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Stocks are set for a higher opening Friday after another round of positive earnings from major U.S. companies.
Caterpillar Inc. and Merck & Co. each beat earnings forecasts for the first-quarter. Merck said its profit more than tripled because of much lower restructuring and merger costs. The company’s stock rose 1 percent ahead of the opening […]

Reliance Bancshares named Patrick Gideon non-executive chairman of its board of directors, replacing longtime chairman and founder Jerry Von Rohr.
Reliance said Gideon’s appointment was confirmed by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis this week. Reliance is the holding company for Reliance Bank, which has 20 local branches.
Von Rohr, a former chief executive of Reliance, founded the […]

Maggie Strachan has been a stay-at-home mom, a part-time university instructor in city and regional planning, and lived, worked and volunteered in the Arctic and in Africa.
Retired for 10 years, she relies on Old Age Security, the Canada Pension Plan, and her own savings.

Wall Street will focus on another full slate of corporate earnings this week as several big companies report their first-quarter performance.
Ford Motor Co., Coca-Cola, and Exxon-Mobil are among the companies reporting earnings this week. Movie rental company Netflix Inc. will release its earnings report after the market closes Monday.
Ahead of the opening bell, Dow Jones […]

Crews using bore holes and probes failed to find evidence of a miner who was trapped deep underground when part of an Idaho silver mine collapsed more than a week ago.
Hecla Mining Co. said Saturday that rescuers neared the section of a collapsed tunnel where they had hoped to find 53-year-old Larry Marek. But the […]

Making his case to a young audience at Facebook headquarters, President Barack Obama says trimming $4 trillion from the nation’s deficits over the next 12 years sounds like a lot but can be done.
Obama was in Palo Alto, Calif., on Wednesday answering questions in person and online during a town hall at the home base […]

Record sales from dental diagnostic equipment and related products helped Young Innovations Inc. raise profits in the first quarter. The Earth City-based manufacturer of equipment used by dentists, hygienists, and consumers reported a net income of $4 million, or 50 cents a share, compared to $3.6 million, or 44 cents, a year ago. Sales rose […]

SAN FRANCISCO/SEOUL

When Missouri voters approved the state’s renewable energy law in the fall of 2008, the ballot proposal evoked images of graceful wind turbines and gleaming solar arrays.
What it produced, instead, was two years of bickering, litigation and regulatory limbo - not to mention fewer clean energy projects than envisioned.
Now, with time running out in the […]

How can you get satisfaction when trying to return unsatisfactory goods or services?
Keep insisting that you deserve full compensation. Then, contact the media if you run into roadblocks on your way to a refund.
Training sessions: Eleonore Morris signed a contract with Goodlife Fitness for 57 personal training sessions. The price per session was $62.53.
Her […]