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• Cut commuter costs by using employer benefits

  Companies offer higher reimbursement rates and commuting subsidies.

• Personal finance: More people taking hardship loans

  Hard economic times now are driving some people to take actions that could jeopardize their future.

• On the job

  Wayne Usry has joined Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting as a senior director, focused on finance/accounting and IT solutions. Alvarez & Marsal is a global professional-services firm. Its Dallas/Fort Worth offices, in downtown Dallas, serve clients across the metro area and the region.

• Personal finance: Trillions of dollars held in retirement accounts

  There are trillions of dollars of assets held in American retirement accounts. Here's how that breaks down, as of December 2007, according to the Investment Company Institute:

• Northeast Tarrant business calendar

  Greater Keller Chamber of Commerce, getting to know your chamber, 8:30-9:30 a.m., The Conservatory at Town Center, 200 Country Brook Drive. 817-431-2169.

• Schnurman: Texas' electric grid is giving the state a leg up on renewable energy

  Our independent power grid is letting us move forward at a speed that is almost unheard of.

• Unemployment jumps above 6 percent

  The nation's unemployment rate bolted above 6 percent last month for the first time in five years, and it’s likely to go even higher in the months ahead.

• Take a seat from Texas Stadium: just $650 a pair

  Proceeds go to the Cowboys and to Irving, which owns the stadium.

• FAA says airlines overwhelmingly complying with safety rules
  What do you think?

  The agency says U.S. carriers have a 98 percent compliance rate.

• Correction

  Luminant Generation Co. said in a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it expects to submit an application Sept. 19 to build two nuclear reactors in Glen Rose. The date was incorrect Friday in a report about plans for the permits.

• Record 9 percent of homeowners behind or in foreclosure process

  More than 4 million American homeowners with a mortgage, a record 9 percent, were either behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of June, as damage from the housing crisis worsened, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Friday.

• Sharp losses give way to bargain hunting, modest gains

  Wall Street wrestled with intensifying economic worries Friday, extending sharp losses after a disheartening jobs report and then grudgingly engaging in some mild bargain hunting that gave the markets modest gains. The major indexes ended the week with big declines, a sign that investors, who not long ago expected the economy to improve, are now growing increasingly discouraged.

• Star-Telegram, Dallas Morning News team up on distribution deal

  In a move to cut costs and improve operating efficiencies, the Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News have reached a deal to help distribute each other's newspapers, the two companies announced Friday.

• Iraqi government could purchase F-16s

  The Iraqis want to rebuild their air force.

• Business briefs: 10% of D/FW cabs fail random emissions survey

  D/FW AIRPORT — A random verification survey conducted this year at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport revealed that 102 of the 1,011 taxicabs being operated in and around the terminals were not in compliance with state emissions testing. The taxicabs were taken out of service until they could pass the required testing. As of Thursday, all but 14 were back at the airport, said Jim Crites, D/FW executive vice president of operations.

• Oil's plunging in price, so why isn’t gasoline?
  What do you think?

  Oil prices have fallen more than 27 percent from their July 11 record high of $147.27 per barrel, and all evidence points to further declines. The price Americans pay at the gas pump has fallen by a more modest 12 percent at Friday’s national average of $3.67 a gallon.

• Loose Change: Recycling your old IT equipment

  Information-technology recycling is emerging as a fast-growing industry, with individuals and companies trying to figure out what to do with their old IT equipment.

• Southwest Fort Worth lines up lease deals

  Southwest Fort Worth is starting to line up lease deals.

• Loose Change: Destroying your old hard drives

  How best to destroy hard drives that contain sensitive business information?

• Star-Telegram and Dallas Morning News reach deal on delivery

  In a move to cut costs and improve operating efficiencies, the Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News have reached a deal to help distribute each other's newspapers, the two companies announced Friday.