Business Briefs

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, warning of ''considerable uncertainties'' in the economic outlook, said Thursday night that the current period of slow growth has not yet ended. He said there was still a threat that business activity could weaken further. While delivering a sober assessment of the dangers still facing the economy, Greenspan signaled that an absence of inflationary pressures left the central bank with plenty of room to cut interest rates further if needed to guarantee that a sustained rebound will occur. ''The period of sub-par economic growth is not yet over, and we are not free of the risk that economic weakness will be greater than currently anticipated, requiring further policy response,'' Greenspan said in a dinner speech to Economic Club of New York. Greenspan did not use the word ''recession,'' but his prepared remarks clearly signaled that a possible recession remained a threat.

The state Public Utility Commission voted Thursday to suspend and investigate a $38.7 million rate increase being sought by Pennsylvania-American Water Co. for up to seven months. The request will be assigned to an administrative law judge for a recommended decision. The 12.4 percent rate hike, which had a proposed effective date of June 26, would affect 512,447 customers in 33 counties, including Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Indiana and Washington counties. Under the proposed hike, an average residential customer would see their bill rise $4.06 a month. The Hershey-based company says the hike is needed to help offset more than $200 million the company has invested in replacing and upgrading facilities statewide.

The state Public Utility Commission Thursday ordered a telephone number pooling trial for the Pittsburgh area beginning Oct. 26, requiring phone companies to share unused numbers in blocks of 1,000, and donate them to create a pool for use by other companies. Currently, numbers can only be assigned in blocks of 10,000, and once assigned to one carrier, cannot be used by another carrier. The Pittsburgh area is scheduled to implement the 878 area code as an overlay on the 412 and 724 area codes on Aug. 17. The PUC said it won't distribute the 878 code to customers until a majority of the 412/724 numbers are used. The PUC estimates that 58 percent of the 412 numbers and 70 percent of the 724 numbers are unused.

Major record companies filed a lawsuit against file-sharing Web service Aimster on Thursday, asserting the company is helping customers infringe upon the copyrights of millions of sound recordings. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan less than a month after Aimster sued the Recording Industry Association of America in federal court in Albany, N.Y., where the company is based. Aimster seeks a declaration that it is not violating copyrights. The record company lawsuit said Aimster is providing the same abilities to its customers as Napster, a company that enables file swapping. A federal judge in March ordered Napster to block the exchange of copyrighted songs.

United Airlines, the second-biggest carrier, increased some U.S. fares by 5 percent in a move that was later matched by smaller rivals Continental Airlines and Northwest Airlines. United's increase, put in place Wednesday night, applies to some leisure and business fares, according to a report from Merrill Lynch. Business fares are typically bought closer to the date of travel. Northwest and Continental, the No. 4 and No. 5 U.S. carriers, have matched the boost across their U.S. systems, the companies said. Delta Air Lines, the third-largest U.S. airline, and US Airways said they didn't match the increase.

More older adults are entering cyberspace, primarily for e-mail, according to a semi-annual report from United Business Media's Mediamark Research Inc. released Thursday. About 43 percent of adults aged 55 to 64 use the Web, up from 36 percent six months ago, Mediamark said in its report, which collected data between March 2000 and April 2001. Use of e-mail by older Americans has risen 46 percent from 18 months ago and 20 percent in the last six months. Every two in three people or 133 million U.S. adults have access to the Web either at home or work, Mediamark said.

The state awarded a $1.25 million loan to the Green Tree-based Oncology Nursing Society to construct a 105,000-square-foot world headquarters building in Findlay Township. ONS is a national organization of more than 30,000 registered nurses and other health care professionals concentrating in the field of oncology. ONS currently has 97 employees, who will be transferred to the new site, and the project is expected to create another 50 jobs.

PPG Industries Inc. said Thursday it will layoff 108 maintenance and production workers at the company's Springdale industrial paint factory for four days next week because of an industry slowdown. The layoffs coincide with other moves at PPG plants nationwide. 'There's no doubt about it, this current economic slowdown is affecting our business,' said spokesman Jeff Worden. The layoffs will help to reduce inventories, he said.