BUSINESS BRIEFS
GM faces strike deadline today
Advertiser Staff and News Services
General Motors Corp. said the United Auto Workers set a strike deadline for 11 a.m. EDT today (5 a.m. Hawai'i time), the 10th day since the current contract with the largest U.S. automaker was set to expire.
A strike notice was posted last night on the Web site of UAW Local 160, and it was verified with union negotiators, GM spokesman Dan Flores said. He said talks continued early today without a break after more than 14 hours of meetings yesterday.
AND NOW, ONE CARD DOES IT ALL
NEW YORK — U.S. consumers today can begin signing up for the RevolutionCard, a new kind of "plastic" designed to be unlike any other card. Among its features: the ability to store up to $15,000 on the card (loaded electronically from the user's bank account), beefed up identify-theft protection and interest rates pegged to the cardholder's credit rating. Steve Case, former chairman of AOL and a RevolutionCard backer, says it aims to be what a credit card should be in an Internet-driven world.
1 IN 5 CHINA GLUTEN SHIPMENTS BARRED
One in five shipments of Chinese wheat gluten were refused entry into the U.S. in recent months because regulators weren't sure they were free of melamine, the contaminant that led to last spring's pet food recall.
The refusal rate is high for a product that was rarely inspected before because it was considered low risk. It's also contributing to higher prices for an ingredient widely used in pet food, as well as breads.
The Food and Drug Administration says it refused 27 of 135 shipments of Chinese wheat gluten that came to the United States from April 24 to July 26. Fifty-two passed; 56 await review. The FDA in April started restricting Chinese wheat gluten unless the importer proved that shipments were melamine free.
