NATION
NATION
Delta to sell more assetscoming out of bankruptcy
ATLANTA -- Delta Air Lines Inc. expects to emerge from bankruptcy protection April 30 with an eye on improving customer service and selling more assets to build shareholder value, it said Tuesday, raising the possibility it could shed feeder carrier Comair.
While the nation's third-biggest airline did not say in documents prepared for an investor conference what assets it plans to sell, Chief Financial Officer Ed Bastian suggested that Delta subsidiary Comair Inc., based near Cincinnati in Erlanger, Ky., could be a target.
Probe finds 3,500 defectsat CSX railroad properties
WASHINGTON -- Federal railroad officials said Tuesday that an investigation found more than 3,500 defects at CSX Corp. railroad properties in 23 states, a probe started in response to a series of accidents involving the company's trains.
The Federal Railroad Administration's inspection, conducted from Jan. 19 to Jan. 22, after a derailment Jan. 16 in East Rochester, N.Y., recommended that CSX be fined for 199 violations, including failure to replace defective rails and failure to make repairs.
Joseph Boardman, administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, said in a prepared statement that CSX "is still not doing enough to make safety a top priority."
Retiree health-care costskeep rising, Fidelity says
BOSTON -- Rising health-care costs are eating up more of retirees' savings, with a 65-year-old couple retiring this year needing about 215,000 to cover medical costs over the rest of their lives, Fidelity Investments said Tuesday.
The 215,000 represents a 7.5 percent increase from Fidelity's estimate last year of the amount a typical U.S. couple would need during retirement to pay for health care, including medical and surgical expenses as well as prescription drugs.
That increase is slightly higher than the average annual increase of 6.1 percent since Fidelity began calculating retiree health-care expenses five years ago. Since then, the highest increase came in 2005, when the estimate rose 8.6 percent.
Associated Press