Boeing warns layoffs coming in 2009

(Seattle P-I) The Boeing Co. warned Thursday it will lay off an undetermined number of workers in 2009 as part of a broad effort to reduce costs in a worsening economy and a "more challenging business environment."

Although the aerospace giant, and world's second-biggest maker of commercial airplanes, did not say how many jobs might be lost, it did say the number would be more than the usual 4 to 5 percent lost each year through attrition.

As of the end of October, Boeing's total number of employees stood at 164,192 -- nearly half of whom are in Washington state.

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From September 2008 to October 2008, the filings rose 24.04%.

"Senate Bill 1137 did ease the foreclosure problem in the Southern California region," Serdar Bankaci, founder of Default Research, said in a statement. "The bill, which went into effect in September, requires lenders to contact residents at least 30 days before filing a Notice of Default. By delaying the foreclosure process for families in the region, there was a relative decline in the number of Notices of Defaults and Notice of Trustee sales recorded last month."

The hardest hit cities in Los Angeles County for foreclosures were Los Angeles (1,657), Palmdale (651), Lancaster (637), Long Beach (384), Pomona (252), Santa Clarita (189) and Compton (181).

"A home that was worth $500,000 two years ago may now be worth only 375,000. The good news is that the bottom is near and there are great opportunities to make money in these markets," Bankaci said.

But Toyota does not seem to be ready to celebrate.

In fact, as GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC separately flirt with possible bankruptcy amid huge financial losses, Toyota and fellow Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co. are supporting U.S. government action to save the Detroit Big Three and the auto industry in general.

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The Chicago-based company, which makes military aircraft, civilian jetliners and surveillance systems, said Wednesday the reduction of 800 positions at the Integrated Defense Systems facility will affect managers, and salaried and hourly workers.

The Wichita operation, a defense facility that provides limited support for Boeing's commercial aircraft business, currently employs about 3,000 people. Work at the facility includes modifying Boeing aircraft for international customers.

Among its programs are executive aircraft, refueling systems support for B-52s, and 767 international tankers.

One of hte certified buildings is the Honda R&D America's Acura Design Studio in Torrance. That structure received a Gold rating.

These certified buildings have such features as highly reflective roof and dual-paned windows with low-emissivity glass to reduce solar heat gain, extensive use of recycled and recyclable materials in the building and energy-efficient light fixtures with motion sensors.

(Reuters) - Plane maker Boeing Co is reworking its entire production schedule, adding up to 10 weeks to original delivery dates for all 3,734 jetliners in its order backlog as it tries to recover from a machinists' strike, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the situation.

Since early November, Boeing officials have been working to bring production lines back up to speed, after they lay dormant during a 58-day strike by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the paper said.

The process, which calls for careful coordination among hundreds of suppliers and tens of thousands of workers worldwide, could take several weeks, the paper added.

The Century City-based defense contractor won two worker safety awards, for having the lowest injury and illness rate in two categories, Aircraft Manufacturing and Aerospace Components.

Raytheon took the award for the category Missile and Space Vehicles.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Home sales in Southern California in October leapt 66.7 percent from a year earlier and 5 percent from the prior month as buyers jumped on deep discounts in prices, especially for foreclosed properties, MDA DataQuick said in a report released on Tuesday.

Foreclosures, which abound in some areas of Southern California such as Riverside and San Bernardino counties east of Los Angeles, accounted for half of all home resales in October in the most populous region of the most populous U.S. state, pulling the area's median home price down to $300,000.

Median home prices fall around US in Q3

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Home prices fell in a record four out of five U.S. cities in the third quarter as low-cost foreclosures flooded the market and the U.S. housing market's decline spread throughout the country.

Among 152 metropolitan areas included in the trade group's survey, 120 posted declines in median home sales prices compared with a year ago, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. Nationally, sales fell by almost 8 percent in the third quarter compared with the same period a year ago.

Sales of foreclosures and other distressed properties made up around 40 percent of transactions in the quarter, bringing down the median price by 9 percent from a year ago to $200,500.

Sales fell in all but four states in the Realtors' group's report. The exceptions were Nevada, California, Arizona and Virginia, where buyers have been able to snap up foreclosed homes at a bargain.

"A very large proportion of distressed home sales are taking place at discounted prices compared to more normal conditions a year ago," Charles McMillan, the Realtors group's president, said in a statement.

The new technology will allow the system to operate the new Boeing-built Global Positioning System (GPS) IIF satellites in addition to the current on-orbit GPS fleet, and provide advanced encryption and data-protection capabilities, Boeing said.

The first of 12 GPS IIF satellites is scheduled to launch in the third quarter of next year.
The satellites are being built in El Segundo.

Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS)

Northrop Grumman's Redondo Beach-based Space Technology sector said Monday that it delivered an ozone-monitoring sensor to NASA to be integrated into the NPOESS satellite system.

The science instrument will monitor ozone from space with higher fidelity than existing instruments.

The Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite, or OMPS, will measure the concentration of ozone in the atmosphere, providing information on how ozone concentration varies with altitude.

Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for NPOESS, which stands for National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System.

Federal regulators on Monday charged Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban with insider trading for allegedly using confidential information on a stock sale to avoid more than $750,000 in losses.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit against Cuban in federal court in Dallas. The agency alleged that in June 2004, Cuban was invited to get in on the coming stock offering by Mamma.com Inc. after he agreed to keep the information private.

The SEC said Cuban knew the shares would be sold below the current market price, and a few hours after receiving the information, told his broker to sell his entire stake of 600,000 shares in the search engine company before the public announcement of the offering.

By selling when he did, Cuban avoided losses exceeding $750,000, according to the SEC. At the time of the offering, Cuban was the largest known shareholder in the Montreal-based company, which later changed its name to Copernic Inc.

The SEC is seeking a court judgment against Cuban finding that he violated the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, an injunction against future violations, an unspecified civil penalty and restitution of the losses Cuban allegedly avoided.

Unless he is subject to an injunction, Cuban "is likely to commit such violations again in the future," according to the SEC suit.

Attorneys for Cuban in Washington and Dallas didn't immediately return telephone calls seeking comment.

Cuban, 50, also owns Landmark Theaters, a large national chain dedicated to independent films, and the HDNet cable television channel.

He is one of the richest people in the world, according to Forbes magazine, which pegged his net worth at $2.3 billion as of March 2007.

ATLANTA (Reuters) - As Congress debates legislation to help struggling automakers on Monday, many Americans said they were uneasy with the plan, arguing that while it may save jobs, it would reward companies for pursuing bad business practices.

In interviews from New York to Los Angeles, everyday Americans said the proposed $25 billion rescue plan was unfair and said it would make it harder to reform U.S. automakers.

"They need to restructure. If they get bailed out they are not going to do it," said Eric Smith, a paint contractor interviewed in Chamblee, Georgia, on the outskirts of Atlanta.

Democrats crafted the plan to help General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler LLC, and hope to pass it during a post-election session of Congress starting on Monday.

The three companies, whose gas-guzzling vehicles have been losing market share to Japanese rivals for years, are lobbying for the money to help them restructure and survive the economic downturn.

The stakes rose on Friday, when Goldman Sachs suspended its rating on GM and said the automaker needs at least $22 billion in aid. Goldman also said it would be difficult for Chrysler to survive without help.

White House refines position on auto industry help

WASHINGTON (AP) -- With Congress returning Monday to deal with an auto industry in dire financial straits, the Bush White House stressed that it supports help, but not at the expense of the $700 billion Wall Street rescue program.

With the Senate ready to start work on assistance to the industry, press secretary Dana Perino issued a statement saying the administration "does not want U.S. automakers to fail." She complained that reporting on the White House's statements on this issue has involved "attempts to shorthand the administration's position."

Perino's early morning statement also made clear, however, that the administration steadfastly opposes drawing funds from the bailout plan to help Detroit. She said the $25 billion that Democrats favor taking from the rescue plan should come, instead, from a Department of Energy program previously approved to develop fuel-efficient vehicles.

Democrats want to use part of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout for emergency loans to help prop up the Big Three carmakers. General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC are seeking an infusion of $25 billion, a figure that several Senate Democrats embraced Sunday.