Briefcase

LaunchPad offers session for young professionals

LaunchPad INW and Leadership Spokane are co-sponsoring a Tuesday afternoon session as part of an ongoing effort to nurture and support young professionals.

The free event will include a keynote address by Tyler Lafferty, founder of the Spokane companies Seven2 and 14Four. The two firms provide marketing and agency work for clients in the area and nationwide.

The session starts at 4 p.m. at LaunchPad’s Spokane office at 120 N. Stevens St.

For more information, go to LaunchPadINW.com.

Staff reports

U.S. open to talks with EU over aircraft subsidies

PARIS – The United States’ top trade official says Washington would welcome negotiations with the European Union to resolve the two sides’ long-running spat over subsidies to aircraft makers.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk says if Brussels is willing to sit down once the World Trade Organization has issued final rulings in the Airbus and Boeing cases, “we’re happy to have that conversation.”

Kirk told the Associated Press in an interview in Paris on Thursday that any deal would have to exclude “launch aid on commercially unacceptable terms.”

The two sides have spent seven years and millions in legal fees fighting each other’s support for homegrown plane manufacturers before the WTO.

Associated Press

Budget cuts, gas prices keep economic growth modest

WASHINGTON – High gasoline prices, government budget cuts and weaker-than-expected consumer spending caused the economy to grow only weakly in the first three months of the year.

The Commerce Department estimated Thursday that the economy grew at an annual rate of 1.8 percent in the January-March quarter. That was the same as its first estimate a month ago.

Consumer spending grew at just half the rate of the previous quarter. And a surge in imports widened the U.S. trade deficit.

Most economists think the economy is growing only slightly better in the current April-June quarter. Consumers remain squeezed by gas prices, scant pay increases and a depressed housing market.

Associated Press

New jobless claims up 10,000 in one week nationwide

WASHINGTON – The number of people who filed applications for unemployment benefits rose by 10,000 last week, keeping claims at a level typically associated with modest to below-average hiring trends.

The Labor Department said 424,000 people filed new applications for jobless benefits in the week ended May 21, compared with an upwardly revised 414,000 in the prior week. A government official said no special factors were involved.

The average of new claims over the past four weeks fell to 438,500.

MarketWatch