METRO DIGEST || Coffee achievement

Coffee achievement

BOARDMAN

Branch Street Coffee Roasters announced one of its coffee blends has been awarded 95 points by Coffee Review, which conducts blind, expert testing and awards points on a 100-point scale.

According to Coffee Review, scores of 95 and above are “perfect in structure, flawless, and shockingly distinctive and beautiful.”

The blend that earned this rave review is Branch Street’s Kenya Konyu, its newest offering.

To celebrate this accomplishment, Branch Street, located at 1393 Boardman-Canfield Road, will offer a free public tasting Sunday.

Sunday will be the first day the Kenya blend is available for purchase, as well.

GM dividend

DETROIT

General Motors on Tuesday declared a fourth-quarter dividend of 38 cents per outstanding share of common stock. The dividend is payable Dec. 20 to all common shareholders of record at the close of business on Dec. 7. The automaker will release its third-quarter earnings report today.

Business sold

GIRARD

David and Lynne Biviano, owners of Biviano Carpet One Floor & Home retailers, announced they have sold the business to longtime associate Jim Popovich and his wife, Jessie. The Popoviches “are the perfect people to carry on our legacy of integrity and excellent customer service for years to come,” said David Biviano.

The Bivianos are second-generation owners of the family business located at 1828 N. State St. They are retiring to spend more time with their family.

Trees for troops

POLAND

Pioneer Trails Tree Farm, which has served customers in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania for more than 30 years, announced it will again participate in Operation Evergreen, which ships trees to military troops overseas. The project is led by the Ohio Christmas Tree Association (OCTA).

Pioneer Trails will donate 10 trees this season. The trees will be cut down at 9 a.m. Nov. 10, with the help of local organizations.

The community can help fund the cost of shipping the trees through a Go Fund Me page set up by the OCTA.

Facebook 3Q profit

new york

Facebook didn’t hit it out of the ballpark with its latest quarterly report, but the bar isn’t so high these days for the image-battered social networking giant.

The company had 2.27 billion monthly users at the end of the quarter, below the 2.29 billion analysts were expecting. Facebook says it changed the way it calculates users, which reduced the total slightly. The company’s user base was still up 10 percent from 2.07 billion monthly users a year ago.

The company earned $5.14 billion, or $1.76 per share, up 9 percent from $4.71 billion, or $1.59 per share, a year earlier. Revenue was $13.73 billion, an increase of 33 percent, for the July-September period.

Analysts had expected earnings of $1.46 per share on revenue of $13.77 billion, according to FactSet.

Staff/wire report