LENOIR, NC -- Broyhill Furniture Industries Inc. sold its 193,000-square-foot particleboard plant to North State Property Holdings LLC. According to the Charlotte Observer, Broyhill opted to sell the plant because most of its furniture is being manufactured offshore. The new owner plans to seek an expanded customer base for the plant. Read more.

WASHINGTON -- Ashland Chemical Co. agreed to pay an $80,000 penalty to settle air quality violations brought by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its resin plant in Calumet City, IL. The company also agreed to invest $154,000 in environmental equipment at its plant which makes amino and phenolic resins used in the production of particleboard, plywood and plastic parts.

GRAYS HARBOR, WA -- Gov. Chris Gregoire announced $1 million in loan and grant financing from the Washington Community Economic Revitalization Board to help the Port of Grays Harbor construct a building to support the expansion of Paneltech International, a laminate products manufacturer.

MONROE, MI -- La-Z-Boy, which recently sold off American of Martinsville, continued its transformation with the recent merger of its Pennsylvania House and Clayton Marcus divisions. Both product lines will be overseen by Mae McCall, president of Clayton Marcus, but will maintain separate marketing and sales teams. Kurt Darrow, president and CEO of La-Z-Boy, said, “Operating in the higher end of the market, the two companies have a similar product line focus and customer base.

ST. LOUIS, MO – Furniture Brands Int’l. will present at the 2006 Morgan Keegan Equity Conference in Memphis, TN, on September 7. W.G. Holliman, chairman of the board and CEO, will give a presentation on the company’s strategy and discuss existing business conditions. The presentation will be Web cast on the company’s Web site as well as at www.wsw.com/webcast/mk13/fbn.

SPOKANE, WA -- Potlatch Corp. reported net earnings of $8.0 million for the second quarter of 2006, compared to net earnings of $8.2 million for the second quarter of 2005. The slight decrease in earnings was due to lower results for the Wood Products and Resource programs, which were nearly offset by better results for the Consumer Products and Pulp and Paperboard segments.

TORONTO -- Norbord Inc. reported second quarter earnings of $33 million, slightly less than half of the $67 in earnings for the same period last year, as sales declined from $389 million to $334 million. Barrie Shineton, Norbord president and CEO, attributed much of the decrease to falling prices for oriented strand board due to a decline in housing starts. Read more.

GLENDALE HEIGHTS, IL -- ITW’s new Web site – wood.discover-more.com – is specifically designed for wood finishing and related applications industries. It provides specialized support and information for various wood finishing processes. Included on the site are Binks DeVilbiss wood finishing products, such as spray guns, tips and fluid handling equipment; a distributor locator; news; and more.

PHOENIX, MD -- The Woodworking Machinery Industry Assn.’s newly redesigned Web site - wmia.org - features the WMIA’s Online Sourcebook, an electronic data base of equipment, software, cutting tools, accessories and other products and services offered by the association’s 170 member companies. The Online Sourcebook allows visitors to search for products by product type, brand name, company name, regional distribution or available services.