NPR News

Steve Inskeep has business news.

Saturday is European Privacy and Data Protection Day, which will be marked by events across the European Union. It caps off an eventful week with Google announcing controversial new privacy policies, and the EU outlining tough new privacy recommendations it wants to make law.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And today's last word in business is say it ain't so - or actually, say it ain't Joe.

A Los Angeles restaurant famous for its nine cent cup of coffee is raising the price to 45 cents - 50 cents with the tax. Management at Philippe the Original told the L.A. Times they can no longer keep up with the cost of coffee. The family-run restaurant has been serving French dip sandwiches since 1908, along with eight-ounce mugs for less than a dime.

The crippled cruise ship off the coast of Italy needs to be removed from the area where it ran aground. Joel Farrell, president and founder of Resolve Marine has been salvaging vessels for more than 30 years. Renee Montagne asks him to explain how the half-submerged cruise ship can be salvaged.

Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff has been making the rounds lately. He's out of prison. He has a new book. He's in a talkative mood. So I figured it was a good time to ask him about the business of lobbying — not about what he did that was illegal, but the ordinary, legal stuff.

The firm he worked for was called Greenberg Traurig. I chose a year at random when Abramoff was working there, and picked a client who I hoped would be fairly typical. I chose Tyco International, a multinational corporation that in 2003 gave Abramoff's firm $1.3 million.

In Cuba this weekend, President Raul Castro will preside over the first meeting of the island's all-powerful Communist Party since last April. Castro has lowered expectations for any new economic reform announcements, saying that internal party affairs will be the business at hand.

But many Cubans will be watching for signs of who is rising in the party's ranks — and who could take over after Raul and Fidel Castro, both in their 80s, are gone.

From Pensacola to Miami, the Republican primary is in full swing. Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are blanketing the state with rallies and personal appearances. The airwaves are full of campaign ads.

But Jeanne Casserta has heard enough. With several days left to go in the campaign, she stopped by the library in Coral Springs this week to cast her vote. She said she's heard plenty from both the Romney and Gingrich campaigns.