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Journal and Wire Reports

Hard Rock Too Costly, Isleta Says

Isleta Pueblo officials say they decided to drop the affiliation with the Hard Rock brand at its casino and resort because they didn’t believe they were getting enough value in the deal.

Pueblo officials said in a recent newsletter that Hard Rock did not live up to a contract agreement to provide marketing, management training and services. The newsletter also said the pueblo was trying to reduce a $1 million Hard Rock franchise payment, due at the end of 2012, to $750,000.

Resort CEO Pamela Gallegos said in a statement that Isleta Pueblo has decided to return to its own brand after three years to identify it in this market and with its loyal customers.

The casino announced in October 2009 it had entered into a franchise agreement with Hard Rock Hotel Holdings LLC and HRHH IP and would take on the global brand name.

SF Book Publisher Files Bankruptcy

SANTA FE — A Santa Fe book-publishing company known for printing books about the Southwest by local and American Indian authors has filed for bankruptcy protection in federal court.

Harmon Houghton and photographer Marcia Keegan filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last month for their longtime company, Clear Light Publishing.

The couple started the publishing company in the 1980s and later added a book gallery in an attempt to meet the changing demands of the print world.

THE NATIONTrade Deficit Narrows in Sept.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit narrowed to $41.5 billion in September, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That is 5.1 percent below the August deficit and the smallest imbalance since December 2010.

Exports climbed 3.1 percent to an all-time high of $187 billion. That followed two monthly declines and reflected stronger sales of commercial aircraft, heavy machinery and farm goods.

Economists cautioned that the increase in exports may only be temporary. One reason is soybean exports rose 32 percent in September from August, in part because of a jump in prices linked to the summer drought.

Beechcraft Closing Three Facilities

WICHITA, Kan. — Wichita-based airplane maker Hawker Beechcraft says it’s closing facilities in three states and laying off more workers in Kansas.

The company said Wednesday that 240 employees will lose their jobs with the closing of Hawker Beechcraft Services facilities in Little Rock, Ark.; Mesa, Ariz.; and San Antonio, Texas.

It also plans to cut a total of 170 jobs at its Wichita headquarters and at its completion center in Little Rock.

Hawker Beechcraft says the moves are in line with plans to emerge from bankruptcy as a standalone company.

It says the closures and layoffs will help with its plan to focus on turboprop, piston and military aircraft and on its parts and maintenance business.

By Anne D’innocenzioThe Associated Press

NEW YORK — Attention, frustrated Black Friday shop-pers who can never grab that hot product: Wal-Mart is hop-ing to relieve some of that anxiety.

The world’s largest retailer is throwing its doors open at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, two hours earlier than a year

ago. It’s also guaranteeing shoppers that it will have three of the most popular items it sells if they line up inside the store during a one-hour event that day.

Those who are lined up inside the store between 10 p.m and 11 p.m. on Thanks-giving will be able to purchase the following items: an Apple iPad 2 with Wi-Fi for $399 plus a $74 Wal-Mart gift card; an Emerson 32-inch LCD TV for $148, down from the original $228; and an LG Blu-ray Disc player for $38, about half off

the original price.For those who are inside the

store during that one-hour window on Thanksgiving and find the product sold out, Wal-Mart will offer a guaran-tee card for the item. The item

must be paid for by midnight and registered online. The product will then be shipped to the store where it was pur-chased for the customer to pick up before Dec. 25.

“We know it’s frustrating for customers to shop on Black Friday and not get the items they want,” said Duncan Mac-Naughton, chief merchandis-ing and marketing officer at Wal-Mart’s U.S. division. To satisfy customers’ demands for coveted items, Wal-Mart “bought very deep” on prod-ucts that matter to its custom-

ers, he said.Wal-Mart’s strategy raises

the competitive stakes for the start of the holiday sea-son. American retailers have increasingly expanded their hours on Black Friday to get ahead of the competition, but now the kickoff is creeping earlier into Thanksgiving Day.

Starting with the 8 p.m. sale on Thanksgiving, Wal-Mart will have two more rounds of sales that will also include a consumer electronics sale two hours later and a sale at 5 a.m. on Friday.

Wal-Mart Fights Black Friday Anxiety

Copyright © 2012 Albuquerque Journal

By Michael HartranftAssistant Business Editor

Faced with a compliance deadline even as the issue remains in court and talks continue on alternatives, PNM has hired a Texas-based firm to proceed with EPA-mandat-ed pollution controls at the San Juan Generating Station.

The Fluor Corp. will design and install the selective cata-lytic reduction equipment for each of the four units at the coal-fired plant, required in a federal plan adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2011.

Fluor, which is headquar-tered in Irving, Texas, was one of four firms that bid on the project.

“We can’t just keep holding off on entering into the con-tract indefinitely,” PNM spoke-woman Valerie Smith said Thursday. “The contract ... is what we need in order to main-tain our compliance schedule.

“That said, we are continu-ing with litigation and we also are continuing to work with the EPA and state as well and cooperating with them as they discuss and explore the possibility of an alternative,” she said. The contract allows “appropriate exits” if PNM wins in court or if an alterna-tive is found.

The total project cost cur-rently is estimated at between $824 million and $910 million, Smith said. Customers of PNM, which owns 46 percent of the plant, would ultimately pay for its share of the costs. EPA estimated it would cost $345 million.

PNM and the state chal-lenged the rule in federal court. Last month, the EPA extended a stay of the rule so involved parties could con-tinue discussing alternatives through the end of the month.

The first phase of the Fluor contract calls for early-phase engineering, procurement and construction. The second phase would begin in Janu-ary, with actual construction under way by mid-2013.

Smith said PNM estimates it will spend up to $3 mil-lion on the project this year and another $102 million in 2013, including costs beyond the Fluor contract. “Gross receipts taxes and things like that are not part of the con-tract but are imbedded in our cost projections,” she said.

Before a 90-day stay was extended beyond Oct. 15, the state proposed an alternative plan to shutter two units by 2017, equip the others with less-expensive selective non-catalytic reduction and build a natural-gas power genera-tion unit at San Juan for peak demand.

“Discussions are still occur-ring and I think some progress is being made, but we still have yet to reach any sort of com-promise,” New Mexico Envi-ronment Department General Counsel Ryan Flynn said.

San Juan Retrofit Firm Hired

Sandy Distorts Weekly Jobless FilingsBy Christopher S. RugaberThe Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The num-ber of people seeking unem-ployment benefits fell last week by 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 355,000, in a tally dis-torted by Superstorm Sandy.

The Labor Department said Thursday that the four-week average of applications, a less-volatile measure, rose by 3,250 to 370,500.

The storm could affect week-

ly applications for up to four weeks, a Labor spokesman said.

Applications declined in one state last week because power outages prevented officials from receiving applications. The spokesman wouldn’t iden-tify the state.

The storm also pushed applications in other states up because some people who could not go to work sought benefits.

Most economists expect applications will rise in the

coming weeks. Jill Brown, an economist at Credit Suisse, said that large hurricanes have historically pushed up applications by about 4 per-cent. That suggests they could reach 390,000.

If applications stay below 360,000 after the storm’s effects fade, it would be a good sign for the job market.

Weekly applications have f luctuated between 360,000 and 390,000 since January. At the same time, employers have added an average of nearly

157,000 jobs a month. That’s only been enough to lower the unemployment rate slowly. It has declined to 7.9 percent from 8.3 percent this year. And some of the decline was because more people gave up looking for work and weren’t counted as unemployed.

Most economists expect growth will remain sluggish through early next year. Many hope the economy will accel-erate if the White House and Congress avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff.”

COURTESY OF SPACEPORT AMERICA

This is what Spaceport America looks like from the air as seen in this recent photo released this week by the New Mexico Spaceport Authority.

Journal Staff Report

The New Mexico Spaceport Authority approved a pair of new contracts this week worth a combined $1.13 million as part

of the final phase of construction at Spaceport America.

SDV Construction of Albuquerque was selected for a $647,389, 18-month contract to oversee and manage the phase 2 construction activities at Spaceport America.

Responsibilities include overseeing the building of the Visitor Experi-ence facilities, runway extension, internal road realignment, the con-struction of the entrance facility and associated utilities extension, the authority said in a news release.

AMEC Environment and Infra-structure Inc. of Albuquerque was

awarded the Quality Assurance Testing Services contract at $488,969 over a 12-month contract period. That contract covers testing services for the Spaceport America runway extension.

The Spaceport Authority board said that in September it approved the award of the runway modification contract to A.S. Horner, also an Albu-querque-based company. The board also OK’d a contract to Ashbaugh Construction for the proposed site for the Sierra County Welcome Center.

“The spaceport has created well over 1,000 construction jobs to date and we are pleased to be able to award these recent contracts to com-panies located in New Mexico creat-ing additional employment for our state,” Christine Anderson, executive director of the Spaceport Authority

said in a statement.The Spaceport Operations Center

and the Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space terminal hangar building have both earned their Certificate of Occupancy from the state of New Mexico. The interior design is under way.

The operations center will house support contractors and authority staff. The terminal hangar building will house the Virgin Galactic staff and commercial flight operations.

The spaceport continues to host vertical launches including its 17th on Nov. 3 conducted by Armadillo Aerospace of Heath, Texas. More ver-tical launches are expected to take place within the next 12 months, the authority said.

For more information, visit www.spaceportamerica.co.

FINAL SPACEPORT PHASE

Chain Guarantees Three Hot Items

■■ Looming deadline presses PNM to begin pollution-control work

McD’s Global Revenue Slips

By Candice ChoiThe Associated Press

NEW YORK — The world’s biggest hamburger chain said Thursday that a key sales fig-ure fell for the first time in nearly a decade in October, as it faced the double whammy of a challenging economy abroad and intensifying competition at home.

McDonald’s Corp. says global revenue at restaurants open at least 13 months fell 1.8 percent for the month. The last time it dropped was in March 2003.

The figure is a key met-ric because it strips out the impact of newly opened and closed locations. It’s a snap-shot of money spent on food at both company-owned and franchised restaurants and does not ref lect corporate revenue.

McDonald’s says the figure

fell 2.2 percent in both the U.S. and Europe in October. In the region encompassing Asia, the Middle East and Africa, it dropped 2.4 percent.

McDonald’s has seen sales slow recently, with rivals such as Burger King and Wendy’s working to revive their brands with improved menus and new TV ad campaigns. Taco Bell, owned by Yum Brands Inc., is also enjoying growth with the help of new offerings such as it Doritos Locos Tacos and high-er-end Cantina Bell bowls.

Economy Abroad, Competition Blamed

JOURNAL FILE

Facing increased competi-tion, McDonald’s has seen its sales slow recently.

$1.13M in New Contracts Covers Runway Tests, Construction Oversight