Second Habitat Store opening

A second Habitat store will open its doors Dec. 2 in Spokane Valley. Like the original store, at Trent and Hamilton, the new store will be a one-stop outlet for recycled building materials.

The Habitat Valley store, at 11410 E. Sprague, will have a grand opening Dec. 2 with all items discounted between 25 percent and 50 percent.

Since opening the first Habitat store in Spokane in January 2000, the recycled building materials venture has sold more than 4,000 tons of materials and supplies, according to a press release. The money raised helps pay the cost of building homes for low-income families.

The Valley store will have 6,000 square feet of retail space; the original Habitat store has 30,000 square feet.

SEATTLE

Boeing engineer talks stall

A note of optimism in contract talks covering about 21,000 Boeing Co. white-collar workers may be fading.

Leaders of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace said late Wednesday that a settlement could be only a day away – but there were no talks on Thursday.

Unresolved issues include wages and other economic provisions, as well as whether about 100 engineers in Ogden, Utah, will be covered by the contract.

Boeing spokesman Tim Healy said it’s too early to say that a snag has developed.

However, SPEEA executive director Ray Goforth said the union’s governing council would talk late Thursday about asking members to authorize a strike.

Both sides have been working to avoid a second strike following an eight-week Machinists union walkout that ended Nov. 2.

PITTSBURGH

Strike delays 737 deliveries

Boeing Co., which is ramping up airplane production after a costly strike, said Thursday it was delaying the delivery of 737 jetliners and planning to inspect some already in service to replace parts that lacked a required anticorrosion coating.

The uncoated nutplates, small fastening devices used to attach bundles of wires and other items to the inside of 737 fuselages, had been used since August 2007, said Vicki Ray, a company spokeswoman. Boeing delivered 394 of the planes between then and October of this year, according to Chicago-based Boeing’s Web site.

The problematic parts, which lack a cadmium coating that would help prevent corrosion on adjoining aluminum parts, do not pose an immediate flight safety risk, she said.