Southwest Airlines giving workers record payout

Southwest Airlines says employees will get a record $228 million in profit-sharing this year, nearly double the payout of a year ago.

The airline said Monday that the payout is based on results from 2013, when net income hit a record $754 million.

Southwest’s shares gained 84 percent in 2013 and began Monday up 21 percent in 2014.

February sales rose 0.8% while stockpiles rose 0.4%

Stockpiles increased 0.4 percent in February following a similar 0.4 percent increase in January, the Commerce Department reported Monday. Sales rose 0.8 percent in February, bouncing back after a 1.1 percent sales decline in January that was blamed on the harsh weather that month. It was the biggest one-month sales gain since last May.

Report: Deficits to decline as health spending drops

A congressional report released Monday predicts slightly smaller deficits both this year and over the coming decade, with lower spending on federal health care spending being the main reason.

A Congressional Budget Office report Monday said this year’s deficit will now be $492 billion, $23 billion less than previously estimated. Last year’s deficit registered $680 billion, the first year in President Obama’s tenure that the deficit was less than $1 trillion.

US Airways apologizes for pornographic tweet

US Airways apologized Monday for sending out a Twitter message that included a pornographic image.

The airline acknowledged that the image came from its Twitter account but said it was sent by mistake. US Airways said the image was originally sent to the airline’s account and US Airways tried to flag it as inappropriate.

“Unfortunately the image was inadvertently included in a response to a customer,” the airline said in a statement.

The image has been posted across the Internet as a screen grab.

– From news service reports