New PPL charge
The state Public Utility Commission approved a new PPL Electric Utilities distribution system improvement charge last week. The fee, which could be up to 5 percent of the total bill, will provide the utility with revenue for repairs.
Retailer plans massive facility
American Eagle Outfitters Inc. will build a massive, 1 million-square-foot distribution center in Humboldt Industrial Park in Hazle Twp. and plans to hire 369 people over the next four years.
Owner blamed for building collapse
A committee appointed by Bangladesh's government concluded the defects and errors that led to the world's deadliest garment-industry accident extend from the swampy ground the doomed Rana Plaza was built on, to "extremely poor quality" construction materials, to the massive, vibrating equipment operating when the eight-story building collapsed, The Associated Press reported.
CEO pay rises
The head of a typical large public company made $9.7 million in 2012, a 6.5 percent increase from a year earlier that was aided by a rising stock market, an Associated Press analysis found.
NEPA a mixed bag
The eighth-annual indicators report from the Institute for Public Policy and Economic Development showed while the metro area had the state's highest unemployment for three years running, per-capita income between 2008 and 2011 expanded by 5 percent in Lackawanna County and 3 percent in Luzerne County, both ahead of Pennsylvania's 2 percent average.
Price of gas down
AAA projects more than 37,000 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area residents will travel 50 miles or more from home this Memorial Day weekend, about the same as last year's holiday period. Gas prices in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area average 9 cents less than one year ago.
Poverty rising in suburbs
A new study by the Brookings Institution shows dramatic growth in poverty beyond city limits. Suburban poor in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metro grew from 2000 to 2011 by nearly one third, 31.7 percent, to 63,089.
Development group exec exits
Penn's Northeast President Penny Cannella plans to retire from the Pittston Twp.-based regional economic development marketing organization in late summer, after 16 years with the group.