Business News

The Arthur Andersen accounting empire, already fast breaking up abroad as a result of the Enron debacle, now is starting to crumble at home in the United States.

The Georgia Department of Industry, Trade and Tourism said Thursday the state's floor-covering companies made 63 business deals worth a projected $21.8 million at a trade show in China last month.

The pace of retail job cuts, which increased dramatically after Sept. 11, has accelerated in 2002 and this year's losses could be the worst in at least two decades, as the industry consolidates, according to a major employment study to be released Mon

Blaming a downturn in business after Sept. 11, Hertz Corp. has become the first U.S. car rental agency to eliminate travel agent commissions for government and corporate rentals.

The New York Stock Exchange has delisted Kaiser Aluminum Corp., but a company spokesman said the move doesn't affect operations or the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

The state attorney general is asking federal regulators to investigate last month's unfounded rumor of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in cattle in northeast Kansas.

CNN business news anchor Lou Dobbs denounces as ``frivolous'' suggestions that he might have a conflict of interest. At issue are his commentaries defending Enron auditors Arthur Andersen.

AOL vice president John Borthwick said companies like Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and Dell have expressed interest in creating highly customized computers, which would run Windows almost invisibly, but their contracts with Microsoft keep them from doing so.

Nurses and teachers are in short supply. Home furnishing stores are hiring, as are hotels, amusement companies and other recreation-type businesses. And temporary employment agencies are being asked to fill more jobs.

New claims for unemployment insurance shot up last week, but the layoffs picture was distorted by federal requirements related to how laid-off workers who exhausted their benefits may seek to get them extended.