May 21 (Reuters) – The U.S. economy needs “measured” efforts to bolster growth, but the central bank should focus on improving its communications because circumstances do not warrant further bond buying at this time, a top Federal Reserve official said on Monday.

Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Lockhart said the central bank’s policy panel should push forward with efforts to give the public and financial markets a better understanding of how it would react to incoming information on the economy.

“Circumstances today in the United States call for continued measured efforts to quicken the pace of recovery and shrink unemployment, while keeping inflation controlled,” Lockhart said in a speech prepared for delivery to the Institute of Regulation and Risk, North Asia, in Tokyo.

The Federal Reserve, specifically, should continue to clarify strategy so the public can discern how the committee arrives at decisions, he said.

“Working toward this end is the right undertaking … at this moment,” Lockhart said. “I think use of the tool of refined communication is an appropriate incremental policy action.”

However, Lockhart, a voting member of the policy panel this year, said the central bank should not take the option of a third round of so-called “quantitative easing” off the table, saying he foresees only modest growth over coming years and that the economy still faced risks, notably from Europe.

The Fed cut overnight interest rates to near zero in December 2008 and has bought $2.3 trillion in government and mortgage-related debt to push other borrowing costs lower and spur a stronger recovery.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Pilots’ union leaders at United Continental Holdings (UAL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), parent of the world’s biggest carrier United Airlines, called on Thursday for its members to hold a strike vote after failing to agree on a contract after two years of talks with management.

The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), which represents pilots who flew for what were United and Continental Airlines before the two merged in 2010, did not set a date for a vote.

There is no guarantee a strike vote will go ahead, but the step taken by the ALPA meeting in Washington raises the stakes in negotiations over a contract with management for 12,000 pilots. Those talks have stalled under federal mediation.

“There has been more than ample time to reach agreement on a new contract. While a strike is never the pilots’ preference for the path to reaching agreement, we are more than willing to use every tool at our disposal,” said Jay Pierce, chairman of the ALPA unit representing Continental pilots.

Pilots from both United and Continental have been working without new contracts since they agreed to concessions in the airline industry’s financial traumas last decade, during which United went into bankruptcy, and Continental took stringent cost-cutting measures.

ALPA’s decision came on the anniversary of United’s most recent pilots’ strike, in 1985. Continental pilots also last walked out in the 1980s.

A work stoppage would be far from certain at the airline even if leadership received authorization from members to call a strike.

WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) – Two U.S. senators have asked the Obama administration to explain why it approved a $529 million loan to startup Fisker Automotive, which has suspended U.S. production of a heavily touted plug-in electric car as it revamps its business plan.

Charles Grassley, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, and John Thune, a senior Republican member of the Finance and Commerce committees, asked Energy Secretary Steven Chu whether it was wise to grant financing to Fisker, which ran into production problems after receiving part of the loan.

“Though the Department of Energy has now frozen the remaining portion of Fisker’s loan, questions remain as to why a loan was extended to this now ‘troubled’ auto company in the first place,” the two lawmakers said in an April 20 letter that was released on Monday.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is working with an outside consultant, Houlihan Lokey, to evaluate a variety of agency loans, including Fisker.

Fisker was approved for the $529 million loan in 2009 under a DOE program aimed at helping automakers make more fuel-efficient cars and trucks.

Fisker received about a third of the money initially to mainly support U.S. engineering and other efforts to roll out its first electric car, the $100,000 Karma, that was assembled in Finland. But delays in getting that car to showrooms prompted the DOE to hold additional financing.

Remaining funds were to go to develop a $50,000 sedan, called the Atlantic, at a former General Motors factory in Wilmington, Delaware. Work on the Atlantic was suspended in February.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has become the latest big-name financial supporter to back away from a group that pushes conservative and corporate priorities in U.S. state capitals.

The foundation said it would not award another grant to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in the face of criticism of the council’s involvement in voting laws and in “stand your ground” gun laws such as one under scrutiny in the Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida.

“At this point, we’ve decided that it’s not the right environment to continue working with them,” Gates Foundation spokesman Chris Williams told Reuters on Tuesday.

The split will take effect once the Gates Foundation pays the balance of a $376,000 education grant that it awarded to the conservative group last year, Williams said.

The foundation joins at least three other corporations that have said since January that they would cut their ties to ALEC.

ColorOfChange, a political group that advocates for black Americans, has led a public campaign to persuade corporations to distance themselves from ALEC. ColorOfChange’s executive director is Rashad Robinson, who previously worked for a voting-rights group and a gay-rights group.

ColorOfChange and its allies have said they are pressuring other companies to do the same. Their targets include AT&T, which has declined to comment.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Instead of curbing government spending, President Barack Obama’s healthcare law could add up to $530 billion to the federal debt over ten years, a Republican expert on U.S. government benefit programs said on Tuesday.

A study by Charles Blahous, a George Mason University research fellow and the Republican trustee for the Medicare and Social Security entitlement programs for the elderly, challenged the administration’s contention that the 2010 law would reduce healthcare costs.

But the Obama administration defended the law as a cost-saver and sharply criticized the report by Blahous, an economic policy adviser under former President George W. Bush.

Known as the “Affordable Care Act,” or by conservatives as “Obamacare,” the measure to expand health insurance for millions of Americans is considered Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement.

The Supreme Court is weighing whether Congress overstepped its authority to regulate commerce in approving the law. The justices heard arguments in the high-stakes case two weeks ago.

Republican presidential candidates have promised to repeal the law if one of them wins the White House in the November election. Conservatives denounce the sweeping overhaul as an unwarranted government intrusion.

Obama and the Democrats believe the law will control skyrocketing costs and curtail government “red ink.”

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, April 5 (Reuters) – JetBlue’s emergency response team barely had time to locate the Incident Operations Center at their new headquarters in Long Island City, Queens when they were summoned there to handle an emergency on March 27, a day after they moved in.

JetBlue pilot Clayton Osbon was behaving erratically on Flight 191 from New York to Las Vegas, running through the cabin screaming about religion and terrorists. Passengers tackled him in the galley. The plane had to be diverted to Amarillo, Texas, where a co-pilot guided it to a safe landing.

As the airline’s emergency response team gathered around a 24-seat conference table, the shades were lowered to darken the room. Soon, all eyes shifted to the main wall, where the company’s Twitter feed was projected in large letters.

“That’s how we got a lot of the early customer responses and their experiences,” said JetBlue spokeswoman Jenny Dervin. “As customer stories started coming in, we knew it was far more than just a medical emergency.”

Close connections with customers and a willingness to embrace popular technology is vintage JetBlue. It was the first airline to equip its entire fleet with seatback TV screens. Flight attendants pass out food during a delay; some even offer massages.

Into its second decade, however, JetBlue is not the darling it once was, with passengers or with Wall Street. Previously known for being inventive, contrarian and taking customer service to a new level, JetBlue has more recently made headlines for long delays that caused passengers to be stranded for hours.

While last week’s pilot meltdown was viewed as a rare incident that could happen on any airline, it could chip away at JetBlue’s reputation even though the carrier still maintains a relatively high level of customer service.

WASHINGTON/CHICAGO, March 29 (Reuters) – With his captain restrained and locked out of the cockpit, the co-pilot of JetBlue Flight 191 acted calmly and quickly to get the Airbus jet and 135 other passengers and crew down safely.

First Officer Jason Dowd was able to quietly signal to flight attendants on Tuesday that Captain Clayton Osbon, who abruptly left the cockpit and witnesses said in court documents had been screaming incoherently about religion and terrorists, might need to be restrained in the cabin.

Passengers said the call soon after came over the public address system “restrain him, restrain him.” By that time, flight attendants had selected six men to bring down Osbon, who was tackled in the galley and held until landing.

In the cockpit, things were fast-moving. Dowd was joined by an off-duty pilot with the jetliner at roughly 30,000 feet and cruising at 500 miles per hour (805 kph) on the original flight path from New York to Las Vegas.

Just north of Texas, the Kansas City air traffic center handed the A320 over to Amarillo airport tower controllers to handle the emergency landing, according to people familiar with the matter and air traffic control tapes released by LiveATC.net.

“Control tower: (Jet) Blue 191 declare emergency,” crackled the radio at the Amarillo control tower. “Uh, we’re going to need priority to get into Amarillo and, uh, we’re going to need a few minutes to get everything straightened out.”

The responses from the cockpit were clipped as controllers read out coordinates. The crew asked for security and medical help to meet them on the tarmac. JetBlue was cleared to land eight miles from the runway and within a few moments was down safely. The diversion took 20 minutes.

March 27 (Reuters) – The parent of American Airlines on Monday sought bankruptcy court approval to throw out labor contracts, a move that puts new pressure on pilots, flight attendants and other unionized workers to quickly agree to concessions.

Chief Executive Tom Horton said in a letter to employees that the “best outcome” remains negotiated settlements, and promised to continue working with unions toward that end.

All contracts will remain in effect while the New York bankruptcy court considers the company’s request.

“With losses mounting and oil prices rising, there is growing urgency to move more quickly. The bankruptcy law provides a process for the court to address such a situation as has been done in virtually all prior successful airline restructurings,” Horton said.

AMR also sought permission to seal from the public all or part of its forthcoming motion to terminate contracts.

“The confidential material contains sensitive and confidential information that should not be publicly disclosed, and the disclosure of which could harm,” the company said in its filing.

American wants to slash overall costs by $2 billion annually. More than half of the savings would come from labor, including a plan to shed 13,000 jobs.

WASHINGTON, March 26 (Reuters) – Republican and Democratic leaders in the U.S. Congress held talks o n M onday over an extension of transport construction authority that would avert project shutdowns and give House Speaker John Boehner a shorter window to resolve Republican divisions over a signature jobs initiative.

Aides said that Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and their staffs were discussing how to proceed after Boehner postponed a House vote on his proposal for a 90-day renewal of current law.

If no action is taken by week’s end, the government would have to stop collecting gasoline taxes and cut off the flow of money to road, bridge and mass transit projects, forcing the lay-off of tens of thousands of construction workers.

“We are in the midst of bipartisan conversations about a short-term extension of the highway bill,” Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner. “To facilitate those conversations, the House vote on an extension will occur later this week rather than tonight.”

After months of disagreement among House of Representatives R epublicans that turned their five-year, $260 billion transport bill into road kill, Democrats want to force Boehner to accept bipartisan legislation passed by the Senate to spend $109 billion over two years.

“Allowing Republicans another 12 weeks would do nothing but feed their dangerous addiction to serial extensions and damaging delays”, Nick Rayhall, the top Democrat on the House Transportation Committee said.

House and Senate Democrats fear that a 90-day extension would lead to a highly partisan House bill loaded with features that are non-starters for Democrats and force both chambers to start over from scratch.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama urged lawmakers in the House of Representatives to pass a bill that would extend funding for infrastructure and transportation projects, warning that failure to do so would hurt U.S. economic recovery.

The U.S. Senate recently passed a transportation bill, but a similar measure is stalled in the House.

“In a matter of days, funding will stop for all sorts of transportation projects. Construction sites will go idle. Workers will have to go home. And our economy will take a hit,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address, broadcast on Saturday.

“This Congress cannot let that happen. Not at a time when we should be doing everything in our power – Democrats and Republicans – to keep this recovery moving forward.”

Obama noted that 52 Democrats and 22 Republicans had supported the Senate version.

“Now it’s up to the House to follow suit; to put aside partisan posturing, end the gridlock and do what’s right for the American people,” he said.

House Republicans say they want measures included in the bill to address rising energy costs.