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Starting Jan. 1, customers with complaints against design professionals, from architects to landscape engineers, must first submit their claims to the Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

Sales of new homes in the US fell to a 12-year low in November, portending bigger declines in construction that will hobble economic growth throughout 2008. Purchases dropped 9 percent to an annual pace of 647,000, the Commerce Department said...

Plans to get Greensburg's destroyed Twilight Theatre back in business are progressing. The theater's board and benefactors -- including Bill Warren -- want to break ground next spring for a $1.5 million, 414-seat facility on the southeast corner of Main and Florida. That's the long-term goal. A shorter-term issue is the need to sell $63,000 in tax credits recently acquired from the Kansas Department of Commerce -- by the close of business Monday. Tax credits are an investment vehicle producing a dollar-for-dollar reduction of the owner's tax liability. The theater was among the downtown Greensburg buildings destroyed when a tornado leveled most of the city May 4. The new Twilight is at least a year off, but progress toward restoring the community's gathering place is welcome, said theater board member Randy Kelly.

STOCKS finished an erratic week narrowly mixed yesterday after a government report of a steep decline in new home sales stirred concerns that weakness in housing will continue to dog the economy. The Commerce Department report that new home sales fell 9 percent from October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 647,000 triggered renewed nervousness that consumers could become uneasy and tamp down their spending. Stocks, which fell more than 1 percent Thursday following unwelcome economic readings and the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, fluctuated through the day yesterday. The Chicago purchasing managers' index had for a time offered some support to investor sentiment yesterday after it showed a stronger-than-expected increase for December manufacturing activity in the Midwest. But Wall Street appeared unable to hold onto its enthusiasm for too long. Investors are eager for any economic data that can help illuminate whether weakness in the

Sales of single-family homes fell 9 percent last month, the Commerce Department said, for a seasonally adjusted annual rate that is the slowest pace since April 1995.

New-home sales tumbled last month to their lowest level in more than 12 years, the Commerce Department said Friday, as housing shows no sign of a...

Sales of new homes nationwide fell 9 percent in November overall - except in the West where they rose 4 percent, according to a report from the Commerce Department released this morning.

Two of the state's key economic research functions are being consolidated into a new Research Administration under the Arizona Department of Commerce, Gov. Janet Napolitano announced Friday.

The Commerce Department reported that new-home sales tumbled by 9 percent in November from October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 647,000. That was the worst showing since April 1995, when the pace of sales was 621,000.

New home sales in the US plunged by 9% in November, after a 1.7% rise in October, the US Commerce Department said today.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Sales of new U.S. homes fell by a more-than-expected 9% in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 647,000, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch were expecting new home sales to drop to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 710,000 in November. Meanwhile, October's sales rate was revised downward, to rise by 711,000, or 1.7%. They were previously estimated to have risen to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 728,000. In the past year, sales of new U.S. homes are down 34.4% nationwide.

Stocks fell Thursday after the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and after the Commerce Department ...

Wall Street skidded Thursday after the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and after the Commerce Department's durable-goods...

Wall Street skidded Thursday after the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and after the Commerce Department's durable goods orders exacerbated concerns about the U.S. economy.

WALL Street skidded yesterday after the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and after the Commerce Department's durable goods orders exacerbated concerns about the US economy. The major indexes each lost well over 1 percent and the Dow Jones industrial average fell 192 points. Bhutto's assassination raised the possibility of increasing political unrest abroad, always an unsettling prospect for investors who have already been contending with domestic economic concerns for months. Oil prices rose following the news, and that unwelcome inflationary trend only added to Wall Street's uneasiness. Meanwhile, the government said orders for durable goods, big-ticket items from commercial jetliners to home appliances, rose by just 0.1 percent last month. Economists had been looking for a rise of 2.2 percent. Still, November saw the first rise in durable goods orders in the last four months. The Labor Department said the number of workers seeking unemployment

NEW YORK, Dec. 27 -- Wall Street skidded Thursday after the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and the Commerce Department's report on durable goods orders exacerbated concerns about the economy. The major indicators each lost well over 1 percent.

NEW YORK -- Wall Street skidded Thursday after the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and after the Commerce Department's durable goods orders exacerbated concerns about the U.S. economy. The major indexes each lost well over 1 percent and the Dow Jones industrial average fell 192 points.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch)-- Technology stocks were largely in the red in early trading Thursday as the sector reacted to the latest durable-goods data. The latest figures from the Commerce Department showed durable goods orders rising just 0.1% in November. Among bellwether tech stocks, declines came from Microsoft Corp. , Hewlett-Packard Co. , Intel Corp. and Dell Inc. . The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell 11 points to 2,713.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- A big jump in demand for civilian aircraft pushed durable-goods orders up for the first time in four months in November, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- A big jump in demand for civilian aircraft pushed durable goods orders up for the first time in four months in November, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Excluding transportation orders, however, durable goods orders fell by 0.7% in November. New orders for non-defense aircraft and parts shot up by 20.9% in November, the data show. However, new orders for defense aircraft and parts dropped by 20.1% in the same month. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch were expecting orders for durable goods to climb by 2.9% in November after falling by 0.2% in October.