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Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets nationwide on Saturday to protest rising housing prices in the largest turnout since the grass-roots demonstrations began two weeks ago.

The protests over housing costs have tapped into wider discontent among Israelis over the high cost of living and the growing gaps between rich and poor. Other protests include doctors striking over working conditions and pay, parents demonstrating against expensive child rearing costs and similar outpourings over increasing gas prices.

Thousands thronged the streets of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other major cities and chanted, “The people demand social justice.” Protesters waved Israeli flags and placards that read: “work 3 jobs but don’t make ends meet,” “killing ourselves to live” and “social gaps are killing us.”

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said more than 100,000 people protested in 10 cities across the country from Beersheba in the south to Kiryat Shmoneh at the northern tip of the country Saturday night. Police closed major streets for the protesters to march.

The demonstrations began two weeks ago in Tel Aviv, where young activists set up a small tent encampment in a central neighborhood to draw attention to the country’s housing crunch. The protests, inspired in part by unrest in neighboring Arab countries, have continued to gain steam and show no signs of slowing.

“This is a great success; people are marching in the streets and living in the streets for the past two weeks,” Stav Shafir, one of the protest leaders, told Channel 2 TV. “Finally people are choosing to determine how they want to live. We want affordable housing, health, education and welfare.”

The weeks of popular demonstrations are becoming a headache for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with polls showing a sharp drop in his approval ratings and strong support for the protesters. Netanyahu announced a package of reforms meant to lower housing prices last week but it did little to defuse the anger.

In Jerusalem, thousands marched through the city center to the prime minister’s house.

Protesters held up signs reading, “Netanyahu go home.” The protests have brought together people from diverse background and a wide range of political views. Recent demonstrations have included marches against the prices of gasoline, boycotts of expensive cottage cheese that forced manufacturers to lower prices and lengthy strikes by social workers and doctors over pay and working conditions.

The average Israeli salary stands at about $2,500 per month, with key professions like teachers, civil servants and social workers typically earning less than $2,000 a month.

Home prices jumped some 35 percent between December 2007 and August 2010 and rental rates have also risen steadily. Rent on a modest three-bedroom apartment in central Jerusalem can cost more than $1,000 per month and costs even more in Tel Aviv.

A standard, 1,000-square-foot (100-square-meter) apartment can easily top $600,000 in metropolitan centers like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and $200,000 to $300,000 in second-tier areas.

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EDWARDSVILLE

Shares of Dunkin’ Donuts parent company are set to start trading Wednesday morning after pricing at $19 per share, more than the $16 to $18 range it predicted two weeks ago.

Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc., which also owns the Baskin-Robbins ice cream chain, sold about 22.3 million shares. That means it raised about $423 million before deducting underwriting expenses.

The underwriters, which include JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley & Co., and Barclays Capital Inc., also have the option to buy 3.3 more million shares in the next month. If they do, Dunkin’ would raise about $486 million.

Either way, Dunkin’ would raise more than it originally forecast: When the company first announced its intentions to go public in May, it said it expected to raise about $400 million.

Dunkin’ Brands said it plans to use the money to pay down its substantial debt.

The company, based in Canton, Mass., wants to grow outside its U.S. stronghold, the Northeast. It also is expanding internationally, with South Korea and the Middle East on its radar. The company says it has no plans to pay shareholder dividends “for the foreseeable future.”

The company’s current owners, a coterie of three private equity firms, will continue to play a powerful role at the company even after it goes public.

Together, Bain Capital Partners, Carlyle Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners will own as much as 78 percent of the public Dunkin’ Brands, which will make it nearly impossible for any dissident shareholders to effect substantial changes. The three firms control six of the nine seats on the board of directors.

Shares will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “DNKN.”

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Coffee shops, grocery stores, video stores, restaurants, clothing stores

Strong second-quarter earnings from McDonald’s, General Electric and Caterpillar on Friday are just the latest proof that booming profits have allowed Corporate America to leave the Great Recession far behind.

But millions of ordinary Americans are stranded in a labor market that looks like it’s still in recession. Unemployment is stuck at 9.2 percent, two years into what economists call a recovery. Job growth has been slow and wages stagnant.

“I’ve never seen labor markets this weak in 35 years of research,” says Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University.

Wages and salaries accounted for just 1 percent of economic growth in the first 18 months after economists declared that the recession had ended in June 2009, according to Sum and other Northeastern researchers.

In the same period after the 2001 recession, wages and salaries accounted for 15 percent. They were 50 percent after the 1991-92 recession and 25 percent after the 1981-82 recession.

Corporate profits, by contrast, accounted for an unprecedented 88 percent of economic growth during those first 18 months. That’s compared with 53 percent after the 2001 recession, nothing after the 1991-92 recession and 28 percent after the 1981-82 recession.

What’s behind the disconnect between strong corporate profits and a weak labor market? Several factors:

_ U.S. corporations are expanding overseas, not so much at home. McDonalds and Caterpillar said overseas sales growth outperformed the U.S. in the April-June quarter. U.S.-based multinational companies have been focused overseas for years: In the 2000s, they added 2.4 million jobs in foreign countries and cut 2.9 million jobs in the United States, according to the Commerce Department.

_ Back in the U.S., companies are squeezing more productivity out of staffs thinned by layoffs during the Great Recession. They don’t need to hire. And they don’t need to be generous with pay raises; they know their employees have nowhere else to go.

_ Companies remain reluctant to spend the $1.9 trillion in cash they’ve accumulated, especially in the United States, which would create jobs faxless payday advance. They’re unconvinced that consumers are ready to spend again with the vigor they showed before the recession, and they are worried about uncertainty in U.S. government policies.

“Lack of clarity on a U.S. deficit-reduction plan, trade policy, regulation, much needed tax reform and the absence of a long-term plan to improve the country’s deteriorating infrastructure do not create an environment that provides our customers with the confidence to invest,” Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman said.

Caterpillar said second-quarter earnings shot up 44 percent to $1 billion_ though that still disappointed Wall Street. General Electric’s second-quarter earnings were up 21 percent to $3.8 billion. And McDonald’s quarterly earnings increased 15 percent to $1.4 billion.

Still, the U.S. economy is missing the engines that usually drive it out of a recession.

Carl Van Horn, director of the Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, says the housing market would normally revive in the early stages of an economic recovery, driving demand for building materials, furnishings and appliances _ creating jobs. But that isn’t happening this time.

And policymakers in Washington have chosen to focus on cutting federal spending to reduce huge federal deficits instead of spending money on programs to create jobs: “If we want the recovery to strengthen, we can’t be doing that,” says Chad Stone, chief economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research group that focuses on how government programs affect the poor and middle class.

For now, corporations aren’t eager to hire or hand out decent raises until they see consumers spending again. And consumers, still paying down the debts they ran up before the recession, can’t spend freely until they’re comfortable with their paychecks and secure in their jobs.

Said Van Horn: “I don’t think there’s an easy way out.”

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Cigarette maker Reynolds American says its second-quarter profit fell more than 10 percent on charges related to a legal case and costs related to plant closings.

Excluding those charges, the nation’s second-biggest tobacco company said its profit rose 2 percent as higher prices and smokeless tobacco gains offset cigarette volume declines.

The maker of Camel, Pall Mall and Natural American Spirit brand cigarettes says its net income fell to $304 million, or 52 cents per share, for the period ended June 30. That’s down from $341 million, or 58 cents per share, a year ago.

Adjusted earnings were 67 cents per share. Analysts expected 71 cents per share.

Revenue excluding excise taxes rose less than 1 percent to $2.27 billion, beating analyst estimates for the Winston-Salem, N.C., company.

Its shares slipped 38 cents to $38.13 in premarket trading.

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A lengthy, blistering heat wave that is blanketing the eastern half of the United States is putting significant stress on the nation’s power grid as homeowners and businesses crank up their air conditioners.

Utilities say they’re ready for high power demand and widespread electricity shortages or outages are unlikely. Lines and equipment are not fully taxed and there is more generating and transmission capacity available than usual because of the weak economy. Also, not many major storms are in the forecast, meaning fewer downed power lines.

The heat wave began a week ago in the Plains states and is expected to spread east through the weekend. It is lasting longer than most heat waves and is spread over an unusually wide area, according to Travis Hartman, the Energy Weather Manager at MDA Earthstat, which proves forecasts for utilities and other weather-dependent businesses.

Hartman predicts 90- to 100-degree weather from Chicago to Boston from Wednesday through the weekend. The Midwest is expected to see peak heat on Thursday while thermometers in eastern states will top out on Friday and Saturday. Philadelphia may break a 1957 record of 100 degrees on Friday, while Washington, D.C., is expected to reach 103, tying a record from 1926.

Texas and the southern Plains states will extend a long streak of hot weather. On Wednesday Oklahoma was expected to suffer its 30th day of triple-digit temperatures this year.

Nationwide, Thursday and Friday will be hotter than any time since 1950, says Hartman. “It’s going to mean elevated power demand for an extended period of time for a lot of people,” he says.

To meet demand, utilities are firing up special power plants used only a few days a year, delaying scheduled maintenance in order to keep all equipment on line and testing heat-sensitive switches and other equipment with high-tech devices like thermographers that can gauge temperatures to one-tenth of a degree.

“These are the days everyone wants to have their ACs on, their computers going while they watch TV,” says Jon Jipping, Chief Operating Officer of ITC Holdings Corp., a transmission grid operator that owns grids in Iowa, Michigan and four other Midwest states. “These are the days we get ready for.”

Peak demand for most utilities usually happens on a late weekday afternoon in mid-summer. That’s when businesses are still open but people return home, turn on their air conditioners, lights and televisions and they start cooking dinner.

Problems can arise when the grid comes under maximum strain. Equipment can’t cool off, and it can’t handle as much power as usual. Lines, transformers and switches are working at full capacity and can be overwhelmed by power surges that can result from a blown piece of equipment or downed power line payday lenders.

Even drops in power demand can be perilous. When a thunderstorm drenches a big, hot city, there is a quick drop in power demand because suddenly millions of air conditioners don’t have to work so hard. When power flow changes rapidly, either because of a surge or a sudden dropoff, devices meant to prevent equipment failures could trip, cutting power to customers.

Peak summer demand can be nearly double the demand of a typical day in a mild month like April or October. The PJM Interconnection, which operates the transmission grid in parts of 13 mid-Atlantic states, hit a record peak demand of 146,082 megawatts Tuesday. That compares to a typical April peak load of 78,000 megawatts.

Utilities and grid operators have to plan for the summer peak year-round. For them, a summer heat wave is like Black Friday for a big box retailer. Customers are clamoring for service, and it is time to sell the most power at the highest rates of the year.

Power generators have fleets of small power plants that can be turned on and off relatively easily to meet demand. They are inefficient and expensive, and therefore push the wholesale price of power sharply higher. Peak summer wholesale prices can be triple the price of power during a mild-weather month.

By the end of May each year, utility emergency procedures must be finalized, equipment must be repaired and power plants prepared. Jim Meister, vice president of operations support for Exelon Nuclear, which owns 10 nuclear plants, says each plant undergoes an average of 100 maintenance activities a year to get ready for summer.

When a heat wave is predicted, alert levels are raised that slow and then stop all non-essential maintenance on the grid. Fuel is delivered to plants that may need to fire up and workers are put at the ready.

A long heat wave like this week’s can put even more stress than normal on the system. When heat waves are short, some people will put up with a sweaty day or two. But when a heat wave lasts, many people make their homes colder than normal and run air conditioners constantly.

Also, air conditioners have to work harder because the persistent heat deeply warms walls and other infrastructure, making it harder to cool rooms.

“As you get into the heat wave, the load builds even if the temperature stays the same,” says Mike Bryson, the Executive Director for systems operations at PJM.

Jonathan Fahey can be reached at www.facebook.com/Fahey.Jonathan

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Japan says the crippled reactors at its tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant have reached stability more than four months ago after the disaster.

Trade and industry minister Banri Kaieda also says the plant operators are making steady progress to bring the reactors to a cold shutdown within six months.

Officials describing progress at the plant on Tuesday said radiation around the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant has decreased from peak levels.

Officials based their assessment on several milestones. Temperatures at the bottom of reactor pressure vessels are no longer climbing. A makeshift system to process contaminated water works properly after initial problems. And nitrogen injections are helping prevent more explosions.

The damage at the plant caused by the March 11 tsunami triggered the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

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Congress and the Obama administration are weighing their options as time closes in on the deadline for raising the nation’s debt ceiling, and the White House may call another meeting Sunday of congressional leaders and President Barack Obama.

White House and congressional and aides will continue discussions as Congress moves on two tracks to find a solution for increasing the nation’s borrowing authority while reducing long-term deficits.

The government will exceed the current $14.3 trillion debt ceiling on Aug. 2, after which it will be in default of its obligations. The consequences could be far-reaching, with potentially higher interest rates on mortgages and car loans, a halt in Social Security checks and unsettled world financial markets.

Republicans and some Democrats want to use the debt ceiling countdown as an opportunity to reduce long-term deficits, but both sides have reached an impasse on how to accomplish that.

House Republicans are preparing to vote this week on allowing an increase in the government’s borrowing limit through 2012 as long as Congress approves a balanced-budget constitutional amendment, which is highly unlikely.

In the Senate, the Republican and Democratic leaders are working on a bipartisan plan that would allow Obama to raise the debt limit without a prior vote by lawmakers payday loans lenders. The talks are focusing on how to address long-term deficit reduction in the proposal to satisfy House Republicans.

“Lines of communication remain open with all parties,” said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner.

White House budget director Jacob Lew was scheduled to make a round of appearances on Sunday television news shows to make the case for Obama’s call to reduce deficits with a mix of spending cuts and revenue increases. Republicans have rejected any plan that contains tax increases.

Obama made the argument himself in his weekly radio and Internet address.

“We have to ask everyone to play their part because we are all part of the same country,” Obama said Saturday, pushing a combination of spending cuts and tax increases that has met stiff resistance from Republicans. “We are all in this together,” he said.

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AWARDS

Chesterfield-based Hexagrid announced that its flagship product, VxDatacenter, won the 2011 Cloud Computing World Series Award for best virtualization product.

Hazelwood-based Household Essentials LLC received a Gold Winner award from the 23rd DuPont Awards for Packaging Innovation for the company’s environmentally friendly ironing board cover and pad packaging.

GETTING BETTER

Clayco Inc. now holds the No. 52 position among the nation’s leading contractors and the No. 16 position among the nation’s leading design-builders in terms of revenue, according to the Engineering News-Record.

HELPING OUT

First Bank employees in Missouri and Illinois raised $12,151 for the American Heart Association during a recent Heart Walk campaign.

Auffenberg Ford in Belleville in cooperation with Belleville West High School raised $7,230 for the school’s cheer and dance club at a test-drive event.

MILESTONE

St. Louis-based Daniel And Henry Co. insurance agency is celebrating its 90th anniversary.

NEW BUSINESS

Citizens National Bank of Greater St. Louis and Beyond Housing have partnered in developing a community mortgage product to serve low- to moderate- income clients in the city of St. Louis who have limited or no credit history.

TGA Premier Junior Golf, a national after-school enrichment junior golf program, started a new program in St. Charles County, headed by business partners Valeria Williams, Shirley Colvard and Ivan Mickens.

OPENING

Tumi opened a store at Plaza Frontenac.

86 Plaza Frontenac

Frontenac, Mo. 63131

314-432-2360

RECOGNITION

Steven Harris, a certified public accountant and partner in RubinBrown’s assurance services group, was named a Young Professional of the Year by the Urban League Young Professionals of St. Louis.

Midwest Breast Care Center, a St. Luke’s Hospital’s Center for Diagnostic Imaging affiliated center, was designated a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiology.

Mosby Building Arts was ranked as the top remodeling company in St. Louis, according to Professional Remodeler magazine’s Market Leaders poll.

Jeffrey L. Zelms, retired former CEO of the Doe Run Co., is among the 2011 inductees into the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum at Leadville, Colo.

The American Red Cross recognized Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Crystal City for a fourth consecutive year as a Gold Level recipient for hosting six blood drives throughout the year. The Red Cross also recognized Christian Hospital for holding blood drives leading to the hospital reaching Gold Level status.

John Qualy, managing partner with Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, The Qualy Group in St. Louis, received two proclamations from state officials for his work with Scramble for Kids, a charitable organization that raises money for local children’s hospitals.

SCI Engineering Inc. was recognized by the American Concrete Pavement Association and the Missouri Department of Transportation for the best Portland Cement Concrete Parking Area Project completed in Missouri in 2010 for the company’s high quality testing on the Fort Zumwalt South High School Parking Lot project in St. Peters.

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