Circuit City Stores Inc. has agreed to meet with renegade investor Mark J. Wattles.  In a letter delivered this morning, Mikael Salovaara, lead director of the Circuit City board of directors, agreed to meet with Wattles and discuss company strategy.

Raycom Media Inc., which already owns WTVR, bought WWBT. That’s generally against federal regulations, but the Federal Communications Commission agreed last week to allow the situation to stand for six months. During that time, Raycom will have to sell WTVR.

Investors heard from both sides yesterday in a proxy battle between Media General Inc. and a dissident shareholder over the direction of the Richmond-based media company, owner of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and WSLS.

S&K Famous Brands Inc. is the latest competitor to jump into the uniform business.  The Henrico County-based discount menswear retailer has created a division to design and sell uniforms and other corporate apparel to companies for their employees to buy.

The Fortune 500 company is coming to Richmond to join its subsidiary, Philip Morris USA, the nation’s largest cigarette maker

In an effort to deal with the problems highlighted by the current severe credit crisis, the new plan would give major new powers to the Federal Reserve, according to a 26-page executive summary obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

After falling for six straight months, sales of existing homes posted an unexpected increase in February. But the median home price tumbled by the largest amount on record.

AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, the nation’s two biggest cell phone carriers, bid a combined $16 billion of the record $19.6 billion pledged in the auction, according to an AP analysis of the results. Verizon Wireless bid $9.4 billion while AT&T Inc. bid $6.6 billion.

The Labor Department said Thursday that applications for jobless benefits totaled 378,000 last week. That was an increase of 22,000 from the previous week and was a far bigger jump than had been expected.

The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee said Wednesday he will push for stricter federal regulation of investment banks, including making them hold reserves similar to those required of commercial banks.

Declining issues outpaced advancers by more than 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange

If money can be made on the deal, a purely private-sector buyout could have been arranged, but “the markets right now are so opaque, and have been for so long, that investors don’t know what to believe,” Mason said.

Delta Air Lines, faced with a weak economy, dimmer hopes of a combination with Northwest Airlines and record fuel prices that are eating up profits, said Tuesday it will offer voluntary severance payouts to roughly 30,000 employees - more than half its work force - and cut U.S. capacity by an extra 5 percent.

The latest action brought the federal funds rate - the interest that banks charge each other - down to 2.25 percent, the lowest point since late 2004. It marked the second back-to-back cuts of three-fourths of a percentage point.

Pharmacy chain CVS Caremark Corporation has agreed to pay almost $37 million to the federal government, 23 states including Virginia and the District of Columbia to settle claims it billed Medicaid programs for a more expensive formulation of an antacid.

Despite the weekend agreement for JPMorgan Chase & Co. to buy Bear Stearns for a fraction of its value last week, worries that other banks had sizable exposure to troubled credit markets sent global markets tumbling

Wall Street has seen calm today, as investors react to news that JPMorgan Chase & Co. is buying investment house Bear Stearns in a deal backed by the government.

Verizon has upgraded equipment in several Lynchburg-area locations to more than double the download speed available to some DSL users

The increasing number of rooms means hotels could have to compete more for market share, and they might have to struggle to keep rooms full in other times of the year. 

Fire tankers, tanker trucks that haul propane and gasoline, septic system trucks, waste oil tankers - if it has wheels and a tank on it, odds are the tank was built at Amthor International in Gretna.

The stunning implosion of Bear Stearns stirred fear among investors worldwide that other banks had sizable exposure to troubled credit markets. Stocks fell sharply in Asia and Europe and oil prices set fresh records in Asian trading.

JPMorgan close to deal to buy Bear

United Airlines said Friday it boosted its ticket prices by as much as much as $50 round-trip, raising the stakes in the airline industry’s battle against rapidly rising fuel costs.

“The objective here is to get the balance right — regulation needs to catch up with innovation and help restore investors confidence but not go so far as to create new problems, make our markets less efficient or cut off credit to those who need it,” Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said.

The grocery chain Kroger Company says its fourth-quarter profits slipped 16 percent, partly because of one fewer week in the period than the previous year.

In an investor presentation today, Altria projected that cigarette sales volume will fall between 2.5 percent to 3 percent in the U.S. over the next few years.

After Verizon unveiled the plan three weeks ago, AT&T matched it within hours, followed by T-Mobile USA

It was the third straight triple-digit decline for the Dow, which has lost a total of more than 530 points in three days.

Sprint said Monday it was releasing a software update for the Mogul phone, made by HTC Corp. of Taiwan, that will enable the phone to connect at Rev. A speeds. Downloads speeds should be 600 kilobits per second to 1,400 kbps. It will be capable of uploads of 350 to 500 kbps.

Stefan Jacoby, chief executive of Volkswagen Group of America, said yesterday that his goal is to sell 1 million vehicles annually by 2018—800,000 from the Volkswagen brand and 200,000 from the Audi brand.