EWU names new dean of business
Eastern Washington University’s College of Business and Public Administration’s new dean is Dr. Rex Fuller, who’s spent the past six years as business dean at the University of Southern Colorado, Pueblo.
Prior to that, he served for a decade as the dean of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse’s business school. He replaces Dr. Dolores (Dee) Martin, who stepped down to concentrate on teaching after heading the college for five years.
Fuller, who earned a doctorate in economics from the University of Utah, begins his job as dean with the start of the current academic year. He was one of three finalists interviewed for the job.
His published work includes studies on the effects of age, gender and education on wage potential.
New York
Comcast expects service growth
The chief operating officer of Comcast Corp. said Wednesday that he expects revenues from offering phone and data services to businesses to reach $3 billion to $5 billion over the next few years.
Stephen Burke, addressing an investor conference sponsored by Goldman Sachs, called serving business customers “the next big growth engine” for Comcast, the largest cable TV company in the country.
Washington
SEC probe urged into tobacco firms
Anti-smoking activists have launched another attack on cigarette makers, this time on grounds that publicly traded tobacco companies defrauded investors by not coming clean about manipulating nicotine levels.
In a letter Monday, the Washington-based Lung Cancer Alliance urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate New York-based Altria Group Inc., its Philip Morris USA unit, Reynolds American Inc., Lorillard Tobacco Co. and British American Tobacco PLC.
During a lengthy trial on federal racketeering and conspiracy charges, tobacco companies denied claims of increasing nicotine levels to addict a new generation of smokers to replace those who died of smoking-related diseases, but a federal court decision in August found the firms liable, the Lung Cancer Alliance wrote.
Senate panel OKs FDA nominee
A Senate committee Wednesday approved President Bush’s nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration, but a full Senate vote on confirming Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach remained in doubt.
Von Eschenbach overcame earlier holds placed on his nomination by two Democratic senators pending a recent agency decision to allow nonprescription sales of the morning-after pill. But now two Republican senators have vowed to block his confirmation, each for separate reasons.
Sen. Jim DeMint, of South Carolina, wants von Eschenbach to suspend sales of the abortion pill RU-486 and investigate whether it increases the likelihood of infection by a rare but deadly bacterium. And Louisiana Sen. David Vitter wants the FDA to legalize the importation of some prescription drugs from Canada.