JPMorgan Chase's Daley joins Boeing board

Pacific Northwest

Boeing announced Tuesday that William Daley, chairman of the Midwest region for JPMorgan Chase, is joining its board of directors, effective immediately. Daley will serve on the board's finance committee.

Daley, 57, formerly president of SBC Communications, was secretary of Commerce in the Clinton administration from 1997-2000. He also served as special counsel to the president on trade matters.

He is the son of the late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley and brother of the city's current mayor, Richard M. Daley.

Boeing also announced Tuesday that Gen. John Shalikashvili, retired chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and former commander in chief of U.S. forces in Europe, will retire from the board at the end of his term later this year. Shalikashvili, 69, cited other business commitments and health reasons.

PlayStation 3 set for fall release?

Sony isn't saying when its new PlayStation 3 console will go on sale in the United States, but Costco isn't so bashful. The Issaquah-based retailer's Web site on Tuesday said the highly anticipated console will be available in November 2006.

Costco listed the PS3 specs and promotional information apparently provided by Sony. It didn't list a price and it wasn't taking orders yet, like it did with Microsoft's Xbox 360 last year ahead of its release.

Retailers tend to guess when hot video-game products will hit the shelves, but Costco moves a lot of Sony entertainment products so it may have an early line on the PS3.

Costco couldn't provide more details late Tuesday, and Sony spokespeople were not available.

Nastech Pharmaceutical got approval from regulators to manufacture a generic drug at its Bothell facility, it said Tuesday.

But the Food and Drug Administration inspection is just one of several regulatory and procedural hurdles to clear before the company can market calcitonin nasal spray, a generic version of osteoporosis drug Miacalcin.

Nastech's stock dropped 71 cents, or 3.3 percent, to close at $20.98 Tuesday.

Pacific Northwest

787 subcontractor is based in Everett

Shenyang Aircraft of China, which will build the leading edge of the Boeing 787's vertical fin, has subcontracted manufacturing of the long support spars for that structure to Contour Aerospace of Everett.

The completed spars will be sent to Shenyang for assembly. Contour, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Vought, said the contract is its first with a company in China and is potentially worth $8 million.

Last June, Boeing announced the award of 787 contracts worth about $600 million to three Chinese companies, including the one to Shenyang.

Contour's 153,000-square-foot facility builds skins, spars, stringers, ribs, panels, pylons and other structural components for a variety of commercial and military aircraft.

A350 delivery date reportedly altered

Airbus has pushed back delivery of the first A350 to 2011, Flight International, a leading aviation-industry magazine, reported Tuesday. That would be three years behind Boeing's 787. Previously the rival to Boeing's jet had been expected to enter service in 2010.

The magazine cited a speech by Airbus chief commercial officer John Leahy at the Asian Aerospace air show in Singapore last week. It also said company sources attributed the delay, in part, to the company's late decision to make the A350 cockpit similar to that of the A380 superjumbo cockpit.

The A350 will retain a common type rating with the A330 — meaning an A330 pilot will be certified to fly it — despite the introduction of the A380 cockpit, Leahy said.

Oversight tightens on Army program

Boeing's profit to manage the $17.4 billion development phase of the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems program is being more closely tied to performance, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said.

Boeing's fixed fee will now be 7 percent of the contract, down from 10 percent, while its potential "incentive fee," or bonus, rises to 8 from 5 percent, GAO Director of Acquisition Paul Francis said in prepared remarks he's scheduled to give in congressional testimony today. The change is aimed at tightening oversight and keeping costs down on the Pentagon's second-most-expensive program. Future Combat Systems — a family of 18 faster, lighter battle vehicles and systems linked by high-speed digital communications and unmanned drones — is projected to cost about $160 billion.

Boeing expects to complete final modifications to the contract by late this month, company spokesman John Morrocco said Tuesday.

Viticultural area to be recognized

Rattlesnake Hills in south-central Washington, is scheduled to become the state's ninth federally recognized viticultural area. The U.S. Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau will award Rattlesnake Hills appellation status March 20.

It will cover 68,500 acres that features 17 wineries, 29 vineyards and about 1,500 bearing acres within established Columbia Valley and Yakima Valley appellations.

E-mail program with ads to be tested

Microsoft said Tuesday that it will begin testing a new, advertising-supported e-mail program this month called Windows Live Mail Desktop, which can aggregate messages from several e-mail accounts.

The company also started testing an online classifieds service and a mapping service that lets users view images of stores and other businesses on city streets. So far, only images of downtown Seattle and San Francisco are available on the service, which will be integrated into Microsoft's online mapping site this summer.

Stores to sell coffee grown in Rwanda

Starbucks said Tuesday that it will soon start selling its first Rwandan-grown coffee in North American stores.

Rwanda Blue Bourbon is the company's 10th variety in the Black Apron Exclusives line of high-end coffees produced in limited quantities. Half-pound bags will sell for $12 in the United States and $16 in Canada, beginning March 13.

Seattle-based Starbucks, the world's largest specialty-coffee retailer, said it decided to start buying beans from the Central African nation after visiting it in 2004 to gauge its potential as a premium coffee supplier.

Historically, Rwandan farmers have grown only low-grade beans as a cash crop and almost quit growing coffee entirely after the genocidal civil war that killed more than half a million Rwandans in 1994.

In 2001, Rwandan farmers started producing specialty coffee for the first time with help from the U.S. Agency for International Development and another group, Agribusiness Development Activity in Rwanda, Starbucks said.

Nation and World

Witness: Skilling pushed for earnings

A second Enron executive testified Tuesday that the company illegally dipped into reserves to meet and beat earnings targets under pressure from then-Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling.

"It was standard operating procedure," said David Delainey, former chief executive of Enron's profitable wholesale trading franchise, during the fraud and conspiracy trial of Skilling and Enron founder Kenneth Lay. "At Enron in Houston, we tended to be pretty fast and loose with our rules," he said.

Delainey, under questioning by Prosecutor Kathryn Ruemmler, said he met with Skilling in the second half of 2000 to discuss how his business unit, Enron North America, had easily met and exceeded its earnings targets, primarily by cashing in on the volatility of energy markets and through deals with California utilities.

"I said we had a couple of quarters in our pockets that would give us flexibility in the future," he said. "I wanted to make sure he was aware we were doing really well."

Compiled from Seattle Times business staff, Bloomberg News and The Associated Press