AT&T said Thursday it had restored its U-verse broadband service to all customers who suffered from a widespread outage this week.

The fiber-based TV, Internet and phone service had been out for three days or more, according to some customers who complained on social media such as Twitter and U-verse’s Facebook page. AT&T has said the problem affected less than 1 percent of U-verse subscribers and was concentrated in its Southeast and Southwest service areas.

“U-verse service has been fixed for all impacted customers. We’ll be crediting those affected & we’re incredibly sorry for the inconvenience,” the carrier said via Twitter around 11 a.m. Pacific time on Thursday. It had said service would be restored on Thursday morning.

In response to a question on Twitter, AT&T said all affected customers will receive a credit whether they reported an outage or not.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2026202/atandt-says-its-restored-uverse-and-will-give-credits-for-outage.html

GOODLETTSVILLE, Tenn. — Dollar General Corp. said this week it would open 635 new stores and relocate 550 stores in 2013.

“Dollar General’s continued growth reflects our customers’ increasing satisfaction with our everyday low prices and convenience,” Rick Dreiling, Dollar General’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “Further, 2013 will mark another growth milestone as we plan to open the organization’s 11,000th store before the year’s end when we will begin our 75th anniversary in 2014.”

To generate a high caliber candidate pool, Dollar General also participates in proactive hiring initiatives such as Paychecks for Patriots that demonstrate the company’s commitment to an employee base including veterans. The Paychecks for Patriots program helps resolve the challenges of unemployment facing veterans by equipping the military community with the resources to better access available job opportunities at committed companies.

“Dollar General is a thriving organization looking to attract new employees that embody our mission of ‘Serving Others,’ which complements the company’s efforts to promote from within. We are excited to welcome new talent with a passion for the retail business,” Bob Ravener, executive vice president and chief people officer for Dollar General, said.


Read More: http://supermarketnews.com/dollar-stores/dollar-general-open-635-new-stores#ixzz2IyiAwY8F

Consumer groups wasted no time criticizing legislation filed Thursday that would allow Ameren Missouri and other electric utilities to get paid more quickly for a range of infrastructure projects, from work on power plants to transmission facilities to so-called “smart grid” investments.

Senate Bill 207 filed by Sen. Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, would “remove unnecessary regulatory barriers” that discourage utilities from making needed infrastructure upgrades, he said in a statement.

But consumer groups immediately called the bill anti-consumer and part of a continued assault by investor-owned electric utilities to undo a decades-old rate-making process that’s served the state well and helped maintain reasonable rates in Missouri.

“The last thing Missourians need is for the legislature to allow another surcharge to be added to their electric bill,” Chris Roepe of the Fair Electricity Rate Action Fund said in a statement.

http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/52744f91-a1c8-5b37-8be5-4e2774453027.html

Dr. Leana Wen graduated from Washington University's medical school in 2007. Soon after, she was picked to travel to Africa and write a blog with New York Times columnist Nick Kristof.

She became a Rhodes scholar and now she's a Harvard fellow and senior emergency resident at Brigham & Women's and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Apparently Wen never sleeps because she's also co-author of a new book, "When Doctors Don't Listen."

This morning Wen will be a guest on the Diane Rehm show on NPR (10 a.m. at 90.7 FM).

http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/books-and-literature/book-blog/5ed4c319-4c70-573f-8fce-7f7dd1f25c93.html

Some Republicans in the State Senate are expressing outrage that the Missouri State Highway Patrol spent $5.6 million on a new airplane that could be used by Democratic Governor Jay Nixon and other elected state officials. Freshman Senator Ryan Silvey (R, Kansas City) says he and a few other senators paid a visit today to Jefferson City Memorial Airport to examine the King Air 250. He says lawmakers should have had input into the purchase.

“It was circumventing the legislature to purchase a new plane for the governor to fly around the state to have these press conferences," Silvey said. "It’s very troubling, especially at this time…this is the Governor that recommended cutting $100 million out of Higher Education last year.”

Silvey says he was told by the Highway Patrol that the plane’s first flight was today, and that it would be used to take Governor Nixon to St. Louis. He also says he took pictures of the plane and posted them to his Twitter account. The governor’s office referred all calls to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which has not responded to our requests for a comment.

http://www.news.stlpublicradio.org/post/concerns-raised-over-mo-highway-patrol-purchase-new-56m-plane

t's fair to say that legislative bodies in St. Louis, St. Louis County and St. Charles County have had decidedly different reactions to the proposal for a local sales tax for the Gateway Arch.

The initiative for the 3/16th of one-cent sales tax faced the least amount of resistance in St. Louis County – the jurisdiction that will provide the most revenue from the tax increase. It was voted unanimously out of the county council on Tuesday and has received kind words from St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley.

Tom Irwin, the head of Civic Progress, an organization of leading businesses, noted that funding for local parks could be a major incentive for St. Louis County voters to approve the proposal.

“They would get substantially more money both for county parks and municipal parks,” Irwin said. “Clearly, that is an attractive aspect to people. People like open space. They like preserved space. They like to recreate outdoors. So I think that the more you can provide people, the better off we are as a community. But clearly, St. Louis County would get a substantial infusion for parks – as would the municipalities.

https://www.stlbeacon.org/#!/content/28978/arch_tax_two?coverpage=2579

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has announced that he is setting a special election for June 4 for voters in the state’s 8th congressional district to choose a replacement U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau.

That’s two months later than Emerson had hoped. She had decided to step down as of 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, a move up from her initial retirement date, to give Nixon the legal 10 weeks to call the special election for April 2.

Still, a spokesman for Emerson said today that she recognized that it was up to the governor to set the date.

Nixon’s staff says the hangup is compliance with federal and state laws set up to enable members of the military stationed overseas to vote.

https://www.stlbeacon.org/#!/content/28997/nixon_emerson_election_012213?coverpage=2576

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Shoppers are clinging to frugal shopping habits, according to a new study from AMG Strategic Advisors here.

Among the findings from AMG’s new trade promotion study, “A Shift in the Lift: A Study of Key Factors Influencing Trade Promotion,” found that 67% of shoppers said they are “buying less and sticking to a budget.”

In addition, 54% said they are buying fewer items on impulse, 59% said more than half of their grocery purchases are bought “on deal,” and 65% said they expect certain items to be on sale and will wait for a sale to purchase them.

Read More: http://supermarketnews.com/marketing/customer-frugality-shows-latest-amg-study#ixzz2It31Nl4Q

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Sprouts Farmers Market here said it will open the first of five planned Houston-area stores in late March.

The 25,000-square-foot store — the chain's 24th in Texas — will be located in the Houston suburb of Katy.

As part of its community involvement, Sprouts said it will donate unsold, edible but not marketable groceries to local hunger relief agencies; help non-profit organizations raise money by offering gift cards at a 5% discount, which they can resell at full price; make regular in-kind donations to local causes that address healthy living and eating; raise money for autism research; and promote an annual holiday food drive to help feed the hungry.


Read More: http://supermarketnews.com/retail-amp-financial/sprouts-enter-houston-market#ixzz2It2cg9n4

The market for electric vehicles has grown past the early adopter stage into a typical pull of supply, demand and price — and with automakers building more plug-in cars than customers have demanded so far, price has only one direction to go. The clearest example to date of pure economics in action comes from an Illinois dealer who's offering a two-year lease of the Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric sedan for $69 a month before taxes.

The i-MiEV won't win either the talent or beauty portions of any pageant. While it's efficiency rating of 112 mpg-e ranks among the best for any EV car, it's only capable of 62 miles of range on a full charge. Consumer Reports called it "a glorified golf cart of limited use," and with a sticker of $32,000, the mystery of Mitsubishi selling 588 i-MiEVs last year isn't why that's so low, but who bought them.

O'Brien Mitsubishi, a dealership in Mitsubishi's U.S. base of Normal, Ill., appears all out to change that. As caught by Autoblog Green, O'Brien has advertised a $69 a month, two-year lease of an i-MiEV before about $2,100 in fees, or a $169-a-month deal with the fees rolled in. As with all electric car leases, the dealership keeps the $7,500 federal tax credit that goes to the vehicle's buyer.

While the i-MiEV's deal applies at just one dealership, price breaks and discounts have come to other EVs as well. Nissan announced earlier this month it was lowering the sticker price on the base-level 2013 Nissan Leaf EV by $6,000, making the out-the-door price $21,300 including the federal incentive -- a discount of 18 percent from last year's model. Given that automakers have to sell more EVs in the coming years to meet state pollution regulations, expect better deals to get plugged in.

http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/69-month-lease-mitsubishi-miev-becomes-america-cheapest-211851404.html