Short Reports

Tandy Corp. has chosen Thomson Consumer Electronics’ RCA line to be the exclusive brand of audio and video products sold at its Radio Shack stores, the companies announced Thursday. Tandy will phase out its house brands of electronics - known under the Optimus and Realistic names - in the next year and replace them entirely with RCA goods.

The Boeing Co. has agreed to protect more than 3,000 Puget Sound-area maintenance and facilities jobs from elimination through subcontracting, officials for the aerospace giant and the Machinists union said Thursday. The agreement ends a dispute over the shifting of plant and maintenance work to outside contractors. Also Thursday, a decline in orders for the F-15 fighter plane has prompted Boeing to eliminate 6,500 to 7,000 jobs by mid-2001 at its St. Louis plant.

Two of the nation’s largest computer makers settled government charges they misled consumers with Internet advertisements to lease new computers with low monthly payments, federal regulators said Thursday. Dell Computer Corp. and Micron Electronics Inc. both agreed to provide consumers with “clear, readable and understandable information in their lease advertising,” the Federal Trade Commission said. The FTC said ads from Dell and Micron included important cost information in inconspicuous or unreadable fine print, or they omitted the information.