ERIE — Workers are getting ready to raise two new barns at Presque Isle Downs & Casino in Erie.

The new barns will house 96 additional horses that racetrack officials say will increase the number of horses racing during the track’s 100-day season.

Casino president and general manager Fred Buro says concrete foundations for the barns have been poured and now crews are waiting for the prefabricated wood and metal to arrive. Buro says the barns should be assembled by the second or third week of January.

The casino already has 500 stalls for horses, not counting another 48 in a receiving barn for horses that are trucked in to race.

The next racing calendar is expected to begin in May, subject to approval by the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission.

Lord Corp. buys property to expandERIE — Lord Corp., an aerospace company founded in Erie in 1924, has bought one property for $18.5 million and has sold its office complex for $18 million as part of plans to expand its northwestern Pennsylvania operations just outside the city.A report Tuesday says that property records show Lord bought the Bush Industries site in Summit Township and sold its Erie offices to the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine.The college will lease that office space to Lord until the relocation and expansion are complete, after which the college may put a new $45 million dental school in the Erie office complex.Lord moved its headquarters to North Carolina in 1994. Lord still owns a manufacturing plant in Erie, but plans to consolidate that with its offices at the Summit Township site.

Currency report targets ChinaWASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Tuesday declined to label China a currency manipulator after seeing recent increases in the value of the yuan compared to the dollar.The decision angered some manufacturing groups, which have accused Beijing of artificially holding down the value of its currency to gain trade advantages. A cheaper yuan makes Chinese goods less expensive when they are shipped to the United States. It also makes U.S. goods more expensive in China. Both could increase the U.S. trade deficit with China, which is on pace to hit a record high this year.The Treasury Department said the yuan has appreciated 12 percent against the dollar in the past 18 months, after adjusting for inflation. In addition, the department said in a semi-annual report that China promised at two high-level meetings last month to make the yuan’s exchange rate more flexible.Still, yuan is “substantially undervalued” and its appreciation “is insufficient and more progress is needed,” the report noted. The department will “press for policy changes that yield greater exchange rate flexibility” and “level the playing field.”The currency report evaluates exchange rate policies of all major U.S. trading partners.