Business in brief: General Mills to phase out artificial ingredients in cereals
NEW YORK – General Mills is dropping artificial colors and flavors from its cereals, the latest company to respond to a growing desire for food made with ingredients people see as natural.
The company said Monday that Trix and Reese’s Puffs will be among the first cereals to undergo the changes. As a result, the reformulated Trix cereal later this year will be made with four colors instead of six, said Kate Gallager, cereal developer for General Mills.
While the company was able to come up with alternatives for red, orange, yellow and purple Trix pieces, Gallager said it was too difficult to find natural alternatives for blue and green that achieved the right taste and color.
“We haven’t been able to get that same vibrant color,” she said.
The Minneapolis company says cereals like Lucky Charms that have marshmallows may take longer to reformulate. It says 90 percent of its cereals will have no artificial ingredients by the end of 2016.
Bernanke proposes replacing Jackson on bill, not Hamilton
WASHINGTON – Former Federal Reserve chief-turned blogger Ben Bernanke is calling for the U.S. Treasury to abandon plans to drop Alexander Hamilton from his featured spot on the $10 bill and to dump Andrew Jackson from the $20 instead.
Bernanke wrote Monday that he is “appalled” by Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew’s plans to replace Hamilton with a woman. In a post entitled “Say it ain’t so, Jack,” Bernanke wrote that adding a woman is “a fine idea, but it shouldn’t come at Hamilton’s expense.”
He called the first Treasury secretary “without doubt the best and most foresighted economic policymaker in U.S. history.”
By contrast, Jackson, president from 1829 to 1837, was “a man of many unattractive qualities and a poor president.” Jackson opposed attempts to establish a U.S. central bank.
“Given his views on central banking,” Bernanke wrote, “Jackson would probably be fine with having his image dropped from a Federal Reserve note.”
Gas company Williams Cos. rejects ETE’s buyout bid
DALLAS – The Williams Cos. rejected a $48 billion buyout offer from Energy Transfer Equity, but said it may still put the natural-gas pipeline company up for sale.
Its stock jumped 26 percent to $60.86 on Monday. The stock has slumped over the past year but reached an all-time high of $61.38 during the day.
Williams said ETE’s bid significantly undervalues the business, but that it was exploring other strategic options.
ETE confirmed Monday that it had offered $64 per share, a 32 percent premium to Williams’ closing price Friday. It put the deal’s total value at $53.1 billion, including debt and other liabilities.
Senate confirms Neffenger as new TSA administrator
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Monday to confirm a new leader for the Transportation Security Administration in the wake of reports of startling security gaps at U.S. airports.
Coast Guard Vice Adm. Peter Neffenger was confirmed as the agency’s new administrator by a vote of 81-1. Neffenger was nominated by President Barack Obama in April, before revelations that auditors for the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general were repeatedly able to sneak mock explosives and weapons through security checkpoints.
Neffenger would replace John Pistole, who left his post as TSA administrator in December after 4 1/2 years leading the agency best known for screening passengers at U.S. airports.
Neffenger has served as the Coast Guard’s vice commandant since 2014 and has been with the Coast Guard since 1981.