Ken Bueckers loved being a pipe fitter. It took him to the tops of tall buildings and to furnaces below. He yanked valves open and wrestled pipe into crawl spaces.

In a perfect world he would still be doing that. He’s 69, but he has a clear mind and 32 years of experience. He and his wife could use the extra income. “I would probably go out and do it if my body would let me,” he said.

At a time when financial necessity is forcing many Americans to work longer, some don’t have that option. Bueckers is one of millions of blue-collar workers who have grown too old for blue-collar work.

White-collar professionals like consultants, lawyers and accountants are often able to retire gradually, finding ways to keep earning money in fields where they have connections and skills. Almost t

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Buy anything on the Internet lately without paying sales tax? In all but a few states, you’re probably a tax cheat.

That’s right, even if Internet retailers don’t collect sales tax at the time of the purchase, you’re required by law to pay it in 45 states and the District of Columbia.

Here’s the problem for states: Hardly anyone pays the tax, and there’s not much states can do about it.

The Senate is expected to pass a bill Monday making it easier for states to collect sales taxes for online purchases.

Big retailers, such as Walmart, Best Buy and Target, with stores all over the country collect sales taxes when they sell goods over the Internet.

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House leaders are proposing a much less controversial approach to shrinking state-run Citizens Property Insurance that ignores a Senate plan to raise rates significantly for new Citizens customers.

The political dynamic is a reversal from years past, when the more moderate Senate treated rates increases with more skepticism.

Conservatives in the House have often advanced aggressively free-market property insurance reforms, but the chamber’s current and future leadership includes a number of representatives from areas with high insurance rates, a factor some lawmakers cited in the softer approach this year.

House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, represents a sinkhole-prone area north of Tampa shunned by many private insurers.

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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.A solar-powered plane that has wowed aviation fans in Europe took to the skies over the San Francisco Bay area in a successful test flight.

Considered the world’s most advanced sun-powered plane, the Solar Impulse took off from Moffett Field in Mountain View at first light Friday for a two-hour practice run leading up a multi-city, cross-country tour.

Its Swiss creator and pilot Andr Borschberg said the plane should be ready for the cross-country journey on May 1, depending on the weather.

The aircraft will stop in Phoenix, Dallas, Washington and New York.

Each flight leg will take 20 to 25 hours, with 10-day stops planned in each city.

Between Dallas and D.C., the plane will also stop at one of three other cities: Atlanta, Nashville or St.

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The Flint Hills Resources oil refinery in Rosemount has agreed to limit the growth of greenhouse gas emissions and curb other air pollution in a deal that removes potential obstacles to its planned $400 million upgrade of the refinery, the company said Tuesday.

Under the agreement reached with two environmental groups, Flint Hills also will contribute $1 million to a Minnesota effort called Project Green Fleet that helps owners of school buses, construction equipment and other vehicles retrofit diesel engines to make them cleaner.

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Managing a successful restaurant can be tough work. You have to oversee a large and diverse staff, keep your menu up-to-date with the most interesting and most delicious offerings, and make sure that all your customers are satisfied and are receiving the best service. There are a lot of moving parts to oversee, so finding the best tools to help you can make the job easier and ensure your success.

Though every restaurant will have different needs to meet their goals, here are a few tools that can help you manage your restaurant more efficiently:

Restaurant POS

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Mast, a locally owned store at 299 S. Park Ave. in the Lost Barrio, is moving to Mercado San Agustín just west of downtown.

The store’s last day in the Lost Barrio is April 28, after a display sale.

It will reopen at 100 W. Avenida del Convento, near West Congress Street and Grande Avenue, at the end of summer.

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LONDON — A currency surging in value at a breathtaking rate this week belongs to no nation and is issued by no central bank. It can be used to buy gold in California, a hamburger in Berlin or a house in Alberta. When desired, it can offer largely untraceable transactions.

The coin in question now has a global circulation worth more than $1.4 billion on paper. Yet almost no one, it seems, knows the true identity of its creator. In the United States, this mysterious money has become the darling of antigovernment libertarians and computer wizards prospecting in the virtual mines of cyberspace. In Europe, meanwhile, it has found its niche as the coinage of anarchic youth.

The currency is bitcoin, a kind of cyber-money initially traded among hackers and cryptologists, and increasingly traded on websites and exchanged for goods and services.

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