Average gas price in Maine falls 6.2 cents in past week

MaineGasPrices.com says the average retail gasoline price in Maine fell 6.2 cents per gallon in the past week to $3.53.

The website says Sunday’s average price was 19.2 cents per gallon lower than a month ago, but still 81 cents higher than the same day one year ago. Nationally, the price fell 5.9 cents per gallon to $3.46.

Price analyst Patrick DeHaan said average gas prices are at their lowest since early March. He expects the upcoming weeks will continue to see downward pressure on oil and gasoline prices.

Target marketing executive hired away by J.C. Penney

J.C. Penney Co. Inc. hired Target’s top marketing executive as its new president as the department store operator tries to redefine its brand.

Incoming Penney’s CEO Ron Johnson said the company hired Michael Francis, 48, to “re-imagine the department store experience” in Penney’s more than 1,100 stores. Francis will assume his new role today. He will be responsible for merchandising, marketing and product development.

Penney has made management changes recently as it tries to modernize its image. In June, the company named Johnson, who pioneered Apple Inc.’s hip retail stores, as its new chief executive.

Yahoo News agrees to host content from ABC News

ABC News and Yahoo Inc. are joining to deliver more online news to their audiences. With the deal, ABC News content will be prominently featured on Yahoo News, the most visited news website in the world. It will also show up on Yahoo’s popular front page.

The partnership comes as a growing number of people turn to the Internet for news and other information. The two news organizations have a combined online audience of more than 100 million users per month in the U.S. — something ABC News president Ben Sherwood noted was “the size of the Super Bowl audience.”

While, the deal helps ABC grow its online reach, Yahoo News can drive further traffic to its own site by featuring original, made-for-online content. ABC is launching a Web-only news series, starting with a live interview with President Obama by George Stephanopoulos. That launches a series, “Newsmakers,” with online interviews conducted by the likes of Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters, Katie Couric, Robin Roberts and others.

Bank of America’s website still sluggish or inaccessible

Bank of America’s website, plagued by problems Friday and Saturday but supposedly fixed on Sunday, isn’t working again.

Some users trying to access bankofamerica.com get a message that the home page is temporarily unavailable.

Spokeswoman Tara Burke says customers who experience slowness or can’t get through should keep trying. She says the access problems are a result of the bank managing traffic volume during peak use. She declined to say whether volume has surged in recent days.

Problems began Friday, a day after the bank said it would start charging a $5 monthly fee for customers using debit cards. Burke insists there’s no connection. She said there’s been no hacking and that no customer information was compromised.