Washington Times cuts staff, sports

WASHINGTON » The Washington Times slashed its staff by more than 40 percent and will eliminate its sports section and most local coverage in 2010, shifting its focus to politics, business and investigative reporting.

The 27-year-old newspaper announced the latest round of layoffs in yesterday's edition and said the last sports section would appear today. Among those let go was the newsroom leader, Managing Editor David Jones. Another round of cuts was made earlier in December, and the newspaper published its last Sunday edition last weekend.

The paper will publish a new weekday print edition starting Monday. It will focus on the newspaper's core strengths, including politics and cultural issues, President and Publisher Jonathan Slevin said Wednesday in a statement.

The layoffs hit some high-profile beats, including journalists covering the Justice Department, Congress and foreign affairs.

All nine staff photographers were cut, along with the assistant managing editor of photography, she said. Only two photo editors will remain.

The Times is often viewed as the conservative alternative to the much larger Washington Post. It was founded in 1982 and funded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, leader of the Unification Church.

The new print edition will be sold at retail outlets and newspaper boxes in the Washington area for $1. The current weekday edition is 50 cents.

Colorado's minimum wage to drop

DENVER » Colorado's minimum wage will drop slightly in the new year—the first decrease in any state's minimum wage since the federal minimum was adopted in 1938.

Colorado's wage is falling 3 cents an hour, from $7.28 to the federal level of $7.25. That's because Colorado is one of 10 states that tie the state minimum wage to inflation. The goal is to protect low-wage workers from having unchanged paychecks as the cost of living goes up.

But Colorado's provision also allows wage declines, and the state's consumer price index fell 0.6 percent last year, so the minimum wage is going down.

The lower consumer price index, attributed to lower fuel prices, would have forced the wage down 4 cents an hour, but no state can go below the federal minimum of $7.25.

Icahn offers more for Trump casinos

NEWARK, N.J. » Billionaire investor Carl Icahn plans to pump more cash into his bid to buy Donald Trump's bankrupt casinos, according to papers filed in federal court.

Icahn already had agreed to buy a majority of the $486 million bank debt on the three properties: Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort and Trump Marina Hotel Casino.

In a statement filed Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Icahn Partners Inc. committed another $125 million toward propping up struggling Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc.

Trump Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 protection in February, the third such filing for the company and its corporate predecessors. The company's struggling with crushing debt was exacerbated by a sour economy and competition from slots parlors in Pennsylvania and New York that have lured away some Atlantic City regulars.

Delta gets OK to phase out Northwest

ATLANTA » Delta Air Lines Inc. has received government permission to operate its namesake service and its Northwest Airlines subsidiary as a single carrier, a Delta executive said yesterday.

The single operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration allows Delta to put its code on Northwest flights and phase out the Northwest name. That process will be complete in the first quarter of 2010. For now, travelers won't notice anything different.

Delta, based in Atlanta, acquired Northwest for $2.8 billion in stock in October 2008 to become the world's biggest airline.

Delta and Northwest are now one airline, meaning that for the first time pre-merger Northwest operations will be combined into Delta's operations, Chief Operating Officer Stephen E. Gorman said in an internal memo.

ON THE MOVE

Outrigger Reef on the Beach has announced the following:

» Harold Beltran as executive chef. He has 12 years' food operation experience, worked for Ryan's Grill and Palomino Euro Bistro and was executive chef for BluWater Grill.

» Dietrich Chillous as food and beverage manager. He previously was food and beverage manager for Honolulu Country Club. He also held food and beverage positions at Waialae Country Club, Royal Hawaiian Cruises, Alana Waikiki Hotel and Padovani's Bistro and Wine Bar, and was banquet and beverage manager for Radisson Waikiki Prince Kuhio.

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» CCIM Institute has awarded Matthew Bittick the Certified Commercial Investment Member designation. He is president of Bishop Street Commercial and was among 120 commercial real estate professionals nationally who were granted the designation.

» Kona Sunset Pools & Spas was one of three companies presented with the 2010 Pinnacle Award from Luxury Pools magazine. Kona's winning project is a spill-over waterfall and multicolored stone wall that divides two pools, complementing the project's design.