NATIONAL

Air Force plans to cut spending on weapons

The U.S. Air Force has proposed cutting its weapons buying by about $13 billion between 2008 and 2013 in part by postponing the purchase of 21 Lockheed Martin Corp. Joint Strike Fighters.

The Air Force would buy 53 of the new planes between 2008 and 2011, down from the 74 planned earlier, according to an Aug. 21 budget memo to Pentagon acquisition officials.

The Defense Department is under pressure to curb spending growth in weapons programs in order to pay the continuing high cost of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and reduce the U.S. budget deficit.

Toyota leads the heap among automakers

Toyota Motor Corp. trounced the domestic automakers in the U.S. marketplace last month, posting a 25 percent year-over-year sales increase. General Motors Corp. and DaimlerChrysler AG each saw their sales slip by a few percentage points, while Ford Motor Co.'s sales gained 4.7 percent.

GM's sales fell 3.1 percent last month, but the nation's largest automaker put a positive spin on the decline, attributing it to a reduction in low-margin sales to rental companies. The company's car sales fell 6.4 percent, while trucks, including pickups and sport utility vehicles, were down 0.7 percent. The numbers include the European Saab brand.

• Ford is offering low-interest financing on 2006 and 2007 pickups to spur sales of the models.

Ford will provide no-interest, five-year loans on 2006 F- 150, Super Duty and Ranger pickups and discounted financing or rebates on 2007 models. Ford is trying to clear out 2006 models and spur light- truck sales after declines for the F-Series and Ranger pickups

Loss of contract hits Quest Diagnostics stock

Quest Diagnostics Inc., a diagnostic testing service, said Tuesday it has lost its contract with UnitedHealthcare, which accounts for about 7 percent of Quest revenues.

The news slammed Quest shares, which plunged nearly 14 percent.

Elton John to hawk candles for holidays

Limited Brands Inc.'s Bath & Body Works is latching on to the star power of Elton John and his passion for candles - in time for the holiday season.

The company announced a new collection of home fragrances - a collaboration between the rock star and Harry Slatkin, president of home design for the parent company - that will debut at its Bath & Body Works stores and its White Barn Candle Co. stores. It will also be available online at bathandbodyworks.com.

$216.8 million awarded in malpractice suit

A Florida jury awarded $216.8 million to a man who claimed in a medical malpractice lawsuit that he became paralyzed after an emergency room doctor and a physician's assistant failed to diagnose symptoms of a stroke.

The verdict is the third-largest U.S. medical malpractice award ever, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Allan Navarro, 50, was told he had a sinus infection and was sent home after going to the emergency room of a Tampa, Fla.-area hospital in August 2000 complaining of severe nausea, double vision and headache, his complaint said. He sued the physicians' group operating the emergency room after a massive stroke left him with permanent brain damage.

NLRB says nurses not covered by protections

Nurses permanently assigned to run work shifts should be considered supervisors and thus exempt from U.S. labor protections, a federal panel held Tuesday in a decision with major implications for workers in other fields.

The National Labor Relations Board, in a 3-2 ruling, also said people who work supervisory shifts only on a rotating basis may be exempt from supervisory status in some cases but not others, depending on the frequency and consistency of the shifts.

AT&T offers cheaper, slower broadband

AT&T Inc. began offering broadband services that don't require a 12-month commitment and added a slower speed.

Customers can choose among four levels of service priced from $14.99 a month for the slowest to $34.99 for the fastest, San Antonio-based AT&T said in a statement Tuesday. Earlier plans cost from $12.99 to $44.99 a month, depending on speed and ordering method, said Fletcher Cook, a company spokesman.

Former Tyco bosses file appeal with state court

Former Tyco International Ltd. Chief Executive Officer L. Dennis Kozlowski and ex-finance chief Mark Swartz, convicted last year in New York state court of looting their company, filed appeals Tuesday.

Kozlowksi, 59, and Swartz, 46, are currently serving 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison after each was found guilty of 22 counts, including grand larceny, securities fraud and falsifying business records. The two men filed their appeals with the New York State Supreme Court's Appellate Division in Manhattan, a court clerk who answered the telephone said.

San Diego pension in the red by $3 billion

San Diego, whose nearly decade-long failure to fully fund its pension plan drew U.S. investigations, has $3 billion less than needed to pay for all the health and retirement benefits it has promised city workers, its financial report shows.

A draft of San Diego's financial report for the 2003 fiscal year shows that the city's pension had an unfunded liability in June 2005 of $1.76 billion, an increase of $369.6 million over prior estimates.

San Diego is also facing $1.38 billion of health-care costs for which it hasn't set aside money. The statement is awaiting the approval of auditor KPMG LLP.

WORLD

Web site offers poem downloads for a price

British entertainment company 57 Productions launched a Web site Tuesday that allows users to download and listen to poetry on their MP3 players and -iPods.

The modern poetry site, called -iPoems, will be available to the public today, 57 Productions spokesman Philip Abraham said.

About 1,000 readings from poetry written in English are available for 95 cents for each audio poem and $1.80 for a video poem. The company offers a free one-month trial membership. After that, subscriptions are $18 a year.

LOCAL

Liberty Media shares get boost on rating

Shares of Liberty Media Capital, a media holding company controlled by cable entrepreneur John Malone, rose more than 2 percent Tuesday after a Citigroup analyst upgraded the company on reports it may swap its stake in News Corp. for News' interest in DirecTV Group.

Analyst Jason Bazinet of Citigroup boosted Liberty's rating to "buy" from "hold" and raised his price target to $102 from $89.

Meat producer Swift reports $12M profit

Swift & Co., the third-largest U.S. beef and pork producer, reported $11.97 million in profit in the quarter ended Aug. 27 after a loss of $13.07 million a year earlier.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were $53 million, up 84 percent from $29 million in the fiscal first quarter of 2005, Greeley-based Swift said Tuesday.

Birner Dental purchases chunk of company stock

Birner Dental Management Services, which operates Perfect Teeth dental practices, said it will buy back 213,111 shares of its common stock at $21.75 per share. The company conducted a tender offer that expired Friday.

The shares represent approximately 9.2 percent of the company.

DIA career fair for 300 openings on for Friday

Businesses operating at Denver International Airport, looking to fill an estimated 300 open positions, will participate in a career fair Friday.

The fair, hosted by Denver's Office of Economic Development, runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the DIA Pressroom, located on the sixth floor of the airport's main terminal.

Participating companies will include Hertz, Great Lakes Airlines and Quizno's.

Open positions include airport security, concessions, general management and retail. All job applicants must pass a background check to be eligible for employment.

ECONOMY

Announced job cuts surge 54% in Sept.

The number of job cuts announced by U.S. corporations in September was up 54 percent from the number reported in the prior month for a total of 100,315, according to a report Tuesday from an outplacement firm.

This was only the third time this year that job-cut announcements increased according to the monthly Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. survey, although it was the second monthly increase in a row. September was the first time since January that monthly job cuts exceeded 100,000.

The report is an anecdotal, nonstatistical tally of job-cut announcements that are reported in major media outlets. The report focuses only on job-cut announcements, not actual layoffs, and it doesn't take into account new hires or internal transfers at companies that have announced layoffs.

"September is just the beginning of what is typically the heaviest job-cutting period of the year," said John Challenger, CEO of the firm. "It is not out of the realm of possibility that we will see another 300,000 job cuts by the end of the year."

The most job cuts during the month came in the auto industry.

There were 33,745 job cuts in the auto industry in September.

THIS JUST IN...

• Colorado Springs-based Multimax Inc., which provides information technology and communications services for the Department of Defense and civilian agencies, said the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association elected Andy Anderson, a Multimax vice president, as the chapter president.

• Denver-based Rancher Energy Corp. said it has acquired a 100 percent working interest in the Cole Creek South Field consisting of 2,080 acres in Wyoming's Powder River Basin for $11 million. Rancher Energy also acquired a 93.73 percent working interest in the South Glenrock B Field consisting of 7,070 acres in the Powder River Basin for $37 million.

• Denver-based Home Investment Portfolio Partners said it has acquired 144 properties in 24 states. It did not disclose terms.

• Broomfield-based ColdSpark, a provider of messaging infrastructure, named Gregor Freund to its board of directors.

• Denver-based Lifeline Therapeutics Inc. named Anthony Del Vicario to the newly created position of vice president of strategic sales and marketing and named Alexis Luce director for natural products sales and marketing.

• Westminster-based Allos Therapeutics Inc. said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted fast track designation to the company's antifolate PDX (pralatrexate) drug for the treatment of patients with T-cell lymphoma. The fast track program is designed to facilitate the development and expedite the review of new drugs intended to treat serious or life-threatening conditions and that demonstrate the potential to address unmet medical needs.

• Denver-based Basic Earth Science Systems Inc. said the Sept. 4 issue of the Oil & Gas Journal named Basic among the Top 20 Fastest Growing companies for 2005 based on percentage growth in stockholder equity.

• The YMCA of Metropolitan Denver has named Janet Elway, Dianne Honig and Kimball Howell as new board members.

• SpaceDev, of Poway, Calif., said its Boulder-based Starsys Inc. subsidiary won a $6.3 million NASA contract to provide antenna technology for a moon-orbiting research spacecraft known as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Compiled from News staff, The Associated Press, Bloomberg News, Scripps Howard News Service.

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