Business
Drilling co. ordered to give up employment records
DENVER (AP) — A Houston-based oil and gas drilling company facing complaints of racial discrimination has been ordered to turn over its personnel records as part of an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation.
The EEOC announced Tuesday that a federal judge ordered Patterson-UTI Drilling Co. to hand over information about current and former employees and complaints of employment discrimination for a two-year period. The EEOC is seeking name, race, position and last known contact information of each employee.
A Denver-based attorney representing Patterson-UTI declined comment, and company officials did not immediately return phone calls.
In a court document, the EEOC said it’s investigating five complaints of racial harassment and discrimination, including a case involving Native American workers in North Dakota and an African American employee in Texas.
In the Texas case, the worker said white employees displayed a noose in a work area and used frequent racial epithets.
“When this employee complained, he was told that he ‘should buy a case of jars and put his feelings in it because it is always going to be a white man’s oil field,”’ according to a document filed in U.S. District Court.
In North Dakota, Native American workers were called by insulting names such as “eagle that can’t talk” and were given the worst job assignments such as cleaning and scrubbing, not running the drill, according to the document.
When one of the workers complained, the company retaliated, the document says.
U.S. District Judge Philip A. Brimmer gave Patterson-UTI until Dec. 23 to turn over employee records. Brimmer’s ruling came after the company had argued that the EEOC’s request for all its employee records was “irrelevant and immaterial,” “overly broad” and “unduly burdensome.”
Brimmer disagreed.
“Congress endowed the EEOC with broad investigatory powers,” said Rayford Irvin, the commission’s acting district director in Phoenix. “Preventing the agency from obtaining relevant information in our investigations, absent a showing of undue hardship, would be a restriction on our mandate to root out and eliminate employment discrimination.”
Patterson-UTI Drilling, a unit of Patterson-UTI Energy Inc., provides oil and gas drilling services in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and western Canada.
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Tax allocations for Palestine and Anderson County continue to fall with no end in the decline in the near future, according to Texas Comptroller Susan Combs.
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More than two dozen Palestine area businesses will be participating in the Palestine Area Chamber of Commerce’s 2010 Business Expo on Thursday.
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Seminar to focus on employee management practices
The Palestine Area Chamber of Commerce will present “The 3 Squares: Hiring, Firing and Retention” Seminar from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday at the Ben E. Keith Community Room, 2019 W. Oak St.
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Exxon Mobil posts lowest annual profit since ’02
EW YORK (AP) — Exxon Mobil’s earnings were cut by more than half to $19.3 billion in 2009, the lowest total in seven years, as company refineries struggled with a plunge in fuel consumption around the world.
But the world’s largest publicly traded oil company remains the profit champ among U.S. public companies. Wal-Mart is expected to earn $14 billion for the year ended Jan. 31, and Microsoft earned $14.6 billion in the fiscal year ended in June 2009.
Exxon’s results have swung with the price of oil and the impact of the global recession. When oil spiked above $147 a barrel in mid-2008, Exxon set ever-higher marks for earnings by a U.S. company. Then oil prices plummeted, and Exxon suffered a yearlong hangover that included its smallest quarterly earnings in several years.
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Toyota tells dealers parts on way to fix pedals
WASHINGTON (AP) — Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday its dealers should get parts to fix a sticky gas pedal problem by the end of this week as the automaker apologized to customers and tried to bring an end to a recall that has affected 4.2 million vehicles worldwide.
The company said in a statement that it has begun shipping parts and is training dealers on the repairs. Some dealers will stay open around the clock to fix the 2.3 million cars and trucks affected by the recall in the U.S.
Technical bulletins on how to install the new parts should arrive at dealers by midweek, the company told dealers in an e-mail. It was not clear exactly when repairs would start, although dealers have said they’ll begin as soon as possible.
The automaker also said Monday it would suspend production of eight U.S. models affected by the recall this week, with factories restarting on Feb. 8.
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Apple introduces new $499 iPad tablet computer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the company’s much-anticipated iPad tablet computer Wednesday, calling it a new third category of mobile device that is neither smart phone nor laptop, but something in between.
The iPad will start at $499, a price tag far below the $1,000 that some analysts were expecting. But Apple must still persuade recession-weary consumers who already have other devices to open their wallets yet again. Apple plans to begin selling the iPad in two months.
Jobs said the device would be useful for reading books, playing games or watching video, describing it as “so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smart phone.”
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Dealers swamped by worried Toyota drivers
NEW YORK (AP) — Toyota dealers across the country were swamped with calls Wednesday from concerned drivers but had few answers a day after the company announced it would stop selling and building eight models because of faulty gas pedals.
Toyota insisted the problem — sudden, uncontrolled acceleration — was “rare and infrequent” and said dealers should deal with customers “on a case-by-case basis.” But drivers of Toyotas and those who share the road with them were left with uncertainty.
In an unprecedented move, the company said late Tuesday it would halt sales for the eight models — which make up more than half of Toyota’s U.S. sales volume — to fix the gas pedals. Last week, Toyota issued a recall for the same eight models, affecting 2.3 million vehicles.
A private firm said it had identified 275 crashes and 18 deaths because of sudden, uncontrollable acceleration in Toyotas since 1999.
In North Palm Beach, Fla., Clare Roden showed up at a Toyota dealership worried about the 2010 Camry she purchased recently. She was relieved when she was told her accelerator was not a problem part.
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Apple unveils $499 tablet, $629 with AT&T data
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple Inc. will sell the newly unveiled tablet-style iPad starting at $499, a price tag far below the $1,000 that some analysts were expecting.
The iPad, which is larger in size but similar in design to Apple’s popular iPhone, was billed by CEO Steve Jobs on Wednesday as “so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smart phone.”
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Toyota U.S. sales halt deals blow to image, earnings
NEW YORK (AP) — Toyota’s suspension of U.S. sales on an unprecedented scale to fix faulty gas pedals deals a blow to the automaker’s reputation for quality and endangers its fledgling earnings recovery.
The suspect parts are made by a U.S. supplier, but they are also found in its European-made vehicles, an official with the automaker said Wednesday. Toyota said it hasn’t decided what to do there.
Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. announced late Tuesday it would halt sales of some of its top-selling models to fix gas pedals that could stick and cause unintended acceleration. Last week, Toyota issued a recall for the same eight models affecting 2.3 million vehicles.
Toyota is also suspending production at six North American car-assembly plants beginning the week of Feb. 1. It gave no date on when production could restart.
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Halliburton asks high court to block trial
WASHINGTON (AP) — Halliburton Co. is asking the Supreme Court to block a Texas woman’s lawsuit alleging she was raped by military contractor co-workers in Iraq.
The company wants the justices to reverse a lower court ruling that Jamie Leigh Jones’ case can go to trial. Jones sued Halliburton and its former subsidiary KBR, saying she was raped while working for KBR at Camp Hope, Baghdad, in 2005.
The trial is set to begin in February 2011.
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City, county tax allocations down
