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Briefs

Amtrak reaches a tentative deal with its unions

By Times wires
Published January 19, 2008

WASHINGTON - Facing a strike that could have stranded hundreds of thousands of commuters, Amtrak reached a preliminary deal Friday that apparently heavily favors the railroad's nine unions, who have worked for years without a contract. The tentative contract includes back pay totaling more than three times what Amtrak was offering and none of the concessions on work rules that Amtrak had sought, said Joel Parker, a spokesman for the Transportation Communications International Union.

WellCare allowed to expand in N.Y.
WASHINGTON - WellCare Health Plans Inc., the Tampa insurer under FBI investigation, received U.S. approval Friday to sell its Medicare health plans for the elderly and disabled in four additional counties in New York state. WellCare, which sells only government-sponsored health plans, was raided by U.S. and Florida investigators in October looking for documents on possible government overpayments and how much WellCare spends on medical benefits. The Tampa U.S. Attorney's Office has not disclosed whether it plans to prosecute any of the company's executives.

Economic gauge shows weakening
NEW YORK - A gauge of future economic activity skidded 0.2 percent in December, registering its third consecutive monthly decline and signaling that the U.S. economy likely will weaken further in coming months. The Conference Board said Friday that its index of leading indicators, a signpost of where the U.S. economy is headed in the next three to six months, fell to 136.5 last month - its lowest reading in more than two years - after declining 0.4 percent to a revised 136.8 in November and 0.7 percent to 137.3 in October.

Fox eyes $3M for last Super Bowl ad
NEW YORK - News Corp.'s Fox network, seizing on marketers' demand for advertisements viewers won't skip, may sell its last 30-second spot for Super Bowl XLII as soon as next week, Bloomberg reported Friday. Fox is holding out for about $3-million for the slot in the Feb. 3 game, Bloomberg reported. CBS Corp. got as much as $2.6-million last year for its Super Bowl spots.

Sprint Nextel will cut staff, stores
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Sprint Nextel Corp. said Friday it will cut 4,000 jobs and close 125 retail locations in response to a steep drop in its customer base. The layoff of about 6.7 percent of Sprint's work force and closure of stores is to be completed by June. Sprint said that the cutbacks will trim labor costs by $700-million to $800-million a year.

Thousands register for Vioxx payouts
NEW ORLEANS - More than 57,000 plaintiffs who sued drugmaker Merck & Co. over its withdrawn Vioxx painkiller have registered for possible payouts under a $4.85-billion settlement, a lawyer said Friday. That number represents about 95 percent of the estimated 60,800 people who may have claims that Vioxx caused their heart attacks or strokes, said Orran Brown, a Richmond, Va., lawyer who is helping collect settlement registration forms. The next step is for former Vioxx users to formally enroll in the accord.

[Last modified January 18, 2008, 23:04:40]