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HAWAII
Honolulu air freighter's revenue nearly doubles

Transportation and logistics provider Pilot Air Freight said its Honolulu station's revenues nearly doubled to $110,557 in the first quarter from the same period a year earlier.

The Honolulu station, which employs five, delivered 188 freight shipments in the quarter, the company said. The Lima, Pa.-based business has 65 offices in North America.

Bill seeks payday loan alternatives

U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka has introduced a measure to provide a low-cost, short-term alternative to predatory payday loans.

Akaka said many payday loan customers are low- and middle-income families who need a little money for a short period to pay for unexpected expenses, and he wants lenders to offer better loan products to help people.

The proposed legislation would allow the U.S. government to award grants to lenders to create financial products that have capped rates and require customers to pursue financial literacy and educational opportunities.

Cyanotech's annual report to be delayed by vacations

Cyanotech Corp., a Big Island producer of nutritional products from microalgae, has notified the Securities and Exchange Commission that its annual financial report will be delayed "to ensure complete and accurate disclosure."

Gerald Cysewski, Cyanotech's chairman and chief executive, said yesterday there were no problems with the company's financials and that the delay was due to vacation schedules at both Cyanotech and at its independent auditor, KPMG.

Cyanotech will have up to 15 calendar days after the June 29 due date to file the report. In May, Cyanotech issued an earnings release covering its fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year earnings.

CNOOC seeks fast review of Unocal offer

The Chinese oil company fighting for control of Unocal said yesterday that it had asked a top government panel in the United States to formally review its $18.5 billion takeover offer, even as political opposition to the bid was growing in Washington.

The Chinese company, the China National Offshore Oil Corp., or CNOOC, said it had filed a notice with the Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States to look into the proposed acquisition and requested that the review be conducted "in an expeditious manner."

The recent bid by CNOOC topped an offer of $16.8 billion made in April by Chevron, but threatens to be derailed by U.S. lawmakers opposed to oil and gas assets being snapped up by a Chinese company.

CNOOC is racing against an Aug. 10 deadline, when Unocal shareholders get to vote on the Chevron offer. CNOOC hopes that by pressing for a quick review by the government it can assuage concerns that the takeover will drag on for months and persuade Unocal shareholders to turn down Chevron's bid. While CNOOC and Unocal's management are in talks, Unocal's board is still recommending Chevron's offer to its shareholders.

NATION
Metabolife files for bankruptcy

SAN DIEGO » Metabolife International Inc., once one of the nation's largest retailers of herbal supplements, said yesterday it has filed for federal bankruptcy protection in the face of a federal prosecution and a host of lawsuits over a popular diet supplement containing the now-banned herb ephedra.

Ephedra was key to Metabolife's rapid success and the ultimate cause of its collapse.

The San Diego company said it was driven into Chapter 11 by the "staggering" costs of defending more than 360 lawsuits nationwide involving the sale of company products containing ephedra, a stimulant linked to 155 deaths and dozens of heart attacks. Metabolife and its insurer have spent about $40 million defending the company.

About 200 of the lawsuits were consolidated in New York. A federal judge there refused June 2 to approve a multimillion-dollar class-action settlement, leaving Metabolife unable to pay for the continuing cost of defending itself.

Taser says it was libeled by paper

Taser International Inc., the world's largest maker of electric stun guns, filed a libel suit against Gannett Co., alleging that its USA Today newspaper published false information about the safety of the company's weapons.

The complaint, filed in Arizona Superior Court, alleges a June 3 article in USA Today was "grossly incorrect and completely misrepresented the facts," Taser said yesterday in a statement. USA Today ran a correction three days later. The article led to a decline in Taser's stock price and delayed orders, Chief Executive Rick Smith said in the statement.

Taser, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., claims the article overstated the electrical output of its Taser X26 stun gun by a factor of 1 million and "compounded" the error by visually comparing it to a lightning storm and an electric chair. The complaint claims Gannett continued to publish "misleading" articles related to the safety of Taser products, Taser said.

Corporate optimism rises in Japan, survey says

TOKYO » Japanese corporate leaders were more optimistic about their prospects in June than they were three months earlier despite signs of a slowdown in exports, according to a quarterly business survey by the Bank of Japan.

The unexpectedly upbeat result of the central bank's closely watched Tankan survey of about 10,000 companies suggests that the economy continues to recover from a shallow recession last year as domestic demand grows. Confidence improved in most categories of businesses, though large companies remained significantly more upbeat than small ones.

The benchmark index of large manufacturers, which includes about 1,200 of Japan's biggest companies, rose from 14 in March to 18 in June. The index is calculated by subtracting the percentage of companies that say conditions are unfavorable from those that say they are favorable. A positive score means the optimists outnumber the pessimists.

Economists said one of the most encouraging parts of the report was a strong improvement in confidence among service companies, like banks and department stores. Confidence among large service companies rose from 11 in March to 15 in June, the highest level since 1992.