Longtime employee to buy Tracy Jewelers

Tracy Jewelers will be sold to a longtime employee of the Spokane Valley business, owner Maureen Tracy said in a news release.

Glen Brown, who has worked at the jewelry retail shop for 10 years, will buy 49 percent of the business and take over day-to-day operations May 1.

Maureen Tracy will continue working at the store for another four years before completing the sale, she said Tuesday. Terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed.

Tracy’s father opened the store in 1950, and Maureen Tracy purchased it in 1994, she said. She and her husband constructed the building where the store is located, at 106 N. Evergreen Road, in 2005. The building is not included in the sale of the business.

Brown will continue working toward gem industry certifications during the next four years, Tracy said. He has worked in the jewelry business in Spokane for 20 years, she said.

False AP Twitter post causes market panic

NEW YORK – Hackers compromised Twitter accounts of the Associated Press on Tuesday, sending out a false tweet about an attack at the White House.

The false tweet said there had been two explosions at the White House and that President Barack Obama was injured. The attack on AP’s Twitter account and the AP Mobile Twitter account was preceded by phishing attempts on AP’s corporate network.

The AP confirmed that its Twitter account had been suspended following a hack and said it was working to correct the issue.

The false tweet went out shortly after 1 p.m. and briefly sent the Dow Jones industrial average sharply lower. The Dow fell 143 points, from 14,697 to 14,554, after the fake Twitter posting, but quickly recovered.

AP spokesman Paul Colford said the news cooperative is working with Twitter to investigate the issue. The AP has disabled its other Twitter accounts following the attack, Colford added.

Twitter had no comment.

FexEx signs $10.5 billion contract with USPS

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – FedEx says it signed a seven-year, $10.5 billion deal to keep hauling air mail for the U.S. Postal Service.

The deal calls for FedEx to carry Express Mail and Priority Mail between U.S. airports.

The new deal starts in October, replacing a contract set to expire in September. FedEx said it has been providing a similar service for 12 years.

The Postal Service has reduced annual costs by $15 billion, cut 193,000 workers and consolidated more than 200 mail processing locations since 2006.