Labor Ready to buy Reno firm

Tacoma Labor Ready Inc. said Thursday it has agreed to acquire a Reno, Nev.-based staffing company from private investors in a deal worth about $46.2 million in cash.

CLP Resources Inc. has offices in 20 states, serving more than 4,500 small- and mid-sized residential and commercial contractors. It makes job placements for workers with carpentry, electrical, drywall, sheet metal and other skills.

Labor Ready provides temporary manual labor to roughly 300,000 customers in freight handling, warehousing, landscaping, construction and light manufacturing.

“We are excited about the acquisition and the opportunity to strengthen Labor Ready and CLP’s position in their markets,” Joe Sambataro, Labor Ready’s president and CEO, said in a statement.

Ebbers sentencing delayed one month

New York A federal judge has postponed the sentencing of former WorldCom chief Bernard Ebbers by one month, to July 13, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

Judge Barbara Jones issued a new schedule allowing several more weeks for Ebbers and prosecutors to file sentencing-related papers and for Ebbers to file additional papers in support of his bid for a new trial.

The sentencing was originally set for June 13.

Ebbers, 63, was convicted in March of orchestrating the record $11 billion accounting fraud at WorldCom, which collapsed in bankruptcy in 2002 and has since re-emerged under the name MCI Inc.

He faces up to 85 years in prison on nine criminal counts — conspiracy, securities fraud and seven false filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Boss steps down from potato panel

Pat Boss has resigned as executive director of the Washington state Potato Commission.

A press release issued by the commission said Boss intends to pursue other career opportunities.

Boss joined the commission in 1996 as government affairs director.

Assistant director Karen Bonaudi has been appointed interim executive director. The commission will hold a special meeting Aug. 31 to discuss options.

Potatoes are among the leading agricultural crops in Washington state. Growers in the Columbia Basin sell most of their potatoes to companies who make french fries and frozen potato foods such as hash browns.

Under Boss, the commission has become an outspoken critic of trade restrictions and onerous regulations that upset farmers.

The commission is headquartered in Moses Lake.

Home Depot enacts severance policy

Atlanta Shareholders of The Home Depot Inc. approved a proposal Thursday that requires the company to get shareholder permission to give departing executives severance packages over a certain amount.

The severance proposal, which still must be reviewed by Home Depot’s board, has been sought by shareholders at other major companies, but in a number of cases has been rejected. Shareholders of The Coca-Cola Co., also based in Atlanta, rejected a similar proposal at their annual meeting in April.

The proposal requires Home Depot’s board of directors to seek shareholder approval for future severance agreements with senior executives, including retirement packages, that exceed 2.99 times the sum of the executive’s base salary plus bonus. The investor group that sponsored the proposal, Trowel Trades S&P 500 Index Fund, said that “severance agreements as described in this resolution, commonly known as golden parachutes, are excessive in light of the high levels of compensation enjoyed by senior executives at the company and U.S. corporations in general.”

The company, which opposed the proposal, said hefty severance agreements are important to attract and retain talented executives.

Judge refuses to rule on strike proposal

Chicago A federal judge declined to rule Thursday on a threatened strike by United Airlines’ baggage handlers and customer-service agents until after their contract standoff is resolved.

U.S. District Judge James Zagel put off until June 7 a decision on the machinists union’s request for a temporary restraining order that would have barred United from trying to impede a strike.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers maintains it has the right to strike if United’s bid to terminate its contract is approved by a bankruptcy judge on Tuesday. The two sides are in talks to try to reach a contract agreement that would make that ruling unnecessary.

“Today’s decision does not affect our plans to strike United Airlines if we cannot reach an agreement with the company and the bankruptcy judge rules in United’s favor,” IAM spokesman Joseph Tiberi said.

United contends a strike would be illegal under the Railway Labor Act even if the contract is terminated.

Scrushy jurors will bypass key charge

Birmingham, Ala. Confused and deadlocked on a key count in their sixth day of deliberations, jurors in the trial of former HealthSouth Corp. chief Richard Scrushy got a judge’s OK Thursday to move on to other charges.

U.S. District Judge Karon Bowdre also encouraged the jury — which has been deliberating from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily, lunch included — to consider working longer days as members try to reach a decision.

Bowdre’s comments came in response to a sixth handwritten note from the jury, which recessed until Friday morning. It is considering the first 36 counts in the indictment, which accuses Scrushy of directing a huge accounting fraud at the medical services chain.

While previous notes were written by the foreperson, the latest note came from another member of the panel, Bowdre said.

The note said: “We cannot reach a unanimous decision on Count One Conspiracy.” The word “cannot” was underlined for emphasis.

Scrushy was smiling as he left court.