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Laclede Group Inc. said fiscal third-quarter profit more than tripled on improved performance at the company’s gas utility and the sale of propane inventories.

Net income for the three months ended June 30 rose to $15.4 million, or 65 cents a share, from $4.4 million, or 20 cents, in the same period last year, the St. Louis-based company said. Sales rose 6 percent to $344.3 million.

Earnings rose by $11.6 million at Laclede Gas, the utility that sells natural gas to 630,000 customers in St faxless payday advance. Louis and surrounding Missouri counties.

The utility said it benefited from a rate increase that took effect in September as well as the sale of propane inventories no longer needed to serve customers.

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The endgame at hand, House Republicans struggled Thursday to pass legislation to prevent a looming government default while slicing nearly $1 trillion from federal spending. Senate Democrats pledged to scuttle the bill _ if the GOP could get it through the House _ in hopes of forcing a final compromise.

As afternoon debate headed toward evening, GOP leaders ordered an unexplained halt on the measure as Speaker John Boehner summoned a string of recalcitrant rank-and-file Re(publicans to his office.

Asked what he and Boehner had talked about, Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said, “I think that’s rather obvious. .. There’s negotiations going on.”

It wasn’t clear how long the delay might last, although a spokesman for Boehner said the vote was still expected to take place later in the evening.

The White House quickly taunted Boehner’s Republicans.

“Clock ticks towards August 2, House is naming post offices, while leaders twist arms for a pointless vote. No wonder people hate Washington,” White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer tweeted.

Earlier, Boehner had exuded optimism.

“Let’s pass this bill and end the crisis,” said the president’s principal Republican antagonist in a new and contentious era of divided government. “It raises the debt limit and cuts government spending by a larger amount.”

President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the measure, and in debate on the House floor, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida savaged it as a “Republican plan for default.” She said the GOP hoped to “hold our economy hostage while forcing an ideological agenda” on the country.

Despite the sharp rhetoric, there were signs that gridlock might be giving way.

“Around here you’ve got to have deadlock before you have breakthrough,” said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. “We’re at that stage now.”

Wall Street suffered fresh losses as Congress struggled to break its long gridlock. The Dow Jones industrial average was down for a fifth straight session.

The Treasury Department moved ahead with plans to hold its regular weekly auction of three-month and six-month securities on Monday. Yet officials offered no information on what steps would be taken if Congress failed to raise the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt limit by the following day.

Without signed legislation by Aug. 2, the Treasury will not have enough funds to pay all the nation’s bills. Administration officials have warned of potentially calamitous effects on the economy if that happens _ a spike in interest rates, a plunge in stock markets and a tightening in the job market in a nation already struggling with unemployment over 9 percent.

White House press secretary Jay Carney outlined White House compromise terms: “significant deficit reduction, a mechanism by which Congress would take on the tough issues of tax reform and entitlement reform and a lifting of the debt ceiling beyond … into 2013.”

The last point loomed as the biggest obstacle.

The House bill cuts spending by $917 billion over a decade, principally by holding down costs for hundreds of government programs ranging from the Park Service to the Agriculture Department and foreign aid.

It also provides an immediate debt limit increase of $900 billion, which is less than half of the total needed to meet Obama’s insistence that there be no replay of the current crisis in the heat of the 2012 election campaigns.

An additional $1.6 trillion in borrowing authority would be conditioned on passage of at least $1.8 trillion in further savings to be recommended by a newly created committee of lawmakers. Those deficit reductions would presumably come from cuts to benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare, as well as an overhaul of the tax code generating additional government revenue.

The GOP bill’s $917 billion in upfront spending cuts was trillions less than many tea party-backed rank-and-file Republican lawmakers wanted, but a total that seemed nearly unimaginable when they took power in the House last winter with an agenda of reining in government. Numerous Republicans grumbled that the legislation didn’t cut more deeply, and Boehner and the rest of the GOP leadership have spent their week cajoling reluctant conservatives to provide the votes needed to pass it.

By most accounts, they were succeeding.

“It gives us a little bit of heartburn because it doesn’t go big enough,” said Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., a first-term lawmaker who said he would vote for the bill as the best one available.

Another first-term Republican, Rep. Martha Roby of Alabama, said the bill was “far from perfect. But I don’t have the luxury of writing the plan by myself, and neither does Speaker Boehner.”

While the White House and Democrats objected to the House bill, they readied an alternative that contained similarities.

Drafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, it provides for $2.7 trillion in additional borrowing authority for the Treasury. It also calls for cuts of $2.2 trillion, including about $1 trillion in Pentagon savings that assume the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Even before the House voted, Reid served notice he would stage a vote to kill the legislation almost instantly.

“No Democrat will vote for a short-term Band-Aid that would put our economy at risk and put the nation back in this untenable situation a few short months from now,” he said.

With the House and Senate focused on debt-limit legislation at opposite ends of the Capitol, eleven religious leaders protesting budget cuts were arrested in the Rotunda midway between the two chambers.

Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine said on the House floor that they were praying for those who will be “hurt the hardest” by the bill being considered.

Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., countered that he, too was praying _ to avoid a default.

The day’s events marked the climax of a struggle that began last winter, when the Treasury Department notified Congress it would need additional borrowing authority, and Boehner said any increase would have to include steps to reduce future spending.

At first the White House balked at the terms, then relented. That gradually morphed into a series of bipartisan negotiations, one led by Vice President Joe Biden, then another by Obama, and finally, a round of golf that led to stab at a “grand bargain” between the president and Boehner.

Boehner announced last Friday he was calling off the talks, setting in motion a frantic week of maneuvering as the default deadline grew near.

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An apple a day may keep the doctor away. But when you put it in a Happy Meal, it might help keep regulators at bay, too.

McDonald’s on Tuesday said it will add apple slices and reduce the portion of French fries in its children’s meal boxes beginning this fall, effectively taking away consumers’ current choice between either having apples with caramel dip or fries as a Happy Meal side.

The move comes as fast-food chains face intense scrutiny from health officials and others who blame the industry for childhood obesity and other health-related problems.

Critics wasted no time complaining that McDonald’s changes don’t go far enough. Kelle Louaillier, executive director of Corporate Accountability International, said McDonald’s is just trying to get ahead of impending regulations that will restrict the marketing of junk food to children and require restaurants to post nutrition information on menus.

“McDonald’s is taking steps in the right direction,” says Louaillier, whose group has pushed for McDonald’s to retire Ronald McDonald payday lenders. “But we should be careful in heaping praise on corporations for simply reducing the scope of the problem they continue to create.”

Cindy Goody, McDonald’s senior director of nutrition, said the new directives are “absolutely not” related to new regulations. Rather, she said, they’re a response to customers asking for healthier choices.

But apparently, customers aren’t making those choices in practice. Indeed, only about 11 percent of customers were ordering apples with their Happy Meals, even though 88 percent were aware they had the option, the restaurant said.

Jonathan Marek, a senior vice president at Applied Predictive Technologies, said the move should be good for public relations and, more importantly, could help drive sales.

“The key is, will this get parents to go to McDonald’s one more time each month than they would have otherwise?” he asked..

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ExxonMobil Pipeline Co. crews have finished initial cleanup work on four sites contaminated when a pipeline carrying crude oil broke underneath the Yellowstone River three weeks ago.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Quality will assess whether the cleanup is adequate.

DEQ Deputy Director Tom Livers tells The Billings Gazette that state standards require the cleanup to continue until the effort would be more harmful than beneficial to the environment.

So far, 46 sites have been identified for cleanup after an estimated 1,000 barrels of oil leaked into the river, starting on July 1.

International Bird Rescue of California was brought in by Exxon to clean wildlife affected by the spill. Jay Holcomb with the rescue group says they’ve only had to treat three birds.

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The nation’s top credit card companies are seeing a boost to their bottom lines as consumers are getting better about paying their bills on time.

Five of the top six card issuers on Friday said the rates at which their customers defaulted on their accounts fell in June. Bank of America Corp. reported the biggest drop in defaults, with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Discover Financial Services also showing significant improvement.

Late payments were also down. Only Capital One Financial Corp. saw an uptick in payments late by 30 days or more, and that increase was tiny.

Among the top six, only Citibank had not yet submitted its monthly regulatory filing detailing card performance for the month. Its parent, Citigroup Inc., reported second-quarter results earlier in the day, however, giving some insight into its card performance.

The latest data followed reports that show credit card users have far better payment habits than a year ago, when the industrywide charge-off rate peaked at 10.9 percent, according to Federal Reserve data. For the first three months of this year, that rate was down to 6.96 percent _ a significant improvement, but still well below the industry average of 3.82 percent before the recession, which indicates banks will benefit further as default and delinquency rates further improve.

And they should continue to do so. Banks have already written off the balances of most customers expected to default, and those individuals have a hard time getting new credit.

The impact of the improved payment habits was reflected in banks’ second-quarter financial results this week.

Citigroup said that it pulled $757 million out of the pool set aside to cover uncollectable credit card bills, adding to its $3.3 billion profit for the quarter. That followed a report from JPMorgan Chase on Thursday, which posted a $5.4 billion profit for the period, boosted by a $1 billion reduction in loss reserves cash advance no faxing.

And much of Capital One’s 50 percent profit leap reported Tuesday was due to the $579 million it released from reserves. Analyst Henry Coffey of Sterne Agee estimated 81 cents of the $1.97 per share profit, or about 41 percent, came from that reserve release.

Last month, Discover Financial Services said it released $401 million from its reserves, helping to more than triple the company’s second-quarter profit.

Also goosing bank bottom lines: Card holders are using their credit cards more. That trend is now clear, after 51 percent of the U.S. card market has reported its second-quarter results, said Morgan Stanley analyst Glenn Fodor.

Citigroup said purchase volume rose 1.5 percent.

JPMorgan Chase’s customers spent 10 percent more using their cards. Discover said sales volume on its namesake cards rose 9 percent.

Bank of America and American Express Co. are slated to report next week, and both are expected to show similar gains in spending.

The Federal Reserve said total balances on revolving credit, which is mostly cards, rose slightly in May to $793.13 billion. That’s still nearly 19 percent below the peak balances of $973.64 billion in August 2008, but reflected an uptick in spending after months of belt-tightening by consumers.

What’s less clear is if the higher spending will continue.

Borrowing is typically a sign of confidence in the economy, and the weak jobs market and higher unemployment last month may discourage further spending.

And even when the recovery gains steam, few economists say they expect consumers to pile on debt again after spending the last two years paying it down.

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A study commissioned by Samsung into cancers among six of its semiconductor workers found they were unrelated to exposure to chemicals on the job but the electronics giant is not yet releasing the full results.

U.S.-based Environ International Corp. on Thursday announced the broad findings of a study it conducted over the past year of several Samsung chip manufacturing facilities.

Samsung commissioned the investigation last July to try and allay public anxieties. The company says that 26 current or former workers in production, research and development or office work at semiconductor facilities have contracted leukemia or lymphoma since 1998, while 13 have died.

The South Korean company said it had no plans to immediately publish the study as doing so could compromise the trade secrets of Samsung and its suppliers.

The six cases covered by the study have also been the subject of an ongoing court case in South Korea. Late last month, the Seoul Administrative Court ruled that two of them could be related to exposure to toxic chemicals on the job. Four of the people have died.

Samsung Electronics Co. is the world’s largest manufacturer of memory chips used in personal computers, mobile phones, digital cameras and other products.

Environ said in a statement that that Samsung’s current manufacturing operations fall “well within accepted standards” for exposure to chemicals and other substances.

Environ officials, including CEO Steve Washburn, appeared at a press conference held at Samsung’s Giheung semiconductor plant in the city of Yongin, south of Seoul.

“The study further concluded that the scientific evidence does not support a link between workplace exposure and the diagnosed cancers in six cases that underwent specific review,” the company said.

It said that in four of the six cancer cases it studied “there was no evidence” of exposure to an agent that would have caused the illnesses, while in the other two “exposures to cancer-causing agents were substantially below levels of exposure associated with an increased risk of cancer.” Those agents included formaldehyde and ionizing radiation.

Samsung, which has long said its facilities are safe, welcomed the results. Still, Kwon Oh-hyun, the Samsung executive in charge of semiconductors, said the company would not immediately release the Environ study.

“We will consider disclosing the report,” he said, after discussing the issue internally and with suppliers free credit score.

That stance disappointed activists supporting plaintiffs in the court case.

Kong Jeong-ok, an occupational health physician and a member of a support group, called for Samsung to act fast.

“First, disclose the full report,” Kong said after the presentation, which she attended. She also urged Samsung to consult with civil groups, experts and the government before doing so to ensure “transparency and reliability.”

Paul Harper, the Environ official who oversaw the study, said that releasing the report was up to Samsung. He also declined to disclose how much Samsung paid his company to carry out the probe, citing client confidentiality.

He also said that Environ focused on the six specific cancer cases at Samsung’s request.

Kwon denied that Samsung commissioned the study so it could be used as evidence in the ongoing court case.

The Seoul Administrative Court last month ordered the government’s Korea Workers’ Compensation & Welfare Service to compensate the families of two dead women. It ruled that while the exact cause of their deaths has not been determined, it could be presumed that they were exposed to toxic chemicals and radiation on the job.

It upheld the service’s findings, however, that the cancer cases of three other workers, two of whom are alive, were unrelated to their work at Samsung, though their attorneys are appealing the ruling.

Five of the six original cases are currently being contested in court as the family of another worker who died last year dropped out.

Samsung is not a defendant in the case, but has cooperated with the welfare service. Yonhap news agency reported that the agency has filed an appeal in the two rulings it lost.

Environ said it carried out the study with Samsung’s full cooperation. It also said the study’s design and implementation were reviewed by an independent advisory panel which included academic experts from institutions such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins and Yale, but that they were not asked to endorse the conclusions.

Separately, Samsung said Thursday that it plans to expand investments in a research institute it runs devoted to semiconductor health and safety and would also upgrade health programs for employees.

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Unemployment rates rose last month in more than half of the nation’s largest metro areas, driven higher by weak private-sector hiring and natural disasters.

The unemployment rate increased in 210 metro areas in May, the Labor Department said Wednesday. It fell in 131 cities and remained unchanged in 37. That’s a sharp reversal from April, when unemployment rates dropped in more than 90 percent of metro areas.

Nationwide, the unemployment rate ticked up in May to 9.1 percent and employers added just 54,000 net jobs. Employers added an average of 220,000 jobs per month in the previous three months.

Tornadoes and flooding shut some companies down in the South in late April and May. And a parts shortage stemming from the March 11 earthquake in Japan affected U.S. auto production. The metro employment data isn’t seasonally adjusted and as a result can be volatile from month to month.

One of the biggest increases was in Tuscaloosa, Ala., which was struck a deadly tornado that killed 41 people in late April. The unemployment rate there rose from 8.1 percent in April to 9.3 percent in May.

Toyota, Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and Chrysler were all forced to shut down some or all of their North American factories because of the parts shortage. At least 13 metro areas in South Carolina and Louisiana, where many factories are located, saw significant gains in their unemployment rates. Detroit, Ann Arbor and Battle Creek, Mich., also saw big increases.

The sharpest increase in unemployment was in Yuma Ariz. The unemployment rate there rose from 25.3 percent in April to 27.9 percent in May. Competition from farmers in neighboring Mexico has left some cotton, wheat and lettuce growers out of work. Agriculture drives about 40 percent of Yuma’s economy.

Many of the areas with the steepest declines are tourist destinations. Hotels and tourist attractions add workers for the summer season. Ocean City, N.J., reported the sharpest decline. The unemployment there fell from 13.3 percent in April to 11.6 percent in May.

Other steep drops were in three California metro areas: Madera-Chowchilla, Santa Cruz-Watsonville and Salinas. All three cities are big farming communities that demand more seasonal workers at this time of year.

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British Prime Minister David Cameron insists the NATO-led air campaign in Libya still has strong support, despite recent criticism.

Cameron told lawmakers in Parliament on Wednesday that the coalition involved in the mission is “holding strong” and increasing the pressure on Moammar Gadhafi to quit power.

Cameron’s comments follow concern from the outgoing head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, over civilian casualties and questions from some British military chiefs about the impact on stretched resources.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has called for a pause in the campaign to allow access for humanitarian aid.

Cameron’s office said any temporary cease-fire must not allow Gadhafi’s forces to regroup and launch new offensives.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) _ NATO warplanes resumed daytime strikes on targets in the Libyan capital Wednesday as alliance member Italy called for the “immediate suspension” of hostilities in the North African nation.

At least two explosions shook Tripoli before noon as fighter jets soared overhead. It wasn’t immediately clear what had been hit or if there were casualties.

In Rome, the Italian foreign minister called for a halt in fighting so aid corridors could be set up.

Franco Frattini said “the humanitarian end of military operations is essential to allow for immediate aid,” including in areas around Tripoli and the rebel stronghold of Misrata.

Frattini also expressed concern over civilian casualties, referring to “dramatic errors” in the bombing campaign.

“With regard to NATO, it is opportune to ask for more detailed information on results” in the attacks, he said in comments to a parliamentary commission that were carried by Italian news agencies.

Italy is Libya’s former colonial ruler and continues to maintain strong commercial ties to the country free credit report and score.

NATO’s daily airstrikes are coming under increased criticism by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s government, which accuses the alliance of targeting civilians.

NATO acknowledged it may have struck a residential building and caused civilian casualties in Tripoli earlier this week. It also hammered a compound belonging to a close Gadhafi associate and killed what Libya says was 15 civilians, including at least three children. NATO said that target was a “command and control” center.

A coalition including France, Britain and the United States began striking Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s forces under a United Nations resolution to protect civilians on March 19. NATO assumed control of the air campaign over Libya on March 31. It’s joined by a number of Arab allies.

Rebels fighting Gadhafi’s forces have taken over much of the eastern half of the country. They also control pockets in the west, including the vital port city of Misrata, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) from Tripoli.

Rebel forces facing barrages of rockets and mortars launched by government troops are trying to push their front line forward from Misrata toward the capital. But an increased number of rockets have been hitting closer to Misrata this week, raising fears among rebels of a renewed push by Gadhafi’s forces toward the city.

On Wednesday, China told Libyan rebel leader Mahmoud Jibril that his Transitional National Council represents a growing segment of the Libyan public and is becoming a major political force in the country.

The comments by Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi were the country’s strongest endorsement yet of the rebel council. Beijing, an important trading partner with Libya, says it isn’t taking sides in the more than 4-month-old conflict.

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Internet minders voted Monday to allow virtually unlimited new domain names based on themes as varied as company brands, entertainment and political causes, in the system’s biggest shake-up since it started 26 years ago.

Groups able to pay the $185,000 application can petition next year for new updates to “.com” and “.net” with website suffixes using nearly any word in any language, including in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers decided at a meeting in Singapore.

“This is the start of a whole new phase for the Internet,” said Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of ICANN’s board of directors. “Unless there is a good reason to restrain it, innovation should be allowed to run free.”

ICANN’s decision culminates six years of negotiations and is the biggest change to the system since “.com” made its debut in 1984. The expansion plan had been delayed largely because of concerns that new suffixes could infringe on trademarks and copyrights.

High-profile entertainment, consumer goods and financial services companies will likely be among the first to apply for their own domain name in a bid to protect their brands, experts said.

“It will allow corporations to better take control of their brands,” said Theo Hnarakis, chief executive of Melbourne IT, which manages online brands for clients such as Volvo, LEGO and GlaxoSmithKline. “For example, .apple or .ipad would take customers right to those products.”

The surge in domains should help alleviate some of the overlap of names in the most popular suffixes, especially “.com”, which has 94 million sites registered.

More than 300 suffixes are available today, the bulk of them country-specific codes, such as “.jp” for Japan and “.fr” for France. Those are typically restricted to groups or individuals with a presence in the countries. Only a handful are open for general use worldwide.

In March, ICANN approved “.xxx” for pornography, but some porn sites have declined to adopt the suffix, fearing it will make it easier for governments to ban them loan for people with bad credit. Conservative groups opposed the “.xxx” name too, arguing it could attract children to adult sites.

Analysts said they expect between 500 to 1,000 new domain names, mostly companies and products, but also cities and generic names such as “.bank” or “.hotel.” Groups have formed to back “.sport” for sporting sites, and two conservationist groups separately are seeking the right to operate an “.eco” suffix.

ICANN plans to auction off domains if multiple parties have legitimate claims. However, it expects companies will likely strike deals among themselves to avoid a public auction.

“I think we’ll see much more of that going on than see auctions generating circuses,” Dengate Thrush said. “But there is that prospect that there will be a couple of identical applicants and applications.”

The application process is arduous _ the fee is $185,000 and the guidebook is 360 pages _ and meant to prevent scammers from grabbing valuable domain names. ICANN will receive applications for new domains for 90 days beginning Jan. 12.

“It’s a significant undertaking. We’re calling it the Olympic bid,” said Adrian Kinderis, chief executive of AusRegistry International, which helps companies to register domains and manages names such as “.au” for Australia.

“But it’s worth it for corporations that have suffered from things like trademark infringement, and can now carve out a niche on the internet,” Kinderis said.

ICANN said it has set aside up to $2 million to assist applicants from developing countries.

“The board’s very enthusiastic about providing support for applicants from developing areas where the evaluation fee or access to technical expertise might be somewhat of a bar,” ICANN senior vice president Kurt Pritz told reporters after the meeting.

ICANN said in a statement that it will mount a global publicity campaign to raise awareness of the opportunities of new domain names.

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As its strike against local building contractors moves into its fourth week, the St. Louis Bricklayers union plans to ask a federal mediator to step in if the contentious impasse continues when the two sides reconvene on Monday.

Business Manager Don Brown of the bricklayers’ Local 1 blames the stalemate on the St. Louis Mason Contractors Association, which Brown accuses of trying to use the economic downturn to loosen the unions’ grip on local construction projects.

“It’s a tactic that hasn’t been tried here before,” Brown said. “They’re trying to get members to resign from the union. It’s telling guys, ‘You can scab on your own union.’”

Association Executive Director David Gillick denies any attempt to bust the union, citing an alliance between the bricklayers and union contractors dating back a century. At issue, Gillick said, is the association’s belief that the future success of regional construction rests on a fundamental shift in the way unions and contractors do business.

“We choose to be union contractors. They choose to be union bricklayers. But if we don’t change the path we’ve been on, the marketplace will change it for us. It won’t be our choice anymore,” said Gillick.

Len Toenjes, president of the Associated General Contractors of St. Louis, said the split between the two parties exemplified a failed reliance on short-term fixes to the complex task of positioning the region to compete in the post-recession economy.

“In order to attract development, we need to be competitive,” Toenjes said. “But striking a reasonable balance is difficult for everybody. And it’s especially hard when two (organizations) that have been doing business for 100 years are suddenly thrust into the global marketplace.”

The public bickering marks an end to a pledge by the union not to negotiate the terms of its next contract in public. Brown said he broke that agreement in response to remarks Gillick made in an interview ten days ago with Charlie Brennan on KMOX radio.

The bricklayers walked off the job when the five-year contract they agreed to in 2006 expired at midnight, June 1. Approximately 500 members of Local 1 haven’t worked since.

Another 200 have remained on projects, part of an “interim agreement” with a handful of contractors who agreed to honor the terms of a new contract retroactively, assuming a settlement can be reached.

Local 1 also hit the pavement five years ago when talks faltered in a resolution of the 2006 pact. That strike lasted only five days.

What separates the tone of the negotiations in 2006 from 2011, said Brown, is the economic climate.

Compensation and work rules are the primary negotiating points separating the two parties. The association is asking for concessions that would peel back salary and benefits by four percent. Local 1 has balked at the proposal, noting that economy-induced declines in construction already slashed the average annual bricklayer salary to $30,702 in 2010.

The hours worked by bricklayers this year have already dropped 38 percent, Brown said. To the union, taking a salary reduction in a depleted construction market makes no sense.

“Even if we agreed to (a pay cut), there still won’t be any residential work out there, because they just aren’t building homes right now, and they won’t start until the banks start releasing money,” said Brown.

The two sides also can’t get together on a rule change that would increase the allowable weight of bricks lifted by workers from 30- to 40-pound masonry blocks.

Brown, citing a study, said a bricklayer hoisting 40-pound blocks 200 times a day would lift the equivalent of five pickup trucks a week or 2 1/2 fully loaded 747 jetliners over the course of a year.

Gillick maintains the 40-pound lift is consistent with union-regulated rules in other jurisdictions, including those in Illinois.

The union and the contractors are in accord on one aspect of the strike: Without an expedited agreement, current projects throughout the region will soon suffer the consequences of the labor stoppage.

Toenjes says some construction sites are already ’seeing an impact.”

And Gillick cautions the situation is “hitting a critical point” as bricklayers are needed to complement the work of carpenters, ironworkers, sheet metal workers and other tradesmen.

“Their patience is running thin, and they won’t be able to let a project dwindle,” Gillick said of general contractors and clients in the region. “They are going to have to make a decision about whether to bring in a union guy or a non-union guy. And in some cases that is already happening.”

On Friday, Day 17 of the strike, neither Gillick nor Brown was optimistic that an agreement might be imminent.

One measure of the distance separating the two men was Gillick’s reaction when asked if he’d agree with Brown to turning negotiations over to a federal mediator.

His answer: Probably not.

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