Business in brief: Google, Boingo Wireless to offer free Wi-Fi at airports

Google Inc. plans to provide free airport wireless connections at 47 U.S. airports for the holiday season, including airports in Spokane, Seattle, Portland and Bozeman.

The promotion is being provided through a partnership with Boingo Wireless, a nationwide Wi-Fi provider. The service is set to start this week and continue until Jan. 15.

The service is available only in public areas within buildings, not outside on driveways or tarmacs, according to a Google press release.

Google plans to ask users of the wireless connections to make an optional donation to one of several charities. Google will match the donations made across all the networks up to $250,000.

Tom Sowa

Wal-Mart will extend hours to avoid Black Friday injuries

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will keep most of its U.S. locations open overnight on Thanksgiving to ease the crowding that led to the trampling death of a store employee on Black Friday a year earlier.

The retail giant said it was hoping the extended hours would prevent long lines from forming because shoppers would be able to wait inside the stores before the chain’s day-after-Thanksgiving specials go on sale at 5 a.m.

Black Friday, so named because retailers used to view it as the day they went into the black financially, is notoriously the most hectic shopping day of the holiday season, with shoppers pushing and jostling for deals on electronics, apparel and toys. Last year, a mob of bargain-hungry shoppers stormed a Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, N.Y., trampling temporary worker Jdimytai Damour.

Some industry watchers are worried that crowds could be even more aggressive this year, as frugal shoppers have indicated they will rely heavily on discounts and specials.

Los Angeles Times

Jury acquits executives of scheme at Bear Stearns

New York – Two Bear Stearns executives who ran hedge funds that collapsed after betting heavily on the shaky subprime mortgage market were acquitted Tuesday of lying to investors – a defeat in the government’s bid to punish fraud exposed by the financial crisis.

A jury in federal court in Brooklyn deliberated about eight hours over two days before finding Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin not guilty of conspiracy and other charges in an alleged scheme that cost 300 investors about $1.6 billion and nearly caused the demise of Bear Stearns itself. The firm avoided bankruptcy in a rescue buyout by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Associated Press

Government mortgage relief is helping some homeowners

Washington – The Obama administration’s mortgage relief program has reached one in five eligible homeowners, a government report says, but most of those borrowers are on temporary trial plans that have yet to be made final.

As of the end of October, more than 650,000 borrowers, or 20 percent of those eligible, had signed up for trials lasting up to five months, the Treasury Department said Tuesday. The modifications reduce monthly payments to more affordable levels.

To make the change permanent, though, borrowers must complete a big stack of paperwork and show they can make their payments on time.

At the beginning of September, only about 1,700 permanent modifications had been made. The Treasury Department expects to release updated data later this month.

Associated Press