Internet discount

Internet discount

CANFIELD

State Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Canfield, D-33rd, announced a new initiative by eTech Ohio and Comcast on Thursday to provide discounted Internet access.

Beginning this fall, qualifying local families can use the Internet Essentials program, which offers high-speed Internet services for $9.99 per month, with no activation or rental fees.

The program is available to any household that is located where Comcast offers Internet service, has at least one child receiving free school lunches through the National School Lunch Program, has not subscribed to Comcast Internet service within the last 90 days and does not have an overdue Comcast bill or unreturned equipment.

Interested families should call 855-846-8376 to confirm eligibility and to request an application.

Schiavoni is a commissioner of eTech Ohio, a state agency that tries to promote access to all forms of educational technology.

Construction is up

YOUNGSTOWN

New-home construction in the Mahoning Valley is slightly ahead of last year’s pace.

Josh Aikens, executive director of the Home Builders & Remodelers Association of the Valley, said Thursday that 70 single-family homes were built in Mahoning County during the first eight months of 2011.

That’s two higher than the 68 through August 2010.

In Trumbull County, 31 new homes were built during the first eight months of the year, on pace to match last year’s 12-month total of 51.

New store at mall

NILES

Fashion merchant rue 21 will open at Eastwood Mall in Niles in November.

The new store will occupy 6,900 square feet in the J.C. Penney concourse and offer trend apparel and accessories.

Rue 21 also has locations at Southern Park Mall in Boardman and in Hermitage and Grove City, Pa.

Rogue trader suspect in $2B loss at UBS

LONDON

One man armed with only a computer terminal humbled a venerable banking institution yet again. This time it was Swiss powerhouse UBS, which said Thursday that it had lost roughly $2 billion because of a renegade trader.

The arrest of 31-year-old equities trader Kweku Adoboli in London is one more headache for troubled international banks and fresh proof that they remain vulnerable to untracked trading that can produce mind- boggling losses.

Adoboli would join a rogue’s gallery that includes Jerome Kerviel, who gambled away $6.7 billion at a French bank until he was caught three years ago, and Nick Leeson, who made so many unauthorized trades that it caused the collapse of a British bank in 1995.

The scale of those frauds rocked world finance. Banks tightened oversight rules to make sure such large sums could not be traded under the radar.

But the safeguards, designed to protect the public and shareholders alike, seem to have failed.

Staff/wire reports