New Eastwood store

New Eastwood store

NILES

Women’s fashion retailer francesca’s will unveil its newest 1,488-square-foot boutique on Center Court in Eastwood Mall by June.

Since opening its first store in 1999, francesca’s has become one of the country’s fastest-growing women’s fashion retailers.

This publicly held company, with more than 600 locations in 47 states, provides its shoppers with an “eclectic, carefully chosen assortment of treasured items.”

The Eastwood Mall Complex, 5555 Youngstown-Warren Road, also will soon have an all-new Gander Mountain. The hunting, fishing and camping store will have a grand reopening March 17.

Dependable vehicles

DETROIT

General Motors and Toyota posted solid marks in the dependability of 3-year-old vehicles, but consumer frustrations with wireless connections, navigation and voice-recognition software persist across the automotive industry, according to a J.D. Power and Associates study released Wednesday.

Lexus, Porsche, Buick and Toyota captured the top four spots in the annual vehicle-dependability study, which measures owners’ complaints per hundred vehicles and was released one day after a similar survey by Consumer Reports magazine.

The study also recognizes standout vehicles in nine car and 10 light-truck segments. From that perspective, GM had eight segment-leading models, while Toyota and its Lexus luxury brand had six.

Storms continue

WAVERLY, Va.

A powerful storm system swept across the East Coast on Wednesday, killing three people in Virginia and knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses in the region.

A day earlier, the system spawned about two dozen tornadoes along the Gulf Coast, damaging hundreds of homes in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. Three people were killed, and dozens were injured.

Forecasters warned the threat wasn’t over and that more than 88 million people were at risk Wednesday of seeing some sort of severe weather. In the Midwest, heavy snow and biting winds led to mass flight cancellations at Chicago airports and school closings in several states.

6 states file lawsuit over Obamacare

MADISON, Wis.

Six states filed a new lawsuit Wednesday against the Obama administration over the Affordable Care Act.

The complaint that Texas, Wisconsin, Kansas, Louisiana, Indiana and Nebraska filed in the Northern District of Texas takes issue with the Health Insurance Providers Fee assessed to health insurers to cover federal subsidies.

The lawsuit says nothing in the Affordable Care Act’s language provided clear notice that states would also have to pay the fee.

The suit seeks an injunction against the federal rules that say states are responsible for the fee. It also asks that states be refunded for what they’ve already paid.

Staff/wire reports