More than 60,000 unemployed Washington workers may now qualify for up to 13 additional weeks of federally unemployment benefits under a bill singed into law last week by President Bush, state Employment Security Department Commissioner Sylvia P. Mundy announced Monday. People whose unemployment benefits ran out on or after March 11 may be eligible, provided they don’t qualify for any other unemployment coverage. The Employment Security Department is still working out details with the U.S. Department of Labor. This means that the earliest notifications to potentially eligible people will be mailed this weekend.
SonoSite Inc. of Bothell unveiled its newest hand-carried ultrasound system on Monday at the American College of Cardiology’s annual scientific conference in Atlanta, Ga. The company says the SonoHeart ELITE system is the only all-digital ultrasound unit of its size with complete echocardiography capabilities. The system, weighing less than six pounds, allows cardiologists or medical technicians to perform complete echocardiography examinations. Monday’s showing of the system is the public debut for the heart-monitoring product. SonoSite expects to begin shipping it in the next few weeks.
The Treasury Department sold three-month bills at a discount rate of 1.84 percent Monday, up from 1.825 percent last week. Six-month bills sold at a rate of 2.07 percent, up from 2.02 percent. The new discount rates understate the return to investors – 1.874 percent for three-month bills with a $10,000 bill selling for $9,953.50 and 2.120 percent for a six-month bill selling for $9,895.40. Information wasn’t immediately available on the one-year constant maturity bill Monday, which is often used as a basis for adjustable rate mortgages.
Intermec Technologies Corp. will make identification chips at its plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to be imbedded in tires used by Ford Motor Co., the Everett-based company announced Monday. The radio-frequency “Intellitag” identification chips can be embedded in the steel belting of car tires, then read remotely by special equipment. Tom Miller, executive vice president for Intermec, said the devices will be put into General and Continental tires used by Ford. The tags will be encoded with information indicating when and where the tires were manufactured, the vehicle identification number and the eventual owner’s name. The information will then be stored in a database, speeding up the process in the event of a safety recall.
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