Twitter sinks as user growth underwhelm

Investors are starting to lose patience with Twitter. Shares sank 12% in premarket trading Wednesday, one day after the social media firm posted uninspiring first-quarter results. Twitter's active-user base is still growing, hitting 255 million as of last month. But that was only a 6% increase from the previous quarter -- not the breakneck pace that investors have come to expect from young social media companies. Related: Weibo shares pop 19%...

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Cleveland Evans: Will you watch Warren this weekend?

Will you watch Warren this weekend? The Berkshire Hathaway Annual meeting, featuring Omaha’s most famous billionaire, Warren Buffett, convenes Saturday at the Century Link Center. Warren’s an English surname with two origins. Most Warren families had ancestors who came from La Varenne in Normandy. The place name is Gaulish for “sandy soil.” Other Warren families (along with Warings and Guerins) had ancestors named Warin or Garin, Norman versions of a Germanic word meaning “guard.” Warren became a first name in the 1700s. In the United States,...

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Toyota move consolidates divisions in Plano

The announcement Monday confirmed a weeklong rumor that Toyota’s U.S. sales and marketing operations would leave Torrance, Calif., for a new campus-style facility in Plano. The Japanese automaker added to that, however, with news that its engineering and manufacturing division in Erlanger, Ky., will also move to Plano. The employees — many of them longtime, well-paid workers — will begin arriving this year and come in waves through 2017. “With our major North American business affiliates and leaders together in one location for the first time,...

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U.S. pending home sales rise in March; first gain in nine months

A pending sale in Miami. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images / April 29, 2013) Pending home sales rose in March, as the national housing market showed signs of life at the start of the spring buying season. The 3.4% jump from February marked the first increase in nine months, the National Assn. of Realtors said Monday. The trade group’s pending-sales index covers contracts signed but not closed. Lawrence Yun, the group’s...

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Some Economists See Bank of Japan Holding Fire All Year

Most economists have for some time expected the Bank of Japan to implement further monetary easing this year, so much so that the central bank governor’s comments this month that such a move wouldn’t come anytime soon helped send stocks sharply lower and the yen higher. But some opinions are shifting–toward no action at all. [...] Most economists have for some time expected the Bank of Japan to implement further monetary easing this year,...

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Siemens's New Alstom Bid Disrupts GE Deal

'GE and Alstom have their agenda, which is that of shareholders...', said Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg.  PARIS— Siemens AG SIE.XE -1.56% of Germany barged in on Alstom SAALO.FR +10.93% 's plans to sell its energy assets to General Electric Co. GE +0.53%Sunday, proposing a counteroffer that would forge a global behemoth while keeping a symbol of French industry firmly rooted...

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A Few California Cities Start Water-Waste Patrols

Steve Upton thinks of himself more as an "Officer Friendly" than a water cop. On a recent sunny day, the water waste inspector rolled through a quiet Sacramento neighborhood in his white pickup truck after a tipster tattled on people watering their lawns on prohibited days. He approached two culprits. Rather than slapping them with fines, Upton offered to change the settings on their sprinkler systems. "I don't want to crack down on them and be their Big Brother," said Upton, who works for the water conservation unit of Sacramento's utilities...

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Siemens offers cash, trains swap for Alstom power: report

(Reuters) - German engineering group Siemens (SIEGn.DE) is offering Alstom (ALSO.PA) half of its train-making business plus cash in exchange for its French rival's power turbines division, Le Figaro newspaper reported on Sunday. Le Figaro said it had seen the contents of a letter - the existence of which was announced by Siemens earlier on Sunday - in which the German company offered a potential alternative to the deal U.S. company General Electric (GE.N) was preparing to negotiate with Alstom. The Siemens deal outlined by...

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Ben Sasse's health plan taken for checkup

As you've probably heard, the four candidates for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in Nebraska agree that the Affordable Care Act of 2010 should be repealed. All four — Midland University President Ben Sasse, former State Treasurer Shane Osborn, Pinnacle Bank Chairman Sid Dinsdale and Omaha attorney Bart McLeay — have criticized the health care law. But Sasse has published the most detailed alternative plan, made it the centerpiece...

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