Two months after Craigslist promised to rid itself of advertisements placed by prostitutes, law enforcement officials say the classified ad site is still hosting ads for the sex business. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart sued the San Francisco-based company this year, calling it the nation’s largest source of prostitution. Dart acknowledges that Craigslist put an end to graphic photos when it pulled the plug on its “erotic services” category and replaced it with a new “adult services” section. But he says sex is still being sold on the site. In an e-mail, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster dismissed the lawsuit as a publicity stunt.
American Airlines raises checked-bag fee
It’s going to cost you more to check bags on an American Airlines flight. American said Friday that checking the first bag will cost $20, up from $15, and a second bag will cost $30, up from $25. The change takes effect on tickets bought after Aug. 13 for travel within the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands on American and its regional affiliate, American Eagle. Elite members of American’s frequent-flier program continue to be exempt from the bag fees, as are passengers in business- and first-class and those who paid full fare for coach seats. There are no bag fees for international itineraries except Canada.
Toyota to end Calif. venture with GM
Toyota Motor Corp. is moving toward liquidating its stake in a California manufacturing plant that it jointly operated with General Motors, the Japanese automaker said Friday. Toyota has decided to begin discussions with the “Old GM” toward dissolving the joint venture. The Fremont, Calif.-based plant, established in 1984, employs 4,600 workers and makes the Pontiac Vibe station wagon for GM, and the Corolla compact car and Tacoma pickup truck for Toyota. Toyota has been reexamining its U.S. strategy after plummeting U.S. auto sales helped drag it to its worst-ever overall loss for the fiscal year ended in March.
Palm Pre reconects with iTunes
Palm’s Pre smart phone just can’t stay away from Apple’s iTunes software. Palm Inc. says the Pre can again connect to iTunes — only a week after Apple Inc. shut it out. A software update delivered automatically to the phones re-enables the transfer of music, photos and video from iTunes to Pres, according to a Palm blog post made late Thursday. The question now is how long the function will remain before Apple stamps it out again. The $200 Pre launched in early June as a competitor to Apple Inc.’s iPhone, and became the first non-Apple device that could connect directly to iTunes. Apple crippled that function with an iTunes update last week, saying Pres were “falsely pretending to be iPods.”
From Herald news services
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