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Business Briefs
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Saipan factory must pay $1M judgment
A Saipan-based garment factory that made clothing for several American retailers was ordered to pay more than $1 million for allegedly discriminating against employees based on their nationality, officials said yesterday.U.S. District Judge Alex R. Munson sided with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and ruled against South Korean-owned Sako Corp., which failed to renew its employment contracts with long-standing Filipino, Thai and Bangladeshi garment workers and hired Chinese workers in their place.
Company officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Sako's telephone lines in Saipan have been disconnected.
The EEOC's Honolulu office found about 100 workers lost their jobs to younger and less experienced workers from China. Sako cited business reasons for the change.
The $1.09 million judgment includes back wages and emotional distress and will be divided among the 65 workers who were involved in the federal lawsuit filed in September, David Offen-Brown, the commission's supervisory attorney.
KIPO transmitter will get boost
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KIPO has been transmitting at only 3,000 of its authorized 100,000 watts, due to what station officials call irreconcilable interference issues with Federal Communications Commission and Federal Aviation Administration monitoring stations.
Low-power operation has limited the reach of the noncommercial station's signal to a small portion of Honolulu. Moving the transmitter out of the monitoring stations' paths will allow it to operate at higher power, generating a signal that will reach 95 percent of Oahu's population with minimal environmental impact, said Michael Titterton, president and general manager of Hawaii Public Radio.
"We're very happy we got this particular spot ... it will be a practically invisible tower. It's very close to a piece of land that's already got a tower owned by Verizon on it and it has an access road," Titterton said.
HPR officials will soon begin negotiating the lease rent with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and hope to begin construction by the fall and to get the boosted signal on the air early next year.
3 local contractors win honors from SBA
The U.S. Small Business Administration has awarded three local companies its Administrator's Award of Excellence for performance as small subcontractors on federal government contracts.Awardees include: Steven Baldridge of Baldridge & Associates Structural Engineering Inc., Austin Nakoa of the Nakoa Cos. and Jingbo Chang of Pacific Commercial Services LLC.
Bank is still accepting contest entries
American Savings Bank has pushed back the entry deadline for its Careers in Banking Contest to Friday from last Friday.Public and private school students can enter in two grade categories. Two winners will receive $1,000 each. Entry forms are available at www.asbhawaii.com.
Vegas merger deal is completed
LAS VEGAS » MGM Mirage and Mandalay Resort Group completed their merger yesterday, closing on a long-awaited deal that creates a combined company with about $7 billion in revenues and 70,000 employees.The buyout eliminates one of the world's largest gambling companies and establishes another one that controls a majority of the hotel rooms and about 40 percent of the slot machines on the famous Las Vegas Strip.
Ten months in the making, the multibillion dollar merger gives MGM Mirage Inc. ownership of 24 hotel-casinos, including the Mirage, Bellagio, MGM Grand, Treasure Island, Excalibur, Monte Carlo, Luxor and Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
Terry Lanni, MGM Mirage chairman and chief executive, said yesterday that there were no immediate plans to shed any of the Las Vegas properties and no plans for wholesale layoffs.
Verizon may counter Qwest's MCI bid
Verizon Communications Inc., the largest U.S. local-telephone company, may raise its $7.62 billion bid for MCI Inc. as early as this week after MCI declared Qwest Communications International Inc.'s rival offer superior, people familiar with the plans said.MCI's board, while acknowledging Qwest's bid is better, said over the weekend that it still wants to pursue the Verizon deal. Verizon is unlikely to match Qwest's bid and instead may raise the offer to as high as $25.72, the amount it paid for the 13 percent stake owned by billionaire Carlos Slim, the people said.
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