Lawmaker Wants Sriracha To Move To Texas

IRWINDALE, Calif. (AP) — A Texas lawmaker is making a pitch to move Sriracha (suhr-AH'-chuh) hot sauce production to his state from a plant in Irwindale, California, where some residents' complaints about its smell have led to city action.

Texas state Rep. Jason Villalba visited the plant on Monday and was greeted by owner David Tran.

Villalba tells KTTV-TV (http://bit.ly/1jka8cU) he'll try to draw distinctions between Texas and California in terms of taxes, regulatory climate and lawsuits.

The Irwindale City Council has tentatively voted to declare the plant a nuisance. A vote that had been delayed was rescheduled for Wednesday, but a staff recommendation urges that it again be postponed.

The flap over the popular hot sauce has led to numerous solicitations for the plant to relocate elsewhere in California or to other states.

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Information from: KTTV-TV, http://www.fox11la.com/

U.S. Companies Often Assume Black Job Applicants Do Drugs

More than any other group, black job applicants are being turned away by U.S. companies under the implicit assumption that they are using illegal drugs, according to a new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

The study’s author, University of Notre Dame economics professor Abigail Wozniak, looked at how hiring practices differ between states with laws that incentivize or encourage drug testing and states with laws that limit or do not require such testing. She found that pro-testing legislation has a “large” and positive effect on black employment and wages, especially among low-skilled black men.

As the chart below shows, enacting pro-drug testing laws improves the share of blacks working in what Wozniak terms high-testing industries, while leading to a decrease in the share of whites working in such industries.

Piketty Is Right: These Wealthy Men Make Billions For Basically Doing Nothing

In the future foretold by French economist Thomas Piketty, the rich will keep getting richer by doing basically nothing, living off the income generated by their already massive wealth.

For many hedge-fund managers, that future is now.

The world's 25 best-paid hedge-fund managers took home more than $21 billion in 2013, mostly for charging enormous fees for keeping an eye on huge piles of money, according to a new tally by Institutional Investor's Alpha magazine.

It's a job most hedge funds do quite badly: The industry returned just 7.4 percent last year, according to Bloomberg, badly lagging the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, which gained 30 percent.

Former Executive Accuses Anheuser-Busch Of Sex Discrimination

ST. LOUIS (AP) — From male-only corporate jets to guys' golf outings and hunting trips, Francine Katz says her time in the Anheuser-Busch executive suite was rife with exclusion and outright discrimination. But it wasn't until the King of Beers' 2008 sale to Belgian brewer InBev that she says she realized the boy's club atmosphere was costing her millions.

In a 20-year career that saw her rise from a young corporate lawyer to a vice president, key strategist and the beer-maker's top female executive, Katz became the face of her hometown employer, defending the maker of Budweiser and Bud Light from overzealous regulators and anti-alcohol crusaders.

Pope Francis: 'Inequality Is The Root Of Social Evil'

Pope Francis took a hard stance against inequality on Monday in a tweet sent from his official Twitter page:

Inequality is the root of social evil.

— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) April 28, 2014

Could it be that the Pope is weighing in on the fervor sparked by French economist Thomas Piketty's current bestseller, Capital in the Twenty-First Century?

It's unclear. But the tweet's timing -- days after the book sold out on Amazon, where it is currently the best-selling book in the U.S. -- could suggest the Pope's support for Piketty, who posits that an unregulated free market creates an ever-widening wealth gap.

The tweet had nearly 10,000 retweets Monday afternoon.

The Pontiff’s warning comes months after he called unfettered capitalism “a new tyranny” and urged global leaders to fight growing income inequality in his first major written work as pope.

He laid out the platform for his papacy in the 84-page document last November, attacking the “idolatry of money” and calling on politicians to guarantee all citizens “dignified work, education and healthcare.”

Student Loan Borrowers Struggle When Co-Signers Die Or Go Bankrupt

WASHINGTON, April 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. consumer financial watchdog warned on Tuesday that some student loan borrowers could be thrown into default if relatives who co-signed their loans die or declare bankruptcy.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said in a new report published on its website that many private student lenders stipulate that the balance of a loan will come due if a parent, grandparent or other co-signer becomes unable to share responsibility for the loan.

This means the borrower may be automatically put into default, even if he or she has been making payments on time up to that point, the bureau said.

McDonald's Profit Slides As Taco Bell Launches Breakfast Taco

NEW YORK (AP) — McDonald's said that its profit slipped in the first quarter as global sales remained weak for the world's biggest hamburger chain.

The Oak Brook, Ill.-based company said global sales edged up 0.5 percent at established restaurants. In the flagship U.S. market, the figure fell 1.7 percent as customer traffic declined. The company cited "challenging industry dynamics and severe winter weather."

It said global sales for April are expected to be modestly positive. April would reflect the first full month that Taco Bell has offered its national breakfast menu, which it has pitched a challenge to McDonald's dominance in the morning hours.