Western.

• Position: REGIONAL REPORT - Meshed briefs - Brief Article

WEST JEFFERSON -- Black & Decker, the Towson, Md.-based toolmaker, will close its saw-blade plant here, costing 250 workers their jobs. The shutdown will occur in phases, starting in the first quarter of 2005. Black & Decker acquired the plant with its purchase of the tool division of Golden Valley, Minn.-based Pentair less than a month before announcing the closing.

ASHEVILLE -- Delta Air Lines will begin nonstop, daily service to Orlando Dec. 1, and Northwest Airlines will begin nonstop service to Minneapolis Dec. 15. But US Airways dropped two nonstop flights to New York's LaGuardia Airport, citing low use. A US Airways official says the decision isn't related to the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

RUTHERFORDTON -- Rutherford County approved the first phase--about 100 of 900 planned lots--of the 4,000-acre Greystone residential development on Lake Lure. Houses will range from $175,000 to more than $1 million. The development will add about $400 million to county tax rolls when completed in 20 years.

MORGANTON -- Poultry processor Case Farms, which employs about 600 here, settled an unfair-labor-practices lawsuit by three...