The Boeing Co. has held its first training session for airline mechanics who will work on its new 787 jet, the company said Tuesday. Japan’s All Nippon Airways sent 10 mechanics to be trained by Boeing. Japan’s Civil Aviation Bureau also sent two regulators to the 30-day training session. Boeing plans to deliver the first 787 Dreamliner jet to ANA later this year. The mechanics, who finished the training session last week, are the first of 150 ANA mechanics to be trained by Boeing over the next seven months. The session included classroom training, engine runs and taxi testing, troubleshooting exercises and component identification.
BMW parts plant goes to Moses Lake
Drawn by cheap and sustainable hydropower, a joint venture to manufacture carbon fiber parts for a new BMW electric car will be built in Moses Lake, the heart of central Washington’s potato country. The long-expected announcement that SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers LLC will build its state-of-the-art plant in the city of about 20,000 people came at a news conference Tuesday. The joint venture is backed by BMW Group and SGL Group, Europe’s only carbon fiber manufacturer. Theodore Breyer, SGL Group’s deputy CEO, said it plans to break ground at a 60-acre site in June and is spending $100 million on the first phase of the factory. It will employ 80 workers.
Kirkland adviser admits client thefts
A Kirkland investment adviser raised her right hand — still bandaged from a recent suicide attempt — and pleaded guilty Tuesday to stealing $9.4 million from more than three dozen clients. Rhonda Breard, 47, promoted her financial expertise in television infomercials and in $49 seminars at local community colleges. Beginning in 2004, she started encouraging clients to take money out of certain accounts and turn it over to her — supposedly for new investments. Instead, she used the money to buy expensive homes, cars, jewelry, personal watercraft and snowmobiles. “She knows she’s done wrong,” said attorney Ron Friedman. “She’ll be saying she’s sorry for the rest of her life.”
AOL plans to sell Bebo community
The struggling Internet company AOL Inc. plans to sell or shut down the online community Bebo nearly two years after buying it for $850 million in an expansion of its social networking ambitions. In an e-mail to employees Tuesday, Jon Brod, who runs AOL’s startup acquisition and investment unit, AOL Ventures, said Bebo would need a “significant investment” to remain competitive. Although Bebo has been in the shadow of rivals such as Facebook, it has been strong in foreign markets, including Britain. AOL wanted to tap that strength abroad to drive traffic to AOL’s other free, ad-supported Web sites, especially internationally, while leveraging AOL’s instant-messaging communities, AIM and ICQ, to try to grow Bebo.
From Herald staff reports and news services
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