NLRB loses ruling on union posters

WASHINGTON – A federal judge has ruled that the National Labor Relations Board cannot require private employers to put up posters informing workers of their right to form a union.

U.S. District Judge David Norton in South Carolina said the labor board exceeded its authority from Congress when it approved the poster requirement last year.

The decision Friday conflicts with a ruling last month by another federal judge in Washington, D.C., who found the posters were a reasonable means to make workers aware of labor laws.

The rule was supposed to take effect on April 30.

Hybrids, electric cars set market share mark

DETROIT – Consumers bought a record 52,000 gas-electric hybrids and all-electric cars in March, up from 34,000 during the same month last year.

The two categories combined made up 3.64 percent of total U.S. sales, their highest monthly market share ever, according to Ward’s AutoInfoBank.

Buyers were drawn by new models like the Toyota Prius C subcompact, the Prius V wagon and Camry hybrid. Gas prices near or above $4 per gallon added to the cars’ attraction.

Domain name suffixes hit process hurdle

A glitch forced the abrupt shutdown of a system for letting companies and organizations propose new Internet domain name suffixes. The application deadline had been Thursday and has been extended to next Friday.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which is in charge of domain names, said some private data may have been exposed. They involved file names and user names. Few other details were available.

Up to 1,000 suffixes could be added each year in the most sweeping change to the domain name system since its creation in the 1980s.

Paper clips

• Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein received total compensation of $16.1 million in 2011, a 14 percent increase from the year before.

• CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves’ pay package for 2011 was valued at $68.4 million, up 20 percent from a year ago.

• McDonald’s Corp. gave outgoing CEO Jim Skinner a pay package worth $8.8 million last year, a 10 percent drop from the previous year. The reduction was largely the result of a lower incentive bonus. Skinner is set to retire this summer after 41 years with the company.

• China’s economic growth fell to its lowest level in nearly three years in the first quarter but analysts said the economy should rebound in coming months.