Drilling permits

Drilling permits

YOUNGSTOWN

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources issued five horizontal-drilling permits for the week ending June 13, with one of them issued to Halcon Operating Co. Inc. in Warren. The rig count is at 18.

ODNR lists a total 1,932 permits, 1,504 of which reported being drilled with 904 producing.

Shell buys Pa. site

MONACA, PA.

Shell Chemicals has bought the western Pennsylvania site of a former zinc smelter although it hasn’t announced a decision on building a petrochemical plant on the property.

Shell officials have said that buying the property is a necessary step in gaining state permits to build an ethane cracker plant at the site about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

Shell proposes piping in ethane from natural-gas wells and then chemically “cracking” the liquid fuel so it can be converted to polyethylene pellets used to make various plastic products.

Officials say 400 to 500 operational jobs and thousands of construction jobs would be created.

Brown: Drop plans

WASHINGTON

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, pushed for the cancellation of the U.S. Postal Service’s plans to consolidate 82 processing centers nationwide including the one in Youngstown, during a meeting with the Deputy Postmaster General Ronald Stroman.

Toyota adds to recall

DETROIT

Toyota is adding nearly 1.4 million cars, trucks and SUVs to a growing recall for air bags that can explode with too much force.

The company says it’s expanding a previous recall after Takata Corp. of Japan agreed in May to double the size of its air-bag inflator recall to 33.8 million.

Vehicles added to a passenger air-bag inflator recall include the 2003 to 2007 Corolla and Matrix, 2005 and 2006 Tundra pickup, 2005 to 2007 Sequoia SUV and the 2003 to 2007 Lexus SC430 convertible.

The propellant in some Takata inflators can burn too quickly, blowing apart a metal canister and sending shrapnel into the passenger compartment. The problem has been blamed for at least seven deaths and more than 100 injuries.

AT&T fined $100M

WASHINGTON

AT&T Mobility LLC has been slapped with a record $100 million fine for offering consumers “unlimited” data, but then slowing their Internet speeds after they reached a certain amount. The company says it will fight the charges.

AT&T said it would “vigorously dispute” the fine, which was the largest proposed in FCC history. If AT&T can provide evidence that the FCC allegations are wrong, the fine could be reduced.

Staff/wire reports

Selected local stocks

STOCK, DIVIDENDCLOSECHANGE

Aqua America, .61, 25.08 .26

Avalon Holdings,2.41—.01

Clear Channel, .46 21.79 .33

Cortland Bancorp, 14.65.00

Farmers Nat., .128.10 —.04

First Energy, 1.44, 33.44.08

Fifth/Third, .5220.94—.29

FirstMerit Corp., .64,20.66 —.33

First Niles Financial, .32,9.00.00

FNB Corp., .48,13.95—.31

General Motors, 1.2035.80.19

General Electric, .88,27.29.07

Huntington Bank, .20, 11.37—.12

JP Morgan Chase, 1.60,68.06—.31

Key Corp, .26,15.23—.21

LaFarge, 16.89 .09

Macy’s, 1.25, 69.921.06

Parker Hannifin, 1.92, 118.40.34

PNC, 1.92,97.45—1.09

RTI Intl. Metals,33.75—.22

Simon Prop. Grp.,5.20,179.742.48

Stoneridge 12.34 —.06

Talmer Bank, 16.64—.20

United Comm. Fin., .04 5.44—.07

Selected prices at 4 p.m. Wednesday. Provided by Stifel. Not to be construed as an offer or recommendation to buy or sell any security.