American productivity climbs in first quarter

WASHINGTON -- America's productivity improved in the first quarter of 2003 as companies produced more while keeping their work forces lean.

The Labor Department reported Wednesday that productivity -- the amount an employee produces per hour of work -- grew at an annual rate of 1.9 percent from January through March.

That compares with the 1.6 percent growth previously estimated for the quarter and the 0.7 percent growth rate in the final quarter of 2002.

SOUTH SOUND

Small-business center moves to Lacey location

South Puget Sound Community College's small-business development center has moved to 665 Woodland Square Loop in Lacey.

The center, which offers counseling to small-business owners, is in the same building as the Economic Development Council of Thurston County.

The new telephone number is 360-407-3991.

TECHNOLOGY

Palm to merge with competitor Handspring

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Palm Inc., the leading maker of personal digital assistants, said Wednesday it plans to acquire challenger Handspring Inc., which was created five years ago by Palm's founders.

The deal calls for the Silicon Valley rivals to merge after Palm completes its spinoff of PalmSource, the unit that makes the Palm operating system for handheld computers. The transactions are expected to be completed back-to-back in the fall, and the merged company will be renamed, the companies said.

Under the proposed terms, Handspring's shareholders will receive 0.09 Palm shares -- and no shares of PalmSource -- for each share of Handspring common stock owned.

LABOR

GOP leaders pull overtime pay bill from schedule

WASHINGTON -- House Republican leaders yanked an overtime pay bill from Thursday's schedule after failing to find enough votes for passage, a rare win for labor unions in a Congress controlled by the GOP.

Wednesday's move followed an intense lobbying effort by organized labor that targeted moderate House Republicans. The measure would let hourly workers who log more than 40 hours in a week choose between overtime pay or compensatory time off at a later date. Private companies are barred under the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act from offering comp time as an option to millions of workers covered by the law.

Labor's success, however, could be short-lived. Republicans vowed to reschedule the vote after they "unravel the campaign of lies launched" by unions.

MEDIA

Committee to consider counter to FCC ruling

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers will consider partly reversing a decision that eased media ownership restrictions, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain said Wednesday.

The committee questioned the five members of the Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission with senators from both parties criticizing the agency's 3-2 vote to relax regulations. That party-line decision on Monday allowed individual companies to own television stations reaching nearly half the nation's viewers.

McCain, R-Ariz., said he opposes proposed legislation to counter that change, but his committee still will consider it this month.

"I have a long voting record in support of deregulation," McCain said. "But the business of media ownership, which can have such an immense effect on the nature and quality of our democracy, is too important to be dealt with so categorically."