The Motley Fool - Industrial and construction materials supplier Fastenal (Nasdaq: FAST - News) has significantly upped its market presence lately with the expansion of its industrial vending machines -- dubbed a "one-stop shop" to replenish supplies.
AP - State regulators plan to fine Pacific Gas & Electric Co. $16.8 million for failing to perform gas leak surveys in the wake of a deadly pipeline explosion in a San Francisco suburb in 2010.
AP - Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney urged conservatives to back off aggressive anti-immigration policies as the Republican presidential candidates vied for Hispanic votes Friday, a day marked by heightened tensions entering the final weekend before Florida's primary.
Reuters - In his final act before departing the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, the agency's inspector general, David Kotz, criticized how the agency analyzes the economic impact of some of its Dodd-Frank rules.
Reuters - Republican Senator John Hoeven is set to introduce legislation on Monday seeking to bypass President Barack Obama and empower Congress to approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, an aide said on Friday.
Reuters - Citigroup has cut bonuses for its investment banking division by about 30 percent on average, Bloomberg said, citing a person briefed on the matter.
AP - After a two-year international crime spree in which he survived a handful of crash landings, Colton Harris-Moore — the infamous "Barefoot Bandit" — says he's lucky to be alive.
AP - A hospital spokesman says a worker injured in a collapse at the construction site of a Cincinnati casino has taken a turn for the worse and is in serious condition.
ContributorNetwork - 24/7 Wall St. analyzed a report commissioned by the United States Conference of Mayors that looked at how cities are faring economically and getting unemployed residents back to work. The news isn't good for Flint, Mich. The former auto industry stronghold is in the top five of metropolitan cities ruined or nearly destroyed by the recession. Here are details from that report created by IHS Global Insight.
AP - The two teens had a detailed plot, blueprints of the school and security systems, but no explosives. They had hours of flight simulator training on a home computer and a plan to flee the country, but no plane.
AP - Demi Moore smoked something before she was rushed to the hospital on Monday night and was convulsing and "semi-conscious, barely," according to a caller on a frantic 911 recording released Friday by Los Angeles fire officials.
Reuters - Security forces killed over 40 people in Syria on Friday, activists and residents said, as people in Homs mourned 14 members of a family they said were slain by militiamen in one of the worst sectarian attacks in a 10-month revolt.
Reuters - The names of a Goldman Sachs board member and a top executive of Berkshire Hathaway surfaced on Friday as potential witnesses in the insider trading trial of Rajat Gupta, a former director of Goldman, Procter & Gamble and other companies.
Reuters - A serial burglar nicknamed the "Barefoot Bandit" was sentenced on Friday in Seattle to 6-1/2 years in prison for his guilty plea to federal charges stemming from a sensational, two-year crime spree as a sometimes-shoeless teenage runaway.
AP - Eugene Police Officer Dan Baker drove a blue SUV and set off sirens to clear cars in front of him at traffic lights. He pulled over motorists — though it's unclear if he ever gave out tickets. And when he stopped by a youth shelter as a volunteer, he came in full uniform.
AP - Farmers whose land was damaged by Missouri River flooding expressed frustration Friday that a missed deadline will keep them from sharing in $215 million from one federal disaster program.
Reuters - Protesters hurled rocks at police who retaliated with tear gas in Senegal's capital Dakar on Friday after a top legal body said President Abdoulaye Wade had the right to run for a third term in elections next month.
AP - A U.S. man who helped build a trauma center in Haiti after January 2010's devastating earthquake was treated at that hospital after being critically wounded during a robbery in the capital of Port-au-Prince, his wife and doctors said Friday.
AP - President Barack Obama rallied House Democrats for an election-year fight, urging them to work with Republicans if they show some willingness to put politics aside but telling the rank and file to call them out if they stand in the way.
Reuters - Some of the world's biggest economies want to move quickly on a cash injection for the International Monetary Fund to help rescue the euro zone, but hardliners may still scupper an early deal to boost the fund's war chest, G20 sources said on Friday.
Reuters - The Obama administration, in an election-year bid to help distressed homeowners, on Friday expanded its main foreclosure prevention program, and pushed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to forgive mortgage debt.
Reuters - The Obama administration, in an election-year bid to help distressed homeowners, on Friday expanded its main foreclosure prevention program, and pushed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to forgive mortgage debt.
Reuters - Germany is pushing for Greece to relinquish control over its budget policy to European institutions as part of discussions over a second rescue package, a European source told Reuters on Friday.
Reuters - A Egyptian military team plans to visit the United States next week as Cairo's crackdown on pro-democracy organizations has called into question the future of U.S. aid to Egypt, American officials said on Friday.
Reuters - Greece and its private creditors head back to the negotiating table on Saturday to put together the final pieces of a long-awaited debt swap agreement needed to avert an unruly default.
AP - The Vatican has rewritten its 2010 anti-money laundering law after European inspectors found that it didn't fully meet their tough standards to combat the financing of terrorism.
AP - A former close ally of Bolivian President Evo Morales was convicted of corruption for taking bribes while running the state-run YPFB oil company and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
AP - Results of the Nevada Republican presidential caucus will be released through Twitter and Google, the first time the social network will play a central role in announcing the outcome of a political presidential contest.
Reuters - A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.5 jolted eastern Japan on Saturday morning, but there were no immediate reports of injury or damage and no tsunami warning was issued.
AP - A magnitude-5.5 earthquake rattled Yamanashi prefecture in central Japan on Saturday morning, the Japan Meteorological Agency reported. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, and no tsunami warning was issued.
AP - While the city's powerful police commissioner faced questions Friday about a rape allegation against his TV-anchor son, the probe has also put the district attorney in a delicate position.
Reuters - A militia commander whose troops were driven out of the Libyan tribal stronghold of Bani Walid this week said on Friday that his forces were massing to recapture the town but were holding back at the government's request.
AP - Ford has shown it can make money even with U.S. car sales at depressed levels. Now it needs to show it can manage a myriad of challenges outside its home region.
AP - Republican insiders are rising up to cut Newt Gingrich down to size, testament to the GOP establishment's fear that the mercurial candidate could lead the party to disaster this fall.
AP - Hull House, the Chicago social services organization founded more than 120 years ago by the Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams, closed Friday after running out of money.