Business Briefs – April 9, 2018

Zuckerberg Prepares Another Apology — This Time to Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has already apologized to users for not doing enough to protect their privacy. Now he plans to apologize to Congress, saying in prepared testimony that Facebook hasn’t done enough to prevent its tools from being used for harm. Zuckerberg says Facebook “didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake.”

Facebook is in full damage-control mode following revelations that it might have shared the data of some 87 million users with Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook picked up 73 cents to $157.93. Its stock is down almost 15 percent since March 16.

Amid Trade Fight, Trump Says He’ll ‘Make It Up’ to Farmers

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is acknowledging that farmers could be adversely affected by the escalating tariff dispute with China, but he promises to make it up to them. He says they “will be better off than they ever were.” Speaking at a Cabinet meeting Monday, Mr. Trump addressed the Chinese threat to slap tariffs on soybeans and other agriculture staples grown in rural America. Such a move could hit Midwestern farmers, many of whom are strong supporters of the president.

Court: Women Can’t Be Paid Less Than Men Based on Past Wages

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A U.S. appeals court says women can’t be paid less than men based on their salary in a previous job. A unanimous 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Monday that pay differences for the same work based on prior salaries were discriminatory under the federal Equal Pay Act. The decision overturned a decision by a smaller panel of 9th Circuit judges that had been criticized by equal pay advocates.

Report: Airlines Getting Better In Key Areas Except Delays

U.S. airlines are getting better at many things except getting you to your destination on time. They are losing fewer bags. Complaints are down. And on the anniversary of a man getting dragged off a plane because a crew member needed his seat, airlines are bumping fewer passengers. That’s the upshot of a report issued by academics who analyze numbers compiled by the Transportation Department.

The authors ranked Alaska Airlines first, followed closely by Delta Air Lines in a report released Monday. Budget carriers Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines finished at the bottom.

“The industry is improving, but there are still a lot of frustrated travelers out there,” said one of the researchers, Brent Bowen, dean of aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He blamed a lack of transparency in the ticketing process and the increase in delayed flights.

The industrywide on-time performance — never great — declined a bit last year, when 80.2 percent of flights arrived within 14 minutes of schedule, which is the government’s definition of on time. That was down from 81.4 percent in 2016.

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