Business news for Mon, 31 Dec 2007 & with word groups. 7 news.

Would you buy a bottle of South Okanagan merlot produced at the expense of the spadefoot toad or enjoy a premium glass of icewine knowing it had helped to eliminate the sage thrasher? Given a choice, would you support a winery that tried to live with nature rather than squeeze i …

J ack Kellogg has a big jump on his New Year's resolutions. After about 30 years of selling hats, Kellogg noticed a troubling trend at his Hatman Jack's Wichita Hat Works in Delano. Most of his customers -- 65 percent of whom live in Wichita -- were skewing older. "It had me a little nervous," Kellogg says. So he started thinking that he'd like to expand to custom-designing hats for a couple of new groups of people: musicians doing the "soul, funk, hip-hop thing" and classic-music industry types. The first took care of itself recently when he got a call from a Wisconsin woman who helps outfit Prince and his entourage for concerts and music videos. The woman's sister lives in Wichita and recommended Kellogg's hats for a video being shot in Miami.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The Financial Services Authority is probing a jump in the share price of U.K. waste services group Biffa ahead of an announcement in November that it had received a 1.2 billion pound ($2.4 billion) takeover bid, according to a report in the Times (of London) newspaper. The report said the FSA has written to various parties involved in the talks to ask what they knew about any possible bid before buyout groups HgCapital and Montagu Private Equity revealed their offer. The inquiry is a part of a continuing focus at the regulator on insider trading ahead of major announcements, the newspaper added.

The loss or theft of personal data such as credit card and Social Security numbers soared to unprecedented levels in 2007, and the trend isn't expected to turn around anytime soon as hackers stay a step ahead of security and laptops disappear with sensitive...

BOSTON -- The loss or theft of personal data such as credit card and Social Security numbers soared to unprecedented levels in 2007, and the trend isn't expected to turn around anytime soon as hackers stay a step ahead of security and laptops disappear with sensitive information.

The world's major banking groups are facing unprecedented pressure to repair balance sheets and restore their liquidity as the ongoing credit crisis shows few signs of easing. Conventional commercial pressures are also refusing to go away.