Walmart and Best Buy are among the latest retailers to announce special hours and deals for Black Friday.

Walmart plans to offer the typical Thanksgiving and Black Friday discounts over a period of days, not hours, starting online Thanksgiving morning and continuing at store openings at 6 p.m. and through the next Monday. The nation's biggest retailer promises five days of sales with tailored events.

Best Buy said more than 1,000 stores in 47 states will open at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving, with most locations staying open until 1 a.m. Friday. Stores will reopen at 8 a.m. Friday and close that night at 10 p.m.

Once again Walmart will offer its one-hour guarantee, special deals for shoppers who are in designated parts of the store between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. Nov. 27.

"Black Friday is no longer about waking up at the crack of dawn to stand in long lines and hope for the best," Duncan Mac Naughton, Walmart's chief merchandising officer, said in Wednesday's announcement. "At Walmart, it's become...

Thousands of current and former Verizon FiOS customers who believe the company misrepresented the service's costs when they signed up may be eligible for money from a state settlement announced Wednesday.

The telecommunications company agreed to pay about $1.375 million to Maryland customers who the state's Consumer Protection Division says were improperly charged termination fees or had to pay for "inadequately disclosed" equipment costs in order to use the service, according to the attorney general's office.

The firm also agreed to pay a $250,000 penalty to the state, and $75,000 in costs.

The settlement ends an investigation that started more than six years ago, as Verizon introduced its high-speed fiber television, Internet and phone services.

Customer complaints at the time included allegations that the firm did not honor promises of promotional items, such as televisions and gift cards; failed to notify them clearly about fees for equipment necessary to access the services; and...

After three generations of ownership and more than a century of selling and designing jewelry in Baltimore, Morstein’s Jewelers will shut down at the end of the year.

Owner Jules "Sonny" Morstein said he is torn by the decision to retire and close the doors of a business started by his grandfather, William Morstein, in 1898 in East Baltimore.

The shop, now at 1114 Light St. in Federal Hill, where Morstein started working for his father, Jules, a half century ago, is one of the city’s oldest full-service jewelers. Nelson Coleman Jewelers, which had relocated from Baltimore to Towson, traces its family roots in the jewelry business to 1856. And Smyth Jewelers, founded in 1914 by Albert Smyth and which now has showrooms in Timonium, Annapolis and Ellicott City, is celebrating the century mark this year.

"After 116 years, we are closing our store,” Morstein said Tuesday. "Yes, I'm not happy, and yes, I'm upset, but it's the right thing to do. It's just time. I'm going to be 70 and in good...

Towson's new Fractured Prune Doughnuts will open Wednesday.

The company had announced plans just before Halloween to open a shop at 3 W. Chesapeake Ave. The store will open at 6 a.m.

The chain, founded in Ocean City in 1976, is known for hand-dipping doughnuts in a choice of glazes and toppings, and it's growing nationally.

Last September, the company's CEO, Dan Brinton, had said he planned new locations at the Inner Harbor and in Westminster as well as Towson, part of a push to open 50 new franchised stores in the next three years.

Customers can expect a specialty doughnuts menu with items such as French Toast (maple glaze, cinnamon and sugar), Blueberry Hill (blueberry glaze, powdered sugar) and Banana Cream Pie (banana glaze, vanilla wafers, cinnamon

Low-income Baltimore residents can get help in applying for energy assistance grants from Baltimore Gas and Electric representatives at an expo on Saturday.

The expo will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Coppin State University's Talon Center, 500 West North Ave. in Baltimore.

BGE representatives, staff from the Maryland and Baltimore Offices of Home Energy Programs and politicians including state Sen. Catherine Pugh will be on hand to answer questions and help residents apply for the grants, which can be applied to past-due bills and future payments.

A resident's income must be at or below a certain cap based on family size. For a single-person household, the gross monthly income cap is $1,702. For a family of four, the cap is $3,478.

Residents attending the expo should bring a government-issued photo ID, proof of residence, Social Security cards for each member of the household including children, the name and account number of their energy supplier, and proof of income.

Those...

Lacrosse equipment maker STX, which expanded earlier this year into hockey, is now selling ice hockey gloves and performance and recreational sticks in U.S. stores, the Baltimore company announced Monday.

"Our goal was to blur the lines between the player and equipment," said Matt Hoppe, STX senior global brand manager, of STX’s efforts over the past three years to create new technologies for hockey equipment.

STX says its new "elite" gloves, the Stallion 500 and the Surgeon 500, are designed to increase performance and comfort. The Stallion 500 gives power players better mobility and protection, while the Surgeon 500 gives precision players better responsiveness, STX said.

National Hockey League player Matt Moulson, who has endorsed the STX line, is playing in the new gloves.

"This is exactly what NHL guys have been asking for," said Moulson, a Buffalo Sabres player, in a statement. "STX was able to take all of our feedback to design features like the flexible thumb and open stitching...