First Order of Business for Lowe's New CEO: Clean House -- The Motley Fool

collected by :Dicson Walt

Just days after stepping into his new role as CEO of Lowe's (NYSE: LOW), Marvin Ellison is taking a sledgehammer to the home-improvement center. No time to wasteTo keep Lowe's from slipping further behind Home Depot (NYSE: HD), Ellison said a shake-up was necessary. Using the tools at handEllison at least has more to work with at Lowe's than he did at J.C. Penney. Lowe's sales growth has lagged behind its rival's for several years. Traffic was up, but Lowe's operating margin suffered due to double-digit comp sales growth in appliances -- a lower-margin category where Lowe's is the national leader.

New York Teaches Food Business to Public Housing Residents

Rather, they were people living in public housing hoping to better their situation through the business of food. The class was part of the Food Business Pathways program, a 10-week-plus program that is open to the 400,000 residents of New York City Housing Authority's 325 developments, along with 200,000 New Yorkers living in Section 8 housing administered by the agency. For Raquel Whittaker, a Food Business Pathways graduate who now runs Sweet Milk & Sugar Desserts, a baked-goods company, the main benefit is how the program "streamlined the process" of starting a business from scratch. And while it doesn't actually fund their businesses, it connects them with many lenders, particularly those who support small businesses. Which isn't to say all 200-plus graduates of the program to date have been successful in establishing a food business.

Trump's Visits Ground Business at Small New Jersey Airports

referring to HANOVER, N.J. — More than the sound of Cessnas and private jets at Morristown Municipal Airport this week was the buzz over the impending arrival of President Trump, who would be flying in for another weekend stay at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., where he spends time in the summer. Airport regulars — from flight instructors to mechanics to amateur pilots — said they expected the usual lockdown of the runway during the president's arrival and departure, and flying restrictions for the full duration of his stay. While it may not compare to the larger controversies of the Trump presidency, the president's visits to Bedminster have upset the aviation world in New Jersey, one of the busiest clusters of local airports in the country. Each time the president visits Bedminster, the federal authorities implement temporary flight restrictions, or T.F.R.s, which create a no-fly zone within a 10-mile radius of the golf course during his stay.