Business & Technology

Last Thursday, the interest rate on 30-year mortgages dipped to its lowest level ever: 3.56 percent.

RUSTON — Lincoln Parish shoppers will find they are paying a little more at the checkout as a new quarter-cent sales tax to support the Sheriff's Office went into effect in July.

The Daily Leader reports (http://bit.ly/NkZ8Qw) Sheriff Mike Stone says revenue from the tax would pay for technology, continuation of services and to help offset a $100,000 deficit from the previous fiscal year.

Jerry Smith, the sheriff's chief civil deputy, says the sales tax affects all purchases and is in effect throughout Lincoln Parish.

The bad news: Retail sales fell 0.5 percent in June from May, the Census Bureau says. It's the third straight month that sales have been down from the month before.

But, Census adds that June sales were 3.8 percent above the pace of June 2011. And, "sales for the April through June 2012 period were up 4.7 percent ... from the same period a year ago."