Urban News

(SEATTLE) -- For decades the Boeing aircraft company has been one of the major job providers in the Seattle area. As the company has ridden an economic roller coaster -- alternately hiring and laying off workers as orders for planes have come and gone -- the Seattle economy has seen the impact of that up and down ride.

Now a top official of the company is painting a rather gloomy picture of the future. Boeing's head of airplane production tells the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that even if airline production does come back to pre-9/11 levels, he doubts that the company's workforce will ever be as large as in past years.

The publication says that Alan Mulally had chosen his words carefully because "employment (levels are) such a sensitive issue with the company's unions."

He noted that the huge "mood swings" in the industry must stop if the firm's future will ever again be on solid ground.

(HOUSTON) -- Epidemiologists in Texas report the first case of West Nile virus there. The Houston Chronicle says that a man hospitalized with encephalitis and muscle weakness may be the victim of the state's first case of the sometimes-fatal, mosquito-borne disease.

Blood tests are being used to see if the preliminary diagnosis is correct.

Meanwhile, the head of the infectious disease unit at the Houston Veterans Affairs Medical Center tells the publication that he is certain that the final diagnosis will be West Nile.

The patient was admitted with a low-grade fever and appears to have some form of viral encephalitis, which causes the brain to swell. The man is in his 50s. West Nile usually strikes older people. Many eastern states have had to step up spraying for mosquitoes and have gone on searches for dead birds in order to do post-mortems to check for the presence of the virus in vector populations.

(CINCINNATI) -- Officials in the city of Covington, Ky. -- just across the Ohio River from downtown Cincinnati and part of the Cincinnati metroplex -- report that U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao has accepted an invitation to be keynote speaker at the annual dinner of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, TV host Nick Clooney will be master of ceremonies. (Clooney is the brother of the late singing icon Rosemary Clooney and father of immensely popular movie and TV actor George Clooney. He has also been seen as a host on the AMC cable network.)

The theme for this year's major event is "The World Around Us."

The president of the local organization, Gary Toebben, tells the publication that his group is thrilled that Chao will be attending the awards banquet. She is considered to be a good friend of both business and labor, he notes; and there are hopes that her visit will lead to better relations with the national labor agency in the future.

(SAN ANTONIO, Texas) -- City officials in San Antonio confirm that a major piece of government property is being privatized and will be handed over to the city for non-government use ... almost. The sprawling Brooks Air Force Base will become the property of city government, with the proviso that some Air Force operations can stay on the base with no rent being charged to the Pentagon.

Much of the land has never been developed. It will now become "fair game" for real estate investors and developers. It is hoped that not only new housing but light industrial parks and medical offices will eventually be located there. The area is thought to be a prime piece of real estate.

According to published reports, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson noted that it is hoped that the remaining Air Force units can be a big help in the new Homeland Defense plans of the White House.