In brief: Idaho jobless rate falls to 4.1 percent in January
Low energy prices, strengthening consumer confidence, low interest rates and a warm winter contributed to Idaho’s 4.1 percent unemployment rate in January.
The rate is the lowest since March 2008, and it’s approaching what some economists view as full employment, according to the Idaho Department of Labor.
The number of people working rose by nearly 4,200 to a record 746,600, state officials said. Employers maintained payrolls at or above average levels from December to January in all industries except for manufacturing, which experienced a modest decline in jobs.
Until now, little or no growth in the state’s labor force and people dropping out of the workforce slowed Idaho’s economic expansion, state officials said. But that changed in January, with more people joining the workforce.
Idaho’s unemployment rate was 4.4 percent in December and 5.1 percent in January 2014.
Unemployment rates by county will be released later this month.
Family, GM settle second time in suit over ignition switches
DETROIT – A Georgia lawsuit that helped expose General Motors’ failure to disclose a deadly defect in small-car ignition switches has been settled out of court for a second time.
Lawyers representing the parents of crash victim Brooke Melton announced the settlement Friday morning, but did not reveal terms.
Engineers hired by lawyers working for Ken and Beth Melton found that GM modified the switches after finding problems but failed to disclose that in legal depositions or to government safety investigators. Later, congressional staffers found GM documents showing the company knew about switch problems for a decade, yet it failed to recall the cars until last year.
Brooke Melton, a 29-year-old pediatric nurse, died in a March 2010 crash near Atlanta when the ignition switch of her Chevrolet Cobalt slipped out of the run position. That shut off the car’s engine, causing it to lose power steering and brakes and disabling the air bags, the family’s lawsuit alleged. Melton’s Cobalt skidded into another vehicle.
The Melton family settled the case for $5 million in 2013, but refiled it last May after documents sent to Congress gave rise to allegations of a cover-up. Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia, said the Meltons likely settled for far more than $5 million “given the revelations and adverse publicity.”
Swiss bank settles lawsuit over foreign currency scheme
WASHINGTON – Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, has agreed to pay $135 million to settle claims that it helped rig currency exchange rates in a scheme involving some of the world’s biggest banks.
The settlement announced Friday by the lead law firm in the case resolves a class-action lawsuit against UBS by pension funds and other investors that engaged in foreign currency transactions with the bank. The investors also sued 11 other major banks, accusing them of colluding to fatten their profits by manipulating currency rates.
Authorities in the U.S., Great Britain and Switzerland have put banks’ conduct in the multitrillion-dollar currency market under scrutiny. UBS, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and two other banks were recently fined a total $4.3 billion in civil settlements with regulators in those countries.
The investors in the class action reached a settlement in January with one of the other banks, JPMorgan, for $99.5 million.