BUSINESS DIGEST | High radiation levels found at Ohio plant

High radiation levels found at Ohio plant

CLEVELAND

High radiation levels recorded at a nuclear reactor in Northeast Ohio have prompted a special inspection by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Workers at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant immediately evacuated Friday when radiation levels rose while the plant was in the process of shutting down for a refueling outage, the commission said Tuesday. Plant officials do not believe workers were exposed to radiation levels “in excess of NRC limits,” the commission said.

The nuclear plant, owned by Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp., is about 35 miles northeast of Cleveland and began operating in 1987. A FirstEnergy spokesman did not return immediately a request for comment after business hours Tuesday.

Obama seeks boost in oil production

WASHINGTON

As the high cost of gasoline takes a toll on politics and pocket books, President Barack Obama said Tuesday he is calling on major oil producers such as Saudi Arabia to increase their oil supplies to help stabilize prices, warning starkly that lack of relief would harm the global economy.

“We are in a lot of conversations with the major oil producers like Saudi Arabia to let them know that it’s not going to be good for them if our economy is hobbled because of high oil prices,” Obama told a Detroit TV station.

His remarks signaled a broad new appeal in the face of skyrocketing gasoline prices in the United States and they came as he reiterated a call for Congress to repeal oil-industry tax breaks.

Cost burdens rise for those who rent

CHICAGO

About one-fourth of renters nationally, or 10.1 million households, spend more than half their pretax income on rent and utilities, and that cost burden may grow.

A report issued Tuesday by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University warned that a sharp increase in demand for rental units and the long lead times needed to build apartment buildings could increase rents, putting financially strapped consumers in even more-dire straits.

The study also found that affordability issues are not confined to lower-income renters. Between 2007 and 2009, 1.1 million more middle-income renters faced at least moderate housing cost burdens, spending between 30 percent and 50 percent of incomes on housing. Generally, an affordable cost burden is defined as 30 percent of income.

Teleprompter inventor dies at 91

HARTFORD, Conn.

Hubert “Hub” Schlafly, a key member of the team that invented the teleprompter and rescued decades’ worth of soap-opera actors, newscasters and politicians from the embarrassment of stumbling over their words on live television, has died. He was 91.

Schlafly died April 20 at Stamford Hospital after a brief illness, according the Leo P. Gallagher & Son Funeral Home.

He did not use a teleprompter himself until he was 88, while rehearsing his speech for induction into the Cable Television Hall of Fame, said Thomas Gallagher, a close friend.

Vindicator wire services