U.S. Business

On Thursday evening, Ben & Jerry's unveiled a new flavor of frozen greek yogurt to celebrate the final episode of NBC's hit comedy "30 Rock". Aptly named "Liz Lemon", the Vermont-based company launched the new lemon and blueberry fro-yo to coincide with the series' ending.

Ben & Jerry's co-founder Jerry Greenfield commented:

"It’s as sweet and tart as Liz Lemon herself."

The popular show stars Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, and Tracy Morgan, and was in its seventh season when it wrapped up this week. Tina Fey, 42, is not only the show's writer, but she also plays the goofy yet lovable main character of Liz Lemon. The series is based loosely on her own experiences as a head writer on Saturday Night Live, which is filmed at 30 Rockefeller Center in the NBC studios headquarters.

Cleveland-based paint maker Sherwin-Williams reported a large jump in fourth-quarter earnings, and announced that it had achieved a record net income for all of 2012. Sherwin-Williams has thus issued guidance for a solid increase in 2013 earnings.

Sherwin-Williams reported that its fourth-quarter profits rose to $117.2 million, or $1.12 per diluted share, which is up from $1.6 million, or 14 cents a share during the fourth quarter of 2011. Sales at Sherwin-Williams also rose 7% to $2.22 billion from $2.07 billion. The company's cost of costs sold increased just 2.5%, to $1.21 billion from $1.18 billion.

Sherwin-Williams CEO and Chairman Christopher M. Conner noted that all of the company's operating segments contributed to the record year, with increases in sales and operating profit, led by the Paint Stores Group.

Sherwin-Williams expects sales in the first quarter of 2013 will increase by a low single-digit percentage compared to the first quarter of 2012.

Toyota's safety issues continue as the automaker announced Wednesday that it is recalling 1.3 million cars over issues with faulty airbags and wiper blades.

So far, two crashes related to the airbag issue have been reported in the U.S., as well as 18 minor, non-crash-related injuries to drivers.

The recall involving airbags affects some 907,000 vehicles globally, mostly Corolla models. The wiper blade issue is separate and involves 385,000 Lexus IS luxury sedans. The affected Corollas are from the 2003 and 2004 model years, while the Lexus IS vehicles affected include model years 2006 through early 2012. The recall is worldwide, but a majority of the recalled vehicles - including 752,000 Corollas and 270,000 Lexus IS vehicles - are in the U.S.

A Toyota press notice says that the airbags may be short-circuiting in their restraint systems, which may cause them to deploy accidentally.

Just a few days ago, it was rumored that Apple would soon be launching a new 128GB fourth generation iPad. Today, Apple officially unveiled its first ever iPad with more than 64GB of storage.

The new iPad will be identical to its predecessors, but it will offer double the amount of storage from the previous maximum of 64GB. Of course this extra internal storage comes at a cost. The new full-size 128GB iPad will cost $799 for the Wi-Fi only model, or $929 for the Wi-Fi + cellular model.

In an attempt to attract more content producers to its platform, AdAge says that YouTube is planning to offer paid subscriptions for individual channels to its users beginning sometime in the spring.

It is said that YouTube has contacted a "small group" of content producers on YouTube, asking them to create paid channels that will cost anywhere from $1 to $5 per month.

YouTube is also said to be considering charging for content libraries and access to live events.

The Charter One Foundation, which is a part of the charitable arm of the RBS Citizens Financial Group Inc., has decided to extend its "Growing Communities" program to the 5th Street Arcades in an effort to help fill the numerous empty storefronts in two historic arcades.

The arcades - the Colonial and Euclid arcades, which are connected and now known as the 5th Street Arcades - run between Euclid and Prospect avenues. Retailers looking to open or expand in these arcades are eligible to apply for grants ranging from $1,000 to $20,000. Grant applications are available online, and must be returned by 5pm on March 1, 2013.

Cedar Point announced on Monday that people planning a trip to the amusement park/resort can save money by taking advantage of a new "Easy Pay" plan if they pre-book a visit to the park's resorts by March 1. Under the new Cedar Point "Easy Pay" plan, visitors can lock in the pre-season rates and at the same time manage the cost of the trip by paying four installment payments.

The "Easy Pay" packages can be purchased via Cedar Point's website at www.cedarpoint.com or by calling 419-627-2106. Guests booking their trip under the "Easy Pay" plan will also get the added bonus of one hour early entry into the amusement park.

2013 will see the unveiling of Cedar Point's newest roller coaster, the GateKeeper, the park's latest world-record breaking roller coaster. At 170 feet, the ride spins through two signature keyholes at speeds of 67mph.

In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mitchell Klipper, CEO of Barnes & Noble's retail group, laid out plans for the national book chain. One of the biggest takeaways from that interview was that Barnes & Noble will close about 20 stores per year over the course of the next decade, cutting about a third of the bookseller's brick-and-mortar stores.

Barnes & Noble is not the only retailer to face stiff competition from digital content in recent years. In the past decade, we've seen the downfall of Borders Group Inc. (B&N's former rival), Tower Records, and Circuit City Stores, amongst others. It is not hard to imagine that one day in the future, booksellers will eventually become a thing of the past.

In 2008, Barnes & Noble peaked at 726 stores. By 2023, Klipper estimates that number will fall to about 450 or 500.

As Apple's share price continues to plummet, rumors are now surfacing that Apple is preparing a new iPad that would be its first iOS device to include more than 64GB of storage. According to 9to5Mac, Apple has a new fourth-generation iPad SKU that will soon hit the shelves at one of its retail partners' stores.

Details on the rumored device are slim for the time being, but 9to5Mac says that its source pointed out the presence of the world "ultimate" ext to the new iPad's description in the retailer's system. This led the site to speculate that Apple will soon be adding a fourth option to their existing line-up of iPads, one with 128GB of storage.

In the past few years, Apple has come under criticism for the questionable labor practices of its suppliers, mainly in Asia. Despite not doing much of anything to change this, Apple has at least maintained that it will not tolerate any of its devices being built by child laborers. This week, Apple made good on that vow and terminated a contract with a supplier that it found responsible for 74 underage labor violations.

According to Apple's seventh Supplier Responsibility Report released late Thursday, an audit of Guangdong Real Faith Pingzhou Electronics in January 2012 found the supplier responsible for 74 underage labor violations. This prompted Apple to end its relationship with the company, which manufacturers circuit boards.