Crooks set sights on bank ATMs Stop and look before inserting your card into an ATM machine. Crooks have been tampering with automated teller machines around the world—and in Virginia, striking last summer in Hampton Roads and leaving behind 100 victims including those from Richmond and Chesterfield County. The victims were robbed of about $500,000, according to the Secret Service in Richmond. An investigation is ongoing.

For the week that ended Nov. 6. DIVIDEND Quarterly unless noted Increased Aaron’s Inc .018 from .017 Alliance Res Ptrs .76 from .745 Apollo Invest .28 from .26 Beckman Coulter .18 from .17 Buckeye GP LP .39 from .37 CH Robinson .25 from .24 Meadowbrook Ins .03 from .02 Mercury General .59 from .58

The worst recession in 70 years has ended. But tell that to people trying to find jobs. “The recession is not over until everyone who wants to work is working and working at what they want to do,“ said Walter Courtney of Montpelier. Courtney, 56, is an Internet technology professional who works as a security guard at a retirement home in Hanover County. He was a project manager at a bank, but was laid off early in the economic downturn.

Richmond biopharmaceutical company Insmed Inc. reported it lost $150,000 in the quarter ending Sept. 30, compared with a loss of $2.2 million in the same period a year earlier. On a per-share basis, the loss in the third quarter was break-even compared with a 2-cent loss in the year-ago period. Revenue for the third quarter was $2.5 million, compared with $4.1 million for the corresponding period in 2008.

Stocks post modest gains despite bad news on jobs NEW YORK Investors undaunted by a surprisingly weak jobs report found enough positive news to nudge stocks higher yesterday. News that the nation’s unemployment rate rose above 10 percent last month for the first time in 26 years didn’t derail the stock market’s strong gains during the week, which lifted major indexes more than 3 percent.

Philip Morris USA and two other cigarette companies can stop making payments to tobacco farmers in Maryland and Pennsylvania through a decade-old settlement. North Carolina’s highest court ruled yesterday that Henrico County-based Philip Morris, Lorillard and R.J. Reynolds could stop making payments to those growers under a 1999 agreement, which stemmed from the national tobacco settlement with the states a year earlier.

One of the top 10 home sales in September in the Richmond area was for a house with 12,870 square feet that sold for $931,900. It is assessed for $1.845 million. Is this a crazy market or what? Yes and no. The house, at 330 Pembroke Lane in Goochland County, was a foreclosure. It was listed in 2006 for $2.995 million, according to the county assessor’s office.

Richmond’s unemployed workers did the best they could to shake off yesterday’s bad news that the U.S. unemployment rate hit double digits. They got back to the main task: finding work. The nation’s jobless rate rose to 10.2 percent last month from 9.8 percent. The unemployment rate is the highest in 26½ years. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also reported the number of people on employers’ payrolls fell by 190,000—more than economists, who just last week were hailing the end of the recession, had forecast.

The federal economic-stimulus plan is working for small businesses in Virginia, a senior SBA official told the Virginia Asian Chamber of Commerce’s procurement conference here.

The Martin Agency and five other agencies are competing to handle advertising for General Motors Co.‘s Cadillac division. GM said it narrowed its list of candidates to six agencies, a month after announcing it was dumping boutique agency Modernista! as its longtime ad partner. GM said it will hold visits with the candidates in Detroit before Thanksgiving, with finalists making presentations to company executives in January.

Job-seekers beware: There’s a new warning on Craigslist.com. The Web site recently posted a scam alert, telling applicants to be on the lookout for bogus ads that promise work that doesn’t exist. “The ones that sound too good to be true, they usually are,“ said Kevin Jackson, chief investigator for Florida’s Hillsborough County Consumer Protection Agency.

Higher prices for North American tobacco have boosted Universal Corp.‘s earnings so far this fiscal year despite a drop in shipments of leaf. Volumes rose in South America and Asia, while Universal’s African operations got a boost from a better mix of leaf and increased income from processing. Richmond-based Universal’s profit for the second quarter ended Sept 30 rose 26 percent from the year before to $52.5 million, or $1.77 a share, despite a 17.5 percent drop in revenue to $647.9 million.

October’s retail sales results, the best performance since April 2008, show that Americans are spending a little more. But will they be willing to pay full price this holiday season? Stores are heading into the period with slashed inventories, determined not to have the fire sales that characterized last Christmas. But shoppers still are facing tight credit and a weak job market and might wait for fat discounts or not buy at all. That game of chicken will determine the holiday winners and losers.

Missed out on Cash for Clunkers? Congress has another deal for you: Buy a home before May 1 and collect up to $6,500 from the government. If you’re a first-time homebuyer, get up to $8,000. As part of efforts to encourage people to spend money to help revive the economy, the House voted yesterday to expand a popular tax credit for homebuyers.

Jobs data, Cisco report send stocks over 10,000 NEW YORK Abright forecast from Cisco Systems and upbeat economic news sent stocks soaring yesterday and propelled the Dow Jones industrials back above 10,000. The rally showed that investors are regaining their optimism about an economic recovery. The Dow bolted up 203 points, or 2 percent, while the Nasdaq composite index, led by Cisco’s outlook, rose nearly 2.5 percent. The market’s move continued a streak of volatility that began last month, but this latest surge was powered not by a single event but by a wave of good news: