Boeing cuts big check for schools
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, September 20, 2001
The Boeing Co. said it plans to donate $2.5 million to early childhood education and science programs over the next four years. Boeing officials presented checks for the first donations, totaling $1.35 million, at a ceremony in Renton Wednesday. They went to representatives of Washington state LASER, a group that promotes science education, and to the Foundation for Early Learning. The remaining $1.15 million will be donated available through 2004 as Flight to the Future grants for public schools and nonprofit organizations in King, Pierce, Snohomish and Spokane counties. The donation underscores Boeing’s continued commitment to Washington state, said John Warner, the company’s senior vice president.
A potential $100 billion price tag for America’s response to terrorism, plus a limp economy hobbled further by last week’s attacks, could revive federal deficits next year for the first time since 1997. The return of federal red ink would end a string of four straight annual surpluses and mark a stunning turnaround from May, when the Congressional Budget Office envisioned a 2002 surplus of $304 billion. The nonpartisan CBO downgraded its projection to $176 billion last month to account for the costs of President Bush’s tax cut and an economy that was already becoming weaker. The abrupt budgetary reversal has been accompanied by an equally dramatic transformation of the capital’s politics.
British Airways announced Thursday it would cut another 5,200 jobs, or about 9 percent of its workforce, and reduce operations by 10 percent because of an expected slowdown in air travel following terror attacks in the United States.
FedEx Corp., the world’s largest cargo airline, reported Thursday that first-quarter profits fell 36 percent, in part because the flat economy weakened demand in the manufacturing and high-tech sectors for its premium services.
Demand for American labels and American-made goods has surged since the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, trend forecasters say. Following the terrorist attacks, retailers reported a surge in flag sales, ribbons, and patriotic T-shirts. By Sept. 13, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, for example, sold out of 500,000 flags and is now scrambling to restock them. Meanwhile, apparel firms like Polo Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger have reported a sharp increase in sales of red, white and blue merchandise.
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