Arts Mean Business

YOUNGSTOWN

There will be an “Arts Mean Business: The Art of Collaboration” event from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28 at The Soap Gallery, 117 S. Champion St.

Matt Martin, executive director of the Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership, and William Mullane, supervisor of school improvement for the Ashtabula County Educational Service Center and the Jefferson schools and gallery director for the Trumbull Art Gallery, will lead a roundtable discussion.

Help wanted

BOARDMAN

Recruitments for merchandisers, customer-service representatives and stock/receiving workers for Joann Fabrics will be take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 27-28 at OhioMeansJobs Mahoning County, 141 Boardman-Canfield Road. Full- and part-time positions are available. The company hopes to hire 45 new employees. A job seeker should bring his/her resume.

Hiring event

COLUMBIANA

A hiring event for welders will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday at OhioMeansJobs Columbiana County, 7989 Dickey Drive, Suite 4.

The positions are with a company with plants in Salem and Alliance and pay $15.25 to $21 an hour with benefits. Applicants must pass a background and drug test. Job seekers should bring two forms of identification and a resume.

Retail sales

WASHINGTON

An improving economy kept January retail sales nearly as good as the holiday season’s strong showing – dropping 26 percent seasonally adjusted from December – and fueled a healthy 5.4 percent increase year over year, the National Retail Federation said. The numbers exclude automobiles, gasoline stations and restaurants.

The National Retail Federation is forecasting that 2018 retail sales will grow between 3.8 percent and 4.4 percent over 2017.

Critics wary as Chrome begins an ad crackdown

SAN FRANCISCO

Last week, Google started using its Chrome browser to reshape the web in its image.

It will flag sites that use annoying ad formats, such as auto-playing video ads with sound, and will shut off all ads to the offending sites if they don’t reform themselves.

While the move could clean up an increasingly cluttered web, critics say it leaves untouched similar ad formats that Google profits from and is a sign of its overwhelming power over the internet.

Staff/wire reports