BUSINESS DIGEST ||

PNC net income up

YOUNGSTOWN

The PNC Financial Services Group Inc. on Friday reported net income of $5.388 million, up from about $3.985 million in 2016.

During the fourth quarter, the bank brought in $2.091 million, up from $1.047 million made in December 2016.

Medical career fairs

Akron Children’s Hospital will host career fairs for medical assistants and licensed practical nurses at its Akron and Mahoning Valley campuses on two RSVP-only dates, Jan. 22 in Akron and Jan. 25 in the Mahoning Valley.

Interested candidates should RSVP by texting the hospital from their smartphones using these codes to connect with a recruiter: LPNs text LPN to 44844. Medical assistants text MA to 44844. Interested candidates must submit an online application.

Recruiters will provide information on how to apply online and will schedule interviews after reviewing the applications. Details about location and parking will be provided once an interview has been scheduled.

Final candidates must be able to pass pre-employment screening, including testing for nicotine, alcohol and drugs. For information, call 330-543-8330.

GM to mass-produce autonomous cars

detroit

General Motors says it is making the first mass-production autonomous car without a steering wheel or pedals. The company says it has filed a petition with the federal government seeking permission to put the vehicles on the road sometime next year with no human backup drivers.

GM’s Cruise Automation unit has announced plans to carry passengers in self-driving cars that won’t have a backup driver in 2019. GM spokesman Kevin Kelly says the first of the autonomous Chevrolet Bolts is being tested.

Dad charged in death of Indian orphan

dallas

The father of a 3-year-old girl whose body was found in a culvert near their suburban Dallas home about a year after she was adopted from an Indian orphanage was indicted Friday on a capital murder charge.

Wesley Mathews, 37, was also charged in Dallas County with abandoning a child and tampering with evidence. Prosecutors said the capital murder charge, which could carry the death penalty, was filed after an autopsy determined the girl died from “homicidal violence.”

The child, Sherin Mathews, disappeared in October, sparking a broad search involving numerous law-enforcement agencies before her body was found that month.

KKK leader Killen dies in prison at 92

JACKSON, MISS.

Edgar Ray Killen, a 1960s Ku Klux Klan leader who was convicted decades later in the “Mississippi Burning” slayings of three civil-rights workers, has died in prison at age 92, the state’s corrections department announced Friday.

Killen was serving three-consecutive 20-year terms for manslaughter when he died at 9 p.m. Thursday inside the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. An autopsy was pending, but no foul play was suspected, the statement said.

Staff/wire reports