Business_Finance

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As council chairman, Vincent C. Gray took the lead in voting down the contract award, thus necessitating a rebid, according to the memo. (The Washington Times)

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Lobbyist-lawyer David Wilmot reached out to the D.C. Council chairman and council member Marion Barry after Intralot won a $38 million-a-year lottery contract award, an internal memo from the international gambling firm suggests. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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Tire inspector Buddy Rice checks for defects in the tire-verification area at a Michelin manufacturing plant in Greenville, S.C., in July. U.S. factory activity shrank for the third straight month in August as new orders, production and employment all fell. Weak consumer spending and steady declines in business orders for large machinery are slowing factory output. (Associated Press)

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Claudia Blakemore, laughing with Howard Foreman of Louisiana and Audrey Cumby of Texas, has a lucrative business in souvenirs. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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In this Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012 photo, Evan Jensen waits for customers at his mobile shower business, Better Showers, near Alexander, N.D. Jensen raised money for the facility, which caters largely to workers in North Dakota's oil patch, by trapping muskrats and hopes profits from the business will pay for his college tuition. (AP Photo/James MacPherson)

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** FILE ** Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (right) and Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer walk together Aug. 31, 2012, past television cameras outside of the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium at Grand Teton National Park near Jackson Hole, Wyo. (Associated Press)