2 credit unions to merge
|
Pacific Northwest
2 credit unions to merge
SEATTLE — A small, single-branch credit union serving the King County Medical Society voted this week to merge with Seattle-based Watermark Credit Union.
King County Medical Society Federal Credit Union will keep its three employees. Its First Hill office will become Watermark's sixth branch in the Seattle area. The medical society credit union pursued the merger because it was not able to compete with larger credit unions, said manager Sheri Campbell.
"We couldn't see a future in this state for a tiny little credit union in the long term," Campbell said.
The medical society credit union, which has 2,065 members and $14 million in assets, overwhelmingly approved the merger with Watermark, which has more than 70,000 members and more than $400 million in assets.
Report: Boeing should pick one launcher
WASHINGTON — The United States should pick either Boeing or Lockheed Martin to launch government satellites, rather than "underfunding" both, a congressional report released Thursday said.
The current tag-team approach to making sure the United States can put communications and spy satellites in space quickly may be counterproductive, the House Appropriations Committee said.
Boeing, Lockheed and the Air Force had no immediate comment.
The Air Force currently encourages Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed to maintain its Atlas V family of launch vehicles and Chicago-based Boeing, its Delta IV family. It has been willing to spend extra to keep both companies in the business to spur competition and have a backup on hand if one launch vehicle is grounded.
France eyes 'open source'; Microsoft will compete on price
PARIS — France's cash-strapped government is giving alternative software companies the chance to win state business from Microsoft in a pioneering drive to challenge the U.S. software giant in the public sector.
Civil service minister Renaud Dutreil said France wanted to use "open-source" software providers to resupply part of the almost 1 million state computers under a government cost-cutting drive designed to trim a bulging public deficit.
Microsoft said it would seek to show the French government it could offer software at a competitive price.
Supervalu out as supplier for Haggen
SAN FRANCISCO — Supervalu, a grocery retailer and food wholesaler, said it is losing the business of 30 stores operated in Oregon and Washington by Haggen, prompting it to review options for its Pacific Northwest region.
The customer loss isn't expected to have a major impact on earnings this year, Minnesota-based Supervalu said. It will stop supplying Haggen from its Tacoma, facility by the end of 2003 when the grocer transitions to another supplier.
Closely held Haggen is Washington state's largest independent grocer, according to its Web site.
Nation and World
World Trade Organization calls cotton help unfair
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Cotton subsidies for U.S. farmers are unfair to producers in Brazil, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said yesterday in a decision that could prompt developing countries to file trade cases against subsidies for other crops.
The WTO's final report on the trade case upheld a preliminary ruling that U.S. cotton subsidies cause artificially low international prices and are hurting Brazilian farmers, said Clodoaldo Hugueney, an economic official with Brazil's foreign ministry.
The decision will have no immediate impact on U.S. farm programs because the United States will appeal the decision in a process expected to last months or years, said Neena Moorjani, a spokeswoman for U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick.
Compiled from Seattle Times business staff, Bloomberg News and The Associated Press