BUSINESS BRIEFS

VIRGINIA

Stanley Furniture Co. to lay off 100 workers

STANLEYTOWN -- One-hundred production workers at Stanley Furniture Co.'s factory in Henry County will be laid off March 27.

The Stanleytown-based company announced the layoffs yesterday. It cited the national recession and its effect on sales.

In January, the company reported that 2008 sales were about 20 percent below the previous year's, falling from $283 million to $226.5 million.

The layoffs will reduce Stanley Furniture's work force in Henry to about 1,000.

Tests link Texas plant's peanuts to salmonella

DALLAS-- Tests show that ground peanuts at a Texas plant were contaminated with the same strain of salmonella that has sickened hundreds of people across the nation, state health officials said yesterday.

The peanut meal was tested at the Plainview plant Feb. 12 after the facility, owned by Lynchburg, Va.-based Peanut Corp. of America, had voluntarily shut down, said Doug McBride, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.

The Texas plant is the second facility operated by the embattled Peanut Corp. to test positive for salmonella. A strain was found at the company's Blakely, Ga., plant.

The national outbreak has sickened more than 600 people and is suspected of causing at least nine deaths.

The outbreak led to one of the largest product recalls in U.S. history. Unable to recover from the fallout, the company has filed for bankruptcy.

Dividends declared

Financial 'stress tests' set for 19 large banks

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration hopes to restore confidence in the nation's ailing financial sector by subjecting 19 of the largest banks to "stress tests" that will gauge whether each institution has adequate capital to survive a severe downturn.

Banks that need new funds will be given six months to obtain it from the private sector or, failing that, from the federal government's $700 billion bank rescue program, the Treasury Department said yesterday.

UAW chief urges union to OK Ford concessions

DETROIT -- United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger yesterday urged union members to vote for contract concessions to Ford Motor Co., saying the automaker can't survive in the long term without major restructuring.

Gettelfinger said in a letter to 42,000 hourly Ford workers that the company lost $14.6 billion last year and is burning through $1 billion per month to stay in business because revenue has dropped so dramatically.

He recommends that members vote for concessions and points out that the union was able to preserve base pay, keep current health benefits and pensions, and prevent further plant closures.

Wells Fargo scales back spending on golf event

Wells Fargo & Co., recipient of $25 billion in government aid, is cutting spending on the Wachovia Championship golf tournament that starts in April amid criticism from U.S. lawmakers about banks corporate expenses.

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo, which acquired Wachovia Corp. in December, has a sponsorship contract with the PGA Tour through 2014. Wells Fargo is evaluating all of its sponsorship agreements to determine how they benefit the company and communities, spokeswoman Mary Beth Navarro said.

The Wachovia Championship is scheduled for April 27 through May 3 in Charlotte, N.C., where Wachovia is based.

Apple CEO Jobs plans return, director says

CUPERTINO, Calif. -- Apple Inc. co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs still expects to return from his medical leave at the end of June, according to an Apple director who responded to an investor at the company's annual shareholder meeting yesterday.

The investor had asked when the board knew Jobs planned to step away from his daily duties. Apple director Arthur Levinson responded that since Jobs announced Jan. 14 that he needed to go on leave, "nothing has changed."

Jobs, who turned 54 on Tuesday, was not at the meeting.

A survivor of pancreatic cancer who looked very thin last year, Jobs said Jan. 5 that he had a treatable hormone imbalance and would continue to run Apple.

The next week he went on leave to treat medical issues that he said were "more complex" than he had believed.

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