Singer Carly Simon is suing Starbucks Corp., saying the coffee company’s now-defunct music venture didn’t adequately promote her 2008 album. The singer, whose biggest success came during the 1970s and ‘80s with hits like “You’re So Vain,” is seeking unspecified damages related to the release of “This Kind of Love” in April 2008. In a lawsuit filed Friday, Simon and her attorneys said the album wasn’t available in “a substantial number” of Starbucks stores during the key early months after its release. Later, the Seattle-based company slashed the price. In a statement Monday, Starbucks said it met all its contractual obligations and even extended the amount of time it promoted the album in New York and Boston.
Amtrak travel dips, but near record high
Amtrak said Monday its ridership dropped by more than 1 million passengers during the past year, but was still the second-highest year in the railroad’s history. Figures released by the nation’s intercity rail operator show Amtrak carried 27.2 million passengers during the 12 months ending Sept. 30. Amtrak’s record was 28.7 million passengers during the previous year, a period coinciding with record high gas prices. Still, ridership was up over two years ago by 5.1 percent. Amtrak President and Chief Executive Joseph Boardman blamed the decline on the weakened economy, although travel was up on some short distance routes and on the railroad’s 15 long distance trains.
Google board member steps down
Google Inc. said Monday that a board member who also serves as a director for computer maker Apple Inc. is stepping down, removing a potential conflict of interest as the two companies look to compete more directly. Arthur Levinson, chairman of the biotech company Genentech Inc. and a Google board member since April 2004, resigned effective immediately. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said Levinson has been “a key part of Google’s success these past five years” but offered no specific reason for the departure.
Stimulus likely kept teachers on the job
Public school teachers are expected to be the big winners when states around the U.S. reveal for the first time how many jobs were created or saved during the first months of President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus plan. State officials worked into the weekend as part of the most ambitious effort ever to calculate, in real time, the effect of a government spending program. The national data won’t be available until later this month. But based on preliminary information obtained by The Associated Press from a handful of states, teachers appear to have benefited most from early spending. That’s because the stimulus sent billions of dollars to help stabilize state budgets, sparing what officials said were tens of thousands of teacher layoffs.
From Herald news services
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