Subject: Aerospace and Defense Sector

• New Blackwater Ruling

  May 13, 2008

• A Blackwater State

  May 2, 2008

• Another Blackwater Mark

  November 19, 2007

• War is, Hell, Profitable

  October 26, 2007

• Rendition Airways

  December 4, 2006

• Cantwell to Hire Governor's Daughter

  February 14, 2007

• Boeing's Defense Overruns, Cont.

  March 21, 2008

• Inslee on Tanker Flap: "Bigger Is Not Always Better"

  April 2, 2008

• Poor WSF Just Can't Catch a Break

  April 3, 2008

• Boeing: Airbus' Bird Is Too Big, and Too Costly

  April 15, 2008

• Citizens Against Government Waste to Boeing: Up Yours

  April 22, 2008

• Boeing Wins Tanker Protest

  June 18, 2008

• Wanted: A few good hippies

  August 6, 2008

• News Clips— Broken contract?

  September 26, 2001

• Boeing's Misconduct

  October 15, 2008

• Todd Will Build New Ferry for Port Townsend/Keystone Route

  WSF announced the $65.5 million deal today. Todd Shipyards will build a 64-car/750-passenger ferry to be delivered in 18 months. In April, WSF rejected Todd's $26 million bid to build a 50-car ferry that was $9 million over the agency's estimate. Full press release after the jump.

  December 1, 2008

• Blackwater Lawsuit

    Harley Miller The indictment of five Blackwater guards for allegedly killing 17 Iraqis in 2007 - including one with his hands up - begs the question of whether ex-Seattle Blackwater guard Andrew Mullen will separately be indicted. The Justice Department is not yet saying whether its investigation and legal options will lead to charges, but the drunken Mullen and his victim, government bodyguard Raheem Khalif Hulaichi, were the only witnesses to the 2006 Christmastime shooti

  December 10, 2008

• Deep Pockets Still Love Stevens

  Boeing has ponied up $48,000 for his re-election campaign.

  August 6, 2008

• Bob Gates' Boeing Par-tees

  The Boeing Co. was among the big defense contractors who threw $340,000 worth of parties and other events to honor Defense Sect. Robert Gates last year, reports public watchdog CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (D.C.). But Gates, the Bush-administration holdover who continues to maintain a home in Skagit County where he plans to retire sooner or later, "is the most ethical guy you will ever meet," said Pentagon spokesperson Geoff Morrell. "He is a former Eagle scout, for

  February 10, 2009

• Authors to See Tonight

  First a reminder from Brian J. Barr: At the SP20 Comedy Night last year, Eugene Mirman performed a gut-busting set before totally unprepared headliner David Cross. It was all the more reason to keep championing a comic who'd previously put his missteps on display like a kid tacking his C homework to the refrigerator. Now the hard-working Mirman has creatively leaped bounds beyond his alt-comedy contemporaries with his latest effort, which is not another DVD of sketches and stand-up, but rather

  February 19, 2009

• Lawsuit: Blackwater Shooting 'Senseless'

  When a drunken Andrew Moonen of Seattle pulled out his Blackwater-issued Glock on Christmas Eve 2006 and shot an Iraqi vice presidential guard to death in Baghdad, it was for no reason, claims a lawsuit filed yesterday in California. Blackwater, the quasi-military/mercenary force now going by the name of Xe, then tried to cover up the shooting and later destroyed evidence, according to a copy of the suit, which seeks unspecified damages from Moonen, Xe and Xe chairman Erik Prince, who resigned t

  March 20, 2009

• Pratap Chatterjee

  February 11, 2009

• Stay Together, Carry a Gun, Protect the Hill

  September 3, 2008

• Lazy B's Other Problem

  Cost increases and delays seem likely for its current U.S. Army project.

  March 26, 2008

• Krist Novoselic on Media Consolidation; More on Blackwater; Gregoire's Shrinking Staff

  Selections from our news blog, the Daily Weekly.

  November 21, 2007

• Welcome Aboard Blackwater Airlines

  November 14, 2007

• Boeing, County Politics, City Politics, Quote

  June 15, 2005

• Business, The Police, Media

  February 16, 2005

• 'Go Boeing!'

  December 1, 2004

• Airbus America

  July 28, 2004

• The State's Two-Timing Consultant

  March 17, 2004

• Bad News Boeing

  December 3, 2003

• Ethics Ain't Rocket Science

  August 6, 2003

• Boeing's war

  October 10, 2001

• High-flying crime

  April 18, 2001

• Whadchagit?

  August 9, 2000

• The next generation

  March 8, 2000

• Death to the highest bidder

  September 22, 1999

• Boeing

  June 17, 1998

• Seattle Blackwater Guard Dropped from Suit

  In a strange turnabout, former Blackwater guard Andrew Moonen of Seattle has been dropped as a defendant in a re-filed lawsuit that alleges he killed an Iraqi security guard for no reason. A newly revised civil complaint in the federal suit, originally filed in March, still claims he was the one who shot a vice presidential security guard to death on Christmas Eve 2006 in Baghdad, and Moonen has admitted to using his weapon that evening in self defense. But while the suit continues to allege tha

  June 8, 2009

• Boeing News Roundup: Jim Cramer Says Buy!

  This probably would've been worth more to the aerospace giant in those days before The Daily Show made Jim Cramer the poster child for irresponsible financial press cheerleading. But for those who think he got a raw deal or just like to keep tabs on him, CNBC's manic market-watcher says a (predicted) plunging dollar makes The Boeing Company a most definite a buy! Meanwhile, Airbus maintained its lead over Boeing, though Airbus could be hurting pretty bad if big customer AIG--yup, that one--deci

  June 8, 2009

• Blackwater: Pulp Non-Fiction

  ​Exploding bullets, serial murders, a plot to wipe out Muslims. What does it say about Blackwater today when the weirdest part isn't that Mary Kay Letournau is a sister of one of the mercenary corporation's top executives? (And that her south King County home is just a few miles from that of a former Blackwater guard accused of drunkenly gunning down a security officer outside the Iraqi vice-president's home?) Who's writing this stuff, Quentin Tarantino? Actually, it's author Jeremy Scahi

  August 6, 2009

• Boeing Rendition Flights OK'd by Obama

  ​It appears the Boeing Co. will continue to have a job transporting sometimes-innocent American prisoners to sometimes-torturous foreign prisons. It's called rendition, and the Obama government says it will continue the Bush adminstration practice of outsourcing terrorism suspects to third countries for detention and interrogation. Notes the NYTimes: "The announcement, by President Obama's Interrogation and Transfer Policy Task Force, seemed intended in part to offset the impact of the rel

  August 25, 2009

• Where Do Old Boeing Jets Go?, Revisited

  ​Sometimes they take a while to enter the marketplace, but once Boeing jets leave, they're put to all sorts of uses you might never imagine. Previously, we learned they're used as luxury homes and hotels, as well as boats and restaurants. Today, we learn that they're also recycled into beer cans and bicycles. Then, after the scraps are picked over by local scavengers, the remaining jetsam (get it?!) is used to make Airbus planes. Ha! Take that, Airbus!

  August 31, 2009

• What's "Justice" Got to Do With the Boeing/Airbus Tanker Battle?

  Hey, he got more!​In case you didn't know, Boeing and Airbus are battling to win a tanker contract from the US government. Boeing's supporters, like Patty Murray, are crying foul over the subsidies Airbus gets from European countries--subsidies deemed illegal in a preliminary ruling by the World Trade Organization. But Murray voted for Boeing to get a contract for 10 C-17 planes that the Air Force and Pentagon didn't want. Now Alabama Senator Richard Shelby--Alabama has a Airbus plant--say

  September 17, 2009

• Ex-Blackwater Guard Evades Shooting Blame

  ​For all the spilled ink and spent cyberspace, former Blackwater guard Andrew Moonen remains a free man walking after he shot and killed an Iraqi vice presidential guard in Baghdad's Green Zone three years ago. A lawsuit by the victim's widow, filed in March, ran into a legal buzzsaw and Moonen was later dropped as a defendant. Last week, though a federal judge refused to dismiss a war crimes lawsuit against Blackwater - now called Xe (as in "zee") - Moonen is no longer a target of that or

  October 28, 2009

• Breaking: Boeing Dreamliner Headed to South Carolina

  That's the word from Jon Ostrower at Flight Blogger. Ostrower's scoop comes courtesy of a release from Snohomish Country Executive Aaron Reardon.The Boeing Company's announcement to locate a second 787 line in North Charleston, S.C., signals that other states want what we have - a strong manufacturing base. We must all work together and fight to keep it. Washington state must make a conscious decision to do whatever is reasonably necessary to aggressively compete to keep the jobs we have and gro

  October 28, 2009

• Boeing, South Carolina, and the Race to the Bottom

  Buh-Bye​Boeing's announcement that it will locate its 787 final-assembly plant in South Carolina has led to predictable condemnation of Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire. It seems she just didn't do enough to kowtow to the aerospace giant. Republicans, who portray themselves as stout protectors of the public purse when it comes to, say, funding basic health care, cast those concerns to the wind when it's time to bribe big corporations. Republican State Rep. Mike Hope of Lake Stevens angri

  October 29, 2009

• Boeing's Race to the Bottom

  November 4, 2009

• Irish Bookies Bet on Boeing Dreamliner to Fly First

  Tony the Bookie will gladly take action on Boeing. After all, business is business.​God bless the Irish. More specifically, god bless the Irish who think that nothing is too weird to wager on. Paddy Power, the country's largest bookmaker, is now taking bets on which airline will be the first to get its massive bird off the ground, Boeing or Airbus. Although a union strike and production delays have pushed back its maiden flight, Boeing's 787 Dreamliner is still favored at 1-2 odds over Ai

  November 17, 2009