NATIONAL

Goodyear to freeze some pension plans

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. on Wednesday said it will freeze its pension plan for some workers and require them to pay more for medical benefits when they retire as part of a plan to slash overall costs by $1 billion by the end of 2008.

The changes will affect about 14,000 salaried and retail employees and about 17,000 retirees.

SETTLEMENTS OFFERED The recording industry's trade group said Thursday it will give hundreds of college students suspected of illegally sharing music online a chance to reach settlements before being sued for copyright infringement. The move comes as the industry seeks to stamp out what it is says is rampant music piracy on campuses.

The Recording Industry Association of America said it was sending letters offering discounted settlements to 400 computer users at 13 universities, none in Colorado.

SCRIPPS CUTS OUTLOOK E.W. Scripps, owner of the Rocky Mountain News, lowered its profit outlook for the first quarter, citing weaker-than-expected advertising sales at its newspapers and smaller profits at its online search businesses.

First-quarter income from continuing operations is expected to be 33 cents to 37 cents a share, compared with previous guidance of 39 cents to 43 cents a share.

Newspaper revenue is expected to decline 6 percent to 8 percent in the first quarter compared with a year ago. The company had previously forecast newspaper revenue for the first quarter to decline 5 to 7 percent.

For the year, the company expects the percentage decrease in newspaper revenue to be in the low single digits, as forecast.

WORLD

Airbus to cut jobs, eyes sale of plants

Airbus SAS, struggling to end a financial crisis sparked by delays in the A380 superjumbo jet, plans to cut 10,000 jobs over four years and sell or find partners for six factories.

The world's biggest maker of commercial planes will slash $2.8 billion from annual costs by 2010, CEO Louis Gallois said in Toulouse, France. Airbus will take a $900 million charge in the first quarter to eliminate 18 percent of its work force.

LOCAL

Congdon to leave St. Mary Land

Denver-based St. Mary Land & Exploration Co. said Wednesday that after 40 years of service, Thomas Congdon will retire from the company's board at the annual shareholders meeting in May.

Congdon joined the company as president in 1966 and served in that position for nearly 25 years. When the company went public in 1992, he became CEO and chairman of the board. He served as CEO until 1995 and as chairman until 2002.

The company also named President Tony Best to be CEO; David Honeyfield to be senior vice president, CFO, treasurer and secretary; and Jerry Hertzler to be vice president-business development.

DRILLING BILL GOES TO SENATE The House approved and sent to the Senate a measure that would require oil and gas providers to minimize the adverse impacts of drilling on surface owners despite objections from some lawmakers who said a provision allowing surface owners to sue for trespass was too strict. Rep. Larry Liston, R-Colorado Springs, said the owners of mineral rights below the ground have as much right to use their property as surface owners.

ECONOMY

Q4 economic growth revised down to 2.2%

The economy grew at a sluggish 2.2 percent pace in the final quarter of last year, the government reported Wednesday in one of the steepest downward revisions in years.

The new reading on gross domestic product showed the economy in a considerably weaker state than the government first estimated. It initially reported the expansion in the last three months of 2006 to be at a 3.5 percent pace. The principal reason for the new lower estimate: Businesses tightened their belts amid fallout from the troubled housing and automotive sectors.

• New-home sales plummeted by 16.6 percent in January from the previous month.

That was the largest decline since January 1994, when sales slid by 23.8 percent.

The decline in January - much steeper than analysts anticipated - left sales at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 937,000, the lowest level since February 2003.

Home prices were down from a year ago. The median sales price of a new home - where half sell for more and half for less - dropped to $239,800 in January, a 2.1 percent decline from the same month last year.

THIS JUST IN...

• Businesses interested in being considered for the Best Companies to Work For in Colorado competition, sponsored by the Society for Human Resource Management Colorado State Council, have until Friday to register. For more information, call 720-212-2034 or visit coshrm.org.

• PRACO Public Relations Advertising Co.'s Colorado Springs office has added Lupe Morales as an accounting administration assistant; Deseri Chavez as a receptionist; and Shanda Douglas as an account coordinator.

• Centura Health and the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center established a scholarship in honor of Sister Nancy Hoffman, who was senior vice president of Mission and Ministry at Centura Health from 1996 to 2007. The scholarship is available to minority students accepted to the university's MBA program in health administration.

• Amerimax Building Products, a vinyl window manufacturer in Loveland, presented Lakewood-based Conservation Construction with the Amerimax 2006 Dealer of the Year award.

• Kim Ruotsala, director of development at Food Bank of the Rockies, was honored as a Top Woman in Fundraising by Fundraising Success magazine's 2007 Fundraising Professionals of the Year awards.

• Observatory Village, a Village Homes community, was selected as Best Community for the second year in a row by the Home Builders Association of Northern Colorado, and Village Homes employees Laurel Bravdica and Elyssa Blazier were named Sales Team of the Year in northern Colorado.

• The Colorado Women's Chamber of Commerce, along with the Taki Concordia Fellowship, named Rei Hotoda as recipient of the 2006 Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship. The fellowship encourages women studying or training to be orchestral conductors.

• Attorney Margaret Walker has been elected chairperson of the Colorado Collaborative Law Professionals group.

• Qwest Communications International Inc. was recognized by Hispanic magazine as one of the 100 companies that contribute most to the Hispanic community.

Rocky staff and wire reports

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