December 28, 2000
Florida home sales surging
Floridians may be holding back on spending at the mall, but they still are bidding up prices in the real estate market.
Kmart present: pink slip to staff
With the holidays out of the way, the retailer fires thousands of employees nationwide.
Business today
AT&T TO INCREASE FEE: AT&T Corp. will boost by 15 percent customer charges for contributions to a phone service fund after the Federal Communications Commission ordered an increase in fees paid by long-distance companies. Starting Monday, AT&T will raise the monthly Universal Connectivity Charge of state-to-state and international long-distance calls to 9.9 percent from 8.6 percent. Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine and critic of earlier AT&T fee increases, will ask the FCC to investigate whether the company is overcharging customers. "There's been a history of inflating the charges above legitimate costs, and I'm concerned that may be happening again," said Gene Kimmelman, co-director of Consumers Union's Washington office.
