Enterprise polishing up second Lawrence office
Enterprise Rent-A-Car is working to open its second office and car lot in Lawrence.
Crews put the finishing touches on the new Enterprise sign Wednesday at 1717 W. Sixth St., the former home of Family Hair Designers.
Enterprise is renovating the 800-square-foot building and will use the adjoining parking lot for its rental cars.
Enterprise currently has a Lawrence office at 2233 W. 29th Terrace, sharing a building at Jim Clark Motors in the Lawrence Auto Plaza.
Taxes
Judge hits H&R Block with $500,000 penalty
A federal judge barred H&R Block, the country's largest income-tax preparer, from using misleading phrases to advertise its "Rapid Refund" loan program and ordered it to pay more than $500,000 to an upstart rival.
Kansas City, Mo.-based H&R Block's "Rapid Refund" allows filers to receive bank loans for the amount of their anticipated refunds. But the financial institutions can charge fees or interest.
U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson ordered the company to pay Liberty Tax Service $507,477, representing a portion of Block's profits in Virginia in 2000. The advertising also appeared last year in California, Iowa, New York and Ohio.
The company's "past advertising conduct and prior notice regarding the use of the term 'refund,' " along with an internal company report on the program indicate the company acted in "bad faith in repeating such advertising during the 2000 tax season," Jackson wrote in a ruling released this week.
H&R Block "strongly disagrees with the judge's finding of maliciousness" and will appeal, an H&R Block spokeswoman said.
Acquisition
Tyson's purchase of IBP still on
Tyson Foods Inc. said it would continue with its plan to buy meatpacking giant IBP Inc., though the process became more complicated Wednesday when Tyson announced that it would not meet a deadline for the cash portion of its $3.2 billion offer.
IBP and Tyson each said they wanted to continue to pursue the deal, which already has received Justice Department approval.
Already the country's leading poultry producer, the merger would also make Tyson top the top producer of beef and pork.
Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson reached a deal Jan. 1 to buy South Dakota-based IBP for $3.2 billion, half in cash and half in stock.
Instead of paying the cash portion of the $30 per share offer by Wednesday's deadline and the rest at the deal's closing, expected May 31, Tyson now will pay the cash and stock all at once when the deal is complete, analysts said.
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