The Daily News-Journal from Murfreesboro, Tennessee • Page A4

THE DAILY NEWS JOURNAL TUESDAY 05 3 16 WASHINGTON Construction spending adv anced in March to its highest level in more than eight years. Gains in home building and nonresidential construction offset a drop in government projects. Construction spending rose 0.3percent in March after a 1percent gain in February, the Commerce Department said Monday. The back-to-back increases raised total spending to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of the highest level since October 2007. ut the construction spending figure for January was revised down by the government to show a drop of 0.3percent rather than a previously reported increase of 2.1percent.

ast month, home construction increased at a 1 annual rate, while nonresidential cons truction increased 0.7percent. Spending on gov- rnment projects dropped 1.9percent, with state and local and federal spending falling. Home construction was a bright spot last year for the U.S. economy, and that support is expected to continue through 2016. esidential construction grew at a 14.8percent a nnual pace in the first three months of the year.

It was one of the few sources of strength in a quarter in which the overall economy grew at an annual rate of just 0.5percent the slowest pace in two years. ingle-family construction was flat in March. But ultifamily activity, a more volatile sector, jumped 5 The 0.7percent rise in nonresidential activity lifted this sector to its highest level since October 2008. In March, spending on hotel and motel construction ose 1.6percent, while the category that covers shopping centers posted a 0.8percent gain, and pending on hospitals and other health care facilities rose 1.4percent. Construction of office buildings fell 0.8percent in March.

In the government category, spending on state and local projects dropped 1.4percent. Spending in the smaller federal government category fell 7 The home construction boom peaked in 2006. But a fter the housing bubble burst, construction activity fell for the next five years. Construction spending has been rising since 2012. Construction spending rises, led by housing Home building continues to be bright spot in the US MARTIN CRUTSINGER ASSOCIATED PRESS Stock indexes post solid gains after down week Stocks closed solidly higher Monday as the market clawed back some of the ground it lost last week.

Casino operator Wynn Resorts jumped 7percent onday, becoming one of several consumer stocks to ost big gains. Apollo Education, which runs the Univ ersity of Phoenix, jumped 12percent after a group investors raised its bid for the company. Halliburton rose 2percent after its long-planned eal to acquire rival oil-field services company Baker ughes was called off because of antitrust concerns. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 117 points, or 0.7percent, to 17,891. Gannett to Tribune shareholders: vote for board nominess Gannett is escalating its pursuit of rival newspaper ompany Tribune, telling shareholders of Tribune not vote for its board member nominees up for election i June.

annett, the publisher of USA TODAY and other newspapers, said Monday that withholding a vote at annual meeting next month will send a mess age to the management team that it needs to engage in takeover talks. Tribune said Monday that it expects to hold its annual meeting as planned and will have the votes needed for its nominees to be elected to the board. ast week, Gannett offered to buy Tribune Pub- ishing Co. for more than $388million. Energy-exploration companies abandon merger The Justice Department says two companies cru- ial to the business of U.S.

energy exploration have abandoned their planned $34billion merger. The department filed suit April6 to block the erger of Halliburton and Baker Hughes. The agency claims the transaction would unlawfully eliminate ignificant competition in almost two dozen markets rucial to the exploration and production of oil and atural gas in the United States. A ttorney General Loretta Lynch called the compa- decision to abandon the transaction victory or the U.S. economy and for all ustice officials said the merger of Halliburton and Baker Hughes would have raised prices, decreased utput and lessened innovation in at least 23 oil-field roducts and services critical to the energy supply.

struggle to advance trade talks Talks to create a massive free trade zone between he United States and the European Union continue to held back because of disagreements on key issues, aking success under President Barack administration ever less likely. ith the November elections drawing closer, chief negotiator Ignacio Garcia Bercero said that there is a lot, a lot that needs to be done before this negotiation is ripe for A fter the sides held a 13th negotiating session last week, Garcia Bercero said, fundamental disagree- ents remain on several issues including market a ccess for European firms and protection for the a griculture sector. orsening the climate was release by reenpeace of confidential negotiating texts that the nvironmental group claims show U.S. ill intent and acquiescence. Associated Press Business briefs HAVANA Greeted with rum drinks and salsa dance rs, the first passengers to cruise from the U.S.

to Cuba in nearly 40 years streamed Monday into a crowd cheering the rebirth of commercial travel on waters that served as a stage for a half-century of Cold War hostility. Many watching the festive arrival praised a uban government decision to drop a longstanding ban Cuban-born people returning to their homeland by sea, a step that allowed 16 Cuban-Americans to make the journey from Miami. is said Mercedes Lopez, a 54-year-old urse who waited for hours to see Carnival Cruise 704-passenger Adonia pull up to two- erth cruise terminal. Cubans must unite, all of us. This is a step forward, a little step toward normalization, peace, family The passengers of the Adonia were welcomed by ive music and dancing inside single state-run cruise terminal.

Outside, police carved a single lane i nto the crowd of hundreds of Cubans waiting in Old Plaza San Francisco for passengers taking walking tours of the restored colonial center. The group included dozens of plainclothes security agents and hawkers promoting restaurants and souvenir shops, as well as many trying to witness history. ruise ships stopped crossing the Florida Straits from the U.S. after a brief window in the late 1970s hen President Jimmy Carter allowed virtually all U.S. travel to Cuba.

U.S. cruises to Cuba once again become possible after Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Cas- tro declared detente on Dec.17, 2014. Both sides hope it is the first step toward a future in hich thousands of ships a year could cross the Florida Straits, long closed to most U.S.-Cuba traffic due to tensions that once brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. I feel hopeful for the people of Cuba and for Cuba, opeful that Cuba can realize its full said orth Miami Beach City Manager Ana Garcia, who left he island nation in 1968 when she was 6. Setting sail from Miami shortly before 5 p.m.

Sunday, the Adonia took nearly 17 hours to cross the Florida Straits, steaming through a waterway blockaded by the U.S. during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Tens of thousands Cubans have fled to Florida on homemade rafts in ecent decades, with untold thousands dying in the process. U.S. cruises are expected to bring Cuba tens of millions of dollars in badly needed foreign hard currency if raffic increases as expected.

More than a dozen lines ave announced plans to run U.S.-Cuba cruises, and if a ll actually begin operations, Cuba could earn more than $80million a year, the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council said in a report Monday. The Adonia will take eight days to circumnavigate uba and return to Miami. Part of the Fathom brand, the Adonia is one of smaller ships, roughly alf the size of some larger European vessels that already dock in Havana. Before the 1959 Cuban revolution, cruise ships regularly traveled from the U.S. to Cuba, with elegant Caribbean excursions departing from New York and $42 overnight weekend jaunts leaving twice a week from iami, said California-based cruise ship historian Michael L.

Grace. ruises dwindled in the years leading up to the revolution and ended entirely after Castro overthrew the U.S.-backed government. FERNANDO Yaney Cajigal, wearing a U.S. flag, and Dalwin Valdes, wearing a Cuban flag, watch the arrival of Adonia cruise ship from Miami in Havana Monday. US SHIP GETS CUBAN CHEER Visits bring emotional, economic boost to island MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN ASSOCIATED PRESS BIRMINGHAM, Ala.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and Sen. Richard Shelby are among those urging the Tennessee Valley Authority to sell its unfinished Bellef onte Nuclear Plant, where more than four decades of work produced a watt of electricity. omments released publicly by the federal utility show that Republicans Bentley and Shelby, along with local officials, one environmental group and others ant TVA to get rid of the twin-reactor facility in northeast Alabama near Hollywood. At least one potential buyer has been identified, documents show.

ut five environmental groups are urging the federal utility to keep the plant and use it for renewable energy, and numerous individuals also submitted comments pposing a sale. The final decision on whether to sell is up to the TVA board. TVA has said it is considering whether to sell Bellefonte, where more than $4billion has been spent since construction began in 1974. Work was put on hold in 1988, and employees now simply maintain the plant, located on the Tennessee River about 50 miles east of untsville. Asummation of position says the governor wants TVA to sell Bellefonte to a private party that will omplete the plant.

Shelby also would like to see the plant sold, for use as a large industrial or technology omplex, according to the TVA report. Documents also show a Western energy company is interested in purchasing the plant. An executive with hoenix Energy of Nevadasaid the company has developed a new, non-nuclear technology that uses electromagnetic induction energy fields to heat water indi- ectly and produce steam that would turn turbines and generate electricity at Bellefonte. are a completely clean, regenerative source of on-intermittent reliable and dependable, low-cost electric Michael Dooley, managing partner and principle engineer for Phoenix Energy, said in an email to The Associated Press. Bellefonte is located on a site and includes wo partially finished nuclear reactors plus office buildings, warehouses, parking areas, railroad spurs a nd a helicopter pad.

TVA is the largest public utility. It provides electricity to about 9million people in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia. TVA urged to sell Bellefonte Nuclear Plant JAY REEVES ASSOCIATED PRESS ERIC SCHULTZ FILE AP The Tennessee Valley Authority is considering whether to sell its unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Plant near Hollywood, Ala..