Job market looks no better, no worse.
Byline: Christian Wihtol The Register-Guard Lane County's grim employment picture didn't worsen in May, but it didn't improve much either. The jobless rate dropped to 7.5 percent from 8.2 percent in April, the state said in its monthly report released Thursday. The rate typically drops...

Producers vital in fight against piracy - Loren.
Senate Majority Leader Loren Legarda said yesterday that half the battle against compact disc (CD) and digital video disc (DVD) piracy in the Philippines could be won by movie, music, and computer software producers themselves. A new, tougher law against piracy is forthcoming following the Senates approval...

Officials striving to tie up cruise line.
Byline: Sherri Buri McDonald The Register-Guard SPRINGFIELD - If Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. decides to build a large reservations call center in the Gateway area, it will be quite a coup for local officials who have spent months working steadily behind the scenes. E-mails obtained...

Last year had downs, then some ups.
Byline: Christian Wihtol The Register-Guard It wasn't a pretty year for Lane County. The economy started off ugly, and got uglier with the arrival of spring. But by year's end, a minor recovery seemed in the offing. Here's a blow-by-blow look at a...

Hospital to acquire defunct CD plant.
Byline: Joe Harwood The Register-Guard SPRINGFIELD - PeaceHealth's Springfield adventure just got a little stranger. PeaceHealth announced Tuesday that it will buy the shuttered Sony compact disc plant and adjacent land in the Gateway district for use as an annex to the health system's proposed...

Business reporting wins awards.
Byline: The Register-Guard The Register-Guard has won two reporting awards in the annual contest of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. The newspaper won in the projects category for a package of articles last year by business reporter Sherri Buri McDonald titled "Unlucky...

Sony will lay off 1,000 workers.
Byline: From Register-Guard and News Service Reports Sony Music Entertainment is making sweeping layoffs, in the first reorganizational move by its new chairman and chief executive officer, Andrew Lack. Lack, who succeeded Tommy Mottola as chairman and chief executive about three months ago, plans to...

Sony to shut down Springfield factory.
Byline: Sherri Buri McDonald The Register-Guard SPRINGFIELD - After just eight years of operation here, Sony is permanently shutting its compact disc plant in the Gateway area. The surprise move will knock out one of Lane County's largest and most prestigious high-tech employers and throw...

Sony's harsh blow.
Byline: The Register-Guard Any plant closure that throws 277 people out of work comes as bad news - particularly now, when many of those workers will have a hard time finding jobs with comparable pay and benefits. But Sony's decision to close its Springfield plant is a...

DOES SAMSUMG HAVE THE ELUSIVE REPLACEMENT FLOPPY?
The San Jose, California Electro-Mechanics division of Samsung Electronics Co is the latest entrant into the replacement floppy disk market, and last week previewed its Pro-FD 123Mb floppy drive. Unlike Iomega Corp's Zip drive, the disk will be read and write-compatible with legacy 1.44Mb and 720Kb floppies. It also...