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In union strongholds, residents wrestle with cuts - (finance.yahoo.com) In Midwestern union strongholds, residents torn over proposals to curb union benefits, powers. There once was a time when Harry and Nancy Harrington -- their teenage children in tow -- walked the picket line outside the nursing home where she was a medical aide, protesting the lack of a pension plan for the unionized work force. But those days of family solidarity are gone. Harry now blames years of union demands for an exodus of manufacturing jobs from this blue-collar city on the shore of Lake Michigan. He praises new Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker for attempting to strip public employee unions of nearly all of their collective bargaining rights. "I'm sorry, but the unions want to yell, they want to intimidate," says Harry Harrington, 69, as he sets a coffee cup down next to another newspaper headline about the union demonstrations.
Special report: On borrowed time: budget delays start to hurt - (www.reuters.com) When they finally completed their new control tower last November, officials at University Park Airport hoped it would provide a needed safety upgrade. The skies can get crowded on days when Penn State plays football, and the existing air traffic controllers stationed 200 miles away can't see down between the long corduroy ridges that bisect this swath of central Pennsylvania. And there was that incident a few years back, when two commercial planes lined up at opposite ends of the runway and started rolling toward each other, primed for takeoff. A local set of eyes on the runway would help. But several months after the $7 million tower passed its inspection, it remains empty. Money to hire the federal air traffic controllers is bottled up in Washington, hostage to the months-long budget standoff in Congress. "I've got to be confident that it will be resolved. I don't see any way how a facility like this ... how we could come this far in seven and a half years and not have the funding," says airport director Bryan Rodgers, as he stares at computers that still have that out-of-the-box smell, with protective plastic still on their screens. As the fiscal year nears its halfway point, the $3.7 trillion U.S. government is essentially running on automatic pilot. Republicans and Democrats have extended out last year's budget to keep the lights on as they battle over roughly $50 billion in proposed cuts.
Lack of Parts From Japan Forces G.M. to Halt Work at a Plant - (www.nytimes.com) General Motors said Thursday that it would temporarily shut a truck plant in Louisiana because it could not get enough Japanese-made parts, the first in what analysts say could be widespread disruptions at auto plants in North America because of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis half a world away. That it was G.M. — rather than one of the Japanese automakers, which depend on many parts from their home country — that succumbed first to the shortage shows how much the industry depends on far-flung suppliers. But Toyota and Honda have shut their plants in Japan until next week as they try to repair damaged facilities, assess the state of their suppliers and determine how to restart production safely. “The modern auto industry has never faced a natural or human calamity on the scale of today’s crisis in Japan,” Michael Robinet, the director of global production forecasts for the research firm IHS Automotive, wrote in a report Thursday.
Portugal yields rise, government warns of political crisis - (www.reuters.com) Portugal's government blamed higher rates paid at a debt auction on Wednesday on the opposition's refusal to back its latest austerity plans, warning a political standoff could force it to seek a bailout. Portugal's plight has become yet more complicated by the fact that the main opposition Social Democrats have refused to back the government's latest austerity plans, which are aimed to ensure the country meets its budget goals. "Failure to approve the new measures in the budget plan would push the country to external help," Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos told parliament's budget committee. "Current market conditions are unsustainable in the medium- and long-term." Prime Minister Jose Socrates warned on Tuesday that his minority government would be unable to continue if the country's long-term economic strategy, which includes the latest austerity measures, was not passed in parliament. "Yield levels in Portugal still trade above their snowball level -- where the level of interest charged means their level of debt stock is going up -- and that means that longer-term the situation, despite their best efforts, is getting worse not better," said rate strategist Charles Diebel at Lloyds Bank.
Higher prices for food are about to get worse - (www.news.yahoo.com/s/ap) Americans are noticing higher prices at the grocery store, and it's about to get worse. Food prices at the wholesale level rose last month by the most in 36 years. Cold weather accounted for most of it, forcing stores and restaurants to pay more for green peppers, lettuce and other vegetables, but meat and dairy prices surged, too. The big questions are how long food prices will keep rising and how high they'll go. The impact is already visible. Wendy's, paying higher prices for tomatoes, now puts them on hamburgers only by request. Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts have raised prices because they pay more for coffee beans. Supermarkets warn customers that produce may be of lower quality, or limited. "It has thrown the whole industry into a tizzy," says Dan Bates, director of merchandising for the produce division of grocery chain Supervalu Inc.
OTHER STORIES:
U.S. Libor Probe Includes BofA, Citi, UBS - (www.online.wsj.com)
High Radiation Severely Hinders Emergency Work to Cool Japanese Plant - (www.nytimes.com)
Crisis Prompts Exodus of Executives From Tokyo - (www.nytimes.com)
Japan dumps water on reactor; U.S. sends planes for citizens - (www.reuters.com)
Japan’s Meltdown and the Global Economy’s - (www.nytimes.com)
Japan Churns Through ‘Heroic’ Workers Hitting Radiation Limits for Humans - (www.bloomberg.com)
Bernanke in Testimony Can Prove to Ron Paul How QE2 Works in Free Markets - (www.bloomberg.com)
Philadelphia-Area Manufacturing Expands by Most Since 1984 - (www.bloomberg.com)
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