US Postal Service stations will not extend their counter hours or collection times on Monday, which is the Internal Revenue Service’s income tax deadline. Income tax filers must sent in their forms by the last collection times as posted at their collection box. In Houston, the latest collection time Monday will be at 10 p.m. at the Texan Veterans Military Post Office, which is also known as Foxbrook. The Barbara Jordan Post Office in downtown Houston will have its last collection from the box at... 

The US Census Bureau released the nominal read of retail sales showed a drop of 0.4 percent in March compared to February. Despite the decline, the reading was still an increase of 2.8 percent on a year-over-year basis on an aggregate of all items including fuel, healthcare services and food. Nominal discretionary retail sales that included home furnishings, home garden and building materials, department store sales and consumer electronics dropped 0.4 percent from February and fell 0.64 percent... 

The U.S. Department of Treasury has said that valuation currency policy must be geared toward growth instead of giving a country a competitive advantage. The Obama administration this week used new and harsh language in warning Japan that it should not hold the value of its yen down in order to gain an advantage in the world’s markets, as the new government in Tokyo follows a path of aggressive policy with a goal at helping growth in its country. The Treasury, in its semi-annual report on global... 

President Barack Obama met with the world’s most powerful bankers Thursday. He stressed to them the need to revive the economy and overhaul the fiscal and immigration policies. The ongoing reform of Wall Street was not part of the agenda of the meeting. This is a surprise since it is a hot topic for bank lobbyists. Some of the attendees of the meeting with the president were Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein, head of JP Morgan Chase Jamie Dimon, James Gorman of Morgan Stanley, and... 

Microsoft has published reports of recent requests for data made by government law enforcement agencies. They are joining companies like Google and Twitter that publish these reports to provide transparency to their millions of customers. According to announced plans, the Microsoft report will be updated every six months and will show the number of request made by government agencies to obtain information about the users who use their services. The first report showed that five countries, including... 

It looks like American Airlines is not affected by its parent company’s bankruptcy. The airline just announced its plans to expand to eight new destinations out of the Los Angeles International Airport. The airline wants to attract more business travelers. This will make it 51 domestic and international destinations from the LAX. Seven new domestic destinations are Eugene, Oregon; Redmond, Washington; Pittsburgh; Indianapolis; Columbus, Ohio; Hartford, Connecticut; and Bentonville, Arkansas. The... 

Caribou Coffee is going out of Illinois and Peet’s Coffee & Tea will gain some ground in Chicago. Caribou became private this year as a result of a $340 million deal with Joh. A. Benckiser. It announced that it will shut down 80 locations across nation Sunday and turn 88 others into Peet’s in the next 12 to 18 months. The investment firm purchased Peet’s last summer for $974 million. JAB also owns several personal care products such as Durex, Calgon, and Air Wick. It also owns fashion branch... 

Small businesses in the United States cut their borrowing in February for the second month in a row. This is an indicator of slower growth in the next couple of months even as other economic reports showed recovery picked up in the first quarter of the year. The Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index that measures the total volume of financing to small US companies, dropped to 101.3 from a revised reading of 111.7 in January. PayNet’s lending index compares the overall economic growth... 

On Monday, General Electric agreed to purchase Lufkin Industries, Inc. for $3.3 billion, adding technologies for the gas and oil industry as Jeffrey Immelt, the GE CEO increases his bet on energy. Shareholders of Lufkin will be paid $88.50 in cash for each share. The deal is scheduled to close during the second half of the year, said GE in a prepared statement. The price of $88.50 is a premium of 38% over the closing price of $63.93 for Friday April 5, for Texas-based Lufkin. The fastest growing... 

Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller dismissed the current energy boom in the United States as a soap bubble that is going to burst soon. He said that the US is not a competitor of his company. He added that there are no projects that would make shale gas profitable. Vagit Alekperov, president of Lukoit, also dismissed shale drilling made by the United States. He said that it is an achievement for US engineers that the country is now producing gas and oil from shale. They do it via drilling tricky wells and... 

J.C. Penney stores are filled with well designed brands, signage and layouts, but they are missing customers. Two years ago, Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management used his stake in the company to persuade its board to hire Ron Johnson, creator of the Apple retail stores, as chief executive. So far, Johnson’s strategy to regain market share and customers has led the company nowhere. The company’s stock has fallen an estimated 30% following their fourth-quarter earnings report and 60%... 

Four of the largest mortgage insurers in the United States paid millions of dollars in kickback to home lenders over the past decade. This was made in exchange for business and increasing insurance prices for consumers according to the Consumer Financial Bureau. The bureau fined United Guaranty Corp., Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corp., Radian Guaranty Inc., and Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. The total fine is $15.4 million for the supposed scheme that was said to be a common practice before the... 

Employers in the United States only added 88,000 jobs during March making it the slowest pace for adding jobs in nine months. The results of the Labor Department’s jobs report suggest a weakening in economic growth as government spending cuts and higher taxes start to take effect. The unemployment rate in the U.S., which was released in a separate report, fell by just 0.1% to 7.6% due largely from people dropping out of the current work force. Estimates by economists expected the payrolls of non-farm... 

Factory orders in the United States increased in February due to the surge in volatile demand for commercial aircraft. The advance in orders offset the drop in important orders that indicated business investment. The report from the Commerce Department showed that factory orders went up 3 percent in February. It came after the 1 percent fall in January. The gain in February is the largest in five months. The increase was attributed to the 95.1 percent advance in orders for commercial aircraft. Orders... 

Companies in the U.S. hired fewer workers than had been projected for March due to limited construction hiring according to the private report from ADP based on the country’s payrolls. The increase in jobs was 158,000 making it the least amount of new hiring since last October and followed the revised increase of 237,000 for February. The estimated increase of jobs by a group of economists had been placed at 200,000. There continues to be an improvement in the job market, but with stops and starts,... 

Court-appointed administrator Patrick Juneau is in charge of the monetary settlement with thousands of individuals and businesses who sued BP regarding the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. He urged US District Judge Carl Barbier to dismiss the company’s lawsuit over how he determines damages claims. BP filed a motion that urged the federal judge to issue an emergency order to stop the administrator from paying out large amount of settlement money based on fictitious or inflated claims. The oil company... 

Job growth is still on the rise in South Florida despite the lower payrolls in local government that dragged the hiring recovery. According to the February employment report, the recovery has regained steam in the state. Miami-Dade and Broward counties added around 27,000 positions to payrolls. The job growth maintained the trend set in January when strong employment report indicated 2013 was going to accelerate the rally that has been underway since 2010. There were also signs of concerns, especially... 

One in four small businesses consisting of less than ten members have reported that their energy supplier has rolled over their contract without their knowledge, according to a survey by the Federation of Small Businesses. MP Caroline Lucas is heading the campaign to give small businesses an energy supply rollover period of 30 days, ousting the current constricting one year contract length. The Private Member’s Bill is also pushing to ban the practice of rolling over energy contracts without informing... 

Businesses both large and small will understand the important of keeping tabs on each piece of business equipment. Expensive hardware needs to be tracked appropriately and with the simple application of a durable, easily used label, all assets can be easily accounted for. So how would your business benefit from asset labels? IT equipment Often the most expensive equipment used in a business is IT equipment – laptops, computers and screens. To keep tabs on exactly where this equipment is and who... 

Shipping company UPS agreed to pay $40 million to stop the federal criminal probe with regards to its connection to online pharmacies. This was announced by the US Department of Justice Friday. It added that the company will be taking steps in ensuring that it blocks illegal online drug dealers from using its delivery service. The Department of Justice said that the fine is the money that UPS collected from alleged illegal online pharmacies. Because of the deal, UPS will not be charged with any crimes... 

Google is taking on Microsoft and Amazon for the lead in the cloud computing market. The company has verified that it’s doubling its office space near Seattle and is actively searching for engineers to work on its cloud technology. Google is adding 180,000 square feet of space to its Kirkland, WA offices, making it the third largest facility the company owns in the U.S. The facility will include all of the perks you’d expect from Google, like espresso bars, massage parlor, and climbing walls. Google... 

Sprint Nextel Corp. and Softbank Corp. told Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan that they will not use equipment from Chinese maker Huawei Technologies into Sprint’s network after the two companies merge. The Republican representative said that he expects the two companies to make the same assurances before any deal is approved by US agencies reviewing the merger. Softbank and Sprint, the third largest US carrier in the United States, said they will answer all the concerns by the United States... 

According to RealtyTrac, a real estate information company based in Irvine, California, 301,874 “zombie” properties are found in the United States. These are foreclosed properties that homeowners have moved out and left a vacant property that is vulnerable to degradation and vandalism. Among the states, Florida has the most zombie properties with a total of 90,556 vacant homes in foreclosure. Illinois is in second place with 31,668. California is third with 28,821 zombie properties. The number... 

A group composed of members of the US Congress and businesses are scheduled to visit India this week. It will include a meeting with Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. He has been denied a visa for the United States for his supposed role in the Gujarat riots in 2002. But it looks like US businesses have started to warm up to Modi in recent months. Heading the delegation is Republican Representative Aaron Schock of Illinois. They are set to go to Ahmedabad to meet with Modi Thursday. This is according... 

Blackberry has posed a string of surprises in recent quarters. Less than a year ago, many were predicting their demise, citing their lackluster product lineup, and failure to compete in the consumer space with behemoths like Apple and Samsung. Despite the uphill battle, the once star performer continues to outperform expectations. Blackberry was once a ubiquitous device, part of the arsenal of virtually every executive in the country. But, as the critics say, they failed to innovate. They stagnated,...