REGION

REGION

Dominion Ohio East
to raise rates 14%

CLEVELAND — The rate for customers who buy natural gas from Dominion East Ohio will increase 14 percent in October. The utility said its Standard Service Offer, which covers its cost of buying gas, will be $7.86 per thousand cubic feet, up from $6.87 in September. The new rate is 40 percent higher than the rate that was in place in October 2006.

The rate affects only about one-third of East Ohio’s 1.2 million customers. The rest buy their gas from third-part suppliers at rates set by those companies.

NATION

Opposition to Google’s
buying DoubleClick

WASHINGTON — The chairman of a Senate antitrust panel said Thursday that Google Inc.’s proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of online advertising firm DoubleClick Inc. “warrants close examination” by federal regulators.

At the same time, Microsoft Corp., which sought to acquire DoubleClick but lost out to Google, argued that the deal should be blocked because it is bad for competition and consumer privacy.

Associated Press