First Step Recovery plans opening event

First Step Recovery plans opening event

WARREN

Fist Step Recovery, 2737 Youngstown Road SE in Warren, will have an official opening Monday.

The event takes place from 11 a.m. to noon and is open to the public. It will feature a ribbon-cutting ceremony, an open-house tour and a speech from U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th.

First Step Recovery is the first medically licensed detox center to open in Trumbull County. Its offerings include 16 beds, extended-stay housing, partial hospitalization and nonintensive outpatient counseling.

FirstEnergy reports 1st-quarter earnings

AKRON

FirstEnergy Corp. reported first-quarter 2015 operating earnings of 62 cents per basic share of common stock, but these results exclude the impact of special items. GAAP, generally accepted accounting principles, earnings in the quarter were $222 million, or 53 cents per basic and diluted share of common stock, on revenue of $3.9 billion.

FirstEnergy also reaffirmed full-year 2015 operating (non-GAAP) earnings guidance of $2.40 to $2.70 per basic share and provided a second-quarter 2015 guidance range of $0.42 to $0.50 per basic share.

Bill would protect workers, retirees

WASHINGTON

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, along with U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin, a Democrat of Illinois; Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat of Rhode Island; and Al Franken, a Democrat of Minnesota, introduced legislation that would stop failing businesses from denying employees the wages they have earned and retirees the pensions they were promised.

The Protecting Employees and Retirees in Business Bankruptcies Act would help reverse a trend in corporate bankruptcies whereby workers’ claims for compensation and benefits are denied while executives’ claims are given preferential treatment.

US consumer sentiment rises

WASHINGTON

Optimism about the job market lifted U.S. consumer sentiment in April to its second-highest level since 2007.

The University of Michigan’s sentiment index rose to 95.9 from 93 in March. Only January’s reading of 98.1 has been higher since 2007, the year the Great Recession began. Over the past five months, sentiment has been, on average, at its highest level since 2004.

Richard Curtin, chief economist of the Michigan survey, attributed the April increase to optimism over consistently low inflation and low interest rates and improving prospects for jobs and incomes.

Curtin said consumers expect interest rates to rise from current historically low levels but only modestly. And they expect any economic damage from higher rates to be offset by the benefits of more jobs and incomes.

Vindicator staff/wire reports