Cummins moving to New York\nCOLUMBUS, Ind. -- Cummins Inc. plans to move the bulk of its Columbus heavy-duty engine assembly operations to its Jamestown, N.Y. plant at the end of the year.\nThe company announced Oct. 9 that it would cease heavy-duty engine assembly in Columbus for the first time in company history and eliminate about 200 jobs.\nThe production will be transferred to a more modern and productive facility in New York, leaving about two-thirds of the Columbus engine plant's 1.3 million square feet idle.\nThe consolidation of the Columbus and western New York plants will reduce Cummins' southern Indiana work force from about 5,100 people to 4,900. The company projects the move will save $15 million next year and $20 million annually thereafter.\nThe work force reduction already has started and will continue throughout early 2003, company spokesman Jason Rawlings said.\nReductions already are occurring through retirements, employees going to other facilities and people leaving Cummins for other jobs, he said.\n"There's a lot of transitioning going on right now," he told The Republic for a story Monday.\nThe bulk of the assembly line move will occur during the plant's planned Christmas shutdown.\nCummins delayed its traditional summer shutdown until Christmas because orders for heavy-duty truck engines spiked in the second and third quarters, fueled by a new federal emissions standards that took effect Oct. 1.\nTrucking fleets tried to avoid having to buy the more environmentally friendly engines because they are more expensive.\nMedical company probed \nfor drug-marketing practices\nBOSTON -- Attorneys general in 47 states, including Massachusetts, are investigating whether pharmaceutical giant Pfizer illegally marketed the epilepsy drug Neurontin to physicians. \nWashington state Assistant Attorney General David Waterbury said in an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston that he is leading the fraud investigation for the states and the District of Columbia. \nWaterbury's statements were attached to a court filing in the civil lawsuit of Dr. David Franklin, a former company sales representative turned whistle blower who has sued both Pfizer and Parke-Davis in Massachusetts. The companies merged two years ago. \nIn the filing, Waterbury indicated that he requested extensive data from state Medicaid programs over the past eight months, including the prescribing practices of individual doctors for dates before and after their exposure to specific marketing practices. \nThe affidavit was included with a request from Franklin's attorney, Thomas Greene, seeking more time to gather evidence. \nThe civil lawsuit and the separate criminal investigation seek to prove that Parke-Davis and its parent company, Warner-Lambert, illegally influenced and paid kickbacks to doctors to prescribe Neurontin for conditions for which the drug was not approved. \nA Pfizer spokesman declined to comment on the investigation, but the company has denied the allegations in the past.
Last Major U.S. Shirt Maker Quits
WATERVILLE, Maine -- Workers at the nation's last major shirt manufacturing plant stitched their last button-downs Friday following a failed attempt to save the factory whose shirts were made famous by the man-with-an-eyepatch logo. \nC.F. Hathaway, which has been making shirts in Maine for 165 years, will go the way of Arrow and Van Heusen, once strong competitors whose shirts are now being made overseas. \nLike those other brands, Hathaway shirts will live on but they will no longer carry the "Made in the USA'' label. \nThe last shirts produced at the Hathaway plant were sewn at about noon. Only a handful of workers remained to box and fold those shirts. Distribution of the remaining shirts will keep 25 people employed through December. The closing is putting 235 people out of work. \nA trickle of workers carried fans, which kept them cool in the hot factory, and other belongings to their cars, where they lingered to say their good-byes. \n"It's losing your family. My God, we've been through divorces and deaths and children growing up and grandchildren, we've been though everything in there and we are family,'' said Sherry Laliberty, 59, who worked in the plant for 35 years. \nThe Hathaway factory's demise became inevitable after it failed to win a key contract to make shirts for the Air Force, and the nonprofit Made in the USA Foundation failed to line up investors to take over the facility. \n"A lot of people saw the writing on the wall five or six years ago,'' said Ron Fingel, the Waterville city administrator. "It was expected for so long it wasn't like a shoe dropping in a quiet room.'' \nHathaway, known for its man-with-an-eye-patch logo, began production in 1837 -- it once manufactured shirts for the Union Army during the Civil War -- and over time set the standard for quality men's clothing with its tailor-made quality dress shirts sold off-the-rack.
Market Swings Could Signal Recovery
NEW YORK -- As unpredictable as Wall Street appears these days, there might be some hope behind its whipsaw price moves. Analysts say the volatility might be what's needed for a slow, truly meaningful switch from bearish to bullish sentiment. \nThe Dow Jones industrials surged 1,000 points last week after hitting five-year lows. Much of the gain came on a four-day, 969-point climb -- the biggest four-day rally since 1933 -- before the market lurched up and the down the remainder of the week. \nMeanwhile, the Chicago Board Options Exchange's Volatility Index, has been trading at very high levels of more than 40 in recent weeks, and rose to 50.48 on Oct. 10, the start of the four-day rally. The index measures the market's estimate of future volatility. \nAnalysts say the fluctuations may be a good sign, indicating a battle between skittish bears willing to sell at the slightest indication of bad news versus a growing number of more confident bulls ready to jump in at beaten-down prices. \n"Around market turning points, a lot of times sentiment is extreme. So you get big selloffs and subsequent big rallies afterward,'' said Sam Burns, research analyst at Ned Davis Research. "The fact that we are seeing high volatility now would be consistent with a market bottom.'' \nStill, investors say their faith in the stock market is still at its lowest in years, and two-thirds remain wary about making substantial investments, according to a recent AP poll and interviews around the country.
