California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has petitioned President Bush to add money to the Pentagon’s 2008 budget for additional C-17s. In a letter dated Tuesday, California’s top executive noted that the closure of Boeing’s Long Beach production facility would mean the loss of nearly 11,000 jobs—about half at the plant and half at suppliers around the state. Boeing has said that today is the day it must make a decision to begin shutting down the production line.
Members of the House Armed Services Committee say the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile program has been set back three months due to the ongoing government shutdown. The comment is noteworthy because the JATM's status has been kept tightly under wraps.

