Business and Finance news

At least two hotels in Santa Fe are offering rebates to ease the pain of high gas prices.
Park Inn is offering a $20 gas rebate check for guests who stay a minimum of two nights at any Park Inn location in the U.S. and Canada through September 30. The chain has locations around the world, […]

India's economy grew at the slowest pace since 2004 last quarter as the fastest inflation in a decade and increased borrowing costs damped consumer spending.
Asia's third-largest economy expanded 7.9 percent in the three months to June 30 from a year earlier, following an 8.8 percent gain in the previous quarter, the Central Statistical […]

The combined bottom line of commercial banks in Florida flipped into the loss column in the second quarter as banks here join national saving institutions in the red, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data released Tuesday.
Florida-based commercial banks lost $79 million in the second quarter after pulling in $75 million in the first quarter. […]

South Korea's consumer prices are likely to remain high this month and in September even after oil's recent decline, Finance Minister Kang Man Soo said.
“Oil prices have stabilized somewhat, but the impact on domestic prices is likely to remain through this month and the next,'' Kang said at a weekly government meeting in […]

Revenue at Colorado casinos dropped 14 percent in July, compared to the same month in 2007, according to statistics released Tuesday by the Colorado Division of Gaming.
Limited-stakes gambling is allowed in three Colorado mountain towns: Central City, Black Hawk and Cripple Creek.
Adjusted gross proceeds for all three towns amounted to $65.65 million, down from $76.54 […]

Sutter Health’s Mills Peninsula Health Services in San Mateo and Burlingame has reached a tentative contract agreement with the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee after 15 months of labor negotiations, the union announced Monday.
The deal covering some 650 registered nurses at the two campuses was struck after negotiators met with a federal mediator late […]

Fisherman Cao Jianzhou may abandon the job his family has done for more than half a century because rising fuel costs mean he loses money every time he sets out to sea from his home northeast of Shanghai.
“About 70 percent of the fishermen in our village lost money in the first half of […]

Singapore should allow its currency to strengthen at a faster pace to combat inflation, the International Monetary Fund said, even as the nation faces a worsening slowdown in economic growth.
“Ensuring that inflation expectations remain well anchored is a policy priority,'' the Washington-based lender said in a statement on its Web site late yesterday, […]

Pilots for Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. Monday approved a joint contract, helping to pave the way toward the airlines’ planned merger, the carriers said.
As of 3 p.m., 61.74 percent of Delta pilots who cast their ballots voted in favor of the deal, while 86.76 percent of Northwest pilots approved.
The approval of […]

Schroder Investment Management's David Scammell is so convinced inflation has crested that the bond fund manager this quarter has sold securities designed to protect from rising consumer prices.
The money manager, who in the first half of the year bought all the so-called index-linked bonds he could find as crude oil rose above $100 […]