Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Friday, March 20, 1998
Pan Am Corp. gives up; to do charters only
MIAMI -- Unable to find a multimillionaire investor to come to the rescue, Pan Am Corp. gave up the idea of resuming scheduled service and got a judge's OK today to instead shrink to a charter carrier.Pan Am conceded defeat in the cash hunt yesterday and was allowed to pull the plug on a $60,000-a-day life-support system.
The grounded airline has been paying the money on seven aircraft leases with the hope that a bailout would allow it to resume scheduled service a day or two after getting fresh money. But three potential investors have fallen through since flights were canceled Feb. 27, and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge A. Jay Cristol was eager to stop what he repeatedly has called the "bleeding" at Pan Am.
The charter plan would allow the company to generate a profit from charter flights on the three planes it owns, Pan Am president David Banmiller said yesterday in announcing the charter plan.
Intel cutting prices on Pentium II processors
SAN FRANCISCO -- Intel Corp. said that it cut the price on its fastest version of the Pentium II processor by 19 percent to stimulate more demand at the high-end of the market.Intel said it cut the price on the 333 megahertz version of the Pentium II processor to $583 from $722 previously. Prices are per processor, when purchased in quantities of 1,000. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip giant said that it is now cutting prices of its processors more frequently.
Hewlett-Packard breaks with Sun over Java
NEW YORK -- Hewlett-Packard Co. is expected to announce today that it plans to market its own variant of Java software, breaking with Sun Microsystems Inc. and opening a rift in an industry alliance against Microsoft Corp.The Wall Street Journal reported today in its electronic edition that Hewlett-Packard has developed its own specifications and software for running Java programs on a range of electronic devices, including its computer printers. Hewlett-Packard now plans to compete with Sun, the creator of Java, by seeking customers for its technology, the paper said. It already has signed up Microsoft, the Journal said. Microsoft has agreed to use Hewlett-Packard's Java version with its Windows CE operating system, the paper said.
The moves are a blow to Sun's bid to control the evolution of Java and come just days before a Sun-sponsored conference in San Francisco that is expected to draw more than 10,000 Java software programmers, the Journal said.
Women make up 39% of union membership
Union membership of women rose to 39.4 percent last year, up from 20 percent in 1960, according to a study by the AFL-CIO.The findings, prepared by a Cornell University researcher and released yesterday, reveal the growing prominence of the service sector in the ranks of the nation's unionized labor force.
According to the study, 48 percent of all the employees organized through union elections last year were working in health care, social services, the hotel industry, entertainment or retail services -- sectors where large numbers of women are employed.
In these sectors, where women and people of color predominate, the success of union organizing campaigns averaged as high as 60 percent, said Kate Bronfenbrenner, the director of labor research at Cornell. By contrast, she said, when men predominate, success rates averaged only 38 percent.
Hayami takes over as Japan's central banker
TOKYO -- Businessman and one-time central bank official Masaru Hayami today officially took the helm at the scandal-tarred Bank of Japan.A 72-year-old former head of a powerful business lobby, Hayami launched his governorship vowing to recover confidence in a central bank tainted by an official's recent arrest on bribery allegations. Hayami said in his first news conference as the governor today that the Bank of Japan should be "the conscience" of Japan's economy.
Last week, a senior BOJ official was arrested on suspicion he leaked sensitive market information to banks in exchange for lavish entertainment trips.