BUSINESS DIGEST ||

Steel industry act

YOUNGSTOWN

U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Cleveland, and Rob Portman, a Republican from the Cincinnati area, announced Thursday they will reintroduce the Steel Industry Preservation Act.

The bipartisan legislation would create a tax credit for domestic-steel companies, lower the cost of steel production and promote job growth within the industry, they said.

Brown and Portman both co-sponsored the legislation last congress.

Brown and Portman have also worked to give domestic industries the ability to fight unfair trade practices. In June 2015, the Leveling the Playing Field Act, introduced by Brown and co-sponsored by Portman, was signed into law, ushering in the most significant changes to trade remedy law since 2002, the senators said.

Penske Vehicle

WARREN

Penske Vehicle Services Inc., 1829 Hallock-Young Road, has issued a job notification under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

The company employs two workers at its Warren location and “due to the unexpected loss of a fair-market bid, PVS will no longer be providing GM [General Motors] with certain fleet/transportation services, and will permanently reduce operations in support of this account.” The action will be effective with the close of business April 1.

Cincinnati made a sanctuary city

CINCINNATI

The city council has declared Cincinnati as a “sanctuary city,” a label that isn’t legally defined but typically indicates reduced cooperation with federal immigration authorities on some matters involving people who are in the U.S. illegally.

It’s mostly symbolic. Mayor John Cranley has said Cincinnati has long welcomed immigrants and will continue to support them, but won’t break federal law.

WCPO-TV reports Cincinnati police indicated they won’t enforce immigration laws, but the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office plans to continue detaining undocumented inmates if requested by federal authorities.

Protesters arrested at Ohio University

ATHENS

About 70 people who were protesting President Donald Trump’s ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations have been arrested at Ohio University.

The university says the protesters were arrested Wednesday night after they refused to leave a sit-in demonstration inside the student union building.

The group calling itself the Ohio University Student Union said on Facebook that protesters would stay in the building until the university met its demands of becoming a sanctuary campus.

The university says in a statement that the protesters were told multiple times that they were impacting operations and creating a safety issue and had to leave.

Staff/wire reports

Selected local stocks

STOCK, DIVIDENDCLOSECHANGE

Alcoa Inc., .1236.26-0.27

Aqua America, .71 30.110.05

Avalon Holdings,2.91 -0.02

Chemical Bank, .2723.34-0.36Community Health Sys. 6.72 -0.03

Cortland Bancorp, .2817.84-0.01

Farmers Nat., .1613.70-0.10

First Energy, 1.44 29.800.00

Fifth/Third, .5227.130.22

FirstMerit Corp.,21.610.37

First Niles Financial, .1210.250.00

FNB Corp., .4815.35-0.06

General Motors, 1.5237.50-0.78

General Electric, .9230.33-0.03

Huntington Bank, .28 14.01-0.01

iHeartMedia Inc.,1.150.00

JP Morgan Chase, 1.9286.800.77

Key Corp, .3418.460.06

LaFarge, .3417.570.00

Macy’s, 1.51 29.92-0.23

Parker Hannifin, 2.52 149.10-0.42

PNC, 2.20121.620.61

Simon Prop. Grp., 6.60182.21-0.19

Stoneridge 16.74-0.12

United Comm. Fin., .12 8.69-0.21

Selected prices from Thursday’s 4 p.m. close.