Three theater chains fined for child labor law violations

The U.S. Labor Department has fined three movie theater companies a total of $277,000 for allowing workers under age 16 to perform dangerous jobs and work long hours in violation of child labor laws.

Knoxville, Tenn.-based Regal Cinemas Inc. received the largest fine of $158,000 for employing minors to load and operate trash compactors. Milwaukee-based Marcus Theatres Corp. was fined $94,000 for similar violations, and for letting minors work beyond the hours permitted under federal law. St. Louis-based Wehrenberg Inc. was fined $25,000 for allowing minors to run trash compactors and operate motor vehicles.

The theaters agreed to the fines and to set up compliance programs.

Rivals force big U.S. airlines to scale back fare increase

The most recent fare hike by U.S. airlines has been cut in half by pressure from discount carriers.

Last week, big network carriers such as United, Continental, Delta and American raised many domestic fares by $20 a round trip. By Monday afternoon, the increase had been cut to $10.

The airlines have already attempted five broad-based price increases this year, with most of them sticking. They have also twice imposed bigger increases – up to $60 a round trip – on high-priced tickets favored by business travelers. A third attempt to raise business fares failed.

Rick Seaney, CEO of website FareCompare.com, said the most recent rollback occurred after low-fare airlines Southwest, JetBlue, AirTran and Frontier began raising fares only half as much as the larger carriers. He said the network airlines then cut their increases in half to avoid charging more than their low-fare competitors.

FTC sees no antitrust danger in AOL’s Huffington Post deal

Federal officials do not intend to challenge AOL Inc.’s plans to buy online news hub Huffington Post, after concluding that the deal does not raise significant antitrust concerns.

The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday that it doesn’t plan to block a deal announced last month that will give AOL control of one of the top 10 global news sites.

The $315 million acquisition is part of America Online’s attempt to rebuild itself as its legacy dial-up Internet business fades away.

GM, Toyota and Ford beat estimates for February sales

February sales for General Motors, Toyota and Ford exceeded analysts’ estimates Tuesday as rising consumer confidence fueled a recovery in the nation’s auto market.

GM said deliveries in the month increased 46 percent to 207,028 vehicles. Toyota sales rose 42 percent to 141,846, while deliveries at Ford climbed 10 percent and Chrysler gained 13 percent.

The February results show “a continuation of the trend of slow recovery,” John Casesa, senior managing director at Guggenheim Securities in New York, said Tuesday in an interview.