Zippo Manufacturing Co., a maker of lighters for 75 years, won an order to block U.S. imports of knockoffs from China that copy its trademarked flip-top design. The U.S. International Trade Commission on Wednesday ordered customs officials to block entry of the copycat lighters. The order is subject to review by the president, who has 60 days and can overturn the decision only on public policy grounds. Zippo has been making lighters in Bradford since 1932. The trademark, issued in 2002, is for a design that's been in use since 1942, according to information on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Web site.
Real estate locator closed
Kyra Straussman's appointment as director of real estate for the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority has suspended the real estate activities of Cool Space Locator, an organization she helped create. Cool Space, a project of the Tides Center (Pa.) since its founding in 2000, is reorganizing since Tides Center quit operations in the state, said Sean Capperis of Cool Space. Cool Space wants the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh to absorb its education and outreach programs, Capperis said. Cool Space Locator said it has worked with more than 600 enterprises on real estate matters.
Allstate criticized on fees
A consumer group on Wednesday accused Allstate Corp. of excessively raising home and auto insurance rates and using questionable practices to settle claims. The Consumer Federation of America said the insurer also has led the industry's attempts to shift costs to taxpayers. "Allstate is certainly not the only insurer pursuing these anti-consumer practices, but it has been in the vanguard in developing and implementing many of them," said the group's insurance director, J. Robert Hunter. Allstate spokesman Mike Siemienas said the Consumer Federation's report contained "many inaccuracies."
Enron settlement
Enron Creditors Recovery Corp., formerly known as Enron Corp., said Wednesday it will receive $149 million as part of a settlement with companies who received payments on short-term debt incurred by the once-mighty energy giant. The settlement resolves claims made by Enron to recover payments made by the company on so-called "commercial paper," or short-term debt, shortly before its bankruptcy filing in 2001. Companies Enron settled its lawsuit with include Lehman Commercial Paper Inc., Northern Trust Co., Allstate Life Insurance Co. and the Prudential Insurance Co. of America.
iPhone causing jams?
Apple Inc.'s flashy new iPhones may be jamming parts of the wireless network at Duke University, where technology officials worked with the company Wednesday to fix problems before classes begin next month. Bill Cannon, a Duke technology spokesman, said an analysis of traffic found that iPhones flooded parts of the campus' wireless network with access requests, freezing parts of the system for 10 minutes at a time. A single iPhone was powerful enough to cause the problem, and there are 100 to 150 of them registered on the network, Cannon said. Network administrators have noticed the problem nine times in the past week.
Erie plastics firm closing
An Erie plastics company is shutting down, eliminating 150 jobs in an already economically depressed part of the state, company officials said. OEM/Erie, which specializes in parts for the auto industry, has transferred its work to Plastech Engineered Products in Detroit. Some of the Erie workers have been offered a chance to transfer, but all the positions in the city are being eliminated, Patricia Birch, OEM's director of human resources, said.
Earnings:
* Ampco-Pittsburgh Corp., a Downtown-based specialty steel manufacturer, on Wednesday said it posted record earnings of $10.2 million, or $1.02 per share, for the second quarter, up from $6.6 million, or 67 cents per share for the same period last year. Second quarter sales of $88.7 million were up from $75.5 million in the 2006 period.
* EBay Inc. reported Wednesday that second-quarter profit surged 50 percent, though analysts remained concerned about the declining number of items for sale on the site. The San Jose, Calif.-based company earned $375.8 million, or 27 cents per share, compared with $249.9 million, or 17 cents, in the second quarter of 2006. Revenue for the period ended June 30 was $1.83 billion, up 30 percent from $1.41 billion in the year-ago quarter.
* Delta Air Lines Inc. said Wednesday it posted a second quarter net income of $1.77 billion, or $4.49 a share, compared to a loss of $2.21 billion in the same period a year earlier. Revenue in the April-June quarter rose to $5 billion, compared to $4.74 billion recorded in the same period a year earlier.
* Gannett Co., the largest newspaper publisher in the country, posted second quarter net earnings of $365.7 million or $1.56 per share, compared to $310.5 million or $1.31 per share in the same period a year earlier. Overall revenues fell 3.4 percent to $1.93 billion from $2 billion in the same period a year ago.
* Southwest Airlines of Dallas said Wednesday that its second-quarter profit fell 17 percent to $278 million, or 36 cents per share, compared to $333 million, or 40 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $2.58 billion, just under analysts' forecast of $2.6 billion but better than the second quarter of 2006, when sales were $2.45 billion.
* ESB Financial Corp., of Ellwood City, parent company of ESB Bank, on Wednesday announced earnings of 16 cents per share on net income of $2 million for the quarter ended June 30, as compared to 23 cents on income of $3 million a year ago. The company's total assets decreased by $33.6 million, or 1.8 percent, to $1.9 billion as of June 30. ESB Bank has 23 offices in Western Pennsylvania.
* Fidelity Bancorp Inc., the holding company for Fidelity Bank, announced third quarter earnings of $1.05 million or 34 cents per share, compared to $969,000 or 32 cents in the prior year quarter. Total assets were $727.9 million on June 30, a decrease of $2.8 million or 0.4 percent compared to Sept.30, 2006, and relatively unchanged from June 30, 2006. Fidelity Bank has 13 offices in Allegheny and Butler counties.
Other business news
* CIT Group Inc. said Wednesday it will exit the home-lending business after the unit contributed to the company's second-quarter loss.The New York-based conglomerate said it would take a pretax charge of $765 million relating to a fair value adjustment on $10.6 billion in receivables to assets held for sale related to exiting the business. Home lending produced $14.6 million in operating losses during the quarter.
