In Brief

Lowe's set to open store in northwest Las Vegas Valley

Lowe's will open a store at 7 a.m. Thursday in the northwest Las Vegas Valley.

The home improvement store at 7751 N. El Capitan Way has 103,000 square feet of retail sales space and an adjacent garden center.

In a statement, Lowe's officials said a store that size typically represents an investment in the community of $12 million and creates up to 120 new jobs.

Company officials will be on hand for a ribbon-cutting at 10 a.m.

The Lowe's store is one of only two major projects totaling 809,800 square feet recently under construction in the entire valley. The other project is Tivoli Village at Queensridge at Rampart Boulevard and Alta Drive. Nearly 7 million square feet of future projects remain on hold.

WASHINGTON

Geithner: Banks have repaid 75 percent of bailout money

Members of a watchdog panel on Tuesday pressed Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on looming losses for banks and foreclosure relief for struggling homeowners, as he assured them that taxpayers are recovering their investment from the $700 billion financial bailout.

Geithner told the Congressional Oversight Panel at a hearing that banks have repaid about 75 percent of the bailout money they received, and the government's investments in aided banks have brought taxpayers $21 billion. He acknowledged there likely will be a partial loss from the rescue of giant insurer American International Group Inc., into which the government plowed $182 billion.

Geithner also said the auto industry has made significant structural changes, and the prospects that General Motors and Chrysler will repay the nearly $60 billion in bailout money have improved.

Congress created the oversight panel to oversee the Treasury Department's financial bailout program that came in at the height of the financial crisis in the fall of 2008. The panel has been critical of the politically unpopular program, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which included aid to banks, AIG and the automakers. It is scheduled to expire Oct. 3.

Panel members also criticized progress of the Obama administration's flagship effort to help people in danger of losing their homes.

NEW YORK

Walgreen earnings decline by 11 percent during third quarter

Walgreen Co., the biggest U.S. drugstore chain, said Tuesday its profit sank 11 percent in the third quarter because of higher costs related to the nation's health care rules and its $623 million buyout of rival Duane Reade.

The Deerfield, Ill., company reported net income of $463 million, or 47 cents per share, in the three months ended May 31. That's down from $522 million, or 53 cents per share, one year ago.

Excluding one-time items, Walgreen earned 54 cents per share, short of the 57 cents analysts were looking for, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue rose 6 percent to $17.2 billion, which just topped analyst expectations of $17.14 billion.

LONDON

Britain investigates whether Google breached privacy laws

Britain has become the latest country to open an investigation into whether Google violated communication and privacy laws by mistakenly gathering data over public Wi-Fi networks.

London's Metropolitan Police said Tuesday it was looking into complaints that the search engine picked up people's online activities through unprotected home and business networks while photographing neighborhoods for its "Street View" mapping feature.

It is the latest in a string of controversies about Google's access to private data including e-mail addresses, passwords, bank account information and Web browsing histories. Last month, Google acknowledged it had mistakenly collected data from public Wi-Fi networks in more than 30 countries.