Airport restaurant workers may face permanent job loss

HMSHOST, which manages restaurants at John Glenn International Airport, has notified 225 of its furloughed workers that they will lose their jobs on Oct. 15 unless they are called back before then.

In a notice filed with the state, HMSHOST said it originally hoped the staff furloughs would be temporary, but now sees that “it is going to take a significant period for our business to recover“from the decline in airport traffic due to the coronavirus.

HMSHOST filed similar notices affecting 44 workers at Hopkins International Airport in Cleveland and 62 workers at Dayton International Airport.

Home sale prices continue to rise in US metro areas

Despite a national pandemic, home prices rose in 96% of U.S. metro areas — including Columbus — during the second quarter, according to figures from the National Association of Realtors released Monday.

The median U.S. sales price during the quarter was $291,300, 4.2% above the same quarter a year ago.

All Ohio metro areas saw gains from a year ago, led by the Canton-massillon area, where median prices jumped 7.5% to $153,900. In the Columbus area, prices rose 5.3% to $240,400 for the quarter.

Even though home sales have fallen since the pandemic started, prices have risen, driven by strong demand and exceptionally low mortgage rates.

As more evidence, the Franklin County Auditor’s office reported Monday that county home prices in July were up 9% from a year ago to a median of $213,250. Sales, however, were down 20% from last July.

US adds further restrictions on Huawei over spying

The U.S. is imposing another round of restrictions on China’s Huawei as President Donald Trump renewed accusations that the company’s telecommunications equipment is used for spying.

“We don’t want their equipment in the United States because they spy on us,” Trump told Fox on Monday. “And any country that uses it, we’re not going to do anything in terms of sharing intelligence.”

The Commerce Department’s new rules, rolled out Monday, will further block Huawei from accessing chip technology. A Huawei executive said this month that the company was running out of processor chips to make smartphones due to U.S. sanctions and that it might be forced to stop production of its own advanced chips.

From staff and wire reports