PRESS DIGEST - New York Times business news - Aug 29
Aug 29 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in the New York Times business pages on Friday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
* The employees of Fannie Mae (FNM.N) and Freddie Mac (FRE.N) are reeling as the companies lurch toward what could be a bailout.
* The debut of Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPhone 3G cellphones has been a public relations headache for AT&T Inc (T.N), after complaints of dropped calls and poor network connections.
* The economy expanded at a 3.3 percent rate from April through June, far faster than first thought, the government said on Thursday. But the outlook for the remainder of the year remained grim.
* Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc LEH.N, Wall Street's most troubled firm, is preparing to lay off up to 1,500 people in its fourth round of cutbacks this year.
* General Motors Corp's GM.N vice chairman, Robert Lutz, said the car companies need money to retool their plants but probably cannot raise enough capital on their own.
* Oil producers have begun to halt drilling and operations in the Gulf of Mexico, anticipating that Tropical Storm Gustav could pick up speed.
* Dell Inc (DELL.O) stunned investors with a 17 percent decline in quarterly profit and a warning that a slowdown in technology spending in the United States had begun to spread to Asia and Europe.
* The cable industry has introduced an experimental political channel that gives advertisers a uniform way to buy time and measure the number of people watching.
* The Justice Department announced that it was backing away from the practice of pressing companies to share secrets with prosecutors and not pay the legal fees of employees accused of crimes.
* Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) cut its sales forecasts, warning that higher fuel costs and a slowdown in the United States and Europe would probably hold back the auto business at least through 2009.
* The city of Austin, Texas, approved plans on Thursday for a huge plant that will burn waste wood to make electricity, the latest sign of rising interest in a long-dormant form of renewable energy.
