Dollars & Sense

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Focus on Ag

Chevron Corp. adds to oil's record profits Oil giant Chevron Corp. wrapped up a string of gargantuan, record-breaking earnings reports Friday, a stretch in which six of the major international oil companies topped $50 billion in combined profit for the first time. Chevron said Friday its second-quarter profit rose 11 percent to a record $5.98 billion. Revenue rose significantly to $82.9 billion from $56.1 billion a year ago. In addition to Chevron, soaring commodity prices led to record quarters for ExxonMobil Corp., ConocoPhillips, BP PLC, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Total SA, a French energy company. ExxonMobil stood apart from the crowd, logging the largest quarterly operating profit for a U.S. company.

Printing change set

The Modesto Bee will be printed in Sacramento effective Sept. 29, the newspaper's publisher told employees Friday. Margaret Randazzo said 33 full-time and 127 part-time employees were informed this week that their jobs would be eliminated. Each will receive a severance package and outplacement help, her memo said. The Bee had announced last month that it was planning to shift printing to its sister paper, The Sacramento Bee. The newspapers are owned by The McClatchy Co.

IndyMac files Ch. 7

IndyMac Bancorp Inc., former holding company of the California mortgage lender seized last month by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. Chapter 7 means the business is untenable and will be liquidated in order to help pay off its creditors. The filing was Thursday. IndyMac's customers had to take a loss on whatever amount they had in the bank over the $100,000 insurance limits. About 10,000 of IndyMac's 275,000 accounts contained uninsured sums, and uninsured money made up about $1 billion of the bank's $19 billion in deposits.

GM loses $15.5B

General Motors announced a staggering $15.5 billion second-quarter loss Friday.It was GM's third-worst quarterly loss in almost 100 years of business. For more on the auto industry, see Page D-3.

Coming Sunday

To help make appliance shopping a breeze, Consumer Reports recently enlisted more than 20,000 subscribers who reported on their experiences buying upward of 35,000 small and major appliances.