WASHINGTON-The U.S. wind industry has doubled its generating capacity over the past two years, exceeding 20,000 megawatts in installed capacity, according to the American Wind Energy Association. MORE

DETROIT-According to Chrysler vice chairman Jim Press, U.S. automakers are entering a new era in which they can be competitive with foreign brands and that the auto market will improve around 2010, when the company plans to offer seven new models. MORE

TOULOUSE, France-Airbus is turning to Tunisia and Mexico to help it cut costs in the second stage of an efficiency drive aimed at fighting the impact of a weak dollar and high European labor costs. MORE

CHICAGO-Resolution of the machinists strike at Boeing will hinge on the issue of how much the company will continue outsourcing work now done in local plants. MORE

EVERETT, WA-The first flight of Boeing's 787, originally targeted for the fourth quarter, is now in jeopardy due to the ongoing strike by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. MORE

MCLEAN, VA-Sales of machine tools during the first 7 months of 2008 total some $2.65 billion, a 15.5 percent increase compared with the same time period in 2007. According to the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association and AMT-The Association For Manufacturing Technology, sales of machine tools in July 2008 ran to $303.44 million. That’s down 21.5 percent from June sales, but a 5.7 percent increase from July 2007. MORE

WOODSTOCK, Canada-Toyota Motor Corp. will stick to a single shift at its new factory here indefinitely due to soft sales in North America. The Ontario factory has the capacity to produce 150,000 RAV4 compact sport utility vehicles a year, but will build half that when production starts as planned with 1,200 workers in November. MORE

SAN ANGELO, TX-The Martifer Group will build a $40 million wind-turbine tower manufacturing plant here. The project is expected to bring 225 jobs to the area over the next 3 years. More than $8 million in city, county and state incentives and abatements were granted to the company for locating the plant in San Angelo. MORE

KINSTON, NC-West, a manufacturer of components for injectable drug delivery, has completed work on the expansion of its manufacturing facility here. The expanded plant provides additional compounding and custom manufacturing capabilities and will bring more than 150 new jobs to Kinston and surrounding communities. MORE

CHICAGO-Each day of the current strike at Boeing is costing the company $100 million in sales and 1 cent per share in profit. However, the company is trying to dampen the ripple effect on global suppliers by slowing rather than halting its vast industrial supply chain. MORE