When Tony Earley was asked recently to identify the most serious issue facing the nation's giant utilities in the next 20 years, the answer was easy. It is, Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s CEO wrote, "the huge need for investment in basic infrastructure, from pipes and power lines to poles, transformers and more."

DeltaTRAK has introduced a line of time- and temperature-indicator labels for cold-chain, environmental monitoring and food safety management.

A Chinese vocational school sent five 15-year-old boys to assemble Sony PlayStations at a Foxconn manufacturing plant in China, where the legal age to do such work is 16.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency announced that it has "formalized and expanded" its Air Cargo Advance Screening pilot program, which enables cargo executives to send and receive advance security filing data for their consignments.

U.S. companies borrowed more in September than a year ago to finance new equipment, the most in any month since December, but global economic and policy uncertainties curbed spending, the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association said.

When electric-car company Tesla Motors Inc. started selling its flagship Model S luxury hatchback earlier this year, it eschewed the traditional dealership network to open its own stores. That's not sitting well with U.S. auto dealers, who have controlled new-vehicle sales for nearly a century. Some are suing the new entrant.