Taser’s work in progress: a distance-firing stun gun
Phoenix – The nation’s largest stun-gun manufacturer is working on a new way to deliver electricity to the human body: through 12-gauge shotgun shells.
Though it’s still being developed, Taser International Inc. says the new product will allow police officers and U.S. troops to hit someone from a much greater distance than its current line of Tasers, which Amnesty International has cited in more than 120 deaths.
The Extended Range Electro-Muscular Projectile, or XREP, will be a shotgun shell designed to combine the blunt-force trauma of a fast-moving baseball with the electrical current of a stun gun.
“It will truly cause incapacitation,” company spokesman Steve Tuttle said.
Taser hopes to release the product in 2007. The Office of Naval Research funded the approximately $500,000 it took to develop the shotgun shells, Tuttle said.
The company has been selling its stun-gun weapons to law enforcement agencies since 1998. Today, more than 175,000 Tasers are being used by more than 8,500 agencies in the United States.
DENVER
Hotel occupancy, room rates still rising
Occupancy rates and average room rates at hotels in Denver and across the state continued their upward trend in January, compared with the same month last year, according to the latest Rocky Mountain Lodging Report released Tuesday.
In the metro area, occupancy rates rose by 2.2 percentage points last month, to 57 percent. Average room rates jumped $8.51, to $92.34.
Statewide, occupancy rates rose by 2.8 percentage points, to 55.7 percent. Room rates increased $9.02, to $120.68.
DENVER
Real-estate trust to redeem stock shares
Denver’s Apartment Investment and Management Co., a publicly traded real-estate investment trust, announced Tuesday it will redeem 2.53 million shares of its “class Q” preferred stock at $25.035 each. The company, which will pay shareholders a total of $63.3 million, will redeem the outstanding shares March 19, according to a Tuesday securities filing.
The company also announced a 62-cent dividend increase for all shareholders of its “class R” and “class Q” shares, the filing showed.
GREENWOOD VILLAGE
Firm downgrades Qwest stock to “sell”
Greenwood Village firm Janco Partners downgraded telephone company Qwest’s stock rating to “sell” from “market perform” Tuesday.
Market penetration in high- speed Internet lines and long- distance service for Denver- based Qwest is below the average of other former Baby Bells, said Donna Jaegers, a Janco Partners telecommuncations analyst. And the company still has more than $15 billion in debt, she said.
DENVER
Sport Haley corrects quarterly report
Denver-based Sport Haley Inc. on Tuesday said its financial statements for the third quarter of 2005 included an error that, when corrected, will result in a 24 percent increase in its quarterly net loss.
The correction also led the company to record net income of $99,000 in the fourth quarter instead of a net loss of $3,000 for the period, according to an unaudited earnings statement also released Tuesday. A year ago, the company reported a net loss of $2 million for the quarter.
BROOMFIELD
Level 3 bonds trade high on optimism
Level 3 Communications Inc. bonds are trading at their highest price in more than two years on prospects its cash flow will increase, two months after the long-distance phone operator defaulted on debt.
Level 3’s acquisitions of WilTel Communications Group LLC and Progress Telecom in the past five months may help the Broomfield-based company meet debt payments as it expands into new service areas. Level 3 hasn’t had a profit in 30 of the past 31 quarters and this month posted a $169 million fourth-quarter loss.
ARAPAHOE COUNTY
Flight-chart firm’s viewer wins approval
Arapahoe County-based flight- chart company Jeppesen Sanderson Inc. announced it has received U.S. Federal Aviation Administration approval for its Class 1 and 2 Electronic Flight Bag terminal chart viewer, part of a set of software.
The company also said it is partnering with Rockwell Collins to offer electronic flight bags to airline and military operators.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.
More organic farms lined up for Horizon
Dean Foods Co., the biggest U.S. milk processor and parent of Broomfield-based Horizon Organic, said it will add more than 180 organic milk farms, an increase of 55 percent, to its stable of suppliers as demand for the product grows.
Organic-milk demand “is outstripping supply,” Dean Foods president Gregg Engles told investors and analysts Tuesday.
ST. LOUIS
Anheuser-Busch only distributor of Grolsch
Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. signed Tuesday to be the sole U.S. distributor of Grolsch beer, a high-end European import.
Analysts have pushed Anheuser-Busch to enter the high-end import and microbrew market.
WASHINGTON
U.S. airlines employ fewer than year ago
Airlines had 6.3 percent fewer employees in December compared with a year earlier, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
United Airlines’ full-time employee count declined to about 54,000 in December, down from 58,000 in December 2004. Denver-based Frontier stayed relatively steady at about 4,000.
SINGAPORE
Indian airline orders 10 jets from Boeing
Boeing Co. snagged the first big deal at Asia’s biggest air show, an order for 10 jets from Indian budget carrier Spicejet, as aviation companies tried to coax regional customers to splurge on superjumbos and sophisticated jet technology.
Boeing’s 747-8 beat out the rival Airbus A380 during the Asian Aerospace trade show.
WASHINGTON
3-month, 6-month Treasuries auctioned
The Treasury Department auctioned $20 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 4.450 percent and $18 billion in six-month bills at a rate of 4.545 percent.
The discount rates reflect the bills’ sales for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three- month price was $9,887.51 while a six-month bill sold for $9,770.23.
