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The Lockheed Martin team developing the next-generation Global Positioning System satellites — which are to be assembled and tested in the Denver area — completed the "critical design review," or CDR, of its work on Thursday — two months ahead of schedule.

The completion of the CDR means that Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) and its partners — most notably General Dynamics Corp. and ITT Corp. — can begin production work on the two GPS IIIA satellites they are contracted to build for the U.S. Air Force at a cost of $1.46 billion. The team could build as many as 10 more GPS satellites under the contract if all the options on it are exercised.

The last phase of the CDR took four days to complete and was held at the newly constructed Patriot Center at Lockheed Martin’s newly expanded operations in Newtown, Pa. About 350 people participated, including employees of Littleton-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co payday loans no teletrack., the Lockheed unit that’s leading the team; General Dynamics; ITT; the Air Force; the Defense Department; the Department of Transportation; and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems has about 300 people in Newtown working on the satellite project. It also has employees working on the project in the Denver suburbs and Colorado Springs as well as in California and Mississippi and at Cape Canaveral, Fla., where the satellites will be launched.

The generation of GPS satellites Lockheed Martin is working on will deliver signals that are three times more accurate than current GPS satellites and three times more powerful for military users. It also will have a new civil signal that is compatible with signals from similar satellites being built by other countries.

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Williamsville was the busiest location for real estate transactions in July, according to a Business First analysis of newly released data from the Erie County Clerk’s Office.

Fifty-three deals worth $10,000 or more were recorded in Williamsville’s 14221 zip code territory last month, easily the highest number for any zip in Erie County.

The runners-up were 14086 (Lancaster) with 39 deals over the $10,000 threshold and 14226 (Amherst) with 37.

Six other zips had between 30 and 36 transactions each: 14075 (Hamburg), 14150 (Tonawanda), 14224 (West Seneca), 14225 (Cheektowaga), 14072 (Grand Island), and 14127 (Orchard Park).

Click here for a complete database of 1,262 real estate deals filed in July.

And click here for a list of the 1,811 mortgages registered in Erie County last month.

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Northrop Grumman Corp., which is moving its headquarters to Northern Virginia from Los Angeles, will take a chunk of its publicly traded stock off the table, authorizing the repurchase of as much as $2 billion in common shares.

That represents 11 percent of Northrop’s market value.

“Today’s increase in our share repurchase authorization demonstrates our continuing commitment to a balanced cash deployment strategy that drives value creation by investing for the future, managing risk, and distributing cash to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends,” said CEO Wes Bush in a statement.

Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) reported $8.6 billion in fiscal first-quarter sales, an 8.5 percent increase from year ago results. Quarterly income was $469 million, up 26 percent.

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AirTran Airways launched new nonstop service on Saturdays between Wichita Mid-Continent Airport in Kansas and Orlando International Airport.

The Wichita flight leaves at 11:18 a.m., arriving in Orlando at 3:13 p.m. The Orlando flight leaves at 3:53 p.m., arriving in Wichita at 5:48 p.m.

AirTran now serves more than 40 nonstop destinations to Orlando, the most of any other airline no fax payday advances.

Orlando-based AirTran Airways, a subsidiary of AirTran Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AAI), is a Fortune 1000 company and has been ranked the No. 1 low-cost carrier in the Airline Quality Rating study for the past three years.

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The Sacramento chapter of the American Red Cross is merging with two others in Northern California so the nonprofit groups can be more efficient with donor dollars.

The Sacramento Sierra, San Joaquin and Stanislaus chapters will merge July 1 to collectively serve 11 counties, the Red Cross announced Thursday.

The one larger chapter will serve Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, East Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tuolumne counties plus eastern Yolo County.

The consolidation will create a stronger Red Cross presence throughout the 11 counties as the operation becomes more efficient, a news release said. All six offices — in Auburn, Modesto, Sacramento, Sonora, Stockton and Tracy — will remain open.

“This is an exciting time as we explore new opportunities to make our communities safer and better prepared for life threatening emergencies,” Dawn Lindblom, regional chief executive officer, said in the release.

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Congress on Thursday previewed a grab-bag bill of spending and tax measures that is likely to be a flash point in the debate over the federal debt.

The legislation would extend a host of tax breaks, give continued relief to the unemployed, delay cuts to doctors’ Medicare reimbursements, provide support for job growth and fund disaster relief, among other things.

Congress’ budget scorekeepers haven’t finished estimating the total cost of the bill. But the amount of money that would be raised through pay-for measures is not likely to cover even half of the total cost, which could top $150 billion.

The tax provisions, including those designed to raise tax dollars and those that would reduce them, would only net $10.3 billion in extra revenue, according to preliminary estimates from the Joint Committee on Taxation.

The bill, a melded version of proposal passed earlier by the House and Senate, won’t be free of opposition on either side of the aisle. There is pressure to pay for more of the bill’s provisions, and there is strong disagreement over some of the pay-fors that are included.

Fiscally conservative House Democrats, known as the Blue Dogs, have said they don’t want to go out on a limb for the bill if there aren’t 60 votes in the Senate yet. That raises the possibility that the Senate would amend the bill to secure 60 votes, and it would send back a smaller package to the House for reconsideration.

Safety net: The bill offers a number of safety-net provisions for the unemployed and financially strapped. It would extend to the end of this year a program that provides a greater-than-normal number of weeks that an unemployed person may collect federal unemployment benefits.

In addition, the bill would extend through year-end the federal subsidy to help the newly unemployed pay for health insurance under COBRA. And it also would provide more federal aid to help budget-strapped states meet the increased demands for Medicaid services.

Lastly, it would extend through September 2011 emergency funding to states for food stamps and aid for needy families and a subsidized jobs program.

Tax breaks: The bill would extend a series of lapsed tax breaks for businesses and individuals. Such "tax extenders" include the research and development credit for businesses and the choice for individuals to deduct either their state and local income tax or their state and local sales tax.

In recent years it has been typical to pass such extenders annually so constituents don’t perceive lawmakers as increasing their taxes, said Clint Stretch, managing principal of tax policy at Deloitte Tax LLC.

But extending tax breaks one year at a time masks the real cost of what is in essence a long-term or permanent extension, since the price tag is only recorded in 12-month increments cash advance companies.

Small business: The bill contains a small but significant measure that would extend small business lending incentives that otherwise would expire this month.

The program both eliminates fees that the Small Business Administration normally charges for loans made through the agency, and increases the government guarantees on those loans. The provision has bipartisan support and has helped small firms borrow more than $7 billion this year alone in an otherwise grim lending climate.

Medicare payments: The bill contains a contentious measure that would extend the current Medicare reimbursement rate structure for physicians for three and a half years. Otherwise, Medicare reimbursement rates would automatically be cut 21% starting June 1 and by 1% to 6% in future years because of a pre-set formula that dictates Medicare outlays related reimbursements.

Originally the aim was for the "doc fix" to override the cuts for five years, but there has been pushback about the cost of doing so for that long.

Paying the tab

Among the bill’s "pay-fors" is a change in the way income paid to hedge fund managers and other managers of investment partnerships are taxed. Currently that income — so-called "carried interest" — is taxed at the capital gains rate, which is less than half the top ordinary income tax rate. The bill would instead tax as ordinary income the majority of carried interest that does not reflect returns on invested capital.

House and Senate Democrats differ about just how broadly the carried interest change should be applied. Senate Democrats, for instance, are pushing to exempt venture capital firms, according to Tax Analysts.

Other pay-fors include more than $14 billion worth of changes to corporations’ foreign tax credits.

It’s not clear yet whether the bill will still be subject to further amendment. But the current plan is for the House to bring the bill to the floor for a vote on Tuesday, according to a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. If it passes, the bill would then be sent to the Senate for a final vote.

The Senate vote could occur before the Memorial Day recess. But there are still other matters that the Senate wants to wrap up before the break, most notably, financial reform and a supplemental spending bill that would, among other things, provide additional funding for U.S. military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

- CNNMoney’s Stacy Cowley and CNN’s Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report. 

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Forty-two percent of Americans believe the pending $3.2 billion merger between Continental Airlines Inc. and United Airlines will result in higher airline prices, according to a Rasmussen Reports national survey released over the weekend.

The Rasmussen survey of 1,000 U.S. adults, conducted by telephone on May 5 and 6, found that only 6 percent think the joining of the two airlines will bring down prices. Another 21 percent aren't sure what will happen while 31 percent expect prices will remain about the same.

Only 12 percent say the merger, announced May 3, will be a good thing for travelers, while 29 percent are undecided.

Frequent travelers were more likely to say the combination will be bad for travelers.

Rasmussen said the poll's margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. Field work for Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research LLC.

The merger, if it receives regulatory and shareholder approval, will create the world’s largest airline low fee pay day loans.

The new airline, which will fly under the United name, will carry an estimated 144 million passengers a year to 370 destinations in 59 countries.

When asked in a recent survey what they thought would emerge from the joining of Houston-based Continental (NYSE: CAL) and Chicago-based UAL (NASDAQ: UAUA), 38 percent of 500 Houston Business Journal readers said “a worse airline,” 33 percent said “more unemployment,” 17 percent said they "didn’t know yet" and 10 percent said “a better airline.”

The proposed merger is also not a hit with U.S. Congressman Jim Oberstar, who is asking the government to take a hard look at deal.

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TechCrunch is reporting that Marc Andreessen's social networking hosting startup Ning is cutting its staff by 70 people, or 40 percent.

The move comes a month after founding CEO Gina Bianchini was replaced by chief operating officer Jason Rosenthal, who announced the cuts in a memo. In addition, Rosenthal said Ning would stop offering free services, forcing networks to either pay or move easy pay day loans.

The cuts will leave Ning with 98 employees.

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You might be surprised to learn who’s following you on Twitter, or who your Facebook friends really are.

As the popularity of social networking spreads, law enforcement agencies are tapping into these sites to nab criminals, tax evaders and other wrongdoers, and gather evidence to support their cases.

"People don’t think [authorities] are going to go that far, but little do they know, they are going this far," said David Seltzer, a criminal and cyber crime defense lawyer.

In several of Seltzer’s cases, law enforcement agents created a false profile on MySpace and "friended" a suspect or a suspect’s friends in an attempt to retrieve information they needed for an investigation.

"I always tell my clients, if you have any social media pages, take them down, because as soon as something happens, agencies will start Googling your name," Seltzer said.

Last month, digital rights advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) obtained internal documents from the Justice Department and the IRS showing the ways in which social networking is used during investigations.

For example, an internal Justice Department presentation explained to employees that using social networking in criminal cases can reveal a suspect’s communications or whereabouts, establish motives and personal relationships and prove or disprove alibis.

As long as the information is public on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace, it’s fair game for law enforcement. The Department of Justice can also take legal measures to retrieve private data from the site owners, according to the presentation.

Going undercover

"We will continue to use publicly available information individuals post online about their illegal activities or false statements to law enforcement officials in our investigations," a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said. In addition to accessing public information through social media, the Justice Department document explains how going undercover online allows agents to communicate with suspects and targets, gain access to private information and map social relationships and networks.

But in order to do so, they need cooperation from the sites.

A spokeswoman for MySpace said the site has created a law enforcement guide and has developed a 24/7 hotline and e-mail account to assist law enforcement investigations. The company also provides training for cyber crime units on how to investigate and prosecute cyber criminals using MySpace.

The DOJ said in its presentation that MySpace often has public profiles but that it requires a search warrant to view private messages less than 181 days old.

"Ultimately everything we do revolves around two things," a MySpace spokeswoman said. "Making sure law enforcement gets the information they need in a way that complies with all laws in order to be admissible in court, and protecting the privacy of users from unauthorized exposure."

Facebook rarely allows for emergency exemptions from privacy laws and will fight requests it believes violate the law, according to a spokesman for the company.

"One hypothetical is a kidnapped child where every minute counts," he said. "It is in this type of instance where we have verified an emergency that we feel a responsibility to quickly share information that could save someone’s life."

Even in this example, however, the spokesman said Facebook would share the minimum amount of information, such as whether a user has logged in to his or her account.

IRS nabbing taxpayers

Twitter is less cooperative. While most content on Twitter is public and private messages are kept until users delete them, the site doesn’t require contact information, so users are tough to identify. And the site will only turn over information in response to legal process, according to the DOJ presentation. The IRS also uses social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and even Google Street View to investigate taxpayers.

While the Department of Justice acknowledges going undercover online, the IRS prohibits employees from misrepresenting their identities to obtain information on social media sites.

But IRS agents are allowed to use information they find about an individual taxpayer or business if it is made publicly available on a social networking site.

For example, the IRS explained that Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) Street View can be helpful to view properties.

Invasion of privacy?

"It’s presumably just a really cheap way to see what someone’s house looks like," said Shane Witnov, a student at the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, who worked with EFF to obtain this information. "If someone says their house is worth $100,000 and the IRS looks at it on Google Street View and it’s a mansion, they could probably question that claim."The Electronic Frontier Foundation questions the extent to which federal agencies should be able to use social media without crossing the line of legality and privacy invasion.

"The documents basically confirmed what we knew, that social networks are being used to collect information for investigations," said Witnov. "But we’re still trying to find out the scope of their use and what sort of oversight is in place to limit it, since it could be a potential invasion of privacy."

Witnov says that in some cases, authorities may be overstepping their boundaries, especially when creating false profiles and online identities to collect information.

"Law enforcement is allowed to lie, but some things seem to be crossing the line," he said. "We want more specific guidelines to make sure they’re not abusing their power." 

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Obama administration officials urged lawmakers Tuesday to support the president’s budget, saying it will drive job growth.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, White House Director of the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag and Council of Economic Advisers Chairwoman Christina Romer testified before the the House Appropriations committee on the administration’s economic outlook and agenda.

In a joint written statement, the officials said that although the stimulus package has helped turn around the economy from when "the threat of a second Great Depression was frighteningly real," the 9.7% unemployment rate is "unacceptable by any metric."

Jobs. An economic forecast produced by the officials’ three offices estimates that the labor market will add 100,000 jobs per month in 2010. However, they said the unemployment rate may still rise slightly over the next few months.

The trio added that jobs will grow by 200,000 a month in 2011, bringing the unemployment rate down to 8.9%. In 2012, payrolls will improve by 250,000 jobs each month, pushing the jobless rate down to 7.9% by the fourth quarter.

In the near term, they expect to see job gains by the spring based on consistent increases in temporary employment and employers expanding the workweek. Productivity growth has also surged at the fastest pace in nearly 50 years during the last three quarters, and the officials expect more hiring to keep pace.

GDP and inflation. Geithner, Orszag and Romer said the forecast projects that gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, will tick higher by 3% in 2010, and grow 4.3% annually in 2011 and 2012.

They expect inflation to remain low, at 1% in 2010, 1 low interest rate personal loans.4% in 211 and 1.7% in 2012.

Investments. In addition to highlighting recent proposals from President Obama to spur job growth, the officials sought support for Obama’s budget policies that they said would stimulate the labor market and the broader economy.

They pushed for an overhaul of the financial system that would: limit large banks from taking risks that could threaten the whole economy; allow the government to break apart from failing firms; and give consumers better information.

On top of providing $19 billion for job training and other employment initiatives, Geithner, Orszag and Romer said the budget proposes to extend a $2,500 per year tax credit for college costs and assist student loan borrowers with repayment plans.

The budget will also increase research and development by 6.4% and reallocate funding from NASA’s Constellation program to research on climate and global change and and science education.

The budget will also extend funding for clean-energy initiatives, infrastructure and to increase exports of goods produced by small businesses.

Deficit. The officials said the budget also proposes to reduce the government’s deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next decade through several measures, including requiring Wall Street firms to repay the costs of the bailout programs and allowing some tax cuts aimed at households earning more than $250,0000 annually to expire.

Comprehensive health care reform would also lower the deficit, they said.  

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