Boeing Wichita managers have begun to work with its more than 2,100 employees following Januarys announcement that the company will close the Wichita facility by the end of 2013.

Workers have met individually with their managers in an initial round of conversations, said Boeing spokesman Forrest Gossett.

We wanted everyone to know where they stood in relation to their jobs, Gossett said. Were working with our employees to give them a better sense of the future.

Boeing announced plans to close the Wichita facility and move engineering and program management work to Oklahoma City and maintenance work to San Antonio. Tanker finishing work that was planned for Wichita will now go to the Puget Sound area in Washington state.

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Enfield solar manufacturer STR Holdings Inc. seems exactly the type of clean energy company Connecticut wants.

STR leads the market in its corner of the solar world; invests heavily in research and development; is opening a new East Windsor facility; operates three locations worldwide with a fourth on the way; and runs profitably without hardly any direct government subsidies.

But STR suffers the whims of the clean energy market. Oversupply erodes demand and prices; raw material costs rise; China steals market share; and the overreliance on subsidies leaves everyone in a lurch.

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AP Intelligence Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) – Top Pentagon officials are considering putting elite special operations troops under CIA control in Afghanistan after 2014, just as they were during last year’s raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan, sources told The Associated Press.

The plan is one of several possible scenarios being debated by Pentagon staffers. It has not yet been presented to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, the White House or Congress, the sources said.

If the plan were adopted, the U.S. and Afghanistan could say there are no more U.S.

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South Korea, citing rising overseas demand, Thursday posted a trade surplus of $2.2 billion in February, reversing January’s $2.3 billion deficit.

The government said February exports of Asia’s fourth-largest economy totaled $47.18 billion, up 22.7 percent year-on-year, while February imports totaled $44.98 billion, 23.6 percent, Yonhap News Agency reported.

“Overseas demand for such products as autos, steel, petroleum products and ships pushed up exports last month despite heightened uncertainty triggered by rising international crude oil prices,” the government said.

February exports to the United States rose 64.5 percent year-on-year and those to the

European Union rose 30.4 percent despite the eurozone debt crisis.

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Cessna Aircraft has moved work on its 162 Skycatcher from Wichita-based Yingling Aviation to its single-engine plant in Independence.

The Skycatcher, a two-seat light sport aircraft, is manufactured by Shenyang Aircraft Industry Co., in northeast China. After shipment, Yingling has been reassembling and delivering the planes to customers.

Cessna has been looking at ways to integrate the Skycatcher with its other single-engine airplanes in Independence as it seeks to build the plane in the most cost-effective way possible, Cessna spokesperson Dianne White said Monday.

Its in no way a reflection on Yingling, White said. They are continuing to work with us on a number of programs.

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As policymakers debate how to form Connecticut’s health insurance exchange ahead of a 2014 deadline, they may not need to look far for an answer.

Mercer, a national benefits consulting firm hired by the state to analyze the insurance market, is suggesting that Connecticut could adopt the exchange run by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association rather than create a whole new state-run entity, warning that two similar but separate exchanges may not be able to co-exist. <

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