Stanley Works issues notes

Stanley Works, owner of the Stanley Bostitch plant in East Greenwich, raised $250 million in a sale of five-year debt. The 6.15-percent notes were priced to yield 325 basis points more than U.S. Treasurys of similar maturity. Stanley, based in New Britain, Conn., may use the proceeds to repay commercial paper or other short-term debt, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Companies sell commercial paper, which usually matures in three months or less, to help pay for day-to-day expenses, including payroll and rent.

Mrs. Gates to sign sub keel

General Dynamics’ Electric Boat unit at Quonset Point in North Kingstown will host a keel-laying ceremony Saturday for the Missouri, SSN-780, the seventh ship in the Navy’s newest class of nuclear attack submarines. Rebecca W. Gates, who has been named ship sponsor, will inscribe her initials on the keel. The wife of U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, she has worked in higher education for nearly 28 years, spending most of her career at the Alexandria Campus of Northern Virginia Community College. Several high-ranking congressional, Navy and Department of Defense representatives will participate in the ceremony, which will begin at 10 a.m.

APC promotes virtualization

West Kingston-based APC and partners Dell and Microsoft, have developed a joint seminar series called “Don’t Agonize, Virtualize!” aimed at educating businesses on the benefits of virtualizing data centers. Virtualization essentially lets one computer do the job of multiple computers by sharing resources across multiple environments. Experts from the three companies will share best practices for implementing virtualization. The half-day events will include a tour of a data center with real life solutions to high-density challenges. “Virtualization shouldn’t be stressful for data center managers,” said Alistair Pim, APC’s vice president of global accounts and strategic alliances. APC, a division of Schneider Electric, of France, and Dell are members of the Microsoft Technology Centers Alliance Program of industry leaders in hardware, software and services around the world.

EFD adds green line of solder cartridges

EFD, of East Providence, has added a new green-colored cartridge to its line of industrial fluid dispensing components. International regulations and environmental concerns are causing many manufacturers to switch from traditional lead solder to lead-free solder. Suppliers of lead-free solder pastes often package them in green cartridges to distinguish them from their lead counterparts. EFD’s new cartridges are precision molded from clear green polypropylene and reduces costly downtime on automated production lines by making it easy to monitor the amount of solder remaining and change it before it runs out. EFD is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nordson Corp. of Westlake, Ohio.

Textron unit develops military applications

AAI Corp., an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Providence-based Textron company, has successfully demonstrated several new technologies for command-and-control of unmanned air and ground vehicles at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. These technologies were designed and developed in conjunction with the U.S. Navy surface warfare center and the U.S. Army’s unmanned aircraft systems program office to support the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s interoperability standards. AAI’s recent demonstration included a new ground control station that translates information from unmanned vehicles into standardized message formats that can be shared with other systems.

Falmouth hospital gets $10-million gift

A Cape Cod couple has donated $10 million toward construction of a new oncology center at Falmouth Hospital, the largest gift ever made to Cape Cod Healthcare. A spokesman for the hospital says the center will be named after donors James and Ruth Clark of Falmouth and Palm Beach, Fla. James Clark, a two-time cancer survivor, is a former trustee of the Falmouth Hospital Foundation and the retired chief executive officer and chairman of Hornblower, Weeks, Hempill and Noyes, a privately held securities firm in New York. The donation announcement was made as Cape Cod Healthcare officially kicks off a $100-million capital fundraising campaign.

New tug anchors fleet in Portland, Maine

A $7-million tugboat is the newest high-tech fixture along the Portland, Maine, waterfront. The 98-foot Andrew McAllister, which arrived this month after its christening in New York Harbor, is the new anchor of the five-boat fleet operated by Portland Tugboats. It’s a 6,000-horsepower tractor tug with two powerful propeller assemblies, known as Z-drives, that swivel 360 degrees to push or pull the boat in any direction. The new tug’s biggest customer is the Portland Pipe Line Corp., which takes in crude oil shipments that flow by pipeline to Canada. The Andrew McAllister also provides Portland with enhanced firefighting capacity. It’s equipped with massive water guns that can pump 11,600 gallons of seawater per minute in a huge plume halfway across the harbor.

TD Banknorth loses Vermont tax ruling

The Vermont Supreme Court says TD Banknorth must pay nearly $6 million to the state in back taxes, interest and penalties, saying the bank set up three sham holding companies to avoid paying taxes due in 2000 and 2001. The high court’s ruling on Friday affirms a Vermont Superior Court ruling and is expected to provide the state a much needed shot of revenue already spoken for in the fiscal 2009 budget. A spokeswoman for the Portland, Maine-based bank says it believed it was complying with applicable laws, and is disappointed with the ruling but will comply. Tax Commissioner Tom Pelham says his department’s auditors got on the case in 2004 after noting a sharp drop-off in revenues from the state’s bank franchise tax.

Maine seeks to certify lobster industry

A series of public meetings is being held this week to hear from Maine lobstermen about a plan to seek certification of their industry as a sustainable fishery. Gov. John Baldacci appointed a working group to pursue certification by the Marine Stewardship Council, an independent organization that promotes responsible fishing practices. Many large buyers of seafood have pledged to only buy seafood carrying the council’s label. That’s led to concern that Maine lobstermen could be cut off from major markets if the industry lacks certification.

Maine town slows Poland Spring’s advance

Voters in Shapleigh, Maine, in a setback for bottler Poland Spring, have imposed a six-month moratorium on the testing or large-scale extraction of water. Residents voted 204 to 38 to adopt the moratorium, which is intended to give the town time to work on a regulatory ordinance. Selectmen can extend the moratorium for another six months if an ordinance isn’t done by next March.