The Boeing Co. celebrated the delivery of its 1,500th next-generation 737 on Friday, when Indianapolis-based ATA picked up a 737-800. Boeing touted the event, saying no other airplane family in history had reached this delivery milestone faster. It took Airbus 13 years to deliver its 1,500th A320, Boeing spokeswoman Sandy Angers said. Boeing delivered the first next-generation 737-700 to Southwest Airlines in December 1997.
Inflation fears follow price rises
Consumer prices rose by a modest 0.2 percent in April, settling down a bit from a large jump in March. Still, the government’s latest report on the nation’s pricing climate suggested that inflation is coming out of hibernation. The advance in the Consumer Price Index, the government’s most closely watched inflation barometer, followed a sizable 0.5 percent increase in March, the Labor Department reported Friday.
Global trade talks back on track
Developing countries bridged some of their differences at a series of meetings in Paris, helping rekindle trade talks, leading members of the World Trade Organization said Friday. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said he was optimistic that a deal could be reached by July to re-launch the stalled round of talks aimed at slashing subsidies, import tariffs and other barriers to commerce.
McDonald’s CEO due chemotherapy
McDonald’s Corp. CEO Charlie Bell assured employees Friday that the prognosis is “very, very good” for a full recovery from his May 5 cancer surgery, but he first faces chemotherapy to deal with cancer cells that were discovered in postoperative tests. Bell said the cells were discovered in a couple of lymph nodes, something his oncologist told him is common in colorectal cancer and can be addressed successfully through “a routine period of chemotherapy.”
Laid-off workers may lose training
Across the country, thousands of laid-off workers – many of them from smaller companies in thinly populated states – stand to lose job-retraining opportunities because of a little-noticed change in the way the government pays for such programs. The new Labor Department rules, adopted earlier this year, bar the longtime practice under which states bundled small groups of laid-off workers from separate companies to reach the threshold of 50 employees needed to obtain training dollars. The rule change could make it more difficult for workers who lose jobs at small companies to get training help.
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