Cincinnati travelers have gotten their passport to Brazil: Delta Air Lines Friday won the right to begin flights to the South American country under a tentative decision made by the Transportation Department.
The ruling would allow Delta and Continental to operate daily flights to Brazil. Delta in November asked the Department of Transportation for two of 14 routes available to U.S. airlines, to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
Delta would fly to Sao Paulo daily from Cincinnati, with a stop in Atlanta. Continental will run flights from its hub in Newark, N.J., to Rio de Janeiro. The routes open April 1.
Both route awards are subject to comment for 10 days before the decision becomes final.
City to close on Conrail land
The city of Cincinnati expects to close on its $1.6 million acquisition of 60 acres of Conrail property at River and Southside roads next week, according to real estate officials.
Meanwhile, no accord has been reached between the city and two scrap metal companies that had hoped to relocate to the railroad property. Produce firms that must move from Riverfront West to make way for the new Bengals stadium also have an interest in the property.
City environmental officials also are working on an environmental assessment of the property and say they have found ''minor'' petroleum contamination. Cleanup costs are included in the purchase price, officials said.
Nationwide ends sales policy
Nationwide Insurance has dropped a year-old system that required agents to sell a minimum number of policies.
The quotas were investigated in at least one of the 26 states where Columbus-based Nationwide, the country's sixth-largest property and casualty insurer, operates. But the insurer said Friday that the decision to scrap quotas was a business call and not related to any legal considerations or investigations.
The company required minimum sales in various policy lines of its 4,400 agents. In Ohio, Nationwide agents were required to sell 19 new automobile policies, 15 new homeowners policies and one new commercial policy. They also were required to generate $1,200 in life-insurance commissions in a year.
Benefits ruling will stand
An Ohio appeals court won't interfere with a ruling that awards unemployment benefits to 3,700 striking workers from Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp.
The 7th Ohio District Court of Appeals denied the company's motion for a stay of a county judge's ruling. Belmont County Common Pleas Judge Jennifer Sargus ruled that the workers from Ohio should receive unemployment benefits retroactive from Oct. 1 when the strike began.
Striking workers in West Virginia and Pennsylvania were denied benefits. About 4,500 workers struck eight plants in the three states after their contracts expired without resolution of a pension dispute.
GM facing strike deadline
General Motors Corp. faces a union strike deadline of 10 a.m. Friday at its pickup-truck assembly plant in Fort Wayne, Ind.
The United Auto Workers told the company this week that it would call a walkout at the plant, which builds about 5,100 trucks a week, if a new local contract isn't reached. The plant employs about 2,600 workers and builds a quarter of GM's full-size pickups, which are the company's best-selling vehicle.
