FINANCE
Bank dropping credit card branding deal with NRA
First National Bank of Omaha plans to drop its co-branded credit card agreement with the National Rifle Association after hearing from customers in the wake of the latest mass shootings. “Customer feedback has caused us to review our relationship with the NRA,’’ spokesman Kevin Langin said Thursday. “As a result, First National Bank of Omaha will not renew its contract with the National Rifle Association to issue the NRA Visa Card.’’ The debate over gun control is back in the public spotlight after the massacre of 17 people at a high school last week in Florida. President Trump on Thursday offered a full-throated endorsement of the NRA and called for paying bonuses to teachers who carry guns in the classroom, embracing a controversial proposal to curb school shootings. The National Rifle Association, which dates to 1871, has nearly five million members. It’s not known how many of those hold an NRA-branded credit card, which offers rewards on sporting goods purchases. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
ENERGY
Judge in Keystone challenge orders US to release documents
The Trump administration must either release documents related to its approval of TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline or justify to a court why it won’t. Environmental groups say the government is withholding information for its case challenging the permit for the $8 billion pipeline. On Wednesday, US agencies were ordered by a Montana federal court judge to either provide the documents by March 21, or say why they must be withheld. The dispute stems from a legal challenge filed in Montana last year by environmental groups. For its part, TransCanada has said the project has sufficient support among energy clients, though the Calgary-based company hasn’t formally decided to build the pipeline. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
TRADE
Trump won’t rush on steel tariff, official says
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross (left) said he expects President Trump to take a thoughtful approach on possible restrictions for steel and aluminum imports. Ross’s department last week publicly released a range of options, including steep global tariffs, to limit imports after finding foreign-made steel and aluminum pose a risk to national security. Trump has to make a decision for steel imports by April 11, and by April 19 for aluminum. “I’m sure he will do it in a very thoughtful and systematic way,’’ Ross said on CNBC on Thursday. “I have no idea when between now and then he will make his decision.’’ Commerce’s range of recommendations included a 24 percent global steel tariff or a 53 percent charge on steel from a dozen nations, while capping other countries at 2017 import levels. It also proposed a 7.7 percent tariff on aluminum imports, or a 23.6 percent charge on aluminum from five places including China and Russia, while limiting other countries at last year’s import levels. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
HOME RENTALS
Airbnb premium service to feature ratings from inspectors
Airbnb is dispatching inspectors to rate some of the properties listed on its home-rental service in an effort to reassure travelers they’re booking nice places to stay. The Plus program, unveiled Thursday, is aimed at winning over travelers who aren’t sure they can trust the computer-driven system that Airbnb uses to assess the quality of rentals. Airbnb believes travelers will be willing to pay more for inspector-certified properties, allowing homeowners and apartment dwellers to recoup a $149 fee to participate in Plus. The program will initially cover only about 2,000 properties in 13 cities — a small fraction of the roughly 4.5 million properties listed on Airbnb in 81,000 cities worldwide. By the end of the year, Airbnb foresees verifying the quality of 75,000 homes in 50 cities. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
AQUACULTURE
Salmon farming facility proposed for Bucksport area
A Maine-based investor says he’s building a salmon farm on the site of a former paper mill in Bucksport. Whole Oceans’ Rob Piasio of Yarmouth says Thursday he’s purchasing the site to raise Atlantic salmon in a land-based facility. It’s the second land-based salmon aquaculture operation announced for Maine in recent weeks. Piasio says he expects the project to include an investment of more than $250 million in Bucksport, which reeled from the news of Verso Paper’s closing in 2014. He says a groundbreaking is planned for some time this year. Whole Oceans is not disclosing the purchase price for the Verso site. Nordic Aquafarms, a Norwegian firm, has also announced plans to build a land-based salmon farm in Belfast. Maine’s existing salmon farms rely heavily on pens in the ocean. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
LEGAL
Judge cites Brad Pitt’s face in 3-D animation ruling
Brad Pitt got an honorable mention in a federal judge’s dismissal of claims by the inventor of a 3-D animation program that Walt Disney Co. and its Marvel Studios stole his technology for multiple blockbuster films. At issue was whether the special effects or the actors ultimately were responsible for the “lion’s share of the creativity’’ when two-dimensional images of faces were transformed into 3-D in hits such as Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast’’ and Marvel’s “Guardian’s of the Galaxy.’’ While the creator of the MOVA Contour Reality Capture Program claimed that the role of the actors was marginal next to his technology, US District Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco didn’t buy it. Tigar pointed out that MOVA’s own court papers were littered with references to actors’ contributions in various films, including a “3-D database of everything Brad Pitt’s face is capable of doing’’ that was used to turn the then-44-year-old heartthrob into an 87-year-old man in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.’’ That movie, released in 2008, was co-produced by the Kennedy/Marshall Co., Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros, according to Imdb.com. “Unquestionably, the MOVA program does a significant amount of work to transform the two dimensional information captured on camera into three-dimensional Captured Surface and Tracking Mesh outputs,’’ the judge wrote in Wednesday’s ruling. “But this cannot be enough, since all computer programs take inputs and turn them into outputs.’’ — BLOOMBERG NEWS
DEVELOPMENT
Greek court OK’s massive seaside project
Greece’s supreme court has approved a large private urban development project on the prime seaside site of the old Athens airport, which is a key element of the country’s bailout program. The decision made public Thursday says that the development is in accordance with Greece’s constitution and laws, but stressed that it must strictly adhere to environmental and building regulations. The court also said planned construction of several skyscrapers on the site — bypassing existing limitations on high buildings — can go ahead for reasons of public interest. The plot was sold under Greece’s creditor-mandated privatization program to a consortium led by Greek Lamda Development, which is planning a $9.4-billion investment including a park, housing, shopping areas and hotels. Critics have opposed the project citing environmental and heritage concerns. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
SPACE INDUSTRY
SpaceX launches satellites from California
An Earth-observation satellite built for Spain and two experimental satellites for Internet service were successfully launched into orbit from California at dawn Thursday, creating a brief light show as it arced over the Pacific Ocean west of Los Angeles. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, reusing a first stage that had flown on a previous launch, lifted off at 6:17 a.m. from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The Falcon’s first stage was used to launch a satellite for Taiwan last August and was recovered by landing it on a drone ship in the Pacific. This time there was no effort to recover the first stage and it fell into the sea. It was an early version of the Falcon 9 and SpaceX is ‘‘making room’’ for a new version that will be qualified for rapid reuse many times, said Tom Praderio, an avionics firmware engineer serving as launch spokesman. SpaceX, however, was attempting to recover the fairing — the aerodynamic covering that protects the satellite during the early phase of launch and is usually discarded after reaching altitudes where the atmosphere’s density is low. SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted that the fairing system deployed a parafoil and there was an attempt to catch it during descent but that failed. He posted a photo of a ship with a net structure on the stern that he referred to as ‘‘a giant catcher’s mitt.’’ The rocket’s primary payload was a satellite named PAZ for Spanish satellite operator Hisdesat. It carries an advanced instrument for making radar images of Earth for government and commercial purposes, as well as sensors for tracking ships and weather. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
