Bloomberg New Jersey construction workers, engineers and even gas-station retailers urged legislators to approve a gasoline-tax increase to fund transportation projects and end a roadwork shutdown that has left thousands without jobs. Legislation opposed by Republican Governor Chris Christie passed the Senate budget committee on Friday. The panel’s chairman, Democratic Senator Paul Sarlo, told reporters he’s still working to …

  Bloomberg It turns out that even the well-off need help in a housing market as crazy as the one in the San Francisco Bay area, and lenders are elbowing each other in a rush to provide it. They’re courting Silicon Valley workers with tailored loans, guaranteed 24-hour approval and financial-planning services. Social Finance Inc. has deals with Google and …

  Bloomberg Oracle Corp., lagging the competition in cloud-based services, is essentially buying market share with its $9.3 billion acquisition of NetSuite Inc. Oracle has been trying for years to shift from selling software installed on corporate customers’ gear the old way to delivering it over the internet. Yet in its most recent quarter, the company said the cloud division …