WASHINGTON — A loophole in a sweeping tobacco regulation bill would give the industry a 21-month window to introduce certain new products without first getting federal approval.

The House last month overwhelmingly passed the legislation, which for the first time would empower federal public health authorities to regulate tobacco. Some tobacco foes say the bill's 21-month escape clause would let companies start marketing cigarettes and other products in the development pipeline before the Food and Drug Administration has fully ramped up to regulate them.

The legislation represents a compromise among major antismoking groups and some tobacco companies. The bill has the support of a majority of senators, but it's unclear whether it will become law because the Bush administration has threatened a veto.

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh City Council wants to give residents a choice of cable television providers for the first time since the city began awarding franchise agreements for the service in 1980.Comcast is the Pittsburgh's sole cable provider, but city council has asked a law firm to study letting Verizon offer its service in the city.Comcast has had exclusive rights in the city since 2002. Before that, the city has not had more than one cable TV provider at a time since its first franchise agreement with Warner Cable 28 years ago.The city gets 5 percent of Comcast's gross revenues, or about $4.1 million a year.City officials say opening up the agreement shouldn't cost the city money, unless Verizon and Comcast wage a price war.

WASHINGTON — Sprint Nextel Corp. swung to a second-quarter loss after three-quarters of a million of its most valuable customers canceled service. The struggling wireless company also said it would sell up to $3 billion in debt.Sprint is not expecting much improvement in the third quarter. The company said it could lose even more postpaid subscribers before the decline starts to taper off in the second half of the year.Postpaid customers are the most profitable in the industry. They sign up for annual plans and pay at the end of each month. Sprint has lost nearly 3 million of those subscribers in the past year and a half.Sprint has lost millions of customers to rivals in the past few years owing to poor customer service, a less appealing selection of phones and snafus related to its $35 billion purchase of Nextel in 2005.