Earnings reports for the quarter ended June 30 have started rolling in, and if the results from Alcoa are any indication, they will not be pretty. The aluminum giant reported a loss of $454 million, or 47 cents per share, in its third consecutive losing quarter. Still, the news was viewed positively, because 15 cents of the loss was from operations that have been sold off. The remaining 32-cent loss was less than the 38-cent loss that analysts had expected. And less bad is the new good, right?

New claims for unemployment benefits fell to their lowest level since January, at 565,000. But wait, that's just the seasonally adjusted number. The nonseasonally adjusted figure increased to 577,506. And the number of continuing claims rose to 6.88 million, the highest level on record. So is the news really less bad, or just plain bad? We can only think of Disraeli's line, unquotable in a family newspaper, about statistics (Google "Disraeli" and "statistics").

A law signed by Gov. Ed Rendell last fall has gone into effect, protecting nurses from being required to work overtime at the end of a shift, except in unusual cases. We are relieved that the next time we need to go to the hospital, our blood work is more likely to be done by someone who has been working for only 10 hours straight instead of 15.

A second law benefiting Pennsylvania workers went into effect Friday. Employees of small businesses who lose their jobs will now be able to keep their insurance coverage. The law, known as "mini-COBRA," covers workers for up to nine months, rather than the 18 months supplied by standard COBRA.

Retailers reported that consumers appear to be spending less. Same-store sales for the month of June, compared to a year ago, fell in all categories and across the retailing spectrum. High-end shops Saks and Nordstrom reported same-store declines of 4.4 percent and 10 percent respectively, while discounters Target and Costco each saw sales fall by about 6 percent.

Learn how mall operators are marketing the shopping meccas as more than places to shop in Kaitlynn Riely's article .

The city of Pittsburgh announced a possible deal with Verizon that would allow the big V to offer its FiOS-TV service, in competition with Comcast. The agreement requires approval from City Council and the Cable Communications Advisory Committee. Once Verizon enters the market, city information systems director Howard Stern said, "the prices will come down."

Pardon us, but when have cable prices ever come down?

"This is not setting up well for the back-to-school season."

-- Ken Perkins, president of retail consulting firm Retail Metrics LLC, referring to last month's declines in retail sales