IN BRIEF
Labor board orders nurse's reinstatement
The National Labor Relations Board on Thursday ordered the reinstatement of a Valley Health System nurse fired in October during contentious contract negotiations between the hospital operator and the Service Employees International Union.
The labor board found that Valley Health unfairly terminated intensive-care nurse Joan Wells because of her activities on behalf of the union, for which she served as a chief steward.
The hospital terminated Wells on Oct. 20 for failing to substantiate comments about Valley Health that she made in September in the local media, including the Review-Journal, and for coaching colleagues to refuse to take on additional intensive-care patients after a nurse called in sick.
The labor board ruled that Wells' statements to the media were not "demonstrably" or "maliciously" false, and that she did assign higher patient loads to some nurses in the wake of short-staffing.
The board ruled that Valley Health must reinstate Wells within two weeks and pay her back wages and benefits.
TOKYO
Sony makes razor-thin, bendable video screen
In the race for ever-thinner displays for televisions, cell phones and other gadgets, Sony may have developed one to beat them all, a razor-thin display that bends like paper while showing full-color video.
Sony Corp. released video of the new 2.5-inch display Friday. In it, a hand squeezes a display that is 0.3 millimeters, or 0.01 inch, thick. The display shows color images of a bicyclist stuntman and a picturesque lake.
Although flat-panel TVs are getting slimmer, a display that's so thin it bends in a human hand marks a breakthrough.
Sony said it has yet to decide on commercial products using the technology.
ATLANTA
Coke buying Glaceau in $4.1 billion deal
Coca-Cola is betting big that Glaceau will help it expand its water and energy drink offerings and jump-start North American sales.
On Friday, the world's largest beverage maker said it would buy the privately held maker of Vitaminwater for $4.1 billion in cash. And Coca-Cola executives said the price-tag, which is nearly twice what Glaceau's estimated value was less than a year ago and represents Coke's largest acquisition ever, is worth it.
The acquisition will be financed with debt, and is expected to add to The Coca-Cola Co.'s earnings starting in 2008, but will slightly dilute profits this year, executives said.
BRUSSELS, Belgium
Google search engine under EU investigation
An independent European Union panel is investigating whether Google's Internet search engine abides by European privacy rules, which tend to be stricter than those in the United States.
EU spokesman Pietro Petrucci said Friday that the 28-member panel, which advises the European Commission and EU governments on data protection issues, wants Google to address concerns about the company's practice of storing and retaining user information for up to two years.
Google said it would answer the EU's privacy concerns before the panel's next meeting at the end of June.
US Airways proposes new contract for pilots
US Airways Group, the seventh-largest U.S. carrier, proposed a new contract for its pilots that it said would raise pay an average 10 percent and cost the company $122 million a year.
The offer would move all pilots from US Airways and America West Holdings Corp., which merged in 2005, to the higher pay scales of America West. It would also raise the America West wage scale by 3 percent. Pilots would get increases ranging from 3 percent to 17 percent, the carrier said.
US Airways wants to move the two pilot unions to one contract as it seeks to complete the merger of the two carriers. Part of the proposal's added cost would be offset by extending the contract by three years to 2012, the Tempe, Ariz.-based airline said in a U.S. regulatory filing.
The airline's pilots have been protesting the carrier's proposals and an arbitrator's ruling on how seniority lists for the two unions would be combined.
Problem-gambling bill passes in Assembly
A bill making state funding for problem gambling and research permanent passed the Assembly on Friday afternoon on a 42-0 vote.
The measure, Senate Bill 453, will be sent to Gov. Jim Gibbons next week for his signature.
Gibbons expressed support for the measure during last month's Nevada State Conference on Problem Gambling.
State money to combat problem gambling was approved by the 2005 Legislature, but current funding is scheduled to expire June 30.
The money, which came to $2.5 million the first 21 months of the program, is diverted from the state general fund through an existing tax on slot machines.
NEW YORK
Even with home sales data, bond prices hold
U.S. Treasury bond prices were unchanged to slightly lower Friday despite what might have been supportive home sales data ahead of the U.S. holiday weekend.
At 2 p.m. EDT, the 10-year Treasury note was down $1.25 per $1,000 in face value, or 0.13 points, from its level at 5 p.m. Thursday. Its yield, which moves in the opposite direction, rose to 4.86 percent from 4.84 percent.
