Easter brunch

Easter brunch

YOUNGSTOWN

Blue Wolf Events at The Maronite Center will host an Easter brunch at its new location at 1555 S. Meridian Road from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

As the exclusive caterer of The Maronite Center, Blue Wolf Events can seat up to 1,000 in its dining area.

The buffet costs $19.99 for adults and $9.99 (plus tax) for children age 12 or younger. Reservations can be made by calling 330-792-7671.

Financial literacy

CANFIELD

Farmers National Bank said area students this year have spent 5,640 hours participating in the bank’s Financial Scholars Program at 20 local high schools.

For the past three years, Farmers has sponsored the Web-based consumer-education program, which uses the EverFi Financial Literacy course to teach financial topics and track students’ progress.

Last year, students improved their financial knowledge from 63 percent proficiency to 87 percent proficiency by the end of the program and increased their proficiencies in investing, taxes and insurance by 36 percent.

Wal-Mart gets into money transfers

NEW YORK

Wal-Mart is delving deeper into financial services at its stores and shaking up the money-transfer business.

The world’s largest retailer introduced a new money- transfer service Thursday that it says will cut fees for its low-income customers by up to 50 percent compared with similar services elsewhere. The Walmart-2-Walmart service is being rolled out in partnership with Ria Money Transfer, a subsidiary of Euronet Worldwide Inc.

The service, which will be available starting Thursday, allows its customers to transfer up to $900 to and from more than 4,000 Walmart stores in the U.S.

It’s a huge footprint that could reshape that industry and is likely to set off a pricing battle.

Customers can transfer up to $50 for a $4.50 service fee and up to $900 for $9.50.

Comparable services elsewhere cost up to $70 when transferring less than $1,000, according to Wal-Mart.

Tiny nuke plants

PARIS

Small underground nuclear power plants that could be cheaper to build than their behemoth counterparts may herald the future for an energy industry under intense scrutiny since the Fukushima disaster, the incoming head of the Nuclear Energy Agency told The Associated Press.

Size is relative — the modular plants could be about as big as a couple of semi-trailers — easily fitting on the dimensions of coal plants they’re ultimately intended to replace in the U.S. They would have factory-built parts that are slotted together like Lego blocks and hauled by train or truck — making assembly possible anywhere.

William Magwood, the incoming director of the Paris-based forum for nuclear-energy countries, said the U.S. expects the first licensing applications to build one of the small, modular nuclear reactors in the second half of 2014, a key test to learn whether they can exist beyond the theoretical.

Vindicator staff/wire reports