European jet maker Airbus said Thursday it will cut production of its A320 family of short- and medium-range commercial passenger aircraft to 34 a month from 36 now to adapt to slowing demand from airlines. The change will take effect in October and will have no impact on Airbus deliveries this year, which are still seen around the same level as last year, Airbus said in a statement. “At the moment, no impact is foreseen on employees,” Airbus added. The jet maker said it will also keep production of its A330/A340 medium- and long-range aircraft at 8.5 planes per month, as opposed to increasing it to 10 per month as was planned.
Claims filed in trampling death
Relatives of a worker trampled to death in a crush of post-Thanksgiving bargain-hunters at a New York Wal-Mart have filed court papers indicating they intend to sue Nassau County and its police department. A notice of claim — the first step toward suing a municipality — was filed Tuesday in state Supreme Court. It claims the Long Island county and police were negligent, careless and reckless before the Nov. 28 stampede in Valley Stream that killed Jdimytai “Jimmy” Damour. Nassau County Attorney Lorna Goodman says the claims have no merit. The family’s lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and others was dropped after the relatives changed lawyers but they say they will re-file it.
Northwest group to start power plant
Public utility consortium Energy Northwest and private energy company Adage have signed a preliminary agreement to develop biomass power plants in four states. The agreement signed Wednesday calls for developing plants that would convert wood waste from the timber industry into electricity and could be operating as early as 2012. Each plant would generate about 50 megawatts of electricity, or enough to supply 40,000 households in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. The plan is to build at least one biomass power plant in each state, the companies said. The electricity would be delivered by Energy Northwest to a consortium of utilities.
Former prosecutor is SEC’s top cop
The Securities and Exchange Commission has named a former federal prosecutor as its new enforcement chief. Robert Khuzami has been a top legal official on Wall Street at investment firm Deutsche Bank since 2004. Before that he worked for 11 years in the U.S. attorney’s office prosecuting financial crimes. Khuzami, 52, replaces Linda Thomsen, the SEC enforcement director since May 2005. She left last week. Thomsen became a lightning rod for criticism over the SEC’s failure to detect the $50 billion Ponzi scheme allegedly run by money manager Bernard Madoff, despite red flags raised to the agency staff by outsiders over the course of a decade.
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