Business news digest

NATION

Nurse to run program

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will name a nurse from North Dakota to run the government’s community clinics program. A nurse by training, Mary Wakefield now directs the Center for Rural Health at the University of North Dakota. She will lead the Health Resources and Services Administration.

The small agency has an important public health role, overseeing some 7,000 community clinics that serve low-income and uninsured people. It also runs the government’s Ryan White HIV/AIDS program, providing medical care and medications for 530,000 low-income patients.

Hershey heading to Mexico

READING, Pa. (AP) — Production of York Peppermint Patties and other candy brands is coming to an end at The Hershey Co. plant in Reading, Pa.

After 23 years in Reading, the chocolate maker is closing the plant Friday and moving production to a new factory it has built in Monterey, Mexico. It will mean the loss of 300 jobs in the southeastern Pennsylvania city. The plant also makes 5th Avenue and Zagnut candy bars and Jolly Rancher hard candies.

The nation’s largest candy manufacturer announced two years ago that the plant would close as part of a wider move by Hershey to eliminate 1,500 jobs and one-third of its existing production lines, shifting more manufacturing to contractors in the United States. Some workers will stay on for a few more weeks to close the plant.

Auto task force to meet

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is holding the first meeting of its newly formed presidential task force on the auto industry.

The administration says Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers will lead the meeting at the Treasury Department.

The administration announced the formation of the task force earlier this week after deciding not to appoint an auto czar to oversee the multibillion-dollar bailout packages extended to General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.

The two companies submitted requests on Tuesday for an additional $21.6 billion.