it to seek even more concessions from all of its unions.

Japanese software company Access Co., maker of the NetFront Internet browser for mobile devices, said Friday it has agreed to buy PalmSource Inc., maker of the Palm operating system for handheld computers and cell phones, for $324-million in cash. Access is offering $18.50 for each share of PalmSource common stock, an 83 percent premium. The Palm OS powers more than 39-million mobile devices.

With jet fuel prices soaring in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, U.S. airlines have asked Congress and the White House for $600-million in tax relief. Commercial airlines seek a one-year reprieve from the 4.3-cents-per-gallon federal tax on jet fuel.

The Federal Reserve decided to shorten a key monetary policymaking meeting in late January in what amounts to an acknowledgment by the secretive institution that Chairman Alan Greenspan is leaving then. A terse announcement Friday said the discussions of the interest-rate setting panel would take place on Jan. 31 only, rather than Jan. 31-Feb. 1. The idea would be that the meeting would not overlap the departure of Greenspan the arrival of his successor.

The Internal Revenue Service, reflecting higher prices at gas pumps nationwide, on Friday increased the mileage reimbursement rate that workers claim when using personal cars for work.

The decision raised the rate to 48.5 cents a mile for the last four months of the year, after which the tax agency plans to look again at gas prices and re-evaluate the rate. It had been 40.5 cents a mile.

IRS commissioner Mark Everson said temporarily increasing the rate 8 cents in the middle of the year marked the largest single increase on record.

Walt Disney Co. may open a theme park in Shanghai after 2010, president Robert Iger said.

The company is in talks with the Chinese government about building a Disneyland facility in the country's largest city, Iger said from Hong Kong, where Disney is opening a $3.5-billion theme park on Monday.

Disney is seeking to use theme parks in the world's most populous country to stimulate sales of its other products, including movies, and television and Internet programming. The company may also start a Disney Channel in China, said Iger, who is slated to become chief executive this month.

"As people's knowledge of Disney and appreciation and desire to experience Disney grows, our business should grow," he said. "In the long term, the government of China will be quite cooperative with us.

COKE TO GIVE US ANOTHER ENERGY DRINK: Coca-Cola meets hipster trucker caps meets enormous amounts of caffeine. The result: a new energy drink called Von Dutch. This fall, Coke is adding to its portfolio a drink named after the trendy fashion label, which is known for its $150-plus blue jeans, trucker caps and suggestive ads starring models smeared in motor oil. Von Dutch Energy Drink will launch in October in camouflage cans. There will be regular and sugar-free versions. It's expected to appeal to men and women slightly younger than the 18- to-35-year-old market.

Information from the Associated Press, Bloomberg News and Cox News Service was used in this report.

[Last modified September 10, 2005, 01:22:18]