REGION

REGION
Van Fossan worksfor Select Brands
YOUNGSTOWN -- Van Fossan & amp; Associates helped Select Brands of Kansas City unveil two new products recently at the International Housewares Show in Chicago.
The Youngstown agency provided public relations, marketing, packaging designs and trade advertisements for the Pancake Factory, an electric pancake maker, and the Fruit Saver, which circulates cool air throughout its bowl-like chamber.
German companyeyes site in Pa.
MEADVILLE, Pa. -- A German company looking to build a clean-burning power plant in the United States is considering a former waste treatment plant in northwestern Pennsylvania.
Officials with the Fraunhofer USA Center for Energy and Environment, based in Pittsburgh, this week visited the former treatment plant at the Crawford County Industrial Park near Meadville.
The plant burns biomass materials such as wood pulp, sawdust, grass or other organic materials, turning them into a flammable gas in an enclosed chamber with no outside emissions. The gas then fuels an internal-combustion engine that drives electrical generators, company officials said.
NATION
Steel imports rise
WASHINGTON -- American companies imported more steel in 2002 than in the previous year, according to preliminary data released Tuesday by the U.S. Commerce Department, despite steep tariffs that were slapped on certain kinds of foreign-made steel last March.
Nearly 2.5 million tons of steel were imported to the United States in December, according to the Commerce Department. That comes on top of the 27 million tons that had been imported though November 2002 -- appearing to surpass the total 27.3 million ton watermark for 2001. That would make 2002 the fourth-highest year for steel imports.
From Vindicator staff and wire reports