1,800 Boeing union workers accept buyouts
Union officials say more than 1,800 union members will leave Boeing under a buyout plan offered last month in a continuing company job-cutting effort.
The Seattle Times reports the Machinists union says 1,500 of its members applied for a buyout and were approved to leave the company. The engineering union says 305 members were approved and are expected to leave in April.
The number of nonunion job cuts remains unknown as Boeing declined to release any figures.
In December, Boeing Vice Chairman Ray Conner and new chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Kevin McAllister, issued a joint message to employees warning that “fewer sales opportunities and tough competition” would drive further cuts in 2017.
Boeing slashed almost 7,400 jobs in the state last year. AP
China finance ministry releases $151 billion defense budget
China’s finance ministry said March 5 that the country’s defense budget this year will top 1 trillion yuan ($145 billion) for the first time, after the exact figure was initially kept out of public documents released at the start of the country’s annual legislative sessions.
The ministry put the figure at 1.044 trillion yuan ($151 billion), a 7 percent increase from last year, marking the smallest percentage annual growth rate this century.
A ministry information officer told The Associated Press the exact figure had already been released to the almost 3,000 delegates to the National People’s Congress. But he didn’t say why it had been withheld from the government budget report, where it usually appears. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.
On March 4, congress spokeswoman Fu Ying told reporters the budget would increase around 7 percent in 2017 over last year.
The U.S. and others have routinely asked China to be more forthcoming about the goals of its ambitious military modernization program, under which the budget has grown by double-digit percentages for most of the past two decades. Other observers say actual military spending could be considerably higher because China doesn’t include certain items such as the purchase of armaments from overseas.
China has the world’s second-largest defense budget, although it is still only about one-quarter of what the U.S. spends. China has never provided a breakdown on how the money is spent, although it says most goes to improving living conditions for the troops.
Military analyst Ni Lexiong at Shanghai’s University of Politics and Law said the modest growth rate of 7 percent demonstrates China’s goodwill in avoiding conflicts and supporting regional stability.
It “shows China’s sincerity of peace to the world,”’ he added. AP
Federal authorities approve California tortoise removal
Federal authorities have approved a plan to move nearly 1,500 desert tortoises from a California Marine base.
The Riverside Press-Enterprise says the Navy and the Bureau of Land Management have signed off on the proposal.
The Marine Corps wants to remove the tortoises from about 88,000 acres of land at the Twentynine Palms base in the Mojave Desert so it can use the area for training.
Exercises with tanks and live ammunition are scheduled to begin in August.
The removal could begin at the end of this month or in April after the reptiles emerge from their underground winter hibernation.
The tortoises would be flown by helicopter to BLM land near Barstow.
Critics say the move will devastate the threatened species. AP
Report: VA not tracking true health care delays in 2 states
Government inspectors say actual delays in delivering medical care to military veterans remain far worse at Veterans Affairs medical facilities in North Carolina and Virginia than internal records showed.
U.S. Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina said March 3 the new report by the Veterans Affairs Department’s inspector general found 90 percent of the vets eligible to see private doctors because of long VA delays weren’t getting the help they were due.
Inspectors estimated that more than one-third of new patient appointments had wait times of longer than 30 days. VA appointment records showed only about 10 percent were delayed that long.
Inspectors studied North Carolina VA medical facilities in Asheville, Charlotte, Durham, Fayetteville, Greenville, Kernersville, Salisbury and Wilmington. AP
Army: Helicopter in crash was practicing evading enemy fire
The Army says a Black Hawk helicopter was practicing evading enemy fire when it crashed northwest of Colorado Springs in 2015, injuring all four crew members and destroying the aircraft.
The Army released a report on the crash last week after an open records request by The Associated Press. The report looked at safety and accident prevention issues.
The Army didn’t release the cause of the crash, saying that’s exempt from disclosure.
The Fort Carson, Colo.,-based UH-60L helicopter crashed on a training flight in September 2015. Officials said the $7 million helicopter was a total loss.
The Army initially said two crew members were hurt, but the report says all four were. Two were hospitalized overnight and the others stayed longer.
Their names and details of the injuries weren’t released. AP
Russian military chief speaks to NATO counterpart
The Russian Defense Ministry says the nation’s top military officer has spoken to his NATO counterpart for the first time in several years.
The ministry said Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, had a phone call Friday with Czech Army Gen. Petr Pavel, the chairman of NATO’s Military Committee.
It was the first such high-level contact since NATO suspended a dialogue with Russia in 2014 over Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea and support for a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine.
The ministry said Gerasimov and Pavel discussed prevention of incidents, prospects for restoring military cooperation and acute security issues. It said Gerasimov relayed Moscow’s concerns about NATO’s buildup near Russian borders and the generals confirmed the need for joint steps to reduce tensions. AP