A gaping state budget hole resulting from relentless revenue shortfalls will be the center of Maine lawmakers’ attention during the 2010 election-year session, but cell phone safety, ATV regulation and highway funding also will be on the agenda.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar started on the job a year ago pledging to clean up an agency hit by scandals and assailed by critics as under the sway of the oil and gas industry.

An energy price dispute between Russia and Belarus escalated Monday as the Belarusian state power company threatened to cut off electricity to Russia’s westernmost region if Moscow insisted on being paid a new oil tax.

Wyoming’s energy industry appears to be stabilizing after shedding roughly a third of its workers in the past 14 months, many observers say.

With the Legislature facing a $2.6 billion budget deficit, Washington environmentalists have a modest agenda for the upcoming session and hope to avoid further cutbacks they say have already devastated environmental protection in the state.

The stock market jumped on the first trading day of the year following reports of stronger manufacturing activity around the world as well as a rise in oil prices.

Shares of casino operators with properties in Macau climbed Monday as the latest reports suggest gaming revenue for casinos in the Chinese enclave rose 48 percent last month.

Shares of Providence Service Corp., which provides and manages government-sponsored social services, fell Monday after a RBC Capital Markets analyst downgraded the stock, citing valuation.

The new year could be brighter for luxury retailers, as improving stock markets and economic conditions pave the way for a potential recovery, an analyst said Monday.

U.S. stocks jumped on Monday after data showed a fifth straight month of expansion in the manufacturing sector and semiconductor stocks gained on a brokerage upgrade of Intel.