business briefs
Dash-n-Dine expands delivery
Dash-n-Dine Delivery, a multi-restaurant delivery service based in Bridgeville has expanded its service area to Washington, the company said Friday in a press release.
Owner and Chief Executive Officer Tammy Franklin said the business partners with local area restaurants (who do not currently offer delivery) to deliver their food to customers.
The company began accepting deliveries on Friday, and is currently delivering for the following restaurants: Napoli Italian Restaurant, Buford’s Kitchen, DiCarlos Pizza, Dog House Diner, Pizza on Main and Garfield’s Restaurant and Pub.
For additional information, call 412-257-6168 or visit www.Dash-n-DineDelivery.com. The company’s app can be downloaded from the Google and Apple stores.
Franklin said the company is offering the first 100 customers who use the service Nov. 3-5 who use the coupon code: Washington.
Trade deficit
rose to $43.5B
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. trade deficit rose in September to $43.5 billion as imports grew faster than exports.
The Commerce Department said Friday that the September trade gap in goods and services was up from $42.8 billion in August. Exports rose 1.1 percent to $196.8 billion, the highest level since December 2014. But imports rose more: up 1.2 percent to $240.3 billion.
A trade deficit means that the United States is buying more goods and services from other countries than it is selling them. A rising trade gap reduces U.S. economic growth.
Through September, the United States has run a trade gap this year of $405.2 billion, up more than 9 percent from a year earlier. The gap has widened even though a weaker dollar has made American-made products less expensive in foreign markets and encouraged exports.
President Donald Trump views America’s massive trade deficits as a sign of economic weakness. He blames them on bad trade deals and abusive practices by China and other trade partners.
Conventional economists argue that trade deficits are largely caused not by flawed trade agreements or cheating by particular countries but by a bigger economic force: Americans spend more than they produce, and imports have to fill in the gap.
Two politically sensitive trade deficits slipped in September. The U.S. trade gap with China fell 0.7 percent to $34.6 billion, and the gap with Mexico dropped 7.7 percent to $5.7 billion.
In September, the United States ran a surplus of $21.9 billion with the rest of the world in the trade of services such as banking and tourism. But that gain was overwhelmed by a $65.4 billion deficit in the trade of goods.
Equifax: Execs didn’t
commit insider trading
ATLANTA (AP) – Equifax, the credit report company hacked over the summer exposing the personal information of 145 million Americans, said a special committee has determined that none of the four executives who sold shares at the time did anything wrong.
The high-level executives sold shares worth a combined $1.8 million in the days immediately after the company discovered the breach.
The company said Friday that a special committee comprised of independent directors and advised by an independent counsel found that none of the executives had knowledge of the breach when their trades were made and that preclearance for the trades was obtained.
The committee’s review of the matter included dozens of interviews and the scouring of more than 55,000 documents including emails, text messages, phone logs and other records.
The report Friday is unlikely to relieve pressure on the beleaguered company, which repeatedly botched the response to the hack. In September consumers complained of jammed phone lines and uninformed representatives. An Equifax website set up to help people determine their exposure looked like a scam to some, and provided inconsistent and unhelpful information to others. And last month Equifax said that problems with an online customer help page were caused by a vendor’s software code and not by a cyberattack on its systems.
High-level executives, including CEO Richard Smith, have stepped down.
Investigators will want to know how a breach of this size and scope could have occurred, without the knowledge of some of the company’s highest executives.
The company disclosed a cyberattack that ran from mid-May to July. Equifax Inc. said it detected the hack on July 29.
On Aug. 1 and Aug. 2, Equifax Chief Financial Officer John Gamble and three other executives, Rodolfo Ploder, Joseph Loughran and Douglas Brandberg, sold a combined $1.8 million in stock.
Smith has already appeared before Congress, which was not satisfied with the answers it received.
The Atlanta company is under multiple state and federal investigations and has been sued by numerous customers in litigation likely to evolve into class-action lawsuits.
Shares added 18 cents to $109.13 in morning trading.