NEW YORK (AP) — The outlook for the back-to-school shopping season looked grim Thursday, as retailers’ July sales reports showed an increasing shift toward buying necessities like food and household supplies at discounters and away from discretionary splurges on clothing. 

You don’t have to be blindsided by a bank failure like customers of IndyMac Bank and others that failed in the past month.

NEW YORK (AP) _ Lexus once again stands alone atop a closely watched list of vehicle dependability after Buick slipped from the No. 1 spot it shared with the Japanese luxury brand last year, J.D. Power and Associates said Thursday.

In a sluggish economy, reaching potential customers is doubly important.

WASHINGTON (AP)—The Federal Reserve, confronted with the perils of a slumping economy and rising inflation, has decided for a second straight meeting to leave interest rates unchanged.

Don Rich figures his decision to open a local Segway dealership puts him ahead of the curve of a movement toward communities in which residents don’t depend on cars to get around.

As soon as a worker at Drumheller Orchards in Lovingston drops a box of yellow peaches onto the sales counter, customers are pulling up to the barn to buy them.

Reggie Pugh, a regional manager in the Areva nuclear power company’s sales force, has a crystal-clear globe given by US Airways. FreqThe globe recognizes him as one of the airline’s top 500 flyers.

Two electric companies that service the Lynchburg region reported second quarter 2008 earnings on Thursday, greatly surpassing their earnings from the same quarter the previous year.

Delegate Danny Marshall says the Virginia Tobacco Commission voted to approve nearly $9 million for the work. 

For the third straight year, Forbes magazine has named Virginia as the best state to do business. 

There’s another sales tax holiday coming up this weekend in Virginia, and this one is targeted at back-to-school shoppers. 

RICHMOND — Genworth Financial this week reported a net loss of $109 million, or 25 cents per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2008.

The Lynchburg region and Virginia reached record employment levels in June, with Lynchburg still leading the state in job growth rate, despite a statewide and local increase in the jobless rate.

The Lynchburg region and Virginia reached record employment levels in June, with Lynchburg still leading the state in its job growth rate, although there was a statewide and local increase in the jobless rate.

JAMESTOWN — High gas prices and economic uncertainty are chilling tourism at Jamestown and other Colonial attractions this summer, dashing hopes that Virginia’s $98 million investment last year in Jamestown’s 400th anniversary celebration would carry over.

Two proposed AT&T cell phone towers near Rustburg cleared a hurdle Monday night, receiving approval from the Campbell County Planning Commission.

NEW YORK (AP) _ Franca Tantillo puts rising fuel prices in the same category as the springtime hail storm that wiped out part of her strawberry crop. Both cut into the profit she can make at the farmers markets she sells at in New York City, about 135 miles south of her farm.

Brad Carner is undertaking the ultimate crash course in college-prep.

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Two cornerstones of the economy — jobs and housing — sank to new depths Thursday, with unemployment claims bolting higher and home prices recording one of their steepest drops on record.

Homes are selling slowly in nearly all parts of Virginia, but the Lynchburg area’s prices are holding up stronger than many other regions, according to data from the Virginia Association of Realtors.

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Rescue legislation sailed through the House on Wednesday aimed at helping 400,000 strapped homeowners avoid foreclosure and preventing the collapse of troubled mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia’s 2008 peach crop is expected to make growers forget all about last year’s freeze-damaged season. 

When Roberta Winston attended her mother’s viewing, a video slideshow tribute documented her mother’s life with pictures.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Wachovia Corp. said today it lost $8.86 billion in the second quarter, slashed its dividend and announced 6,350 job cuts after losses tied to mortgages soared.

American National Bank & Trust Company has announced the promotion of three executives to newly created operating positions.

NEW YORK (AP)—Wall Street fluctuated Monday as investors worried about earnings at drug makers Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp., and oil prices moved higher.

Movie theaters in Lynchburg are slated to get a new competitor next year, as Regal Entertainment opens the first new theater here in 17 years.
Regal will operate the 56,000- square-foot movieplex in River Ridge mall, in the location of the Value City store that closed last month.

NEW YORK (AP) - Oil prices tumbled below $130 a barrel for the first time in more than a month Thursday, as crude’s dramatic slide entered a third day accompanied by a sharp sell-off in natural gas.

WASHINGTON (AP) _ For years, mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tenaciously worked to nurture, and then protect, their financial empires by invoking the political sacred cow of homeownership and fielding an army of lobbyists, power brokers and political contributors.