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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Briefly

From staff and wire reports The Spokesman-Review

Hecla Mining Co. to issue new stock

Coeur d’Alene Hecla Mining Co. will issue up to $175 million worth of new stock to grow its business, company officials announced Friday.

The firm has filed a shelf registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission which, if approved, would allow Hecla to issue the stock at a future date. Hecla is always looking for acquisition opportunities, and the filing will allow the company to move quickly if it finds other firms or mining prospects that it wants to buy, said Phil Baker, Hecla’s president and chief executive officer.

Hecla operates gold and silver mines in the United States and Latin America.

General Motors expands SUV recall

Detroit General Motors Corp. is expanding a recall of sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks with possible antilock brake corrosion to include another 553,000 vehicles in six states and the District of Columbia.

The recall involves the 1999-2002 model years of the Chevrolet Avalanche, Chevrolet Silverado, Chevrolet Tahoe, Chevrolet Suburban, GMC Sierra, GMC Yukon and GMC Yukon XL.

GM said in August that it was recalling about 800,000 of the vehicles in 14 northern states, including Michigan. GM spokesman Alan Adler said Friday the recall will be expanded to include Delaware, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.

Road grime can wedge its way into a plastic piece that covers the antilock brake sensor near the wheel hub, Adler said, resulting in salt corrosion. The corrosion leads to unwanted activation of the antilock brakes at low speeds, requiring a longer stopping distance.

Boeing’s business really taking off

Seattle Boeing Co. has booked 870 net jetliner orders so far this year, which the company said may put it on track to beat a record set in 1988.

Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, who have since merged, booked 877 net orders that year.

The Chicago aerospace company, which produces commercial airplanes in Seattle, said in a statement Thursday that it may win additional orders before the end of the year. The would push its total over the 1988 figure.

The net order number represents the total passenger and freighter planes the company has sold minus any canceled orders. Boeing has won 895 total airplane orders so far this year, but 25 airplane orders were canceled.

The banner year represents a significant rebound for Boeing, which had recently been losing ground to rival Airbus SAS.

Boeing Co. shares rose 17 cents to $71.49 in trading Friday.

Shareholders approve sale of Shopko Stores

Green Bay, Wis. Shareholders of ShopKo Stores Inc. approved the sale of the discount retail chain to Sun Capital Partners Inc. on Friday in a deal valued at $877 million.

According to details of the agreement, ShopKo shareholders will get $29 a share plus an increase of 6 percent over the share price, prorated for each day beginning from Dec. 15 until the deal closes with the private company.

Almost 72 percent of the total number of shares outstanding and eligible to vote approved the acquisition.

The deal is expected to close by the end of 2005, but ShopKo says that might be delayed because of the volume of work that remains during the holiday season.

The signing ends a previous sale agreement announced in April, when ShopKo agreed to be bought out by an affiliate of Goldner Hawn Johnson & Morrison Inc.

NBC will acquire majority in MSNBC

New York

NBC is acquiring a majority stake in MSNBC from Microsoft Corp., giving NBC greater control over the struggling all-news cable channel and further scaling back the software giant’s media ambitions.

NBC, a unit of General Electric Co., will wind up with an 82 percent stake in the cable network, though NBC and Microsoft will continue to share ownership of the channel’s Web site, MSNBC.com. After two years, NBC will have the option to buy the remaining 18 percent stake of the network.

The companies declined to disclose financial terms of the deal, which had been expected for months. At the time the venture was announced in 1995, Microsoft said it would invest $220 million for a 50 percent stake in the network.

The joint venture was launched with much fanfare amid hopes that the partnership would build a cross-media partnership delivering the news over both TV and the Internet, which was in its infancy at the time.

But while MSNBC.com has become one of the highest-ranked news sites on the Web, the cable TV channel was later eclipsed by News Corp.’s Fox News Channel, which also went live in 1996.

Today MSNBC still ranks a distant third behind Fox News and Time Warner Inc.’s CNN in the Nielsen ratings.

American Express settlement approved

Miami A $75 million settlement has been approved between American Express Co. and thousands of cardholders who contended in a class-action lawsuit that they paid hidden transaction fees for charges made in foreign currencies.

The settlement, approved this week by U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga, affects more than 833,000 cardholders who paid some form of transaction fee from March 28, 1997, through Oct. 15, 2004. Settlement amounts could range from $15 to millions of dollars, lawyers involved in the case said Friday.

The lawsuit, initially filed in state court in August 2003 and then transferred to federal court, claimed that American Express failed to adequately inform cardholders that they would be charged an adjustment of up to 2 percent for the conversion of charges made in foreign currencies to U.S. dollars.

Instead, the fee was embedded in the transaction amount that showed up on cardholders’ bills, making it “invisible to consumers,” said the lawsuit filed by Edward LiPuma, an anthropology professor at the University of Miami who was represented by attorneys Tucker Ronzetti and Adam Moskowitz.

Although it settled the case, American Express did not admit to any wrongdoing and maintained that its conversion practices were fully disclosed.