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Saturday, May 10, 2008 - 12:08 AM

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VIRGINIA

Postal Service collects canned food today

Canned, bagged and boxed food placed by your mailbox today will benefit the Central Virginia Foodbank.

The U.S. Postal Service carriers will collect nonperishable goods as part of its Stamp Out Hunger campaign.

Frozen or fresh food and items in glass containers will not be accepted.

"This food drive helps to restock depleted shelves at a time when it is critically needed," Fran Sanso, regional communications coordinator for the Postal Service, said in a news release.

During the 2007 campaign, the postal service collected 100,000 pounds locally and more than 70 million pounds nationwide. The Stamp Out Hunger food drive began in 1993 and since then, more than 836.2 million pounds of food have been collected.

TecAccess a finalist for national business award

TecAccess of Rockville in Hanover County is among 10 finalists for the fifth annual Dell/National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Excellence Award.

The award recognizes small businesses that use technology to better serve their customers.

TecAccess employs people with disabilities to work in roles that help federal government agencies and large corporations design and use technology that is more accessible and user-friendly.

Selected by students at George Washington University, finalists receive a business-class laptop and one-year NFIB membership and advance to national competition.

Dividend declared

Dominion Resources Inc. will pay a quarterly dividend of 39.5 cents per share June 20 to shareholders of record May 30.

THE NATION

Citigroup to retain global model, after cuts

NEW YORK -- Citigroup Inc.'s new chief executive, Vikram Pandit, plans to stick with a global banking model after months of intense review -- but only after shrinking the company by about one-fifth first.

The three-year game plan, revealed yesterday, includes getting rid of more businesses, mortgages, real estate operations and jobs.

The bank aims to shed between $400 billion and $500 billion of its $2.2 trillion in assets and increase revenue by 9 percent over the next few years as it tries to rebound from massive losses tied to deterioration in the credit markets.

Wet weather slows U.S. corn production

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Corn production this year could be down as much as 7 percent from the record-breaking heights of 2007, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report released yesterday.

The revised projections came as wet weather in the Corn Belt slowed plantings, causing the greatest delay since 1995.

The prediction is a foreboding sign for those hoping for a drop in prices. Prices for the crop have skyrocketed over the last year, lingering for weeks at more than $6 per bushel amid an ethanol boom and more demand for exports.

The USDA report projects farmers will harvest about 12 billion bushels of corn this year. About one-third of the harvest will be directed toward ethanol production, the USDA estimates.

Elsewhere

The Treasury Department reported that $27.2 billion in stimulus payments to 29.9 million people have been made since the Internal Revenue Service began direct deposits and mass check mailings. A total of 130 million payments are expected to be made.

EBay Inc. is exploring whether to require customers to use its online payment service PayPal, a move that has angered users and prompted antitrust scrutiny in Australia, where a PayPal-only rule takes effect next month. The online auction company said it will not institute such a rule in the United States. But it remains unclear whether eBay will still try it in other countries.

The Bush administration urged a federal appeals court to stop meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad-cow disease, but a skeptical judge questioned whether the government has that authority. The government seeks to reverse a lower court ruling that allowed Creekstone Farms Premium Beef to conduct more comprehensive testing to satisfy demand from overseas customers.

FedEx Corp. cut its fourth-quarter earnings expectations 15 cents to 30 cents a share, blaming continuing increases in fuel costs.

Wholesale fees for Internet addresses ending in ".org" will increase 10 percent Nov. 9, to $6.75 per year. Last year, a 2.5-percent fee increased the figure to $6.15. Public Interest Registry, which operates the ".org" domain name, disclosed the planned fee increase in a letter to the Internet's key oversight agency, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. With nearly 7 million names registered, ".org" is the world's sixth most popular domain name suffix.

THE WORLD

Home repossessions at 15-year high in England

LONDON -- Home repossessions in England and Wales rose to their highest first-quarter levels in 15 years, the government said yesterday.

It was the highest repossession rate since 1993 and was up 9 percent compared with the previous quarter.

Howard Archer, chief European economist at Global Insight, said the report underlined the limited impact for consumers of interest rate cuts this year. The Bank of England has lowered the rate from 5.75 percent to 5 percent.

In reports earlier this month, Britain's biggest mortgage lender said the average house price fell 4 percent in 2008; the government said individual insolvencies in England and Wales rose 1.7 percent in the first quarter compared with the previous quarter; and an industry group said construction activity had slumped to the lowest level in nearly a decade. -- From Staff and Wire Reports