Business

The Noranda plant in New Madrid, Missouri, has a new owner and a new future. What that future entails, however, is unclear. According to Missouri bankruptcy court documents, ARG International, a metals trading company based in Switzerland, submitted a $13.7 million bid for the Southeast Missouri property. ...

The air has gained a chill only recently, and the fall leaves have yet to turn, but despite the lack of strong meteorological indicators, it’s hard to deny the holiday season is nearing. One group of people acutely aware of this are retailers. ...

A new partnership between two longstanding Cape Girardeau businesses is expected to create a variety of new senior-housing options in the region. Chateau Girardeau has announced an agreement with Dalhousie LLC on an option to acquire real estate and develop a new senior living campus. With the proposed name The Chateau Girardeau at Ramsay's Run, the multi-acre site will be on Bloomfield Road, just north of Dalhousie Golf Club...

WASHINGTON -- Anheuser-Busch InBev will pay $6 million to settle charges by U.S. regulators that a joint venture in India paid off government officials to boost sales and production, then tried to quiet an employee who raised the issue. The joint venture in which AB InBev had a 49 percent interest used third-party sales promoters to make payments to Indian officials in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday...

LONDON -- A deal worth more than $100 billion to combine the world's two biggest beer companies cleared its last major hurdle Wednesday when the shareholders of SABMiller approved the takeover by Budweiser maker Anheuser-Busch InBev. SABMiller shareholders approved the $103 billion deal -- dubbed Megabrew -- despite opposition from some investors who saw their share of the payout shrink when the pound plunged after Britain's vote to the leave the European Union. ...

ALGIERS, Algeria -- Iran played down hopes Tuesday a deal to limit oil production will emerge this week in a meeting in Algeria, prompting big falls in oil prices. Speaking in Algiers at a meeting of oil producers from all around the world, Iranian Petroleum Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said an informal gathering of OPEC oil ministers due today is "just a consultation meeting. ... If there is a decision, it should be taken at the next (OPEC) meeting in Vienna in November."...

It was April when a local investment group announced its plans for a new high-tech hub and downtown hotel. And while the Marquette Tower has been bustling with activity, the H-H building has remained relatively quiet. But that's to be expected, according to Jeffrey Maurer of Mayson Capital Partners of Cape Girardeau...

A new long-term care option soon will be available in Southeast Missouri. Villas of Jackson, a 58-bed assisted-living facility, is under construction in Jackson. Janice Unger, spokeswoman and consultant for Villas of Jackson, has been on board with the project for many months and looks forward to seeing the project completed...

Denise Ernst is the new clinical director for medical and critical-care services for Saint Francis Healthcare System. In this role, Ernst will plan and direct the administrative and clinical activities of the intensive-care units: medical, progressive care and wound-care therapy...

SAN FRANCISCO -- If a foreign government is behind the massive computer attack that compromised a half-billion user accounts at Yahoo, as the company says, the breach could be part of a long-term strategy aimed at gathering intelligence rather than getting rich...

MARBLEHEAD, Mass. -- One of the world's largest package-delivery companies is stepping up efforts to integrate drones into its system. UPS has partnered with robot-maker CyPhy Works to test the use of drones to make commercial deliveries to remote or difficult-to-access locations...

NEW YORK -- Several of the best-known names in travel now are united in one hotel company. Marriott International closed Friday morning on a $13 billion acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, bringing together its Marriott, Courtyard and Ritz Carlton brands with Starwood's Sheraton, Westin, W and St. Regis properties...

NEW YORK -- Social-media app Snapchat is introducing video-recording glasses called Spectacles and is changing its company name to incorporate the new product. The glasses can record video 10 seconds at a time by tapping a button on the device. The video isthen is uploaded to the popular image-messaging app via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Aviation giant Boeing Co., which employs about 15,000 people in the St. Louis area, should be disqualified from receiving state tax incentives because it is doing business with a country designated as a state sponsor of terror, a Missouri state senator said this week...

In an effort to facilitate economic growth uptown and elsewhere, the city of Jackson soon will repeal alcohol regulations about the proximity of alcohol vendors to places of worship. Under section 5-8 of Chapter 5 of the city ordinances, no license can be granted for the sale of liquor within 100 feet of "any school, church or other building regularly used as a place of religious worship."...

Isle Casino Cape Girardeau, along with all other Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. properties, soon will have a new owner: Eldorado Resorts Inc.

It's not surprising the Holder family opened a coffee shop in Scott City. When they were teenagers, before they had met, husband and wife Danny and Teresa Holder worked at doughnut shops -- he in Scott City, and she in Prairie Village, Kansas. For over nine years, they have run Coffee 'N' More, an office coffee-delivery service, transporting a variety of coffee, janitorial and restaurant supplies to offices within a 125-mile radius of their home base in Scott City...

MAXWELL, Iowa -- Pale green and 8 feet tall, tightly packed corn stalks reach to the horizon throughout the Midwest in what likely will be the biggest harvest the U.S. has seen. Aside from a sense of pride in breaking the previous record by nearly a billion bushels, farmers won't benefit. They'll lose money on virtually every cob...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Gathered for a free music festival, a crowd waits to see one of the headline attractions -- an exhibit about fast-food ingredients. On display: beakers of powders and liquids that purportedly go into what clearly is meant to look like a McDonald's burger...

ST. LOUIS -- Bayer's buyout of St. Louis-based Monsanto has agricultural groups and farmers concerned the merger will lead to higher prices for seed and crop-protection products, though some experts are confident the deal will be good for farmers. Monsanto produces seeds for fruits, vegetables and crops, such as corn, soybeans and cotton, and is the world's largest seed supplier, including genetically modified seeds...

The call for paid family leave has grown louder in recent months, thanks to the upcoming presidential election. While the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave in a year to care for a newborn, adopted or foster child, according to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), only 12 percent of U.S. private sector workers have access to paid family leave through their employer...

Although women remain a minority in many science-, engineering-, math- and technology-based fields, efforts are being made throughout the United States to increase their numbers. In 2013, women ages 25 to 34 were 21 percent more likely than men to be college graduates and 48 percent more likely to have gone to graduate school, according to a report by the presidential Council of Economic Advisors. ...

When Emily Colbert decided to start working a second job, she looked into several companies and considered several elements. She wanted a job that would allow flexibility in work hours so she could tailor it around her full-time job, but also not take away from time with her children. Ultimately, Colbert settled on going into direct sales with Mary Kay...

During their working years, women tend to earn less than men, and when they retire, they're more likely to live in poverty. The National Institute on Retirement Security, a not-for-profit research center, reports that women are 80 percent more likely than men to be impoverished at age 65 and older. Women ages 75 to 79 are three times more likely...

Brenda Newbern stepped up as executive director of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau in January, but she's long been a familiar face in Cape Girardeau, and even to the CVB. During the 1990s and early 2000s, she worked at the CVB as a group tour manager. Before her return to the organization, she worked for several years for Midamerica Hotels, where she still had a hand in promoting Cape Girardeau -- a place she calls her "favorite spot."...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Yelp.com is warning a California lawsuit targeting critical posts about a law firm could lead to the removal of negative reviews and leave consumers with a skewed assessment of restaurants and other businesses. Lawyer Dawn Hassell said the business review website is exaggerating the stakes of her legal effort, which aims only to remove from Yelp lies, not just negative statements, that damaged the reputation of her law firm...

Four years after opening a successful clothing store, Bridgett Kielhofner is looking to sell. “It’s time to slow down a bit,” Kielhofner, owner of Philanthropy in Cape Girardeau, said in an email.

DETROIT -- Truckers are warning a government plan to limit the speed of tractor-trailers electronically will lead to highway traffic jams and possibly an increase in deadly run-ins with cars. More than 150 people, most identifying themselves as independent truckers, have filed comments recently with the government about the proposed rule, unveiled last month by two federal agencies. There were only a few comments in favor...

Disaster mitigation, river water quality and maritime transport in the Midwest were the main topics of discussion at the fifth annual meeting of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI). After the meeting of 20 mayors from cities along the Mississippi River, the MRCTI held a news conference in Natchez, Mississippi, to announce new initiatives and partnerships they expect will help the 10-state region...

American seed and weed-killer company Monsanto and German medicine and farm chemical maker Bayer are combining in a deal that could help farmers produce higher yields to address challenges from global warming to rising food demand from a fast-growing global population...

Local business owners and managers are gearing up for Dec. 1. The updated Fair Labor Standards Act will take effect that day, making many salaried employees entitled to overtime pay. On Tuesday afternoon, dozens of those business leaders assembled at Isle Casino Cape Girardeau to discuss the ramifications of the rule change. ...

It has been a summer for change at the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce. The chamber's former vice president, Tim Arbeiter, departed for Lee's Summit, Missouri. Shortly thereafter, the chamber announced its move to a new facility in the carriage house of the Marquette Tower later this year to share space with the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau...

DETROIT -- A Volkswagen engineer's decision to tell everything he knows about the company's scheme to cheat on U.S. emissions tests is a major break for investigators and a message to others involved to cooperate or face prosecution, according to legal experts...

NEW YORK -- Flying burritos soon will be a reality over Virginia Tech. Chipotle is taking part in a test this month that will let some of the university's students and staff have their favorite tortilla-wrapped meal delivered by drone. Virginia Tech is conducting the test with Project Wing, a unit of Google owner Alphabet Inc., which makes self-flying devices that deliver food, medicine and other goods...

FUHEIS, Jordan -- It took gumption to pour millions of dollars into starting a brewery in an overwhelmingly Muslim country where many frown on consuming alcohol. Jordanian beer pioneer Yazan Karadsheh is taking his next risky step, sending a first shipment of his Carakale to the U.S., where it will compete with thousands of brands in a $22 billion-a-year craft-beer market...

Businesses come and go in Southeast Missouri. Particularly this year, it seems a considerable number of national chains have departed, and several decades-old local businesses have closed or been sold. But though their departures are noticeable, many businesses in the region are standing the test of time and carrying legacies through generations...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. employers slowed their hiring in August after two blockbuster months and barely raised their workers' pay -- a pullback that may lead the Federal Reserve to leave interest rates alone until late this year. But several surveys suggest Americans are growing more optimistic about the job market, a trend that could boost spending and energize the economy in coming months...

DETROIT -- U.S. sales of new cars and trucks fell in August, ending summer on a low note for the auto industry and making it less likely this year's auto sales will match the record set in 2015. General Motors' sales dropped 5 percent from last August while Ford's sales were down 8 percent. Toyota's sales were down 5 percent, Honda's fell 4 percent and Nissan's dropped 6.5 percent. Volkswagen's sales dropped 9 percent. Hyundai's sales were flat...

HANGZHOU, China -- China agreed to cooperate more closely with trading partners on its politically volatile steel exports as leaders of major economies ended a summit Monday with a forceful endorsement of free trade and a crowded agenda that included the Koreas, Syria and refugees...

NEW YORK -- Wal-Mart is cutting about 7,000 back-office store jobs over the next few months as it centralizes its invoice and accounting departments, expanding a test it announced in June. The nation's largest private employer said last week the cuts will take place in all its namesake stores, confirming the move reported by The Wall Street Journal...

The latest round of the 1st50K startup competition has come to a close. Jason and Amanda Todt of Marble Hill, Missouri, and Ann Butler of Richmond, Virginia, have been awarded $50,000 each in cash and pro bono support services for their respective startup companies...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Electric-car maker Tesla Motors cannot bypass dealerships and sell vehicles directly to Missouri customers, a judge ruled Wednesday in another setback to the company's efforts to cut the middle man out of its deals. Cole County Judge Daniel Green ruled the Missouri Revenue Department violated state law when it gave the California-based manufacturer a license for a University City dealership in 2013 and a franchise-dealer license for a Kansas City dealership in 2014...

The return of students to Southeast Missouri State University means many things to many people. Faculty return to the classroom. Motorists are faced with more traffic around town. Business picks up in stores and restaurants across the region. The latter is particularly true with pizza joints, which once again are being called to cater to student clientele.

After meeting with Jackson landowners and developers, the city and consulting firm Catalyst Commercial are one step closer to bringing new retail business to Jackson. The 11 face-to-face meetings completed last week were part of the assessment phase of Catalyst’s yearlong plan to identify and help landowners capitalize on development opportunities in Jackson and Cape Girardeau...