Hiring slowdown in April may signal caution about US economy
WASHINGTON (AP) — American employers signaled their caution about a sluggish economy by slowing their pace of hiring in April after months of robust job growth.
At the same time, companies raised pay, and their employees worked more hours — a combination that lifted income and, if sustained, could quicken the U.S. expansion.
As a whole, the government’s report Friday pointed to an American job market that continues to generate steady hiring, though at a rate that may be starting to slow. Employers added 160,000 jobs in April, well below the average gain of 243,000 in the prior six months. But the unemployment rate remained a low 5 percent, roughly where it’s been since last fall.
“Employment was never going to continue rising at more than 200,000 a month indefinitely,” said Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics, a consulting firm. “Those monthly gains are simply unsustainable” at a time of tepid economic growth.
Over the past six months, the economy has expanded at an annual pace of just 1 percent. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some employers have become concerned that sluggish growth could weaken customer demand and limit the need for more employees.
Police: Federal officer in custody after 3 fatal shootings
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — A federal security officer suspected in three fatal shootings outside a high school, a mall and a supermarket in the Washington, D.C., area was arrested Friday, police said. Three people were also wounded in the shootings.
Eulalio Tordil, an employee of the Federal Protective Service, which provides security at federal properties, was taken into custody without incident near the supermarket, the scene of the last shooting, authorities said. The brief manhunt and seemingly indiscriminate shootings rekindled fears of the D.C. sniper in 2002, which paralyzed the nation’s capital and its suburbs.
Plainclothes officers trailed Tordil for an hour, watching him walk from store to store at a shopping center as they waited for the right time to arrest him. He had earlier threatened to “commit suicide by cop” and authorities wanted to make sure the public was safe when he was arrested.
“Knowing his behavior today, knowing of statements he made in the past, we did not want to endanger anyone and have a shootout when we took him into custody and that’s why he was taken into custody the way he was,” Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger said.
Tordil was put on administrative duties in March after a protective order was issued against him when his wife said he had threatened to harm her if she left him, The Washington Post reported (http://wapo.st/1WOrwyg ). Tordil subjected their children to “intense-military-like discipline,” like pushups and detention in a dark closet, according to the order.
Alleged money launderer arrested in Panama
PANAMA CITY (AP) — Authorities have arrested a prominent Panama businessman and dismantled an empire of banking, real estate and retail businesses that the U.S. says were part of a top worldwide money-laundering organization for drug traffickers.
The coordinated operation was announced Thursday as the U.S. Treasury Department froze U.S. assets owned by 68 companies in this Central American nation and in Colombia under a drug kingpin designation.
As part of the effort, Colombian police arrested Nidal Waked the previous day at an airport in Colombia’s capital, Bogota.
Waked and his uncle, Abdul Waked, are accused of being the co-leaders of an organization that laundered drug profits through a web of companies including a luxury mall, a bank and the duty-free zone at Panama City’s international airport, which had attracted U.S. law enforcement’s scrutiny before. The family also owns Panama’s oldest newspaper, the Estrella de Panama.
Grupo Wisa, the family’s holding company, issued a terse statement saying the accusations “are false and unfounded.” The company said it had instructed its lawyers to cooperate fully in the investigation announced by Panama’s attorney general.
A pregnant woman walks into a bar: You must serve her in NYC
NEW YORK (AP) — A pregnant woman shows up at a New York City bar and wants to go in and order a drink despite health warnings against consuming alcohol while expecting. Should the tavern serve her?
It’s against the law to refuse, under guidelines the city Human Rights Commission released Friday to help people interpret a 2013 city law. It centers on expansive protections for pregnant workers, but the guidelines also say mothers-to-be can’t be kept out of New York City bars or denied alcoholic drinks just because they’re expecting.
“Judgments and stereotypes about how pregnant individuals should behave, their physical capabilities and what is or is not healthy for a fetus are pervasive in our society and cannot be used as pretext for unlawful discriminatory decisions” in public venues, the new guidelines say.
With that, the city is squarely taking on a touchy subject that stirs conflicted feelings about pregnancy and personal autonomy. While actual complaints from pregnant New Yorkers about bar policies may be uncommon, they aren’t unheard of: The commission is looking into one case concerning a pregnant woman denied entry to a bar or club, said Lauren Elfant, an agency lawyer. She wouldn’t give more detail because the case is open.
And some pregnant women who haven’t been refused service say they’ve felt awkward when, for example, they’re at a restaurant table that’s sharing a bottle of wine and a server makes a point of asking how many glasses to bring.
US takes tougher tone on Israeli settlements in new report
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States will endorse a tougher tone with Israel in an upcoming international report that takes the Jewish state to task over settlements, demolitions and property seizures on land the Palestinians claim for a future state, diplomats told The Associated Press.
The U.S. and its fellow Mideast mediators also will chastise Palestinian leaders for failing to rein in anti-Israeli violence. But the diplomats involved in drafting the document said its primary focus will be a surge of construction in Jewish housing in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
The U.S. approval of the harsh language marks a subtle shift. Washington has traditionally tempered statements by the so-called “Quartet” of mediators with careful diplomatic language, but the diplomats said the U.S. in this case will align itself closer to the positions of the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, who emphasize Israel’s role in the Mideast impasse.
The report’s release is sure to infuriate Israel, where officials are already bracing for expected criticism. And on the other side, although the mediators will endorse some long-standing Palestinian complaints, the Palestinians are likely to complain the report does not go far enough.
Diplomats acknowledge the report, which could come out in late May or June, will be largely symbolic, requiring no action. It could be unveiled at the U.N. and possibly sent to the Security Council for an endorsement, according to the diplomats, who included three U.S. officials. They all demanded anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the unfinished work publicly.
