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

Google dispute headed to court

From Wire Reports The Spokesman-Review

The Bush administration will renew its effort to find out what people have been looking for on Google Inc.’s Internet-leading search engine, continuing a legal showdown over how much of the Web’s vast databases should be shared with the government.

Lawyers for the Justice Department and Google are expected to elaborate on their opposing views in a San Jose, Calif., hearing scheduled for today before U.S. District Judge James Ware.

It will mark the first time the Justice Department and Google have sparred in court since the government subpoenaed the Mountain View, Calif.-based company last summer in an effort to obtain a long list of search requests and Web site addresses.

Lafayette, Ind.

Toyota, Kia expand in U.S.

Foreign automakers tightened their grip on the U.S. market Monday when Toyota Motors Corp. and Kia Motors Corp. unveiled plans to build up to 400,000 more vehicles in factories in Indiana and Georgia.

South Korea-based Kia said it will build a $1.2 billion factory in West Point, Ga., its first in the United States, while Toyota announced it will begin building Camry sedans at a Subaru plant in Lafayette, Ind., shifting production from a factory in Japan.

The expansions come as the nation’s domestic producers are struggling under the weight of falling U.S. market share and rising costs for health care and pensions.

Only 57 percent of the nation’s new vehicles are sold by American companies, according to research from the Brookings Institute. In 1970, General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group sold 87 percent of new vehicles on the road here.

Washington

Delta wants more deep pay cuts

A Delta Air Lines Inc. lawyer told an arbitration panel Monday the nation’s third-largest carrier needs a second round of deep long-term pay and benefit cuts from its pilots and should have the right to throw out their contract if they refuse.

But a union attorney said the Atlanta-based company is asking for too much, and he insisted the first round of cuts was not a “down payment.”

Delta lawyer Jack Gallagher asked the three arbitrators to throw out the collective bargaining agreement of the airline’s 6,000 pilots so the airline can impose up to $325 million in long-term pay and benefit cuts. He also told the panel “it looks more likely than not” that the pilots’ defined-benefit pension plan will be terminated.

New York

Paper replaces stock listings

The New York Times, a unit of New York Times Co., said late Monday it will replace its six pages of financial tables with two pages of “analytical tools and summary information” in the Tuesday through Saturday editions, effective April 4.

The full financial tables will continue to be published on Sundays.

The paper said the move will reduce newsprint costs.