Nethercutt joins Hecla board

Coeur d’alene Former U.S. Congressman George Nethercutt has taken a seat on Hecla Mining Co.’s board of directors.

Nethercutt will replace Joe Coors Jr., who retired from the board this month. The Spokane attorney served five terms in the House of Representatives, representing Eastern Washington’s Fifth Congressional District.

“George will bring a great deal of international, governmental and legal experience to the board,” said Phil Baker, Hecla’s chief executive officer. “He has long been a supporter of the natural resource industries and is very familiar with the issues we face.”

Nethercutt is a principal with the strategic planning and consulting firm of Lundquist, Nethercutt & Griles LLC in Washington, D.C. He also is a board member of the Washington Policy Center.

Nethercutt will earn about $20,000 annually as a Hecla board member, and receive about $10,000 worth of company stock each year.

Economic pace picks up

Washington The economy clocked in at a 3.8 percent pace in the final quarter of 2004 – faster than initially thought – and is now cruising at that speed or better. That could be good news for jobless people hoping for companies to increase hiring.

In the newest reading on the economy’s fitness, the gross domestic product exceeded a previous estimate of a 3.1 percent annual growth rate for the October-to-December quarter, the Commerce Department reported Friday. GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced within the United States.

The improvement reflected more robust spending by businesses on capital equipment and on inventories of goods. The trade deficit also was less of a drag on fourth-quarter growth than initially thought.

Although economic growth in the final quarter of last year was a bit slower than the third quarters’ 4 percent, the performance was still solid.

“We are now at a comfortable cruising altitude,” said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Banc of America Capital Management. “What is significant is that all parts of the economy were pulling their own weight.”

Hotmail customers run into slowdowns

Seattle About 200,000 customers who pay Microsoft Corp. for premium Hotmail e-mail accounts have been experiencing problems including slowdowns and an inability to access some e-mails, the company said Friday.

The problems began Tuesday and were being resolved Friday, said Brooke Richardson, lead product manager for Microsoft’s MSN online division. Richardson said the glitch was caused by a server problem, and that the system was not attacked.

Earlier this week, some customers who pay for services such as Hotmail Plus and MSN Premium complained that they couldn’t see some e-mails, had trouble logging in and were experiencing slowness. Richardson said no data was lost, but some people were temporarily unable to access all their e-mails.

Bank loses tape with private information

Charlotte, N.C. Bank of America Corp. has lost computer data tapes containing personal information on 1.2 million federal employees, including some members of the U.S. Senate.

The lost data includes Social Security numbers and account information that could make customers of a federal government charge card program vulnerable to identity theft.

Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., is among those senators whose personal information is on the missing tapes, spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said.

“There were some senators’ Visa credit card accounts involved,” Schmaler said. “We don’t know how many, but he was one of them.”

The bank issued an apology.

“We deeply regret this unfortunate incident,” said Barbara Desoer, who is in charge of technology, service and fulfillment for the Charlotte-based bank. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said he was told the data backup tapes were likely stolen off of a commercial plane by baggage handlers in December.

Bank spokeswoman Eloise Hale called the system of shipping backup tapes “an industry practice and a routine bank practice. As a safety precaution measure, backup tapes are stored in different locations.”

She declined to give any more details about where and how the tapes are moved around the country.

The missing tapes include information on federal employees who use Bank of America “smart pay” charge cards for travel and expenses, Hale said Friday.

Federated-May deal nearing completion

St. Louis Federated Department Stores Inc.’s possible $10 billion buyout of rival May Department Stores Co. has reached a critical point, with boards of both retailers to meet separately into the weekend to perhaps finalize the deal, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

Citing unidentified sources, the Journal reported that Cincinnati-based Federated – owner of the Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s chains, and of Bon-Macy’s – held a regularly scheduled board meeting Friday in New York. Afterward, the company issued only a brief statement about a quarterly dividend, mentioning nothing about any merger talks.

The board of May – operator of Lord & Taylor, Filene’s and other regional department stores – then would review the offer over this weekend, the Journal reported.

The newspaper said the two sides have been split on financial terms of the deal. Three sources cited in the report pegged the potential offer by Federated to likely be “somewhat below $40 per share,” with May also negotiating over its presence in St. Louis, its headquarters since 1905.