Lockheed, Northrop court jobless aerospace workers

Some of the thousands of aerospace workers who have been laid off in Wichita in recent months are drawing two other companies to the city next week.

Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman Corp. recruiters will conduct a job fair Wednesday and Thursday, in a search for about 4,000 people who want to work on the Joint Strike Fighter program.

Lockheed Martin won the Joint Strike Fighter contract in October and has teamed with Northrop Grumman. The program will build aircraft for the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marines as well as the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy in the United Kingdom.

The majority of Lockheed’s jobs with the Joint Strike Fighter will be in Fort Worth, Tex., although Lockheed also has plants in Palmdale, Calif., and Marietta, Ga.

Jobs with Northrop Grumman primarily will be in the Los Angeles area, although a few will be in Fort Worth.

Tourism: Speedway wins state award

Gov. Bill Graves Thursday presented the Kansas Speedway with the 2002 Governor’s Tourism Award at a special statewide tourism conference in Topeka.

Graves said the track, located in western Wyandotte County, generated about $150 million for the state’s economy. It also produced 1,719 full-time equivalent jobs and added a major travel destination to attract tourists from across the country.

The I-70 Assn., which includes organizations from Lawrence, received a Merit Award for its work in promoting attractions along Interstate 70. Broadcaster Bill Kurtis also received a merit award for several projects in the Sudan and Independence areas.

Sterling fire: Businesses ready to rebuild

A month after a fire destroyed the JaCam Chemical’s offices and laboratory, company founder Gene Zaid unveiled an architect’s drawings for a new building in downtown Sterling.

Plans for Zaid West retain the keystone pattern and the four brick columns of the historic Mincer Building, which housed the destroyed lab, said Miki Zaid, a partner in JaCam with her husband.

Blueprints have been submitted to a contractor and a preliminary cost estimate is expected within two weeks, Miki Zaid said.

The Feb. 15 fire, which started with an experiment in the laboratory, also destroyed the Sterling Bulletin newspaper building and damaged the USD 376 Board of Education offices.

The Zaids have offered Bulletin Publisher Ben Marshall space in the south end of the new building. USD 376 Supt. Paul Bingle said the fate of the fire-damaged board offices is still being negotiated.

Economy: Trade deficit narrows; firms rebuild inventories

The deficit in the nation’s broadest measure of trade narrowed slightly to $417.4 billion last year, still the second highest imbalance on record, the government reported Thursday.

The Commerce Department said last year’s current account trade deficit, measuring the flow of not just goods and services but also investment across the U.S. border, was down by 6.1 percent from the all-time high of $444.7 billion set in 2000.

It marked the first time that the current account had shown an improvement since a 7 percent decline to $109.9 billion in 1995.

In another report, the Commerce Department said that businesses rebuilt inventories by 0.2 percent in January, the first increase in inventories in a year and another encouraging sign that the country’s first recession is a decade has come to an end.

Analysts see the rebuilding of inventories as a crucial development in lifting the country out of recessions.