TRUMP EXPECTED TO NAME GOLDMAN EXEC TO ECONOMIC POST

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name Gary Cohn, the No. 2 executive at Goldman Sachs, to a prominent White House economic post, according to two people informed of the decision

Cohn, 56, would lead the White House’s National Economic Council, a posting that would require him to leave his $21-million-a-year job as president and chief operating officer at Goldman. On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly vilified Goldman Sachs for the firm’s outsize influence in the financial system. Yet with Cohn’s selection, Trump will have named three current or former Goldman officials to key positions in his administration.

Red tape halts Southwest flights to Mexico after three days. Southwest

Airlines has stopped new flights between Los Angeles and three resort cities in Mexico because Mexican authorities haven’t finished the paperwork authorizing the service.

American Airlines has been forced to delay one new route to Mexico while it too awaits approval.

In both cases, the flights were added after the U.S. and Mexico agreed in August to loosen restrictions that had limited cross-border flights.

Southwest submitted all required paperwork to Mexico more than three months ago, airline spokeswoman Brandy King said Friday.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Transportation confirmed that the government has gotten involved to resolve the issue.

Washington state sues Monsanto over PCB pollution. Washington has

become the first U.S. state to sue the agrochemical giant Monsanto over pervasive pollution from PCBs, the toxic industrial chemicals that have accumulated in plants, fish and people around the globe for decades.

Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced the lawsuit at a news conference in downtown Seattle Thursday, saying they expect to win hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars from the company. The company said the case “lacks merit.”

PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were used in many industrial and commercial applications. Monsanto produced them from 1935 until Congress banned them in 1979

Michigan allows self-driving cars on roads – without drivers.

Companies can now test self-driving cars on Michigan public roads without a driver or steering wheel under new laws that could push the state to the forefront of autonomous vehicle development.

The package of bills signed into law Friday also allows automakers and tech companies to run autonomous taxi services and sales of self-driving vehicles once they are tested and certified, according to the state.

Japan ratifies Pacific trade pact that Trump plans to dump.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won parliamentary approval Friday for ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, despite U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to withdraw from the 12-nation trade pact.

Upper house lawmakers approved the TPP, heeding Abe’s calls to push ahead with it despite Trump’s rejection of the free-trade initiative championed by President Barack Obama.

Ratification of regulatory revisions by the Cabinet is expected soon.