By JUSTIN BACHMAN / AP Business Writer Q. Writing checks seems like a hassle. How long is it likely before this practice disappears entirely? A. Personal checks have been a staple of the American financial landscape. They’re easy to drop in the mail and relatively safe, making them very popular — we Americans use more…

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — For two decades, Apple Computer Inc. touted its Macintosh as a superior alternative to PCs based on Intel Corp. chips and Microsoft Corp. software. In ads, it urged people to “Think Different” with machines that bucked the dominant forces of the PC industry. But on Monday, Apple started thinking a lot…

NEW YORK (AP) — James and Jeanne Wallace are just two of the 13 million people served by Southern California Edison, and compared with any nearby factory or department store, their air conditioner really isn’t much of strain on California’s capacity-challenged power grid. The Wallaces also belong to a more elite group: 145,000 customers who…

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — General Motors Corp.’s negotiations with its main labor union are likely to intensify as the automaker plans to close plants and shed 25,000 U.S. jobs over the next three years. Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner outlined plans at GM’s annual shareholders meeting Tuesday to shrink its North American operations, the…

The Mayo Clinic logo flashes across a workstation Thursday, May 26, 2005 in Rochester, Minn., that combines a computer, desk and treadmill into one unit, offering an alternative to being sedentary in front of their computers. (AP Photo/Jim Mone) ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) — Sitting at their desks is about the last thing workers would do…

McMinnville resident and Cleveland, Ohio native Pandora (Penny) Turner, 48, died June 4 at River Park Hospital.A homemaker, she was the daughter of Sue Hampton of Doyle and Richard Tallent of Chattanooga.She is survived by her husband, Tom Turner; daughters, Angela Gail Sanders and Leann Brooks, both of McMinnville; son, Christopher Michael Raper of Murfreesboro;…

NEW YORK (AP) — While rare cases of scientific fraud grab headlines, more mundane misbehaviors are so common among researchers that they pose a threat to the integrity of the scientific enterprise, a new report asserts. One-third of scientists surveyed said that within the previous three years, they’d engaged in at least one practice that…

The CMA Music Festival is the place for music lovers this week beginning at 9:30 a.m. Thursday morning when the first ever CMA Music Festival Kick-Off Parade begins at Broadway and Sixth Avenue South in Nashville.The festival’s lead off performance by Montgomery Gentry at 10 a.m. Thursday and the celebration doesn’t stop, with concerts and…

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Nearly 30 states, including Tennessee, are joining forces to urge the U.S. government to keep Internet gambling out of international trade agreements. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff helped organize the effort by states to protect their gambling laws from actions by the World Trade Organization. Shurtleff and 28 other attorneys…

MEMPHIS (AP) — A former high school band director told police he had sex with a student who is now suing him and other school officials for $5 million. A federal lawsuit filed Friday by a guardian of “Jane Doe” claims Maurice White had sex with the then-14-year-old girl at the school, her home and…