In brief: American Airlines to phase out US Airways

FORT WORTH, Texas – After more than 75 years of flying, the end is near for US Airways.

American Airlines plans to shut down the venerable carrier over a 90-day stretch that could begin as soon as July, which would mean a final departure around October.

American executives designed the gradual fade-out to avoid the kind of technological glitches and massive flight delays that plagued United Airlines after it abruptly switched to Continental’s computer systems in 2012.

US Airways flights will slowly disappear and be replaced by American flights in a single reservations system. It’s one of the trickiest parts of merging two airlines.

Job openings down in March, up over year

WASHINGTON – The number of available jobs in the U.S. fell in March, though companies filled more of their open positions in a sign they are still confident enough to hire.

The Labor Department said Tuesday that job postings dropped 2.9 percent to just under a seasonally adjusted 5 million in March. Meanwhile, total hiring ticked up 1.1 percent to 5.1 million, the most since December.

Despite the drop in job openings in March, there are still many more open positions than a year ago: That figure has increased 18.6 percent in the past 12 months.

Tax receipts fuel big budget surplus

WASHINGTON – A flood of tax payments pushed government receipts to an all-time high in April and left the country with the largest monthly budget surplus in seven years.

In its monthly budget report, the Treasury Department said Tuesday that the April surplus totaled $156.7 billion, up from a surplus of $106.9 billion a year earlier. It was the largest surplus since April 2008.

Government receipts totaled $471.8 billion, the largest monthly total on record.

Verizon, Sprint settle over disputed charges

WASHINGTON – Verizon Wireless will pay $90 million and Sprint $68 million to settle charges that the mobile giants allowed phony charges on their customers’ monthly bills so they could keep a cut of the profit, federal regulators announced Tuesday.

The two mobile providers had partnered with third-party vendors that sell premium text messaging services, such as daily horoscopes, trivia and sports scores. But consumers who hadn’t signed up for the services were being billed anyway, typically about $9.99 a month, according to the Federal Communications Commission and several state attorneys general. Regulators said they launched an investigation after receiving numerous complaints that the carriers had refused to refund the charges.

Both companies said in statements emailed to reporters on Tuesday that they had stopped allowing premium text messaging before the government investigation began.

Chip technology coming in Chase cards

NEW YORK – JPMorgan Chase will replace all of its customers’ debit cards with more secure chip-based cards nationwide, the bank said Tuesday, and expects to have chips on 70 percent of its debit cards by the end of 2015.

The metal chip adds additional encryption technology to the card, and when used correctly makes it more difficult to steal information and use a stolen credit card for fraud.