Harley-Davidson Inc. is considering sites in four states for a possible relocation of its main motorcycle plant in Pennsylvania, a company spokesman said Friday.
Company and union officials toured locations in Shelbyville, Ind.; Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Shelbyville, Ky.; and Kansas City, Mo., over the past week as the company assesses a possible move, Bob Klein said. No other locations are being considered, he added.
Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson announced in May it was exploring a relocation of its motorcycle assembly facility in York, Pa., that employs 2,300 people.
Though the company’s preferred path is to stay in York, Klein said, the factory is inefficient and has too much capacity. A decision is expected this year.
Yahoo radio service wins ruling on fees
Personalized Internet radio stations got a boost Friday when a federal appeals court ruled that Yahoo’s LAUNCHcast music service was not interactive enough to be forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in licensing fees.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said LAUNCHcast did not offer its users so much control over selecting songs for personalized Internet radio stations that the users would choose those webcasts over buying music.
LAUNCHcast enabled users to create stations that played songs based on how the user rated songs, artists and albums. The appeals court cited the random nature of personalized playlists when it said LAUNCHcast was not required to pay individual licensing fees to copyright holders of each song it plays for its users.
58 million card holders have credit cut in year
Credit card companies slashed limits for an estimated 58 million card holders in the 12 months ended in April, even though a high percentage had good credit scores when their limits were cut.
The widespread cuts affected about a third of consumers, but most people did not see a big effect on the credit scores, according to a study by FICO, the company that produces the most widely known credit scores.
The limited effect might be because lenders often cut limits on cards that were unused or lightly used.
The statistics in some ways verify complaints from consumers that they were targeted despite doing nothing wrong, but also show that the cuts seem to have little negative effect for the majority of people.
About 25 million card holders saw their limits cut between April 2008 and October 2008. Limit cuts jumped 32 percent in the following six months.
Southwest Airlines to expand Wi-Fi
Southwest Airlines Co. says it has finished testing Wi-Fi Internet access on four aircraft and plans to expand the service to all its planes beginning early next year.
The airline said Friday that the test has generated raves among passengers.
Southwest said it would continue testing prices for the service through the end of the year.
Dave Ridley, the discount carrier’s senior vice president of marketing, said the company is happy with the technical performance of the in-flight service and the response of customers.
During the test, passengers have used the service for e-mail, streaming video and other content using laptop computers and smart phones.
