Payless emerges from bankruptcy
Payless ShoeSource says it emerged from bankruptcy protection this week and is looking for a new CEO to lead the company.
The low-priced shoe chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April. Several retailers have filed for bankruptcy protection in the past year, including American Apparel and RadioShack, hurt by the growth of online shopping.
Payless also has shut down hundreds of stores, but kept about 3,500 of them open.
The Topeka, Kan.-based company says that CEO Paul Jones retired this week and that its board of directors will select a new leader. In the interim, Payless will be led by an executive committee.
Rate increase dropped for failed nuclear plant
Millions of customers who have been footing the bill for years for a now-abandoned nuclear power project may get a temporary reprieve from rising bills, as South Carolina’s state-owned utility dropped plans Friday for two consecutive rate hikes.
Santee Cooper’s board canceled the approval process for average increases of 3.5 percent in 2018 and 3.9 percent in 2019. A vote on the requested hikes had been set for December.
They would have been the utility’s sixth and seventh hikes since 2009 for the now-abandoned expansion of V.C. Summer Nuclear Station north of Columbia. Santee Cooper and South Carolina Electric & Gas decided July 31 to halt construction on two new reactors they’d already jointly spent $10 billion to build, much of that paid by customers.
“Conditions have changed materially since the rate process began,” said Santee Cooper board Chairman Leighton Lord.
Consumer prices up 0.1 percent in July
Consumer prices posted a slight gain in July, with higher costs for medical care and clothing offsetting declines for hotel stays and consumer cellphone plans.
The Labor Department said Friday that its consumer price index edged up 0.1 percent last month after no gain in June and a 0.1 percent fall in May. Core inflation, which excludes volatile energy and food changes, was also up a slight 0.1 percent in July.
Both overall inflation and core inflation have risen an identical 1.7 percent over the past 12 months. That shows that inflation pressures remain well under control. In fact, a separate inflation gauge favored by the Federal Reserve has been slowing this year, raising concerns that inflation is falling farther from the Fed’s 2 percent goal.
“Today’s report is just the sort of ammunition the Fed doves need to argue against additional rate hikes this year,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG in New York, referring to the group of Fed officials who generally argue for a go-slow approach to hiking interest rates.
The Fed has raised its benchmark interest rate in March and June, and has signaled it plans a third rate hike before year’s end. But private economists say the Fed may stand pat for the rest of 2017 unless inflation accelerates in coming months. The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge showed a 12-month price gain of 2.2 percent in February, but its latest reading has slowed to a gain of just 1.4 percent.
HBO negotiated paying hackers
Hackers released an email from HBO in which the company expressed willingness to pay them $250,000 as part of a negotiation over electronic data swiped from HBO’s servers.
The July 27 email was sent by John Beyler, an HBO executive who thanked the hackers for “making us aware” of previously unknown security vulnerabilities. The executive asked for a 1-week delay and said HBO was willing to make a “good faith” payment of $250,000, calling it a “bug bounty” reward for IT professionals rather than a ransom.
HBO declined to comment. A person close to the investigation confirmed the authenticity of the email, but said it was an attempt to buy time and assess the situation.
The same hackers have subsequently released two dumps of HBO material and demanded a multi-million dollar ransom.
Whether or not HBO ever intended to follow through with its $250,000 offer, the email raised questions Friday among security professionals about the importance of the data as well as how it will affect future attacks.