McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Business Budget for Friday, August 27, 2010
Updated at 9:06 p.m. EDT (0106 UTC)
Adds EGGRECALL-DECOSTER:TBW, MEXICANA:MK, UNITED-CONTINENTAL:TB
Updates ECONOMY-BERNANKE:LA
<
This budget is now available on MCT Direct at http://www.mctdirect.com, with direct links to stories and art. See details at the end of the budget.
TOP STORIES
GDP growth downgraded; Fed poised to act, Bernanke says
ECONOMY-BERNANKE-1ST-LEDE:LA_
His remarks came after the Commerce Department sharply downgraded the nation's economic growth in the second quarter, the latest in a string of indicators to suggest that the risk of a "double-dip" recession had increased.
Stocks rallied, with the Dow Jones industrial average rising more than 160 points to 10,150.65, its biggest gain since Aug. 2. Markets had fallen sharply this week after a series of negative reports on housing and unemployment.
1100 (with trims) by Jim Puzzanghera in Washington. (Moved as a national story.) MOVED
GRAPHIC, ARCHIVE PHOTOS
Also moving as:
ECONOMY-BERNANKE:WA_<1150 (with trims) by Kevin G. Hall in Washington. (Moved as a Washington story.) MOVED
GRAPHIC, ARCHIVE PHOTOS
Older adults' use social networks growing fast, study finds
CPT-FACEBOOK-OLDERADULTS:OS_
Roseboom is part of a growing number of adults logging onto social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to stay connected, according to a study released Friday by the Pew Research Center's Internet and America Life Project.
In fact, for adults 50 to 64 years old, the use of social networking sites have jumped by 88 percent in the past year, the study found. For those 65 and older, it has doubled.
900 (with trims) by Sarah Lundy in Orlando, Fla. (Moved as a national story) MOVED
PHOTO
Also moving as:
CPT-FACEBOOK-OLDERADULTS:SJ_<400 by Mike Swift in San Jose, Calif. (Moved as a national story.) MOVED
Hardware stores, symbol of Americana, suffer in recession
HARDWARE-BIZPLUS:CS_
And he has mourned as other South Carolina hardware stores have chained their doors for the last time - including three that are closing in the next few weeks in Richland and Lexington.
''We get tired of fighting and trying to survive," Reynolds said.
The thought of whether he will be next is always sitting on a back shelf, but it's not an option he wants to think about. Reynolds said he believes his community needs a local hardware store - even if his store has a Lowe's or The Home Depot within five miles of it in three different directions.
The local hardware store is a slice of Americana that is quickly fading as large chains have swooped into smaller communities over the past couple of decades and as customers have put their wallets under lock and key in a lasting economic downturn.
1050 (with trims) by Kristy Eppley Rupon in Columbia, S.C. MOVED
PHOTOS
AUTO STORIES
Harley-Davidson willing to pull jobs from Milwaukee
AUTO-HARLEY-MILWAUKEE:MW_
The decision will depend on the outcome of negotiations that are taking place with the United Steelworkers of America and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
250 by Rick Barrett in Milwaukee. MOVED
Cities scramble to woo first wave of electric vehicles
AUTO-ELECTRICS-CITIES:TB_
The makers of electric cars are conducting a nationwide dating game of sorts to determine which cities get the vehicles first. Hoping for widespread electric vehicle adoption, the carmakers are rolling out first in cities where motorists will encounter the fewest headaches.
In unprepared cities, too many vehicles charging at once can cause power outages. Owners who seek permits for home charging stations, which can charge vehicles in far less time, can run into paperwork nightmares. And cities that lack charging infrastructure risk the possibility of stranded motorists.
1350 (with trims) by Julie Wernau in Chicago. MOVED
PHOTOS, GRAPHIC
As Harley mulls downsizing, factory town frets
AUTO-HARLEY-CITY:MW_
Harley is one of the largest individual employers, with two factories that make parts and accessories for expensive touring bikes. It also is a magnet for an annual motorcycle rally that attracts about 40,000 bikers and fills hotel rooms for 90 miles.
''The identity of Tomahawk and Harley-Davidson are one and the same," said Glenn Christenson, a retired Harley employee whose son and daughter are employed at the motorcycle plants here.
But the two plants and Harley's factory in Menomonee Falls, Wis., could close if the company can't cut millions of dollars in manufacturing costs.
Harley says this fall it will decide whether to pull its plants out of Wisconsin, a move that could eliminate several thousand jobs including nearly 400 in Tomahawk - a city with strong ties to the forest-products industry and the maker of Electra Glide and Ultra Classic motorcycles.
1150 (with trims) by Rick Barrett in Tomahawk, Wis. MOVED
PHOTOS
MORE BUSINESS NEWS
Problems dog DeCoster egg farms, but states eager for his business
EGGRECALL-DECOSTER-CORRECTION:TBW_
He also was embraced by local governments in two states eager to reap the economic benefits of a large egg farm - even a rule-breaking one.
Earlier this month, DeCoster's Wright County Egg farms in Iowa recalled 380 million eggs. A second Iowa egg producer, partly supplied by a DeCoster-owned firm, pulled another 170 million eggs off the shelves.
1350 (with trims) by Andrew Zajac in Washington. MOVED
Justice Dept. clears United-Continental merger for takeoff
UNITED-CONTINENTAL:TB_
To win the blessing of federal antitrust regulators, United and Continental agreed to lease slots for 18 round-trip flights to Southwest Airlines at Newark (N.J.) Liberty International Airport, beginning in March 2011.
Justice officials said the slot transfer was struck in "response to the department's principal concerns" regarding the merger, which critics have warned will speed consolidation and eventually leave the three largest U.S. carriers with a lion's share of the market.
650 by Julie Johnsson in Chicago. MOVED
Boeing delays Dreamliner after test engine breaks apart
BOEING:SE_
The new delay is due largely to the failure of a Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 test engine, which broke apart internally while being run on a ground-test stand at the engine maker's plant in Derby, England, earlier this month.
Since that failure was first reported on the website of Flight International trade magazine last week, both Boeing and Rolls-Royce have declined to comment on the report's assertions that the failure resulted in parts of the engine innards penetrating the casing around the engine - a dangerous occurrence referred to as an "uncontained failure."
400 by Dominic Gates in Seattle. MOVED
HP, Dell raise offers for 3Par
CPT-3PAR-DELL-HP-1ST-LEDE:MK_
Investors in 3Par cheered the news, driving the stock up nearly 25 percent to $32.46 by Friday's close - putting the shares more than 8 percent above the highest bid price, signaling a hope for more offers.
The moves cap an intense week of bidding for the data-storage company based in Fremont, Calif. 3Par has about 670 workers and saw total revenue of $194.3 million for the fiscal year ended March 31 - less than one-tenth of the valuation offered by HP's latest bid.
700 by Dan Gallagher and Christopher Hinton in San Francisco. MOVED
Microsoft co-founder Allen sues Apple, Google, Yahoo, others
CPT-ALLEN-LAWSUIT:MK_
In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Friday, Interval Licensing alleges that the list of companies, a virtual who's who of Silicon Valley and the Internet industry, have violated four of the firm's patents.
350 by John Letzing in San Francisco. MOVED
Air carrier Mexicana to suspend operations indefinitely
MEXICANA:MK_
Airline operator Grupo Mexicana in a statement on its Web site said operations at Mexicana de Aviacion, Mexico's largest air carrier by passenger traffic, will be suspended indefinitely as of noon local time Saturday. Low-cost carriers MexicanaClick and MexicanaLink will also cease operations.
250 by Carla Mozee in Los Angeles. MOVED
Seafood industry struggles to throw off spill's stigma
OILSPILL-SEAFOOD:LA_
When news first hit of the massive oil blowout 50 miles southeast of here, Arnesen filled her freezer with shrimp, and has no intention of eating fresh seafood until she stops hearing from her fellow fishermen about blobs of oil on the sea bottom and tiny droplets of dispersed hydrocarbons in the water.
The $272 million seafood industry, which is as much a part of Louisiana as Mardi Gras, is struggling to regain traction in a market that shows little appetite for Gulf of Mexico seafood after BP's busted well gushed more than 4 million barrels into the ocean.
1350 (with trims) by Kim Murphy in Venice, La. MOVED
Stocks end Friday sharply higher on Bernanke, GDP
MARKETS:MK_
Bernanke's comments provided few surprises but reassured Wall Street the central bank will act if "unexpected developments" cause the recovery to falter.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Business Budget for Friday, August 27, 2010
Updated at 9:06 p.m. EDT (0106 UTC)
Adds EGGRECALL-DECOSTER:TBW, MEXICANA:MK, UNITED-CONTINENTAL:TB
Updates ECONOMY-BERNANKE:LA
<
This budget is now available on MCT Direct at http://www.mctdirect.com, with direct links to stories and art. See details at the end of the budget.
TOP STORIES
GDP growth downgraded; Fed poised to act, Bernanke says
ECONOMY-BERNANKE-1ST-LEDE:LA_His remarks came after the Commerce Department sharply downgraded the nation's economic growth in the second quarter, the latest in a string of indicators to suggest that the risk of a "double-dip" recession had increased.
Stocks rallied, with the Dow Jones industrial average rising more than 160 points to 10,150.65, its biggest gain since Aug. 2. Markets had fallen sharply this week after a series of negative reports on housing and unemployment.
1100 (with trims) by Jim Puzzanghera in Washington. (Moved as a national story.) MOVED
GRAPHIC, ARCHIVE PHOTOS
Also moving as:
ECONOMY-BERNANKE:WA_<1150 (with trims) by Kevin G. Hall in Washington. (Moved as a Washington story.) MOVED
GRAPHIC, ARCHIVE PHOTOS
Older adults' use social networks growing fast, study finds
CPT-FACEBOOK-OLDERADULTS:OS_Roseboom is part of a growing number of adults logging onto social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to stay connected, according to a study released Friday by the Pew Research Center's Internet and America Life Project.
In fact, for adults 50 to 64 years old, the use of social networking sites have jumped by 88 percent in the past year, the study found. For those 65 and older, it has doubled.
900 (with trims) by Sarah Lundy in Orlando, Fla. (Moved as a national story) MOVED
PHOTO
Also moving as:
CPT-FACEBOOK-OLDERADULTS:SJ_<400 by Mike Swift in San Jose, Calif. (Moved as a national story.) MOVED
Hardware stores, symbol of Americana, suffer in recession
HARDWARE-BIZPLUS:CS_And he has mourned as other South Carolina hardware stores have chained their doors for the last time - including three that are closing in the next few weeks in Richland and Lexington.
''We get tired of fighting and trying to survive," Reynolds said.
The thought of whether he will be next is always sitting on a back shelf, but it's not an option he wants to think about. Reynolds said he believes his community needs a local hardware store - even if his store has a Lowe's or The Home Depot within five miles of it in three different directions.
The local hardware store is a slice of Americana that is quickly fading as large chains have swooped into smaller communities over the past couple of decades and as customers have put their wallets under lock and key in a lasting economic downturn.
1050 (with trims) by Kristy Eppley Rupon in Columbia, S.C. MOVED
PHOTOS
AUTO STORIES
Harley-Davidson willing to pull jobs from Milwaukee
AUTO-HARLEY-MILWAUKEE:MW_The decision will depend on the outcome of negotiations that are taking place with the United Steelworkers of America and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
250 by Rick Barrett in Milwaukee. MOVED
Cities scramble to woo first wave of electric vehicles
AUTO-ELECTRICS-CITIES:TB_The makers of electric cars are conducting a nationwide dating game of sorts to determine which cities get the vehicles first. Hoping for widespread electric vehicle adoption, the carmakers are rolling out first in cities where motorists will encounter the fewest headaches.
In unprepared cities, too many vehicles charging at once can cause power outages. Owners who seek permits for home charging stations, which can charge vehicles in far less time, can run into paperwork nightmares. And cities that lack charging infrastructure risk the possibility of stranded motorists.
1350 (with trims) by Julie Wernau in Chicago. MOVED
PHOTOS, GRAPHIC
As Harley mulls downsizing, factory town frets
AUTO-HARLEY-CITY:MW_Harley is one of the largest individual employers, with two factories that make parts and accessories for expensive touring bikes. It also is a magnet for an annual motorcycle rally that attracts about 40,000 bikers and fills hotel rooms for 90 miles.
''The identity of Tomahawk and Harley-Davidson are one and the same," said Glenn Christenson, a retired Harley employee whose son and daughter are employed at the motorcycle plants here.
But the two plants and Harley's factory in Menomonee Falls, Wis., could close if the company can't cut millions of dollars in manufacturing costs.
Harley says this fall it will decide whether to pull its plants out of Wisconsin, a move that could eliminate several thousand jobs including nearly 400 in Tomahawk - a city with strong ties to the forest-products industry and the maker of Electra Glide and Ultra Classic motorcycles.
1150 (with trims) by Rick Barrett in Tomahawk, Wis. MOVED
PHOTOS
MORE BUSINESS NEWS
Problems dog DeCoster egg farms, but states eager for his business
EGGRECALL-DECOSTER-CORRECTION:TBW_He also was embraced by local governments in two states eager to reap the economic benefits of a large egg farm - even a rule-breaking one.
Earlier this month, DeCoster's Wright County Egg farms in Iowa recalled 380 million eggs. A second Iowa egg producer, partly supplied by a DeCoster-owned firm, pulled another 170 million eggs off the shelves.
1350 (with trims) by Andrew Zajac in Washington. MOVED
Justice Dept. clears United-Continental merger for takeoff
UNITED-CONTINENTAL:TB_To win the blessing of federal antitrust regulators, United and Continental agreed to lease slots for 18 round-trip flights to Southwest Airlines at Newark (N.J.) Liberty International Airport, beginning in March 2011.
Justice officials said the slot transfer was struck in "response to the department's principal concerns" regarding the merger, which critics have warned will speed consolidation and eventually leave the three largest U.S. carriers with a lion's share of the market.
650 by Julie Johnsson in Chicago. MOVED
Boeing delays Dreamliner after test engine breaks apart
BOEING:SE_The new delay is due largely to the failure of a Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 test engine, which broke apart internally while being run on a ground-test stand at the engine maker's plant in Derby, England, earlier this month.
Since that failure was first reported on the website of Flight International trade magazine last week, both Boeing and Rolls-Royce have declined to comment on the report's assertions that the failure resulted in parts of the engine innards penetrating the casing around the engine - a dangerous occurrence referred to as an "uncontained failure."
400 by Dominic Gates in Seattle. MOVED
HP, Dell raise offers for 3Par
CPT-3PAR-DELL-HP-1ST-LEDE:MK_Investors in 3Par cheered the news, driving the stock up nearly 25 percent to $32.46 by Friday's close - putting the shares more than 8 percent above the highest bid price, signaling a hope for more offers.
The moves cap an intense week of bidding for the data-storage company based in Fremont, Calif. 3Par has about 670 workers and saw total revenue of $194.3 million for the fiscal year ended March 31 - less than one-tenth of the valuation offered by HP's latest bid.
700 by Dan Gallagher and Christopher Hinton in San Francisco. MOVED
Microsoft co-founder Allen sues Apple, Google, Yahoo, others
CPT-ALLEN-LAWSUIT:MK_In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Friday, Interval Licensing alleges that the list of companies, a virtual who's who of Silicon Valley and the Internet industry, have violated four of the firm's patents.
350 by John Letzing in San Francisco. MOVED
Air carrier Mexicana to suspend operations indefinitely
MEXICANA:MK_Airline operator Grupo Mexicana in a statement on its Web site said operations at Mexicana de Aviacion, Mexico's largest air carrier by passenger traffic, will be suspended indefinitely as of noon local time Saturday. Low-cost carriers MexicanaClick and MexicanaLink will also cease operations.
250 by Carla Mozee in Los Angeles. MOVED
Seafood industry struggles to throw off spill's stigma
OILSPILL-SEAFOOD:LA_When news first hit of the massive oil blowout 50 miles southeast of here, Arnesen filled her freezer with shrimp, and has no intention of eating fresh seafood until she stops hearing from her fellow fishermen about blobs of oil on the sea bottom and tiny droplets of dispersed hydrocarbons in the water.
The $272 million seafood industry, which is as much a part of Louisiana as Mardi Gras, is struggling to regain traction in a market that shows little appetite for Gulf of Mexico seafood after BP's busted well gushed more than 4 million barrels into the ocean.
1350 (with trims) by Kim Murphy in Venice, La. MOVED
Stocks end Friday sharply higher on Bernanke, GDP
MARKETS:MK_Bernanke's comments provided few surprises but reassured Wall Street the central bank will act if "unexpected developments" cause the recovery to falter.
The Dow Jones industrial average vaulted 165.84 points, or 1.7 percent, to finish at 10,150.65
550 by Kristina Peterson, Donna Kardos Yesalavich and Jonathan Cheng in New York. MOVED
AUTO REVIEWS
Honda CR-Z aims to have fuel efficiency and enjoy it, too
AUTO-HONDACRZ-REVIEW:LA_With its 2011 CR-Z, Honda Motor Co. is playing with a new concept. It's called responsible indulgence, and Honda's debuting the idea with a two-seat "sporty hybrid coupe" that's got some spunk but doesn't force drivers to check their environmental consciences at the door. Starting at $19,200, the CR-Z offers conservationist virtues and Kardashian curves on a Kmart budget.
1050 by Susan Carpenter. MOVED
PHOTOS
Honda's sporty CR-Z hybrid can't match Prius mileage
AUTO-HONDACRZ-REVIEW:OS_But if you're looking for Toyota Prius-type hybrid mileage, you'll be disappointed: The CR-Z we tested is EPA-rated at 31 miles per gallon in the city, 37 on the highway, compared to the Prius' 51 mpg city, 48 highway. In a long day of driving the CR-Z almost 600 miles, mostly on the highway, we averaged 35.8 mpg. Not bad, but only a little better than you'd expect from the non-hybrid Honda Fit.
750 by Steven Cole Smith. MOVED
PHOTOS
2011 Mercedes SLS AMG poised to become icon
AUTO-MERCEDESSLSAMG-REVIEW:MI_OK, all that is impossible to forget, even for a moment. But I wonder this, being a classic-car guy and proud owner of a 1981 DeLorean for 10 years, is this SLS ready to follow in its tire prints? A classic waiting to happen?
No question, if you listen to Mercedes: "Our aim with this interpretation is to create the classic car of the future," said design chief Gordon Wagener.
1000 by Barry Spyker. MOVED
PHOTOS
2011 Kia Sorento packs in seating, but misses on visibility
AUTO-KIASORENTO-REVIEW:DE_The sleek Sorento has two rows of seating for five people and a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine in base trim. Three-row seating to carry seven passengers and a 3.5-liter V6 are optional.
Seven-person capacity and V6 power are relatively uncommon features among small crossover SUVs. The Honda CR-V offers neither.
750 by Mark Phelan. MOVED
PHOTOS
VEHICLE PHOTOS<
MCT has many photos of new car models available in its photo archive on MCT Direct.
Simply search the MCT photo archive on MCT Direct with the automobile make and the year to view the photos. If you have any questions or need help locating a photo, please call MCT Photo at 202-383-6099.
COLUMNS<
WEEKAHEAD:MI_300 by Tom Hudson. MOVED
AUTO-MOTORING-QA:MS_700 by Paul Brand. MOVED
AUTO-SMITH-COLUMN:OS_850 (with trims) by Steven Cole Smith. MOVED
AUTO-HOOD:MCT_600 by Brad Bergholdt. MOVED
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AUTO-PHELAN-COLUMN:DE by Mark Phelan will not move.
PERSONAL FINANCE COLUMNS
PFP-MARKSJARVIS-COLUMN-ADV29:TB_800 by Gail MarksJarvis. MOVED
PFP-SPENDINGSMART-ADV29:TB_850 by Gregory Karp. MOVED
BEST OF BUSINESS: THE WEEK'S TOP FEATURES
EDITORS: The following are among the best McClatchy-Tribune News Service business stories that moved this week and are still suitable for use this weekend and beyond.
'You are not this situation': Advice for long-term jobless
PFP-JOBLESS-LONGTERM:SA_Fast-forward to August 2010.
These days, it's hard to rev up much optimism. The 48-year-old feels he's riding on fumes. He's burned through his severance and nearly tapped out his 401(k) fund. Despite numerous applications, his job search has netted just three in-person interviews. Worse, his health care premiums just tripled - to $586 a month - while his unemployment benefits will expire early next year.
To help Mathis and other long-term unemployed, we asked Debbie Grose, a certified financial planner with Lighthouse Financial Planning LLC in Folsom, Calif., to map out plans for cutting costs and finding work.
1300 (with trims) by Claudia Buck in Sacramento, Calif. MOVED
PHOTO
Horrible flight? Airlines' apology experts will make it up to you
WRK-AIRLINE-APOLOGIES:DA_For example, there was the female passenger who kneeled in front of her middle seat and chewed on the seat cushion, then stripped off her top and ran down the aisle. But Taylor and others on his customer service team can apologize to the other passengers on that flight and did so, as they've done thousands of other times when something has gone wrong in the air or on the ground.
Their job: to find out the situations in which something went wrong - a mechanical delay, bad weather, a medical emergency or a berserk passenger - then apologize to all passengers on that flight quickly and profusely, within 24 hours of their bad experience, if possible.
1050 (with trim) by Terry Maxon in Dallas. MOVED
PHOTOS
'Gen Y' gets dose of hard reality in recession job market
WRK-GENY-BIZPLUS:MI_Today, his younger workers are much easier to manage. The recession has brought a shocking reality to the Generation Y professionals who stumped baby boomers when they first entered the workforce with their desire for work/life balance over the corner office.
Stunned by a barrage of pink slips instead of promotions, Generation Y - people between ages 18 and 30 - has swallowed a piece of humble pie. Those who still have jobs are adopting new workplace attitudes and making themselves more valuable.
1600 (with trims) by Cindy Krischer Goodman in Miami. DIVERSITY. MOVED
PHOTOS
Google's 'search czar' in touch with world's curiosity
CPT-GOOGLE-SEARCHCZAR:SJ_Gomes is the engineer in charge of improving what you see when you Google. From one of the most important but little-known offices in the Googleplex in Mountain View, Gomes is responsible for shaping the automatic suggestions users get as they begin typing a query, and the few lines of text and links they get back, which Google calls "the snippet." He sees the digital torrent of Google's 1 billion daily search queries.
The interaction between user and search engine defines what Google is all about, and company co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have put Gomes in charge of improving that dialogue.
1500 (with trims) by Mike Swift in San Jose, Calif. MOVED
PHOTO
Businesses may find Groupon more a burden than a boost
CPT-GROUPON-RUSH:TB_Greg Gibbs, owner of Chicago Bagel Authority, felt this pain firsthand when he signed on with Groupon for a deal-of-the-day in January. His promotion, which cost $3 for an $8 voucher good for any menu item, sold nearly 10,000 Groupons, 10 times more than the top end of Gibbs' expectations.
''This will end up being the year of the Groupon for us, and that's not a good thing," Gibbs said. "We'll count it as a loss. "
''Let the seller beware," a twist on the old commerce maxim, has become the mantra for a growing list of local merchants that have been overwhelmed by the response to Groupon's popular model. The site offers new deals every day at a deep discount if a minimum threshold of buyers participate.
1200 (with trims) by Robert Channick and Wailin Wong in Chicago. MOVED
PHOTOS
<
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5/8 2010, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
Not for publication or retransmission without permission of MCT.
