Business Feeds

Bangladesh offers the global garment industry something unique: Millions of workers who quickly churn out huge amounts of well-made underwear, jeans and T-shirts for the lowest wages in the world.

But since a building collapse April 24 killed at least 1,100 garment workers in Bangladesh in one of the deadliest industrial tragedies in history, the country has gone from one of the industry’s greatest assets to one of its biggest liabilities.

“The risk factors have jumped off the charts,” said Julie Hughes, president of the U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel, a trade group that represents retailers who import garments. “This is worse than what anyone had imagined.”

Working conditions in Bangladesh’s garment industry long have been known to be grim, a result of government corruption, desperation for jobs, and industry indifference.

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Workers walk through the Unit 2 construction site at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Spring City, Tenn. Photo by Dan Henry /Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Equipment tests to verify the reliability of safety systems installed at TVA’s newest nuclear plant have not detected any problems so far, TVA officials told regulators Tuesday.

In a status meeting with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Atlanta, TVA top nuclear officials said the utility has improved procedures and rechecked equipment at the Watts Bar Unit 2 reactor being built near Spring City, Tenn.

Last year, the NRC cited TVA with three apparent violations for installing thousands of parts at Watts Bar that were not documented or tested for nuclear-grade quality and for not following proper quality control to detect the documentation failure.

Ric Wiggall, senior engineering manager at Watts Bar, acknowledged Tuesday that TVA likely violated NRC requirements for equipment verification in the new Unit 2 reactor.

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The arch for the Waikiki Natatorium War Memorial would be relocated under a plan by the state of Hawaii and City and County of Honolulu t demolish the crumbling pool and structure and create a public beach on the site.

The Waikiki Natatorium War Memorial pool will be demolished under a plan by the state of Hawaii and the City and County of Honolulu to turn the crumbling, unused structure into a public beach.

Gov.

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The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday began a two-hearing designed to distill bigger lessons about airplaine certification from the failure of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner battery that caught fire on a runway in January.

“We are looking for lessons learned, not just for the design and certification of the failed battery but for knowledge that can be applied to emerging technologies,” NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said in opening the hearing. “It’s imperative to understand how to best oversee their development and certification.”

The proceeding is being simultaneously translated into French and Japanese to accommodate journalists and observers from Europe and Japan.

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Bank of America has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by investors who bought mortgage investments from Countrywide Financial, the California-based lender it acquired in 2008. The announcement came as the nation’s second biggest bank reported higher net income for the first quarter, but missed analysts’ expectations.

Bank of America said Wednesday that it would pay $500 million to settle the lawsuit brought by the Maine State Retirement System and other pension funds who said Countrywide had misled them about the quality of the mortgages they bundled together and sold to investors before the crisis.

The settlement is the latest reminder of the long fallout of Bank of America’s decision to buy Countrywide, which was known for making exotic loans.

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Josh Flory/news Sentinel Blackhorse Pub & Brewery is planning to open in June in the former Sequoyah Grille restaurant building in Western Plaza.

A new brewery is coming to a West Knoxville shopping center.

Justin Cazana of Cushman & Wakefield/Cornerstone said Friday that Clarksville, Tenn.-based Blackhorse Pub & Brewery will be opening a location in Western Plaza.

Blackhorse will be located in the former home of Sequoyah Grille, and Cazana said they’re aiming to open in early June.

The move will actually be an encore. Cazana said Blackhorse was located in the shopping center about 15 years ago, and said the concept has been successful in Clarksville. H

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Workers remove the Macy’s sign from the retailer’s former Downtown Honolulu store, which closed in February. Walmart Stores Inc. said Friday that it has purchased the building and plans to open a Walmart store there in 2014.

Walmart Stores Inc. said Friday that it has purchased the 80,000-square-foot former Macy’s department store and parking garage in Downtown Honolulu and plans to open a Walmart store there next year.

The retailer, which bought the building from Lexington Corporate Properties Trust (NYSE: LXP) for an undisclosed price, plans to hire 150 full- and part-time workers to staff the new store.

“We’re pleased to continue the retailing tradition at this prime business location in Honolulu’s downtown urban core,” Rey Armijo, Hawaii market manager for Walmart, said in a statement. “We also

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Two McDonald’s alums are poised to take on the Chicago market with a health food concept called Lyfe Kitchen that’s expected to open this fall in River North.

At Lyfe, healthy food might mean corn chowder made with cashew cream, a vegan version of oven-fried chicken with Brussels sprouts, or farro and quinoa pancakes topped with berries and Greek yogurt, for $4 to $13, and delivered to a diner’s table in about eight minutes. There are fish tacos, margherita flatbread and a grass-fed beef burger for the less adventurous.

“I fell in love with the concept, and I’ve been around a lot of concepts,” said Carey Cooper, a former McDonald’s produce supplier and Lyfe’s first franchisee.

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The EU says a top official will chair a high-level meeting on Cyprus in a last-ditch effort to seal a deal before finance ministers decide whether the island nation gets a 10 billion euro bailout loan to save it from bankruptcy.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Finance Minister Michalis Sarris were flying to Brussels early Sunday.

Spokesman Preben Aaman couldn’t confirm who would participate in the meeting, but said it would be led by European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.

Cyprus has been told it must raise 5.8 billion euros ($7.5 billion) in order to secure the loan from the IMF and other eurozone countries.

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