Manufacturing

WASHINGTON - President Obama said Friday he wanted to put more Americans to work by slashing the amount of time it takes to grant federal approval for big job-creating projects. But Obama's choice of venue for his remarks - a Baltimore company that makes mining and pumping equipment - provided fodder for Republicans. They noted that the company president had, just the day before, testified on Capitol Hill in support of the Keystone XL pipeline, which the Obama administration has delayed for years over environmental concerns.

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Jerry Brown is taking another stab at largely eliminating a state $700-million tax break for "enterprise zones" aimed at creating jobs in economically strapped localities. The governor failed in his efforts in 2011 to eliminate these politically popular quarter-century-old zones, located in the legislative districts of about three out of every four lawmakers. In his revised budget Tuesday, Brown proposed that 40 enterprise zones be replaced by a sales tax credit for companies that purchase manufacturing or biotech research and development equipment.

Come the 2014 Olympic Games, the U.S. team should once again be sporting uniforms made in America. After weathering two days of criticism for manufacturing outfits for the 2012 London games in China, American retailer Ralph Lauren announced Friday that it was commited to producing uniforms in America for the 2014 Winter Games, which will be held in Sochi, Russia. “Ralph Lauren promises to lead the conversation within our industry and our government addressing the issue of increasing manufacturing in the United States,” the company said.

SACRAMENTO - A "Made in USA" label has long been seen as an advantage in marketing a product. Now there are in-state manufacturers that want to see the adoption of an official label that declares Made in California. State Sen. Ellen M. Corbett (D-San Leandro) has introduced legislation to require Go-Biz, the governor's business development office, to come up with a plan - including the new label - to promote California-manufactured products. The bill, now before the Senate Appropriations Committee, would enhance California's reputation for making environmentally safe and energy efficient products, Corbett said.

NEW YORK - The next wave of union protesters isn't blue collar. It's lawyers, paralegals, secretaries, helicopter pilots, judges, insurance agents and podiatrists. These white-collar workers are not exactly the picture of the labor movement, but they are becoming a more essential part of it as they turn to unions for help in a tough economy as bosses try to squeeze out more profits. "Employers have been downsizing, asking employees to take on larger roles, making them work more hours," said Nicole Korkolis, spokeswoman for the Office and Professional Employees International Union.

Is it time to finally declare a manufacturing renaissance? An index by the Institute for Supply Management has grown for 33 straight months, and Rust Belt states such as Ohio and Michigan have registered big drops in unemployment over the year. Ohio dropped to 7.5% unemployment in March from 8.8% the previous year, and Michigan dropped to 8.5% from 10.5% in March of last year. The folks at Manning & Napier, the $40-billion asset management firm, say there are some reasons to be very optimistic about manufacturing in the U.S. Wages overseas are rising - China alone has experienced double-digit wage growth in each of the last two years.

Perhaps the only silver lining to the Great Recession is that it triggered a new focus on manufacturing in the United States. After 25 years of being sold a shiny vision of a service-dominated post-industrial economy, the U.S. is rediscovering how important it is to actually make things in order to spur innovation, raise wages, drive exports and lower the trade deficit. Corporate cost calculations undergird the newfound appreciation of U.S. manufacturing. The offshoring of manufacturing was rooted in harsh economic realities: rock-bottom wages in nations such as China and the aggressive attraction and infrastructure strategies of foreign governments.

Manufacturing of high-tech, durable and nondurable goods in California is expected to pick up in the second quarter, according to a Chapman University survey released Wednesday. Manufacturing purchasing managers surveyed expect growth to continue as the nation's economy continues to recover. The composite index by Chapman's A. Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research, which measures overall manufacturing activity, increased to 60.3 in the second quarter, from 56.6. Readings above 50 indicate expansion in the sector.

President Obama seized on a new jobs report as evidence that "the economy is getting stronger" as he pitched a set of manufacturing initiatives in territory key to his reelection chances. "The key now, our job now, is to keep this economic engine churning," Obama said from the floor of a jet engine manufacturing plant in Petersburg, Va. "We can't go back to the same policies that got us into this mess. " Obama's trip, deemed official and not campaign business, came hours after the Labor Department announced that the economy had added 227,000 jobs in February, a stronger showing than economists had expected but not enough to move the 8.3% unemployment rate.

American workers made modest productivity gains in the third quarter, but the lackluster manufacturing sector posted its lowest output gain in three years and continued to slow the overall economy, the government said Wednesday. And for the first time this year, the quarter-to-quarter hourly wage gains made by workers outpaced the growth in consumer inflation, the Labor Department said.

There are some people who will try to find a way to make monetary gain from a tragedy. The aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings is no different. At the time of this posting, seven people are selling their 2013 Boston Marathon medals on EBay, with various pitches to entice people to buy. This has caused outrage in some who feel these sellers are trying cash in on the tragedy of the bombings last week. One seller lists his medal with a pitch that includes: "2013 Official Boston Marathon Finishers Medal given only to qualified runners who finished before the bombing took place.

With corporate headquarters overlooking the hot office market in West Los Angeles, CBRE Group Inc. - the world's largest real estate services firm - finished 2012 with a record $6.5 billion in revenue, and its new boss is optimistic about the year ahead. "We think the economy is going to grow a couple of points this year, and we are expecting our business to grow considerably," said Robert Sulentic, 56, who took over as chief executive in December from Brett White, who retired. Earlier, Sulentic was chief executive of Texas real estate company Trammell Crow Co., which was acquired by CBRE in 2006.

WASHINGTON - Growth in the crucial manufacturing sector unexpectedly slowed in March as companies reported fewer new orders and less production compared with the previous month. The Institute for Supply Management's widely watched purchasing managers index dropped to 51.3 last month compared with 54.2 in February. The reading, released Monday, came in below analyst expectations of about 54. A reading above 50 indicates growth in the sector, which covers a wide variety of industries.

WASHINGTON -- Growth in the crucial manufacturing sector unexpectedly slowed in March as companies reported fewer new orders and less production compared with the previous month. The Institute for Supply Management's widely watched purchasing managers index dropped to 51.3 last month compared with 54.2 in February. The reading came in below analyst expectations of about 54. A reading above 50 indicates growth in the sector, which covers a wide variety of industries. March was the fourth straight month of growth after a slight contraction in November , ISM said.

In 92 years, See's Candies has never shied away from being old-fashioned. At the factory on La Cienega Boulevard, some octogenarian workers measure their decades of employment in hip replacements. Quaint floral details are still hand-piped onto chocolate eggs. An inexorable march of candies heads through tubes the length of a football field, where they're drenched in layers of chocolate - a traditional practice known as enrobing. Like cars merging out of highway toll lanes, they appear from cooling tunnels into employees' waiting hands.

The Goodrich Corp. has agreed to pay at least $21.5 million to help clean up a giant perchlorate plume contaminating groundwater in the Rialto and Colton areas of San Bernardino County caused by Cold War-era munitions plants, federal authorities said Tuesday. The total cleanup cost of the 160-acre Superfund site could exceed $100 million, with Goodrich, the U.S. Department of Defense and other firms responsible for the contamination picking up the tab, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Riverside-based Fleetwood Enterprises has started construction on a $1.9-million, manufactured housing facility on a 22-acre site in Roxboro, N.C. When completed in early 1986, the plant will be the third one established by the California firm in North Carolina within the past three years.

K2 Inc. said it will move half of its ski and snowboard manufacturing from Seattle to Southern California and China and will have suppliers make its bike products to cut costs. The Los Angeles-based sporting goods company will make only high-end skis in Seattle after the move of production to plants it owns in Corona and China by year-end. The Corona plant, which K2 acquired with its recent purchase of Ride Inc., will house manufacturing of mid- to high-end snowboards.

WILLITS, Calif. - We've heard a lot in this post-Newtown moment about how California leads the nation in gun laws. But you probably haven't heard the unlikely story of Brandon Maxfield, a quadriplegic 26-year-old who helped drive a notorious segment of California's gun industry toward extinction. "It wouldn't have happened without him," said Garen Wintemute, a UC Davis professor of emergency medicine whose anti-gun advocacy has made him a firearms industry nemesis. In 1994, at the age of 7, Brandon was accidentally shot through the neck with a .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol.

Industrial production in the U.S. rebounded last month, rising 0.7% -- the most in three months -- with auto manufacturing leading the way, the Federal Reserve said Friday. Manufacturing output also rose in February, increasing by 0.8%. Last month's manufacturing output stands 2% higher compared with the same period a year earlier. "Growth has clearly picked up," Jim O'Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said in a note to clients. "This is another positive sign" for the economy in the January-March quarter.