IN HAWAII

Navy awards Orincon $25 million contract

San Diego-based Orincon Defense Corp. has been awarded a $25 million contract that will link the U.S. Navy's undersea warfare command to the Maui Supercomputer.

Work on the Navy's Theater Undersea Warfare initiative will be performed on Oahu and Maui and will be completed by June 2007. The program will be managed by Orincon's local office. Orincon has been doing business in Hawaii since 1987.

State Data Book now posted online -- only

The 34th edition of the state's annual statistical publication, the "State of Hawaii Data Book 2001" is now available at www.hawaii.gov/dbedt/ and on CD-ROM.

The new edition has 744 tables, including social and economic data from the 2000 census. The book will not be available in printed form. The price for a CD-ROM is $12 for first-class delivery. For more information about getting a CD-ROM, call 586-2466.

ON THE MAINLAND

Intel cites low demand for sluggish sales

SAN JOSE, Calif. >> Citing soft demand for computer processors by consumers and businesses, Intel Corp. said yesterday that third-quarter sales will be within previous forecasts but at the lower end of the range.

The chip-making giant said it expects revenues to be between $6.3 billion and $6.7 billion. Last month, it said sales would range from $6.3 billion to $6.9 billion. The company did not provide earnings estimates.

Analysts expect the Santa Clara-based company to post third-quarter profits of 13 cents per share on sales of $6.9 billion, according to a survey by Thomson First Call.

Campbell Soup profits rise 6% in quarter

TRENTON, N.J. >> Campbell Soup Co. posted a 6 percent increase in its fourth-quarter profits, and revenues were up nearly as much as the food maker completed the first year of its turnaround plan.

Net income for the quarter ended July 28 was $55 million, or 13 cents per share, Camden-based Campbell said yesterday.

Excluding the costs of Campbell's nearly complete reconfiguration of its Australian manufacturing operations, earnings per share would have been 14 cents. That matched the consensus forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.

College students rely heavily on plastic

WASHINGTON >> More college students are overusing credit cards, academics and policy makers said yesterday as they urged Congress to do something about the problem.

Eighty-three percent of undergraduates had at least one credit card last year, up from 67 percent in 1998, according to a study by Nellie Mae, a leading provider of student loans. The proportion of students with four or more credit cards jumped from 27 to 47 percent in that period, the study found.

The Education Department recently found that more than 44 percent of college students carried a balance on a credit card during the 1999-2000 school year. Among those students, the average credit card debt was $3,066. It was the first year such data was collected.

Former Rite Aid execs seek to move trial

HARRISBURG, Pa. >> Four former or current Rite Aid executives charged with participating in an accounting fraud scheme should not be tried in Harrisburg because heavy media coverage has tilted local sentiment against them, defense attorneys argued in federal court motions.

Local publicity, including a news conference held by federal prosecutors the day the indictments were announced, "stoked the fires" that "painted defendants in a decidedly negative light," defense attorneys said in the motion filed Wednesday.