Suit in Kushner firm's case awaits ruling
FREEHOLD, N.J. -- A judge says she will rule in coming days in a lawsuit challenging redevelopment plans by Jared Kushner's family real estate company for a New Jersey mall.
Testimony ended Tuesday in the lawsuit filed by four Eatontown residents who want the court to overturn the zoning approvals Kushner Cos. needs to build hundreds of rental apartments atop the Monmouth Mall parking lot.
Plaintiffs say the public has been unfairly left out of discussion on the project.
Kushner Cos. is owned by the family of President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser. Federal financial disclosure forms show Jared Kushner still owned the mall in March, but a White House spokesman said Friday that he cut ties to the project in May. The spokesman said the related disclosure filings were not yet public and he provided no documentation.
Other real estate deals the Kushners have brokered in New Jersey also are under attack. In Jersey City, the Kushners had hoped for a 30-year local tax break for two residential towers, but residents protested in February and the family withdrew its application. In Perth Amboy, the Kushners have been pressing the city to approve a downsized version of a 22-building waterfront community the family promised years ago.
-- The Associated Press
Consortium confirms Gulf oil discovery
MEXICO CITY -- A consortium of Mexican and foreign private companies said Wednesday that a well drilled in shallow water has found between 1.4 billion and 2 billion barrels of crude-oil equivalent in the Gulf of Mexico.
Houston-based Talos Energy LLC said it has a 35 percent interest, along with Sierra Oil and Gas and Premier Oil PLC.
Talos said in a statement the well started at a depth of 545 feet below the Gulf surface and reached a depth of 11,100 feet underground.
It's one of the largest discoveries made in shallow water by a private firm in Mexico, where private drilling under a concessionary scheme was approved as part of the country's 2013 oil overhaul.
Previously, the state-run oil company had found many shallow-water fields in the Gulf.
-- The Associated Press
China expounds on Net access notice
A Chinese ministry said it will not disrupt legitimate access to the global Internet by businesses and general users, after Bloomberg reported that it had ordered telecommunications carriers to bar individuals from using services to circumvent its so-called Great Firewall.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's existing notice governing the use of virtual private networks, issued in January, should not affect activities of local and foreign businesses or users in general, it said in an emailed statement.
"Trade or multinational enterprises, if they require leased lines or other methods to access the internet abroad, can turn to authorized telecommunications entities," the ministry said in its brief statement. "The [January] notice will not affect normal operations."
The ministry's statement followed Bloomberg's report Monday. China's government has told telecommunications carriers to block individuals' access to virtual private networks by Feb. 1, people familiar with the matter said, thereby shutting a major window to the global Internet.
-- Bloomberg News
OPEC projects crude-oil surplus in 2018
OPEC's first assessment of world oil markets in 2018 showed that, despite cutting output, the group is still pumping too much crude.
Even though OPEC delivered on pledges to reduce supply, its output exceeded demand in the first half of this year, according to a report from the group. Its production was 32.6 million barrels a day in June. With U.S. oil producers leading a pickup in rival supply, that's also higher than the 32.2 million a day OPEC expects will be needed in 2018.
Oil prices have slumped into a bear market on concern that production cuts implemented by OPEC and Russia since the start of the year aren't deep enough to clear a global glut, while U.S. shale-oil producers are gearing up to fill in any shortfall. Producers will meet later this month in St. Petersburg to review their progress, although deeper cuts aren't on the agenda.
The report from OPEC's Vienna-based research department indicates that the accord didn't go far enough, which could help to explain the lack of a sustainable price rally after the cuts. The organization was still oversupplying world markets by about 700,000 barrels a day in the first half of this year, its data show.
-- Bloomberg News
Nurses go on strike at Boston hospital
BOSTON -- More than 1,200 nurses at a Boston hospital started a one-day strike Wednesday after last-minute negotiations between their union and hospital administrators were unsuccessful.
The strike by Tufts Medical Center nurses started at 7 a.m. with picket lines outside the hospital.
Hospital officials have locked out striking nurses for four additional days and hired more than 320 temporary nurses.
The union and the hospital are at an impasse over staffing levels, pay and benefits.
A union representative said hospital management was "determined to force a strike." Hospital Chief Executive Officer Dr. Michael Wagner said it's "extremely unfortunate that the union has continued to hold out for more money and an ill-conceived pension plan."
The sides have been negotiating a new contract since April 2016.
-- The Associated Press
Germans increasingly passing up pork
The nation that gave the world bratwurst and hot dogs is cutting back on its favorite pork sausages and loading up plates with more veggie concoctions instead.
Germans last year consumed the smallest amount of pig meat since at least 2005, and the drop will continue in 2017, according to Agriculture Market Information Co. in Bonn. In Europe's largest hog-producing and pork-eating nation, ham and sausage demand has dropped for at least three-straight years.
Pork still accounts for more than half the meat eaten in Germany, but it's losing market share to poultry and beef and competing more with vegetarian options at shops and restaurants. The shift reflects changing German attitudes about diets and sustainable food production. There's also been an influx of refugees who don't eat pork.
"While there continues to be a lot of appetite for pork dishes, we adapt our menu," said Christoph Wagemann, the head of procurement and controlling at the 167-year-old Zum Schluessel beer hall in Dusseldorf's old town, which now serves a vegan "chili con soja" along with traditional meat sausages. "Bigger groups will always have vegetarians or vegans."
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 07/13/2017