BUSINESS DIGEST ||

Dominion rate declines 1 percent

YOUNGSTOWN

The Dominion East Ohio Standard Choice Offer/Standard Service Offer rate for May is 1 percent lower than the April rate.

Effective May 15, Dominion East Ohio’s SCO/SSO rates will be $3.142 per thousand cubic feet. The May rates are 3.3 cents, or 1 percent, lower than the April 2017 rates of $3.175/Mcf. The rates are $1.979, or 61.5 percent, higher than the May 2016 SCO/SSO rates of $1.945/Mcf.

Poland Rotary Club awards $25,000

POLAND

The Poland Rotary Club recently awarded more than $25,000 in proceeds from its 32nd Annual Chili Open Night at the Races and Golf Event.

Those awarded are: Beaver Creek Wildlife; Boys & Girls Club; Davis Family YMCA; Down Syndrome Association of the Valley; Easter Seals and Youngstown Hearing; Golden String/Purple Cat; Hospice of the Valley; Inspiring Minds; Mahoning County CASA; Making Kids Count; Mission of Love; Poland Interfaith Pantry; Potential Development; Public Library of Mahoning County; Second Harvest Food Bank; Sister Jerome’s Poor; Sojourner House; Walnut Grove; Yellow Brick Place; and YMCA of Youngstown.

Corporate sponsors for the event were: Nemenz IGA; Braking Point Recovery Center; Sweeney Cars; Crowes Cabinets; AmeriFirst Mortgage Co.; Briarfield Health Care Centers; Chick-Fil-A; Southside Recycling; Save-a-Lot; Simco Management; The DeBartolo Corp.; and Becker Funeral Home.

Home Savings makes $3K donation

SALEM

Home Savings Charitable Foundation recently donated a check for $3,000 to Salem Regional Medical Center. The funds were used to sponsor the Hearts and Stars Gala that took place in March.

Brown highlights new wage report

WASHINGTON D.C.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Cleveland, is highlighting a new report from the Communications Workers of America that sheds light on the race to the bottom driven by low-wage work in foreign countries.

Brown has sponsored legislation to prevent outsourcing of U.S. call centers and has called for better labor standards in trade agreements to help protect American jobs from being outsourced to countries with low-wages and poor worker protections.

The report – which examined 38 call centers in eight other countries – calls attention to the low wages and exploitative working conditions workers in these countries face.

US unemployment benefits decline

WASHINGTON

Fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week after two weeks of small gains.

The Labor Department said weekly jobless claims dropped by 19,000 to 238,000, the lowest level in three weeks.

Staff/wire reports

Selected local stocks

STOCK, DIVIDENDCLOSECHANGE

Alcoa Inc., .1231.04-0.65

Aqua America, .71 31.73-0.99

Avalon Holdings,2.530.01

Chemical Bank, .2749.260.33Community Health Sys. 9.61 0.00

Cortland Bancorp, .2818.500.00

Farmers Nat., .1614.650.25

First Energy, 1.44 28.87-0.08

Fifth/Third, .5224.910.19

FirstMerit Corp.,--

First Niles Financial, .1210.500.00

FNB Corp., .4814.530.04

General Motors, 1.5233.15-0.33

General Electric, .9229.20-0.03

Huntington Bank, .28 13.05-0.09

iHeartMedia Inc.,2.00-0.15

JP Morgan Chase, 1.9287.100.10

Key Corp, .3418.900.04

LaFarge, .34--

Macy’s, 1.51 28.92-0.24

Parker Hannifin, 2.52 159.790.14

PNC, 2.20123.451.01

Simon Prop. Grp., 6.60165.42-0.17

Stoneridge 18.45-1.54

United Comm. Fin., .12 8.630.05

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