Cash registers ringing: Americans spent more online in November to start the holiday season and began to replace cars and rebuild in the Northeast after Superstorm Sandy. It all contributed to a 0.3% rise in U.S. retails sales in November compared to the month previous, the Commerce Department reports this morning. That offset a 0.3% decline in October from September. More details from the report are in the full story here.
Point A to point B: Three months after Apple removed Google Maps as a built-in map and replaced it with its own product, Google announced today that its revised map was finally approved by the iPhone maker to be listed in the Apple app store. Google redesigned the app to show more map on-screen than the previous version that was quashed by Apple for iPhone. The map also “loads more quickly and provides smooth tilting and rotating of 2D and 3D views,” an official with Google says. The full story is here.
Hitting the brakes: U.S. drivers are cutting their gasoline use, with demand for the fuel dropping 3.7% over the first week of December, according to MasterCard’s gasoline report. Despite lower prices during the past few months, motorists continue to reduce their reliance on gasoline. While pump prices have fallen to a national average of $3.31 per gallon, the decline hasn’t fully erased the hikes that occurred during the summer, which has left prices a few cents higher than last year at this time. The Houston Chronicle has the full story here.
Today’s poll question: Are you concerned that of the 12 members on the Metro Council next year, four of them—or one-third of the group—are new to their posts?
