Briefcase

Google needs more time to pick test sites

WASHINGTON Google Inc. said it is not quite ready to decide where it will build an experimental, ultra-high-speed broadband network that will provide Internet connections that are 100 times faster than the connections most Americans get from their phone and cable companies today.

In February, Google announced plans to build a handful of test-bed fiber-optic networks to deliver Internet speeds of 1 gigabit per second to as many as 500,000 Americans. The company had planned to pick locations for the new network or networks by the end of the year.

But in a blog post on Wednesday, Google said that after hearing from nearly 1,100 interested communities, it needs a little more time to decide. The company said it hopes to make a final selection by early next year.

Associated Press

Retail prices rose slightly in November

Consumer prices rose 0.1 percent in November, due to small increases in food and energy costs. In the past year, prices are up only 1.1 percent.

Outside of the volatile food and energy categories, core consumer prices rose 0.1 percent, the first increase in four months. Core prices are up only 0.8 percent in the past year, just below October’s record-low annual increase of 0.6 percent.

With unemployment high and the economy still sluggish, retailers have little ability to raise prices for fear of chasing away consumers.

Associated Press

GM pays $2.1 billion to Treasury for stock

The government has received another $2.1 billion in repayments from General Motors Co.

The Treasury Department says it received that amount when GM repurchased preferred stock it had given to the government as part of the bailout agreement.

The transaction follows GM’s initial public stock offering last month which brought the government $13.5 billion. The government put $49.5 billion into GM as part of its bailout of the giant automaker.

Associated Press

Chevrolet delivers its first hybrid to customer

DENVILLE, N.J. A retired airline pilot living in New Jersey is the owner of the first Chevrolet Volt hybrid electric vehicle sold to the public.

Sixty-nine-year-old Jeffrey Kaffee, of Parsippany, returned early from a Florida vacation to take delivery of the vehicle Wednesday morning at a Denville dealership.

Kaffee told the Daily Record of Parsippany that he paid about $42,000 for the vehicle, trading in a 2005 Toyota Prius.

The Volt can travel for about 35 miles on electricity before a gasoline engine takes over. General Motors is pinning some of its comeback plans on the car.

Associated Press