<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0181 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.1>
PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa -- The flames from two
paraffin lamps cast more shadows than light across nearly 100
residents of a black township packed into a one-room shack.
The community meeting in a shantytown closes with a chant of
defiance.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.2>
"Amandla! {Power!} An injury to one is an injury to all.
Amandla!" As the people do the toyi-toyi dance, they sing,
"De Klerk's government is going to fall."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.3>
Like most blacks in South Africa, the residents of this
so-called Soweto by the Sea, a township of makeshift housing
within Port Elizabeth, are jubilant over President F.W. de
Klerk's stunning "unbanning" of the revolutionary African
National Congress and release of ANC leader Nelson Mandela
after 27 years in prison. "Everything is going to be
changed," exults Ndzimeici Stefaans Pangiso, a 72-year-old
man with a gray goatee who joined the ANC 40 years ago.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.4>
Many of South Africa's poorest of the poor here are
organizing for what they believe will be a hard struggle for
democracy. Sowetans don't credit the white government for the
historic changes. They see the changes as victories in a
continuing struggle by blacks victimized by apartheid. The
highly politicized shack-dwellers still regard Pretoria as
the enemy. "I am waiting for the last kick of the
government," says Bob Gaga, a laborer here.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.5>
Recent events, however, demonstrate that the government
still has plenty of kick left. Mr. Mandela has postponed
talks with the Pretoria regime that were scheduled to begin
next Wednesday, after police in the black township of
Sebokeng near Johannesburg last month killed about a dozen
demonstrators and injured more than 400 people protesting
high rents. President de Klerk this week sent more police and
military personnel to Natal Province to quell violence there.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.6>
This Soweto isn't the one outside Johannesburg that Mr.
Mandela returned to after his release. Urban planners call
this place an "informal settlement," even though it has as
many as 100,000 residents. It is characteristic of the black
townships across South Africa.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.7>
To a reporter who was here for a month in 1986, just
before the government declared a state of emergency that
further restricted the rights of blacks, the change is
striking. In 1986, anyone who spoke against the government
was subject to arrest. Residents were continually harassed by
soldiers, many in menacing vehicles called hippos that roamed
the dirt streets, sometimes knocking down dwellings. There
was violence by blacks against blacks, as well. People
suspected as informers for the government were "necklaced" --
a tire drenched in gasoline was hung around their necks and
set afire.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.8>
Because of their strong political organization, the Port
Elizabeth townships have escaped the factional fighting that
continues to plague the Natal province. "The Port Elizabeth
black community is a very close-knit community, with very
strong leadership," says Roger Matlock, regional director of
the Urban Foundation, which made a recent study of the
township.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.9>
Today, the people of this Soweto can call for toppling the
government with little fear of persecution, though detention
without trial still is permitted under the continuing state
of emergency. They chant "Viva Mandela! Viva ANC!" and they
are not arrested. The brave few who once defied authorities
by wearing the black, green and gold colors of the ANC now
have been joined by the many. T-shirts with Mr. Mandela's
picture on them are everywhere. Nearly everyone who spoke to
this reporter in 1986 requested anonymity; this time, no one
did.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.10>
Local violence has receded. And the hippos have
disappeared. Gladys Dumani says she no longer worries that
her shanty will be crushed in the middle of the night. "I'm
feeling much better," she says. "I stayed in fear before
because, when I hear a hippo, I feared it would knock my
house down whilst I am sleeping."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.11>
A few residents have even improved economically. Isaac
"Spider" Gojela, a political organizer who was released from
jail a year ago, has moved with his wife to nearby
Motherwell, a new community designed in part to relieve
dangerous overcrowding here.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.12>
But upward mobility in these parts is measured in tiny
steps. In Motherwell, Mr. Gojela, 35, lives in a cinder-block
house instead of a Soweto shanty. He moved up, he says, from
"a shack to a shed."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.13>
Soweto is horrendously poor, neglected and not even on the
Port Elizabeth street map. Shoeless children in ragged
clothes practice soccer with a tennis ball. Weary,
beaten-down old men limp along the road, making way for
groups of youths with fire in their eyes. Hogs pick garbage
from the muck near the open market. Dwellings have no
plumbing. Streets aren't paved; there are no sewers and no
telephones. Life expectancy is low. Whites outlive blacks on
the average by 15 years. And unemployment is high, about 60%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.14>
Looking down the street at 9:30 at night, one sees no
porch lights, no lights inside the shacks, no faint blue glow
from a TV set. Indeed, there is no electricity. Tall polls
stand perhaps 200 yards apart from which lights once
illuminated broad areas. But they were put out years ago by
youths seeking to make night patrols by the police and army
more difficult.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.15>
The patrols for the most part are gone now, but the
atmosphere is still tense; black goals remain unachieved.
Sowetans have been encouraged by Mr. de Klerk's talk of
liberalization, but they are painfully aware that apartheid
remains in place.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.16>
The people of Soweto, an ANC stronghold, are organizing to
press for majority rule: a one-person, one-vote democracy in
a unified state with unified cities and towns. "We are in a
hurry of seeing the new election of the people which would
not have the discrimination of the people," says Bernston
Mdyogolo, a 54-year-old fruit vendor in Soweto's square. "We
would like to see things change very fast."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.17>
To keep pressure on the South African government, many
Sowetans favor continuing economic sanctions by the U.S. and
other countries. Sowetans believe the sanctions have played
an important role in bringing about the positive changes that
have taken place so far.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.18>
"We are appealing to the Western countries to take the key
of sanctions and throw it to the sea as long as apartheid is
still existing in this country," says Wellington May, the
nearly toothless chairman of Soweto's Area C community group.
Mr. May, who once sold imported diesel parts, favors
sanctions even if their effect has been to keep him
unemployed for two years. "It is not the point that it makes
us to be unemployed. We want freedom. After that, sanctions
can be lifted."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.19>
Nobody expects white Afrikaners to give up power easily,
however. Apartheid sought to eliminate black citizenship in
South Africa by assigning blacks arbitrarily to citizenship
in tribal-based homelands, or Bantustans, without regard to
whether they had ever lived there. Other blacks are forced to
live in certain "townships" or "locations," which in essence
are labor camps for blacks with jobs in the nearby white
sections. Ibhayi is the government's name for Soweto and
other townships around Port Elizabeth. Each township, as town
clerk Flip Alberts concedes, is "not a self-contained city.
It's a dormitory town."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.20>
These sections have separate township councils that, like
the Bantustans, are integral parts of apartheid. The council
members, whose elections are boycotted by the the mass of
blacks, say they use the system to work for the aspirations
of fellow blacks. "It is a fact we are in the apartheid
grid," says council member S.A. Mpondo. "But we feel we have
to fight {from} within to get what we want."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.21>
Officials are still considered system stooges. But their
homes no longer are burned, their lives no longer are
threatened by militants. Mr. Alberts, a hired city
administrator, proudly says, "Politically inspired
destructive activity is virtually nonexistent." But the cry
in Soweto for "one city, one municipality" calls for the
incorporation of the townships into Port Elizabeth.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.22>
The strongest support for international sanctions and
other actions against apartheid is found among the neediest.
The front room of Mr. May's house has a dirt floor. Five
children sleep in one room, three boys in a double bed, two
girls in a twin. With very little furniture, the place is
bleak. Many Americans have garages that are more imposing. "I
am trying to teach my children to live hygienically," says
Mr. May, a priest in the African-Catholic Church. "I am
trying not to let the apartheid oppress me. I'm trying to
pull myself up. I'm trying."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.23>
Living hygienically in Soweto is harder now than it was
four years ago. It always was difficult. Without a proper
drainage system, stagnant water collects in pools. The annual
population growth rate in Soweto, said to be in the range of
6.9% to 8%, makes the place ever more crowded. The pigs
recently introduced to the community add to the filth.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.24>
Overcrowding extends from the shacks to the schools. At a
primary school called Mzisiswano, 77% of the children are
from Soweto. Each class has at least 60 pupils. Attendance is
very good among children enrolled, but about 40% of Soweto's
children don't ever go to school. Classrooms are ill-equipped
and in need of repairs.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.25>
The most urgent local concern for shack-dwellers is decent
housing. Residents go to great lengths to maintain their
pride, while living in places unfit for human habitation:
Some shanties have china cabinets with glasses, cups and
saucers neatly arrayed. People sweep the dry earth outside
their homes.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.26>
No matter how hard they work to make a shack a home, it is
still a shack. "Enough is enough," says Thoko Nomkonwana, who
calls Soweto Shackville. "We want houses. We want employment.
Sooner not later."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.27>
A few hope to regain property they once owned. Gertrude
Majola, a 61-year-old nurse, lives in one of the few
substantial buildings in Soweto. Her late husband, a teacher,
bought the property in the late 1950s. But nearly 20 years
later, the Bantu administration board made them relinquish
title to their house, a store and sufficient land to
accommodate a hundred shacks. "They said, `No, no, Africans
cannot own land,'" she recalls. "So they made us sell it."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.28>
Since then, she has been a tenant on what had been her
family's land. Mrs. Majola says the Ibhayi city council might
now sell it back to her.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.29>
A new openness exists among South African blacks. Brian
Sokutu, the Port Elizabeth correspondent for the New Nation,
was among many black journalists jailed without trial, even
without charges filed against them. His newspaper was shut
down temporarily. He recalls having to conceal liberation
literature, which he dared not keep at home. "I would have to
go at night and fetch it . . .," he says. "But after the
unbanning, now people can just put their literature on top of
their desk and read it anywhere," he says. "It's quite
exciting."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.30>
To try to achieve democracy, the Sowetans are rebuilding
political organizations that were struck down by the state of
emergency and by the arrests of many local leaders. Because
the ANC was illegal, an umbrella black group called the
United Democratic Front basically served as its above-ground
operation. But it was effectively outlawed, too, as were
affiliated groups. Leaders went about in disguises and tried
to evade the police. But nearly all of the black political
leaders of Soweto by the Sea were captured and imprisoned
without trial for as long as three years. And when they were
released, restrictions amounting to house arrest made any
protest a criminal act.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.31>
Because the street and area committees that had promoted
politics and controlled crime were illegal, groups called
"anticrime committees" were formed to deal with an upsurge in
robberies and violence. They succeeded in making the streets
safe. Now "you can go day and night even if you are young or
old," says Samuel Ngcume, who hobbles along the dirt roads on
crutches.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.32>
Reviving Soweto's political organization is time-consuming
work, what with all the meetings and rallies. Activists'
enthusiasm got a big boost when Mr. Mandela held a huge rally
near Port Elizabeth last Sunday. Mr. Gojela, who organizes in
both Soweto and Motherwell and who was vice chairman of the
area committee before he went to jail for nearly three years,
says it is important for leaders to rekindle the community's
fighting spirit. He is optimistic. "It won't take long," he
says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.33>
"The signs are there that our liberation is coming, but at
this stage nobody can tell how far is it, which means unity
and discipline are very much important," Mr. Gojela adds.
"Unity, in particular, because at any time we might see
ourselves have a vote."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.34>
Liberation isn't imminent, however, longtime activists
caution. "Sometimes I get worried" {because} the expectations
are too high," says Raymond Mhlaba, who was one of the ANC
officials released after 26 years in prison, a few months
before Mr. Mandela was freed. He is concerned about "the
belief that we are on the verge of winning. That might not be
so. It might take us five years."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.35>
For residents of this place, a better life can't come too
soon. "I'm waiting for the pleasure of my life," says Papisi
Alfred Wilson Kondile, who is in his 70s.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0181-1.36>
His hands shake, his beard is scraggly. He wears a red,
white and gray knit hat and two brown sweaters over his
shirt. There are no laces in his shoes. A bucket catches
rainwater dripping into the small room from the sagging tin
roof of his shack. He and his wife have little food. "We live
in a terrible situation," the old man says. "Maybe things can
get better. You see how much we suffer."
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0180 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-1.1>
NEW YORK -- The over-the-counter market, relieved of
pressure from stock losses overseas, rebounded strongly
yesterday.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-1.2>
Traders say buying momentum from Monday's close carried
unlisted share prices higher following a recovery in equity
prices in Tokyo and London.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-1.3>
A steep plunge on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and elsewhere
had been blamed for pressuring U.S. stock markets.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-1.4>
Robert O'Toole Sr., head of OTC sales trading at Shearson
Lehman Hutton, says strength in the bond market also helped
lift the over-the-counter market. "I saw buying right across
the board," Mr. O'Toole says of the OTC market yesterday.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-1.5>
The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 4.47, or about 1%, to
437.65, while the New York Stock Exchange Composite Index
added 1.3% yesterday.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-1.6>
Total Nasdaq volume was 134.8 million shares, up 23.4
million shares from Monday's 111.4 million shares. National
Market System volume totaled about 102,125,500 shares, up
from Monday's 81,026,100 shares. OTC advancers led decliners,
1,176 to 757.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-1.7>
While traders say yesterday's activity touched all sectors
of the OTC market, some areas received a bigger share of the
buying than others.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-1.8>
The Nasdaq 100 Index, which includes the market's largest
non-financial issues, rose 8.28, or nearly 2%, to 433.62.
Among the largest stocks gaining were MCI Communications,
which added 1 1/2 to 38, and Apple Computer, which advanced 1
1/2 to 41 3/4.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-1.9>
The Nasdaq Financial 100 Index, which tracks the OTC
market's largest bank, thrift and insurance stocks, gained
only 1.01, or 0.26% to 392.58.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-1.10>
At the top of the most active list, Tetra Technologies
added 1 1/8 to 12 1/8 from its opening trade. The 2.35
million-share new issue was priced late Monday at $10 each.
Investor demand caused the company to increase the size of
the offering from the 2 million shares originally filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-1.11>
Tetra recyles byproducts and waste from chemical plants to
produce calcium chloride and zinc bromide, as well as other
specialty chemicals, which are used mainly by the domestic
offshore oil and gas industry. The company also sells waste
treatment systems.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-1.12>
Last year, increased well activity in the Gulf of Mexico
caused recycled chemical sales to balloon 60%, boosting the
company's net income by 72% in 1989, according to an official
with the lead underwriter, Alex. Brown & Sons Inc.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-1.13>
Pic 'N' Save gained 1 to 11 1/2 on volume of more than 2.2
million shares. Kidder Peabody traders say they handled about
half of that volume, but even they were at a loss to explain
the activity. Monday, Pic 'N' Save eased 1/8 on over 1.3
million shares.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-1.14>
John Giesea, who trades the stock for Kidder, says the
vast majority of the activity came from "institutional or
professional type of accounts as opposed to individuals."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-1.15>
In early February, Pic 'N' Save announced that it would
buy back up to 5 million of its shares. But the company's
chief financial officer said that yesterday's activity is not
related to the buy-back program.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-1.16>
Landmark Graphics plunged 2 1/2 to 18 1/2 in active
trading. The company said its revenue for the third quarter,
ended March 31, will be about 20% below analysts' estimates.
The computer maker blamed changing buying patterns of its
large domestic customers for the revenue shortfall.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-1.17>
Heavy trading volume in Lancaster Colony pushed the stock
onto the most active list with a 1 point loss to 19 3/4.
Monday, Cleary Gull Reiland McDevitt & Collopy cut its
investment rating on the stock and lowered its 1990 earnings
estimate for the company. The securities firm cited softness
in consumer mass market business, where about half of
Lancaster's products are sold.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-1.18>
Cambridge BioScience lost 1 1/8 to 5 3/8, while Biotech
Research Laboratories was up 1/2 to 4 7/8. The two companies
yesterday said they plan to merge in a stock swap.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-1.19>
Software Toolworks jumped 1 5/8 to 29 7/8, another new
52-week high for the stock. The educational and entertainment
software company is expected to unveil new products at the
Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago in early June.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-2.1>
Corrections & Amplifications
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-2.2>
TETRA TECHNOLOGIES Inc. said the lead underwriter for its
offering of 2,350,000 common shares is PaineWebber Inc. In
yesterday's OTC Focus column, the lead underwriter was
incorrectly identified.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0180-2.3>
(WSJ April 5, 1990)
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0179 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0179-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- A few weeks ago, during closed-door
negotiations over the clean-air bill, Sen. John Chaffee (R.,
R.I.) agreed not to offer a tough amendment outlawing the
latest generation of ozone-depleting chemicals.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0179-1.2>
It was the cue for David Doniger to whir into action.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0179-1.3>
As a staff attorney at the Natural Resources Defense
Council, Mr. Doniger had helped write the amendment. And
before long, the lanky, bald and bearded environmental lawyer
had helped resurrect the provision on the Senate floor, with
Sen. Al Gore (D., Tenn.) as the sponsor. It survived as part
of the Senate's clean-air bill.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0179-1.4>
Mr. Doniger, 38 years old, is the youngest of three NRDC
lawyers whose expertise has proved indispensable in the
shaping of the Senate clean-air bill. They have won both
praise and criticism as shadow legislators -- lobbyists who
have helped to write some sections of the bill while shooting
other sections down. With the Senate bill behind them, they
switch their attention to the House, where they are likely to
have even more influence.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0179-1.5>
The other members of this green trio are Richard Ayres,
48, who 20 years ago founded the NRDC with several Yale Law
School classmates, and David Hawkins, 47, who as a former
clean-air administrator at the Environmental Protection
Agency is the only government veteran of the three.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0179-1.6>
Together, they represent a new breed: the public-interest
lawyer as yuppie. Operating out of a sleek downtown office
outfitted with blond wood and silver-framed prints by Folon
and Georgia O'Keefe, they take in salaries of $55,000 to
upwards of $80,000. That's less than their corporate
opponents earn, but enough to establish an air of permanence
at the organization.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0179-1.7>
Throughout the legislative debate, the three lawyers have
peddled themselves as technicians ready to school legislators
in the unfathomable complexities of clean air. "I think they
were superb," says first-term Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.).
"They had an institutional memory that I simply couldn't
have."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0179-1.8>
Not that the Senate bill is an environmentalists' dream.
"If signed into law, it would not solve our most pressing air
pollution problems," says Mr. Hawkins. The three lobbyists
initially supported Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell
(D., Maine) on the bill, but split with him after he worked
out a compromise agreement with the White House.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0179-1.9>
"There has been a rift of sorts," concedes Mr. Ayres, who
chairs a clean-air lobbying coalition that includes the NRDC
and the Sierra Club. Instead of Sen. Mitchell's bargaining
with the Bush administration, he says the coalition would
have preferred to whip up public support for a tougher bill.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0179-1.10>
"The reality is that we didn't have the votes for the
bill," answers Sen. Mitchell, "and they're aware of that."
Sen. Mitchell says the trio's input on the clean-air bill is
"not helpful."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0179-1.11>
The environmental lawyers' actions have prompted some in
the Senate to accuse them of outright petulance. Senate
Minority Whip Alan Simpson (R., Wyo.) complains of their
"unrealistic expectations and huge egos," and blames the
three for holding up the progress of clean-air legislation
during the past decade.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0179-1.12>
But Sen. Simpson also concedes their grasp of scientific
issues: "They have a great deal of knowledge to contribute
and they're very bright."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0179-1.13>
The triumvirate hopes to do better on the House side,
where they expect to have more influence, especially with
Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.), who is helping shape the bill
in the Energy and Commerce Committee. "I rely quite heavily
on them," says Rep. Waxman.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0179-1.14>
The NRDC has little clout with other members of the Energy
and Commerce Committee. But the trio will probably have more
influence on the final House bill, says Mr. Hawkins, because
there are so many members from urban centers, where the worst
air-pollution problems occur.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0179-1.15>
Started in a ramshackle three-room office in 1970, the
NRDC now boasts branch offices in San Francisco and Honolulu.
Despite its non-profit, tax-exempt status, the research and
advocacy group is permitted by law to lobby Congress. Its
membership totals 120,000.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0178 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0178-1.1>
LONDON -- London's two main financial-futures markets plan
to merge into a single entity, in the most significant
realignment of British securities exchanges since Big Bang,
the 1986 opening of London's markets to greater competition.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0178-1.2>
In a joint statement, London's International Financial
Futures Exchange, known as Liffe, and London's Stock Exchange
said they "are actively examining a complete integration" of
Liffe and the stock exchange's equity-options market,
independent of the stock exchange. The proposed merger, which
follows nearly three years of fitful discussion, is aimed at
increasing trading and operating efficiency, as well as
fighting competition from growing futures markets in
Continental Europe.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0178-1.3>
The combined exchange would be the largest single futures
and options market in Europe, with more than 33% of European
futures volume and nearly 5% of global trading flows.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0178-1.4>
The two markets said they have established a committee to
recommend how best to meld their organizations into a "single
autonomous management and governance on a single trading
floor." The panel, whose report is due by June 30, includes
senior executives from both markets. It will be chaired by
Pen Kent, an associate director of the Bank of England. The
central bank has long advocated -- from behind the scenes --
such a merger to enhance London's position as Europe's
leading financial center.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0178-1.5>
London's fragmented markets face increasing competition
from futures markets in France, the Netherlands and West
Germany. Meanwhile, America's Chicago-centered futures and
options markets are boosting efforts to expand globally
through electronic-exchange initiatives. With the outlook for
increased use of derivative products, a more efficient London
market would ensure "a material enhancement" in Britain's
position, the exchanges said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0178-1.6>
The decision marks a victory for Liffe, which has resisted
attempts to be absorbed into the stock exchange's
bureaucracy. Officials on both sides said the announcement
indicates that past differences and personality conflicts
have been set aside. "This is a very constructive move I hope
very much will succeed," Stock Exchange Chairman Andrew Hugh
Smith said in an interview.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0178-1.7>
The stock exchange apparently believes it has more to gain
from collaboration. While both bodies have long agreed on the
logic of a merger, discussions in the past have broken apart
over such issues as which body the exchange would operate
under, and who would run it. In the past 18 months, however,
volume has been largely stagnant or declined on the
exchange's traded options market, while it has surged on
Liffe, which primarily trades futures and options on
international currencies and government bonds.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0178-1.8>
Liffe has been more aggressive in improving technology and
trading procedures, traders say. In contrast, the stock
exchange, which has only a third of its members participating
in traded options, has paid less attention to derivative
products. And for trading firms, most of whom are members of
both exchanges, the separation has caused duplication of
systems and expenses. "Derivatives belong together," said
David Burton, Liffe chairman. "Our members want a coming
together."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0178-1.9>
There are still some thorny issues to be resolved. Among
the leading questions is the location of a combined trading
floor. Liffe has already announced plans to move eventually
from its current, overloaded floor in the Royal Exchange
building a block from the stock exchange. Mr. Burton said two
possibilities for a combined floor are at the stock exchange
itself and at a new site in the City, London's financial
district.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0178-1.10>
The stock exchange's old floor has been largely empty
since Big Bang, when electronic trading reforms drove
business into dealing rooms around the City. Indeed, on a
recent day, the only players there were a handful of options
traders.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0177 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.1>
BUCHAREST, Romania -- Picture the White House almost the
size of the Pentagon, clad inside and out with white marble,
and transported to the top of a man-made hill. Who would want
to live in it? What could be done with it?
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.2>
Romanians have just such a white elephant on their hands,
built but never finished by the executed dictator Nicolae
Ceaucescu, and now public property in fact.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.3>
As they stand in long lines to buy their meat and bread,
many Romanians ponder such questions. Mr. Ceaucescu's dream
-- the House of the Republic -- is, rather, a folly that cost
this poor country more than $1 billion over the past 10
years. Today it stands empty and unused, dominating downtown
Bucharest, a monument to megalomania. The new government
won't move into it. Nobody knows quite what to do with it.
Everybody has a suggestion.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.4>
It could be a gambling casino, a condominium, a bowling
alley, a thousand-screen multiplex movie theater, somebody's
corporate headquarters. Most likely, it will become a museum
or a university -- or the home of some international
organization.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.5>
Strangely, some Romanians feel a perverse attachment to
this absurdly luxurious structure built with their money and
the sweat of their brow while most people here were shivering
in dark, unheated housing. The palace was built by some
100,000 workers, many of them army conscripts forced to do
construction work. Traian Guiu, a stocky, balding
boilermaker, who with 10,000 others is touring the building,
is asked if he is angry.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.6>
"Angry? I'm proud. Romanians built this. It's wonderful."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.7>
Should the edifice be sold?
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.8>
"No, no, no. We should never sell this building, to
foreigners or anybody else," he says. "It's crazy, crazy," he
adds, making a circle round his ear with his index finger and
pausing on a grand marble staircase. "But we suffered for
this. It's ours."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.9>
A crowd tarrying in the unfinished entrance hall marvels
at the beauty and the scale of it all.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.10>
"Isn't this nicer than the White House?" asks a
gap-toothed woman in a babushka.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.11>
"Well, it's bigger than the White House," replies an
American visitor.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.12>
"See," says the woman, turning to her daughter, also in a
babushka. "Bigger than the White House."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.13>
Bigger by far. It is also three times the size of
Versailles. The huge, boxy white Romanian structure is 466
feet high, counting the flagpole on the roof. The building's
12 stories enclose 106 million cubic feet of air; floor space
is more than 3,875,000 square feet. The Romanian architects
responsible swear it is the biggest nonskyscraper office
building in the world, after the Pentagon.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.14>
The building features two mammoth receiving halls, one of
which, at 230 feet in length and 98 feet in width (cum
59-foot ceiling), can accommodate all of Bucharest's
beautiful people and then some. A 5,382-square-foot boardroom
has a round table that takes up most of it. One of the
building's two amphitheaters seating thousands is illuminated
by the second biggest chandelier in Europe, with 980
lightbulbs in all. There are 60 large salons, 540 spacious
offices and perhaps a thousand other rooms -- nobody knows
for sure how many, an architect says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.15>
The Ceaucescu palace has a bomb shelter 300 feet
underground, and gracious his-and-hers suites in which a
person of importance might retire, fitted with cherrywood
paneling and parquet floors. (The Ceaucescus weren't actually
going to live in this building. They had a nice house to
themselves elsewhere in Bucharest.) The best of Romania is
here: gray-streaked marble from Ruschita, elegant chandeliers
from Medias, mosaic tile floors and hand-woven carpets from
throughout the nation. The exterior, officially said to be in
"neo-classical French style," looks more like something
designed by a committee of Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.16>
French newspapers say two Japanese companies want to buy
the building, but Japan's embassy here admits to knowing
nothing of that. The names Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch
have been mentioned by Romanians as potential buyers, but
both men disclaim any interest.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.17>
Officials of the new Romanian government see the palace as
one of many headaches bequeathed to the people by the late
Ceaucescus. (Interestingly, the army, which helped build the
palace, also tried and executed the Ceaucescus.) Theodor
Stolojan, the first deputy finance minister, feels the need
of cash to balance his budget but figures the palace would be
politically impossible to sell. "Hey," he says. "I'm kind of
proud of the building, too. But I could have been just as
proud of something a little smaller, like maybe one-tenth the
size."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.18>
Unfortunately for Mr. Stolojan, informal opinion polls and
entries in guest books placed at the exit indicate that
virtually everybody thinks the building should be completed
at state expense, which will take another 6 billion lei
(about $290,million) and maybe four more years. Romanians
also think it should be kept in public hands. But what
exactly to do with it nobody seems to know.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.19>
"Give it to Unesco," suggests schoolgirl Elena Ungureanu.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.20>
"Make it a museum of Romanian folk art," says storekeeper
Turcan Valenti.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.21>
"Open an international museum of kitsch," proposes an
anonymous German visitor.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.22>
Suggestions, serious and otherwise, include making it a
hotel or an arts complex like the Georges Pompidou Center in
Paris; a museum of the atrocities of Stalinism, with exhibits
from all over Eastern Europe; a Dracula theme-park; a site
for industrial trade shows; an institute for advanced
political studies.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.23>
Whatever becomes of it, the House of the People, as it is
known now that the dictator is dead and gone, will
nevertheless remain Romania's most visible monument to the
excesses of Mr. Ceaucescu, who ruled the country for 24
years. During the past dozen years he became increasingly
interested in imperial grandeur, which is technically rather
odd for a Marxist-Leninist. The building was to be a home
away from home to the Ceaucescus, Nicolae and Elena, who died
together before a firing squad on Christmas Day. The
building, rather large for a married couple with grown
children, would also have housed various Communist Party
institutions.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.24>
Even as his country struggled in increasing economic and
political isolation, Mr. Ceaucescu visited his monument every
Saturday afternoon to check on how things were going. It was
a visit the architects dreaded.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.25>
"We had to redo that stairway six times," says builder
Mikal Covrig. "First, he wanted two columns on either side.
The next week, it was one column on each side. Two weeks
later, we had to take a meter and a half off the front step,
with pneumatic drills. Each time, we had to redesign the
whole thing." In other rooms, he adds, Mr. Ceaucescu would
take a sudden dislike to a central supporting column, and the
harried architects would have a week in which to figure out
how to get rid of the offending pillar without causing the
ceiling to collapse.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.26>
He didn't stop there. Mr. Ceaucescu ordered built a grand
boulevard, 6.5 feet wider than the Champs Elysees, stretching
southward from the main entrance of the palace, with
apartment buildings and shops of similar style on either
side. To make room for all this, one-fourth of old Bucharest
was razed.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.27>
Originally the apartments were to be given to apparachiks
and, Romanians assume, to members of Mr. Ceaucescu's feared
secret police, the Securitate. Long finished, the apartments
have never been occupied. Recently, the new provisional
government started giving them to citizens whose homes were
damaged in December's bloody revolution, and people are
moving in.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0177-1.28>
"It was all a Pharaonic dream," says Bucharest history
professor Stefan Andreescu, having just completed a tour of
the palace. "No Romanian king ever had such a grand dream or
built such a castle. Only the last king, the crazy one."
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0176 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0176-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- The Resolution Trust Corp. said it will
approve next week a plan to pay interest on certain thrift
obligations after the institutions have been seized by the
government for insolvency.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0176-1.2>
Uncertainty over the interest payments has unsettled bond
markets since February, when the RTC, the government's
savings-and-loan restructuring agency, seized Franklin
Savings & Loan of Ottawa, Kan. The RTC said it believed it
had authority under last year's big S&L law to stop paying
interest on certain Franklin debt after the seizure, even
though the interest was backed by a variety of collateral,
including mortgages.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0176-1.3>
Recently, both Standard & Poor's Corp. and Moody's
Investors Service Inc. said they were considering downgrading
more than $20 billion in debt issued by S&Ls, including
mortgage-backed bonds, depending on the RTC's eventual
policy.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0176-1.4>
RTC Chairman William Seidman said the agency was sending
out an early word on the policy to be adopted, in part, to
quiet concerns of the bond markets. The RTC met with Wall
Street officials Monday to hear their complaints that the
government would be violating bondholders' contracts if it
repudiated the interest payments.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0176-1.5>
The move affects thrift-issued debt backed by mortgages or
high-yield bonds, or bonds supported by collateralized
letters of credit.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0176-1.6>
The RTC policy generally would provide for payment of
interest up to the date of redemption of the securities,
subject to the extent of their collateral.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0176-1.7>
Also, under the policy, the government would have the
right to call securities for early redemption, even if the
contract terms don't provide for early call. But the
government, as receiver, had that right even before the
savings-and-loan law was passed, according to staffers of the
RTC.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0176-1.8>
The RTC specifically said the interest payments would be
honored for CenTrust Savings of Miami and for Franklin, after
the date of their government seizure. Both were under
specific examination by the RTC.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0176-1.9>
"It's a positive development," said Michael Bradfield, the
Washington counsel for Franklin Savings, which is in court
trying to overturn the government seizure. "We hope this will
lead to further positive developments, and to the return of
the institution."
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0175 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0175-1.1>
Rhyme for Richard

</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0175-1.2>
This Journal column's great;
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0175-1.3>
Each day it proves a charmer;
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0175-1.4>
And yet I miss the mornings when
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0175-1.5>
It wore a suit of Armour.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0175-1.6>
-- Dick Emmons.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0175-2.1>
Karma Tour
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0175-2.2>
Those seminar journeys to the inner self
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0175-2.3>
Are a fad on which I'll pass,
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0175-2.4>
Until some are started for folks
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0175-2.5>
Who travel economy class.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0175-2.6>
-- Edward F. Dempsey.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0175-3.1>
Daffynition
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0175-3.2>
Published predictions: paper prophets.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0175-3.3>
-- Lakenan Barnes.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0174 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0174-1.1>
NEW YORK -- The American Stock Exchange said a seat was
sold for $149,000, down $1,500 from the previous sale March
9. Seats are quoted at $147,000 bid, and $151,000 asked.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0173 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0173-1.1>
NEW YORK -- Mobil Corp. said its West German exploration
and production affiliate made a "significant" natural gas
discovery in its Ahrensheide permit area in northern Germany.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0173-1.2>
The 100%-owned Walsrode West Z-1 wildcat well tested at a
rate of 27 million cubic feet of gas a day at 15,000 feet.
Mobil said its affiliate, Mobil Erdgas-Erdoel G.m.b.H., will
drill an appraisal well on the site in the second half of the
year.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0172 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0172-1.1>
LUXEMBOURG -- Consumer prices in the European Community
rose 0.5% in February, leaving the EC's average annual
inflation rate at 5.2%, the EC statistics agency Eurostat
reported.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0172-1.2>
Eurostat said February's rise in prices in the EC was due
to substantial increases in West Germany and the Netherlands
(both 0.4%), Spain and Britain (both 0.6%), Italy (0.8%) and
Portugal (2.3%).
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0172-1.3>
In the other EC nations, prices rose moderately in
February, Eurostat said.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0171 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0171-1.1>
LONDON -- Oil production by the 13-member Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries in March was 23.7 million
barrels a day, unchanged from February levels, according to
the Paris-based International Energy Agency.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0171-1.2>
Among OPEC countries, a 200,000 barrel-a-day rise in
Iranian production in March, to 3.1 million barrels a day,
was counterbalanced by a slight decline in Libyan and
Venezuelan production.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0170 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0170-1.1>
DALLAS -- Trinity Industries Inc., a metal products maker,
said it completed the redemption of its $201,880,000 face
amount of liquid-yield option notes, due 2001, with 98.8% of
the holders converting their notes to stock and the remainder
accepting cash.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0170-1.2>
Trinity said that each note was convertible into 14.2
Trinity common shares, and that it issued about 2,832,000 new
shares as part of the redemption. It also said it paid about
$900,000 in cash to redeem the remaining notes for about
$372.33 each.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0169 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0169-1.1>
SADDLE BROOK, N.J. -- Sealed Air Corp. said the government
lifted a temporary suspension on the company's ability to
obtain government contracts.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0169-1.2>
The suspension had stemmed from a guilty plea late last
year by the maker of protective packaging to a 1986 violation
of a law controlling exports to Libya. The debarment
proceedings to which Sealed Air had been subject also have
ended, the company said.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0168 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0168-1.1>
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is
heading into the second quarter, traditionally a sluggish
oil-demand period, with production still rising.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0168-1.2>
As a result, questions are rising over the direction of
petroleum prices over the next few weeks. If OPEC doesn't cut
production soon, analysts say, oil inventories will rise and
prices could fall.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0168-1.3>
March production was at or near 24 million barrels a day,
topping February production and the highest level in eight
years, according to new estimates from those who monitor OPEC
output. And there are few signs that the pace will slow this
month.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0168-1.4>
On the contrary, trackers of oil tankers said yesterday
that vessel charterings for April loadings in the Persian
Gulf are near a three-year peak. That, they said, suggests
higher OPEC output for the month. Also, leading OPEC members
recently offered steep discounts to some customers to hold or
expand sales volumes.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0168-1.5>
"OPEC producers have now reached the threshold where
continued overproduction could push {their} basket price
below $18 {a barrel} during the seasonally lowest point of
demand over the next two months," OPEC Listener, an industry
analysis service, reported. "But all signs point to
production staying near 24 million barrels a day in April,"
added Cristina Haus, an OPEC Listener analyst.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0168-1.6>
OPEC's high production already has led to some weakening
in oil markets, with prices down as much as $3 a barrel since
the first of the year. While oil analysts generally agree
with OPEC economists that rebounding demand will lead to
firmer prices in the second half, most industry officials
look for more softening over the next few weeks. The debate
is over how much further prices may fall.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0168-1.7>
Price projections of Edward N. Krapels, president of a
Washington-based firm which monitors oil supplies world-wide,
fall in the middle of the range. "We don't think it {the
price outlook} will get much worse," he said. For the U.S.
benchmark crude, West Texas Intermediate, he sees $20 a
barrel as the floor. But he believes Dubai, an important
Middle East crude, could go below $15.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0168-1.8>
In U.S. futures trading yesterday, West Texas Intermediate
for May delivery settled at $20.30 a barrel, down 18 cents.
On European spot markets, meantime, April and May cargos of
Dubai were unchanged from day-earlier levels of $15.60 and
$15.65 a barrel, according to the Dow Jones International
Petroleum Report.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0168-1.9>
The Paris-based International Energy Agency was among
those issuing new estimates yesterday on OPEC production. In
its latest report, the IEA placed March OPEC output at 23.7
million barrels a day, unchanged from February. Several other
March production estimates from industry sources, including
the OPEC Listener, were higher, averaging some 24 million
barrels a day.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0168-1.10>
Even the IEA report suggested the beginning of a buildup
in oil inventories. It showed that total inventories in the
24-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development were some 450 million tons on April 1, up nine
million tons from a year earlier. Each ton contains about
seven barrels of oil.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0168-1.11>
The IEA said that because of expected increases in demand
over the like 1989 periods these inventories are equal to 97
days of forward consumption, about the same as a year
earlier. But the latest tabulation of oil inventories by Mr.
Krapels' Washington firm of Energy Security Analysis, at the
end of February, showed 4.05 billion barrels of oil in
storage world-wide, some 80 million barrels above the
year-earlier level.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0168-1.12>
Industry statistics also are showing rising inventories of
crude oil in the U.S. According to the American Petroleum
Institute's weekly report released late yesterday, these
inventories totaled 362.8 million barrels Friday, up 4.3
million barrels from a week earlier.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0168-1.13>
Oil traders said the increase, which was much larger than
expected, could be bearish for petroleum markets today. But
they said this could be offset by the bigger-than-expected
decline of 7.1 million barrels in gasoline inventories last
week.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0167 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0167-1.1>
Seattle-Horizon Air, a unit of Alaska Air Group Inc., said
revenue passenger miles in March rose 13% to 29.7 million
from 26.2 million flown a year earlier. A revenue passenger
mile is one paying passenger flown one mile.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0167-1.2>
The airline said load factor, or percentage of seats
filled by paying passengers, was 48.5%, down from 52.4% a
year ago.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0167-1.3>
For the three months, revenue passenger miles flown were
80.4 million, up 11% from 72.7 million flown a year ago. Load
factor for the three months was 48.4%, down from 51.3% a year
earlier.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0166 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0166-1.1>
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Hewlett-Packard Co. said it
introduced its HP PaintWriter Xl color-printer exclusively
for users of Apple Computer Inc.'s MacIntosh.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0166-1.2>
The computer maker said the printer retails for $2,995 and
is designed to be shared by MacIntosh users whose computers
are linked to an Appletalk network.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0165 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0165-1.1>
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Businessland Inc. said it formed an
alliance with accounting firm KMPG Peat Marwick to sell
business computing systems to corporations.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0165-1.2>
Businessland, a computer retailer, said the venture will
use several vendors but would initially focus on systems
based on Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh computers.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0164 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0164-1.1>
Procter & Gamble Co., a distant third in the orange juice
wars, is reformulating and renaming its ailing Citrus Hill
brand.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0164-1.2>
P&G this month will replace its Citrus Hill Select with
Citrus Hill Fresh Choice, with the pitch that it is made from
oranges that are "picked and squeezed" the same day.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0164-1.3>
By restaging the brand, analysts say, P&G hopes to compete
with the premium, not-from-concentrate juices made by
industry leaders Tropicana, a brand of Seagram Co., and
Minute Maid, a brand of Coca-Cola Foods, a unit of Coca-Cola
Co.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0164-1.4>
P&G's new juice, which the company promises will be
fresher tasting, is still made from a concentrate.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0164-1.5>
Industry analysts question whether the reformulated juice
will help the brand or just confuse consumers. "Juice is
either from a concentrate or it isn't," says Tom Pirko,
president of Bevmark Inc., a management consulting firm.
"Trying to take some in-between position will be tough."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0164-1.6>
What is more, Mr. Pirko adds, "I'm not certain they can
revive {Citrus Hill} without a real product innovation."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0164-1.7>
But a P&G spokeswoman contends "we've found a better way
to make a better tasting juice."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0164-1.8>
Most consumers drink orange juice that is made from
concentrates, but premium juices have helped Tropicana gain
market share. At year end, Tropicana led the market with
about $895 million in manufacturer sales. Minute Maid had
$890 million and Citrus Hill had just $270 million, according
to Beverage Marketing Corp. in New York.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0164-1.9>
The so-called premium juices are made by squeezing the
oranges and processing the juice. In concentrates, the water
is drawn out of the juice after the fruit is squeezed and
added again later. Juices made from concentrates are
generally lower priced.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0164-1.10>
P&G has tried several strategies with its Citrus Hill
brand, including introduction of a calcium-enriched orange
juice three years ago, but that hasn't made a big difference.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0164-1.11>
The brand doesn't have the name recognition of Tropicana
or Minute Maid, but it is higher priced than store brands.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0164-1.12>
Along with a new name and formula, P&G also is changing
the juice's packaging. The company recently received a patent
for a carton that has a resealable spout.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0164-1.13>
The new juice recently was introduced in several Northeast
and West Coast test markets. P&G officials won't say whether
the product will go nationwide. The price of the juice will
be similar to the existing Citrus Hill Select.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0163 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0163-1.1>
The Global View column on this page Monday, "Who Will Pay
the Bill for Russia's Decline?" used some inaccurately
transmitted statistics regarding man-days lost in the Soviet
Union. The correct numbers are 9.1 million mandays lost in
the first two months this year, compared with 7.3 million for
the full year 1989.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0163-1.2>
(See: "Who Will Pay the Price for Russia's Decline?" --
WSJ April 2, 1990).
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0162 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0162-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- The Treasury plans to raise $1.15 billion in
new cash with the sale Monday of about $16.4 billion in
short-term bills to redeem $15.26 billion in maturing bills.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0162-1.2>
The offering will be divided evenly between 13-week and
26-week bills maturing on July 12 and Oct. 11, respectively.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0162-1.3>
Tenders for the bills, available in minimum $10,000
denominations, must be received by 1 p.m. EDT Monday at the
Treasury or at Federal Reserve banks or branches.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0161 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0161-1.1>
A rebounding Tokyo stock market and rounds of buy programs
pushed U.S. stocks sharply higher, while the bond and
currency markets idled along with modest changes.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0161-1.2>
The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 36.26 points to
2736.71.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0161-1.3>
Bond investors bid prices of long-term Treasury bonds
modestly higher. The dollar rose against the yen, but fell
slightly against the mark.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0161-1.4>
The Tokyo stock market's rebound from its second-worst
plunge ever helped boost confidence among U.S. investors. The
Nikkei Index of 225 stocks rose 757.65, or 2.7%, to 28759.72
Tuesday despite selling by many individual investors forced
to put up more money for stocks they bought on credit.
Demands for more cash came after the Nikkei plummeted 6.6%
Monday.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0161-1.5>
More important, however, was the U.S. stock market's
ability to weather that Tokyo nose dive. The ability of U.S.
investors to shake off concerns about Tokyo stocks is leading
some analysts to conclude that the U.S. stock market is
healthy and headed toward new highs. With yesterday's gain,
the industrial average is within 74 points of the Jan. 2
record of 2810.15.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0161-1.6>
But others contend that light volume and program-trading
activity is distorting price moves in the U.S. market and
that any budding investor confidence is likely to be
shattered as disappointing first-quarter earnings reports
begin flowing.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0161-1.7>
The modest rise in bond prices came in sluggish trading as
investors and traders hunkered down to await today's
announcements regarding the Treasury's plans for auctions of
seven-year notes and 40-year bonds Resolution Funding Corp.
Traders are particularly concerned about the market's ability
to absorb another round of 40-year Refco bonds. The first
auction of $5 billion of those bonds in January sent
long-term bond prices plunging. But traders suggest that the
next auction will be of only $4 billion, which would relieve
some of the pressure on long-term bond prices.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0161-1.8>
In major market action:
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0161-1.9>
Stock prices soared in moderate trading. Volume on the New
York Stock Exchange totaled 154.3 million shares. Advancing
issues on the Big Board were ahead of losers 1,071 to 431.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0161-1.10>
Bond prices rose. The Treasury's benchmark 30-year issue
gained nearly a quarter of a point, or about $2.50 for each
$1,000 of face amount. The yield on the issue slipped to
8.61%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0161-1.11>
The dollar was mixed. In late afternoon New York trading
the dollar was at 1.6979 marks and 159.79 yen compared with
1.7009 marks and 158.95 yen Monday.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0160 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0160-1.1>
DALLAS -- General Motors Corp.'s Electronic Data Systems
Corp. said it signed a five-year credit-card and merchant
processing contract with First Tennessee Bank of Memphis.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0160-1.2>
Terms weren't disclosed.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0160-1.3>
Under the agreement, EDS said it will provide credit-card
processing and merchant accounting services for First
Tennessee Bank, the principal subsidiary of First Tennessee
National Corp. First Tennessee Bank has more than 600,000
cardholders and a base of 30,000 merchants.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0159 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0159-1.1>
SAN FRANCISCO -- Wells Fargo & Co. said it received
approvals from the Federal Reserve Board and the Office of
the Comptroller of the Currency for its joint venture with
Nikko Securities Co. of Tokyo.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0159-1.2>
The new venture, an investment management company, is
called Wells Fargo Nikko Investment Advisors. It advises the
management of about $80 billion of funds for corporations,
government employee benefit programs and private foundations.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0159-1.3>
Wells Fargo has contributed its Wells Fargo Investment
Advisors unit and its Wells Fargo Bank Advisors Trust
division to the venture in exchange for a 50% interest in the
venture and $125 million. Wells Fargo said it expects to
realize a $110 million pretax gain.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0158 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0158-1.1>
Anson Shupe's March 9 editorial-page article, "Pitchmen of
the Satan Scare," represents yet another illustration of the
muddled double-think. Mr. Shupe bemoans the fact that
satanism has become a growth industry with authors pandering
to a willing public. Yet he is identified as a professor
"preparing a book on cult and Satanic phenomena in the U.S."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0158-1.2>
He selectively criticizes certain specific commentators or
statistics as being unproved or speculations, and utilizes an
attack on those few to denial of an emerging social concern
and contemporary problem. That is not odd for him. In fact,
it is consistent with the same approach he and some of the
authorities he cites took with respect to destructive cults.
The recommendation of a posture of "benign" neglect toward a
social evil does not originate with Mr. Shupe, although I
find it odd that he adopts that precise appellation in
describing a satanic group.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0158-1.3>
Mr. Shupe's not-surprising conclusion, that evil has
always existed, is no more a warrant for ignoring a growing
problem of abuse and violence directed toward the vulnerable
than it would have been to refuse to deal with other forms of
discrimination against the weak and underprivileged on the
ground that these also are inevitable consequences of human
frailty.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0158-1.4>
His unrestrained attack upon the credibility of victims of
a widely perceived social problem really is tantamount to a
call for denial. The Cult Awareness Network characterized by
him as a group that has "now sounded the Satanist alarm in
earnest" reports it receives more than 300 calls for
information a month. What is it Mr. Shupe suggests should be
the appropriate response? Shut down the phones? Direct the
calls to Mr. Shupe himself, who will tell the people calling
that this, too, will pass and that every day in every way
things are getting better and better?
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0158-1.5>
Underlying the widespread demand by responsible
professionals for workshops and seminars is a growing
sensitivity to the victims of violence and abuse. The
American Family Foundation and the Cult Awareness Network's
focusing upon victims and attempting to deal with prevention
and treatment are approaches that are antithetical to Mr.
Shupe's characterization as a retreat to "medieval" thought.
Rather it is the cloistered professionals who do not hear the
violence in the street below or the cacophony of calls to
racial hatred and violence that are in retreat from
commitment and concern.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0158-1.6>
Herbert L. Rosedale
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0158-1.7>
President
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0158-1.8>
American Family Foundation
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0158-1.9>
Weston, Mass.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0158-2.1>
Mr. Shupe says that "genuinely concerned professionals are
being exposed, under the guise of technical training, to
downright misleading, false and poorly assembled
information." He marshals a good deal of evidence to express
his concern for these professionals and how they seem to be
unable to determine what information, technical training,
etc. are faulty, if indeed they can determine it at all.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0158-2.2>
As a practicing theologian and psychotherapist, I have
been professionally involved in the entire issue of what Mr.
Shupe calls "the Satan scare." While I share his concern
about those irresponsible individuals who would make and/or
have made a great deal of money by misleading those who may
be neophytes in the field, I can assure him that competent
professionals are under no such draconic deception.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0158-2.3>
Most of us who have been treating people of all ages, but
especially young people who have been "Satan worshippers,"
know that this is a severe and disabling emotional condition
often with overtones of psychosis and/or sociopathy. There
are also usually evidences of paranoia and sometimes
depression that could and do lead to self-immolation and/or
suicide. Often, and tragically, hostility and belligerence
are present leading to the physical injury of others.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0158-2.4>
In any event, the situation is serious enough to not
dispense with the subject as if it were simply involving a
group of people giving popular lectures to those who cannot
effectively criticize or analyze the worthiness of these
lectures.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0158-2.5>
Responsible religious leaders as well as health
professionals are able to provide professional assistance but
are in short supply when compared with the number of people
who suffer from Satan malady. It is interesting to note that
in the Hebrew language the word Satan refers to a condition
alluded to by Numbers: 22 f.f., in which one has lost all
free will and cannot turn in any direction. The reference is
an apt one. Most of our patients who have this "satanic"
affliction have lost their free will to act; therapy and
healthy religious practices are ways of restoring their life
options to them.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0158-2.6>
Albert M. Kanter
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0158-2.7>
Chicago
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0157 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0157-1.1>
Your March 5 page-one article on the success of the Range
Rover omitted a key reason for its success.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0157-1.2>
Yes, the car itself is a work of rugged luxury. But the
advertising that positioned it in the public's mind was
crucial. It made Range Rover -- the most
unpretentious-looking of all the station wagons -- the style
of choice among the rich who can afford any car, regardless
of price. In effect, the advertising created a "Range Rover
culture," causing a vehicle originally designed for roadless
Africa to transcend its category and become chic.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0157-1.3>
It is also interesting that the ad agency that created the
campaign is Grace & Rothschild Inc., the same Roy Grace and
Diane Rothschild who, when both were at Doyle Dane, did the
breakthrough ads that helped make the Volkswagen beetle the
No. 1 car import for many years.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0157-1.4>
William Lyons
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0157-1.5>
Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0156 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0156-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court panel gave the
regional Bell companies strong encouragement and a second
crack at persuading U.S. District Court Judge Harold Greene
to let them enter the lucrative information services
business.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0156-1.2>
At the same time, the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld Judge
Greene's decisions to maintain restrictions on the Bells'
entry into long-distance and telecommunications equipment
manufacturing.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0156-1.3>
Judge Greene, who oversees the 1982 consent decree that
broke up the Bell System, ruled in 1987 that the Bell
companies could transmit computer-based information services,
such as electronic yellow pages, but couldn't generate or own
the content.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0156-1.4>
The appeals court panel said in an unsigned opinion that
because the parties to the decree -- the seven regional
Bells, American Telephone & Telegraph Co. and the Justice
Department -- didn't oppose lifting the information services
restriction, the lower court applied the wrong legal
standard. The lower court erred in requiring a Bell company
to show "no substantial possibility that it could use its
monopoly power to impede competition" in a market it wants to
enter, the judges said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0156-1.5>
They sent the matter back to the lower court, with
instructions to decide whether removing the restriction
"would be anti-competitive under present market conditions."
The appeals court also said the lower court must keep in mind
whether Bell entry is "within the reaches of the public
interest."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0156-1.6>
"The court made it very clear that the relevant standard
is one that is very favorable to entry into information
services," said Laurence Tribe, a prominent constitutional
specialist at Harvard Law School, who represented the Bell
companies.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0156-1.7>
"We read this as a strong signal to the district court
that there is no basis for keeping this ban in place," Mr.
Tribe said. The lower court was instructed that it "should
not ask whether Bell entry into information services would
best serve society" but whether it meets the flexible public
interest test, he said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0156-1.8>
In a footnote, the appeals court said it was troubled with
the "practical difficulty of enforcing" the lower court's
partial relaxation of the information services ban. It told
the court on remand to "consider whether the residual
anti-competitive risks associated with lifting the
restriction" on the Bells' generating the content of
information services outweighs the court's extra
administrative work to police the partial ban.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0156-1.9>
The Bell companies generally were pleased with the
decision, but expressed some dismay that the manufacturing
and long-distance bans weren't overturned. Chicago-based
Ameritech, for example, called the decision "a welcome step
forward," but said it is "disappointed all restrictions on
Ameritech's business activities have not been removed." New
York-based Nynex Corp. said it was "greatly encouraged."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0156-1.10>
Ronald Stowe, head of Pacific Telesis Group's Washington
office, said that the decision didn't go "as far as we
thought it would go," but that the company is encouraged,
anyway. San Francisco-based Pacific Telesis has been
considering several types of information services, should it
win permission, including electronic yellow pages and
services that could be tailored to each customer's needs. For
example, he said, a customer could request a call every
morning at 8 o'clock with sports scores for specific teams,
prices on several stocks, the weather report and a synopsis
of major news stories in the morning papers. "We can't do it
now, without running into the brick wall of the {consent
decree} restrictions," Mr. Stowe said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0156-1.11>
The American Newspaper Publishers Association, a
vociferous opponent of any Bell entry into information
services, said the decision "does not undermine the policy
basis for the current restriction" on electronic publishing.
"We continue to believe that a prohibition on {Bell} entry
into electronic publishing over their own lines is good
public policy. It is the best assurance of the development of
a maximum number of diverse electronic information services
for the American consumer." The publishers have voiced
concern that future electronic yellow-pages offerings and
other shopping services offered by the Bells could eat away
at newspapers' advertising revenues.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0156-1.12>
James Casserly, who represents Independent Data
Communications Manufacturers Association Inc., counted "a
number of ticking time bombs for people who are happy with
the immediate result of {yesterday's} decision." The appeals
court, he said, might be "making it easier for the Bells to
come back and ask for further relief." He cited, for example,
the appeals courts' instruction that the lower court
shouldn't be concerned about effects on local customers.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0156-1.13>
The huge case combined appeals stemming from the 1987
triennial review of the consent decree, and one of the many
parties is likely seek a rehearing before the full appeals
court.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0156-1.14>
Meanwhile, the Bells are trying to persuade Congress to
lift the restrictions and separately allow the telephone
companies to enter the cable television business. Congress,
however, isn't expected to act on those matters this year,
and the appeals court decision might slow the legislative
process further, particularly if Judge Greene grants the
Bells freedom to provide information services.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0156-1.15>
Just how fast the companies could introduce computerized
voice and data services is uncertain. The information
services market, particularly for residential customers, is
in its infancy, and few companies have made strong inroads.
The Bells, which two years ago won the right to offer
electronic gateways that use computer terminals to link
consumers with a variety of information services, have had
little success in penetrating the residential market.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0155 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0155-1.1>
DAVIS, Calif. -- Calgene Inc. said it signed an agreement
with Japan's Sakata Seed Corp. to genetically engineer
disease resistance in a Sakata vegetable line. Terms weren't
disclosed.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0155-1.2>
The project is designed to reduce or eliminate fungicides
used on vegetable crops for certain diseases, Calgene said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0155-1.3>
Calgene is a biotechnology concern. Yokohama-based Sakata
Seed, which develops hybrid vegetable and flower seeds,
markets much of the world's broccoli seed.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0154 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0154-1.1>
MAYNARD, Mass. -- Digital Equipment Corp. slashed prices
25% to 40% on older products in one line of workstations and
introduced some new models.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0154-1.2>
The price cuts affected its DECstation and DECsystem
computers based on the Mips Computer Systems Inc. RISC
design. For example, the entry level DECstation 2100 was cut
to $5,950 from $7,950 and the DECsystem 5400 computer was cut
to $30,000 from $49,900.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0154-1.3>
Price cuts on older models frequently accompany
new-product introductions in the computer industry. However,
Russ Crabs, an analyst with Soundview Financial Group,
Stamford, Conn., said the sharp cuts were "a surprise
component" of Digital's new-product announcement. He said
Digital may be "making a pre-emptive move" to counter a
low-priced RISC computer expected from workstation leader Sun
Microsystems Inc. later this year.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0154-1.4>
Vicki Brown, who follows the workstation market for
International Data Corp., Framingham, Mass., said that while
Digital has had lower-priced RISC workstations than Sun since
the DECstation's introduction in early 1989, they have been
slow sellers. With new models and an increasing amount of
software available, she predicted Digital will sell about
25,000 of the RISC systems this year compared with just 6,000
last year. She expects Sun to sell 100,000 of its
Sparcstation RISC systems this year.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0154-1.5>
Digital's new workstation line, the DECstation 5000, will
have a base price of $14,995. The workstation runs at 24
million instructions per second, almost as fast as the speed
claimed by International Business Machines Corp. for its
entry-level RS/6000 workstation. Digital's 5000 comes in four
models, depending on graphics capabilities, with the top
color model priced at $51,100.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0154-1.6>
Digital also said that in June it will introduce more
powerful members of the RISC-based multiuser 5800 family. The
two additional models will include three or four
microprocessors and run at speeds up to 62 million
instructions per second. With price cuts on the two existing
models, pricing for the 5800 series now runs from $75,000 to
$160,000.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0153 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0153-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Alan Dixon stood up during Senate
debate on amendments to the Clean Air Act last week and
complained: "No one here knows how much this bill will
ultimately cost business in America."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0153-1.2>
The Illinois Democrat might have added that no one
precisely knows the positive effects of the bill, much less
how to put a dollar value on them.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0153-1.3>
Strange as that sounds, Congress has spent far more time
debating costs and benefits than it did when it passed the
original Clean Air Act 20 years ago. "Back then, it was a
little unseemly to even ask," says Paul Portney, a former
Carter administration environmental official now at Resources
for the Future, a Washington think tank.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0153-1.4>
But legislation in the 1990s demands cost-benefit analysis
-- or at least the attempt. All the cost figures being tossed
around, including those in the accompanying chart, are
actually educated guesses that rely on assumptions about
technology, business behavior and science that are certain to
change over the next decade.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0153-1.5>
As spongy as the cost estimates are, they're much more
reliable than the best estimates of the benefits. Scientists
don't agree on how much harm is done by acid rain, for
instance, and they don't know how much long-term harm is
caused lungs by smog in Los Angeles. So it's impossible for
economists to assign dollar values to the benefits of
controlling or reversing the problem. And then there is the
always-tough question: How much is it worth to save one human
life?
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0153-1.6>
By any measure, the bill that went before the Senate is
costly. The Bush administration figures it will cost about
$21.5 billion a year by 2005, when it's fully implemented.
That's about $90 a year for every current resident of the
U.S., or roughly the value of all the goods and services
produced in the United States in 1 1/2 days.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0153-1.7>
Some business groups say the cost will be far higher. The
administration itself warns that its cost could rise as much
as $10 billion a year if stricter auto-tailpipe controls in
the Senate bill are triggered in the year 2001. Some
environmental groups say the total cost is far less.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0153-1.8>
Mr. Portney, whose group tries to remain nonpartisan in
this debate, figures the cost at between $25 billion or $30
billion. He thinks the administration may be low-balling its
estimates to defend the compromise it reached with the
Senate. But he adds that costs are likely to fall because
industry will have an incentive to figure out cheaper ways to
meet the targets set in the bill.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0153-1.9>
"The administration tried very hard to make sure that
cost-minimizing methods were used to achieve cleaner air,"
says Michael Boskin, chairman of the Council of Economic
Advisers. "This is a shift in environmental regulation from
the '70s, but there were a number of features, especially of
the original Senate bill, which blatantly disregarded any
sense of balancing the benefits of a healthier environment
with the cost of lost jobs and higher utility bills."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0153-1.10>
With the figures so rough, no one is taking a position on
the Clean Air bill based strictly on an objective weighing of
costs vs. benefits. Even economists who like such an approach
say they don't have enough information.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0153-1.11>
Although controversy persists about how much harm acid
rain is doing, the one element of the bill that draws the
most criticism from economists is the tougher restrictions it
would impose on release of toxic chemicals. "We could make a
much bigger dent in annual cancer mortality . . . if we spent
that money elsewhere," says Mr. Portney. "One example: radon
in people's homes."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0153-1.12>
In the end, he notes, politicians -- not economists -- may
be the best judges of what Americans are willing to pay for
cleaner air. "It could be that in economists' attempts to
estimate the benefits associated with these things, we don't
appreciate the high values that people attach to such things
as preserving human health, improving visibility and
protecting the ecosystem."
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0152 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0152-1.1>
BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. -- Mercom Inc. said it purchased
368,753, or 13.3%, of its shares for $4,240,659, or $11.50 a
share, from the Michigan Gas Utilities Employees' Stock
Savings and Purchase plan of Utilicorp United Inc.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0152-1.2>
The Utilicorp plan received the shares in a May 1989
spinoff transaction. Mercom said a commercial bank loan is
financing the purchase, which its board authorized.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0151 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0151-1.1>
AUSTIN, Texas -- In the midst of a long-running cash
crunch, HealthVest said it had entered into a standstill
agreement with its lenders. The agreement halts foreclosure
proceedings under way on three properties owned by the real
estate investment trust.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0151-1.2>
The owner of 37 health care-related properties also
announced it was delaying the filing of its 1989 10K report
to allow outside auditors more time to assess property
appraisals expected to result in material asset write-downs
for the year ended Dec. 31.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0151-1.3>
The standstill agreement is subject to certain conditions,
including the execution of various mortgage documents; it
will terminate if conditions are not met by April 30, 1990,
the company said. Under the agreement, HealthVest agreed to
make monthly interest payments to its lenders rather than the
previous quarterly and semiannual payments. Each lender will
be given mortgage interests in properties pledged as
collateral for the respective lenders.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0151-1.4>
In return, the lenders have agreed to refrain from
foreclosing on any mortgage property until Dec. 14, 1990, if
HealthVest remains in compliance with the agreement. During
the standstill period, the company said it will continue
trying to restructure lending agreements on more than $253
million in debt. The lenders involved include Chemical
Banking Corp.'s Chemical Bank, the Bank of Tokyo, a group of
European banks and several U.S. insurance companies.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0150 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0150-1.1>
AKRON, Ohio -- Telxon Inc. said special charges of $10
million to $13 million in the fiscal fourth quarter will
produce a net loss for the fiscal year of 80 cents to $1.05 a
share.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0150-1.2>
The producer of hand-held computer systems said management
"is comfortable with" analyst estimates that Telxon will earn
a profit of 50 cents to 55 cents a share for fiscal 1991.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0150-1.3>
In fiscal 1989, Telxon earned $15.4 million, or $1.17 a
share, including a tax credit of $499,000, or four cents a
share.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0150-1.4>
The company said the charges in the latest quarter, which
ended March 31, include a pretax loss of $2.1 million on sale
of its Information Management Group unit, and a $3.5 million
write-off of related capitalized software. The unit is being
purchased by a company formed by Richard C. Calcaterra, who
is resigning as Telxon's marketing vice president, Telxon
said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0150-1.5>
Sales in fiscal 1990 were between $141 million and $144
million, the company said, down from $159.6 million a year
earlier. For fiscal 1991, volume is expected to rise to
between $160 million and $165 million, said Raymond D. Meyo,
Telxon president and chief executive officer.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0150-1.6>
Restructuring efforts begun last September have produced a
positive cash flow for the last two quarters, Mr. Meyo said,
increasing the company's cash to more than $52 million, from
$45 million. During the period, receivables have been reduced
to about 90 days of sales, from 126 days, he said. And
inventories have been cut to $37 million, from $43 million.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0149 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0149-1.1>
PARIS -- French industrialists operating in the
competitive sector expect their capital spending to grow by
between 14% and 15% this year after an increase of about 11%
in 1989, the National Statistics Institute said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0149-1.2>
The state-run data-gathering body noted that after
adjustment for inflation, industrial investment would show an
increase of about 11%, compared with 7% in 1989.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0149-1.3>
It said the acceleration to a large extent reflects a
continuing strong investment trend in the automobile
industry, with car manufacturers racing to expand capacity.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0149-1.4>
French industrialists have indicated frequently over the
past year or so that they have been held back from producing
more because of insufficient capacity.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0148 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0148-1.1>
PICKERINGTON, Ohio -- R.G. Barry Corp. said it halted
manufacturing operations at a factory in Ciudad Juarez,
Mexico, because of excessive employee turnover.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0148-1.2>
The producer of washable slippers and other comfort
footwear said it expects to incur costs of about $700,000 in
the closing, which affected about 200 employees.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0148-1.3>
"We haven't been able to hire, train or retain enough
people to allow our plant to operate at a reasonable cost
level or near its capacity," said Gordon Zacks, chairman and
chief executive officer.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0148-1.4>
The company said it can meet its requirements at its other
facilities, including two plants in Mexico, one in China and
three in the U.S.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0147 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0147-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- McDonnell Douglas Corp. was given a $13.7
million Army contract for Apache helicopters.

</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0147-1.2>
Boeing Co. received a $10.2 million Air Force contract for
development of the tactical short-range attack missile.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0146 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0146-1.1>
TOKYO -- Sales of cars, trucks and buses in Japan rose
17.3% in the year ended March 31 to a record 5,844,482 units,
the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0146-1.2>
Sales of vehicles in March also reached a record for
monthly levels, climbing 15.5% to 788,882 units. Fiscal 1989
was the third consecutive year in which sales reached a
record level.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0146-1.3>
A 3% consumption tax imposed at the beginning of the
fiscal year helped boost sales. While the tax was considered
a negative factor in some parts of the economy, it replaced a
higher commodity tax that applied to automobiles.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0145 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- The government's leading economic
forecasting gauge fell 1% in February, the Commerce
Department reported, largely because of an aberrant decline
in the number of building permits issued.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.2>
It was an unusual jump in building permits that helped
produce a 0.2% increase in the measure in January. Excluding
permits, one of the 11 statistics that make up the
department's index of leading indicators, the index slipped
0.1% in February and 0.5% in January.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.3>
There was a rush by builders in January to obtain permits
to beat the Jan. 13 cutoff date for a federal requirement for
buildings to provide special access to the handicapped.
Permits applications dropped off precipitously after that
date.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.4>
The department originally said the January index figure
was unchanged from December; it also revised the December
increase to 0.4% from 0.6%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.5>
The index is designed to foreshadow economic activity six
to nine months in the future. While some analysts study the
numbers diligently, others dismiss them as an unreliable
predictor of the economy's movements.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.6>
Seven of the 11 elements contributed to February's
decline, the department reported. Besides building permits,
they were deliveries to factories by suppliers, stock prices,
plant and equipment orders, material prices, factory backlogs
and consumer expectations.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.7>
Pushing the index up in February were growth in the money
supply, a drop in unemployment claims and growth in new
orders for consumer goods. The average workweek was
unchanged.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.8>
Some analysts said the index is forecasting economic
stagnation, while others suggested it may mean just modest
gains.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.9>
Mickey Levy, chief economist at First Fidelity Bancorp. in
Newark, N.J., said, "The decline in the index shows the
economy is still very, very weak." Modest improvement is the
most that is expected, he said. "The index has been going
down for the better part of the year. So the level is not
showing any improvement."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.10>
But Joel Prakken, vice president of Laurence H. Meyer &
Associates Ltd. in St. Louis, said the economic slowdown has
passed. He said his company looks for economic growth at a 2%
annual rate in the current quarter, up from his estimate of a
0.8% rate in the first period.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.11>
"The economy's growth in 1990 will occur in sectors least
sensitive to interest rates," said William K. MacReynolds,
director of forecasting at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "But
growth will be far below potential because high interest
rates and the economic slowdown are producing a credit
crunch."
 LEADING INDICATORS
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.12>
Here are the net contributions of the components of the
Commerce Department's index of leading indicators. After
various adjustments, they produced a 1.0% de- crease in the
index for February and a 0.2% increase for January.
 Feb. Jan.
 1990 1990
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.13>
Workweek ......................... .00 .08
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.14>
Unemployment claims .............. .08 -.07
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.15>
Orders for consumer goods ........ .26 -.22
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.16>
Slower deliveries ................ -.17 .20
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.17>
Plant and equipment orders ....... -.13 -.25
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.18>
Building permits ................. -.82 .68
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.19>
Durable order backlog ............ -.08 .15
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.20>
Materials prices ................. -.08 -.08
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.21>
Stock prices ..................... -.16 -.14
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.22>
Money supply ..................... .08 -.25
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.23>
Consumer expectations ............ -.08 -.08
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.24>
The seasonally adjusted index numbers (1982=100) for
February, and the change from January, are:
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.25>
Index of leading indicators ..... 144.0 -1.0%
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.26>
Index of coincident indicators .. 133.7 .8%
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.27>
Index of lagging indicators ..... 121.0 .9%
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0145-1.28>
The ratio of coincident to lagging indicators was 1.11,
unchanged from 1.11 in January.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0144 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0144-1.1>
WORCESTER, Mass. -- Cambridge BioScience Corp. agreed to
acquire a small biotechnology concern, Biotech Research
Laboratories Inc., in a stock swap valued at about $32.3
million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0144-1.2>
Biotech, based in Rockville, Md., will swap all of its 6.3
million common shares outstanding for six million shares of
Cambridge BioScience in a tax-free exchange.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0144-1.3>
In national over-the-counter trading yesterday, Cambridge
BioScience closed at $5.375, down $1.125. Cambridge
BioScience has 10.6 million common shares outstanding.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0144-1.4>
Analysts said that the two companies have complementary
products and technologies, and merging will give them size to
compete more effectively. The acquisition is part of a
continuing consolidation in the biotechnology industry
because of the high cost of product development.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0144-1.5>
Cambridge BioScience makes screening tests for viral
diseases, primarily acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
Biotech Research produces the confirmatory Western Blot test
for AIDS as well as other diagnostics.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0144-1.6>
Analysts said that Cambridge has been frustrated with cool
market reaction to its five-minute AIDS test. "Getting it to
the market successfully and generating business has been
somewhat of a disappointing story," said Linda Miller, a
biotechnology analyst at PaineWebber Inc.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0144-1.7>
Biotech Research has more products on the market and so
with the acquisition, "you instantly broaden your product
line and get a better {product} flow in the future," said
Robert Kupor, vice president at Kidder, Peabody & Co.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0144-1.8>
Patrick J. Leonard, president of Cambridge BioScience,
said the merger will result in "significant" new products in
the rapidly expanding areas of HIV and HTLV screening and
confirmatory testing. The first of these new products could
be released to the market as early as the second half of
1990, the companies said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0144-1.9>
Mr. Leonard added that the combined companies' technology
will place them in a "strong" position in the overall
world-wide market of HIV/HTLV diagnostics.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0144-1.10>
In 1989, Biotech had net income of 24 cents a share or
$1.5 million, or 24 cents a share, on revenue of $17 million.
Cambridge posted a 1989 loss of $8.5 million, or 80 cents a
share, on revenue of $8.6 million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0144-1.11>
The transaction is subject to the approval by the boards
and shareholders of both companies.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0143 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0143-1.1>
BEAVERTON, Ore. -- Mentor Graphics Corp., a maker of
design automation systems, said its silicon design division
received a $15 million order for software from Dallas-based
Texas Instruments.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0143-1.2>
Under the multi-year agreement, Texas Instruments will
purchase electronic design automation software.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0142 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0142-1.1>
NEW YORK -- Yields on certificates of deposit at major
banks and brokerage firms were largely unchanged in the week
ended yesterday.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0142-1.2>
Average yields on small-denomination CDs (generally, $500
to $10,000) at 18 banks surveyed by Banxquote Money Markets,
a New York information service, were flat or up only
slightly. The average yield on a one-year consumer CD was
7.93%, while five-year consumer CDs offered 8.15%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0142-1.3>
"There wasn't any significant change in the
foreign-exchange market, or in domestic interest rates that
would have any dramatic affect on the CD market," said
Norberto Mehl, chairman of Banxquote.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0142-1.4>
Average yields on small CDs sold by leading broker dealers
were up slightly. The average yield for a one-year
broker-sold CD was 8.19%. The only significant increase was
in the two-year brokered CD average. The rise, however,
resulted from the high rate of 8.75% offered by Shearson
Lehman Hutton.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0142-1.5>
Meanwhile, average yields on most large-denomination CDs,
which typically require minimum deposits of $90,000 or more,
were unchanged in the shorter-term maturities, and up only
slightly in the longer maturities.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0141 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0141-1.1>
LYNWOOD, Wash. -- Intermec Corp., a maker of bar-code data
systems, said it agreed to pay Bohemia, N.Y.-based Symbol
Technologies Inc., also a bar-code systems maker, at least
$50 million over a six-year period, including royalties of
$21.2 million, for a license to make certain products under
Symbol's laser scanning patents, and purchases of $28.8
million of Symbol's scanning products.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0140 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0140-1.1>
MIAMI -- General Development Corp., a troubled Florida
developer, said it is closing its homesite sales operations
world-wide and firing 1,100 full-time and part-time sales and
administrative workers.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0140-1.2>
On Monday, cash-hungry General Development said it
couldn't complete negotiations for a $60 million credit
facility, leaving it unable to pay more than $10 million in
property taxes due last Sunday. As a result, General
Development said it was considering all options, including a
filing for federal bankruptcy-law protection.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0140-1.3>
In New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday,
General Development tumbled $1.25 a share, to close at $2.75.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0140-1.4>
General Development has been trying to reverse liquidity
problems resulting from its recent legal troubles. Last
month, the company pleaded guilty to one felony count of
conspiracy in a plea bargain to settle charges that it
defrauded some 10,000 homebuyers by charging inflated prices
based on improper appraisals.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0140-1.5>
In recent months, General Development laid off 500
workers. The latest cutback will reduce the number of workers
to about 3,400. General Development said it hopes to
introduce a new homesite business in the future, but for the
time being, the operation's "cost of generating sales . . .
no longer makes economic sense."
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0139 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-1.1>
Most tobacco and liquor companies have become increasingly
vulnerable to criticism that they market their products to
young people. Flying in the face of that trend, a leading
wine marketer is launching a new ad campaign that unabashedly
aims to recruit young drinkers.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-1.2>
Banfi Vintners, marketers of Riunite wine, hopes the
campaign will be just the shot in the arm that the sagging
Riunite brand needs to boost its sales.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-1.3>
William Roethel, Banfi's vice president of marketing,
candidly describes the ad campaign as an effort to "win over
entry-level drinkers." The campaign, which includes radio
commercials that feature young men and women flirting at
parties, is scheduled to begin airing nationwide next month.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-1.4>
Not surprisingly, the idea of targeting young drinkers
doesn't sit well with critics of the liquor industry. "I'm
shocked they would choose this particular time to launch such
a campaign, given the growing public concern about young
people and alcohol," says Patricia Taylor, director of the
alcohol policies project at the Center for Science in the
Public Interest, a lobbying group in Washington, D.C.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-1.5>
Both liquor and cigarette makers are increasingly under
attack for allegedly targeting young people in their
advertising. Recently, New York City's consumer affairs
commissioner, Mark Green, accused RJR Nabisco of trying to
lure young smokers to its Camel brand with an ad campaign
featuring a cartoon character called Joe Camel. RJR has
denied the charge. Beer companies also have been criticized
for doing special promotions aimed at college students.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-1.6>
The criticism is part of a growing attack on targeted
marketing of all types by liquor and tobacco companies. In
recent months, cigarette makers also have come under fire for
ads aimed at blacks and at women.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-1.7>
Mr. Roethel insists that Banfi isn't proposing to woo
underaged drinkers to the Riunite camp. "That is absolutely
not part of what we're doing," he says. "We're not doing
anything that we aren't proud of."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-1.8>
The Banfi executive says the company decided to go after
younger drinkers in part because of the difficulty of
changing Riunite's low-brow image among older consumers. It
made more sense, according to Mr. Roethel, to work on
instilling a freshened image for the brand among younger
drinkers.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-1.9>
"We're a very palatable entry-level type wine," he says,
referring to Riunite's sweet taste. "Someone who's already
cultivated a wine palate, Riunite isn't going to appeal to
them."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-1.10>
Riunite badly needs a marketing makeover. Although it is
still the top-selling import, sales have been on a downward
spiral since 1984, when they hit a peak of just over 11
million cases. Last year alone, volume dropped more than one
million cases to 4.9 million cases.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-1.11>
For the new campaign, Banfi is reviving its old slogan:
"Riunite on Ice. That's Nice." Since the slogan was dropped
five years ago, Banfi has struggled with a number of
campaigns, including failed attempts to reposition Riunite as
a premium-style brand. "That strategy was a little bit
ill-conceived," Mr. Roethel now says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-1.12>
The new radio campaign, developed by Ketchum Advertising,
New York, marks a departure for Banfi, which has
traditionally used television to advertise Riunite. One radio
spot plays on the sometimes crude approaches taken by people
when they introduce themselves to members of the opposite sex
at parties. "I'm in construction and my feelings for you are
building," a guy says to a woman. "I don't date men who wear
more jewelry than I do," the woman says to her friends,
recounting the meeting.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-1.13>
Mr. Roethel believes the campaign will be a big success.
He says it was tested in eight cities last year, prompting
respectable sales increases. But some wine experts are
skeptical that younger drinkers will be a big, new market for
Riunite. "This is by no means new. Who else {but young
people} ever drank it?" says Paul Gillette, editor and
publisher of Wine Investor, a trade newsletter. "This was
never something that was consumed by refugees from Chateau
Lafite."
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-2.1>
Young & Rubicam Award
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-2.2>
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. awarded its spot
television buying account to Young & Rubicam, following an
extended review which also included incumbent J. Walter
Thompson and BBDO, a unit of Omnicom Group.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-2.3>
Industry executives estimate billings at $30 million to
$32 million. However, since the account, like other movie
studio accounts, doesn't involve creative work, it isn't as
lucrative as a typical account of that size. Young & Rubicam
will buy local TV time and New York newspaper space.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-2.4>
Young & Rubicam declined to comment, as did Thompson, a
unit of WPP Group. Gene Cameron, who heads BBDO's Los Angeles
and San Francisco offices, said: "We've got the capability
that can be very valuable in the movie business. We're going
to do it somewhere."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-2.5>
The account had been larger at Thompson, where it also
included network media buying. But Fox recently began buying
network time itself, prompting the review, said Bob Harper,
Fox's president of marketing. Thompson had handled the
account for 10 years. Young & Rubicam will take over starting
with Fox's summer lineup, which begins with an Andrew Dice
Clay comedy thriller called "Ford Fairlane."
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-3.1>
Ad Notes. . . .
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-3.2>
KENT CIGARETTES: Lorillard, New York, named Avrett, Free &
Ginsberg, New York, to handle its $8 million to $10 million
Kent cigarette account. The decision follows a creative
shootout lasting several months in which Lorillard, a unit of
Loews Corp., conducted extensive tests with consumers on the
finalists' work. Also pitching the account were Grey
Advertising and Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising, a unit of
Saatchi & Saatchi Co. The account had been handled by BBDO.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-3.3>
ADWEEK: A/S/M Communications, parent of Adweek magazine,
closed down two additional titles, Media Week and Imaging
Retail News, because of the poor ad environment, said Kenneth
Fadner, president. The closings come less than two weeks
after A/S/M shut down seven other publications. Two
publications that Mr. Fadner had a personal stake in and that
were housed in A/S/M office space, View and Wrap, also
suspended publication.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0139-3.4>
NETWORK ASSOCIATION: The three major networks created a
new organization, the Network Television Association, to sell
the virtues of network advertising to agencies and
advertisers. The new group, whose formation has been in the
works for a year, will be headed by Peter Chrisanthopoulos,
who had been president of RJR Nabisco Broadcast.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0138 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0138-1.1>
Landmark Graphics Corp., Houston, said revenue for the
third quarter ended March 31 was about 20% below analysts'
estimates. The company said it expects to report revenue of
$12.5 million, compared with $12 million a year earlier.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0138-1.2>
Gene Ennis, Landmark's president and chief executive
officer, cited changing buying patterns of the company's
large domestic customers. He said customers are moving away
from purchasing a single computer-aided exploration system to
contracts covering a large number of systems. "The sales
cycles on these contracts are longer," he said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0138-1.3>
A company spokesman declined to estimate the revenue
shortage's impact on earnings. In the first six months, net
income was $3.1 million, or 37 cents a share, on revenue of
$25.4 million.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0137 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0137-1.1>
Your Feb. 22 page-one article about the turncoat
accountant who handed over his client to the Internal Revenue
Service raises the issue of client confidentiality, a
cornerstone of confidence that society places with the
accounting profession.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0137-1.2>
That the IRS finds the actions of a blackmailed bean
counter "patriotic" places black hats on the approximately
290,000 members of the American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants, the vast majority of whom honor their profession
by faithfully serving their clients.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0137-1.3>
Your article cited 880 IRS "controlled informants," of
whom 40 were accountants (not certified public accountants,
mind you). A chimpanzee can call himself an "accountant"
without passing the rigorous examinations required for
certification. A tremendous amount of reliance is and must
rest with the credibility, to say nothing of the integrity,
of the CPA.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0137-1.4>
Thomas N. Dufek
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0137-1.5>
North Massapequa, N.Y.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0137-2.1>
Ours is a voluntary tax system. More important, it is a
complex tax system. Taxpayers, especially those in business,
must by necessity enlist the aid of professional tax
preparers to report their income. While a professional cannot
force a client to take advice, it seems obvious that most
clients do. If the IRS continues its insidious practice of
hiring professionals as moles, no one in his right mind would
trust his accountant. Does the IRS think that its collections
would increase if more individuals prepared their own
returns? Get real!
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0137-2.2>
Michael Orth, the assistant regional commissioner in your
article, confuses patriots with mercenaries and informants
with snitches. James Checksfield betrayed a position of
trust. He is no patriot. He is a snitch. If Mr. Orth does not
understand either character, he need only ask any
sixth-grader.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0137-2.3>
Robert P. Flaherty Jr.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0137-2.4>
Boston
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0137-3.1>
CPAs work hard to earn the confidence of the public, and
integrity is the hallmark of our practice. If our clients
cannot entrust us with the integrity of their personal
finances, often their financial plans and problems, what is
our purpose? Communications between clients and accountants
should be protected as confidential. And no CPA worth his
salt should violate the ethical standards that we profess.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0137-3.2>
Edward Johnston, CPA
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0137-3.3>
West Hempstead, N.Y.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0137-4.1>
I truly believe that the problems depicted in your article
can be resolved by placing a reporting burden on the
accounting profession much like the congressional mandate for
drug-money laundering within the banking industry. Banks
report unusual financial transactions that fall into suspect
parameters to U.S. authorities. For a time, as a banker, I
resented this so-called "social obligation" because I
couldn't believe a banker could knowingly aid such illegal
activities. Anyone who can read now knows such activity did
occur knowingly and was widespread. Is there a correlation?
Maybe yes, maybe no. However, I believe the accounting
industry and the IRS must avoid any sanctimonious attitude
and resolve the issues through congressional action similar
to the drug-money-laundering legislation.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0137-4.2>
Norman L. Schultz
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0137-4.3>
Chairman and President
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0137-4.4>
First National Bank of Effingham
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0137-4.5>
Effingham, Ill.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0136 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0136-1.1>
SAGINAW, Mich. -- Wolohan Lumber Co. said March sales rose
14% to $20.3 million from $17.8 million a year ago.
Same-store sales increased 10%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0136-1.2>
Sales for the first three months of 1990 rose 8.4% to
$53.1 million from $49 million, with same-store sales up 5%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0136-1.3>
Wolohan operates 49 lumber and building material retail
stores, mainly in the Midwest.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0135 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0135-1.1>
NEW YORK -- Middle Eastern buying lifted gold prices, but
by far less a degree than Middle Eastern selling sent gold
reeling a little more than a week ago.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0135-1.2>
June delivery gold ended with a gain of $5.60 an ounce at
$380.10 after rising as much as $7.90 in early trading. May
silver rose in sympathy, advancing six cents an ounce to
$5.0380. July platinum rose $4.90 an ounce to $483.00.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0135-1.3>
"It was a market that was ready to rebound," said Jeffrey
Nichols, president of APMA (Canada) Ltd. of Toronto,
explaining why prices shot up in reaction to estimated
purchases of only 25,000 ounces of gold in London.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0135-1.4>
That quantity was infinitesimal compared with as much as
four million ounces that were thought to have been sold on
March 26, when gold plunged nearly $30, Mr. Nichols noted. A
contributing factor to yesterday's advance was that many
futures traders bought back contracts they had sold last week
in anticipation of prices falling further, he said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0135-1.5>
Some support for gold may come out of the scheduled
meeting of the seven major industrial nations this weekend in
Paris, where means to curb the strength in the dollar
certainly will be discussed, Mr. Nichols said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0135-1.6>
Also, he noted, there were reports that Japanese monetary
authorities were putting pressure on institutions to
repatriate funds and use them to support the yen.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0135-1.7>
Both of these factors would be positive for gold because
the strong dollar has kept gold under pressure, he said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0135-1.8>
Despite these potential bullish elements and yesterday's
comeback, Mr. Nichols noted, "the market still bears the
psychological scars of last week's hit and the general
consensus is that it has a long way to go to regain the
confidence it had at that time. My feeling is that it's still
vulnerable to further selling and declines."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0135-1.9>
Contributing to this weak condition is the lack of recent
support from the Far East, Mr. Nichols said. "Far Eastern
demand for gold, principally from Japan, was a major
price-strengthening influence last year. This has been absent
for the past two months as many investors have liquidated
holdings to cover losses in equities."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0135-1.10>
Also, he said that the weakening yen has resulted in
higher yen-denominated gold prices, which damped demand for
the metal.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0135-1.11>
In the wake of last week's sales, Nauman Barakat, first
vice president of Shearson Lehman Hutton, New York, noted
that "it wouldn't be out of character" for Middle Eastern
traders to sell the market in anticipation of buying gold
back later at lower prices. Is that what happened yesterday?
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0135-1.12>
"Well, it would appear that way," Mr. Barakat said. "It is
their custom to trade along those lines."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0135-1.13>
Another analyst attributed even more devious motives to
the buying. "I wouldn't be surprised at all if Middle Eastern
traders are buying to strengthen the market so they can sell
gold again from a higher level," said William O'Neill, vice
president of research for Elders Futures Inc.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0135-1.14>
A more likely scenario, Mr. O'Neill said, "is that if
these buyers don't follow up with more demand, the market
will give up the gains."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0135-1.15>
If the Middle Eastern buying has done nothing else, he
said, "it's taken the focus away from the dollar for the
moment." Yesterday, the dollar was mixed against major
currencies.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0135-1.16>
In other commodity markets yesterday:
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0135-1.17>
COPPER: Futures prices rose on rumors that there had been
a landslide near a major copper mine in Chile. The May
delivery gained 3.95 cents a pound to $1.2485, after trading
at a new life-of-contract high of $1.25. Analysts said the
reports of the landslide near the El Teniente mine couldn't
be confirmed, but one analyst noted that the geological
character of the area where the mine is located is unstable
and that a landslide was possible. Fundamentally, though,
analysts said, the market continues to be supported by strong
demand for copper and tight supplies. A rally in the New York
stock market was also a positive factor for copper because it
helped traders to take a more optimistic view of the U.S.
economy and continuing demand for the metal.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0135-1.18>
ENERGY: The first day of trading in the new natural gas
contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was a busy one
-- and volatile. Both traders and exchange officials were
enthusiastic. "The opening was very positive," said Eric
Bolling of Edge Trading Corp. "Initial activity validates our
research and development that points to a promising future
for natural gas futures," said Z. Lou Guttman, chairman of
the exchange board. There were 925 contracts traded, about
double expectations. Each contract unit contains 10,000
million British thermal units of gas, or some 10 million
cubic feet. Initial prices also were slightly higher than had
been expected. Trading opened for the June contract at $1.60
for one million BTUs, higher than the spot price of $1.46 or
$1.47. It settled at $1.635 after reaching the day's high of
$1.655. As for the potential of gas futures, "it's going to
take time, but the interest is there," said Christopher Bray,
a trader with PaineWebber Energy, Boston, which was among
those claiming to have made the first sale of the new
contract within seconds of the opening bell.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0135-1.19>
COCOA: Futures prices rose sharply on reports that
Nigeria, one of the world's major cocoa producers, might
change its cocoa export policy. The May contract rose $52 a
metric ton to $1,215. Reports continued to circulate that
Nigeria was considering banning exports of raw cocoa beans as
of Jan. 1, 1991, in favor of shipping finished products such
as cocoa butter and liquor, which are used in the manufacture
of chocolate, according to Sandra Kaul, analyst for Shearson
Lehman Hutton in New York. "This news was seized upon by
traders to justify concern about the availability of cocoa in
the wake of a price rally to about a nine-month high from a
14-year low of $900 a ton last fall," Ms. Kaul said. Nigeria
is unlikely to implement such a policy because its processing
capacity isn't able to handle its whole crop, she said.
Prices have risen recently because the industry is between
main and midcrop harvest seasons, and with most of the main
crop supplies already sold producers have very little cocoa,
according to Ms. Kaul. Also a price-firming factor, she
noted, was that the International Cocoa Agreement has been
extended for another two years, eliminating the prospect that
the agreement's 250,000-ton buffer stock of cocoa beans would
be dumped on the market. James Roemer, meteorologist for
Weather Trades Inc., of Des Moines, Iowa, noted that dry
weather in the Bahia cocoa-growing area of Brazil had caused
trade companies there to reduce their mid-crop forecasts and
that West African cocoa-growing areas have had only a quarter
of their normal rainfall in the past two months. Also, he
noted, there has been some warming of ocean waters in the
central Pacific Ocean off the coasts of Chile and Peru, a
phenomenon known as "El Nino." Historically, the warming of
these waters has caused dry spells and droughts in Brazil and
in the West African cocoa-growing areas, such as the Ivory
Coast, Nigeria, and Cameroon, Mr. Roemer noted. The critical
growing period for cocoa in that area of Africa is between
May and September, he said. The possibility that El Nino may
be forming isn't a major factor now, "but it bears close
watching," he said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0135-1.20>
GRAINS and SOYBEANS: Prices of soybean futures contracts
rebounded from Monday's sharp retreat. Soybean prices had
slipped Monday in the wake of a government report that U.S.
soybean farmers intend to plant more acres this spring than
expected by grain traders. A short-covering rally late
yesterday helped push up soybean prices. The rally spilled
over from the corn pit, where the prices of corn contracts
for delivery next year hit new life-of-contract highs. Prices
of wheat futures contracts also rose.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0134 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0134-1.1>
CHICAGO -- Midway Airlines said March traffic rose 57% to
493.2 million revenue passenger miles from 314.8 million in
the year-ago period.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0134-1.2>
A revenue passenger mile is one paying passenger flown one
mile.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0134-1.3>
The carrier said its March load factor, or percentage of
seats filled, increased to 67.3% from 61.1%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0134-1.4>
For the year to date, traffic rose 53% to 1.26 billion
revenue passenger miles from 821.3 million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0134-1.5>
The carrier said its year-to-date load factor rose to
61.7% from 55.7%.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0133 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0133-1.1>
FRANKFURT, West Germany -- West Germany's overall trade
surplus narrowed to 10.63 billion marks ($6.25 billion) in
February from 12.83 billion marks in January, the Federal
Statistics Office said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0133-1.2>
The surplus in the current international payments account,
which includes trade in goods and services plus some
unilateral transfers, slimmed to a preliminary 8.3 billion
marks from a revised 10.2 billion marks a month earlier, the
office added.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0133-1.3>
The January current account had originally been reported
at 10.8 billion marks.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0133-1.4>
The February trade and current-account surpluses also
narrowed from their respective year-earlier levels of 11.4
billion marks and 8.5 billion marks.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0132 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0132-1.1>
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Textron Inc. said it plans to
repurchase up to five million of its 89 million common shares
outstanding.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0132-1.2>
The aerospace, commercial products and financial services
concern said the purchases will be made from time to time in
open market or other transactions.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0131 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0131-1.1>
AMSTERDAM -- Dutch industrial sales rose by 5% in the
fourth quarter of 1989 from the year-ago period, according to
the Dutch state Central Bureau of Statistics.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0131-1.2>
The bureau attributed 50% of the rise in sales directly to
higher prices charged in the latest quarter. Higher prices
were particularly evident in exports and accounted for 70% of
the increase in export sales while domestic price rises
accounted for only 30% of the increase in domestic sales.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0131-1.3>
The Dutch petroleum industry alone accounted for 33% of
the increase in industrial sales in the fourth quarter, with
twothirds of the increase coming directly from higher prices.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0130 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0130-1.1>
NEW YORK -- Prudential-Bache Securities Inc. hired the
third person in a year to head its institutional
stock-trading desk.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0130-1.2>
Martin Brophy, 47 years old, joined the firm this week as
head of equity capital commitment. He was hired by Edward
Braniff, president of the firm's equity division. Mr. Brophy
previously worked at UBS Securities Inc. as a block trader.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0130-1.3>
Prior to Mr. Brophy, the big securities firm's equity desk
was run by Philip Puccio. Mr. Puccio resigned from the firm
in early March to join another brokerage concern. He had
succeeded Dan Marciano, who resigned from the firm last May
after the firm said he and another trader violated the firm's
trading policies.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0130-1.4>
Prudential-Bache Securities Inc. is a division of
Prudential Insurance Co. of America.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0129 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0129-1.1>
MOSCOW -- The battle of nerves over Lithuania's
declaration of independence is giving way to more subtle
diplomatic moves as both Moscow and the rebel Baltic state
edge toward compromise.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0129-1.2>
In the latest sign that the three-week-old deadlock is
easing, a delegation of Lithuanian leaders held talks in
Moscow last night with Alexander Yakovlev, a Politburo member
and confidant of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Details
of the discussion aren't known, but the meeting marked the
first time the two sides have sat down together since
Lithuania declared its independence March 11.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0129-1.3>
"The most important thing is to attempt to have a
dialogue," said Egidius Bickauskas, the head of Lithuania's
representative office in Moscow, who announced that the talks
were under way.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0129-1.4>
Following a show of strength by Moscow, which has used
troops to occupy buildings owned by the Soviet Communist
Party and round up army deserters, Lithuania says it is
anxious to defuse the crisis and negotiate a peaceful
secession from the U.S.S.R. The republic, along with its
Baltic neighbors of Latvia and Estonia, was forcibly
incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940 following a secret
agreement between Stalin and Hitler.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0129-1.5>
Despite the use of troops, the Kremlin has ruled out force
to crush the rebellion. Mr. Gorbachev himself strongly hinted
at a possible compromise in an appeal to the Lithuanian
Parliament issued on Saturday. He held out the prospect of
talks "on the entire range of problems" on condition that the
republic annuls "the illegal acts it has adopted." In
Washington, meanwhile, Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A.
Shevardnadze said yesterday on his arrival for talks with
U.S. leaders that Moscow wants an "honest dialogue" with
Lithuania to resolve the crisis.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0129-1.6>
But Soviet officials insist it is up to Lithuania to make
the next move. And Mr. Gorbachev is moving fast to set stiff
conditions for republics seeking to secede from the Soviet
Union. The Soviet Parliament yesterday rushed through a new
law that could stall or delay secession attempts.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0129-1.7>
The law stipulates that a decision to secede must be taken
by a two-thirds majority of residents in the republic voting
in a referendum. If a republic clears that hurdle, the
timetable for secession must then be approved by the Soviet
Congress of People's Deputies, the highest legislative body.
The law envisages a transition period of up to five years.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0129-1.8>
Lithuania's deputy prime minister, Romualdas Ozolas, told
reporters before meeting Mr. Yakovlev that the republic is
ready to compromise on anything except independence itself.
In his appeal, Mr. Gorbachev didn't explicitly mention
annulling the declaration of independence, which has been
ruled illegal by the Soviet Parliament. But he and other
officials have expressed public anger at a series of measures
approved by Lithuania that deliberately violate Soviet law,
including the establishment of a volunteer force and the
blacking out of some Soviet TV shows.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0129-1.9>
The Lithuanian Parliament is expected to issue its reply
to Mr. Gorbachev's appeal today, following a rally in
Vilnius, the republic's capital. It remains unclear how
conciliatory the reply will be, and whether Lithuania is now
ready to suspend or amend some of the laws it has passed
since March 11.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0129-1.10>
Despite its agreement to meet Lithuanian leaders, Moscow
has not yet eased the pressure it is putting on the republic.
The Tass news agency again denounced Sajudis, the Lithuanian
nationalist movement that dominates the republic's
Parliament, accusing it of using methods that run counter to
democracy and pluralism. Soviet authorities closed the
Lithuanian border to Poland. And the small Lithuanian
Communist Party that remains loyal to Moscow barred Sajudis
from continuing to use its printing presses for the
movement's four newspapers. Sajudis immediately protested
that the move violates contracts it has signed with the
Communist Party publishing house.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0129-1.11>
Officials in the other two Baltic states, who are closely
monitoring developments in Lithuania, view the strong-arm
tactics as a warning to them not to follow Lithuania's
example. Estonia has already heeded the lesson, declaring
that it is seeking independence after a "transition period."
Latvia's Parliament is expected to discuss its own path to
independence early next month.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0129-1.12>
Although yesterday's new law on secession passed easily,
deputies from the three Baltic states who attended the
Parliament session all abstained and several Georgians voted
against it. They said that the terms of secession should be
decided by each republic by itself and through negotiations
with Moscow, and not laid down by the Soviet legislature.
Nikolai Medvedev, a deputy from Lithuania, described the new
legislation as, "purely decorative." He added: "It's not a
law on secession, it's a law against secession."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0129-1.13>
Representatives of the Baltic states believe that Mr.
Gorbachev, for all his bluster, will eventually have no
choice but to negotiate terms of their withdrawal from the
Soviet Union. All three republics have been at pains to use
the Soviet leader's "democracy" campaign to elect radicals to
parliament who then vote on independence. Ignoring such votes
would undermine Mr. Gorbachev's entire political reform
program, they say.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0129-1.14>
"Sooner or later they will accept it," said Igor Gryazin,
an Estonian deputy, who handed a copy of the Estonian
Parliament's independence decision to the Kremlin yesterday.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0128 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0128-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- On Feb. 1, a group identifying itself as
"Nevadans for Fair Fuel Economy Standards" sent more than
10,000 letters urging Nevada residents to write Democratic
Sen. Richard Bryan to oppose the stricter fuel-economy
standards he was advocating as part of the overhaul of
clean-air legislation.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0128-1.2>
At the same time, letters from "West Virginians for Fair
Fuel Economy Standards" were blanketing Democratic Sen. Jay
Rockefeller's state, in an effort to blunt his support for
the stricter fuel standards.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0128-1.3>
The letter-writing ploy was part of a multimillion-dollar
lobbying effort waged by the auto industry over clean-air
legislation. Although none of the recipients could tell from
the letterheads, the real sponsors of the campaign were the
Big Three auto makers. They jointly hired a Washington
consulting firm to direct a so-called "grass-roots" lobbying
campaign against Sen. Bryan's fuel-economy-standards
amendment, which was ultimately dropped from the clean-air
bill.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0128-1.4>
Other industry coalitions, including chemical
manufacturers and utilities, conducted parallel efforts aimed
at provisions of the legislation that affected them. More
than 150 different organizations and law firms registered to
lobby on the issue, making this one of the most heavily
lobbied pieces of legislation in the 101st Congress.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0128-1.5>
Campaign contributions were among the potent weapons in
industry's clean-air lobbying arsenal. Industries involved in
the clean-air fight have such diverse legislative interests
that their political-action committees and executives are
usually active contributors. But there are signs that the
clean-air legislation prompted heavier-than-usual campaign
giving.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0128-1.6>
"There was so much money on all sides," says Rep. Mike
Synar (D., Okla.), who sits on the House energy panel that
was the focus of much of the lobbying activity. "We're
talking about lobbyists who have put their kids through
school on this issue we've been dealing with it so long."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0128-1.7>
The auto industry put on a showcase effort. While Chrysler
Corp., Ford Motor Co., and General Motors Corp. each
maintains a large Washington office staffed with professional
lobbyists, the companies added extra heft with outside
lawyers and consultants. Ford, for example, called on former
Transportation Secretary William Coleman, now a partner at a
Washington law firm, and Lloyd Cutler, the Democratic lawyer
who was White House counsel during the Carter administration.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0128-1.8>
Some of the lobbying itself became controversial. Sen.
Bryan accused the auto makers of coming into his state "under
false colors" in their letter-writing campaign. William
Noack, a spokesman for GM, defended the effort as "a very
straightforward, aboveboard educational program."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0128-1.9>
The highly technical nature of most of the clean-air
provisions drew particularly intensive lobbying, much like a
piece of major tax legislation, according to several Capitol
Hill staff members. Rep. Synar believes there was so much
lobbying on all sides "that it all tended to cancel each
other out."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0128-1.10>
Nobody knows how much was spent on clean-air lobbying and
nobody ever will, since lobbyists are required only to make
limited disclosures of their fees. But it almost certainly
involved tens of millions of dollars. Just one
utility-lobbying coalition, Citizens for Sensible Control of
Acid Rain, reported collecting more than $500,000 from
industry executives for its 1989 efforts, according to the
group's lobbying disclosure.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0128-1.11>
"This was the Super Bowl of lobbying," says Zoe Schneider,
who lobbied on clean air for the U.S. Public Interest
Research Group, a group affiliated with consumer activist
Ralph Nader.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0128-1.12>
It was also a superbowl for campaign fund-raising. In
1989, a year in which he didn't face an election, Sen. Carl
Levin (D., Mich.) collected $72,000, mainly from auto-related
political-action committees, industry executives and others
involved in the clean-air fight. In December, 16 Chrysler
executives ponied up $500 a head at an industry fund-raiser
hosted by Chairman Lee Iacocca at the Detroit Club. Sen.
Levin, in a tough battle for re-election this year, was the
auto industry's point man on clean air.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0128-1.13>
William Blacklow, a spokesman for Sen. Levin, says his
boss's stands on clean air had nothing to do with his
campaign contributions. "The reverse is true," says Mr.
Blacklow, "they contribute because of his stands. Levin is
nobody's man but his own." The senator's campaign manager,
Gordon Kerr, says Mr. Iacocca was a longtime supporter of the
senator and was a co-chairman of his 1984 campaign. Sen.
Levin's auto-industry contributions were also a small
percentage of the $2.7 million he raised for his re-election
war chest last year.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0128-1.14>
According to a recent study by Congressional Quarterly,
members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee collected
more than $600,000 from political-action committees sponsored
by 110 industries involved in the clean-air fight. This
represented a 55% increase above the amounts these same
lawmakers received in 1987, the last non-election year.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0128-1.15>
Rep. Synar, a member of the panel who doesn't accept PAC
contributions, says such contributions "do not buy amendments
or votes. They buy access." However, the Oklahoma Democrat
said nobody needed to buy access on the clean-air bill.
"Members were diligently trying to hear from all sides
anyway."
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0127 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0127-1.1>
Competition in the auto industry can be pretty
freewheeling.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0127-1.2>
But even some internationally savvy auto executives were
rattled last week when they began receiving promotional
material for a new South American car with five-wheel drive.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0127-1.3>
For three consecutive days, the officials received Federal
Express packages containing copies of ads for the Caballo XL.
The text described how the "world's first and only five-wheel
drive" car "integrated the steering wheel to the seat"
eliminating "all of the bone-shattering vibrations that can
rob" drivers of control.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0127-1.4>
The ads also included nature scenes not unlike Nissan
Motor Co.'s Infiniti ads, and an illustration of an
attractive red coupe.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0127-1.5>
An accompanying letter from "Hoffman York PLC, a
world-wide marketing resource," ominously warned that the
South American model "is really aimed at the United States."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0127-1.6>
That was all some of the executives needed to sit up and
take notice. "We literally thought, `not another {competitor}
coming in,'" says George Garbutt, vice president and general
manager of Maserati Automobiles Inc.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0127-1.7>
Officials at Infiniti reasoned that if Yugoslavia could
sell cars in the U.S., why not Argentina? And Tony Kirton,
Audi of America's marketing director, says, "I looked at it
and wondered if this {technology} really works." To find out,
he immediately shipped the information to Audi's product
planners for investigation.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0127-1.8>
He needn't have bothered. Earlier this week, letters from
Hoffman York & Compton, a small Milwaukee advertising firm,
began arriving on the desks of the 56 auto executives who
received the packages. The letters explained that Hoffman
York, which has had trouble lining up a car account, wanted
to prove it could play in the big leagues. So it dreamed up a
car and bogus ads for an April Fool's hoax.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0127-1.9>
"Everybody is interested in what a competitor is doing,"
explains Tom Jordan, Hoffman York's creative director. "We
figured that if we could convince real auto makers about the
existence of a car they'd never heard of before we might win
some business."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0127-1.10>
Some of the executives concede they were impressed, if not
swayed to switch accounts. "Interesting ads, interesting
pitch, interesting car," says Joseph Hickey,
corporate-advertising director for Chrysler Corp. "Too bad
all of our agencies are already hard at work for us."
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0126 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0126-1.1>
FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- General Electric Co. said it named
Stephen D. Ramsey, a Washington, D.C., environmental lawyer
and former head of the Justice Department's
environmental-enforcement unit, as vice president, corporate
environmental programs.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0126-1.2>
Mr. Ramsey, 42 years old, succeeds W. Roger Strelow, 46,
who left to join Bechtel Corp. as vice president of its
environmental programs.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0126-1.3>
GE said Mr. Ramsey will be in charge of ensuring
"consistent state-of-the-art" environmental practices across
its 13 businesses in the U.S. and abroad. He will direct a
staff of technical, management and legal personnel.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0126-1.4>
Mr. Ramsey currently is a senior partner at the law firm
of Sidley & Austin.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0125 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0125-1.1>
A committee of Eastern Airlines' unsecured creditors
rejected an offer of repayment of about 25 cents for every
dollar they're owed and voted to seek a bankruptcy court
trustee to run the beleaguered airline.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0125-1.2>
In a strong expression of lost confidence in the airline
and its management, the 16-member committee unanimously
rebuffed a new Eastern repayment plan that would have
returned the equivalent of only five cents on the dollar in
immediate cash, or around $50 million. The plan would have
repaid another 20 cents or so on the dollar, or about $190
million, through two secured notes, according people familiar
with the group's action yesterday.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0125-1.3>
The unsecured creditors are owed roughly $1 billion.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0125-1.4>
Relations between Eastern and its creditors committee have
deteriorated steadily after Eastern last week announced it
couldn't meet terms of a settlement reached only a month
earlier. That agreement had called for repaying about 50
cents on the dollar, including $300 million in up-front cash.
Angered, creditors responded with a threat to seek
liquidation of the carrier if Texas Air Corp., Eastern's
parent, didn't take a bigger role. Texas Air said it couldn't
provide the backing sought.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0125-1.5>
In apparent response to those demands, Texas Air yesterday
did propose underwriting up to $25 million of Eastern's
future losses, people familiar with the action said. The
amount Texas Air agreed to cover, however, is far less than
what some creditors wanted.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0125-1.6>
It is unclear where yesterday's actions by the creditors
committee leave Eastern's year-old Chapter 11 bankruptcy
reorganization case. The carrier is rolling up huge losses
and has consistently missed projections for the amount of
money its operations were supposed to generate. Lately,
Eastern has said revenue is being hurt because business
travelers are scared off by adverse publicity, including
liquidation talk.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0125-1.7>
In fact, however, creditors can't force a liquidation or
the naming of a trustee. They can only ask the court to take
such steps, and Eastern and Texas Air would almost certainly
resist.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0125-1.8>
Last night, an Eastern spokesman, in response to reports
of the creditors' committee actions, said the plan presented
by Eastern "serves the creditors far better than any
alternative transaction, including liquidation or sale of the
airline, both of which are exceedingly remote." He said he
couldn't divulge details, however.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0125-1.9>
The spokesman added that Eastern believes "there is no
legal or policy basis for the appointment of a trustee" to
operate the carrier, and raised the question of whether such
a call by creditors might be "a negotiating ploy."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0125-1.10>
If so, the vote to ask for a trustee, coming after
creditors' private meeting with Eastern and Texas Air
executives in New York, was a powerful statement of
frustration. Thirteen committee members voted to pursue
appointment of a trustee.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0125-1.11>
The creditors had until now rejected the notion of a
trustee to replace Eastern's managers and run the airline's
day-to-day operations. Eastern's unions, whose strike a year
ago triggered the bankruptcy filing, have long backed the
idea. Indeed, a union motion to appoint a trustee was
scheduled to be heard in bankruptcy court yesterday but was
postponed until May 9.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0125-1.12>
In effect, the creditors, weary from constant changes in
their repayment proposals, yesterday were saying enough is
enough, according to people familiar with their
deliberations. Last week, when creditors threatened to call
for liquidation or a trustee, they were declaring they wanted
the 50-cent plan agreed upon, and didn't care whether the
money came from Eastern or Texas Air, these people said. It's
understood the creditors took yesterday's 25-cent proposal as
a rejection of that demand. However, the call for a trustee
yesterday apparently contained no further reference to
liquidation.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0124 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0124-1.1>
COSTA MESA, Calif. -- Archive Corp., a maker of computer
tape drives, said 95% of Cipher Data Products Inc.'s 14.9
million common shares had been tendered as part of its
takeover of Cipher, which also makes computer tape drives.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0124-1.2>
Tag Merrick, Archive general counsel, said the company
intends to complete the acquisition of San Diego-based Cipher
for about $120 million within two weeks.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0123 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.1>
In the past two weeks, reports have come out of Washington
and Mexico City about new free trade talks, possibly opening
the way to a North American common market. These reports have
renewed the debate within Mexico about whether the country is
prepared to make a clean break from its protectionist
policies of the past.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.2>
In the wake of this controversy, Mexican President Carlos
Salinas de Gortari met Monday with David Asman of the
Journal's editorial page. The interview, in English, was held
at Los Pinos, the presidential residence. Excerpts follow.

</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.3>
On Foreign Investment:
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.4>
WSJ: Are foreign investors responding to the new,
liberalized foreign-investment law?
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.5>
President Salinas: After we changed the law last May, in
one semester we got the investment we expected in one year.
But yes, we would like to see more foreign investment.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.6>
I believe that a trade relationship with the U.S. and
Canada on a more certain horizon would give foreign investors
in Mexico an additional stimulus to come. It would provide
them with a guaranteed access to each of these markets.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.7>
We have been very specific on what we want on trade with
the U.S. We've been walking on a very clear line, which is:
Mexico has opened unilaterally its economy for foreign trade.
And we haven't received the reciprocity which we believe we
are open to. That's why I am emphasizing with the U.S. and
Canada, with Europe and Japan, rules that would allow
permanent access to the markets.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.8>
WSJ: Do the Mexican people support a further opening of
trade relations with the U.S. and Canada?
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.9>
President Salinas: Up to now, the opening of the economy
has meant lower prices for Mexicans. So now they know that by
opening the economy, we literally have forced domestic
producers with tradable goods to have prices equivalent to
international prices. This -- along with the macroeconomic
changes we have installed -- has helped us very much to
reduce inflation from almost 200% in 1987 to less than 20%
last year.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.10>
If with the opening of the economy Mexicans find out that
there are more job opportunities, that the economy is
growing, that inflation is kept down, then, yes, I'm sure
they will continue supporting the opening of the economy. If,
on the other hand, we open the economy and do not get
reciprocity in other markets -- and therefore our economy is
not able to export and not able to grow at high enough rates
-- then I'm sure public opinion will be adverse, and the
public will say, "Let's go back to the past -- to the time of
a closed economy."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.11>
On Migration:
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.12>
Many Mexicans are crossing the border because they don't
find jobs in Mexico. But many others are crossing the border
because the U.S. economy demands this labor. For the first
group, I want to create jobs in Mexico. For the second group,
I want their labor rights and human rights protected in the
U.S.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.13>
The Simpson-Mazzoli bill was against economic realities.
The economy has shown that the reality is demanding this
manpower. On the other hand, I would prefer them to remain in
Mexico -- all of them. Why? Because they are courageous to
take the risk to travel that far; they are energetic and
young.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.14>
On Mexico's Tax Policy:
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.15>
WSJ: Have you gained revenue by lowering rates and
broadening the tax base?
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.16>
President Salinas: Yes, we have. On the one hand we made
tax rates competitive on international levels. I believe in
the U.S. the corporate rate is 35%; in Mexico it's 36%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.17>
We have also broadened the base: 20% of GNP was tax-exempt
in Mexico. Imagine the loopholes. Farming was tax-exempt. So
you used to find industrialists who owned a farm and all the
profits went to the farm, which was tax exempt, and the
industry was in the red. And intellectual rights were
tax-exempt. So you could find businessmen who designed a logo
and charged a million dollars for the copyright. So we
broadened the base and the revenue is growing.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.18>
On Mexican Agriculture:
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.19>
WSJ: By almost all accounts, the "ejido" system in Mexico
-- the system of strictly monitored communal farming -- is
not an effective system for feeding the people of Mexico.
There are deficits in basic foods here that shouldn't be.
What about the idea of changing the structure of agriculture
in Mexico to make the country more self-sufficient.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.20>
President Salinas: We are changing it. The problem is that
50 years ago, with 25 million people, you could have this
structure. But today, with almost 85 million, we must improve
the efficiency of the ejido (even though the ejido will
remain as a system of property and social relations). With
plots of one acre or half an acre, we will not be able to
have the productivity we need. At the same time, we are
giving guarantees to private owners in the rural areas so
that they can invest and take the risks knowing that their
rights will be protected. We are also strengthening relations
between the private farmers and the ejido workers.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.21>
We have to provide alternatives of work for the peasants
who cannot live off the land. But giving individual titles to
ejido workers has not been contemplated.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.22>
On the Internal Credit Market:
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.23>
WSJ: Mexico's banks were nationalized in 1982. But is
there going to be an easier access to credit through private
institutions?
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.24>
President Salinas: Yes, there is. We've been stimulating
regional groups to create their financial organizations so
that they can participate more in the financial system. The
stock exchange is almost totally privately owned. And now the
insurance companies that are publicly owned are being sold to
private enterprises. So we are opening new fields of
participation in credit to the private sector, and fields
that were previously opened are being expanded.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.25>
On Privatization:
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.26>
WSJ: Privatization is getting increasingly complicated as
more and more state-run companies are put on the market
world-wide; there are now as many as 15 national telephone
companies for sale. Is this becoming a difficult component of
your privatization efforts?
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.27>
President Salinas: It is. But nevertheless, we are
privatizing companies that are profitable.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.28>
Take the case of the telephone company. This year we will
show profits of $1 billion. We want to be sure that we have a
sale that will maximize profits. At the same time we want to
be sure that the new owners will have the capacity to expand
the company. And although the new owners will have the one
company, with the cellular phones, there will be competition
in that field. The new company will have the obligation to
connect the cellular connections to its main system.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.29>
The privatization process is welcomed in two senses.
First, (it) involves the workers in the companies. I
announced the privatization of the phone company in the union
hall. And the workers put it to a vote. It was the only
decision they had ever taken that passed unanimously; 50,000
workers voted in favor of privatization. They were asking for
better wages and the permanence of their positions, and I
told them that the only way to achieve these things was for
the company to expand. But the government cannot expand the
company, because of budget restraints. And they understood.
Besides, they will share in the ownership of the company;
they will participate in the capital ownership.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.30>
Also, the money we get from privatization is being
channeled into a program called "solidarity." It's answering
demands in slums, Indian communities and rural villages for
water, paving the roads, electricity, health centers, better
schools, etc. So now the Mexican people know that
privatization means improvement in their daily living. So, I
am not printing money to solve social problems. Thus, it is
not a populistic program. It's a truly popular program in the
sense that you answer social demands with real resources --
not those artificially created by the central bank. That's
how you can match the purpose of keeping public-sector
deficits down and at the same time answering social demands
of the population.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.31>
On Relations With Latin America:
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.32>
We are strengthening our relations with the rest of Latin
America. Recently I went to Chile and Ecuador to emphasize
this relationship. We also are renewing our economic
relations with Chile. The minister of foreign relations of
Argentina said recently that every gain Mexico gets in
relation to the U.S. means the strengthening of all of Latin
America.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.33>
WSJ: Will Mexico continue to provide oil to Nicaragua on
the same terms as it did with the Sandinista regime?
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.34>
President Salinas: I would say we will renew our original
policy with Nicaragua. We certainly will be ready to help to
contribute to restore the Nicaraguan economy. They have a
huge debt with Mexico, and we are looking for ways to help
them overcome this burden.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.35>
Europe's Economic Integration:
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.36>
WSJ: In your recent travels to Europe, did you see the
economic integration of Europe as something the Western
Hemisphere should fear or welcome as it affects our wealth
and trade?
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.37>
President Salinas: The changes in Eastern Europe
introduced two new elements that were not present before:
First, the unification of Germany, which we certainly
welcome; it's the right of the people to decide. This will
create really massive economic changes.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.38>
Second, the changes in Eastern Europe will provide the
people of Western Europe with a tremendous pool of skilled
labor and cheap labor. So the competitiveness of Europe will
improve tremendously. This is something that you do not see
in the U.S./Canadian situation.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0123-1.39>
We must have the capacity to penetrate those markets
efficiently. It's going to be tremendously formidable. We
better be prepared. The sooner, the better.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0122 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0122-1.1>
PITTSBURGH -- Copperweld Corp. said shareholders will vote
at a special meeting June 6 on a previously reported plan by
Imetal of France to acquire the 34.8% of Copperweld stock
Imetal doesn't already own at $17 a share.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0122-1.2>
Copperweld produces tubing, rods and other metal products.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0121 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0121-1.1>
A PACT TO BUY an executive's home undermines a firm's
business deduction.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0121-1.2>
Azar Nut Co. of El Paso reluctantly contracted to buy a
new executive's house for market value if it fired him. Two
years later, he was gone. Azar shelled out $285,000 for the
home and put it up for sale. But the best deal Azar could get
brought a $111,366 loss, which it deducted as an ordinary
business cost. The IRS objected, so Azar turned to the Tax
Court. The court's decision is a warning against such pacts,
says Robert Willens of Shearson Lehman Hutton.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0121-1.3>
The IRS contended that the house was a capital asset
producing a capital loss not deductible from business income.
Azar argued that its expense was a form of employee
compensation and also satisfied a business need. But Judge
Drennen rejected this plea and applied a 1988 Supreme Court
ruling that assets are capital unless defined otherwise by
law. A house is a capital asset that produces capital gain or
loss, the judge held. He denied Azar's deduction.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0121-1.4>
Azar could have taken a compensation deduction if it had
simply reimbursed the ex-employee for a loss on his own sale
of the house, Willens says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0121-1.5>
GET A RECEIPT for your return from the post office, many
advisers say.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0121-1.6>
The time is fast approaching when you must file your
return -- or a Form 4868 requesting an automatic four-month
extension of the due date (send a check for estimated tax
owed, too). One advantage of electronic filing over the mail
is immediate confirmation that the IRS got your return. If
you do rely on the post office, many preparers suggest using
certified mail, return receipt requested, to have some
evidence that you filed on time, even if it doesn't prove
what was inside the envelope.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0121-1.7>
James Stephenson of Miller Cooper & Co., CPAs in
Northbrook, Ill., says, "We request receipts even on returns
mailed well in advance of the deadline." Receipts from
private deliverers carry no weight with the IRS, he notes.
The IRS is neutral on the use of certified mail; one can
infer that it isn't keen on the idea. But it has post-office
workers at every return-processing center to handle requests
for receipts.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0121-1.8>
THE CUSTOMS SERVICE must clean up its records mess fast,
the GAO warns.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0121-1.9>
Customs has been under fire for accounting controls so lax
that they foster thefts and fraud. The General Accounting
Office says there has been "an almost total breakdown" of
controls for numbered documents that Customs agents at 300
entry ports use to record duties, taxes, and other receipts
of cash and checks. In fiscal 1989, these payments totaled
nearly $700 million. Yet Customs admits it couldn't account
for several million such documents in prior years.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0121-1.10>
The result is "an enormous potential for abuse and
cover-up," the GAO says. It recommends that Customs
immediately abandon the old forms, adopt new numbered forms,
and enforce stringent controls over the assignment of the
forms to and the use by Customs agents. Each form must be
traceable to an individual employee, the GAO asserts. Modern
technology could eliminate the paper documents, the GAO adds,
but it says technology alone can't solve the problems it
found in collection controls.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0121-1.11>
Last year, Customs got a new commissioner, Carol Hallett,
who recently announced an agency reorganization.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0121-1.12>
BASE-SALARY RANGES for top tax executives at manufacturers
with $1 billion to $5 billion in sales have mid-points
averaging $102,784, recruiter Ward Howell International found
in a survey; bonuses average 30%. For tax executives at
service concerns, the equivalent salary figure is $111,363,
and bonuses average 25%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0121-1.13>
BATTERED FARMERS who get federal payments if disasters
damage crops or prevent planting may treat the payments as
insurance proceeds taxable in the following year when the
crops would have been sold. So say temporary IRS rules
published in T.D. 8289 and amplified in Notice 90-28.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0121-1.14>
IT VANISHED BY VAN: The movers sold her furniture when
Sandra Lynn Mallory of Crestwood, Mo., didn't pay their
storage bill. But that doesn't justify her theft-loss
deduction, the Tax Court ruled.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0121-1.15>
PASSIVE-ACTIVITY INVESTORS have a choice to make in filing
1989 returns.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0121-1.16>
Passive losses from rental real estate or businesses in
which you aren't active may be deducted only from passive
income or when you dispose of the activity. Now you may make
an irrevocable election on returns that may be favorable or
not, but should be considered, says Boston lawyer Forrest
Milder. The choice: whether to treat similar activities as
separate or combined.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0121-1.17>
Accumulated losses of a separate entity are deductible
when it is sold. But take a store treated as part of a larger
activity, a chain of stores: If you sell that store, its
losses won't be deductible until the whole chain is sold,
unless you elect now to treat each store separately. There
may be disadvantages in separation, though, such as
accounting complexities and costs. The election method for
real estate differs from that for other activities. And there
is no election for non-real-estate rental activities; each
must be treated separately.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0121-1.18>
Elections must be made with 1989 returns, even if you
don't plan any dispositions, Milder cautions.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0121-1.19>
BRIEFS: "Highlights of 1989 Tax Changes," Publication 553,
is available from the IRS. . . . The U.S. and Peru have
agreed to exchange tax information. . . . The IRS has delayed
to June 1 the deadline for comments on accuracy-related and
preparer penalties described in Notice 90-20.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0120 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.1>
TOKYO -- Hiroko Noto joins the crowd in Aunt Stella's
cookie shop, convinced that she's buying American cookies.
Souvenir boxes and cans with drawings of wide-open American
farms line the shelves. The sweet-smelling cookies must be
popular back in the heart of America, the 42-year-old
housewife figures.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.2>
But they're not. In fact, the 56-store cookie chain in
Japan doesn't even exist in the U.S. Established by an
American resident of Japan, the business was created
specifically for the Japanese market.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.3>
"It said `Aunt Stella,' so I assumed it was from America,"
says the disappointed Ms. Noto, frowning at the English
writing on her paper bag. "Is Stella Japanese?"
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.4>
Though tension between the U.S. and Japan runs high and
polls show that many Japanese think Americans are lazy and
produce poor-quality products, the American image still holds
great appeal, at least when it comes to food products. U.S.
and Japanese companies are reaping big profits by making such
products as cookies, doughnuts and coffee look more American
-- or rather, the Japanese notion of American.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.5>
The trick is to figure out what looks suitably American to
the Japanese. "Japanese images of America are often quite
different from what we think they are," says Deborah Howard,
managing director of Japan Market Resource Network, which
helps American companies market their products in Japan.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.6>
Images that ring a bell are those of the Colonial era, the
1950s and power-hungry New York businessmen, says Makoto
Takeuchi, a commercial planner at Dentsu Inc., Japan's
biggest advertising agency. Companies fiddle with their
products to fit these images, he says, "whether or not these
things really exist."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.7>
Many of the favored images represent an America that long
ago ceased to exist -- if it ever did exist. Pastures,
plantations and log cabins are particularly popular.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.8>
Other products aren't so different from what America's own
image-makers create: Lemon and grapefruit-flavored juices and
candy often call themselves Californian, and a chocolate
cereal snack is called "Fifth Avenue."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.9>
Joseph Dunkle, who started the Aunt Stella cookie chain
eight years ago, cashed in by tinkering with an old-fashioned
apple-pie image. Aided by funding by the Saison Group, which
in 1974 bought his company and kept him on as president, Mr.
Dunkle packaged cookies in dainty ceramic "Aunt Stella" dolls
and furnished his stores with early American furniture. The
entrepreneur even hired Japanese women to draw Amish designs
on tin cans, hoping to appeal to middle-aged women, the main
purchasers of such products, which often are given as
souvenir gifts when meeting people.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.10>
The cookies themselves are somewhat American, although
smaller and harder, like sweetened traditional Japanese rice
crackers. But the flavors ("American coffee," for instance)
seem to sustain the foreign image. Sales of Aunt Stella
cookies are growing by 38% every year, says Mr. Dunkle, and
are expected to reach 4 billion yen ($25 million) this year.
Lured by the homey image, executive wives buy 20,000-yen
packages (about $125) as presents for their husbands' office
mates, he says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.11>
But Japanese tastes in American images are difficult to
predict. "It's an evolving type of strategy that almost can't
be planned," says Robert Kuhn, a corporate strategist helping
American companies enter the Japanese market.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.12>
When David's Specialty Food Inc., the New York food
concern, started selling its cookies in Japan a few years
ago, it aimed for a pop American image. But "it was a
mismatch," says Jun Kawara, a marketing and planning manager
of the Tokyo operation. The design didn't appeal to rich but
conservative housewives.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.13>
Japanese companies often have more success at effectively
Americanizing American products. Japan's Mister Donut stores
started looking more "American" when Duskin Co., a
dust-control company based in Osaka, bought the chain's
Japanese operations six years ago from the U.S.'s
International Multifoods Corp. Confident that a 1950s image
would boost doughnut sales, Duskin put pink neon flamingos by
the windows of new outlets and installed revolving
merry-go-rounds. Speakers blare out a specially made tape of
1950s music, interspersed with comments -- in English -- by a
disc jockey.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.14>
"There's a nostalgic feeling among the Japanese people"
for that era, says Shigeharu Komai, president of Duskin. "We
were miserable after the war. And America was our dream."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.15>
Growth in sales for the Mister Donut chain, which now has
about 670 outlets in Japan, surged from about 10% or 15% to
as much as 25%, says a Duskin spokesman, making up a quarter
of Duskin's annual 280 billion yen sales.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.16>
Many customers know the image is made up, but they like
the atmosphere anyway. "This is Duskin's strategy to lure
Japanese young people that like American things," says
19-year-old Mie Matsubara. Not that it bothers her, she adds
hastily.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.17>
Encouraged by Mister Donut's growth, Duskin is now
bringing in other restaurant chains with 1950s atmosphere.
One, Studebaker's, has walls lined with bright neon tubes and
displays a bright red open car in the center.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.18>
Some American companies have come up with successful
Japanese versions of America on their own. Coca-Cola (Japan)
Ltd.'s Georgia Coffee, a ready-to-drink canned coffee created
specifically for the Japanese market 15 years ago, is now the
company's best-selling product after Coke. The drink's brown
label plays off a Colonial image, with a sepia-toned picture
of people in Colonial garb sitting at a table on the lawn of
a plantation, with cups and what looks like a teapot on the
table. (Coca-Cola can't explain the teapot, but it doesn't
seem to have hurt sales.)
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.19>
Japanese consumers can identify with Georgia because of
their attachment to the movie "Gone with the Wind," says
Frank Kelly, representative director of Coca-Cola (Japan).
(Sanraku Inc., an alcoholic beverage producer, will start
selling Californian wine with a scene from "Gone with the
Wind" on its label next month.)
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.20>
Although Coca-Cola doesn't release its sales, industry
followers estimate that sales jumped nearly 10% to about 170
billion yen, or 2.6 billion cans in 1989. Sales of Coke were
around 3.1 billion cans in the same period.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.21>
To portray America attractively to the Japanese, companies
admit they sometimes do things that seem strange to an
American. Mr. Dunkle, who markets Aunt Stella's cookies, uses
the phrase "warm heart communication" in English on packaging
and in catalogs.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0120-1.22>
The phrase may not make sense to an American, but that is
of little concern to the Japan-oriented entrepreneur. "I
don't care," he laughs. "I'm not selling to Americans."
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0119 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0119-1.1>
CHICAGO -- A seat on the Chicago Board of Trade was sold
for $319,000, down $6,000 from the previous sale March 23.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0119-1.2>
Seats currently are quoted at $305,000 bid, $324,000
asked.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0119-1.3>
The record price for a full membership on the exchange is
$550,000, set Aug. 31, 1987.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0118 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0118-1.1>
HOUSTON -- Seagull Energy Corp. said it plans to offer for
sale about 8.3 billion cubic feet of its proved domestic
natural gas reserves and 1.5 million barrels of oil reserves.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0118-1.2>
Seagull said the sale, expected to be concluded by year
end, involves mature reserves acquired since late 1988 that
aren't strategic to the company's operations. The sale will
allow some operating economies and help fund continuing
exploration, Seagull said.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0117 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0117-1.1>
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Cominco Ltd.'s controlling
shareholder said it plans an offer to acquire the balance of
Cominco's affiliate, Pine Point Mines Ltd., for 50 Canadian
dollars (US$42.81) a share, or about C$126 million (US$107.9
million).
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0117-1.2>
Closely held Nunachiaq Inc., which owns more than 40% of
Cominco, a mining concern, said it entered a related lock-up
agreement with Sprott Securities Ltd. of Toronto, under which
Sprott plans to tender about 1.82 million Pine Point shares
to the proposed bid.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0117-1.3>
In Toronto Stock Exchange trading yesterday, Pine Point
shares jumped C$4.75, to close at C$48.25.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0117-1.4>
Pine Point, which owns 45% of the Polaris lead and zinc
mine in Canada's Northwest Territories, has about 4.6 million
shares outstanding, of which Cominco owns about 2.1 million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0117-1.5>
Vancouver-based Teck Corp., which owns 50% of Nunachiaq,
said in January it was considering making an offer for Pine
Point's minority-held shares, but it subsequently backed off.
Teck didn't disclose a proposed bid, though it said it
considered the offer after a broker it wouldn't identify
approached Teck about buying a large block of Pine Point
shares.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0117-1.6>
Metallgesellschaft AG of West Germany and M.I.M. Holdings
Ltd. of Australia, both large mining concerns, also hold
interests in Nunachiaq.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0117-1.7>
Nunachiaq said the bid will be mailed to Pine Point
holders when certain legal documents are completed. The bid
is conditional on Nunachiaq's acquiring at least 90% of Pine
Point's shares outstanding, other than those held by Cominco,
the company said.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0116 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0116-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- The Connecticut State's Attorney's office
confirmed it has begun a criminal investigation into
allegations that an MCI Communications Corp. lawyer and a
hired lobbyist lied to state officials.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0116-1.2>
Last month, MCI admitted violating the state's ethics code
for lobbyists, and paid a $10,000 civil penalty and filed
amended lobbying reports under a settlement with the State
Ethics Commission. The case stemmed from two golf
tournaments, one in 1988 and the other in 1989, at a club
near Hartford. Several Connecticut lawmakers attended.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0116-1.3>
The ethics code bars companies and lobbyists from spending
more than $50 a year on entertainment and gifts for state
officials. Typically, companies submit lobbying forms
indicating gifts and entertainment are within the limit; the
companies collect the difference between the $50 and the
actual costs from the state officials who attend the special
corporate events.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0116-1.4>
On forms submitted to the Ethics Commission, MCI, which
had hired a Hartford lobbying firm for advice, said it spent
$49.99 for each state official both years. In the settlement,
it acknowledged that costs, including greens fees, golf
carts, prizes, food and beverages and even portions of the
salaries of MCI employees, totaled $507.78 per person in 1988
and $661.46 per person last year.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0116-1.5>
Robert Jackson, director of external affairs at MCI's
Northeast division, said that the state had not insisted on
that type of costing in the past. Nonetheless, he said, MCI
had made enough unintentional mistakes that it decided to
"settle the case, pay a negotiated fine and get this thing
behind us." He blamed part of the problem on
miscommunications with the hired lobbying firm over whether
to include such expenses as greens fees and golf-cart rentals
in the lobbying reports, and much of the problem on a shift
in procedures and attitudes at the ethics commission.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0116-1.6>
Mr. Jackson said he "doubted seriously that there is any
merit" to the state investigation.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0115 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0115-1.1>
PARIS -- French government forecasters expect the
country's real gross domestic product to rise by 3.2% in 1990
and 2.8% in 1991 after a 3.7% increase in 1989, the Economics
Ministry said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0115-1.2>
The forecast, which was made by the National Accounts
Commission and is used by the government in working up its
annual draft budget, represents an upward revision from the
1990 growth estimate of 3% that was made by the body last
September.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0114 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0114-1.1>
NEW YORK -- The dollar was mixed in late afternoon
dealings, but traders voiced little conviction about pushing
the currency in any direction.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0114-1.2>
The lack of economic news and the meeting of the Group of
Seven industrial nations set for Saturday in Paris confined
the greenback to tight trading ranges, dealers said. There is
lingering fear that the G-7 will surprise the market with a
plan to defend the yen. G-7 nations include the U.S., Japan,
Britain, West Germany, France, Italy and Canada.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0114-1.3>
While most traders said the likelihood is slim that the
G-7 will come up with measures to boost the yen, few
expressed a willingness to sell the yen for dollars on their
expectations.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0114-1.4>
Robert White, vice president and manager of corporate
trading at First Interstate of California, Los Angeles, said
nobody wants to buy the dollar now if the G-7 is going to
knock it down next week with intervention. The reasoning:
Intervention would give dealers a better rate at which to buy
dollars next week.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0114-1.5>
Traders showed more certainty about the mark's
relationship to the yen, nudging the West German currency to
another solid advance on confidence that the Bundesbank will
successfully manage the German monetary union while doubts
persist over Japanese monetary policy.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0114-1.6>
Speculation about results of the G-7 meeting also lifted
the mark against the yen. The West German currency gained
amid talk in the market that the U.S. and West Germany will
refuse to aid Japan in bolstering its currency, said John
McCarthy, chief foreign-exchange dealer at
Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank in New York.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0114-1.7>
Much of the greenback's gains against the yen came near
the end of New York trading, with one dealer attributing the
gains to another play in the mark-yen rate. Traders sold the
yen not only against the mark but against the dollar.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0114-1.8>
Mr. White of First Interstate said the U.S. currency's
fall through a key chart point at 1.6980 marks in the New
York morning set off more dollar selling. But there was no
follow-through, he said, adding that chartists' expectations
for a break out of the ranges have generally been dashed
recently.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0114-1.9>
In late afternoon New York trading, the dollar was at
1.6979 marks, down from 1.7009 marks late Monday, and at
159.79 yen, up from 158.95 yen. Sterling was at $1.6357, up
from $1.6348.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0114-1.10>
In Tokyo early Wednesday, the dollar was trading at 159.62
yen, unchanged from the opening price but down from Tuesday's
Tokyo close of 158.95 yen. Meanwhile, the U.S. currency was
trading at around 1.6968 marks, up slightly from the opening
quote of 1.6965 marks but below Tuesday's Tokyo close of
1.7008 marks.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0114-1.11>
The dollar isn't expected to top 160 yen or stray far from
1.70 marks before the G-7 meeting. If nothing comes out of
the meeting, the U.S. unit will quickly climb to 165 yen, Mr.
White predicted.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0114-1.12>
Traders said a rebound by the Tokyo stock market Tuesday
and indications that the U.S.-Japanese trade talks in
Washington are making progress helped the yen during the day.
But other traders said the day's quiet trading was more
because of caution following the dollar's recent jump against
the yen.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0114-1.13>
Traders said the dollar should move between 157 and 160.50
yen during the week. One trader, while contending that 165
yen remains a long-term target, said the dollar should stay
between 155 yen to 160 yen for the next two to three weeks.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0114-1.14>
However, Katsumi Asako, chief corporate dealer with
Standard Chartered Bank in Tokyo, said the dollar could still
move as high as 162.50 yen if the stock market posts further
sharp declines.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0114-1.15>
Traders said the Bank of Japan is believed to have sold
about $100 million Tuesday. Some speculated that the Japanese
central bank's intervention activities may be constrained by
the sharp drop in Japan's foreign reserves. The Finance
Ministry said Monday that Japan's foreign reserves posted
their biggest monthly drop ever in March, falling $6.95
billion. The Bank of Japan's heavy dollar sales during the
month are widely seen as the main factor behind the decline.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0114-1.16>
On the Commodity Exchange in New York, gold for current
delivery settled at $375.30 an ounce, up $5.50.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0114-1.17>
In Hong Kong Wednesday, gold opened for trading at $374.95
an ounce.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0113 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0113-1.1>
FAIRFIELD, N.J. -- Prime Motor Inns Inc. said per-share
earnings for the third quarter ended March 31 are expected to
be "substantially" below a year earlier.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0113-1.2>
The owner, operator, and manager of hotels said the
decline was due to continued softness in hotel occupancy and
rates, as well as lack of property sales or development fee
income in the quarter.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0113-1.3>
For the quarter ended March 31, 1989, Prime had net income
of $18.8 million, or 55 cents a share, on revenue of $99.9
million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0113-1.4>
Caroline S. Levy, Shearson Lehman Hutton
restaurant-lodging analyst, said earnings for the quarter
were being estimated recently at about 20 cents a share.
However, she declined to put an estimate on the earnings in
view of the announcement yesterday that Prime would put
properties of Servico Inc. into escrow.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0113-1.5>
"We don't know how it all works out," Ms. Levy said. "But
operating earnings are down as are margins on the sale of
assets. The trends of the lodging industry are also working
against Prime. Lodging room rates and room occupancy are
under pressure."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0113-1.6>
Prime said it had taken into escrow deeds and other
documents relating to properties of Servico, under the terms
of its $74 million loan to FCD Hospitality Inc. In 1989,
Prime loaned FCD money to acquire Servico. The announcement
appeared to indicate that Prime may take control of the
properties under certain conditions.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0113-1.7>
Prime owns, operates or manages 139 hotels with 20,500
rooms nationwide. It is also the franchiser for Howard
Johnson, Rodeway Inns International, and operates the U.S.
Ramada franchise system, which totals 1,100 properties with
150,000 rooms.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0112 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0112-1.1>
{First of two articles on investment banking for smaller
companies.}

</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0112-1.2>
Wall Street's biggest investment bankers are writhing
after the collapse of junk bonds and megamergers, but many
regional investment firms are on a roll. And that's good news
for entrepreneurs who rely on the regionals to arrange and
finance acquisitions and other strategic deals.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0112-1.3>
Not long ago, Wall Street investment bankers routinely
sniffed at small companies; many still do. So when Bradley S.
Scott was looking to sell his Los Angeles Auto Salvage Inc.
last year, he retained Sutro & Co., a West Coast firm.
"There's a great deal of hand-holding that goes on in selling
a company, and it was important to me to have the kind of
close contact that I got with Sutro," says Mr. Scott, whose
company sold for less than $20 million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0112-1.4>
A plethora of such small transactions is adding up to real
money, say regional bankers happily removed from Wall
Street's slump. "I go to cocktail parties, and the Wall
Street guys say it's tough out there, and we say it's great,"
says Lloyd Greif, vice chairman of Sutro.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0112-1.5>
The regionals' bread and butter is deals between smaller
companies. And with smaller companies thriving, many
regionals' business has never been better. Likewise, because
few big deals are getting done and so much attention is being
focused on the smaller transactions, it's a seller's market
for middle-market companies, whose annual sales fall anywhere
between $10 million and $300 million. Even at some regional
firms still in the doldrums, things are looking up.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0112-1.6>
Only last month, Advest Group Inc., Hartford, Conn.,
completed a $10 million convertible-debenture offering for
O'Brien Energy Systems Inc., Philadelphia. The offering,
originally set for $25 million, was to have been co-managed
by Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. But Drexel's parent, Drexel
Burnham Lambert Group Inc., filed for bankruptcy-law
protection Feb. 13 and has said it plans to liquidate its
assets.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0112-1.7>
"We were able to go back to the client and say we'd like
to continue to perform on this," Allen Weintraub, Advest's
president, says. "That's proof that things can be done
regionally, even when your New York partner is unable."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0112-1.8>
Doing things regionally has never been more lucrative,
many investment bankers say. Sutro's corporate-finance
activity, for example, has grown rapidly -- to 19
transactions last year totaling $1.47 billion from 11 in 1987
totaling $263 million. With Wall Street now averse to high
leverage and high risk, the mergers and other transactions
still getting done are generally below $250 million in value.
"That's right up the regionals' alley," Mr. Greif says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0112-1.9>
To be sure, not all regionals are seeing their business
mushroom; among other reasons, some firms have strong
competition in their regions, and in some parts of the
country, such as the Southwest, the economy is relatively
sluggish.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0112-1.10>
"I guess it's going to be another slow year. I don't think
we're going to shoot the lights out," says James C. Bradford
Jr., senior partner of J.C. Bradford & Co., Nashville, Tenn.
William Blair & Co., Chicago, hasn't seen the kind of merger
and acquisition activity it had before the October 1987
stock-market crash. "It's clearly a slow period, and we hope
the future is going to be better," says David Coolidge,
partner in charge of corporate finance.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0112-1.11>
Regionals -- which normally are based well outside New
York and concentrate on clients close to home -- promote
themselves as being more attuned to the needs of small
clients than is Wall Street. "The regionals are closer to the
businesses that are doing the transactions, not only
geographically but also in temperament," says Richard
Himelfarb, executive vice president of Legg Mason Wood Walker
Inc., a Baltimore concern that does transactions in the $10
million to $100 million range.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0112-1.12>
The top people at regional firms routinely pay personal
attention to clients. "In New York, they'll get a junior man
working on their case," says Chris Covington, a partner of
Volpe, Covington & Welty, a 50-person San Francisco firm.
"Here, they get a senior person laboring in the fields with
them."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0112-1.13>
Nevertheless, it can take considerable salesmanship for a
regional firm to attract business. "Frankly, I think clients
are still overly in love with New York, and they don't really
understand why that's not necessarily the best place for them
to do their business," says R. Hunt Greene, managing director
of Piper Jaffray Inc., Minneapolis. "We spend a lot of time
educating them about our track record," which includes
financing work done for St. Jude Medical Inc., St. Paul,
Minn., and the current sale of Deltak Corp., Minneapolis.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0112-1.14>
Wall Street's preoccupation with huge transactions has
given the regionals a clear-cut advantage in the current
market, Mr. Greene says. Though trying to shore up business
now, the Wall Street firms still generally neglect the middle
market. "The result is that we've had a wide-open field," Mr.
Greene says of the regionals.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0112-1.15>
Moreover, as Wall Street lays off investment bankers in
droves, many of the regional firms are seizing the moment to
improve their own staffs. Sutro plans to add at least seven
new professionals this year to its corporate-finance offices
in San Francisco and Los Angeles, a 50% increase. "This
expansion is warranted -- in fact, necessitated -- by the
current surge in middle-market transactions that we are
experiencing," Mr. Greif says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0112-1.16>
The firms that are doing well aren't being bashful about
it. If they seem a tad boastful these days, it's because many
of them spent most of the past decade watching from afar as
the big firms feasted on the fattest deals. "The business
boom that went on on Wall Street didn't materialize to the
same degree in the regions," says Jim Pierpont, senior vice
president, corporate finance, at Minneapolis-based Dain
Bosworth Inc., which had "a flurry" of new business in the
first quarter.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0112-1.17>
Despite the strong business for most regional firms, many
concede that the Wall Street giants could yet emerge as
powerful new competitors for regional business.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0112-1.18>
"We lost a plain-vanilla private placement to a New York
house just four weeks ago," says one executive of a
Midwestern regional firm, noting that the $10 million
transaction couldn't have generated more than $60,000 in fees
-- small potatoes for a big firm. "They actually flew in from
New York to this backwater city," he says. "Since they aren't
doing the big deals, they've got to do something."
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0111 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0111-1.1>
NEW YORK -- Inspiration Resources Corp. said it purchased
LTM Inc. and Rogue Aggregates Inc., two affiliated, closely
held companies. Terms weren't disclosed.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0111-1.2>
The companies, based in Medford, Ore., produce
construction materials for residential, commercial and
government projects in southern Oregon and Northern
California. The companies' combined sales for 1989 were about
$22 million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0111-1.3>
Inspiration Resources is a natural resources company that
provides products and services for the agriculture, mining
and construction industries.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0110 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0110-1.1>
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- American Medical International
Inc. said that shareholders at its annual meeting approved
the hospital company's acquisition by IMA Holdings Corp. The
purchase is scheduled to be completed later this month.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0110-1.2>
The move was expected as IMA Holdings, an investor group
including CS First Boston Group's First Boston Corp. and the
Pritzker family of Chicago, acquired 86% of American
Medical's 71.5 million common shares outstanding in a tender
offer late last year.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0109 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.1>
NEW YORK -- Pressed by the credit-rating agencies and by
regulators including the New York Stock Exchange, big
brokerage firms are getting rid of their junk-bond portfolios
and other illiquid investments.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.2>
In recent days, both General Electric Co.'s Kidder,
Peabody Group Inc. and American Express Co.'s Shearson Lehman
Hutton Holdings Inc. have moved to sell large portfolios of
high-yield junk bonds.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.3>
CS First Boston Inc. has taken steps to trim its exposure
to temporary "bridge" loans that it has been stuck with
because of the junk-bond market's paralysis. Other brokerage
firms are expected to take similar steps.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.4>
Because the brokerage industry is highly leveraged, it can
be fatal if a firm finds itself stuck with a large amount of
securities it can't sell quickly. The collapse of Drexel
Burnham Lambert Group Inc., the one-time leader of the
junk-bond market, drove that point home. Drexel suffered a
fatal squeeze when it had huge losses on its illiquid
junk-bond portfolio and lenders pulled away.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.5>
"When you see something like Drexel fail, people tend to
get religious," says Kenneth J. Pinkes, head of
financial-institutions research at Moody's Investors Service
Inc.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.6>
Both Moody's and Standard & Poor's Corp., the major
credit-rating agencies, have been sounding warnings about the
condition of brokerage firms' balance sheets, complaining
about large holdings of risky, hard-to-sell investments. And
brokerage firms have been listening because a downgrade by
the credit firms can be devastating. Big securities firms
must routinely borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to
finance their day-to-day operations.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.7>
Brokerage firms "are taking a more conservative approach
to the balance sheet," says Michael Goldstein, brokerage
analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.8>
The brokerage industry has never been that heavily
regulated, says Mr. Goldstein. But the purging of junk bonds
and other illiquid investments by big brokerage firms shows
that may be changing, he says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.9>
"Now we're seeing that basic lack of regulation and
growing credit fear cause a backlash, whereby both
supervisory agencies and {brokerage} firms are trying to rid
themselves of potential problems," Mr. Goldstein says. "And I
expect that basic trend to continue for some time."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.10>
But this new-found caution won't necessarily be good for
investors. It could mean that brokerage firms take fewer
risks for customers' benefit, such as refusing to keep a big
inventory of junk bonds the firms underwrite and sell to
clients.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.11>
And there is another potential problem: Even as Wall
Street pares its holdings of junk bonds and other illiquid
holdings, some firms are busy beefing up their junk-bond
trading and research staffs, meaning their employees are
pushing junk at a time when the firm itself is fleeing from
it.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.12>
While brokerage firms don't want to have much junk in
their portfolios, the firms don't mind making money through
short-term trading opportunities and by selling new junk-bond
issues. (Wall Street makes an average of $5 million in fees
for each new junk-bond issue.)
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.13>
For example, Kidder's move to sell its junk bonds, bridge
loans and other merchant banking holdings to its parent, GE,
for $750 million, followed by only weeks an attempt to beef
up Kidder's junk-bond operations.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.14>
Kidder hired Salomon Brothers Inc.'s former head junk-bond
trader, Thomas Bernard; at the time, James Mullin, a Kidder
managing director, said he viewed the junk-bond market as a
"real opportunity." Kidder also quietly hired Michael
Meagher, a respected junk-bond trader specializing in
bankruptcies, from Salomon; Mr. Meagher is slated to start at
Kidder this week.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.15>
The crosscurrents underscore the sticky situation Wall
Street faces concerning junk bonds. Although securities firms
are facing pressure to get junk off their books -- and avoid
any big junk-bond blowups that would hit their bottom line --
they badly want to take advantage of the absence of Drexel,
which virtually created and then dominated the junk market in
the 1980s.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.16>
But Wall Street firms don't want to flame out as Drexel
did. Besides pressure from the credit-rating agencies,
brokerage firms say the New York Stock Exchange has been
asking for more-comprehensive monthly reports on the firms'
balance sheets. And it appears that more firms are being hit
with so-called blockage charges -- a way for the Big Board
and the Securities and Exchange Commission to encourage firms
to rid themselves of illiquid investments. The regulators
provide this encouragement by deducting against a firm's
regulatory capital 100% of the value of particularly risky
investments.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.17>
Besides the blockage charges, the Big Board has also been
hitting brokerage firms with higher regulatory capital
requirements, or "haircuts," to reflect the illiquid junk
inventories. A Big Board spokesman wouldn't comment on such
pressure, except to say: "We're always monitoring our member
firms' capital positions to make sure they're in compliance
with regulations."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.18>
Lawrence Eckenfelder, a brokerage industry analyst at
Prudential-Bache Securities, is more blunt. He says that
"unfortunately, you've got a lot of assets {on brokerage-firm
balance sheets} that shouldn't be sitting there. Liquidity is
the name of the game here."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.19>
The image the brokerage firms now want to project to the
marketplace is that they are "clean of what the market
considers are tainted assets," says Mr. Pinkes of Moody's. He
says the brokerage firms' actions are "very natural
developments to clean up balance sheets, to unleverage, to
position themselves as sound credit risks."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.20>
"We are moving away from illiquid investments; we're doing
it for business reasons," says a spokesman for Shearson,
which Monday said it plans to sell $480 million of junk
bonds. When Kidder purged itself of junk, it said it was
removing all its "high-yield, illiquid inventory" and that
the Big Board was "enormously pleased" by that.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.21>
Some analysts say they are worried about increased selling
pressure on the already battered junk-bond market as the big
brokerage firms trim their portfolios. S&P says that
shouldn't be a problem.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.22>
Says Jeffrey Bowman, an S&P vice president: "S&P believes
management will be able to reduce their exposures on an
orderly basis. What is really illiquid and probably doesn't
have much value is the bridges," which are temporary loans
brokerage firms make to finance their clients' takeover
deals. "One positive development from all this is that
brokerage firms are working toward reducing their bridge
exposure," he says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0109-1.23>
Although First Boston recently said it held just $107
million in its junk-bond portfolio, it was forced by
credit-rating agencies to sell to its parent more than half
of its troubled $450 million bridge loan to Ohio Mattress Co.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0108 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0108-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- The following issues were recently filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission:

</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0108-1.2>
Consolidated Rail Corp., offering of up to $1.25 billion
of debt securities.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0108-1.3>
Hydro-Quebec, shelf offering of up to $1,168,515,000 of
debt securities and warrants.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0108-1.4>
Immune Response Corp., initial offering of 2.2 million
common shares via Dillon, Read & Co. Inc.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0108-1.5>
Offshore Pipelines Inc., initial offering of 3.6 million
common shares, via Prudential-Bache Capital Funding and Smith
Barney, Harris Upham & Co. Inc.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0107 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0107-1.1>
ATLANTA -- In light of its proposed recapitalization plan,
Georgia Gulf Corp. said its board will omit its quarterly
dividend of 25 cents a share.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0107-1.2>
Under the recapitalization, which shareholders are
scheduled to vote on April 19, holders would receive for each
share held $30 in cash, $8.50 principal amount of notes and
one share of a new issue of common. The plan was hatched as
an attempt to fend off Dallas investor Harold C. Simmons who,
through Houston-based NL Industries Inc., began seeking
control of Georgia Gulf last August.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0107-1.3>
On Monday, Mr. Simmons let his $45-a-share, or $1 billion,
tender offer for Georgia Gulf expire, saying he would support
the company's recapitalization plan.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0107-1.4>
Georgia Gulf, a chemical company, also said it completed
the sale of its Freeman Chemical Corp. subsidiary for about
$65 million to Cook Composites & Polymers Co., a closely held
company based in North Kansas City, Mo. Georgia Gulf plans to
use proceeds to help pay for the recapitalization.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0107-1.5>
In New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday,
Georgia Gulf closed at $44, down 50 cents.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0106 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0106-1.1>
NEW YORK -- Four directors at Businessland Inc. went on a
stock-buying spree in late January and February.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0106-1.2>
Just days after the San Jose, Calif., computer retailer
reported a second-quarter operating loss, these corporate
insiders spent $2.9 million on Businessland shares, according
to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All
together, the filings show, they bought 408,000 shares at an
average price of $7.09 each.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0106-1.3>
That turned out to be a savvy move. On March 7, the
company announced that it was making up with Compaq Computer
Corp. a year after a bitter feud drove a wedge between the
nation's biggest computer retailer and one of the largest
personal-computer makers.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0106-1.4>
The announcement that Businessland would once again sell
Compaq computers boosted the price of its stock 23% in one
day, to $10.75. It was unchanged yesterday, in New York Stock
Exchange composite trading, at $10.875 a share.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0106-1.5>
James Heisch, Businessland's senior vice president of
sales and services, said the directors were "obviously not"
aware of the company's pending sales agreement with Compaq at
the time they bought shares. They made their purchases, he
said, because "they felt the stock was very much
undervalued," and the company's fundamentals were "very
strong."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0106-1.6>
Mr. Heisch said insiders are allowed to buy and sell
shares only during a 2 1/2-week window following the release
of earnings.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0106-1.7>
Director Michael D. Kaufman made the largest insider
purchase, SEC filings show. He bought 382,000 shares for
about $2.6 million, bringing his total holdings to 826,961
shares. According to SEC filings, he started his buying on
Jan. 30, six days after the company reported a $1.2 million
second-quarter loss.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0106-1.8>
The other three Businessland directors each more than
doubled their holdings with purchases of 1,000 to 15,000
shares, made from Feb. 1 through Feb. 15.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0106-1.9>
Mr. Kaufman, president of MK Global Ventures, a
money-management concern based in Palo Alto, Calif., said he
bought the shares for his firm's investment portfolios. "We
were buyers without Compaq and, if Compaq decided to
disenfranchise us again, we would still be a buyer."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0106-1.10>
Mr. Kaufman says he's betting on Businessland because of
its efforts to expand its service and support network
internationally. A company "that can service a variety of
different {computer brands} anywhere in the world and give
you the `warm fuzzies' you need to run your business" is
going to prosper, he says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0106-1.11>
Analysts, too, are generally bullish on Businessland.
Salomon Brothers Inc.'s Michelle Preston predicts that, with
the company's price-cutting battles behind it, the stock will
outperform the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. "We're
still pretty optimistic about growth in PC sales," she said,
and Businessland's "economies of scale" should allow it to
increase its market share.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0106-2.1>
DISK-DRIVEN SALES: Strong insider activity at another
computer firm, Quantum Corp., a Milpitas, Calif., maker of
disk drives, wasn't quite as well-timed.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0106-2.2>
As shown on the accompanying Insider Trading Spotlight,
four insiders sold a total of 153,893 shares in February, SEC
filings show (see accompanying table -- WSJ April 4, 1990).
Quantum's chairman, Stephen Berkley, sold 100,000 of those
shares, or 36% of his stake in the company, according to the
filings.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0106-2.3>
The insiders sold at prices ranging from $10 to $11.63 a
share. But the stock has since rallied, in over-the-counter
trading, to close yesterday at $14.125, up 75 cents.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0106-2.4>
Company officials, including Mr. Berkley, declined to
comment on the sales.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0106-3.1>
TORCH BEARERS: Seven executives at Torchmark Corp., a
Birmingham, Ala., insurer, purchased more than 1.2 million of
its shares through the exercise of below-market-price stock
options at the end of last year, SEC filings show.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0106-3.2>
Torchmark Chairman Ronald K. Richey more than doubled his
holdings in the company, boosting his current stake to
491,658 shares from 237,804 shares, according to the company.
(He turned 91,647 shares back to the company Jan. 30 to pay
taxes on the options exercises.)
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0106-3.3>
The insiders paid $10.88 to $30.50 a share; the stock was
unchanged at $45.50 a share in Big Board composite trading
yesterday.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0106-3.4>
Mr. Richey, along with most of Torchmark's other senior
officials, was out of the office yesterday and couldn't be
reached for comment. A Torchmark spokeswoman said they were
arranging the company's efforts to propose its five nominees
to the board of American General Corp., a Houston-based
insurer. Torchmark made a $6.3 billion bid for American
General on March 26, but said it withdrew it after American
General failed to respond within 48 hours.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0105 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0105-1.1>
PITTSBURGH -- National Intergroup Inc. management mailed a
proxy statement to shareholders challenging the credentials
of the principals of Centaur Partners IV, who are waging a
proxy fight for control of National Intergroup.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0105-1.2>
"Abbey Butler, Melvyn Estrin and Charles Abod have no
proven track record in running a large, diversified public
company," National Intergroup said. National said that a
mail-order company operated by Mr. Butler went bankrupt in
1978 and that Mr. Butler has twice filed for personal
bankruptcy, in 1981 and 1983.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0105-1.3>
In addition, Mr. Butler was censured and fined by the
National Association of Securities Dealers for rules
violations, National Intergroup said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0105-1.4>
Centaur, which owns more than 16% of National, is
advocating sale of the assets of the drug wholesaling
concern, which has interests in metals and energy companies.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0105-1.5>
In New York, Centaur Partners Group said National
Intergroup's management and directors "have resorted to
personal invective and mischaracterizations in an attempt to
divert stockholder attention from their own sorry record of
$450 million in losses from continuing operations during the
last six years."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0105-1.6>
Centaur said in a statement that the Centaur group's
ability to run a large company shouldn't be an issue "in view
of our announced program to sell National Intergroup's
businesses and distribute the proceeds to stockholders."
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0104 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0104-1.1>
Tuesday, April 3, 1990

</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0104-1.2>
The key U.S. and foreign annual interest rates below are a
guide to general levels but don't always represent actual
transactions.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0104-1.3>
PRIME RATE: 10%. The base rate on corporate loans at large
U.S. money center commercial banks.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0104-1.4>
FEDERAL FUNDS: 8 3/8% high, 8 3/16% low, 8 3/16% near
closing bid, 8 1/4% offered. Reserves traded among commercial
banks for overnight use in amounts of $1 million or more.
Source: Fulton Prebon (U.S.A.) Inc.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0104-1.5>
DISCOUNT RATE: 7%. The charge on loans to depository
institutions by the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0104-1.6>
CALL MONEY: 9 1/4%. The charge on loans to brokers on
stock exchange collateral.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0104-1.7>
COMMERCIAL PAPER placed directly by General Motors
Acceptance Corp.: 8.275% 30 to 44 days; 8.25% 45 to 59 days;
8.20% 60 to 89 days; 8.15% 90 to 119 days; 8.10% 120 to 149
days; 8.05% 150 to 179 days; 8% 180 to 270 days.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0104-1.8>
COMMERCIAL PAPER: High-grade unsecured notes sold through
dealers by major corporations in multiples of $1,000: 8.30%
30 days; 8.30% 60 days; 8.27% 90 days.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0104-1.9>
CERTIFICATES OF DEPOSIT: 7.77% one month; 7.83% two
months; 7.86% three months; 7.93% six months; 8.20% one year.
Average of top rates paid by major New York banks on primary
new issues of negotiable C.D.s, usually on amounts of $1
million and more. The minimum unit is $100,000. Typical rates
in the secondary market: 8.35% one month; 8.40% three months;
8.55% six months.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0104-1.10>
BANKERS ACCEPTANCES: 8.20% 30 days; 8.16% 60 days; 8.15%
90 days; 8.15% 120 days; 8.15% 150 days; 8.14% 180 days.
Negotiable, bank-backed business credit instruments typically
financing an import order.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0104-1.11>
LONDON LATE EURODOLLARS: 8 7/16% to 8 5/16% one month; 8
1/2% to 8 3/8% two months; 8 9/16% to 8 7/16% three months; 8
5/8% to 8 1/2% four months; 8 11/16% to 8 9/ 16% five months;
8 11/16% to 8 9/16% six months.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0104-1.12>
LONDON INTERBANK OFFERED RATES (LIBOR): 8 7/16% one month;
8 9/16% three months; 8 3/4% six months; 9% one year. The
average of interbank offered rates for dollar deposits in the
London market based on quotations at five major banks.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0104-1.13>
FOREIGN PRIME RATES: Canada 14.25%; Germany 10.50%; Japan
6.25%; Switzerland 11.25%; Britain 15%. These rate
indications aren't directly comparable; lending practices
vary widely by location.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0104-1.14>
TREASURY BILLS: Results of the Monday, April 2, 1990,
auction of short-term U.S. government bills, sold at a
discount from face value in units of $10,000 to $1 million:
7.83% 13 weeks; 7.81% 26 weeks.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0104-1.15>
FEDERAL HOME LOAN MORTGAGE CORP. (Freddie Mac): Posted
yields on 30-year mortgage commitments for delivery within 30
days. 10.30%, standard conventional fixed-rate mortgages; 8%,
2% rate capped one-year adjustable rate mortgages. Source:
Telerate Systems Inc.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0104-1.16>
FEDERAL NATIONAL MORTGAGE ASSOCIATION (Fannie Mae): Posted
yields on 30-year mortgage commitments for delivery within 30
days (priced at par). 10.19%, standard conventional
fixed-rate mortgages; 9%, 6/2 rate capped one-year adjustable
rate mortgages. Source: Telerate Systems Inc.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0104-1.17>
MERRILL LYNCH READY ASSETS TRUST: 7.61%. Annualized
average rate of return after expenses for the past 30 days;
not a forecast of future returns.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0103 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0103-1.1>
NEW YORK -- MBP Acquisition Corp., an investment group
that includes Playtex Family Products Corp., agreed to
acquire cosmetics maker Maybelline for $300 million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0103-1.2>
Maybelline's parent, pharmaceutical maker Schering-Plough
Corp., announced plans last December to sell its cosmetics
unit in order to focus on its more profitable prescription
and over-the-counter drug businesses.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0103-1.3>
But no major corporate suitors emerged, and the current
cash offer, which amounts to about one times Maybelline's
1989 sales, is far less than analysts had originally expected
the maker of the No. 2 brand of mass-market cosmetics to
fetch. "They're getting it cheap," said Allan Mottus, a
cosmetics industry consultant.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0103-1.4>
Last September, consumer products concern Procter & Gamble
Co. announced plans to acquire Noxell Corp. in a stock swap
valued at $1.3 billion, or about 2.5 times Noxell's annual
sales. Noxell makes Maybelline's top rival Cover Girl
cosmetics, the No. 1 mass-market brand.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0103-1.5>
"I would say it's a good price, but a fair price" said
Hercules Sotos, vice chairman of Playtex, of the Maybelline
bid. A Schering-Plough spokesman also called the price fair,
and added that the pharmaceutical maker had never predicted
Maybelline's selling price.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0103-1.6>
MBP Acquisition is a newly formed group that includes
Playtex Family Products, which markets such consumer goods as
Playtex tampons and the Jhirmack and La Coupe brands of
shampoos; Thomas H. Lee Co., a leveraged buy-out firm based
in Boston, and members of Playtex and Maybelline managements.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0103-1.7>
Playtex Family Products, based in Stamford, Conn., was
formed in 1988 after Playtex Holdings Inc. was sold to a
management group and divided into two companies. Playtex
Holdings' other businesses became Playtex Apparel Inc., which
makes bras, girdles and other apparel.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0103-1.8>
Maybelline's management is expected to remain in place
after the transaction is completed, though the acquisition
doesn't mark Playtex's first venture into the image-oriented
world of cosmetics. The company had previously owned the Max
Factor, Almay and Halston cosmetics business, which it sold
to Revlon Group Inc. in 1986.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0103-1.9>
Drug industry analysts, who had applauded the announced
sale of the cosmetics unit, seemed to view the move
favorably. "Their {Schering-Plough's} future earnings will be
more predictable," said Hemant K. Shah, an independent
analyst with Hemant K. Shah & Co. "Maybelline has always been
an uncertain factor in Schering-Plough's earnings."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0103-1.10>
Yesterday, in composite trading on the New York Stock
Exchange, Schering-Plough's shares closed at $81.125, up 62.5
cents, on volume of 213,400 shares.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0102 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0102-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- The House approved a $2.4 billion
supplemental spending bill for fiscal 1990 that includes most
of President Bush's request for aid to Panama and Nicaragua.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0102-1.2>
The measure, approved on a 362-59 vote, includes nearly
$1.5 billion in new spending authority for a variety of
domestic programs that Mr. Bush didn't seek, and shifts
priorities within the president's foreign-aid request.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0102-1.3>
The measure would offset $1.8 billion of the new spending
authority for the year that began Oct. 1 with rescissions of
previously approved Pentagon funding. But it would still add
$665 million to the current fiscal year's deficit, which the
Congressional Budget Office projects at $158 billion.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0102-1.4>
Mr. Bush said he wanted the measure on his desk by
tomorrow. But swift action in the Senate isn't likely.
Democratic leaders there, including Majority Leader George
Mitchell of Maine and Appropriations Committee Chairman
Robert Byrd of West Virginia, have expressed reservations
about the amount of money the president is seeking for the
two Central American nations.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0102-1.5>
The House-passed bill would cut Mr. Bush's aid request for
a one-time aid infusion for Panama to $420 million from $500
million. But it would authorize the $300 million he sought
for Nicaragua as the first installment of a multiyear aid
program.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0102-1.6>
Of the Nicaraguan aid, $30 million would help pay for
costs of repatriating the U.S.-backed Contra rebels, who have
agreed to disband before the new democratically elected
government takes power later this month.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0102-1.7>
The supplemental measure also includes $442 million to
replenish Interior Department and National Park Service funds
spent to fight Western forest fires and to clean up oil
spilled from the Exxon Valdez, and $111 million in disaster
aid related to Hurricane Hugo and the California earthquake
last year and the recent flooding in the Southeast.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0102-1.8>
An additional $96 million would be provided to make up a
shortfall in state unemployment-insurance programs brought on
by higher-than-projected joblessness.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0102-1.9>
In foreign-aid accounts, the bill would provide an
additional $70 million to transport refugees to the U.S. and
Israel from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe; $30 million
for southern Africa, with $10 million each designated for the
newly independent nation of Namibia and to promote democracy
in South Africa; $25 million in food aid for refugees
world-wide; $15 million for Eastern Caribbean nations
including Jamaica; $5 million to help repair damage from
Hurricane Hugo in three Caribbean nations, and $5 million for
Soviet Jewish refugees in Israel.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0102-1.10>
The measure would remove the U.S. Export-Import Bank's
limitation on medium-term loans. Ex-Im Bank officials say
that would allow them to make more loans to Panama and
Eastern Europe. Another provision would provide the World
Bank with $1.6 billion in callable capital for use if the
bank encountered financial difficulties.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0102-1.11>
The military-spending rescissions come from a wide range
of personnel, procurement, research-and-development and
construction accounts. The largest single item is a $238
million cut in the production at a Louisiana facility of
explosives used in shells.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0102-1.12>
About $212 million would come out of purchases of spare
and repair parts, $100 million from slowing down Air Force
personnel transfers, and $82.9 million from a personnel
freeze in all of the uniformed services, including the Army,
Navy and Air Force reserves and the Army and Air National
Guards.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0101 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0101-1.1>
ZEELAND, Mich. -- Herman Miller Inc. said it agreed to
acquire Meridian Inc. of Spring Lake, Mich., in a stock swap
valued at about $28.6 million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0101-1.2>
Herman Miller said it will acquire the closely held maker
of metal-case goods by exchanging 1,380,000 of its common
shares for all of Meridian's shares outstanding. The shares
to be issued will represent 5.4% of Herman Miller's common
stock after the acquisition, Herman Miller said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0101-1.3>
James H. Bloem, Herman Miller vice president and chief
financial officer, said the transaction will neither enhance
nor dilute the company's per-share earnings for the fiscal
year ending June 2. The Michigan office-furniture maker said
it expects to complete the transaction before May 23.
Completion is subject to regulatory approval.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0100 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0100-1.1>
New York investor Carl Icahn said his proposal for USX
Corp. to spin off its steel business to shareholders would
create values of $48 for each existing share of USX, or 30%
above the current market price.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0100-1.2>
In proxy materials mailed this week to USX shareholders,
Mr. Icahn said that if the company's two main businesses were
split up, Marathon Oil Co. would be worth $39 a USX share and
U.S. Steel would be worth $9 a share.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0100-1.3>
Mr. Icahn wants 80% or more of U.S. Steel distributed to
USX shareholders. He plans to spend between $5 million and
$10 million to persuade USX holders to vote for his proposal
in a nonbinding referendum at the Pittsburgh-based company's
annual meeting May 7.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0100-1.4>
Separating the steel and energy companies, Mr. Icahn said,
would enable investors to value them more efficiently, give
investors greater freedom of choice, and make management more
accountable.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0100-1.5>
The Icahn proxy materials contain a chart showing that USX
stock has declined in price since March 31, 1975, while
Standard & Poor's 500-stock index has risen fourfold.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0100-1.6>
USX shares surged yesterday to $37.125, up $1.50, amid a
general market rally in composite trading on the New York
Stock Exchange.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0100-1.7>
The materials also dispute USX management's contention
that a split-up would jeopardize some of the $900 million in
tax-loss carry-forwards that could shelter USX profits from
taxes. Even after the steel business was spun off, he said,
the tax losses would continue to offset Marathon's taxable
income.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0100-1.8>
The Mt. Kisco, N.Y.-based investor also plans to vote his
13.3% USX stake for other holders' proposals to eliminate
some anti-takeover devices, including staggered board terms
and a poison-pill shareholder rights plan. A poison pill
makes a hostile takeover prohibitively expensive. Those
proposals also are nonbinding.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0100-1.9>
Mr. Icahn also is backing proposed bylaw changes to force
USX directors to own at least 2,000 shares of USX stock. He
also backs a measure barring executive compensation
contingent on acquisition of the company. That measure
appears aimed at so-called golden parachute payments for
executives who leave after a takeover.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0100-1.10>
USX declined to comment on the Icahn proxy materials,
saying it needed more time to study them. But the company
said it favors keeping the poison-pill and staggered-board
measures -- not to thwart an acquisition on favorable terms,
but to deter unfair or coercive offers and preserve
"continuity and stability" by requiring two annual meetings
for a change of control. USX also opposes the stock-ownership
proposal for directors as unnecessary.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0100-1.11>
Mr. Icahn disclosed that he is paying oil industry analyst
Kurt Wulff, chairman of McDEP Associates Inc., $50,000 for
his analysis of a spin-off. He also is paying $200,000 to
D.F. King & Co., a proxy solicitor, and $150,000 to Jefferies
& Co., a securities firm, for helping him solicit votes. If
he wins the vote, he must pay another $200,000 to King and
$450,000 to Jefferies.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0100-1.12>
The Jefferies firm, which had close ties to corporate
raiders including Mr. Icahn in the mid-1980s, recently hired
several former executives of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.,
once Mr. Icahn's chief investment banker, following the
bankruptcy-law filing of Drexel's parent, Drexel Burnham
Lambert Group Inc.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0100-1.13>
Jefferies' former chairman, Boyd Jefferies, pleaded guilty
to federal securities-law violations in connection with the
Ivan Boesky insider-trading case.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0099 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0099-1.1>
INWOOD, N.Y. -- Choice Drug Systems Inc. said its
president and chief operating officer, George W. Keith,
resigned after three months, citing differences with
management.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0099-1.2>
"It was such a vague resignation, quite frankly, that"
today "we're having a board meeting to find out why" Mr.
Keith left, said Frank Mandelbaum, executive vice president,
treasurer and chief financial officer of the provider of
pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and disposables on Long
Island here.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0099-1.3>
Mr. Keith, who also had been a director, succeeded Norman
Pachtman, 50, who is vice chairman of the now five-member
board. Mr. Keith presented his resignation to Chairman Marvin
Sirota, Mr. Mandelbaum said. Mr. Sirota was unavailable for
comment, Mr. Mandelbaum added. Mr. Keith couldn't be reached.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0099-1.4>
For the third quarter ended Nov. 30, Choice Drug reported
its net loss widened to $198,278, or five cents a share, from
$53,182, or one cent a share, in the year-earlier period.
Sales climbed 20% to $4.9 million from $4.1 million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0099-1.5>
The nine-month loss narrowed to $116,206, or three cents a
share, from $227,739, or five cents a share. Sales grew 24%
to $14.5 million from $11.7 million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0099-1.6>
In over-the-counter trading, Choice Drug shares were
quoted yesterday at $1 bid, unchanged.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0098 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0098-1.1>
ANGELES CORP. set its initial cash distribution on its 1.7
million newly issued units at 30.56 cents per unit, and said
the amount would be paid April 30 to unitholders of record
April 16. Issuance of the units was part of the company's
recent acquisition of the assets of several affiliated
entities for $36.6 million. Each unit consists of one-half
share of common stock, one-fiftieth of a new 12 1/2%
subordinated debenture due 2005, and a special cash payment
of $1 over the four-year life of the unit. Angeles, a Los
Angeles investment management concern, said that the initial
cash payment covers the period between March 3 and April 15.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0097 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.1>
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Who will be the next leader of
Indonesia? It is the question inside Indonesia these days.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.2>
But outside Indonesia, the question often becomes: Who
cares? That's because Indonesia, after 45 years of
independence, remains perhaps the world's most nebulous
nation.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.3>
Indonesians began thinking about a new leader after
President Suharto, who was elected to a five-year term in
1988, hinted that he might step down at the end of his term
in 1993, when he will be 72. But so far, they don't seem to
have warmed to the idea of anyone else in particular taking
over. After a quarter-century of quiet economic development
under Suharto -- helped by hefty oil-export earnings --
Indonesians believe they are approaching the economic
"take-off" stage and wonder where it will take them.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.4>
Many foreigners don't know where Indonesia is going
either. In fact, they don't know where Indonesia is. They
often confuse it with Indochina. Foreign Affairs, the Council
on Foreign Relations' quarterly publication, headlined its
latest article about the place "Invisible Indonesia."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.5>
Fifteenth-century Europeans knew it better. Indonesia,
then called the Spice Islands, is where Columbus was trying
to go when he bumped into America.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.6>
Today, with 178 million people, it is the fifth largest
nation in the world, after China, India, the Soviet Union and
the U.S. It has the world's biggest population of Moslems,
who make up roughly 90% of the population.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.7>
Indonesia ranks 15th in the world in land area. But one
thing that makes Indonesia less noticeable abroad is that it
is scattered over 13,667 islands and parts of islands,
including three of the world's six largest islands: New
Guinea (which is bigger than Texas), Borneo (bigger than
France) and Sumatra (bigger than California). Placed over a
map of North America, Indonesia would stretch from Alaska to
New York.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.8>
Only China and India surpass it in Asia, population-wise,
and as a big potential marketplace and labor source. But much
of China's glow was tarnished at Tiananmen Square last June.
And India sputters along in its mire of red tape. Indonesia,
meanwhile, looks bright in comparison, so businesses eager to
expand in Asia care very much about who leads Indonesia next.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.9>
Diplomats and geostrategic thinkers certainly care. They
remember when Indonesia, under the rule of the flamboyant
Sukarno and containing the world's third largest Communist
Party, was a major source of instability in the region.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.10>
Suharto's New Order regime changed all that. It was born
in trauma Oct. 1, 1965, when an attempted coup within the
army was put down by Suharto and other generals in a
countercoup that turned into ethnic, religious and political
violence that killed hundreds of thousands of Indonesians --
many of them ethnic Chinese. More than 100,000 suspected
Communists were jailed or exiled to island prisons.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.11>
"What Suharto did was to put this place on the shelf for
25 years," says a Western diplomat. Suharto stopped shoving
Indonesia's weight around in the region -- with the exception
of its annexation of Portuguese Timor in 1975-76, for which
it continues to be condemned by human-rights groups -- and
became a moderating influence in the Non-Aligned Movement and
the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.12>
Suharto's focus was on internal development, especially in
rural areas where 80% of the population lives. He built roads
and irrigation projects, stressed food production and family
planning. Some Western diplomats in Jakarta say Suharto is
enormously popular in the countryside, so much so that he
would win a direct election for president. But Indonesians
vote indirectly, electing members of a parliament who, along
with members the president chooses in equal number, pick the
next president. The system is stacked to favor the incumbent.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.13>
Ask middle-class Indonesians in urban areas what kind of
successor they want and one often hears, "Someone just like
Suharto," though they sometimes add, "but without his kids."
Suharto's children -- and allegations of them using their
influence to accumulate business networks and enormous wealth
-- run a close second to the succession itself as topics on
the Jakarta cocktail circuit.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.14>
Western-educated technocrats -- who have had a largely
free rein unique in the developing world to run the economy
and plan development -- are in no hurry to see Suharto go. He
has protected and fostered them in ways a successor would be
hardpressed to match even if he wanted to.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.15>
Suharto is an authoritarian ruler, a tough enforcer of
stability. He hasn't hesitated to crack down on militants on
the left or right, usually accusing them of being Communists
or radical Moslems, the twin threats to Indonesia's stability
in the Suharto lexicon. He has thus alienated students and
religious leaders, journalists and others wanting less
censorship and more due process and has been condemned by
international human-rights groups.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.16>
It is generally agreed that the three most important
forces in the succession selection will be, first, President
Suharto himself, followed by the military and then by Golkar,
the ruling political party.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.17>
Dozens of names have been floated. But a single man
emerges. Born in a poor village in central Java, son of a
minor irrigation official, he chose a military career and
rose through the ranks. He emerged as a patriot with a strong
religious faith who carried on as a respected politician,
quietly helping his nation prosper.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.18>
His name is mentioned favorably by government officials,
businessmen, young intellectuals, religious leaders,
technocrats and villagers. That name is Suharto.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.19>
"You had FDR I, FDR II and FDR III," says a think-tank
scholar in the Indonesian capital. "Why can't we have Suharto
VI?" Yet to this scholar, that is a distasteful thought. The
longer Suharto rules, the more uncertain will be the
succession, he says. But Suharto personifies stability, just
what Indonesia needs at this stage in its development.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.20>
Less than a year ago, Indonesia's political observers were
confident that Suharto was serving his last term. He said as
much in his autobiography, and military men were pressing for
his retirement.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0097-1.21>
Now, the only serious question about his seeking another
term seems to be whether he will stay healthy. He's reported
to be in good health now. He plays golf regularly and travels
around Indonesia looking like an unannounced candidate. He
also made three trips abroad last year -- to the U.S., the
Soviet Union and to Japan for the funeral of Emperor
Hirohito.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0096 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0096-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- A National Academy of Sciences panel
generally backed a Bush administration plan to spend
approximately $50 billion over 25 years on a series of huge
satellites to study climates, but said it is just as
important to launch smaller satellites, too.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0096-1.2>
The administration plan, called "Mission to Planet Earth,"
envisions launching two $3 billion satellites near the end of
the decade to study the changing global environment. Each of
the satellites, called the Earth Observing System, or EOS,
would be replaced every five years to get a 15-year
environmental record of Earth.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0096-1.3>
But EOS critics, who include some of the leading climate
researchers, say the satellites are too expensive, too
complex and too risky. If an EOS satellite should fail during
launch or operation, they say, it could devastate climate
research because so many instruments are concentrated on a
single platform.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0096-1.4>
The academy report gave fresh ammunition to the critics.
James Baker, an oceanographer who was chairman of the panel,
said the National Aeronautics and Space Administration should
launch small satellites in addition to EOS -- even if it
means taking money from the EOS budget and delaying EOS
launches. These smaller satellites are needed to continue
current observations of the Earth or to add capabilities
missing in EOS, he said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0096-1.5>
"We can't wait for EOS" to get those measurements, said
Mr. Baker.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0096-1.6>
NASA, in a nod to its critics, so far has backed four
small satellites to study atmospheric ozone, ocean plant
life, sea winds and tropical rainfall before the EOS
launches. Mr. Baker said NASA's top priority should be to
make sure those satellites, called Earth Probes, are
launched. Then the agency should examine adding satellites to
measure the Earth's magnetic field, gravity field, cloud
coverage and soil moisture, he said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0096-1.7>
For the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, NASA has requested
$235 million for the EOS program and $25 million for the
smaller satellites. Mr. Baker said NASA should consider
shifting money from EOS to the Earth Probes to advance the
launch dates of the smaller satellites.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0096-1.8>
NASA officials oppose shifting money from EOS, and say the
huge satellites are their first priority.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0096-1.9>
The EOS satellites will pass the same points on Earth at
the same time every day, measuring the interplay of the
atmosphere, land and ocean. Getting simultaneous readings of
different climatic data would be a big advance, NASA says,
because it would give researchers a way to understand the
climate as a whole.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0096-1.10>
The academy report said it made sense to package the first
EOS, which measures the interaction of the Earth surface and
atmosphere, as a single big satellite. But it said the work
of the second EOS could be divided into smaller satellites.
The orbits of smaller satellites can be geared to getting the
best data from the few instruments that each carried on
board, the report said. The EOS must pick a compromise orbit
to satisfy the dozen or so instruments that must work
together.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0096-1.11>
The 14-member panel consisted mainly of atmospheric and
space scientists who work at universities.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0095 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0095-1.1>
Bechtel Group Inc. said in San Francisco that new work
booked in 1989 rose 21% from 1988.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0095-1.2>
The closely held engineering and construction concern said
it signed up $5.4 billion of new projects in 1989, compared
with $4.5 billion a year earlier.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0095-1.3>
The company also reported that its revenue work-off -- the
amount of work performed and billed -- in 1989 was $5.1
billion, up 14% from $4.5 billion in 1988.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0095-1.4>
Bechtel said its non-manual work force increased 7% in
1989 to 19,200. Total work force for the company is 27,800.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0094 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0094-1.1>
The following were among yesterday's offerings and
pricings in U.S. and non-U.S. capital markets, with terms and
syndicate manager, as compiled by Dow Jones Capital Markets
Report:
 CORPORATE

</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0094-1.2>
United Telecommunications Inc. -- $250 million of notes,
due April 1, 2000, were priced at 99.43 to yield 9.84%. The
size of the issue was increased from an originally planned
$200 million. The non-callable notes were priced at a spread
of 122 basis points above the Treasury's 10-year note. Rated
Baa-3 by Moody's Investors Service Inc. and Triple-B by
Standard & Poor's Corp., the issue will be sold through
underwriters led by Dillon Read & Co.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0094-1.3>
Ford Motor Credit Corp. -- $200 million of notes, due
April 15, 2000, was priced at par to yield 9.50%. The
non-callable notes were priced at a spread of 86 basis points
above the Treasury's 10-year note. Rated double-A-2 by
Moody's and Double-A by S&P, the issue will be sold through
Goldman Sachs & Co.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0094-1.4>
PepsiCo Inc. -- $100 million of notes, due April 10, 1991,
was priced at par to float at a spread of 47 basis points
above the bond equivalent yield of the three-month Treasury
bill. The non-callable notes will be reoffered at various
prices. Rated Prime-1 by Moody's and Single-A-1 by S&P, the
issue will be sold through underwriters at Merrill Lynch
Capital Markets.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0094-1.5>
GTE Florida Inc. -- $75 million of first mortgage bonds,
due April 1, 2030, was won in competitive bidding by a group
led by Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc. The bonds, noncallable for
five years, will be reoffered at 97.273 to yield 9.90%. The
bonds were priced at a spread of 128 basis points above the
Treasury's bellwether 30-year bond. The issue is rated
Double-A3 by Moody's and Double-A-Minus by S&P.
 MUNICIPALS
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0094-1.6>
New York State Housing Finance Agency -- $552.5 million
revenue refunding and special obligation bonds, Series 1990
A, due May 1 and Nov. 1, 1992-1995, 2000 and 2008 and
19902005, were tentatively priced by a J.P. Morgan Securities
Inc. group to yield from 5.90% for special obligation bonds
due in 1990 to 8.08% for revenue refunding bonds due in 2008.
The revenue refunding current interest serial bonds were
priced to yield from 6.90% in 1992 to 7.55% in 1995. There
are $83.17 million term bonds priced at 99 1/2 to yield 7.97%
in 2000 and $215.5 million bonds priced at 99 1/4 to yield
8.08% in 2008. The serial bonds are due May 1 and Nov. 1 of
each year; the term bonds are due Nov. 1 only. The special
obligation current interest serial bonds are priced at par to
yield from 5.90% in 1990 to 6.95% in 2003-2005. There are no
term bonds. The serial bonds are due May 1 and Nov. 1 of each
year. The revenue refunding bonds are rated Baa-1 by Moody's
and Single-A-minus by S&P. The special obligation bonds are
rated Triple-A by both Moody's and S&P.
 MORTGAGES
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0094-1.7>
Federal National Mortgage Association -- $300 million real
estate mortgage investment conduit securities was offered in
14 classes by Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc. The offering,
Series 1990-48, is backed by Fannie Mae's 9 1/2% securities
and was structured to yield from 7% to 9.5%. A separate $300
million issue of Fannie Mae Remics was offered in 14 classes
by Morgan Stanley & Co. The offering, Series 1990-49, was
backed by Fannie Mae's 9% securities and was structured to
yield from 8.5275% to 9%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0094-1.8>
Travelers Mortgage Services -- $145.2 million of real
estate mortgage investment conduit securities was offered in
seven classes by UBS Securities Inc. The offering, Series
1990-6, is backed by fixed-rate whole loans. Collateral
consists of fixed-rate whole loans with 30-year original
maturities, with a weighted average coupon rate of 10.57% and
weighted average remaining term to maturity of 29.92 years.
The issue is expected to receive ratings of double-A-2 by
Moody's and double-A by S&P.
 EUROBONDS
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0094-1.9>
Credit Lyonnais Fonds Commmun de Creances 90-1 (vehicle)
-- 1 billion French francs of 10.20% bonds backed by Credit
Lyonnais consumer loans, due Sept 25, 1993, priced at 99.46,
via Credit Lyonnais and Bear, Stearns International. Average
life 1 1/2 years. Consists of 875 million franc senior
tranche and 125 million franc junior subordinated tranche.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0094-1.10>
State Bank of South Australia (Australia) -- $50 million
(New Zealand) of 14% eurobonds due May 15, 1992, priced at
101.95, via Fay Richwhite. Guaranteed by Treasurer of State
of South Australia. Fees 1 1/4.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0093 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0093-1.1>
DPL Inc. (Dayton, Ohio) -- James F. Dicke II, president of
Crown Equipment Corp., was elected a director of this utility
holding company, succeeding a director who didn't stand for
re-election.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0092 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0092-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- Japan has agreed to allow U.S.
communications satellite vendors to bid for orders from both
public agencies and from its largest telecommunications
company, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., a Japanese
Foreign Ministry spokesman said here.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0092-1.2>
The spokesman, Makoto Yamanaka, said Japan has agreed to
conduct the bidding in an "open, transparent and
nondiscriminatory" manner. U.S. officials acknowledged that
such an understanding had been reached, but didn't provide
details.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0092-1.3>
The agreement in principle brought the two governments
close to settling the second of three trade disputes raised
under the so-called Super 301 provision of the U.S. trade
law. Earlier, the two sides agreed on the conditions through
which the U.S. can sell supercomputers to Japanese public
agencies. The Super 301 statute authorizes the U.S. to slap
stiff trade sanctions on countries that don't meet its
requirements.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0092-1.4>
The prospective satellite accord makes a distinction
between research satellites, which Tokyo has the right to
independently develop, and commercial satellites, which it is
required to procure from the most competitive sources. Such
an accord would allow Japan's National Aeronautics and Space
Development Agency to develop its projected research
satellites on its own. However, satellites that Japan
acquires for broadcast, weather-monitoring and other
commercial functions would be subject to open bidding.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0092-1.5>
Other Japanese officials said the accord eventually will
lead to the purchase of a U.S.-made satellite by NHK, Japan's
public broadcasting corporation.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0092-1.6>
The accord, however, takes Japan's separate CS4 satellite
project out of the reach of U.S. vendors because it will be
converted into a purely government-financed research project.
The U.S. earlier protested that the project had commercial
implications because of NTT's participation in it. The accord
will remove NTT from working on the CS4 satellite.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0092-1.7>
Mr. Yamanaka said the satellite accord still has to be
formalized by an exchange of letters between the two
governments.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0092-1.8>
U.S. and Japanese officials are still negotiating a
settlement of the third dispute, a U.S. complaint that Japan
unfairly restricts imports of forest products.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0091 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0091-1.1>
HIGHLAND PARK, Mich. -- Chrysler Corp. said it will resume
sales of its Jeep vehicles in Saudi Arabia for the first time
in 25 years.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0091-1.2>
The No. 3 auto maker said the move is coming because Arab
nations last year removed Jeeps from the list of products
they are boycotting. Chrysler also said it hopes to increase
sales of all its products in the Arab market.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0091-1.3>
The first step was naming United Arab Motors Co. as the
distributor for Jeep and Dodge vehicles in Saudi Arabia. The
distribution concern, owned by Aggad Investment Co., will
construct three Saudi dealerships in Riyadh, Damman and
Jeddah. Chrysler, which said it expects to sell about 1,200
to 1,500 vehicles a year there, may soon sign distribution
agreements in other Middle East nations.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0090 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0090-1.1>
RESTON, Va. -- US Sprint Communications Co., a unit of
United Telecommunications Inc., Kansas City, Mo., launched a
service that allows calling from the U.S. to most nations
with assistance from a Japanese-speaking operator and to bill
the call to a Japanese credit card. US Sprint began the
service under an agreement with JCB International, a major
credit-card company in Japan.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0089 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0089-1.1>
ATLANTA -- Southern Co.'s chief executive officer, Edward
L. Addison, is putting out brush fires at the giant utility
concerning recent disclosures about his son Scott's lucrative
business ties to the company. But a forest fire seems to be
heating up just behind him.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0089-1.2>
In the past two weeks, Mr. Addison has been making the
rounds through the four-state electric utility system,
talking with board members and holding sessions with managers
at various levels to offer his explanation and to field
questions.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0089-1.3>
As the heat intensifies on the issue, which is but the
latest in a wide-ranging, two-year federal probe of the
beleaguered utility holding company, the sessions may be a
dress rehearsal for Mr. Addison: He faces a regular Southern
board meeting April 16 and an annual shareholders meeting in
May.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0089-1.4>
Mr. Addison, who is well-known locally as the dapper and
genial executive featured on Southern's television
advertisements, declined to be interviewed, "based on the
advice of our attorneys," a company spokesman said. The
younger Mr. Addison also declined to be interviewed.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0089-1.5>
As reported, Southern acknowledged last month that the son
received commissions from the company's pension-fund trades
when he was a broker at Kidder, Peabody & Co. in Atlanta.
Southern had requested that its outside pension-fund managers
direct "up to 20%" of its pension-fund trades to Kidder
Peabody and name the younger Mr. Addison as the broker of
record. When the elder Mr. Addison was told of the proposed
arrangement, he said he would "like to see it done," those
familiar with the matter said. Southern adds that the chief
executive insisted it be done legally and at competitive
costs.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0089-1.6>
However, the younger Mr. Addison's business ties to
Southern are wider and more long-lasting than initially
disclosed and stretch beyond the company's $2.38 billion
pension fund, a Southern spokesman confirmed.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0089-1.7>
-- The younger Mr. Addison began soliciting business from
Southern at least as early as December 1983. The company has
confirmed that the younger Mr. Addison, as a 23-year-old
securities broker at Johnson, Lane, Space, Smith & Co. in
Atlanta with just six months experience, telephoned
Southern's Gulf Power Co. unit and recommended that the
company invest in a Government National Mortgage Association
(Ginnie Mae) certificate through his firm. "Based on his
recommendation," Gulf Power invested $500,000 of short-term
funds in a 90-day Ginnie Mae certificate, a Southern
spokesman said. The transaction was handled by another broker
at Johnson Lane, which has since merged to become
Interstate/Johnson Lane. Southern said it didn't know whether
the younger Mr. Addison received any compensation from the
transaction; Interstate/Johnson Lane said it couldn't locate
records on the transaction.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0089-1.8>
-- In 1986, the younger Mr. Addison solicited Southern
officials to invest in repurchase agreements through Kidder
Peabody, where he worked. Southern said that he helped work
out an agreement under which the utility used Kidder Peabody
as one of several firms for investing short-term cash in the
so-called repos -- transactions in which an investor buys a
security with a pledge to sell it back at a fixed date and
price.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0089-1.9>
"Scott inquired as to whether Kidder Peabody could be put
on the list of eligible firms that we canvass," said Gale
Klappa, a Southern spokesman. "The response was that we'd
like to use {Kidder Peabody}, but only if we can get a
standard contract signed. Scott went back to Kidder and got
them to sign a contract."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0089-1.10>
The younger Mr. Addison's attorney, Robert McKnight,
acknowledged that the younger Mr. Addison received small
commissions on the repos.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0089-1.11>
Kidder Peabody declined to comment.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0089-1.12>
Southern subsequently purchased a substantial portion of
its repos through Kidder Peabody, but only when the terms
were competitive, Southern said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0089-1.13>
According to Mr. Klappa, Mr. Addison said he was unaware
that his son had solicited the utility on behalf of Kidder
Peabody and Johnson Lane until this newspaper inquired about
the matter.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0089-1.14>
Mr. McKnight also confirmed that Addison & Associates, an
Atlanta brokerage firm at which the younger Mr. Addison is
president, received brokerage commissions from several
vendors that have lucrative contracts with Southern. However,
Southern said none of its vendors was pressured to do
business with the younger Mr. Addison and none was favored as
a result of doing so.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0089-1.15>
Invesco Capital Management Inc., an Atlanta-based money
manager that handles part of Southern's pension fund,
directed commissions to Addison & Associates in 1989, Mr.
McKnight acknowledged. However, he said the relationship is
unrelated to Southern and results from personal friendships
that the younger Mr. Addison has with Invesco officials. He
also confirmed that Birmingham, Ala.-based Drummond Co., a
big coal supplier to Southern, and that Finley McRae, the
president of Graceville, Fla.-based Apalachee Pole Co., which
is a major supplier of electric poles for Southern, paid
commissions to Addison & Associates last year. However, Mr.
McKnight said those companies obtained Southern contracts
through competitive bidding. "It would be silly to think that
those long-standing relationships could be affected by a
young person just out of college," Mr. McKnight said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0089-1.16>
As the elder Mr. Addison works his way through the
Southern system, he is fielding questions on topics such as
the status of a continuing federal tax investigation of
Southern. Justice Department officials in the tax division in
Washington, are reviewing the prosecutors' case to determine
whether to charge Southern with violating criminal statutes
in its accounting for spare parts, according to people close
to the investigation.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0089-1.17>
Whit Armstrong, an outside director on the board of
Southern's Alabama Power unit, said when Mr. Addison brought
up the topic at a recent board meeting, "Nobody was pressing
him at all. Everybody has known him a long time." Mr.
Armstrong added that Mr. Addison is "credible," noting: "It
seems to be more of a firestorm in the press."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0089-1.18>
Among a handful of Southern directors who could be
reached, most said they see no serious problems for Mr.
Addison. They expect he will talk about his son's business
ties at the coming board meeting without any prodding. "As I
recall, he voluntarily explains things like this to the board
when they come up," said Earl McLean, an outside director.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0089-1.19>
Meanwhile, an internal audit of the son's ties to the
company is under way, and findings will be presented to the
audit committee and the board when it is completed.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0088 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0088-1.1>
The Iraqi procurement ring detected in the act of shipping
40 krytron miniaturized nuclear triggers to Baghdad, provided
convincing evidence that Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons
program continues, despite the Israeli aerial attack on
Iraq's French-built Osirak reactor in June 1981. Experts
differ on how close the Iraqis have come to possessing the
bomb. But krytron switches are one of the last items required
for fielding an operational nuclear device.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0088-1.2>
For several years Iraq has boasted of indigenous weapons
programs and its ability to acquire embargoed Western
technology through front companies and technology transfer
agreements. On Monday, Iraqi's President, Saddam Hussein,
bragged in a speech in Baghdad that Iraq now possessed a
stock of nerve gas -- which it is prepared to use against
Israel. Until recently, though, Mr. Hussein's claims have not
been taken seriously.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0088-1.3>
When Iraq announced in August 1987 that it had launched a
locally developed ballistic missile, for instance, there was
relatively little fuss in the West. It was only when missiles
came crashing down on Tehran six months later that the world
woke up.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0088-1.4>
To its credit, the U.S. government has been one of the few
attempting to do something about the Iraqi weapons programs.
Since 1987, high-ranking U.S. delegations have been
dispatched on numerous occasions to Paris, Bonn, Rome and
elsewhere, to protest the failure of those allies to block
sensitive technology sales to Iraq. Most of the protests,
were delivered in the context of the Missile Technology
Control Regime, signed by the U.S. and six allied nations in
April 1987. But U.S. protests have achieved little to stem
the tide of Western assistance to Iraq.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0088-1.5>
In 1984, a group of former Italian intelligence officers
were indicted in Rome for conspiring to supply Iraq with 34
kilograms of plutonium -- enough to manufacture as many as
three nuclear devices -- and one ton of yellowcake, or
uranium ore. In 1987, the French government tentatively
offered to rebuild the damaged Osirak nuclear plant near
Baghdad, a plant capable of processing the yellowcake into
weapons-grade fuel.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0088-1.6>
France's offer was in fact unnecessary. Iraq had already
begun a top-secret program to rebuild the Osirak reactor
immediately after the Israeli raid. Detailed interviews in
the Iraqi press earlier this year suggested that new isotope
manufacturing units began production in 1985 and 1988, and
that the reactor is fully functioning today. Last week, the
Saudi government acknowledged that it was partially funding
Iraqi nuclear research. The Saudis reassuringly insisted,
however, that the research is "entirely peaceful" in nature.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0088-1.7>
U.S. intelligence officials were warning of the resumption
of the Iraqi effort to acquire nuclear weapons technology two
years ago, and accused China of having supplied a crucial
uranium enrichment plant. Some Western companies, attracted
by the fabulous bonuses Iraq was offering, also provided
help.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0088-1.8>
Instead of purchasing pieces of equipment, Iraq, like
South Africa, Pakistan and Israel, has concentrated on
building up an indigenous industrial base, safe from future
embargo effects. A sealed indictment presented in San Diego
last week claimed that the krytron puchasing ring reported to
a state-owned Iraqi company, controlled by the Ministry of
Industry and Military Industries (MIMI). This is the same
ministry that is responsible for Iraq's ballistic missile,
its chemical weapons and its other armaments programs. Run by
Hussein Kamil Hasan, the nephew of the Iraqi president, and
employing a legion of well-trained armaments engineers, MIMI
has launched a crash effort to acquire the sophisticated
technologies and know-how to enable Iraq to become a
full-fledged manufacturer of a whole triad of strategic
weapons.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0088-1.9>
Iraq is certainly hoping to cash in on the deterrent value
nuclear and chemical weapons provide. But a powerful
strategic arsenal confers other benefits as well. In 1973,
when Syria and Egypt launched their surprise attack on
Israel, Iraq was forced to sit on the sidelines. The armored
division it dispatched by road to Damascus as a gesture of
Arab solidarity barely arrived in time for the final days of
the battle. As a result, Iraq was left out of the negotating
process, an omission that left Iraqi leaders bitter and
disappointed.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0088-1.10>
Mr. Hussein clearly intends to be remembered when it comes
time for the next round of negotiations -- or for the next
war. His strategic arsenal puts Iraq on the front lines with
Israel in a way that was never before possible. It also
provides him with leverage to persuade other Arab states to
back Iraq's pretension as the new leader of the Arab world,
supplanting Saddam Hussein's long-standing rival, Syrian
President Hafez Assad.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0088-1.11>
As the post-World War II security arrangement between the
superpowers breaks up, Iraq is hoping to emerge as the
dominant political and military force in this volatile
region. This is not an aim that even the best orchestrated
customs sting operation can stop.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0088-2.1>
Mr. Timmerman edits Mednews, a Paris-based newsletter
about Middle East defense issues.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0087 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0087-1.1>
HIGHLAND PARK, Mich. -- Chrysler Corp., the auto maker
that pioneered the rebate, has invented the non-incentive
incentive.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0087-1.2>
The No. 3 auto maker is guaranteeing consumers who buy a
1990 minivan between April 1 and Sept. 30 that they will get
the amount of any rebate that may be offered on the vehicles
during the six-month period. The only catch is, Chrysler
isn't offering any rebates on minivans, at least not now.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0087-1.3>
Specifically, Chrysler said it isn't resuming the $1,000
cash-back incentive it adopted during January on Caravan,
Grand Caravan, Voyager, Grand Voyager and Town and Country.
And company spokesmen say there aren't any plans to reinstate
the program, which guaranteed consumers that they would get
the difference if Chrysler announced a higher rebate on the
vans before the Sept. 30 end of the 1990 model year.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0087-1.4>
But Chrysler's minivan sales plummeted from almost 64,000
in January -- more than double the normal sales rate -- to
fewer than 20,000 in February. March is expected to be only
slightly better; final totals are due today. Also, General
Motors Corp. recently began offering $1,000 off on its new
plastic-body Chevrolet Lumina APV, Pontiac Trans Sport and
Oldsmobile Silhouette minivans. And Ford Motor Co. raised the
rebate on its Aerostar minivans to $750 from $500.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0087-1.5>
So Chrysler dealers -- feeling pressure from consumers --
have pushed the auto maker to do something to boost sales of
what has been Chrysler's most popular product. The program
announced yesterday is the result. A Chrysler spokesman said
the auto maker doesn't plan to advertise it, but will send
dealers a "wall-poster-size dealer-gram" with a message from
Chairman Lee A. Iacocca urging customers to "buy now and be
assured that Chrysler wants you to have the best deal
possible."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0087-1.6>
Wouldn't resuming the rebates be simpler? Perhaps, but
Chrysler doesn't want to lose any income from one of its most
profitable vehicles. In addition, the auto maker has said it
fears it could run out of minivans because the two plants
that build the models will be closed for four weeks this
summer. Chrysler is substantially changing the vehicles for
the 1991 model year.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0086 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0086-1.1>
BOSTON -- Fliers on the Trump Shuttle have gotten used to
free newspapers and magazines. Next week, Lotus Development
Corp. is going to give them software.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0086-1.2>
Lotus will pass out coupons good for a free copy of
Magellan -- a $195 utility program for managing hard disks --
to every traveler flying the shuttle into New York's La
Guardia Airport. Lotus expects an eager reception: It says
93% of shuttle travelers have personal computers.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0086-1.3>
Although Magellan got rave reviews when it came out last
year, its high price and established competitors held sales
to the "tens of thousands," a spokeswoman says. In a few
weeks, Lotus plans to introduce an improved and lower-priced
version, at $139. And giving away the older model will help
clear out inventory.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0085 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0085-1.1>
NEW YORK -- The average interest rate fell to 8.244% at
Citicorp's $50 million weekly auction of 91-day commercial
paper, or corporate IOUs, from 8.274% at last week's sale.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0085-1.2>
Bids totaling $445 million were submitted. Accepted bids
ranged from 8.24% to 8.247%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0085-1.3>
Citicorp also said that the average rate fell to 8.246% at
its $50 million auction of 182-day commercial paper from
8.262% at last week's sale. Bids totaling $425 million were
submitted. Accepted bids ranged from 8.24% to 8.247%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0085-1.4>
The bank holding company will auction another $50 million
in each maturity next Tuesday.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0084 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0084-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- The toughest political trade-offs over clean
air may not occur on the House or Senate floor but in a
conference committee, when leaders from both chambers meet to
settle their differences.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0084-1.2>
According to some predictions, the contentious
deliberations could take months, leaving the issue unresolved
until the politically charged days before the November
elections. Already it's possible to detect some of the
important differences between the two houses:

</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0084-1.3>
CARS: There's disagreement over how fast to require an
initial round of cuts in tailpipe emissions and how to decide
whether to require a second round. The first round, estimated
to add $100 to the price of a car, would take effect earlier
under the Senate bill than under the leading House proposal.
There also are different triggers for determining when a
second round, estimated to add $500 to the price, kicks in.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0084-1.4>
FUELS: Even though both houses are tilting toward
reformulated gasoline, there are likely to be differences
over how clean the fuel must be and over how widely to
require its use.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0084-1.5>
SMOG: The chief difference now appears to be over how
strong a federal role to require in forcing states and cities
to clean up their air -- a major issue for environmentalists
and state and local groups. The leading House proposal would
require the federal government to impose clean-up plans on
areas that fail to come up with them on their own; the Senate
bill would leave full responsibility with the states.
Smoggier cities also would be required to take harsher steps
than cleaner ones under the House plan, including applying
controls to smaller polluters.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0084-1.6>
TOXIC EMISSIONS: To date, the Senate and House are
pursuing different techniques for eliminating remaining
cancer risks from factories after they've installed the best
available anti-pollution technology. Environmentalists think
the Senate approach sets too weak a health standard.
Yesterday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted to
adopt an approach for the remaining risks that is similar to
existing law, requiring the EPA to establish health-based
standards that provide an "ample margin of safety" to the
maximum exposed individual.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0084-1.7>
UTILITIES: Power plants would have to make required
reductions in sulfur dioxide sooner under the Senate plan.
The Senate gives extra tradable credits to the dirtiest
Midwest utilities that bear the heaviest costs and to
utilities across the country that need to be able to expand
to meet rising electricity demands. The plan also gives
double the usual credits to utilities that install scrubbers,
rather than switching to low-sulfur coal.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0084-1.8>
The House committee may consider similar changes when it
takes up the subject of acid rain this week.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0083 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0083-1.1>
On Monday, former federal banking official William Isaac
called the S&L mess "the largest bailout in the history of
the world." Today, the Senate, the World's Greatest
Deliberative Body, may well vote the biggest cop-out since it
violated the U.S. Constitution to slam former Senate employee
Danny Wall into a top job in the thrift bailout.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0083-1.2>
A federal judge ruled recently that the Senate's Wall
maneuver skipped the Constitution's clearly stated
appointments requirement. A nomination hearing for Mr. Wall
would have risked airing questions and unflattering publicity
about some of the Senators who've been carrying water for
Charles Keating, the S&L financier.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0083-1.3>
The Bush administration has nominated a Washington lawyer
named Timothy Ryan to take over the headless octopus called
the Office of Thrift Supervision. Last Friday, the Senate
Banking Committee cleared Mr. Ryan by an 11 to 10 vote, and
his nominaton may come before the Senate for a full vote
today. Senate Banking Chairman Don Riegle, who was on the
losing side of the committee vote, now is attempting to
defeat the nomination on the floor. He is arguing that a
leaked FBI report about Mr. Ryan's flirtation with drugs 20
years ago isn't an issue. "Competence" has become the Senate
Democrats' rallying cry. We think the leaked drug report
deserves some further reflection.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0083-1.4>
Mr. Ryan's voluntary admission to the FBI was leaked to
NBC within hours of the Democrats' loss on the committee
vote. Senator Riegle quickly put out a pro forma statement
about not condoning the leak of raw FBI files, but all
Senators will have to evaluate for themselves, etc. etc.
Meanwhile, every subsequent story on Mr. Ryan's nomination
has had to mention the drug-use incident.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0083-1.5>
The fact is, win or lose on the Senate vote, the leak
means that Timothy Ryan's professional and personal life in
Washington forever will have this tin bell dragging behind
it. Mr. Ryan agrees to serve his government by taking a truly
awful assignment, and in return gets this nightmare. But
we're not too surprised that Senator Riegle would yawn at a
breach of FBI confidentiality. This is the same Senate that
held a linen handkerchief to its nose while raw FBI data
engulfed a former colleague, Senator John Tower.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0083-1.6>
Congress, however, does try to defend those who reside
within its walls. Recall the tumult over the false leak
suggesting that Rep. William Gray's office was involved in a
criminal investigation. Under a stern request from Senate
Judiciary Chairman Joseph Biden, the Justice Department
committed 11 FBI agents who spent a total of 385 days
unsuccessfully trying to find the leaker.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0083-1.7>
How many qualified men or women, in the wake of the Ryan
FBI leak, will now consent to subject themselves to this
milieu, especially if Mr. Ryan is defeated? We frankly had
thought that the appointment of Mr. Ryan, a Beltway insider,
was itself a sign that people beyond Washington were refusing
offers to serve. It now appears that Congress will let the
political dogs loose on anyone beyond its own doors. Again,
it was Danny Wall, former Banking Committee Chairman Jake
Garn's aide, who slipped through the normal confirmation
process.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0083-1.8>
Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell now talks of
"widespread concern" over Mr. Ryan's qualifications. We are
beginning to wonder if indeed Congress doesn't have cause to
worry about Mr. Ryan's skills. He is a lawyer and his federal
expertise is in enforcement. Not being part of the cozy,
S&L-Congressional old-boy network, he obviously doesn't have
to worry about whom he offends in the thrift business because
it isn't likely that he'll ever be looking for a job with
them. His most noteworthy asset is his independence.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0083-1.9>
Anyway, wasn't it the "experts" who got the country into
this $200 billion hole? Congress voted the deposit-insurance
limit up to $100,000, which put it way out of Mom and Pop's
league and into the hands of the high flyers. The S&L
"experts" then put billions of dollars into doomed and wild
projects, and the system is now in the tank.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0083-1.10>
Maybe somewhere out there in America is the one "expert"
who can rescue Washington from its past follies with the
thrift system. But he isn't coming to Washington; he has read
how the city devours its own and he is fleeing from it.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0083-1.11>
In the final analysis, the Senate vote on the nomination
should be viewed as a vote on the fundamental seriousness of
the Senate's commitment to a solution. If, however, the
Senate's vote rolls the thrift supervisor's job into limbo,
President Bush should consider taking control of the
situation by making a recess appointment. Without resolve by
some responsible Washington party, the S&L crisis is going to
turn into another American quagmire.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0082 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0082-1.1>
The Pentagon lifted the veil a bit on its F-117A Stealth
fighter-bomber, disclosing among other details that over nine
years it cost a total of $6.26 billion to acquire its 59
radar-evading Lockheed Corp. warplanes.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0082-1.2>
That means the planes cost $106 million apiece, making
them far and away the nation's most expensive fighter-bomber.
The last F-117 is scheduled to be delivered later this year.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0082-1.3>
The additional tidbits of information about the F-117s,
which have flown under cover of government secrecy since
1983, had been expected for many months. In fact, while
additional disclosures were being considered in December, the
U.S. invaded Panama, and the Defense Department disclosed
that two F-117s had dropped 2,000-pound bombs near a
Panamanian army barracks in support of one airborne assault.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0082-1.4>
Yesterday, the Pentagon said six Stealth fighters in all
had been sent to Panama, although only two were called on to
attack targets. That mission, it said, emphasized the plane's
primary role as a precision night attack aircraft. The bombs
were meant to confuse, but not to kill, Panamanian soldiers
that U.S. paratroopers were attempting to capture.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0082-1.5>
Defense Department spokesman Pete Williams said the
single-seat F-117 fighter has a 43-foot wingspan, is 65 feet
long and weighs 52,500 pounds. He declined to discuss the
range or the firepower of the twin-engine, subsonic plane,
which has curvy, composite surfaces that absorb and distort
radar beams. Many of the F-117A's parts were borrowed from
other aircraft, he said, including flight controls similar to
those on the Air Force's F-16 and General Electric Co. F-404
engines akin to those powering the Navy's F-18.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0082-1.6>
A new eight-minute film of the Stealth fighter in flight
also was released. Previously, only one hazy photograph and
drawings based on that shot had been made public. A showing
of the plane for reporters at the F-117's Nevada home, Nellis
Air Force Base, also was scheduled for April 21.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0082-1.7>
The existence of the F-117 was officially acknowledged for
the first time in November 1988, a few weeks before the Air
Force and Northrop Corp. held a "roll-out" ceremony for the
B-2 Stealth bomber. The newer B-2s, projected to cost more
than $500 million each for the full 132-plane fleet
envisioned by the Air Force, have been under serious attack
lately in Congress. Critics believe that in addition to being
overly expensive, it has a penetrating bomber role that may
be unnecessary in light of competing cruise missile
technology and the winding down of the Cold War.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0082-1.8>
Critics of defense spending also have suggested that
release of information about the F-117 seems geared to help
the cause of the bomber program by showing that a
stealth-technology aircraft already is part of the arsenal.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0082-1.9>
While the F-117's per-plane cost is extremely steep, some
analysts note that the total includes an unusually high $2
billion in development costs for the advanced-technology jet,
and other unusual costs including a sophisticated
mission-support computer. What the industry calls the
"flyaway cost," the price of production once development is
out of the way, was given as $42.6 million a plane.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0082-1.10>
Mr. Williams said that both the Air Force and Navy have
development plans for larger, faster and more sophisticated
stealth fighter-bombers, called the Advanced Tactical Fighter
and the Advanced Tactical Aircraft. While these planes will
also have radar-evading capabilities, their design will be
different from the F-117, he said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0082-1.11>
Lockheed, which long has been lobbying to release more
information on the F-117, said it couldn't give any more
detail than the Pentagon disclosed. The planes, three of
which have been lost in crashes, were developed under a 1978
contract at the Lockheed "Skunk Works" aircraft development
operation that also produced the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0082-1.12>
Company officials in the past have said that public
appreciation of the F-117 could help the company in its
competition with Northrop for the Air Force ATF contract. Mr.
Williams said that the F-117 acquisition process had been
streamlined to reduce costs and speed development of the
new-technology aircraft and that the plane's first flight
took place only 31 months after a go-ahead on full
development was given. He declined to comment, however, on
Lockheed's motives for wanting more F-117 information public.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0082-1.13>
The F-117s are based at the Tonopah Test Range Airfield at
Nellis, where the Pentagon said 2,650 military personnel are
assigned to the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing, to which the
planes are assigned.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0081 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0081-1.1>
NEW YORK -- International Cablecasting Technologies Inc.
and Scientific-Atlanta Inc. said they will develop a new
product to deliver compact-disk quality sound to cable-TV
subscribers.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0081-1.2>
The new service, CD/27: The Digital Music Network, is
scheduled to be unveiled this fall and will feature 27
commercial-free music formats uninterrupted by disk jockeys.
It will be available to cable systems as part of subscription
packages, and the companies estimated the monthly price --
including rental of a tuner -- at between $7 and $8.95 a
month.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0081-1.3>
The two companies declined to discuss how much each has
spent to date on the project. The Digital Music Network has
the financial backing of Denver-based Tele-Communications
Inc., the nation's largest cable company, which controls
systems with about 10 million subscribers. Last year,
Tele-Communications signed an agreement to acquire a minority
stake in International Cablecasting, based in Vancouver,
British Columbia.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0081-1.4>
The digital sound is transmitted onto a video signal that
is transmitted via satellite to cable systems. The cable
systems then transmit the signal to subscribers. The signal
is then reconverted to audio via a digital tuner, which
retails for about $100 or can be rented.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0081-1.5>
The music, which a spokeswoman for the companies said will
range from rock to classic to show tunes, will be programmed
by the Atlanta-based radio consulting firm Burkhart/Douglas &
Associates.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0080 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0080-1.1>
CHICAGO -- Morton International Inc., in the latest move
to bolster its specialty chemical operations, said it will
begin manufacturing sealants for the aerospace and aircraft
industry.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0080-1.2>
In the past Morton has simply supplied other manufacturers
with the polymer used in such sealants. In response to what
it calls growing demand, however, Morton said a new segment
of its Specialty Chemicals Group will now produce the
finished sealants.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0080-1.3>
The company "decided to use our technology and provide the
finished product," said a spokeswoman. The sealants are to be
jointly developed with the Chemetall G.m.b.H. unit of West
Germany's Metallgesellschaft AG.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0080-1.4>
Morton's specialty chemical division had sales of $322
million last year, but it recently acquired Whittaker Corp.'s
specialty chemical segment, which had sales in the latest
year of about $180 million.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0079 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.1>
Sick of Nurse Shortage,
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.2>
Hospitals Start Selling

</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.3>
HOSPITALS are launching some rather extreme recruiting
campaigns to cope with the nursing shortage.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.4>
HCA Corp.'s Largo Medical Center Hospital in Largo, Fla.,
bought billboard space in Pittsburgh, Cleveland and other
northern cities to promote the advantages of careers in
Florida. The pitch includes an 800 number to call about
"white sand, blue skies and red hot nursing opportunities."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.5>
Despite a mild winter, there are apparently plenty of
nurses eager to move South. "We've had a lot of husbands
calling for their wives," says hospital marketing director
Judy Dean.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.6>
Others are finding it takes more than billboards to find
nurses. The University of Kentucky hospital has hired a
Chicago marketing firm to "develop an image for nursing,"
says Diana Weaver, the university's director of nursing.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.7>
The university hospital also offers free plane tickets to
anywhere in the U.S. to any employee who refers a nurse who
joins the staff. "We're facing a chronic nursing shortage,"
Ms. Weaver says, noting she needs to add 200 nurses to keep
up with planned hospital expansion.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.8>
The competition within the state is fierce: One regional
hospital offered $10,000 signing bonuses to woo nurses away.
Out-of-state nurses, meanwhile, are often leery of moving to
the Bluegrass State, and so need extra coaxing.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.9>
"We compete with some glitzy areas," Ms. Weaver concedes.
"Kentucky is an unknown entity."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.10>
Hitting the Books
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.11>
To Cover Teen Market
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.12>
NOW TEEN-AGERS and their books can be walking billboards
for advertisers.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.13>
Cover Concepts Marketing Services Inc., a fledgling
Stoughton, Mass., company, has signed up high schools in 99
cities to receive four million free book covers plastered
with ads.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.14>
The cost to advertisers ranges from $25,000 to $195,000,
depending on the size of the ad and how many semesters it
appears. For their money, they get a captive audience.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.15>
"The high school market is one of the most difficult to
reach. {Students} have no patience," says Michael Yanoff,
chief executive of Cover Concepts.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.16>
The idea was tested in Massachusetts schools this year,
with sponsors such as Nike Inc., Coca-Cola Co., Maxell Corp.
and CB Sports, a maker of jackets. The next school year's
covers could include McDonald's Corp. and Nintendo, among
others.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.17>
While ads on books aren't likely to stir as much
controversy as Whittle Communications did with the
commercials on its Channel One school TV programs, the book
covers still aren't welcome in every classroom. New York City
schools say the book covers aren't acceptable because the ads
are too large. If the ads were just "postage stamp" size, New
York city schools wouldn't object, says spokesman Bob Terte.
"But we don't want the kids to be used."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.18>
Fast Food Is No Art,
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.19>
But Selling It Sure Is
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.20>
COMPETITION IS no laughing matter, and that's where the
funnies come in.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.21>
Burger King, as part of its "Sometimes You've Gotta Break
the Rules" advertising campaign, has introduced a line of
sandwich cartons and beverage cups decorated with drawings,
most of them whimsical.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.22>
The chain's new Pick 'Em Ups chicken and fish finger food
will come in cartons decorated with campy, '50s-style, soap
opera comics. The dialogue in the bubble, of course, is about
the food. In one, a teen-age girl is thinking: "Oh Drat. His
class ring! And I thought he was gonna give me Pick 'Em Ups."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.23>
On another package, double cheeseburgers are identified by
a giant burger being built by cartoon construction workers.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.24>
Cups show cartoon versions of U.S. landmark buildings,
such as the St. Louis arch and the Empire State Building. The
most serious of the containers is for the Ocean Catch fish
sandwich, sold in boxes decorated with beach scenes.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.25>
King-Casey Inc., the New Canaan, Conn., design consultant
that came up with the packaging, plans to bring out new comic
strips and beach scenes every couple of months.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.26>
Designers believe consumers want to be entertained, not
just fed. Happy consumers, the creators say, make return
trips. And that's something the No. 2 fast-food chain needs
these days.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.27>
"Consumers have many choices for the next meal," says Gene
Casey, president of King-Casey. "If Burger King wants their
business, we have to reward them for making a visit."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.28>
Still, many package designers say it can be risky to
change any brand's look so often. "It's a thin approach,"
says Ronald Peterson, managing partner of Peterson & Blyth
Associates Inc., a New York design firm. "They're focusing on
promotions programs and packaging changes instead of putting
the emphasis on the food itself."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.29>
His advice: "Let's have a good, healthy burger."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.30>
Odds and Ends
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0079-1.31>
THREE CHEERIOS for success: Of the 6,960 new brands
introduced in the past two years, 240 have reached the $1
million annual sales mark, according to a study by
Arbitron/SAMI, a product-tracking service owned by Control
Data. The best seller was Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, with $92
million in sales. . . . Lost and Found: Telemap Navigation
Service of Walnut Creek, Calif., offers subscribers an 800
number to call when in need of directions in 1,100 cities. .
. . Dr. Goodpet Laboratories, Inglewood, Calif., markets
all-natural flea collars, as well as natural remedies for pet
motion sickness and stress.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0078 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0078-1.1>
Denver -- As a card-carrying Young Republican, Greg
Anthony believes in taking advantage of his opportunities. He
also believes that this option should be open to all in the
Land of the Free.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0078-1.2>
"If we give our opponents the opportunity to lose their
composure, sometimes they will," said the swift U. of
Nevada-Las Vegas point guard at a press conference
preliminary to his team's Terminal Two NCAA college
basketball match with Duke. "Good things happen to us when
other people get shook up."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0078-1.3>
On Monday night, in McNichols Arena here, the
light-footed, light-fingered Runnin' Rebels shook Duke out of
its shirts, shorts, socks, sneakers and any underclothes they
happened to be wearing. They stole the ball so often that the
Dukies must have wondered if they were ever going to get a
chance to play with it, and scorched the hardwood with their
fast break. Never headed, they racked up a 30-point victory
-- 103-73 -- in a tournament whose recent history suggested
that its sponsoring organization's initials stood for Nobody
Comes out Ahead Alot.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0078-1.4>
Afterward, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski could only marvel at
the skill of his executioners. "We couldn't function out
there tonight. They didn't let us play well. That's the best
a team has ever played against me as a coach," he said with
astonishment.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0078-1.5>
UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian -- whose dozen-year legal
battle with the NCAA to prevent his firing for misdeeds
associated with the care and feeding of players was college
sports' longest-running soap opera before it was settled last
year -- was asked if the victory constituted "sweet revenge."
He replied, "It wasn't revenge, but it was sweet. Winning the
trophy wasn't a personal thing with me. Nevada and Las Vegas
get knocked a lot. I look at it as a big event for the people
there."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0078-1.6>
If the Tark sounded a bit defensive, it was because the
assembled newsfolk, never apt at resisting temptation,
couldn't pass up the one to portray UNLV-Duke as good guys
vs. bad guys, or, at least, outlaws versus in-laws. The
outlaws, of course, were the boys from Vegas, who besides
their lengthy past rap sheet had woofed and brawled through a
stormy pre-tourney campaign in which, at times, they swung
first and identified their victims later. For instance, Moses
Scurry, a burly backup center, decked Utah State coach Kohn
Smith in one post-game melee. He later said he didn't know
he'd hit a coach because he thought coaches wore suits and
the guy he'd popped had a sweater on.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0078-1.7>
Duke qualified as the in-laws if only on grounds of
frequency of visits: three years in a row to the Final Four,
and four of the last five. But that's all relative. The Blue
Devils from Durham, N.C., are college hoops' student princes,
a rep they owe partly to their school's propensity to send
its athletes into the world with diplomas as well as Adidas
in their gym bags.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0078-1.8>
Final Four participants, though, were ever at pains to
remind that this was the Basket Bowl, not the Quiz Bowl. And,
in truth, the finalists had much in common. Both recruit more
by airplane than auto (each had but one home-state player in
their lineups) and turn over their rosters every few years as
required. Both featured hard-to-master pressure defenses and
fast-stepping, "motion" offenses.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0078-1.9>
"We and UNLV are very similar in terms of systems and
personnel," said Krzyzewski on Sunday. Grinned the weary-eyed
Tark: "Duke's my favorite team next to UNLV."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0078-1.10>
As for the academic differences between the schools, young
Anthony noted that it takes all kinds to make the world go
round. "Everybody's background doesn't prepare them for
Harvard, Yale or Duke. That's why there's state schools," he
said. "Anyway, based on what I've seen, you don't have to be
terrifically intelligent to graduate from college, just work
hard. And we do that."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0078-1.11>
The Rebs certainly worked hard, and smart, in the two
games that brought their school its first national basketball
championship. On Saturday, their man-to-man-eating defense
turned a 53-46 halftime disadvantage into a 90-81 win over
Georgia Tech in the semis, leading some to dub Tech as the
only school to lose twice in the tourney. (Tech beat Michigan
State by an overtime point in the round of 16 after tying the
game in regulation with a shot generally adjudged to have
been fired after the buzzer.)
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0078-1.12>
In its semi match, Duke turned Arkansas's "40 minutes of
hell" defense into 30 minutes of hell and 10 of
helter-skelter, outscoring the pooped porkers 35-14 down the
stretch in a 97-83 triumph.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0078-1.13>
Monday night's fray, before a privileged 17,000 in
McNichols (the event demands a much-larger, football-dome
venue), was all UNLV. The Rebs stole the ball a record 16
times from the discombobulated Devils, and shot a near-record
61.2% from the field.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0078-1.14>
Rebel big man Larry Johnson hit the three-pointers, and
little-man Anderson Hunt shot, slammed and jammed for a
game-high 29 points. The deft Anthony had 13 points, five
steals and six assists. Long-armed defensive specialist
Stacey Augmon held Robert Brickey, a Duke stalwart against
Arkansas, to four points, and got 12 himself.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0078-1.15>
Duke's leading scorer was Phil Henderson with 21 points,
but he was 1-for-8 from three-point range, and of little help
when his team needed to rally.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0078-1.16>
Duke surged but once, cutting a 16-point UNLV first-half
lead to 10 points, 57-47, with 16:24 to play. From there,
though, the Rebels took off on a three-minute,
18-straight-point run that put the game away. In one stretch,
UNLV engineered fastbreak baskets off steals on three
consecutive Duke possessions. Poor Bobby Hurley, Duke's
freshman ball handler, had two points, three assists and five
turnovers to show for 32 minutes of play.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0078-1.17>
Anthony remarked later that the blitz "took the starch"
out of Duke, and Duke guard Henderson agreed. "When we played
better, so did they. It seemed like they never got tired," he
said in his team's locker room. "Maybe nobody told them that
we're a mile high here, and they weren't supposed to do
that."
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0077 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0077-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- The National Mediation Board got the train
moving for a presidentially appointed emergency board that
would try to help resolve a railroad-industry labor dispute.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0077-1.2>
The board, on request by the negotiating railroads and
unions, proffered arbitration to the parties. Railroad
management quickly rejected the offer.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0077-1.3>
This sets the stage for President Bush to name an
emergency board, which the White House says he's willing to
do. While such a board usually has 30 days to make
recommendations for settling the bargaining issues, the
negotiating parties say they will give the board until Sept.
15. Then, the railroads would be free to put any contract
terms into effect that they wish, and the unions would be
free to strike. The two sides are at odds over health-care
costs, work rules and wages.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0077-1.4>
The parties also agreed that they wouldn't take any action
until 30 days after the emergency board reports, and unless
Congress is in session. Typically, Congress has averted a
long railroad strike by enacting the emergency board's
recommendations after the negotiating parties have rejected
them.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0076 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0076-1.1>
LOS ANGELES -- Charity perhaps is in the eye of the
beholder, as Occidental Petroleum Corp. is discovering.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0076-1.2>
The Los Angeles-based oil concern's $95 million plan for a
museum to house an art collection long linked with Chairman
Armand Hammer has run into resistance from shareholders,
including some of its largest, who argue that the museum is
more a pet scheme of the chairman's than an effort to
engender goodwill.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0076-1.3>
The Delaware Court of Chancery will hear arguments today
whether it should approve a proposed settlement of
shareholder lawsuits objecting to the museum, now under
construction in Los Angeles. If approved, the prospective
settlement, which is being sought by one plaintiffs group but
is opposed by others, would settle all the litigation.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0076-1.4>
But rather than put the matter to rest, the proposed
settlement seems to have rekindled stockholder ire.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0076-1.5>
In a 40-page brief, the California Public Employees'
Retirement System, holder of about two million shares of
Occidental, blasted the proposed pact "a cosmetic gesture"
that "does nothing to resolve the claims of waste" directed
at the museum.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0076-1.6>
On the other end of the shareholder scale, Richard and
Dorothy Vanderveld, holders of 100 shares, complained in a
letter to Maurice Hartnett, vice chancellor of the Delaware
court, that "the museum project provides no discernible
benefit to Occidental shareholders."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0076-1.7>
For its part, a special committee of Occidental's
directors, which approved outlays for the museum, argues that
the "rare and extremely valuable collection of art" will
provide extraordinary goodwill for the company. Dr. Hammer
and others familiar with the collection, which includes works
by Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Rubens, and Leonardo da Vinci,
estimate its value at between $300 million and $400 million,
although some experts dispute that appraisal.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0076-1.8>
Ironically, the controversy over Dr. Hammer's efforts to
secure the collection's future has turned up troubling
questions about its past. Though ties between the company's
money and Dr. Hammer's art have long been obscured, court
documents show that Occidental financed a variety of
acquisitions and donations generally credited to Dr. Hammer,
including a contribution of more than $5 million to buy a
notebook of drawings and scientific writings by Leonardo da
Vinci that is one of the crown jewels of the collection.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0076-1.9>
Moreover, in a letter filed with the court, the estate of
Dr. Hammer's late wife, Frances Hammer, claimed ownership of
"a substantial interest" in the art assigned to the museum by
Dr. Hammer. The letter from lawyers for Robert Weiss,
executor of the estate, disputes certain disclaimers that
Mrs. Hammer apparently signed before her death on Dec. 16.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0076-1.10>
The proposed settlement calls for, among other things, a
$60 million cap on museum construction costs, a limit on
future company donations to Hammer-related charities, and a
provision that Occidental will receive 50% of the profits if
the museum should ever sell the company's headquarters, which
are being donated to it in the future.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0076-1.11>
The settlement includes $1.4 million in fees plus expenses
for plaintiffs' lawyers involved in the pact, which was
struck with one set of litigants in the case, a purported
class action titled Sullivan vs. Occidental Petroleum Corp.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0076-1.12>
Opposition to the settlement has been led by Alan R. Kahn,
a New York investment adviser who on behalf of a client
launched a purported class-action lawsuit last May, nine days
before the essentially similar Sullivan action was filed. Mr.
Kahn had declined to be a part of the Sullivan settlement
which, if approved, would forestall the Kahn case and future
actions.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0076-1.13>
Within weeks of filing in the Sullivan case, a proposed
settlement emerged for that case that included the $1.4
million fee -- a proposal that prompted a toughly worded
opinion from Vice Chancellor Hartnett when he rejected an
effort by Mr. Kahn to halt the settlement talks.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0076-1.14>
The vice chancellor at that time criticized that
settlement pact, which is almost identical to the one being
considered today. He at that time questioned "the lack of any
substantial benefit to the stockholders" and said it left
substantial doubts about "the egocentric nature of Dr.
Hammer's objections" to donating his collection to the Los
Angeles County Museum, where he had long promised to donate
his paintings. Dr. Hammer reneged on that promise in 1988 and
announced that, instead, a museum would be built with his
name and Occidental's money.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0076-1.15>
Rather than await a court decision in the case, Occidental
has proceeded with construction of the museum, which is an
integral part of its headquarters building in the upscale Los
Angeles suburb of Westwood. The company declined to comment
on the case.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0076-1.16>
In one of a number of letters from institutional holders,
Boston-based Batterymarch Financial Management, holder of
about two million Occidental shares, objected that the
proposed settlement "preserves and perpetuates the power of
the board" and urged that a shareholder vote be held on the
matter instead.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0075 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.1>
DETROIT -- Will the real Bob Stempel please stand up?
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.2>
That's the question at General Motors Corp. in the wake of
yesterday's announcement that Robert C. Stempel, age 56, will
become chairman and chief executive officer, effective August
1.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.3>
The big unknown at GM is whether Mr. Stempel, who has been
president and chief operating officer since 1987, will
provide radically different leadership from his controversial
and oft-criticized predecessor, Roger B. Smith.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.4>
The likely answer is that the style may differ
dramatically, but the direction won't. Mr. Stempel is more
comfortable in a room full of car dealers -- or in virtually
any public forum -- than Mr. Smith. But Mr. Stempel recently
told a group of United Auto Workers union local officials not
to expect any big changes in policy or direction. After all,
he said, virtually the same group of men who have led the
company for nearly three years will be running it after Mr.
Smith retires this summer.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.5>
Such signals yesterday tempered the enthusiasm for Mr.
Stempel among GM officials who want innovative, radical
decisions on issues ranging from plant closings to cultural
change. Those managers see Mr. Stempel as a former innovator
who once bucked GM tradition to create a decentralized
management structure for the company's large-car group, and
made bold moves that helped turn GM's European operation from
a money-loser to an important profit center. But Mr. Stempel
has become markedly more cautious in recent years, these
officials add, much like a politician playing it safe with a
comfortable lead in the polls.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.6>
"If Bob Stempel can be the guy he used to be, that will be
fabulous," said one GM vice president who, like many at the
company, believes Mr. Stempel has become overly cautious in
recent years. "The question is, did he change permanently, or
only because he had to survive in a difficult situation?"
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.7>
Mr. Stempel's appointment was expected, but it marks a
radical departure from tradition for GM. He becomes the first
engineer to lead the company, which has been run by finance
men since Charles E. "Engine Charlie" Wilson retired in 1953.
To those who often were dismayed by the quality of GM's
products in the 1980s, the accession of an executive who
knows cars and manufacturing is a positive sign.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.8>
But in Mr. Stempel's hand-picked management team, most
executive functions are in the hands of the same individuals
who had them before.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.9>
Two executive vice presidents, 51-year-old John F. Smith
Jr. and 59-year-old Robert J. Schultz, become vice chairmen
and directors, also effective August 1. But both men retain
their current responsibilities, with Mr. Smith responsible
for international operations and Mr. Schultz heading GM's
technical staffs and two big subsidiaries, Electronic Data
Systems Corp. and GM Hughes Electronics.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.10>
Lloyd E. Reuss, 53, becomes president of GM. He retains
responsibility for GM's core business, North American auto
operations, and gains oversight of GM's component operations.
Unlike Mr. Stempel, however, Mr. Reuss won't be chief
operating officer with world-wide purview for all of GM's
businesses; that post will remain unfilled.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.11>
Mr. Reuss's promotion was somewhat controversial because
the operations he has run since 1984, GM's
Chevrolet-Pontiac-Canada group and more recently the North
American car business, have been the biggest sore spots at a
struggling company. But after Mr. Reuss lost the presidency
to Mr. Stempel in 1987, he took defeat with grace and became
intensely loyal to his former rival.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.12>
In recent weeks, Mr. Stempel pushed hard for Mr. Reuss's
appointment as president. People familiar with the situation
say Mr. Stempel got his way even though some key outside
directors and Chairman Smith wanted to name John Smith
president and chief operating officer.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.13>
The losers in GM's long-anticipated executive-suite
shuffle are three other executive vice presidents who, while
not necessarily falling back, didn't gain any ground either:
William E. Hoglund, Robert T. O'Connell and F. Alan Smith.
All three men retain their current responsibilities: Mr.
Hoglund for component operations, Mr. O'Connell for finance
and Mr. Smith for corporate staffs. (None of the three Smiths
-- Roger, John or Alan -- is related.)
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.14>
Mr. Hoglund, who turned around GM's Pontiac division in
the mid-1980s and later ran the Saturn Corp. subsidiary, is
GM's most personable and popular top executive and has a
well-known maverick streak. Many expected him to fare better
in the reshuffling, but his style may have worked against him
with a chief executive who puts a premium on loyalty and team
play.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.15>
Mr. Stempel's promotion got a largely positive reaction
from analysts and dealers.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.16>
"The major positive is that the board has realized that
senior management has to have operating experience, because
the problems are operational," said John Casesa, an analyst
with Wertheim, Schroder and Co.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.17>
"Chevy dealers are going to jump on their desks and scream
applause," said Wisconsin Chevrolet dealer John Bergstrom,
former head of the division's dealer council. "I'm a real Bob
Stempel fan. He's a car man."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.18>
Former GM director H. Ross Perot declared it "a great day
for General Motors." The Texas billionaire, who left GM's
board in controversy in 1986 and remains a company critic,
praised Mr. Stempel and his team as "strong, strong engineers
and strong leaders. I expect to see really great things."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.19>
Investors didn't react much at all, perhaps because Mr.
Stempel wasn't a surprise choice. In New York Stock Exchange
composite trading yesterday, GM stock closed at $45.625 a
share, up 12.5 cents.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.20>
"There is no higher priority in GM than increasing our
market share profitably in North America," Mr. Stempel said
at a news conference yesterday morning. During the 1980s,
GM's market share plunged more than 10 points to about 35%
last year. Mr. Reuss said yesterday that GM's goal is to
climb back to 40%, although many analysts and some GM
officials regard that as unrealistic.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.21>
Mr. Stempel gingerly fielded questions about the record of
his predecessor, Chairman Smith, who will remain a GM
director. "I think history will show him in a favorable
light," Mr. Stempel said, "but that's the role of history to
sort that out, not the incoming chairman."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.22>
Mr. Stempel's rise to the top at GM began in the early
1960s. He got the attention of superiors with his work on the
1966 Oldsmobile Toronado, GM's first modern front-wheel-drive
car. "That got him good visibility with the right people,"
recalled former Oldsmobile engineer Thomas Krieg.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.23>
In 1978, Mr. Stempel's career moved into the fast lane,
landing him six different jobs in 10 years. In January 1978,
he was named GM vice president and general manager of the
Pontiac division. He became managing director of GM's Adam
Opel subsidiary in Europe in 1980. In 1982, he was back in
the U.S. as general manager of Chevrolet.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.24>
In 1984, he was promoted to group vice president in charge
of GM's new U.S. large-car manufacturing operation, the
Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac group. In 1986, he was put in
charge of GM's world-wide truck operations and its overseas
car operations. In September 1987, he became GM's president.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.25>
It was in the two jobs before the presidency that Mr.
Stempel took the kinds of risks that some of his subordinates
want him to take again.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.26>
At the Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac group, Mr. Stempel
rejected the highly centralized management structure proposed
by consultants from McKinsey & Co. Instead, Mr. Stempel
heeded the advice of subordinates and created a highly
decentralized operation that in effect was a loose
affiliation of semi-autonomous, product-centered work groups.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.27>
The decentralized system had a big payoff. At the Flint
Automotive division, for instance, what had been the old
Buick manufacturing and engineering operation became the
nucleus of an all-in-one center for building GM's largest
front-wheel-drive cars. All five of the GM cars that made
Consumer Reports magazine's most recent list of recommended
vehicles were engineered and manufactured by the Flint
Automotive division. Cadillac has also seen a dramatic
improvement in its quality since regaining control of its
manufacturing operations in January 1987, according to
internal and independent surveys.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.28>
When he took over the truck and overseas operations in
1986, Mr. Stempel faced deeply troubled businesses.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.29>
In Europe, Mr. Stempel set in motion plans that resulted
in the shutdown of GM's Bedford truck operations in Britain,
and a complete overhaul of passenger car manufacturing
operations. The results: Overseas auto operations have
out-earned GM's North American auto operations for three
years in a row, with last year's profits hitting a record
$2.7 billion.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.30>
On the truck side, Mr. Stempel put the heavy truck
business into a joint venture with AB Volvo of Sweden, put a
money-losing diesel engine business into another joint
venture managed by entrepreneur Roger Penske, and encouraged
development of a new pickup that is now closing the sales gap
against Ford Motor Co. models.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.31>
Since becoming president, however, Mr. Stempel hasn't made
any such dramatic strokes. For example, he reversed plans to
close or sell many of GM's troubled parts-making operations,
choosing to give them more time to become profitable and
competitive. And he has resisted an aggressive switch to
so-called multi-valve engines, which have been popularized by
Japanese auto makers.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.32>
One of Mr. Stempel's first major tasks will be overseeing
the negotiation of a new contract with the United Auto
Workers union, replacing the pact that expires in September.
Job security, and specifically plant closings, looms as the
major issue, but Mr. Stempel yesterday spoke in upbeat terms
about the situation.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0075-1.33>
"Our objective isn't to shrink the business at General
Motors," he said, "it's to grow the business."
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0074 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0074-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- The urge to merge might be waning on Wall
Street, but it's growing on this city's K Street.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0074-1.2>
K Street is the thriving, main thoroughfare of
Washington's principal non-government industry,
influence-peddling. And like the corporate world of the
mid-to-late 1980s, the lobbying business is going through a
transformation: Big lobbying conglomerates are gobbling up
smaller firms with increasing frequency, and controversy.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0074-1.3>
By far the largest Washington acquirer of late is a
deceptively quiet foreigner, WPP Group PLC, the British
advertising and public-relations giant. Without fanfare, it
has purchased all or part of lobbying-related firms headed by
some of the best-known names in the Washington establishment,
including lobbyists William Timmons and Charls E. Walker and
public-relations executives Jody Powell and Robert Gray.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0074-1.4>
Other communications companies have been active, too.
Young & Rubicam Inc.'s Burson-Marsteller subsidiary recently
purchased the lobbying firm of Gold & Liebengood. And Earle
Palmer Brown, the Washington area's largest advertising
agency, bought the Madison Public Affairs Group, a lobbying
and public-relations firm. Other mergers are in the wind.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0074-1.5>
"The people I know in lobbying have all gotten inquiries
about purchase by big firms," says Margery Kraus, president
of Apco Associates, the lobbying arm of the law firm Arnold &
Porter. "We've had people come to us, but we already have a
parent."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0074-1.6>
The public will be the loser in this merger mania, critics
charge. They contend that the creation of mega-lobbying firms
works against the public interest by concentrating too much
power in the hands of the big-money interests who can afford
to hire these firms. "Ultimately, it's the public who gets
squeezed every time," asserts Ellen Miller, executive
director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan
think tank.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0074-1.7>
Widespread consolidation also produces the likelihood that
conflicts of interest will arise between rival corporate
interests within the firms. "There is precisely the same
potential for conflict that there has been in the 1980s in
the investment community," says Pat Choate, a TRW Inc. vice
president and author of a forthcoming book on foreign
lobbying. "It's the client's responsibility to be vigilant."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0074-1.8>
The question of conflict is apparent with even a cursory
glance at WPP Group's Washington clients: Robert Gray's Hill
& Knowlton Public Affairs Worldwide Co. works for Mazda
Corp., while its sister company, Timmons & Co., represents
Chrysler Corp. Jody Powell's Ogilvy & Mather Public Affairs
Inc. occasionally represents whiskey-maker Joseph E. Seagram
& Sons Inc., while its 30%-owned affiliate, Charls E. Walker
Associates Inc., works for beer-maker Anheuser-Busch Cos.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0074-1.9>
Not surprisingly, the lobbying firms don't see a conflict.
They contend that each WPP unit operates "independently,"
giving any corporation leave to hire a WPP division and not
worry if a competitor hires a separate one. By maintaining
such distinctions, WPP believes it can attract many more
clients and also add "marketing panache," says Robert
Dilenschneider, chief executive officer of Hill & Knowlton
Inc., New York. "The separation gives WPP a chance to show
more than one face to the potential customer," he says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0074-1.10>
The bulk of lobbying in Washington continues to be done by
law firms. But they hold no monopoly. The business of
influencing government has become an increasingly
sophisticated, multidisciplinary exercise, and, to compete
for big corporate clients, firms are moving toward placing
more and more of those skills under one roof. That has
spawned merger mania.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0074-1.11>
Hill & Knowlton Public Affairs in Washington is the model
for diversified lobbying of this kind. In its 180-person
office overlooking the Potomac River, it wields almost every
tool in the modern lobbyists' arsenal. It has traditional
lobbyists who contact lawmakers and executive-branch
officials. But it also has researchers, economists, political
analysts, publicists, graphic artists, speech writers and
managers of campaign contributions. It trains executives how
to give news interviews and advises them when to avoid them.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0074-1.12>
Hill & Knowlton also houses an entire electronic broadcast
studio. It produces radio and television spots of varying
lengths, ranging from brief video news releases to
documentaries extolling a client country's economy. It
broadcasts its own "news" programs too, including a monthly
"magazine radio" show called Washington Spotlight, and a
shorter radio program, called Capitolink, which it sends via
satellite to 4,400 radio stations five days a week and which,
it says, is regularly used by about 1,000 of them. Hill &
Knowlton is careful to include in each broadcast the fact
that its segments are sponsored by clients.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0074-1.13>
The concept behind all this is the widespread belief that
Washington lobbyists can no longer get things done by
themselves. They can no longer rely on friendships or
rational debate; they also have to persuade politicians that
the voters are with them.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0074-1.14>
"We've moved a long way toward plebiscite democracy,"
Charls Walker says. "In many {lobbying} efforts, you have to
get out toward the constituency, and that requires skills we
don't have here in Walker Associates." Those skills are
housed at its affiliate, Ogilvy & Mather, he says, and that's
where he refers his clients.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0074-1.15>
One client that Mr. Walker referred was Consolidated Gold
Fields PLC, which last year fended off a takeover attempt by
Minorco S.A. Walker Associates lobbied for Consolidated, and
Ogilvy did its public relations. Such cooperation between
sister companies isn't unusual. Robinson, Lake, Lerer &
Montgomery lobbies for the National Venture Capital
Association; its parent, Bozell Inc., produces its print
advertising that advocates a capital-gains tax cut.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0074-1.16>
Surely there always will be small, specialized lobbying
firms, referred to as boutiques, as well as the Hill &
Knowlton-style lobbying supermarkets. But, says Thomas Bell
Jr., vice chairman of public relations firm
Burson-Marsteller, "the growth will be in the firms that can
do it all."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0074-1.17>
Indeed, corporate lobbying in general, which has grown
drastically over the past decade, is likely to continue to
grow for a long time to come. "I don't see any way to stop
Washington growth," Robert Gray says. "I've never seen it
decline."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0074-1.18>
"WPP is looking all the time," Mr. Dilenschneider says. "A
month does not go by when a {merger} conversation is not held
in Washington."
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
 WPP Group's Washington Empire
 October 1986: Hill & Knowlton Inc., a unit of JWT Group
Inc., acquires Washington's Gray & Co.
 June 1986: Ogilvy & Mather buys Targeted Communications
Corp., a direct-mail firm.
 July 1986: Ogilvy & Mather agrees to buy a 30%, nonvoting
stake in Charls E. Walker Associates Inc.
 June 1987: WPP Group agrees to acquire JWT Group Inc.
 September 1987: WPP Group buys Reese Communications Cos., a
direct-mail, marketing and polling firm.
 January 1989: WPP Group purchases Timmons & Co.
 May 1989: WPP Group buys Ogilvy & Mather.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0073 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0073-1.1>
The world's markets are now looking ahead to this
weekend's G-7 meeting of finance ministers in Paris. Since
the first of the year, we have discussed several times the
question of the dollar's value relative to the yen and
deutsche mark. We have argued that the proper goal of
exchange-rate intervention in a global economy should be to
stabilize the world's major currencies around a reference
point called purchasing power parity. The yen has recently
moved back into the range of values we've suggested for PPP.
Whatever the G-7 officials may decide this weekend, we think
it would be helpful to examine in the charts below the paths
of these currencies, within the context of a PPP range, from
the time of the Plaza meeting in 1985.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0073-1.2>
(See accompanying illustration -- WSJ April 4, 1990).
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0072 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0072-1.1>
NEW YORK -- General Motors Corp. still holds the title of
the nation's largest industrial company, and the top six
firms kept their rankings in Fortune magazine's latest 500
list.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0072-1.2>
Philip Morris Cos. moved up to No. 7 from 10th place, and
Texaco Inc. fell to 10th from No. 8. Chrysler Corp. slipped
to eighth place from seventh. Rounding out the top 10 behind
GM were: Ford Motor Co., Exxon Corp., International Business
Machines Corp., General Electric Co., Mobil Corp., Philip
Morris, Chrysler, Du Pont Co. and Texaco.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0072-1.3>
Fortune, which ranks the nation's largest industrial firms
by sales, said six of the 10 suffered double-digit earnings
declines, led by a 66% drop at Chrysler. The profit decline
comes after years of strong growth, Fortune said, and
reflects higher interest-rate payments and strong foreign
competition.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0072-1.4>
GM led with $127 billion in sales and $4.2 billion in
earnings during 1989, despite foreign rivalries and a rebate
war among the Big Three auto makers.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0072-1.5>
Fortune 500 sales jumped 7% to a record $2.16 trillion in
1989, but earnings fell 8.2% to $105.6 billion. During the
previous two years, profits among the big manufacturers
climbed an unprecedented 79%.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0071 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0071-1.1>
LITHUANIAN AIDES HELD talks with Moscow on the republic's
secession bid.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0071-1.2>
In the latest sign that the three-week-old deadlock is
easing over the Baltic republic's declaration of
independence, a delegation of Lithuanian officials met in
Moscow with a confidant of Gorbachev. While details of the
discussions weren't known, Lithuania's deputy prime minister
said the republic is prepared to compromise on anything
except independence, which the Soviet Union has declared
illegal. The Soviet legislature, meanwhile, approved a law
stipulating that a decision to secede must be taken by a
two-thirds majority of a republic's residents voting in a
referendum.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0071-1.3>
Shevardnadze arrived in Washington for wide-ranging talks
with U.S. officials and said Moscow wants an "honest
dialogue" with the Lithuanians.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0071-2.1>
The Pentagon disclosed details about its Stealth
fighter-bomber. The Defense Department said the cost of
producing 59 of the radar-eluding Lockheed Corp. warplanes
totaled $6.26 billion over nine years, meaning the planes
cost $106 million apiece, making them far and away the
nation's most expensive fighter-bomber.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0071-3.1>
Imelda Marcos's attorney contended that Bush had urged the
Marcoses to invest Manila's assets in the U.S. In opening
arguments, the lawyer said he wants to call Bush as a
witness. Prosecutors said Mrs. Marcos, charged with
racketeering and fraud, treated the Philippines National
Bank's New York branch as a "personal piggy bank."
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0071-4.1>
A U.S. judge in Washington sequestered the jury in
Poindexter's Iran-Contra trial. The judge, who disclosed that
two jurors had been contacted by the news media, cited the
"irresponsible behavior of the press" for the move. The
former national security adviser is charged with conspiring
to obstruct Congress and making false statements.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0071-5.1>
Israel launched an experimental satellite, the second such
device it has placed in orbit. Israeli leaders denied the
move was part of a program to spy on their Arab neighbors.
The launch came a day after Iraq's president threatened to
attack Israel with chemical weapons if it struck his country.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0071-5.2>
Labor Party leader Peres said he has a firm base for
forming a new coalition government after signing an agreement
with an ultra-Orthodox religious party. The country's
government collapsed March 15 over the issue of Mideast peace
negotiations.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0071-6.1>
Soldiers and police patrolled South Africa's Natal
province, where a week of black factional fighting has killed
dozens of people. Black nationalist leader Mandela, who
toured the area, expressed doubts about the neutrality and
effectiveness of the security forces, which were ordered into
the southeastern province by President de Klerk.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0071-7.1>
Bulgaria's Parliament adopted legislation for free
elections in June and elected Mladenov, who initiated
democratic changes, as president. The Communists renamed
themselves the Socialist Party. In East Germany, political
parties began talks on forming a non-Communist government and
on unification with West Germany.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0071-8.1>
Lebanese Forces chief Geagea accepted the authority of
Syrian-backed President Hrawi and recognized an Arab-brokered
peace pact for Lebanon. The move by Geagea, whose militia has
been battling Gen. Aoun's forces for control of the country's
Christian enclave, was viewed as an apparent bid to win
support in the conflict.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0071-9.1>
Suspected Sikh extremists detonated a bomb near a Hindu
religious procession in India's Punjab state, killing at
least 32 people. The assault prompted clashes between the two
communities, and a police officer died and five others were
injured as they attempted to quell the unrest.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0071-10.1>
Five Central American presidents signed an accord calling
for Nicaraguan rebels to be disarmed by April 25. The pact,
reached at a two-day summit in Nicaragua, also expressed
support for progress toward peace talks in Guatemala and El
Salvador.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0071-11.1>
British negotiators sought to end a three-day-old siege at
a decaying Victorian prison in Manchester, England, as a
group of about 20 "hard core" inmates continued occupying
part of the jail, authorities said. At least one prisoner has
been killed and 56 people injured since rioting erupted
Sunday.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0071-12.1>
Died: Arthur A. Houghton Jr., 83, a director of Corning
Inc. and former chairman of New York's Metropolitan Museum of
Art, in Boca Grande, Fla.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0070 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0070-1.1>
HILTON HOTEL Corp. (Beverly Hills, Calif.) -- Standard &
Poor's Corp. said it reaffirmed its ratings on a variety of
debt related to this hotel concern, following the company's
decision last month to take itself off the auction block. The
rating concern didn't specify the total amount of debt
affected. S&P had placed Hilton's direct and indirect debt
under review in June 1989, after the company announced plans
for the sale. The resulting bids fell well short of
speculation that Hilton would attract a price of $5 billion
or more, and Hilton halted the auction. S&P affirmed ratings
of double-A-minus on Hilton senior debt, Hilton New Jersey
Corp. senior debt, International Leisure Corp. senior secured
debt, and single-A-1-plus on Waldorf-Astoria Corp. commerical
paper. All of the securities are guaranteed by Hilton Hotel
Corp.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0069 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0069-1.1>
The performance put on by Jerry Tarkanian's Runnin' Rebels
on Monday night probably would have beaten the Clippers,
Hornets, Heat, Timberwolves, Nets and even the Knicks in
their current state of aggravated nonfeasance. But now the
NCAA may resurrect an investigation of Mr. Tarkanian that was
begun in 1977. Meanwhile, the coaches in Denver were
grumbling about the fact that it is a violation of yet
another NCAA rule for, say, a local business group to pay to
fly the players' parents to the Final Four. The parents of
only two UNLV players made it to Denver. It's a funny system.
UNLV's Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon are sure to go onto to
NBA riches, but we wondered what becomes of the Moses Scurrys
of college basketball? The NCAA, the schools and the coaches
haul in the money that the kids' talents produce, but the
players are under constant suspicion of nickel and diming
payments under the table. Honesty's important, but the
players must find the NCAA's holier-than-thou policies
occasionally confusing.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0068 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.1>
Xerox Corp. said it will take a first-quarter pretax
write-off of about $400 million in connection with its
investments in VMS Realty Partners, a Chicago real estate
concern.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.2>
The write-off, Xerox's biggest ever, includes the
company's entire $106 million equity stake in VMS, more than
$250 million in notes, interest and credit, and a small
portion of $200 million in secured financing held by Xerox
Credit Corp.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.3>
"We intend to treat VMS, from an accounting viewpoint, as
a discontinued operation," a Xerox spokesman said. Asked if
Xerox considers the VMS shares worthless, he replied, "I
won't say that, but the fact that we're writing it off speaks
for itself."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.4>
Xerox said it will disclose the write-off's after-tax
impact when the company reports first-quarter results April
26. Xerox also indicated it will likely lose the revenue
stream generated by the VMS investments, which including
interest and equity revenue, amounted to $35 million in 1989,
the spokesman said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.5>
Joel A. Stone, VMS chairman and chief executive officer,
wouldn't comment on the Xerox move. Leonard G. Levine,
president and chief executive officer of the eight
VMS-sponsored publicly traded funds, couldn't be reached. A
spokesman for the funds, which recently declared their
independence from VMS's control, said the funds remained in
work-out negotiations with VMS and therefore couldn't
comment.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.6>
Xerox, a Stamford, Conn., office equipment and financial
concern, said it made its decision after seeing the results
of an evaluation of VMS undertaken by VMS and its financial
advisers. The spokesman said Xerox doesn't anticipate any
further VMS-related write-offs, and analysts said yesterday's
announcement closed the book on an embarrassing matter for
Xerox.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.7>
"With this write-off, they're basically walking away from
the whole mess," said Alex Henderson of Prudential-Bache
Securities Inc. "Most of the Street has already discounted
this, and there may actually be a sigh of relief that it's
out of the way."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.8>
Xerox made its announcement after the stock market closed.
In composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange
yesterday, Xerox closed at $55.375, unchanged.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.9>
Yesterday's news came one day after Xerox said Melvin
Howard will take early retirement May 1. Mr. Howard is the
vice chairman who heads Xerox Financial Services, the arm of
Xerox responsible for its VMS investments. Reached at his
Westport, Conn., home, Mr. Howard said that the two
announcements aren't related, and that he had retired to
pursue entrepreneurial interests, probably in the investment
field.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.10>
"In fact, I would probably have retired at the start of
the year, except I felt it was important to stay until {a VMS
creditors' meeting} yesterday."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.11>
But several analysts said the timing had more
significance. "Howard is obviously bearing the freight on
this one," said Ulric Weil, a Washington, D.C., analyst. "He
was in charge, and he had to pay the price."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.12>
VMS is a syndication firm that raised about $2.6 billion
from approximately 110,000 investors in limited partnerships
and real estate investment trusts, or REITs, from 1981 to
this past year. VMS's efforts at transforming itself into a
full-scale real estate firm with $9 billion in assets have
been called into question after a series of announcements by
the firm of liquidity problems and management shake-ups.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.13>
Scott G. Miller, an independent real estate analyst in
Houston who has followed VMS closely for several years, said
the news came "as no surprise."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.14>
"VMS is not now and never has been worth anything," Mr.
Miller said. "Any assets that they claim are so tied down in
over-financing that they have little or no value."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.15>
Mr. Miller said he had warned Mr. Howard several times
about the riskiness of any investment in VMS beginning in
February 1987 when Xerox first disclosed its VMS stake.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.16>
"Xerox and the other big players were duped into thinking
that their back-end investment had some value. They chose to
ignore the syndicators' real goals: raising cash from limited
partners and reaping high front-end fees," Mr. Miller said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.17>
Asked for comment, Mr. Howard responded, "I have no
comment on anything Mr. Miller has to say."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.18>
Mr. Miller said that by not writing down its entire
investment, Xerox was engaging in "a political posture, a
face-saving exercise. They should just come clean and say,
`We were ripped off at day one and we were dumber than
hell.'"
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.19>
Xerox's move should be a warning to individual investors
and to broker-dealers as well, Mr. Miller said. "They always
claimed a deep-pocket theory. The broker-dealers told
investors that Xerox would stand behind their products with
their fields of gold," Mr. Miller said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.20>
Prudential-Bache Securities Inc. announced a major
management shake-up after lawsuits were filed against VMS and
Pru-Bache following VMS's disclosure of its troubles in
February.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.21>
"That pitch only works with people who think that
counterfeit money can be made real," according to Mr. Miller.
"Unfortunately, there were more than 100,000 such people when
it came to VMS."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.22>
VMS has retained Kenneth Leventhal & Co. as work-out
advisers and Kenneth Leventhal himself has taken a leading
role in analyzing VMS's value. In addition VMS is engaged in
negotiations with its creditors on "an ongoing basis"
according to Mr. Stone. VMS has defaulted or missed payments
on a number of mortgage loans and suspended payments to most
lenders, including its funds. But VMS executives continue to
say that the firm, a private partnership, will not go into
bankruptcy-law proceedings.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0068-1.23>
Xerox retains a 25% stake in the firm and a seat on its
executive committee. The other owners are Mr. Stone, Peter R.
Morris, the firm's founder, and Robert A. Van Kampen, a
Chicago area investor and entrepreneur.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0067 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0067-1.1>
Borden Inc., New York, said it acquired two businesses in
New Zealand and Australia that strengthen its position in the
plastic films and packaging market.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0067-1.2>
The company said it bought the flexible packaging business
of Printpac-UEB of New Zealand. The business, one of three
packaging groups within Printpac-UEB, is the country's
largest supplier of flexible packaging for candy, snacks and
other foods. It has annual sales of $47 million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0067-1.3>
Borden also purchased Abbott/Polyaustro Group, an
Australian manufacturer of polyethylene film and specialty
flexible packaging. It has annual sales of $14 million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0067-1.4>
Terms of the transactions weren't disclosed. Borden is a
world-wide producer of foods and consumer products as well as
packaging and industrial products.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0066 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.1>
Whose record is it, anyway?
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.2>
That's the question investors should ask when mutual funds
start touting the virtues of their 10-year performance
records. Funds with good long-term track records are eager to
promote them. But a decade is a long time, often long enough
for several fund managers to come and go.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.3>
The current fund manager may not be the person who
produced the strong track record, as shareholders of the $13
billion Fidelity Magellan Fund are well aware. A decade ago,
Peter Lynch's anointed successor at Magellan, 32-year-old
Morris Smith, had only just graduated from college and still
had two years of business school ahead of him.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.4>
Right now, fund analysts say, investors need to be more
vigilant than ever in keeping tabs on who runs their mutual
funds.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.5>
"In the last 12 to 18 months, there's been a notable
acceleration in the rate of manager turnover," says Michael
Hirsch, chief investment officer at Republic National Bank of
New York. One reason: "There are a lot of rich mutual fund
management companies that can afford to pay up for talent.
The best way to differentiate yourself from the competition
is to have a star manager at your helm."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.6>
Peter Lynch's recent resignation from top-ranked Magellan
is the latest in a string of departures by leading fund
managers. Last year, two of the industry's star stock
pickers, Andrew Massie of Scudder Capital Growth and Gerald
Zukowski of Boston Co. Capital Appreciation, jumped ship. Mr.
Massie went to Counsellors Capital Appreciation and Mr.
Zukowski to Putnam Vista.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.7>
"In the vast majority of cases, you have to know who the
portfolio manager is," advises Mr. Hirsch. "The funds say,
`It's the firm's philosophy that counts, not the individual'.
Those are the same people who are out there bidding seven
figures for star managers."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.8>
Not all fund managers are equally important, however.
Rather, it depends on the way a fund is run. Among actively
managed funds, there are four basic styles of fund
management:
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.9>
Star system. Peter Lynch is the star manager par
excellence. Heavily promoted by Fidelity Investments and long
feted by the media, Mr. Lynch's name is inseparable from that
of Magellan and its outstanding record.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.10>
But "{the good performance} wasn't just because of Lynch,"
retorts Mr. Lynch. "It was because I was working with an
outstanding group of people. The people who helped me are
still here."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.11>
Nonetheless, departing stars such as Mr. Lynch create a
marketing headache for fund groups, which typically respond
by boasting of the fabulous research department that lies
behind the star's success. (Fidelity hasn't decided whether
it will continue advertising Magellan's 10-year record.)
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.12>
Ignore the boasting, say fund analysts. "If the star
leaves, the whole track record becomes invalid," argues
Kenneth Gregory of L/G No-Load Fund Analyst, a San Francisco
newsletter.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.13>
To reduce the problems caused by fund manager turnover,
Mr. Gregory suggests investing in funds where the manager has
a significant ownership stake in the fund management company,
and thus is less likely to leave.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.14>
Top fund managers who fall into this category include
Acorn's Ralph Wanger, Gabelli Asset's Mario Gabelli, Mutual
Shares' Michael Price and Southeastern Asset Management Value
Trust's O. Mason Hawkins.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.15>
Multiple managers. At American Funds Group in Los Angeles,
a modified form of star system is used, with great success.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.16>
During the 1980s, six of the fund group's seven stock
funds beat Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. The best of
these, $4.5 billion Washington Mutual Investors, returned
19.1% a year during the decade, after deducting the fund's
5.75% sales charge.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.17>
Washington Mutual's portfolio is divided into four
segments. Three segments are run by three individual stock
pickers, who each run their portion as a separate portfolio.
The newest of the three, Stephen Bepler, has been with the
fund since 1981. The fourth segment is run based on the picks
of 20 analysts.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.18>
Because the multiple-manager system works to reduce the
impact of a fund manager's departure and also seems to
produce above-average results, other fund groups have also
adopted the approach.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.19>
Vanguard Group already has switched two of its funds,
Windsor II and Explorer, to a modified form of multiple
management. Shareholders in a third Vanguard fund, Morgan
Growth, will vote this month to switch the fund from one to
three managers.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.20>
Committee. All major investment decisions at San
Francisco's Dodge & Cox Stock Fund are approved by a
committee of seven people, six of whom were on the committee
at the start of the 1980s.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.21>
"We haven't done this for insurance reasons -- because
we're afraid of people leaving," says John Gunn, the firm's
director of research. Rather, he reckons the committee system
reduces the likelihood of making a bad investment. "With the
management of money, the person who wins is the one who makes
the fewest mistakes over the course of time," he says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.22>
None of Dodge & Cox's publicity-shy managers are well
known. That isn't the case at some other committee-run funds.
"Even if there is a group approach, it's difficult to know
whether one individual is more important than the others,"
says Mr. Gregory, who cites the examples of Brandywine and
Clipper, two no-load funds with excellent records.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.23>
The lead manager for Brandywine is Foster Friess, while
James Gipson is the key figure at Clipper. But both funds are
run by a group of stock pickers.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.24>
Mr. Gregory says that if Mr. Friess or Mr. Gipson left,
that wouldn't necessarily mean shareholders should sell. "It
would be similar to when an analyst puts a `hold' on a
stock," he says. "I'd watch them and see what happens for a
few years."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.25>
Computer-driven funds. Twentieth Century's two oldest
funds, Select and Growth, rank just behind Magellan in terms
of 15-year performance. And while the fund group is closely
associated with its founder, James Stowers, analysts say
investors would be foolish to cash out their holdings if he
left the fund group.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.26>
Working from a data base of 7,200 companies, Twentieth
Century's seven stock funds invest in companies that have
both accelerating earnings and sales growth. The firm's
investment philosophy isn't just reflected in the thinking of
the five-member stock-picking team; it's also built into the
computerized stock selection system that they use.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-1.27>
"This system is designed so that it is much more powerful
than any one individual," contends Robert Puff, who together
with Mr. Stowers is a member of the fund group's
stock-picking team. "A large percentage of the time we are
following what the computer says. But it only happens after
we say, `Does this make sense, is this reasonable?'"
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
 The Decade's Top Peforming Stock Funds
<p.WSJ900404-0066-2.1>
Some funds have mighty impressive records, but the stock
picker responsible for the record may no longer be around.
 MANAGER
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-2.2>
FUND (Starting Year) PERFORMANCE*
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-2.3>
Fidelity Magellan Fund Peter Lynch 28.9%
 (1977)
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-2.4>
Merrill Pacific A Stephen Silverman 25.7
 (1983)
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-2.5>
CGM Capital Development+ G. Kenneth Heebner 22.7
 (1977)
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-2.6>
Japan Fund O. Robert Theurkauf 22.7
 (1985)
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-2.7>
Lindner Fund Robert Lange 22.5
 (1977)
 (1984)
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-2.8>
Janus Fund James Craig 21.9
 (1987)
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-2.9>
SteinRoe Special Fund Richard Weiss 21.6
 (1981)
 Carlene Murphy
 (1986)
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-2.10>
Phoenix: Growth Fund Robert Chesek 21.5
 (1981)
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-2.11>
New England: Growth Fund G. Kenneth Heebner 21.4
 (1977)
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-2.12>
Phoenix: Stock Fund Michael Matty 21.3
 (1990)
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-2.13>
*Annualized, preliminary returns for 3/31/80 to 3/31/90;
includes price gains plus reinvested dividends
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-2.14>
+Formerly Loomis-Sayles Capital Development
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0066-2.15>
Sources: Lipper Analytical Services; Standard &
Poor's/Lipper Mutual Fund Profiles
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0065 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0065-1.1>
As evidence that the collapse of Japanese stock prices and
rising Japanese interest rates is starting to hit home,
Moody's Investors Service Inc. yesterday warned that many
Japanese banks were likely to experience weak earnings and
deteriorating asset quality.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0065-1.2>
The problems could have broad implications because
Japanese banks are large lenders in the U.S. and borrow in
the U.S. commercial paper market. In addition, Japan's banks
take short-term deposits here and often guarantee debt
offerings by nonprofit entities such as U.S. municipalities
and American universities.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0065-1.3>
Specifically, the rating agency yesterday downgraded the
rating of the Yasuda Trust & Banking Co. Ltd. to single-A-1
from double-A-3 "as a result of its continuing concern about
the exposure of Yasuda and other Japanese trust banks to
Japan's domestic real estate market, particularly in light of
the recent stock market decline and interest rate hikes."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0065-1.4>
The ratings of Yasuda's short-term deposits and commercial
paper remain unchanged at Prime-1. Moody's also downgraded to
single-A-1 the senior debt rating of Yasuda's guaranteed
subsidiary, Yasuda Trust & Finance (Hong Kong) Ltd. About
$2.3 billion in long-term obligations are affected by the
rating changes, Moody's said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0065-1.5>
Over the past decade Japanese banks have captured a
significant chunk of the U.S. loan market, to where they are
estimated to hold roughly 10% of all U.S. banking assets.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0065-1.6>
But the combination of lower credit ratings, weak earnings
and potential problems meeting international capital adequacy
standards could reduce Japanese banks' competitiveness in
international markets.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0065-1.7>
"Whatever is happening in Tokyo is improving the
competitive situation of U.S. banks," said Robert Dugger,
chief economist for the American Bankers Association in
Washington.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0065-1.8>
In January, the rating agency lowered ratings on several
other Japanese banks, including Mitsubishi Trust Banking
Corp., Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co. and Mitsui Trust &
Banking Co. At the time, Moody's also said it acted out of
growing concern about Japan's domestic real-estate market.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0065-1.9>
"Many Japanese banks face significant earnings pressure
from rising interest rates because they typically carry
significant interest rate mismatches," said Moody's. "The
threat of asset-quality deterioration in domestic real estate
and related loan portfolios continues to be the Japanese
banks' area of greatest exposure." A mismatch is when a
bank's cost of funds is higher than the interest rate it
receives on loans.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0065-1.10>
After hitting a record high at the end of last year, the
Nikkei index of 225 leading companies listed on the Tokyo
Stock Exchange has plunged 26%. Also, three-month
yen-dominated certificates of deposits have climbed to 7.52%
from 6.91% at the end of last year, according to Salomon
Brothers Inc. Yields on 10-year Japanese government bonds
have risen 22%, to where the benchmark 10-year bond now
yields 6.83% on a semi-annual basis, compared with 5.58% at
year end.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0065-1.11>
Despite yesterday's warning, Moody's said that the
fundamental strength of Japanese banks rated by the agency is
still on a par with similarly rated banks from other
countries. Thus, Moody's said that only selective rating
adjustments of Japanese banks are likely.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0065-1.12>
Nonetheless, the agency said that the fall in Japanese
stocks represents the end of a period of excess liquidity in
Japan's financial markets. For years, huge pools of cash were
generated by an extraordinarily easy Japanese monetary
policy. This liquidity, along with Japan's huge trade
surpluses, a high savings rate and solid corporate profits,
were major factors that fueled the Japanese real-estate and
stock market boom during the late 1980s.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0065-1.13>
Though real-estate prices haven't fallen nearly as steeply
as share prices, U.S. and other Western analysts have long
worried about the links between the two markets. Over the
past decade, Japanese banks made loans to corporate and
individual investors who used their property holdings as
collateral. The investors then often used the loans' proceeds
to buy stocks.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0065-1.14>
Now analysts fear that falling equity prices could drag
down the real-estate market, damaging the quality of the
collateral and other loans banks made to finance real- estate
acquisition and development.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0065-1.15>
Japanese bankers have protested that Moody's doesn't fully
understand the Japanese real-estate market and is evaluating
that market from the perspective of the difficulties American
banks have had in the U.S. property market.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0065-1.16>
"I agree that there is risk in real estate, but the
history of delinquencies and writeoffs doesn't warrant a
downgrading," Hiromasa Yakushiji, general manager of Sumitomo
Trust's New York branch, said recently. "No one can argue
that if the real-estate market in Japan collapses, the trust
banks will be hurt the most. But if this happens, they may
have to downgrade Japan as well."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0065-1.17>
Nonetheless, some analysts contended that difficulties
with their real-estate portfolios won't be the only problems
Japan's banks face. Rising domestic interest rates also
threaten to cut into their trading profits.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0065-1.18>
In addition, falling stock prices threaten to erode
Japanese banks' capital bases. That's because under
international capitaladequacy standards, the banks can count
45% of the unrealized gains on their vast equity holdings in
Japanese corporations toward their capital calculations. Much
of this stock was purchased years ago at very low prices.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0065-1.19>
At the same time, between 30% and 40% of the assets of
Japan's big banks are denominated in foreign currencies,
particularly the dollar, which has risen nearly 11% against
the yen since mid-February. Thus, as the dollar or European
currencies rise, it becomes harder for Japan's banks to meet
their capital ratios, because the assets -- which are are
measured in yen -- grow larger. Worsening capital-asset
ratios, in turn, could force the banks to slow their asset,
or loan, growth.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0065-1.20>
Of course, the banks could issue additional equity to
build more capital, but the Japanese stock market currently
is a very inhospitable place.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0064 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0064-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- The door was opened wide yesterday for what
could become a major new employee benefit: employer-financed
housing aid.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0064-1.2>
The House, by a voice vote, approved legislation to amend
the Taft-Hartley labor-relations act to allow unions and
employers to create jointly run housing trusts, that would
use employer money to subsidize worker homes or apartments.
The Senate has already approved the measure, and the Bush
administration backs it, so it's expected to soon become law.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0064-1.3>
The immediate effect would be to legalize a labor contract
signed in December 1988 by Local 26 of the Hotel Employees
and Restaurant Employees union with about 20 Boston-area
hotels and other employers. It would help workers in Boston
make down payments and reduce mortgage interest outlays. But
its national impact could be much more far-reaching.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0064-1.4>
Currently, collective-bargaining agreements can only
provide for jointly managed benefits specifically named in
the Taft-Hartley law, and housing isn't one of them.
Frederick Feinstein, a staff assistant to the House Education
and Labor Committee, says that as unions and employers become
aware of the expected legal change, "we expect to see it
appearing in collective bargaining agreements in the future."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0064-1.5>
Beyond that, many employers may be spurred to provide such
assistance on their own because of the spotlight on the
Boston agreement and the new law, says Bruce Marks, the Local
26 housing director. He says employers from around the nation
have sought details of the Boston housing trust fund,
apparently eager to know the mechanics of the complicated
arrangement so they can provide similar assistance to help
recruit or retrain needed workers.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0064-1.6>
In the past two years, there's been a "tremendous
increase" in employer-provided housing assistance, says
Richard Ferlauto, special projects director for the American
Affordable Housing Institute, a research group affiliated
with Rutgers University. He says the increase has been
spurred by a drop in federal housing aid and a growing
realization among employers that worker turnover and
absenteeism resulting from lack of nearby affordable housing
is costly.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0064-1.7>
Mr. Ferlauto estimates that 300 U.S. employers provide
some kind of housing aid to workers, excluding hundreds of
college and hospital-related plans. Meanwhile, unions
including the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers, Hotel
Workers, Service Employees, Clothing & Textile Workers,
Garment Workers, Communications Workers of America, United
Auto Workers and United Food & Commercial Workers appear
interested in devising collective-bargaining strategies aimed
at winning their own housing assistance, he says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0064-1.8>
"Indications are that this is the next new benefit that
unions will be looking for in the 1990s," says Mr. Ferlauto.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0064-1.9>
Billionaire Donald Trump's new Trump Taj Mahal Casino
Resort in Atlantic City, N.J., has hired 7,200 workers, many
of them from Puerto Rico and Europe. Until they find homes,
the Trump organization is paying their full hotel bills for
30 days and all but $15 a night for the next 15 days.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0064-1.10>
The University of Pennsylvania guarantees loans to its
employees to buy houses without any down payment. There used
to be some collectively bargained housing-benefit pacts long
before the 1947 Taft-Hartley law. In one 1911 contract, for
instance, a union bargained to reduce the amount that workers
paid to live in a New Jersey company town's housing to $2.50
a day from $3.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0064-1.11>
The 13 hotels and other Boston establishments covered by
the Local 26 contract will pay nearly $1.5 million into the
trust fund over the agreement's three years; they must pay
five cents for each hour worked by the 5,000 Local 26
members. The money will be used to help workers make down
payments on houses, reduce the interest they must pay on
mortgage loans, make cooperative share loans, and subsidize
rental deposits and emergency rental aid.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0064-1.12>
Local 26 says a recent survey of its members showed 75%
face housing problems such as overcrowding, deterioration,
high rent and imminent displacement. In Boston, one of the
highest-cost cities for housing in the nation, 98% of the
union's members can't afford to buy a median-priced home, and
78% can't pay rent for a median-priced apartment, the local
says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0064-1.13>
The vast majority of Local 26 members are lower-paid women
or minorities.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0064-1.14>
"I'd like to have the opportunity to buy a piece of
property someday," says Marie Downey, a Local 26 member who
works as a waitress at the Park Plaza Hotel. "Right now,
there's no way I can afford one," she says, but with the new
housing aid, "that could become a reality."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0064-1.15>
Sens. Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.) and Orrin Hatch (R.,
Utah), chairman and ranking minority member, respectively, of
the Senate Labor Committee, helped win Senate approval for
the bill. Rep. William Clay (D., Mo.), chairman of the House
labor-management relations subcommittee, pushed it in the
House.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0064-1.16>
The Taft-Hartley law banned most joint use of employer
funds by unions and management in order to prevent collusion
and corruption that could emerge from such arrangements.
Since then, the law has been amended to allow collectively
bargained trusts for health, retirement and life-insurance
benefits, scholarships, child-care assistance, legal services
and funds for various cooperative efforts by labor and
management.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0063 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0063-1.1>
FULLERTON, Calif. -- Federal health authorities said they
decertified a pap-smear laboratory here because the lab,
whose largest client until a year ago was Planned Parenthood,
was misdiagnosing many pap-smear samples.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0063-1.2>
Pap smears are used to detect cervical cancer.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0063-1.3>
The closely held lab, National Cancer Screening
Laboratories, is now closed, says president Neil Gregory, and
has been winding down its business for 10 months because it
was operating unprofitably and had trouble finding workers.
Mr. Gregory says his lab has been certified by state and
federal agencies for 20 years without any problem, and that
the margin of error in his lab is no greater than at any
other pap-smear lab.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0063-1.4>
But Harry Barba, associate regional administrator in San
Francisco for the Health Care Financing Administration, a
Health and Human Services agency that certifies labs to
receive Medicaid and Medicare funds, said inaccuracies at the
lab were unacceptable. Of 331 tests reviewed by the agency,
64 were inaccurate or misleading, he said. Mr. Barba said the
lab at one time performed 100,000 pap smears a year, although
Mr. Gregory said the number fell to 7,200 last year and that
most were not paid for with federal funds.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0063-1.5>
While blocking federal funding for labs remains rare, Mr.
Barba said his agency last year decertified Central Pathology
Services Medical Group Inc. in Tarzana, Calif., which he said
performed 700,000 pap smears annually.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0062 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0062-1.1>
FRANKFURT, West Germany -- Daimler-Benz AG might in the
near future invite Japan's Mitsubishi group of companies to
join its planned aircraft engines joint venture with the
Pratt & Whitney subsidiary of United Technologies Corp.,
Daimler's chairman said in an interview to be published
today.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0062-1.2>
The chairman of West Germany's largest industrial company
didn't indicate with which Mitsubishi concern he has
discussed the venture.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0062-1.3>
Edzard Reuter told the West German financial newspaper
Handelsblatt that it is "thinkable, though not completely
discussed" that Mitsubishi could join the arrangement under
which the civilian jet engine operations of Daimler's MTU
Motoren- und Turbinen-Union Muenchen G.m.b.H. engine
subsidiary will be merged with those of Pratt & Whitney.
Daimler and United Technologies will then take cross
shareholdings in those respective units.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0062-1.4>
Separately, the Deutsche Aerospace AG division of Daimler
said it signed a memorandum of understanding to sell two of
its defense related business lines to the West German
shipbuilding group Bremer Vulkan AG for an amount that wasn't
disclosed.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0062-1.5>
The agreement ends nearly seven months of uncertainty over
the fate of these naval and missile technology operations
that were ordered by the Economics Ministry to be divested on
antitrust grounds following Daimler's acquisition of
Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm G.m.b.H. last year.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0061 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0061-1.1>
NEW YORK -- Defunct junk-bond powerhouse Drexel Burnham
Lambert Inc. will sell some of its crown jewels and put its
client list on the auction block April 18.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0061-1.2>
As part of its efforts to raise funds to satisfy
creditors, Drexel is offering for sale computer databases
containing names of its contacts at more than 4,000 firms;
technical and pricing information on all the firm's public
securities offerings and mergers and acquisition deals in the
past several years; and its system for trading, selling and
researching high-risk, high-yield bonds.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0061-1.3>
Steven Anreder, a spokesman for the company, said the firm
had received calls from "virtually every major firm on the
Street, and others" interested in buying the information.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0061-1.4>
"Everybody wants to step up to the plate and take over
Drexel's place in this market," says Mike Ross, a junk-bond
analyst at Blunt, Ellis & Loewi. "Now you've got a chance to
get your hands on some of their proprietary info."
Particularly valuable, he said, will be Drexel's guide to
pricing junk bonds, a task that has proven difficult amid the
recent upheaval in the junk-bond market.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0061-1.5>
Much of the interest has come from former Drexel
employees, now at other firms, who find their new employers'
analytical software inferior to Drexel's, says a spokeswoman
for Drexel's corporate finance department. Drexel has
information on "little-known, thinly traded junk-bond
offerings" and has developed software to compare merger and
acquisition deals in different industries for pricing
purposes, she says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0061-1.6>
But perhaps the most desired item is the "contacts
database," she said. "People feel very strongly about getting
their hands on" the list of "financial decisionmakers at each
company, and what level of interest they have" in buying
bonds or doing deals, according to the spokeswoman.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0061-1.7>
Drexel has already successfully, and privately, sold most
of its fixed-income bond databases, and now is anxious to
sell those for mergers and acquisitions and junk bonds. "The
longer we wait to sell things, the less value they'll have,"
the spokeswoman said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0061-1.8>
The databases are up for bid both separately and together.
Strong interest has come from "boutiques, some of the LBO
{leveraged buy-out} firms, merger-and-acquisition advisers
and niche players," according to the spokeswoman.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0061-1.9>
Drexel declined to provide a price estimate price for the
information. But the auction for the databases, in Wall
Street fashion, will be run like a Dutch auction. If Drexel
sells its data bases to more than one buyer, the sale price
for all buyers will be set based on an average of the high
and low bids. Any firm that wants the Drexel information on
an exclusive basis will have to bid more than all the other
bidders combined.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0060 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-1.1>
The New York Court of Appeals ruled that CBS Inc. can sue
Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. for allegedly providing misleading
financial information when CBS bought a dozen of Ziff's
magazines in 1984.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-1.2>
The ruling by the state's highest court partially reverses
a decision by a lower court judge, who had dismissed all of
CBS's claims against Ziff, a unit of Ziff Communications Co.,
in 1988. The appellate court will let the case proceed on one
of CBS's claims, for breach of warranty.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-1.3>
The decision, which can't be appealed, propels the parties
into the pretrial fact-finding, or discovery, stage of the
case. No trial date has yet been set to decide the merits of
the suit, in which CBS seeks $40 million. Spokesmen for both
communications companies say there has been no talk of
settlement.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-1.4>
CBS bought Popular Photography, Car & Driver, Modern Bride
and other magazines for $362.5 million in 1984. Even before
it closed the deal, CBS claimed that Ziff-Davis had
overstated the magazines' profits by as much as $4 million --
thus inflating the selling price by as much as $40 million.
CBS said at the time it was reserving the right to challenge
Ziff's data. But Ziff claimed that by going forward with the
deal at the stated price, CBS showed that it was not relying
on the accuracy of Ziff's data.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-1.5>
After failing to resolve the matter, CBS sued Ziff and its
auditor, Touche Ross & Co., in 1985, alleging fraud,
misrepresentation, breach of contract and breach of warranty.
Later, CBS joined the new magazines with its own magazine
group and sold the entire unit for $650 million in 1987.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-1.6>
"CBS was not merely buying identified consumer magazine
businesses," Judge Stewart F. Hancock Jr. wrote for a 4-1
majority of the appeals court. "It was buying businesses
which it believed to be of a certain value based on
information furnished by the seller which the seller
warranted to be true."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-1.7>
"We are, of course, delighted that the court reinstated
the breach-of-warranty claim," said Douglas P. Jacobs, CBS
associate general counsel.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-1.8>
Ziff's general counsel J. Malcolm Morris described the
ruling as "a technical point of New York law." He added, "We
continue to believe, as we have since 1985, that there is no
basis whatsoever for any of CBS's remaining claims."
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-2.1>
IRAN-CONTRA JURORS are sequestered after calls from
reporters.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-2.2>
The judge in the Iran-Contra trial of former national
security adviser John Poindexter sequestered the jury, which
is in deliberations, after two jurors said they were
contacted by reporters. In a hastily called hearing in
federal court in Washington yesterday morning, Judge Harold
Greene indicated that he had considered but decided against
declaring a mistrial after learning about the contacts, at
least one of which came from a reporter for the Washington
Post.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-2.3>
The Post's national news editor, Robert Kaiser, said the
paper voluntarily called the judge Monday to apologize for
the actions of its reporter, Nora Boustany. Mr. Kaiser said
that Ms. Boustany, until recently the newspaper's Beirut
correspondent, had just arrived in this country and didn't
know that jurors aren't supposed to be contacted during a
trial or deliberations.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-2.4>
Judge Greene said the two jurors had informed him that
each was contacted by telephone Monday by a woman identifying
herself as a reporter. The jurors told the judge at
yesterday's hearing that they had hung up as soon as the
callers said they were reporters.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-2.5>
The Post's Mr. Kaiser said Ms. Boustany had been asked to
find out how to contact only one juror after the trial had
ended. Ms. Boustany declined to answer any questions. It was
unclear who had called the second juror.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-2.6>
The judge, obviously angry, said, "Some people might
consider what has gone on an obstruction of justice." He
indicated that he was still considering seeking penalties as
a result of the incident.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-2.7>
The judge could, for example, refer the situation to the
U.S. attorney in Washington as a possible case of attempting
to influence a juror, which is a federal crime. But in order
to be found guilty of that crime, a person would have to be
shown to have had a "specific intent" to affect the outcome
of a trial.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-2.8>
Mr. Kaiser said Ms. Boustany had no such intent. Instead,
she and a number of other Post reporters were each assigned
to find out how to contact one member of the jury after the
trial ended, Mr. Kaiser said. "She is a Lebanese who has
never worked or lived in America," he added. "We made a
mistake" by assigning an uninformed reporter to help cover
the trial, Mr. Kaiser said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-2.9>
Neither the defense nor prosecution objected to the
judge's decision not to declare a mistrial.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-2.10>
The 12-person jury will be sequestered in the evenings in
a Washington-area hotel, according to a court staff member.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-3.1>
ANTI-TAKEOVER BILL is passed by Pennsylvania House of
Representatives.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-3.2>
The House, in passing one of the most restrictive
anti-takeover bills in the nation by a 182-10 vote, joined
the state Senate in endorsing the proposal.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-3.3>
Among other provisions, the bill would strip all profits
from short-term holders who sell their shares within 18
months of making a failed bid for control of the company
through "any means." The profits would be turned over to the
target company, which would be required to invest the funds
in Pennsylvania. A controversial proposal to exempt
management from certain existing restrictions on proxy fights
was not included in the final House version of the bill.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-3.4>
While the proposed law must go back to the Senate for
approval of several amendments, the bill is likely to become
law, possibly by the end of this month.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-3.5>
The state Senate, committed to enacting some kind of
anti-raider legislation, passed the original version 45-4,
and Gov. Robert Casey recently expressed his support for the
measures.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-4.1>
MARCOS CASE begins with defense lawyer's account blaming
U.S. officials.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-4.2>
In a bizarre tale involving George Bush, Moammar Gadhafi
and a legendary gold treasure allegedly hidden in the
Philippines, Imelda Marcos's lawyer told jurors that the
Marcoses secretly hid millions of dollars in the U.S. at the
urging of American officials.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-4.3>
Gerry Spence, Mrs. Marcos's chief attorney in the federal
racketeering case in Manhattan, said he would prove that
then-Vice President Bush had encouraged the Marcoses to
invest Philippine assets in the U.S. as a secret "communist
security plan" that could be used in the event of a communist
takeover of the Philippines.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-4.4>
Mr. Spence said he wants to call Mr. Bush as a witness to
prove that the U.S. knew that millions of dollars were being
held in secret bank accounts and investments in this country.
Mr. Spence said that Mr. Bush made the suggestion in person
in 1981 to deter the Marcoses from investing in Libya. The
lawyer said Mrs. Marcos had developed a friendship with
Libya's Mr. Gadhafi in the 1970s.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-4.5>
Mr. Spence said Mr. Bush advised the Marcoses to buy
Manhattan property, which is at the heart of the government's
allegations in the case. Mrs. Marcos is accused of plundering
the Philippines of more than $160 million and then illegally
concealing the money through the purchase of three
skyscrapers and a shopping mall in Manhattan.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-4.6>
"The Marcoses, in an attempt to keep the good will of this
country, abandoned plans to invest in Libya and began to
purchase New York real estate," Mr. Spence said. He said he
would prove that the Central Intelligence Agency "was aware
of every transaction that took place in this case."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-4.7>
Spokesmen for the White House and the CIA said they don't
comment on pending trials.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-4.8>
In seeking to turn the prosecutors' case on its head, Mr.
Spence said he didn't dispute that ownership of the
properties had been kept secret. Nor did he dispute charges
that money from the Philippine treasury was used to buy the
properties. Instead, he said the late President Marcos was
keeping the money safe.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-4.9>
"You don't protect funds from a communist takeover unless
you hide them," Mr. Spence said. "He went to extreme efforts
to hide the funds. Evidence of the hiding is totally
undisputed. It was necessary to do it."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-4.10>
In seeking to challenge prosecutors' claims that the
Marcoses became wealthy off bribes and the skimming of
Philippine government funds, Mr. Spence told the jury that
the Marcos wealth was attained when Mr. Marcos discovered
gold allegedly hidden by the Japanese in the Philippines. He
said he would call as a witness "an old man" from the
Philippines to testify that Mr. Marcos had taken carloads of
gold, the existence of which is viewed skeptically by many
Filipino historians.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-4.11>
President Marcos, who ruled under martial law for 14
years, was overthrown in a revolution in 1986. Afterwards, he
and Mrs. Marcos took refuge in Hawaii, where they allegedly
continued the racketeering enterprise.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-4.12>
Debra Livingston, an assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting
the case, told jurors the government will prove that Mrs.
Marcos took an active role in directing the alleged scheme of
fraud.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-4.13>
"You are going to learn that Imelda Marcos and Ferdinand
Marcos together were partners in crime," she said, adding
that Mrs. Marcos "treated the New York branch office of the
Philippines National Bank, which is a government operated
bank, as her own personal piggy bank."
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-5.1>
A NEWSPAPER may depreciate the value of paid subscribers
it acquires.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-5.2>
The decision by U.S. District Judge H. Lee Sarokin in
Newark, N.J., came in a case brought by Newark Morning Ledger
Co., a unit of the Newhouse family's Advance Publications,
against the federal government.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-5.3>
Ledger took depreciation deductions with respect to paid
subscribers it obtained as part of its 1977 purchase of Booth
Newspapers Inc., a Michigan newspaper chain. The Internal
Revenue Service disallowed the deductions, a decision that
would have cost Ledger millions of dollars. Ledger also owns
the Newark Star Ledger newspaper.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-5.4>
Albert Turkus, a Washington attorney who represented
Ledger, said the ruling will likely affect many other
businesses that wish to depreciate such intangible assets as
a customer base.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-5.5>
Judge Sarokin disagreed with the IRS claim that
subscribers have indefinite life for tax purposes and
therefore shouldn't be depreciated. Judge Sarokin found that
subscribers "are not self-regenerating assets," and that they
can only be replaced at substantial cost and effort.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-5.6>
Donald Robinson, a Newark, N.J., attorney also
representing Ledger, said the company is pleased by the
decision. An IRS spokesman says the government hasn't yet
decided whether it will appeal the decision.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0060-6.1>
Wade Lambert contributed to this column.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0059 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0059-1.1>
Not many law schools are located in converted
department-store buildings, but nothing could be more perfect
for Henry Manne. He's selling law students and their
prospective employers on the idea that lawyers should know
something about economics and markets. Armed with this
notion, the entrepreneurial law dean has propelled George
Mason Law School out of obscurity toward the top ranks.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0059-1.2>
He's been dean since 1986 of this once-sleepy and mediocre
outpost of the Virginia state university system, located on a
commercial strip in Arlington across the river from
Washington, D.C. Mr. Manne recently snared Robert Bork to
begin teaching this fall, joining federal appeals Judge
Douglas Ginsburg. A recent survey by U.S. News of legal
academics picked George Mason as the top up-and-coming law
school. The number of applicants has tripled to 3,300, for
200 places.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0059-1.3>
Mr. Manne came to George Mason with an unusual background.
He pioneered an idea as radical in 1965 as it is commonplace
now. The traditional law reviews didn't understand his
article "Mergers and the Market for Corporate Control," which
was instead published in the Journal of Political Economy.
The article foresaw the Wall Street of the 1980s by
introducing the idea of takeovers as an excellent way for
stockholders to replace managers who don't maximize share
price. He also is known for criticizing "inside trading" laws
as overly vague.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0059-1.4>
Mr. Manne is a leading scholar of the law and economics
school begun at the University of Chicago Law School when he
was a student there in the early 1950s, and that includes
most prominently federal appeals court Judge Richard Posner.
Scholars of this school apply economics to legal issues as
diverse as product liability, incentives to litigate and
separation of powers. Mr. Manne took the job partly because
he could recruit most of the faculty. George Mason now has
the highest concentration of economics-oriented law scholars,
half of the 29 full-time professors.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0059-1.5>
Law and economics may be most valuable for helping judges
understand the effects of legal rules. A classic application
was explained in 1947 by Learned Hand, a federal judge in New
York. He became the Hammurabi of law and economics with a
court opinion that included the "Hand Formula" for when to
assess liability for negligence: only if the loss caused by
the accident, multiplied by the probability of the accident
occurring, is more than the cost of precautions the defendant
could have taken to avoid the accident. This may sound overly
formalistic, but following it would have prevented today's
deep-pocket-picking rules finding liability regardless of
who, if anyone, was at fault.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0059-1.6>
There were some bumps along the way to a more high-powered
George Mason. "When I first came there was terror in this
place," Mr. Manne recalls. "One rumor was that we were going
to drop all the law courses and all the law students had to
major in economics." He had to buy out the contracts of
several professors. He sent two professors to earn economics
Ph.D.s.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0059-1.7>
Mr. Manne says that in his second year, a student
complained about law professors who kept putting numbers on
the blackboard. Mr. Manne lectured her on the importance of
concepts such as present value and opportunity cost. He
decided to offer a course the school calls "Quantitative
Methods for Lawyers," which includes everything from basic
supply-and-demand ideas to regression analysis and the
Capital Asset Pricing Model. The course became mandatory when
law firms began asking for students who'd taken it.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0059-1.8>
"I just think it is irresponsible to have law students
graduate not knowing that winning $50,000 for a client over
20 years is not the same as $1 million now," Mr. Manne says.
These days discrimination and product-liability cases require
some knowledge of statistics. It's hard to follow takeover
law without finance theory.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0059-1.9>
Mr. Manne is careful to emphasize that George Mason is not
a conservative law school. Steven Ross, the liberal lawyer
for the House of Representatives, will join Mr. Bork as
part-time constitutional law teachers. Also, "There is
nothing more absurd than saying that law and economics is
ideological," Mr. Manne says. "We just give students the
economic tools they need." Of course, Mr. Manne knows that
the idea of applying concepts such as limited resources and
cost-benefit analysis is radical indeed in a legal world of
multi-million dollar punitive damages and activist judges
rewriting private contracts.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0059-1.10>
He has unique experience teaching economics as a neutral
analytic tool. For more than 15 years his Law and Economics
Center, now at George Mason, has run intensive study programs
for federal judges taught by leading economists such as
Milton Friedman. By now some 350 federal judges -- more than
40% of the total -- have taken these courses.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0059-1.11>
Mr. Manne cites an opinion by Philadelphia federal Judge
Edward Becker in an antitrust case, Zenith v. Matsushita
Electric. Judge Becker, a graduate of a Manne course, used
close economic reasoning to deny admission of supposed expert
testimony on predatory pricing. He wrote, "We have
encountered economists of the caliber of (the expert witness)
in their academic milieu, and, knowing their fetish for
rigorous analysis, cannot conceive of them . . . seriously
positing conclusions based upon (this) kind of evidence."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0059-1.12>
Along with emphasizing law and economics, Mr. Manne
decided to do something about a perennial problem at law
schools. Several studies have proposed that law school be
reduced to two years because the third year usually is a
mishmash of elective courses. As Mr. Manne says, "Out of the
current system you get such exotica as `Icelandic Sagas' and
`Legal Systems in Bangladesh,' where no two courses have any
relationship to another." He didn't mention it, but you also
get highly political courses that don't have much to do with
law at all, such as the crypto-Marxist Critical Legal
Studies.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0059-1.13>
So he created a three-year system in which students can
instead concentrate in legal specialties. Beginning with the
current class, students can take an integrated set of courses
in corporate and securities law, banking and
financial-services law or patent law. About one-third of the
students choose one of these tracks. The courses include
"Insolvency & Reorganization of Financial Services Firms" and
"Corporate Procedure & Litigation II."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0059-1.14>
It's fitting that Mr. Bork should pick George Mason to
resume law teaching. He made his early reputation with a book
that shook antitrust law by applying economic concepts to
show that big is not necessarily bad. Mr. Bork says he
accepted Mr. Manne's offer because "George Mason is a rapidly
improving place. Henry Manne is producing the law school to
watch."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0059-1.15>
Another thriving law school may not be what this country
needs most, but at least George Mason hopes to train lawyers
who understand the law in its biggest picture. If Mr. Manne
succeeds, his insistence that lawyers understand economics
could inspire a happy revolution in the development of our
laws.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0058 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0058-1.1>
INTER-REGIONAL FINANCIAL GROUP Inc. (Minneapolis) --
Irving Weiser, 42-year-old president and chief executive
officer of this financial-services concern, was named to the
additional posts of president and chief executive of its Dain
Bosworth Inc. brokerage firm unit, succeeding Fred Friswold,
who resigned earlier this year.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0057 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0057-1.1>
MONTREAL -- Provigo Inc. named two people to succeed its
former chairman, president and chief executive officer,
Pierre Lortie, who left five months ago after the board
decided to sell the nonfood operations of the wholesale and
retail grocery concern.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0057-1.2>
Bertin Nadeau, who has effective control of 51% of
Provigo's stock, was named chairman. He will share the chief
executive's post with Yvan Bussieres, who also was named
president.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0057-1.3>
Mr. Nadeau, 49 years old, controls Unigesco Inc., a
Montreal distribution concern. Unigesco holds 26% of Provigo
directly, and, through an agreement with another major
holder, votes an additional 25% of Provigo's shares.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0057-1.4>
Mr. Bussieres, 46, previously was president and chief
operating officer of a Provigo unit.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0057-1.5>
Mr. Nadeau said that within the newly created "office of
the chief executive," he will be responsible for the
company's overall direction and finances, while Mr. Bussieres
will concentrate on operations.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0057-1.6>
Provigo also posted a loss for the year ended Jan. 27, as
expected, but analysts said the results were even weaker than
anticipated. The fiscal 1990 deficit of 51.4 million Canadian
dollars (US$44 million), or 60 Canadian cents (51 U.S. cents)
a share, compares with year-earlier earnings of C$51.5
million, or 61 Canadian cents a share. The results for both
years include extraordinary charges and losses from
discontinued operations, including a C$60 million charge for
the disposal of Provigo's nonfood businesses in the latest
year.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0057-1.7>
Sales rose 15% to C$6.14 billion from C$5.35 billion.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0057-1.8>
On the Toronto Stock Exchange yesterday, Provigo shares
closed unchanged at C$9.25.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0056 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0056-1.1>
OAK BROOK, Ill. -- Waste Management Inc. and Jefferson
Smurfit Corp. dropped plans to form a joint venture under
which the waste-handling concern would have provided used
paper to Smurfit's extensive reclamation operation.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0056-1.2>
Both companies said the plan was scuttled on an amicable
basis after they couldn't come to terms. They declined to
elaborate.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0056-1.3>
In January, the companies signed a letter of intent
calling for Waste Management to buy a 50% stake in Smurfit's
reclamation division. Smurfit, a St. Louis container company
owned by Jefferson Smurfit Group PLC of Ireland and an
investor group led by Morgan Stanley Group Inc., is the
nation's largest reclaimer and recycler of wastepaper.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0056-1.4>
The proposed venture had promised Smurfit an abundant and
steady stream of material, while providing an ensured market
for the old newspapers that Waste Management, the nation's
largest collector of municipal garbage, picks up from 190
municipalities in North America.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0056-1.5>
Although the venture has been called off, the companies
said that "subject to market conditions" they expect to
continue their current relationship, in which Smurfit
sometimes buys or brokers waste paper from Waste Management.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0056-1.6>
A Waste Management spokesman said the company is "as
optimistic as ever, and as committed as ever, to developing
endmarkets for all the recyclables we collect." The company
is pushing ahead plans to put together, with Du Pont Co., the
nation's largest plastics recycling and reprocessing
operation. "We hope to to be doing other things on our own to
provide assured outlets for what we collect," said the
spokesman.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0055 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0055-1.1>
New York -- Now that Franco Zeffirelli has designed a
handsome new "Don Giovanni" for the Metropolitan, could he
please come back and finish directing it?
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0055-1.2>
At the premiere the other night, the most enjoyable
performance came from the sets. They were large and nimble
and entirely worthy of our undivided attention whenever they
rolled in on their little wheels. My major regret was that
Mr. Zeffirelli did not also think to outfit his not-so-nimble
cast with individual dollies. Mostly, they just stood there
like well, statues, obscuring very attractive grillwork.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0055-1.3>
The best ironwork decorates Donna Anna's huge palace and,
happily, the opera's plot let us admire it twice. The first
time around, its noble resident distracted us by dropping to
the floor in a faint after the Don Giovanni of the evening,
Samuel Ramey, pawed her bosom and bared his teeth.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0055-1.4>
Even so, the production was short on laughs. You may read
in the program that Mozart and his librettist, Lorenzo da
Ponte, wrote a "dramma giocoso," but the drama and jokey bits
still were waiting to be inserted when Mr. Zeffirelli ran out
of rehearsals.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0055-1.5>
He evidently spent his time arranging for 11 smooth scene
changes that take us all the way to hell by the opera's end,
with Mr. Z adding a few extra touches typical of his
cheerfully overblown style. Normally, we have to make do with
just the statue of the murdered Commendatore coming to life.
Not anymore. In this production, many waving tomb statues
point the Don down to his fiery destination. Would that Mr.
Zeffirelli also could have written a new Mozart tune as they
stirred to life. But even Mr. Z's talent has some limit, it
seems.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0055-1.6>
More often, though, this "Don Giovanni" shows signs of
actual restraint (by the abandoned standards of his amusingly
overblown "Turandot" anyhow), while still looking like the
million bucks -- plus it probably cost. Mr. Zeffirelli took
his design cues from the rococo theater of Mozart's day, when
his wizardly predecessors transformed bare planks into
"trompe l'oeil" worlds using pulleys and paints. Mr. Z's
world begins with the sun rising slowly during the overture
on an empty stage, a beautiful image that returns when the
Don has lived out his last, and very complicated, day.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0055-1.7>
So there is no reason to linger sadly over the demise of
the old Eugene Berman production. Once interesting in an arty
sort of way, with lots of flats covered with bold
Mediterranean colors, Berman's sets were collapsing on the
cast the last time I saw it (and I wasn't even thinking
wishfully!). What made me remember it at all was its
Giovanni, the great Italian basso Cesare Siepi, who played
the Don with a sexy elegance and mocking humor that Mr. Ramey
barely suggests.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0055-1.8>
Given no apparent direction, curiously frail-looking in
his outfits, Mr. Ramey slapped his head a lot in an
unconvincing display of animation and sang his music very
smoothly while slowly fading into the darkly glimmering sets
as the evening progressed -- until you needed the Hubble
interstellar telescope to pull him into focus.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0055-1.9>
A low point was "La ci darem la mano," in which the Don's
dullness was doubled by duetizing with the show's Zerlina,
Dawn Upshaw. Come with me to my castle, "I'll change your
fate," promises the Don singing softly into the ear of this
peasant girl set to marry a bumpkin. "I want to . . . and I
don't," says she. I was struck by the beatific expression on
conductor James Levine's face as he turned sideways to
address the strings. Singing that uninflected and charmless
makes him happy?
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0055-1.10>
So it went for much of the evening. One might have
accepted what was essentially a concert performance sung in
front of sets, had the singing been interesting. It rarely
was. Mozart wrote a fabulous entry aria for Donna Elvira. The
Don has just ditched her and she is cooking with fury. "I'm
going to cut out his heart," she sings, stomping into
Seville. The descriptive vocal line goes up and down as she
relishes the surgery, not knowing that the man himself is
secretly observing her. This is as funny as opera gets. But
Karita Mattila's careful delivery and restrained gestures did
not inspire chuckles. She sang the notes very tidily indeed
and then sat down to calm her debut nerves by listening to
Leporello, the Don's sidekick, recite a catalog of his
master's amorous conquests. Poor Elvira is No. 1003 (and
that's just for Spain!). As far as I could tell, she seemed
to take it well. Mr. Z apparently didn't get around to
staging this scene either.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0055-1.11>
Or the grotesque masquerade in the next act. Elvira,
pining, lonely, consumed by hope and memory, lets herself be
deluded into thinking that the Don is making nice to her in
the darkness of a town square, when it is in fact Leporello
wearing his hat and cape. We should be amused, not
embarrassed. Mr. Ramey and Ferruccio Furlanetto, presumably
left to their own devices, carried on like provincial clowns.
But never mind, Ms. Mattila somehow still came across as a
soprano one would like to see again in another opera. She is
an unusually striking woman with big eyes and a determined
chin, and the voice warms to a silvery sheen. "Mi tradi" got
the biggest hand of the evening.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0055-1.12>
There was not much competition from Carol Vaness, a fine
singer quite miscast as Donna Anna, Elvira's frigid
counterpart. Her icy arias demand more cutting power than Ms.
Vaness could muster. At least her Ottavio, Jerry Hadley, was
a cut above the fat fop often cast as this useless man.
Elegant in Anna Anni's sumptuous costumes, he sang his
difficult music with an imperfect technique and a beautiful
tone.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0055-1.13>
The most memorable moment came right after the Don's death
as the cast gathered to sing high-mindedly of evildoers
always coming to an evil end. Leporello sat alone in a
corner, cradling his master's catalog of conquests, looking
sad, and clearly missing the good times already. It was a
nice touch and suggested what Mr. Z might have been capable
of had he spent some time thinking about the characters
inside his gorgeous sets.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0054 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0054-1.1>
Advest Group Inc., hurt by the slump in the securities
industry, said it expects to post a loss of $5 million, or 50
cents a share, for its second quarter ended last Saturday.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0054-1.2>
The regional brokerage firm, based in Hartford, Conn., had
year-earlier profit of $2 million, or 20 cents a share, on
revenue of $54.6 million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0054-1.3>
Advest said the results for the latest period include a $5
million pretax charge for a contingency reserve for assets
held by Advest Credit Corp., which is in liquidation, and for
possible losses on other investments and loans in oil and gas
partnerships and in real estate partnerships acquired by
Advest Group in the past five years. Advest said its
quarterly dividend of four cents a share won't be affected.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0054-1.4>
In New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday,
Advest shares closed at $5.375, unchanged.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0053 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0053-1.1>
DETROIT -- Auto makers dodged the fuel-economy bullet in
the Senate clean air bill, but they still face an all-out
legislative fight over this potentially costly issue.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0053-1.2>
Environmentalists are pushing for improved gasoline
mileage as a key step in slowing global warming, a climatic
change that scientists have linked to the burning of gasoline
and other fossil fuels. Auto makers, meanwhile, complain that
a tough fuel economy law will force them to radically shrink
their cars at a time when consumers are buying bigger, more
powerful models.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0053-1.3>
"The car industry is going to fight like hell, but so are
we," says Daniel Becker, director of global warming and
energy programs for the Sierra Club. "And I think Congress is
going to conclude they need to tighten up C.A.F.E. {corporate
average fuel economy}."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0053-1.4>
The auto industry won an important skirmish when it
blocked an amendment from the Senate bill that would have
effectively required greatly improved fuel economy. Such an
amendment was GM's "No. 1 objection" to the clean air bill,
says William H. Noack, director of General Motors Corp.'s
Washington office.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0053-1.5>
But a fight is still looming. Yesterday, the Senate
Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
overwhelmingly approved a bill, written by Sen. Richard Bryan
(D., Nev.), that would require each manufacturer to achieve a
20% improvement in corporate fuel economy by 1995 and a 40%
improvement by 2001. The bill uses 1988 as a base.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0053-1.6>
Approval came despite lobbying from auto industry
officials; Ford Motor Co. Chairman Harold A. Poling
personally visited four key senators before the vote. The
Bryan bill "has the potential to eliminate the family car,"
argues GM's Mr. Noack.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0053-1.7>
Senate leadership has already promised to give the Bryan
bill time on the floor later this year. And some senators
behind the clean air bill have indicated they support tougher
fuel economy standards, not only because of global warming,
but also because of concern about the trade deficit -- caused
in no small part by massive purchases of foreign oil.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0053-1.8>
Currently, foreign and domestic car makers are required to
meet a 27.5-mile-a-gallon average for their U.S. fleets,
about twice what the manufacturers averaged in the mid-1970s.
But after years of increases, the average fuel economy of
cars sold in the U.S. began dropping two years ago -- 4%
since 1988, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0053-1.9>
In the 1990 model year, Ford, GM and Chrysler Corp. expect
to average from 26.5 miles a gallon to 27.1 miles a gallon,
although all should avoid paying federal fines because of
credits accumulated in past years. The companies say their
numbers are down because they're selling more cars with
bigger engines and weight-adding options and safety
equipment.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0053-1.10>
Even bigger drops in fuel economy have come from Japanese
car makers, who once sold only small cars but are now making
an aggressive bid for the heart of the U.S. market. This past
fall, Nissan Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. each introduced
luxury cars with V-8 engines. Partly because of this,
Toyota's corporate average is projected to drop to 30.5 miles
per gallon this model year, about 6% below the 1988 level of
32.6 miles. The imports are "moving aggressively backwards,"
complains Sen. Bryan.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0053-1.11>
Now, the Bryan bill would require each manufacturer to
boost its individual fuel economy, first by 20% then by 40%
-- a change from the practice of requiring manufacturers to
meet a single, industrywide number or pay penalties. The
approach in the Bryan bill has incensed the Japanese, who say
it imposes an especially tough burden because their
fuel-economy averages already exceed those of the U.S. Big
Three.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0053-1.12>
By contrast, Chrysler and Ford each prefer the
percentage-by-manufacturer approach over an industrywide
number, although they feel the numbers in the Bryan bill are
way too high. GM is opposed to C.A.F.E. standards, period,
company spokesmen say.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0053-1.13>
For its part, the Senate clean air bill will add perhaps
$600 to the cost of a new car. But many auto executives
believe a tough fuel economy law will be much worse, perhaps
forcing them to stop building big cars entirely.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0053-1.14>
Backers of tougher fuel economy insist the auto makers
could meet the standards without significantly cutting down
the size of cars. Sen. Bryan points to a U.S. Office of
Technology Assessment study that found car makers could
improve fuel economy merely through more extensive use of
existing technology, such as front-wheel drive, fuel
injection and multivalve engines.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0053-1.15>
Ronald Boltz, Chrysler's vice president of product
strategy and regulatory affairs, disagrees, saying that
changes in technology will produce some of these gains, but
the rest must come from reduced weight.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0053-1.16>
Since 1974, the auto industry has slimmed down the average
U.S. car to a little less than 3,000 pounds from more than
4,000 pounds. In many cases, car makers were able to trim
weight without reducing interior volume, but Mr. Boltz says
that won't be the case this time around. The Bryan bill would
force Chrysler to have an average fuel economy of 39.8 miles
per gallon by 2001, making its largest car a compact, he
says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0053-1.17>
To some senators, that is reminiscent of the mid-1970s,
when Ford warned that the first fuel economy law could
require a product line of "all sub-Pinto sized vehicles."
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0052 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.1>
Tokyo stocks finished sharply higher, a day after posting
the biggest single-day loss since the October 1987 plunge.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.2>
The Nikkei index rebounded in the afternoon session, after
slipping in the morning. Active bargain hunting lifted the
market, with advances led by high-tech and blue-chip shares.
Trading in stocks with poor earnings outlooks remained
sluggish.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.3>
In London, prices finished a seesaw session firmer, as an
early advance on the back of the good Tokyo performance ran
out of steam, only to be revived once Wall Street opened.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.4>
Tokyo's Nikkei index of 225 issues finished just below its
intraday high, up 757.65 points at 28759.72. Yesterday's gain
was the index's first in six trading days. The Nikkei lost
1978.38 points, or 6.6%, Monday, the second-largest daily
loss ever both in point and percentage terms.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.5>
In trading Wednesday morning, the Nikkei index was up
212.05 points at 28971.77.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.6>
Volume yesterday on the first section was estimated at 650
million shares, up from 479 million shares Monday. Declining
issues outpaced advancing issues 464 to 412, while 70 issues
were unchanged.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.7>
The Tokyo Stock Price Index of all issues listed in the
first section gained 41.78 points, or 2.02%, to 2111.11,
after plunging 158.15 points Monday.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.8>
The second section index lost 77.04 points, or 2.10%, to
3586.07. The index fell 154.79 points Monday. Volume was
estimated at nine million shares, up from five million shares
Monday.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.9>
The Nikkei index fluctuated widely in either side of 28000
points yesterday.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.10>
After gaining 600 points in the first 30 minutes of the
morning session, the index fell as low as 27678.18 points,
the lowest intraday level this year.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.11>
But the index bounced up 250 points during the last 30
minutes of the morning session, cutting the loss to 77.19
points.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.12>
Selling pressure was strong from individual investors,
some of whom need to cash in holdings to pay additional
deposits for margin buying, traders said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.13>
But such selling, orders for which mostly had been placed
with brokerage houses overnight, were processed during the
morning session.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.14>
Encouraged by reduced selling pressure, the Nikkei
continued its upward move through the afternoon session.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.15>
The Nikkei's advance didn't indicate across-the-board
gains, however.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.16>
High-tech and blue-chip shares gained, supported by buying
by a wide range of investors including institutions and
investment trust funds, traders said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.17>
Meanwhile, investors sold stocks with poor earnings
prospects, regardless of their capitalization, the traders
said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.18>
Some speculative shares also were targets of heavy
selling. Rumors that some speculator groups are in financial
trouble spawned fear that the groups may sell their holdings,
traders said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.19>
Traders said life and non-life insurance companies were
among active buyers. The activity spawned speculation among
traders that the Ministry of Finance asked the companies to
place buy orders to demonstrate that a report in a leading
economic newspaper asserting the companies planned heavy
sales was misleading. Officials of life insurance companies
denied the speculation.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.20>
Among the high-technology winners were Sony, which rose
500 yen to 8100 yen ($3.15 to $51), and Kyocera, which surged
540 yen to 7900 yen. Hitachi gained 120 yen to 1620 yen,
while Sharp increased 100 yen to 1800 yen.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.21>
But mining issues declined, reflecting falling gold
prices, traders said. Dowa Mining lost 54 yen to 756 yen.
Petroleum shares were also sold as the weaker yen is expected
to push up oil import costs. Nippon Oil fell 40 yen to 1000
yen.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.22>
Meanwhile, the Tokyo Stock Exchange said that in the week
ended March 30, the balance of margin buying declined 273.1
billion yen to 8.619 trillion yen. The balance of short
positions outstanding increased 208.6 billion yen to 663.9
billion yen.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.23>
London equities were initially cheered by the Tokyo
market, and responded by sending the Financial Times-Stock
Exchange 100 up about 12 points, in conjunction with some
aggressive stock-index futures buying.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.24>
But this move wasn't to last, and with no subsequent
follow-through buying, the index drifted off by midday and
even showed a loss at one stage.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.25>
However, a number of factors conspired during the
afternoon to drive the market higher yet again. These
included additional futures activity, a firm opening on Wall
Street, revived bid speculation in a handful of major stocks,
a firm pound and a shortage of stock among the blue chips.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.26>
At the close, the FT-SE 100 was up 19.1 points at 2240.7
and just a shade below its 2241.7 intraday peak. The
midmorning low was 2218, which was down 3.6 points from
Monday's close.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.27>
The Financial Times 30 share index was up 13.2 points at
1761.3. Volume amounted to a relatively good 541.8 million
shares, up from 527.4 million issues. Dealers said two
program trades accounted for much of yesterday's volume.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.28>
Dealers said the main feature of yesterday's market was
the strength of the property market. British Land surged 34
pence to 374 pence (56 cents to $6.12), Hammerson jumped 17
pence to 763 pence, Land Securities added 11 pence to 497
pence, and MEPC gained 10 pence to 506 pence.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.29>
Another star performer was Reuters, where the announcement
of the proposed 10% share buy-back and increased borrowing
powers was well received, after an initial sluggish response.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.30>
Upon Wall Street's opening, dealers said they saw firm
buying interest for Reuters and the price quickly climbed,
closing at #11.43, a gain of 36 pence.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.31>
Elsewhere, Reckitt & Colman jumped 29 pence to #11.59,
continuing on the back of the SmithKline Beecham sale of
Marmite, Ambrosia and Bovril food brand names a day earlier.
Analysts said the price fetched by SmithKline Beecham for the
brand goods has led investors to reassess the value of the
many brands in Reckitt's stable.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.32>
Cadbury Schweppes added 13 pence to 332 pence as talk
circulated that U.S. food and tobacco giant Philip Morris was
looking to diversify away from its tobacco interests and
found the British sweets and soft-drink maker enticing. The
talk went so far as to suggest that Philip Morris would be
making a bid for Cadbury sometime this week.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.33>
Elsewhere in Europe, prices closed higher in Paris,
Frankfurt, Zurich, Brussels, Amsterdam and Stockholm and
lower in Milan. South African gold stocks closed marginally
firmer.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.34>
Meanwhile, prices rose in Singapore, Hong Kong and
Wellington, were mixed in Sydney and Manila, and lower in
Seoul and Taipei.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.35>
Here are price trends on the world's major stock markets,
as calculated by Morgan Stanley Capital International
Perspective, Geneva. To make them directly comparable, each
index is based on the close of 1969 equaling 100. The
percentage change is since year-end.
 % This
 Apr 2 Mar 30 Year
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.36>
U.S. ............................ 312.2 313.0 - 4.0
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.37>
Britain ......................... 660.3 667.8 - 8.4
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.38>
Canada .......................... 395.5 398.6 - 8.5
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.39>
Japan ........................... 1146.8 1232.9 -30.7
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.40>
France .......................... 544.2 550.0 - 4.0
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.41>
Germany ......................... 310.9 315.8 + 9.0
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.42>
Hong Kong ....................... 2171.1 2222.2 + 3.5
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.43>
Switzerland ..................... 202.8 206.8 - 8.1
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.44>
Australia ....................... 303.4 309.5 - 8.4
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0052-1.45>
World index ..................... 468.3 483.8 -17.5
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0051 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0051-1.1>
TRW Inc., Cleveland, said it purchased two automotive
electronics concerns, one in the U.S. and the other in
France. The company, which is a major producer of auto and
truck parts, a defense and space contractor, and a supplier
of computerized information services, declined to state the
purchase price.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0051-1.2>
TRW said it bought Wickes Manufacturing Co.'s electrical
division, which has annual sales of about $75 million, and an
80% interest in National Module Systems, Paris, which had
1989 sales of about $11 million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0051-1.3>
The Wickes unit has plants in Union Springs and Auburn,
N.Y., and engineering and sales offices in Troy, Mich. It
makes relays, sensors and other electronic devices that TRW
said will broaden its product line. National Module Systems
produces keyless infrared remote entry and central locking
systems, liquid crystal display clocks and trip computers,
TRW said.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0050 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0050-1.1>
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Mounting government pressure on
Indonesia's corporate groups to voluntarily divest as much as
25% of their equity to cooperatives is stirring anxiety and
confusion among business leaders.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0050-1.2>
Executives say they are trying to comply with the spirit
of Jakarta's request, which President Suharto calls an
"appeal" for big business to share its prosperity. Many
businessmen are worried that the cooperative plan --
conceived and vigorously promoted by President Suharto --
could create business and political headaches, undercutting
confidence in Indonesia's surging economy.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0050-1.3>
According to the Indonesian constitution, cooperatives are
intended to be one of three pillars of the country's economy,
along with the government and private business. The 34,000
cooperatives are government-encouraged organizations designed
to pool savings from groups of farmers or company employees
and supply members with credit or low-cost essential goods.
But most of the cooperatives are short of cash, credibility
and capable management.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0050-1.4>
Suharto's initiative is intended to defuse growing social
tensions by giving the 27 million cooperative members a stake
in the country's economic gains. But his plan has been
criticized by economists and businessmen is impractical and
out of step with the government's economic-deregulation
policies.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0050-1.5>
The government has said the divestment plan won't apply to
foreigners.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0049 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0049-1.1>
Hartmarx Corp. reported a 75% drop in earnings for the
fiscal first quarter, which it blamed on a slowdown in both
the wholesale and retail menswear business.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0049-1.2>
The Chicago maker of men's suits and other apparel also
said fall orders for its manufacturing operations were down
7%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0049-1.3>
Lower wholesale shipments, slimmer retail profit margins
and higher interest expenses combined to cut earnings to $2.4
million, or 12 cents a share, compared with $9.8 million, or
50 cents a share, a year earlier.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0049-1.4>
Acquisitions boosted sales for the latest quarter to a
record $342.1 million, up from $327.4 million. But retail
sales in comparable businesses declined 2% during the most
recent quarter, which ended Feb. 28, Hartmarx said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0049-1.5>
Harvey A. Weinberg, chairman and chief executive officer,
blamed results on a very competitive retail market that
dogged the company in fiscal 1989 and has spread to the
wholesale side. But he said March retail sales were up 10%
overall and up 4% in comparable locations. Hartmarx operates
more than 500 stores.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0048 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0048-1.1>
MINNEAPOLIS -- Honeywell Inc. said it has received several
offers for its Defense and Marine Systems business but is
considering spinning the business off to shareholders.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0048-1.2>
The controls concern first proposed disposing of the
billion-dollar business last year as part of an effort to
increase shareholder value. Although it initially was
contemplating a sale, Honeywell said yesterday that "the
environment for defense properties has changed," an apparent
indication that early bids have been disappointingly low.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0048-1.3>
Accordingly, a tax-free spinoff to shareholders is under
consideration, along with a sale, which the company noted
likely would result in a taxable gain. Honeywell said it
expects to dispose of the business during the current
quarter, which ends June 30.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0048-1.4>
Defense and Marine, a leading supplier of torpedoes and
other weaponry to the U.S. and other governments, last year
earned $53.8 million on sales of $1.1 billion. Honeywell's
latest annual report, covering 1989, treats Defense and
Marine as a discontinued business.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0047 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.1>
NEW YORK -- Investors chased stocks yesterday, especially
big consumer issues that aren't likely to deliver
first-quarter earnings surprises.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.2>
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 36.26 to 2736.71.
Broader measures kept pace: Standard & Poor's 500-stock index
gained 4.94 to 343.64.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.3>
Advancing issues topped decliners on the New York Stock
Exchange by 1,071 to 431. Big Board volume totaled
154,310,000 shares, the most since March 22; on Monday, just
124,360,000 shares traded.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.4>
Investors are pursuing safety again, as they did for much
of the second half of 1989 when fears of a recession in the
U.S. increased. Big consumer stocks such as Philip Morris
helped pace the advance in the Dow industrials. Many money
managers are piling into big stocks that aren't expected to
have shocking first-quarter earnings news because they're
afraid market indexes may get ahead of them, one analyst
said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.5>
Additionally, foreign investors are turning back to the
U.S. stocks, which look less fragile than stocks in Tokyo and
some European nations, analysts said. According to one
trader, a major European institution has been buying large
amounts of U.S. stocks and index futures for the past two
days. Foreign investors typically prefer big U.S. issues that
have active markets and strong brand names.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.6>
Philip Morris rose 1 3/8 to 40 7/8, and placed first on
the Big Board's list of most active issues with about 2.6
million shares changing hands. Coca-Cola rose 1 1/4 to 77
1/4; Procter & Gamble gained 1 5/8 to 69 1/4, and Merck
advanced 1 1/4 to 71 5/8.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.7>
Drug and food stocks were two other popular defensive
industry groups. Bristol-Myers Squibb advanced 1 1/4 to 54
1/2 on 1.5 million shares. Archer-Daniels-Midland gained 1
to 23 1/2 on 1.2 million shares.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.8>
"There's more conviction about the earnings outlook for
{consumer stocks} than there is for the cyclicals," said
Michael Metz, a market strategist at Oppenheimer & Co.
Cyclical stocks are shares of companies whose fortunes swing
with the economy; cyclical industry groups were first-quarter
favorites.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.9>
Two of the market's best-performing sectors through the
first quarter -- technology and energy -- also were at the
forefront of the its latest advance.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.10>
Among technology issues, International Business Machines
gained 3/4 to 106 5/8 on 1.1 million shares, Digital
Equipment jumped 2 1/2 to 79 5/8, Compaq Computer climbed 1
7/8 to 99 1/2, Hewlett-Packard rose 1/2 to 46 3/4 and Unisys
rose 3/8 to 15 1/2.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.11>
Exxon rose 7/8 to 47 1/8 on 1.1 million shares. Other oil
stocks also recorded solid gains; Chevron rose 7/8 to 67 7/8,
Texaco climbed 7/8 to 59 5/8, Mobil rose 7/8 to 62 1/2, Amoco
rose 7/8 to 54 1/8 and Royal Dutch Petroleum advanced 1 3/8
to 76 1/2. Oryx Energy rose 1 3/8 to 49; the company said it
made another oil discovery in its Pearsall field in south
Texas.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.12>
But Unocal slid 1 5/8 to 32 on two million shares after
analysts at a number of brokerage houses made unfavorable
comments on the stock, which had been boosted recently by
takeover speculation. Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. lowered its
investment rating to "sell" from "hold," while Merrill Lynch
reduced its estimate of this year's earnings by 20 cents a
share, to $1.75.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.13>
Issues of retailers rallied in advance of the release of
March sales reports from major chain stores, scheduled for
today. Woolworth advanced 3/4 to 63 1/2, Dayton Hudson gained
1 1/4 to 69 7/8, Gap Inc. climbed 1 7/8 to 68 3/8, Limited
Inc. rose 1 1/2 to 42 3/8, Mercantile Stores advanced 7/8 to
38 3/8 and Home Depot rose 1 1/8 to 46 7/8. Lowe's, which
reported that March sales were up 25% from a year earlier,
rose 7/8 to 33 1/2.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.14>
Eastman Kodak advanced 1 1/2 to 40 1/2 as 1.6 million
shares changed hands. Bear, Stearns & Co. put the stock on
its research list, and rated the company "neutral." Bear
Stearns analyst Gary Schneider said he has concluded that
Kodak will "initiate some type of transaction" with its
Sterling Drug unit, with a sale "making the most sense." The
company declined comment.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.15>
Georgia Gulf dropped 1/2 to 44 after NL Industries,
controlled by Dallas investor Harold Simmons, said it would
allow its $45-a-share bid for the company to expire and
support a planned recapitalization instead.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.16>
Corning dropped 1/4 to 45 3/4 after reporting
first-quarter net income of 49 cents a share, above the
year-ago level but below analysts' expectations.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.17>
Brazil Fund fell 1 1/8 to 9 1/2. The "Heard on the Street"
column yesterday in this newspaper reported that President
Fernando Collor de Mello has instituted sweeping measures
that have yanked the Brazilian economy to a halt, in an
effort to stop runaway inflation.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.18>
Buckeye Partners dropped 1/2 to 25 and traded as low as 23
3/4. The partnership owns the pipeline from which about
75,000 gallons of petroleum products spilled into the
Allegheny River after a landslide near Pittsburgh last
Friday.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.19>
Danaher jumped 2 1/4 to 17 3/4. Goldman Sachs and
Oppenheimer & Co. put the stock on its research list with
"buy" recommendations and were positive on the company's
proposed acquisition of Easco Hand Tools in a stock swap.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.20>
Golden Valley Microwave Foods gained 2 1/4 to 31 3/4. The
company and James River settled a patent-infringement dispute
over the packaging of microwave foods through a
cross-licensing agreement. James River rose 5/8 to 25 7/8.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.21>
Textron advanced 7/8 to 23 3/8. The company said it plans
to buy back as many as five million common shares,
representing about 5.6% of its shares outstanding.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.22>
Whitehall rose 5/8 to 17 1/2. Cambridge Capital Fund,
which has a stake of about 9.6% in the company, offered to
acquire the rest for $20 a share and said it plans a proxy
fight if Whitehall refuses to discuss the bid.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.23>
The American Stock Exchange Market Value Index rose 2.28
to 361.65. Volume on the exchange totaled 14,710,000 shares.
There were 321 issues advancing and 231 issues declining.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0047-1.24>
Entertainment Publishing rose 7/8 to 16 1/2. Goldman Sachs
put the stock on its research list with a "buy"
recommendation and said it expects nearly 40% earnings growth
in each of the next two years.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0046 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0046-1.1>
Golden Valley Microwave Foods Inc. and James River Corp.
settled litigation over patent rights to packaging for
popcorn and other microwaveable foods.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0046-1.2>
Under the accord, each company will pay the other
royalties. Because payments are expected to be largely
offsetting, neither concern anticipates any significant
financial impact from the settlement.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0046-1.3>
James River, a Richmond, Va., paper and plastic products
concern, agreed to pay Golden Valley royalties on sales of
popcorn bags but will receive a royalty-free license to other
food packaging.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0046-1.4>
Golden Valley will pay royalties on products except for
popcorn and french-fry packaging. Golden Valley, of Edina,
Minn., retains exclusive patent rights on its honeycomb
french-fry container.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0046-1.5>
Both companies hold patents for susceptor heat strips used
in microwaveable-food packaging. James River sued Golden
Valley in 1986 alleging that the food company had infringed
on its packaging patents.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0045 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0045-1.1>
Shareholders of DPL Inc., a utility holding company based
in Dayton, Ohio, approved doubling the number of authorized
common shares to 120 million, paving the way for a 3-for-2
stock split, payable May 4 to stock of record next Wednesday.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0045-1.2>
The company has about 45 million shares outstanding.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0045-1.3>
Authority to issue additional shares will provide the
company with flexibility in financing the completion of the
Zimmer generating station. The plant, which was initially
built for nuclear power but is being converted to coal, is
scheduled to begin operation in 1991, the company said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0045-1.4>
Separately, holders of DPL preferred shares voted to
reduce the par value of common stock to one cent a share from
$7 a share. The action increases the funds legally available
for payment of dividends, DPL said.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0044 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0044-1.1>
Northrop Corp. said it chose an investment manager, U.S.
Trust Co. of California N.A., to purchase Northrop common
stock for the company's retirement plans.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0044-1.2>
Analysts said the proposed stock purchases might help
Northrop protect itself against a hostile takeover attempt.
Northrop has undoubtedly watched with interest recent events
at Lockheed Corp., another Southern California aerospace
concern, which appears to have won a hard-fought proxy
contest.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0044-1.3>
"I don't think there is any immediate concern {at
Northrop}; only ongoing watchfulness," said Lawrence M.
Harris, an analyst at Bateman Eichler, Hill Richards Inc. in
Los Angeles.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0044-1.4>
Northrop directors, officers and employees currently
control at least 23% of the company's common stock, the
current proxy statement indicates. An employee savings plan
holds about a 16.4% stake, and directors and officers as a
group owned about 6.7% of the shares as of March 8.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0043 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0043-1.1>
On Oct. 30, 1985, Sylvia Seegrist walked into the
Springfield Mall in suburban Philadelphia and started to
shoot at random with a .22-caliber semi-automatic rifle. Her
bullets hit 10 people, killing three of them. She was later
ruled criminally insane.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0043-1.2>
This Valentine's Day, a Delaware County jury ruled that
Ms. Seegrist's crime was the fault of the shopping mall, and
that it was liable to the victims for the damages. While the
amount of damages was kept secret in an out-of-court
settlement, the plaintiffs' original demand was in the
millions of dollars.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0043-1.3>
By what logic can a shopping mall be blamed for mass
murder by a madwoman? The answer says much about the current
state of tort law and the risks of retail business in
America.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0043-1.4>
The plaintiffs made several arguments. One was that the
mall should have had more than two unarmed guards on duty.
The security expert for the plaintiffs testified that if an
unarmed guard had been stationed continuously in the main
entrance to the mall, he could have deterred the madwoman
from shooting people. He also testified that the guards were
poorly trained and not systematically told that Ms. Seegrist
had previously made death threats at the mall.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0043-1.5>
More important, perhaps, was the psychiatric testimony.
The plaintiffs' psychiatrist testified that the mall should
have attempted to have Ms. Seegrist committed to a mental
institution. The basis of his claim was that Ms. Seegrist had
appeared in the McDonald's restaurant at the mall shortly
after the 1984 mass murder in San Diego by James Huberty,
muttering about what a good idea the San Diego crime was. She
said to no one in particular that the crime should be
repeated in Springfield and that she was just the one to do
it. She also pointed her fingers like a gun and went
"rat-tat-tat-tat." Then she paid for her coffee, sat down and
drank it.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0043-1.6>
Over the next year, she appeared several more times at the
mall. Each time she acted bizarrely, and several times more
she made threats. This was consistent with her 12 prior
commitments to mental hospitals, each of which was
progressively shorter. During one commitment in 1981, she
stabbed a hospital employee. Three years later, she joined
the Army. She didn't last long in the service, but after her
discharge she frequently wore fatigues and combat boots.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0043-1.7>
The plaintiffs' psychiatrist conceded that about 3% of the
adult population shows schizophrenic tendencies similar to
Ms. Seegrist's pre-shooting behavior. He also conceded that
the rate of violence among schizophrenics is no higher than
the rate of violence in the non-schizophrenic population.
Nonetheless, he thought Ms. Seegrist's behavior was
threatening enough to put the mall on notice that it should
seek to have her committed.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0043-1.8>
The defendant's psychiatrist, unlike the plaintiffs', had
worked on hundreds of civil commitments in Pennsylvania. He
testified that there was almost no chance that Ms. Seegrist
would have been committed merely for making threats. Even if
she had been committed, he said, she would have been released
very quickly, and been free again to shoot up the mall.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0043-1.9>
As a criminologist, I testified for the defense that the
threats gave no notice of the crime, citing my study of 110
specific threats of death in Milwaukee, many with
gun-pointing. Not one was followed by serious injury. Police
nationwide routinely encounter bizarre people making wild
threats without arresting them, since the threats are almost
always just talk.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0043-1.10>
The mall's attorney asked me about the crucial legal
question of "foreseeability," or whether a reasonable person
should have foreseen the occurrence of the crime. My research
showed that from 1976 to 1984, there was only about one crime
a year similar to this one in the entire U.S.: simultaneous
murder of three or more people by a stranger, not for
monetary gain, using a gun. Only seven people a year, on
average, die from such an offense. Fifteen people, on
average, die from planes falling out of the sky on them.
Lightning strikes some 80 people dead each year, and auto
accidents kill 50,000. The odds of the plaintiffs' dying in a
mass murder were about 1 in 30 million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0043-1.11>
The annual odds of Ms. Seegrist committing the crime were
only 1 in 156 million, without considering her sex. The prior
rate of such crimes by women nationwide was zero. There also
had been no prior documented mass murder in a shopping
center. I told the jury that these odds were so low that no
reasonable person should have foreseen this occurring at the
mall.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0043-1.12>
Even if the crime had been foreseeable, my research showed
that the crime was impossible to prevent by any reasonable
standard of care. Police stations, courthouses and any
premises open to the public are vulnerable to exactly the
same kind of attack. The only way to have prevented a sudden
terrorist attack at the mall would have been to turn it into
an armed camp. The defense suggested that would be an
unreasonable standard of care.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0043-1.13>
The jury disagreed.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0043-2.1>
Mr. Sherman is a professor of criminology at the
University of Maryland and president of the Crime Control
Institute in Washington.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0042 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0042-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- Democrats on the House Banking Committee
decided to push for passage of two pieces of savings-and-loan
legislation this year.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0042-1.2>
One bill, sponsored by Rep. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.),
would ban savings and loans from selling uninsured bonds in
their lobbies. In the failure of Lincoln Savings & Loan,
Irvine, Calif., thousands of investors said they believed
they were buying government-insured certificates of deposit
in Lincoln's lobby. About $200 million in bonds were issued
by Lincoln's parent, American Continental Corp., Phoenix, and
are now believed to be worthless since the company filed for
bankruptcy protection a year ago.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0042-1.3>
Another bill, sponsored by Rep. David Price (D., N.C.),
would give the government greater latitude in dissolving
"golden parachutes," which are lucrative severance contracts,
for managers of failed thrifts.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0042-1.4>
According to committee members' staff, the Democrats on
the 51-member panel said they expect to begin drafting the
legislation in three weeks, after a congressional recess.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0041 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0041-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- The House Budget Committee is working on a
plan to reduce military spending by between $10 billion and
$14 billion from projected levels in fiscal 1991, panel
Chairman Leon Panetta said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0041-1.2>
The California Democrat said the committee, which has been
meeting privately, is likely to make a sharp cut in the
military budget, which has projected outlays of $306.9
billion in the year that begins Oct. 1. The precise reduction
hasn't yet been decided.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0041-1.3>
The military spending total is the most contentious item
in the fiscal 1991 budget resolution. The non-binding budget
document also is likely to call for tax increases of $13.9
billion, the amount sought by President Bush, Mr. Panetta
said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0041-1.4>
Rep. Panetta predicted that the budget resolution would
pass the House, but was less certain about the outlook in the
Senate and the ability of even the House to pass legislation
that follows through with the document's guidelines.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0041-1.5>
Action in the House Budget Committee is expected later
this month.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0040 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0040-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- The Labor Department said it found nearly
11,000 child-labor violations in its three-day nationwide
sweep last month.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0040-1.2>
The total is considerably higher than the 7,000 violations
estimated by department officials the morning after the
enforcement blitz ended. The estimate of total fines for the
violations grew to $2.9 million from the $1.8 million figure
given last month, said William Brooks, assistant secretary
for the Employment Standards Administration.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0040-1.3>
The department released the first segment of names of the
employers cited for violations, covering those for
investigations completed so far. That list covered 172 cases,
about 10% of the 1,750 businesses where the agency said
violations were found in the sweep. The alleged violators
included restaurants either franchised or owned by well-known
fast-food and pizza chains.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0040-1.4>
The violations involve youths 14 through 17 years old,
either working more hours or later at night than allowed
during school weeks or working illegally in hazardous jobs.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0040-1.5>
Fines weren't assessed for many of the citations. But
where fines were proposed, they went as high as $29,050, for
a grocery store in Moore, Okla. The citations involved mostly
small fines, often less than $1,000.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0039 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0039-1.1>
Com Systems Inc. said it completed the issue and sale of
preferred stock and subordinated debentures valued at $22
million to OmniCorp International B.V., which owns 57% of the
company's stock on a fully diluted basis.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0039-1.2>
The troubled Van Nuys, Calif., telecommunications firm
said it would use part of the proceeds to acquire TMC
Communications of Santa Barbara, a regional
telecommunications firm, for about $13 million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0039-1.3>
Com Systems said that it issued 4.5 million shares of a
new, Series C cumulative convertible preferred stock for $9
million to OmniCorp, which paid for the stock by canceling a
$9 million bridge loan with Com Systems. In 1988, Com Systems
reported a net loss of $5.8 million. Com Systems said it also
sold $13 million in aggregate principal amount of its
five-year, 11 1/2% convertible subordinated debentures to
OmniCorp, an affiliate of the Swiss conglomerate OmniCorp
Holdings Inc.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0039-1.4>
In addition, Com Systems said it named Sandra Styles, 42
years old, as the first of three OmniCorp designees to its
seven-member board. The company said that Stephen Olson, 47,
Richard Hillman, 47, and Sol Gerber, 77, resigned from the
board.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0038 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0038-1.1>
BSN Corp. said that it doesn't currently expect to
complete its planned acquisition of National Spirit Group,
which could result in a one-time charge to earnings of "no
more than $3.5 million."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0038-1.2>
The Dallas maker of sporting goods said that disagreements
among lenders prevented it from completing the purchase by
the end of March. BSN was to pay $3 million in cash and $15
million in stock and assume $22 million in senior debt under
the transaction.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0038-1.3>
BSN originally sold National Spirit, a distributor of
cheerleader supplies and operator of cheerleader camps, to
Prospect Group Inc. of New York in 1988. It offered to buy
back the unit after National Spirit defaulted on its debt
last year.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0038-1.4>
BSN said it may have to write off $2.7 million that
National Spirit owes it, as well as $500,000 to $600,000 in
estimated expenses. BSN said it expects to include the charge
in 1989 fourth-quarter results, but it might take some of it
for the first quarter of 1990.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0037 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0037-1.1>
Every so often, a reader of the New Yorker magazine gets
the idea that its writers might be stuck for good topics. At
times it seems as if the search for sentient subjects has
been abandoned altogether, in favor of inanimate objects that
can't walk, think, give interviews, or (it is hoped) sue for
libel. Who can forget E.J. Kahn's multi-parter on wheat and
corn, or John McPhee's slow-moving descriptions of glaciers?
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0037-1.2>
Just about everybody. Perhaps that's why staff writer
Janet Malcolm consistently has resisted her colleagues'
tendency to overreach -- no "Annals of Polyurethane" for her
-- and made it her specialty to underreach. As subject
matter, Janet Malcolm is never far from Janet Malcolm's
thoughts. She now has brought this self-referential art to a
kind of climax, taking as the subject of her latest
journalism nothing less than -- or rather nothing much more
than -- her feelings about the subject of journalism.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0037-1.3>
First published as a two-parter in the New Yorker last
year and just released in book form, "The Journalist and the
Murderer" (Knopf, 162 pages, $18.95) has been a big hit among
people who enjoy reading about writers: which is to say,
writers. Her roundhouse opening sentences have been
memorized, whispered and reprinted at journalism seminars,
writing workshops, and wherever else a writer might prattle
about what he or she but no one else calls "the craft."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0037-1.4>
The famous opening goes like this: "Every journalist who
is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is
going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He
is a kind of confidence man, preying on people's vanity,
ignorance, or loneliness. . . ."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0037-1.5>
As texts for her sermon Ms. Malcolm uses a huge,
true-crime book by Joe McGinniss called "Fatal Vision," as
well as the transcript of a breach-of-contract suit brought
against Mr. McGinniss by the protagonist of "Fatal Vision," a
former Green Beret named Jeffrey MacDonald. In 1979,
MacDonald was convicted of savagely murdering his wife and
two children. Shortly before the trial, he and Mr. McGinniss
signed a contract granting the journalist free access to his
papers and defense preparation, in return for which MacDonald
was to get a cut of the book's profits.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0037-1.6>
For some reason, Ms. Malcolm considers this relationship
paradigmatic, when in fact it is far slimier than anything
that normally obtains between journalist and subject
(especially at the New Yorker -- imagine a glacier demanding
a share of a book's profits). What particularly galls her is
that Mr. McGinniss might have deceived MacDonald into
thinking that the book was going to exonerate him, even
though Mr. McGinniss had long since concluded he was guilty.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0037-1.7>
At least, that's what Ms. Malcolm says galls her. The book
is an extended one-woman chin wag about the propriety of
deception in reporting. But since she indulges herself in
quick and quackish psychoanalysis throughout the book, a
reader feels free to postulate his or her own theories as to
the origins of Ms. Malcolm's animus toward Joe McGinniss. She
makes some snide references, for example, to the true-crime
genre, and to the enormous popularity of Mr. McGinniss's
book. In any given week "Fatal Vision" (still in paperback)
probably sells more copies than all Ms. Malcolm's ponderous
little books have sold over the last, oh, 15 years. Mr.
McGinniss even squeezed a TV miniseries out of the thing.
Might these facts, too, gall Ms. Malcolm, just a bit? Book
writers are a competitive bunch.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0037-1.8>
An alternative theory, much discussed in those writing
workshops, holds that Ms. Malcolm wrote this odd little book
as a rite of exculpation. The subject of one of her earlier
books sued her for libel a couple of years ago, alleging that
she fabricated quotes, misled him about her journalistic
intentions, and generally acted like "a kind of confidence
man, preying upon people's vanity, ignorance, or loneliness,"
as a guilt-ridden journalist might put it.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0037-1.9>
Ms. Malcolm makes clear in a new afterword to "The
Journalist and the Murderer" that she is appalled by such
insinuations. She desperately wants her book to be thought
high-minded, which in a way it is -- so high-minded that she
sails over the true barbarity of the McGinniss-MacDonald
story. Mr. McGinniss's "Fatal Vision" is indeed a sleazy
book, but not because the author betrayed his subject. It's
designed to exploit the rubbernecking ghoul in all of us: The
book is so compelling because the crime was so grotesque, and
the unseemliness of anyone fattening off it is staggering.
The bludgeoning of Mrs. MacDonald and her children was the
biggest break of Joe McGinniss's career.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0037-1.10>
Still more repulsive, of course, is MacDonald himself, but
Ms. Malcolm's strange preoccupation with her hyped-up ethical
conundrum restrains her from considering him at any length,
though she does glance up from her meditation long enough to
note his "preternatural equipoise," his gentle way with a
powdered donut, and her own "erotic" reaction to the letters
he send her. For Janet Malcolm, child-killers come and go;
the problems of journalism endure.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0037-2.1>
Mr. Ferguson is an editorial writer for the Scripps Howard
News Service.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0036 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-1.1>
NEW YORK -- Urcarco has already changed the history of
Western capitalism. Previously, it was thought that the
used-car industry was unsuitable for public financing.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-1.2>
But last November, the Fort Worth, Texas, company sold 3.9
million shares, at $11 apiece, in an initial public offering.
The stock has since risen 133% to 25 5/8.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-1.3>
The stock market thus is valuing at close to half a
billion dollars a company that runs 18 used-car lots in
Texas. And the stock is trading over the counter at 30 times
earnings estimates for the fiscal year ending in June.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-1.4>
But the stock's surge is no less noteworthy than its
underlying premise. Urcarco sells cars to people who cannot
get credit from banks, credit unions, manufacturers, their
grandmothers or anyone else. Its average customer earns
$24,000. "We sell quality cars to people who have had a
credit problem," Clifton H. Morris Jr., its chairman, says.
"We almost act as their financial consultant."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-1.5>
As a consultant, Urcarco naturally charges high rates of
interest -- an average of 21%. It also charges high prices.
Typically, it purchases a used car for $3,500, spends up to
$1,000 getting it in shape and sells it for about $8,000 --
nearly double its cost.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-1.6>
Its customers have no alternative -- except, now and then,
to walk away from their loans. Urcarco requires a down
payment of only 5% to 20%. Customers' investments in their
cars, at least in the first year, are slight. And a person
will pay interest of 21% only for as long as he can afford
to, and only for as long as he must.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-1.7>
Urcarco has thought about this. It takes an accounting
charge of about 37% of its gross margin at the time of each
sale, as a provision for possible losses. The company says it
anticipates an actual repossession rate of one-third, or 33%.
Ray Wilkin, its chief financial officer, says "right now,
taking all the information we have . . . we have concluded
that the repo rate is 25% to 30%. That's what gives us
comfort at this point in time."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-1.8>
But neither Mr. Wilkin nor anyone else professes to know
for certain what the repo rate will be. "You never know what
the repo rate is until you get out about three years," Mr.
Wilkin says. And Urcarco has been doing business only since
1987. Sales have climbed so rapidly that three-year-old repo
data aren't useful as a guide. In the final six months of
calendar 1988 the company sold 1,644 cars; in the 1989 half,
7,533.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-1.9>
Repos in the first two months of 1990 were equal to 23% of
the total cars sold in the same period. But since the
repossessed cars were typically sold in 1989, when total
sales were running at a lower rate, repos would appear to be
higher than 23%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-1.10>
The repo rate is even harder to predict because Urcarco's
sales focus has recently been changing, with the company
targeting higher-priced and newer cars and offering longer
financing terms.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-1.11>
Mr. Morris says "our repo rate is getting better. We're
getting a better knowledge of our customer base." Also, he
says, the company is developing new, firmer criteria for
making loans and it is boosting the down payment minimum. "We
don't take just anybody," a spokeswoman says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-1.12>
Alex. Brown & Sons, Urcarco's underwriter, is bullish.
Every other analyst that follows Urcarco's soaring stock is
bullish. Earnings are up 15-fold for the six months ended
Dec. 31. And analysts say the potential for further growth is
huge, because Urcarco competes only with small,
undercapitalized mom `n' pop dealers.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-1.13>
Quoting Alex. Brown: "Urcarco represents the first attempt
to bring professional management, capital and a high level of
integrity" to used cars. Quoting Gulfstream Financial
Associates: "Urcarco is revolutionizing the $40 billion
used-car industry, offering blue-collar America an attractive
alternative . . . "
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-1.14>
Michael Milken discovered, or thought he did, that
speculative-grade corporate borrowers were better risks than
investors thought. Urcarco's "discovery" is that cars can be
sold at a profit to speculative-grade people. If the company
is right, then competition will follow. If it is wrong, and
repo rates rise, the "income" may evaporate.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-1.15>
The company eats up $4 million or so in cash a month, a
total that rises with sales. Only down the road, when
contracts mature and growth levels off, will Urcarco turn
cash-positive.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-1.16>
With so many risks, where is the margin for error in
Urcarco's stock? The shares amount to a bet that loans will
be paid off and margins will stay high -- and at its current
price the bet is none too cheap.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-2.1>
Urcarco
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-2.2>
(OTC; Symbol: CARS)
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-2.3>
Business: Sells used cars and trucks
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-2.4>
Six months ended Dec. 31, 1989:
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-2.5>
Revenue: $55.5 million
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-2.6>
Net income: $5.2 million; 40 cents a share
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-2.7>
Second quarter, Dec. 31, 1989:
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-2.8>
Per-share earnings: 18 cents vs. 2 cents
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-2.9>
Average daily trading volume: 127,385 shares
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0036-2.10>
Common shares outstanding: 17.5 million
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0035 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0035-1.1>
McDonald's Corp., responding to increased concerns about
cholesterol and fat in its foods, plans to change the way it
cooks its french fries and whips up shakes.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0035-1.2>
The company said last night it is testing an all-vegetable
oil mixture and eliminating beef tallow from its frying
process. The oil-only method soon will be used in nearly 500
stores, and if successful could be expanded quickly, the
chain said. Currently, its fries are cooked in a mixture of
oil and tallow.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0035-1.3>
McDonald's also said its 8,000 domestic restaurants soon
will be reformulating its shakes with a low-fat mix. "We
thought it was a healthier product," said Richard G.
Starmann, a senior vice president.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0035-1.4>
The company disclosed the changes as it braced for
customer reaction to full-page advertisements attacking
McDonald's on nutritional grounds. The ads, which appear in
this and other major newspapers today, charge McDonald's and
other unnamed fast-food restaurants with "the poisoning of
America" because of the cholesterol and fat content in their
fare.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0035-1.5>
McDonald's termed the ad "reckless" and misleading. "I'm
really angry," said Edward H. Rensi, president and chief
operating officer of McDonald's USA. "It's irresponsible to
mislead and scare the public regarding these very important
issues." He said the company has been a leader in the
restaurant industry in disseminating nutritional information,
adding that booklets analyzing the content of various menu
items are available at most McDonald's outlets.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0035-1.6>
The ads were placed and paid for by Phil Sokolof, of
Omaha, Neb., who is identified in the ad as president of the
National Heart Savers Association.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0035-1.7>
Apparently singling out McDonald's because of its dominant
market share, the ads said the chain's popular two-patty Big
Mac hamburger contained 21.5% fat.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0035-1.8>
"That's not true," Mr. Starmann said after seeing the ad.
He said McDonald's uses beef graded as "lean" by the
Department of Agriculture. "That means it has less fat than
most ground beef -- 17%-19.5% fat."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0035-1.9>
He also took issue with the advertisement's claim that a
Big Mac and fries contain 25 grams of saturated fat, saying
that, depending on the size of the fries serving, the
combination contains between 15 grams and 19 grams of fat.
The advertisement calls on McDonald's "and all fast-food
restaurants to reduce the fat content of their hamburger meat
by 10% as their contribution toward lowering cholesterol
levels for Americans."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0035-1.10>
Mr. Starmann said McDonald's had not been contacted by Mr.
Sokolof, and was "very much surprised" by the ad. Previous
advertisements by Mr. Sokolof have criticized the cholesterol
and saturated fat levels of cookies, cereals, candies, TV
dinners and other foods. In apparent reaction to the ads, a
number of manufacturers have modified their ingredients to
reduce cholesterol and fat content.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0035-1.11>
McDonald's test of cooking fries in vegetable oil
apparently was coincidental with Mr. Sokolof's latest attack.
"We've had a long history of responding to our customers'
concerns about nutrition," Mr. Starmann said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0035-1.12>
In 1986, for example, the chain began cooking its chicken,
fish and fruit pies in vegetable shortening he described as
cholesterol-free. "We've recently removed the chicken skin
from the Chicken McNuggets. Years ago we went to 2% low-fat
milk and skim milk. We don't even serve whole milk any more."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0035-1.13>
McDonald's soon will introduce a low-fat frozen yogurt as
well as a fruit sorbet in its stores, Mr. Starmann said.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0034 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0034-1.1>
Central Banking System Inc.'s 1989 net loss won't impair
its plan to liquidate and sell its banking unit.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0034-1.2>
The Walnut Creek, Calif., bank holding company's loss
narrowed to $29.7 million, or $6.95 a share, from $42.2
million, or $9.87 a share, in 1988.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0034-1.3>
The fourth-quarter loss narrowed to $1.8 million, or 42
cents a share, from $24.9 million, or $5.83 a share, a year
earlier. The full-year and quarter losses don't include the
fourth-quarter losses at the Central Bank and CB Insurance
Agency Inc. units, which totaled $3.4 million; the losses are
treated separately as assets for sale.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0034-1.4>
Central Banking still meets the financial criteria of its
pact to sell the two units to Bank of the West, a San
Francisco unit of France's state-owned Banque Nationale de
Paris, for $42.8 million. The sale should take place in late
spring, Central Banking said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0034-1.5>
Central Banking has been plagued by losses; an audit in
September uncovered $2.3 million in overstated gains, mostly
from auto loans.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0033 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0033-1.1>
BALDOR ELECTRIC Co. (Fort Smith, Ark.) -- Robert L.
Qualls, 55 years old, was elected president, succeeding
Quentin D. Ponder, 60, who resigned to return to his
consulting business. Mr. Qualls was executive vice president
of finance and planning of this electric motor maker.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0032 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0032-1.1>
Howell Corp. said in Houston that it received a $32
million federal income tax refund, about two-thirds of which
is interest, that will yield it $23 million after taxes. It
said it expects to include about $17 million, or $3.50 a
share, in net income when it reports first-quarter results.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0032-1.2>
A year earlier, the energy industry holding company had
net income of $4.5 million, or 94 cents a share, including a
gain of $3.8 million, or 79 cents a share, from an accounting
change. Howell said it plans to use the funds to retire its
senior secured debt.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0032-1.3>
The refund is the result of amended returns filed in 1988
for the years 1978 through 1980. Howell said its claims were
related to a dispute between it and the Department of Energy
that was finally settled last year. The accrual of $21
million in interest reflects statutory provisions of the
Internal Revenue Code, Howell said.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0031 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0031-1.1>
Swedish biotechnology group Fermenta AB said it decided to
divest itself of its U.S. subsidiaries SDS and Fermenta
Animal Health to raise its liquidity.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0031-1.2>
Fermenta declined to disclose the price for the two
companies, but according to Swedish news reports they total
about 2.5 billion Swedish kronor ($407 million).
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0031-1.3>
SDS, which had sales of about 1.2 billion kronor last
year, produces, markets and develops pesticides. Animal
Health is one of the leading U.S. veterinary medicine
companies and had sales amounting to 463 million kronor in
1989.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0031-1.4>
The two companies will be divested by tender offer,
organized by the investment bank Dillon Read, Fermenta said.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0030 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0030-1.1>
Systems & Computer Technology Corp., Malvern, Pa., said it
expects to report a loss for its second quarter ended last
Saturday.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0030-1.2>
The software products company cited delays in the signing
of several contracts for products, which Systems & Computer
had anticipated in the second quarter. The contracts are
expected to be recorded in the third quarter, the company
said. In the year-earlier second quarter, the company earned
$703,000, or six cents a share, on revenue of $10.3 million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0030-1.3>
But Systems & Computer said results for the fiscal first
half should be positive. Year-earlier net income was $2.9
million, or 24 cents a share, on revenue of $21.8 million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0030-1.4>
In national over-the-counter trading yesterday, Systems &
Computer shares closed at $4.4375, down 6.25 cents.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0029 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0029-1.1>
HOUSTON -- Sysco Corp., a big food-service concern, said
it agreed to acquire the Oklahoma City food-service
distribution business of Scrivner Inc., an Oklahoma
City-based wholesale grocer. Terms weren't disclosed.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0029-1.2>
Sysco said it expects to close the purchase in about a
week. It said the Scrivner food-service business, with about
3,000 customers in Oklahoma, has about $50 million in annual
revenue.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0028 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0028-1.1>
A group that includes Bailey Financial Group Inc. and
Financial Securities Fund L.P. said it has offered to acquire
all stock outstanding of Durham Corp. for $37.50 a share.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0028-1.2>
In a letter to Durham's chairman, the group said its offer
would provide $30 in cash and $7.50 in subordinated
debentures for each Durham common share.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0028-1.3>
The letter was attached to a filing with the Securities
and Exchange Commission.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0028-1.4>
Officials of Durham, an insurance and broadcasting concern
based in Raleigh, N.C., couldn't be reached for comment. The
company had 8.4 million common shares outstanding as of Dec.
31
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0028-1.5>
Durham was quoted in over-the-counter trading yesterday at
$30.50 a share.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0028-1.6>
All aspects of the offer, including the possibility of a
higher, all-cash offer, are negotiable, the group said. It
stressed its desire to conduct a review of Durham, noting
that it could raise its offer if the information justifies
doing so.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0028-1.7>
The group said that its financial adviser, Stephens Inc.,
has demonstrated the group's financial ability to fund the
offer.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0028-1.8>
Bailey Financial and Financial Securities are part of a
shareholder group holding a 5.9% stake in Durham's common
stock, according to a previous SEC filing.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0027 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0027-1.1>
Banque Bruxelles Lambert S.A. and International Aircraft
Services of Ireland said they plan to start a joint-venture
aircraft leasing company that will soon buy $500 million of
airplanes.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0027-1.2>
The new venture, Airlease Finance Ltd., will have
headquarters in Shannon, Ireland, and manage a portfolio of
airplanes to be placed on short-term, off-balance-sheet
operating leases with airlines. BBL and IAS said they will
spell out their participation in the new venture and their
aircraft purchase plans later this month.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0027-1.3>
BBL is Belgium's second-largest commercial bank. A
spokesman said the company got into the aircraft leasing
business six years ago with a couple of sale-leasebacks of
planes.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0027-1.4>
Shannon-based IAS is 45%-owned by its chairman and chief
executive officer, Gerry Connolly. IAS's Shannonair unit owns
18 used Boeing Co. and Airbus Industrie planes, which it has
placed on operating leases with airlines. In January, IAS
founded an an aircraft engine-leasing venture with a BAII
Bank, a Belgian banking consortium, and Potomac Investment
Co., of Washington, D.C.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0026 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0026-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- The House Public Works and Transportation
Committee approved legislation to require access for the
handicapped to mass transit and buses.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0026-1.2>
The panel was the third of four House committees to pass
provisions of a wide-ranging bill that would bar
discrimination against disabled persons. The measure covers
hiring practices, access to public buildings,
telecommunications use and public transportation.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0026-1.3>
The Labor and Commerce committees have already voted out
provisions for employment, telecommunications, Amtrak and
commuter-rail service. The Judiciary Committee is expected to
take up the public-accommodations provisions late this month.
The Senate passed its version of the bill, which generally
has Bush administration backing, last September.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0026-1.4>
Part of "an obstacle course" faced by 43 million
handicapped persons is "a transportation network that has too
often made it difficult -- if not impossible -- for disabled
Americans to be full participants in our communities," said
Rep. Norman Mineta (D., Calif.), chairman of the surface
transportation subcommittee.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0026-1.5>
Under the bill approved by the committee:
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0026-1.6>
-- New buses and subway trains must be accessible to the
disabled, including being equipped for boarding by
wheelchair-reliant persons.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0026-1.7>
-- Most rebuilt mass-transit vehicles must be made
accessible, to the maximum feasible extent.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0026-1.8>
-- New transit stations and facilities must be accessible,
while major structural work must include making stations
accessible unless that would entail an especially high cost.
Most existing "key" stations must be made accessible within
three years.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0026-1.9>
-- Special door-to-door buses and vans, and other such
services, must be made available by public authorities to
anyone who cannot use fixed-route service. The special
operations must be comparable to the level of transit service
offered to the general public, unless that imposes an undue
financial burden.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0026-1.10>
-- Interim rules would be issued in one year for
accessibility to intercity buses, other than for wheelchair
lifts. Final rules, possibly including rules for lifts, would
be issued in six years for large bus companies, and in seven
years for small ones.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0025 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0025-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- The Senate's clean-air bill would require
use of cleaner-burning gasoline in the nation's nine
smoggiest cities, but it could benefit rural America as much
as urban America.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0025-1.2>
The reason is corn: The special gasoline requirement could
vastly increase use of ethanol, a corn-distilled alcohol
that's long been a favorite fuel of farm-state lawmakers.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0025-1.3>
Oil-state senators charge that the provision is nothing
less than a gift for corn growers and Archer-Daniels-Midland
Co., the nation's largest producer of ethanol. "It is piracy
aimed at benefiting one industry relative to another," says
Sen. Phil Gramm (R., Texas), who is running for re-election
this fall, "and its objective has absolutely nothing to do
with clean air."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0025-1.4>
ADM's chairman and chief executive officer, Dwayne
Andreas, is a longtime friend and contributor to Senate GOP
leader Robert Dole of Kansas, a key backer of the provision.
And ADM's political action committee has given $232,900 to
congressional candidates since 1987, including some to Sen.
Gramm.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0025-1.5>
The battle over the cleaner-fuel amendment is one of many
that pit one commercial interest against another. As with any
piece of major legislation, many of the skirmishes fought on
the Senate floor and in the Capitol's backrooms over the past
two months have had as much to do with who would profit and
who would lose than with cleaning America's air.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0025-1.6>
For instance, the Senate bill also includes a provision to
help the dirtiest coal-fired Midwestern power plants with
their high cleanup costs. In another provision, independent
coke producers, championed by such lawmakers as Sen. Howell
Heflin (D., Ala.), won a 30-year exemption from the threat of
mandatory shutdown for failing to reduce cancer risks to
nearby neighborhoods.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0025-1.7>
Growers of corn and other crops also would benefit from an
amendment, added at the behest of farm-state lawmakers, that
would give special treatment to ammonia, one of the most
common pollutants released into the atmosphere but an
important ingredient in widely used fertilizers.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0025-1.8>
Proponents of the cleaner-fuel provision say the big oil
companies simply don't want to make the investment required
to produce the reformulated gasoline or face the competition
from independent refineries that already produce gas using
ethanol. "Industry opposition is generated solely by their
desire to maintain their profitable monopoly on the gasoline
market, even at the expense of the health of the American
public," says Sen. Thomas Daschle (D., S.D.), the provision's
prime sponsor.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0025-1.9>
The cleaner-gasoline provision is but the latest chapter
in Congress' love affair with ethanol, which has flourished
thanks in large part to federal tax subsidies and import
tariffs promoted by such farm-state lawmakers as Sens.
Daschle and Dole.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0025-1.10>
Decatur, Ill.-based ADM, the world's biggest
commodities-processing company, dominates the domestic
ethanol market and is a major presence in Washington too. Mr.
Andreas, his relatives and ADM's political action committee
have contributed $76,000 to Sen. Dole's political efforts,
and the Archer-Daniels-Midland Foundation also has given
$160,000 to the Dole Foundation, a charitable organization
set up by the Kansas Republican in 1984. Since 1987, Mr.
Andreas personally gave $33,500 to various candidates.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0025-1.11>
"I do not have anything against ADM," says Sen. Don
Nickles (R., Okla.), who opposes the provision. "But that is
where most of the benefits are going to go -- perhaps more of
the benefits will go to them than the corn farmers."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0025-1.12>
ADM didn't take a position on the amendment, according to
a company spokesman.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0025-1.13>
A spokesman for Sen. Dole says the lawmaker's support for
the cleaner-fuel amendment "has nothing to do with Dwayne
Andreas," adding: "This amendment addresses the bottom-line
concerns of senators not only in farm states but all over:
How do you make gasoline less toxic?"
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0025-1.14>
The provision sets forth a recipe for the reformulated
gasoline that would have to be sold in the dirtiest cities by
1994: no more than one quarter cancer-causing chemicals
called aromatics, no more than 1% benzene and an oxygen
content of at least 2.7%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0025-1.15>
The big oil companies and their allies say that last
direction virtually mandates the use of ethanol. Sen. John
Breaux (D., La.), a member of the Senate Environment
Committee, derides the provision as "clearly a
let's-buy-more-corn proposal."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0025-1.16>
But aides to Sen. Daschle say that other additives, such
as methanol derived from natural gas, could satisfy the
requirements.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0025-1.17>
The cleaner-fuel provision is backed by such environmental
groups as the National Clean Air Coalition and the Sierra
Club and by the Citizen/Labor Energy Coalition, a
consumer-based public interest group.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0025-1.18>
Both sides agree that the provision would add to the cost
of fuel, though they're far apart on the question of how
much. The American Petroleum Institute, a trade group, claims
the additional cost could be as much as 25 cents a gallon.
Mr. Daschle, citing figures from a private industry
consulting group, said the additional cost would be only
between one cent and three cents a gallon.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0025-1.19>
The Congressional Research Service estimates the added
cost to be 10 cents-to-15 cents a gallon, or about $25
billion to $50 billion. Under certain circumstances, though,
the research service said the cost could be as high as $100
billion.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0025-1.20>
The Bush administration says the provision could add
billions of dollars to the measure's cost, but allows that
the reduction in toxic emissions from automobile exhaust
could also yield benefits on which it's hard to put a price
tag.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0024 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0024-1.1>
Hoechst AG, a West German chemical company, said its 1989
group pretax profit edged up 1.5% to 4.15 billion marks
($2.44 billion) from 4.09 billion marks in 1988, as
fourth-quarter earnings were hurt by the rise of the mark's
value against other major currencies.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0024-1.2>
Hoechst didn't disclose fourth-quarter figures, but based
on a comparison with those for the third quarter, pretax
earnings dropped 10% to 1.02 billion marks from 1.13 billion
marks a year earlier.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0024-1.3>
Hoechst said the weakness of the dollar, yen and pound
reduced the earnings contribution from its foreign
subsidiaries after conversion into marks. Based on exchange
rates at the end of October, full-year earnings would have
been 100 million marks higher than the sum reported, Hoechst
said, or a 4% rise in 1989 pretax profit. The weak results
were in line with expectations; analysts said Hoechst was
hurt by its large exposure to the U.S.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0024-1.4>
Sales rose 12% to 45.89 billion marks in 1989 from 40.96
billion marks in 1988. Fourth-quarter sales increased 10% to
11.87 billion marks from 10.81 billion marks a year earlier.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0023 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.1>
NEW YORK -- A late-day rally in the futures market spilled
over into bonds, lifting prices modestly even though trading
activity nearly dried up.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.2>
Traders said buyers entered the bond futures market just
before the close of trading on the Chicago Board of Trade.
Many of the buyers were rushing to cover short sale
positions. But when trading ended in Chicago, some investors
started buying bonds in the cash market on Wall Street.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.3>
Investors put on short positions when they sell securities
that are borrowed from dealers or other investors.
Essentially, they are betting that prices will fall and that
they can profit by replacing what was borrowed with cheaper
securities.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.4>
The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond ended nearly 1/4 point
higher, a gain of about $2.50 for a bond with a $1,000 face
amount. The issue's yield, which moves in the opposite
direction from its price, eased to 8.61% from 8.62%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.5>
Traders said few retail investors participated in the
brief futures-related buying activity. That's because retail
investors focused instead on Resolution Funding Corp.'s next
40-year offering of so-called "bail out bonds."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.6>
Refcorp, a government agency created to finance the
federal bailout of the nation's troubled savings and loan
industry, said it would announce details of the 40-year bond
auction today.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.7>
A primary concern for investors is the size of the
offering. The Treasury has officially said that the size of
the 40-year auction will be between $3 billion and $5
billion. However, government dealers said Treasury officials
have suggested that the size of the next 40-year bond sale
will be smaller than the agency's first offering on Jan. 23,
which totaled $5 billion.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.8>
According to several dealers, Deputy Assistant Treasury
Secretary of Federal Finance Michael Basham has said that the
40-year bond sale would have gone more smoothly if $4 billion
instead of $5 billion had been auctioned in January.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.9>
The strong demand widely expected for the 40-year bond
sale in January never materialized, and, as a result, many
considered the auction to be a flop. Bond prices fell a full
point within minutes of the release of that auction's
results.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.10>
The sale was closely watched by the bond market because
the U.S. Treasury has not sold 40-year bonds since 1955, and
recently, only one government agency, the Tennessee Valley
Authority, has sold 40-year securities.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.11>
"In discussing the 40-year bond sale, Refcorp officials
had said it was the last $1 billion that killed the auction,"
said F. Ward McCarthy, a managing director at Stone &
McCarthy Research Associates Inc. "Thus, they're likely to
come with about $4 billion," he said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.12>
Louis Crandall, chief economist at R.H. Wrightson &
Associates Inc., said that because the first 40-year bond
sale was a disaster, "the Treasury is handling this auction
extremely carefully."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.13>
Mr. Crandall said that last 40-year bond auction went
poorly because it was held too close to the quarterly
refunding and because it was held on too short notice. But
this time, he said, "the Treasury is going to great lengths
to make sure those problems aren't repeated." Next week's
40-year Refcorp bond sale will be held a month before the
Treasury's next quarterly refunding.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.14>
Treasury, Agency Securities
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.15>
Prices of Treasury bonds rose as little as 1/32 and as
much as 6/32 point.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.16>
The benchmark 30-year bond was quoted late at a price of
98 23/32 to yield 8.61% compared with 98 17/32 to yield 8.62%
on Monday. The latest 10-year notes ended at 99 2/32 to yield
8.62% compared with 99 to yield 8.63%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.17>
Short-term rates were little changed. The discount rate
for three-month Treasury bills was 7.83% yesterday for a
bond-equivalent yield of 8.08%, unchanged from Monday's
auction rates. The discount rate on six-month bills was 7.82%
to yield 8.23%, slightly higher than Monday's auction rates.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.18>
In the agency market, Federal National Mortgage
Association priced $700 million of callable seven-year
debentures at a price of 99.875 to yield 9.275% and $800
million of noncallable 10-year debentures at par to yield
9.05%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.19>
Mortgage-Backed Securities
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.20>
Officials at Resolution Trust Corp. said the agency will
approve a plan under which it would pay interest on
mortgage-backed bonds and some medium-term notes issued by
financial institutions taken over by federal authorities.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.21>
The possibility that RTC would decide not to make interest
payments on such debt prompted major rating agencies to place
more than $20 billion of securities issued by U.S. thrifts on
their watch lists with negative implications.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.22>
But yesterday, RTC Chairman William Seidman said at a
board meeting that "we will be affirming the contract and
interest rate {on such securities} until the date of
payment." RTC is the government agency created to manage the
nation's savings and loan bailout.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.23>
The announcement had little impact on the mortgage-backed
securities market, where most prices ended unchanged.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.24>
Government National Mortgage Association 9% securities for
April delivery, for example, were unchanged at 95 24/32.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.25>
Corporate Issues
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.26>
Prices of Southland Corp.'s pay-in-kind junk bonds rose
yesterday despite Monday's news that the firm had a loss of
$1.01 billion in the fourth quarter and that it warned it may
be forced to seek bankruptcy court protection. Southland's
pay-in-kind bonds, which pay interest in the form of
additional securities instead of cash, advanced more than two
points to close at 33 1/2.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.27>
Junk bond traders said Southland PIKs are senior
securities, which makes them attractive, particularly in a
potential reorganization or bankruptcy. Typically, when a
company enters bankruptcy-law proceedings or reorganizes,
senior bond holders get paid first.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.28>
The junk bonds of RJR Nabisco Inc., which had been surging
recently, ended unchanged to modestly higher yesterday.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.29>
In the broader junk bond market, prices were mixed.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.30>
Activity in the investment-grade corporate debt market was
brisk as corporate issuers offered more than $600 million in
new debt.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.31>
Among the issuers was United Telecommunications Inc.,
which offered $250 million of notes priced to yield 9.84%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.32>
Strong investor demand prompted underwriters at Dillon
Read & Co. to boost the size of United Telecommunications'
debt offering from an originally planned $200 million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.33>
Syndicate officials said the issue sold out.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.34>
In a recent shelf filing with the Securities & Exchange
Commission, United Telecommunications said proceeds from a
debt offering will be used to redeem a $200 million issue of
7.5% senior notes, to refund a portion of commercial paper
debt outstanding and for general corporate purposes.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.35>
Also in the market was Ford Motor Credit Corp., which
offered $200 million of 10-year notes priced to yield 9.50%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.36>
In the investment-grade corporate debt market, actively
traded issues were unchanged to 1/8 point higher.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.37>
Municipals
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.38>
Tax-exempt issues were basically unchanged, with some
issues 1/8 point firmer in late dealings.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.39>
For the second day in a row, activity centered on the
primary market as secondary-market dealers pondered the lack
of movement in their sector.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.40>
If municipals follow the lead of U.S. Treasurys, little
price fluctuation is expected ahead of the U.S. March
employment data scheduled for release Friday.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.41>
Foreign Bonds
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.42>
The Japanese government bond market ended stronger on the
recovery of stocks and the yen in Tokyo and ahead of the
10-year yen bond auction expected Thursday.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.43>
The dollar ended at 158.95 yen, down from the 159.95 yen
close in Tokyo on Monday. The Nikkei index of the Tokyo Stock
Exchange ended 757.65 points higher on the day, after falling
1978.38 points on Monday.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.44>
Bond dealers expect the coupon rate on the new 10-year
bond that will be auctioned Thursday to be 6.8%, which is
0.40 percentage point higher than the rate set on the bonds
at the previous 10-year government bond sale.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.45>
Dealers said the new bond is a good candidate to be the
next benchmark bond. The current benchmark, the No. 119, has
become scarce in the market because the Finance Ministry has
bought a total of around 180 billion yen of the issue in its
recent bond-buying operations. Because of its scarcity, and
its relatively low coupon of 4.8%, dealers say the No. 119
has lost a lot of its attractiveness as a benchmark.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.46>
In trading yesterday, the No. 119 ended at a price of
about 86.44, up 0.45 point to yield 7.26%.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.47>
West German bonds ended weaker in aimless trading.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0023-1.48>
Some dealers attributed the market's woes to continued
nervousness over monetary union between East and West
Germany. The public debate among important West German
politicians and central bankers over whether most East marks
should be converted at a two-to-one rate erupted over the
weekend.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0022 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0022-1.1>
General Electric Co. of Britain, an electronics and
industrial engineering company, and Siemens AG of West
Germany, an electronics concern, announced plans for dividing
ownership of the businesses they acquired last year after a
takeover battle for their smaller British rival, Plessey Co.,
for #2.04 billion ($3.34 billion).
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0022-1.2>
The two giants intend, as expected, to maintain joint
ownership of only one major Plessey business, GPT, a
telecommunications-equipment maker, and to divide or sell to
third parties Plessey's remaining electronics units.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0022-1.3>
GEC, which is unrelated to the U.S. company of the same
name, is to take control of Plessey's avionics, aerospace and
naval systems businesses, both in Britain and the U.S.
Siemens will own Plessey's radar, defense systems and
controls units. The two companies will remain joint owners of
several properties, including GPT, which had been a joint
venture between GEC and Plessey.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0021 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0021-1.1>
W.R. GRACE & Co. (New York) -- Jacques Theumann, 55, was
appointed president of this specialty chemical firm's
European Darex division, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, and
was elected a Grace corporate vice president. He succeeds
Jean-Louis Greze who was recently named an executive vice
president of the Grace Specialty Chemicals Co. unit. Mr.
Theumann previously was vice president of the European Darex
division's Cryovac unit. He will report to Mr. Greze.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0020 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0020-1.1>
United Airlines, a unit of UAL Corp., agreed to pay $77.5
million to settle several lawsuits in which Texas Air Corp.
affiliates charged United with unfairly competing in the
computer reservations business.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0020-1.2>
United disclosed the settlement amount in year-end
financial results filed Monday with the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0020-1.3>
As reported, Continental Airlines, a unit of Texas Air,
agreed last week to settle its $336 million lawsuit against
United. Among other things, Continental had accused United of
charging excessive fees to it and other airlines when tickets
on their flights were issued through United's Apollo computer
reservation system.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0020-1.4>
The agreement also settles similar lawsuits filed by New
York Air, Frontier Airlines and Texas Air's System One
computer reservation system, the SEC filing said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0020-1.5>
Travel and ticketing agents use computer reservation
systems to get information about airline schedules, fares and
seat availability, and to make reservations and issue tickets
electronically.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0019 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0019-1.1>
POGO PRODUCING Co. (Houston) -- Samuel C. Guy, formerly
vice president for exploration of a unit of Newmont Mining
Corp., was named senior vice president, exploration of this
oil and natural gas company.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0018 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0018-1.1>
Boeing Co. said it is investigating an apparent case of
industrial sabotage, after a jetliner in the final stages of
production failed certain tests because of what the
Seattle-based company described as "highly irregular" wire
cuts.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0018-1.2>
The problem at the aerospace company's Renton, Wash.,
production facility was discovered March 20, after the test
failure involving a 737-400 twin-engine plane. The severed
wires were buried inside a thick bundle of wires feeding a
power system, Boeing said. A spokesman said Boeing suspects
the wires may have been cut by an employee: "Everybody on
site is an employee. So that would be a conclusion that one
could draw."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0018-1.3>
Boeing said its internal investigators are providing
information about the incident to the Federal Aviation
Administration. Boeing had an industrial sabotage case about
20 years ago, the spokesman said. In recent months, rumors of
sabotage at the company's Everett, Wash., plant were
investigated and found to be untrue, he said.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0017 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- After nine years of trying, the Senate last
night passed the first comprehensive clean-air bill to clear
either house of Congress since 1977. But feuds are already
bubbling over at the legislation's next stop: the House.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.2>
The vote in the Senate was 89 to 11.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.3>
Unless the bill's leaders move to prevent it, strong
pro-environment sentiment on the House floor could mean a
bill that is even tougher on industry than the one passed by
the Senate. Scores of business and environmental lobbyists
are now descending on the House to try to shape the next step
of the process.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.4>
At stake is historic legislation to make the nation
breathe easier, but with the power to push up electricity
rates, raise car prices, shut down factories and idle
workers. The Bush administration figures the Senate bill
could cost U.S. business as much as $21.5 billion annually by
the year 2005, when the measures are to be fully implemented.
Though there is debate about exactly how large the cost will
be, consumers ultimately will bear much of it.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.5>
Environmentalists are determined to press House members to
pass an even more stringent bill than the Senate. "Our
overall view is that the Senate clean-air bill requires major
surgery," says Daniel Weiss, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club.
"Hopefully, we'll find many good doctors in the House."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.6>
Industry will try to undo some of what it sees as costly
damage done by the Senate. Says William Fay, head of an
industrywide lobbying group: "You don't get a lot of extra
environmental benefit from the Senate bill, but you add
incredibly to the cost and burden on American business."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.7>
President Bush signaled yesterday that he intends to keep
pushing for a middle ground. "I again reject the extremists
in the environmental movement who would burden our economy by
mindless regulation," Mr. Bush said in Indiana, where he was
on a political fund-raising trip. "And I reject those who do
not recognize their obligation to clean up the environment.
Common sense tells us to find a needed balance. We will find
that balance."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.8>
Industry isn't likely to find much solace in the House if
its pleas have to be dealt with in recorded votes. Rising
public concern for the environment will be a bigger factor
there than it had been in the Senate. The 20th anniversary of
Earth Day on April 22 is sure to turn up the political heat.
Some White House officials close to clean-air negotiations
fear that lawmakers will cast votes in order to appear
sensitive to the environment, regardless of costs.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.9>
Industry is pinning its hopes on Rep. John Dingell, the
chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. An unabashed
protector of auto companies, he is sympathetic to many
industry complaints. Mr. Dingell could keep some of the
hottest issues from roll-call votes on the floor by locking
them up in compromises in his committee, which is voting on
its own clean-air bill this week.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.10>
Already the Michigan Democrat has agreed to accept harsher
cutbacks in exhaust emissions from new cars in order to
secure a binding agreement with the panel's chief
environmentalist, Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman from smoggy
Los Angeles. Committee approval of that agreement effectively
keeps that issue out of debate on the House floor.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.11>
And just yesterday, Mr. Dingell also won unanimous
agreement from his committee for a compromise on regulating
cancer-causing factory emissions, a move also aimed at
preventing a contentious floor showdown on the issue.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.12>
The White House is pivotal in this tug of war between
business and environmental interests. Business groups are
pressing the administration to stick to a more lenient
package it proposed last year. But the White House and its
chief clean-air sponsors, including Mr. Dingell, have already
sent strong signals that they don't believe the
administration-backed bill would pass without stricter
constraints.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.13>
Steelmakers appear to be more concerned about the
legislation than any other industrial group. A provision in
the Senate bill threatens mandatory shutdowns within 10 years
if chemical plants, refineries and coke ovens are unable to
meet strict new emission standards designed to lessen the
risk of cancer to residents of areas near the facilities.
About 200 steelworkers from LTV Corp. and USX Corp. protested
at the Capitol yesterday, contending that their jobs are on
the line.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.14>
The Senate bill would exempt the steel industry from
shutdowns for the next 30 years provided the industry meets
more stringent emission standards. But steel officials say
the provision would require them to move faster and spend
more to cut emissions than any other industry. They estimate
the cost to be more than $5 billion by 1995, which they say
would funnel money away from modernization efforts and hurt
their competitiveness.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.15>
Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, however, argues that steelmakers
don't deserve any special break. The Ohio Democrat says that
emissions from steelmakers' coke ovens are among the most
dangerous. Besides, he says, "I do not believe there will be
plant closings and job layoffs" as a result of the stricter
standards.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.16>
Big oil companies also feel gouged. They foresee expensive
refinery and distribution changes by 1992 if they are forced
to add ethanol or methanol to reformulated gasoline, as the
Senate bill demands. The American Petroleum Institute, the
main oil trade group, says the new gasoline would cost 20
cents to 25 cents more a gallon. The fuel would be sold in
the nation's nine smoggiest cities.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.17>
Auto makers say they lack the technology to cut emissions
as aggressively and as fast as the Senate legislation
requires. Key House members already have staked out a similar
though slightly less tough position on tailpipe exhausts. The
industry will have wait until later to press for changes when
a House-Senate conference hammers out differences between the
legislation passed by the chambers.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.18>
High-sulfur-coal companies and miners failed to win relief
in the Senate from acid-rain provisions. The Senate bill
calls for industry to spend $4 billion a year to neutralize
acid rain. Unless Midwesterners in the House can pull off an
acid-rain aid package, which is highly unlikely, producers
such as Consolidation Coal Co. and Island Creek Corp. say
they will lose customers as utilities switch to low-sulfur
coal. Some 11,000 to 16,000 miners of high-sulfur coal,
principally in West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and
Pennsylvania, may lose their jobs.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.19>
But environmentalists have their problems with the Senate
bill, too. They believe that Senate leaders started out with
an environmentally aggressive proposal, but made too many
concessions in an effort to avoid a White House veto or
Republican filibuster on the floor.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.20>
Without tougher smog provisions than are in the Senate
bill, environmentalists predict that many cities will miss
their deadlines for reducing unhealthful smog levels. They
also say that auto companies aren't pushed hard enough to
develop new technologies to reduce tailpipe emissions in cars
to be built after the year 2003.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.21>
Despite the threat of automatic shutdown for plants that
can't meet stricter emission standards, environmentalists are
upset that cancer risks won't be eliminated for people living
near polluting plants. They also claim the Senate bill
restricts the authority of the federal government to step in
when smoggy areas fail to create their own
pollution-reduction plans.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.22>
"If the standard is `Is this bill better than current
law?' it obviously is," says Gene Karpinski, executive
director of U.S. Public Interest Research Group. "If the
standard is `Is this as good as we should have done?' it
obviously is not."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.23>
But while industries and regions of the country are locked
in their own individual battles for relief, a great deal of
the air-pollution issue is all but decided.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.24>
The legislation sets standards for the next decade or so
with respect to all the major issues, including car exhausts,
acid rain, toxic industrial emissions and alternative fuels.
But it also goes further in an effort to set clean-air
standards for the first decade of the next century. Much of
the House debate is expected to focus on these long-range
goals.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.25>
"If we had had a bill that addressed the clean-air
problems in the U.S. for the next 10 or 12 years alone, we'd
have had very few arguments," says William Reilly, chief of
the Environmental Protection Agency. "It's only when you move
into that second phase that you see very large cost numbers
and very large differences of opinion."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.26>
Billions of dollars of pollution regulation, much of it in
Mr. Bush's original clean-air proposal, is now accepted and
has not drawn serious challenge in Congress.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.27>
Surprisingly, one of the least controversial provisions of
the bill puts the nation's first acid-rain control law on the
books, requiring coal-burning power plants to cut their
emissions.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.28>
For years, ferocious battling by coal and utility
interests made acid rain the key stumbling block to passage
of sweeping clean-air legislation. President Reagan doubted
acid rain was a serious problem. But Mr. Bush's campaign
pledge to address acid rain, combined with agreement between
the White House and environmentalists on a 10 million-ton
sulfur-dioxide reduction, have forced even the oldest foes to
admit the inevitably of acid-rain controls.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.29>
Even though many utility companies are skeptical the
scheme will ever work, lawmakers generally agree that there
is a need for an innovative pollution trading system to hold
down the pricetag for acidrain controls. Under the proposed
system, utilities that voluntarily made extra-deep cuts would
get pollution credits; they could sell or swap these credits
to other utilities, which could then use them to expand. A
nationwide cap on total power-plant emissions theoretically
would preserve cleanair gains for decades.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.30>
There is widespread agreement among lawmakers to junk a
regulatory system that has set standards on air emissions of
only seven toxic chemicals in 20 years. Most legislators now
agree instead on requiring factories, from chemical plants to
dry cleaners, to install the best anti-pollution technology
available. The goal would be to prevent at least 2,200 annual
cancer deaths from toxic industrial emissions, while also
reducing birth defects and respiratory disease. The deep
differences lie in how to cut the remaining emissions.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.31>
Lawmakers have reached general agreement on setting
deadlines to reduce smog. Rather than imposing a single
nationwide deadline for cleaning up smog, the new approach is
to tailor deadlines to fit cities' pollution problems. Los
Angeles, the smoggiest city, for example, would have until
the year 2010 to eliminate unhealthy levels of ozone, the
main ingredient in smog. There is also general agreement that
auto emissions must get cleaner. Exactly how clean remains at
issue.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.32>
One of the biggest changes from previous attempts to clean
up smog in cities is to require not only that vehicles be
cleaner-burning but that their fuel get cleaner as well.
President Bush proposed the idea, and now both houses of
Congress seem to be buying it. The fuel of choice remains to
be decided. However, policy makers are tilting toward a
reformulated gasoline.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.33>
Here are the major unsettled issues likely to confront the
House, where Mr. Dingell's committee hopes to complete its
work on clean-air legislation this week. The full House hopes
to take up the legislation in May.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.34>
-- ACID RAIN: Whether to help Midwest utilities shoulder
the steep cost of acid rain controls -- an issue that has
stymied clean-air legislation for years -- will probably be
decided through a bruising regional battle, possibly this
week in committee.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.35>
Rep. Phil Sharp, an Indiana Democrat whose state would be
hit with higher electricity bills because of acid-rain
controls, leads the advocates for a subsidy for the
Midwestern utility companies that would have to do the bulk
of the acid-rain cleanup. He is pitted against lawmakers from
states, such as some in the West, whose utilities have
already cleaned up their emissions and don't want to bail out
the Midwest.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.36>
There may also be an attempt to provide extra unemployment
benefits for high-sulfur coal miners who will lose their
jobs. An effort to legislate such relief in the Senate failed
by a single vote.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.37>
-- ALTERNATIVE FUELS: On split votes, Mr. Dingell's
committee has adopted an alternative-fuels program that
relies heavily on reformulated gasoline in the nine smoggiest
cities. But the issue is destined to arise again on the House
floor.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.38>
Rep. Waxman and Rep. Bill Richardson, a New Mexico
Democrat, plan to push for a tougher program requiring wide
use of reformulated gas for cars and evencleaner
alternatives, like natural gas, for fleet vehicles. Big Oil's
patrons, led by Texas Reps. Ralph Hall, a Democrat, and Jack
Fields, a Republican, will try to hold the line.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.39>
-- CHLOROFLUOROCARBONS: Environmentalists hope to persuade
the House to match a Senate provision that would require the
U.S., ahead of other countries, to phase out
chlorofluorocarbons entirely. CFCs, used chiefly as
refrigerants, tend to deplete the Earth's ozone layer, the
atmospheric layer that screens out much ultraviolet
radiation. However, the administration opposes a unilateral
ban on CFCs in favor of international agreements to phase out
the chemicals.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.40>
For the Senate, the path to approving a clean-air bill was
anything but smooth. Early on, fears of a presidential veto
or Republican filibuster -- prompted by industry outcries
over the cost of a committee-approved bill -- sent Senate
leaders and the White House into four weeks of closed-door
negotiations. There, they cut the crucial deals, including
the exemption for coke ovens and the extra pollution
allowances for utility companies, that are behind the Senate
bill.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.41>
Despite opposition from industry and environmental groups,
the compromise held. During a month of votes on the floor,
lawmakers turned back an effort to wring additional
reductions in air pollution from cars and fuel and refused to
maintain a strong federal role in forcing states and cities
to clean up smog. They also killed a provision that would
have allowed factories whose fumes pose cancer risks to buy
out adjoining neighborhoods if they couldn't reduce the
health risk.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0017-1.42>
The result is a Senate bill that doesn't totally please
either environmentalists or industry. Business is so upset,
in fact, that at a contentious closed-door meeting recently,
industry leaders lashed out at White House officials for
compromising with Senate leaders on air-pollution controls
that many corporate leaders feel are too expensive.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0016 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0016-1.1>
A MAJOR CLEAN-AIR BILL won Senate approval last night,
Congress's first comprehensive effort on air pollution since
1977. But the bill faces an uncertain course in the House,
where environmentalists are pressing for even tougher
measures on industry than the Senate version.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0016-2.1>
General Motors named President Robert Stempel chairman and
chief executive, succeeding Roger Smith, who will retire Aug.
1. Stempel, 56, isn't expected to make any major changes at
the auto giant.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0016-3.1>
Big brokerage firms are shedding their junk-bond holdings
and other illiquid investments, partly due to pressure from
credit-rating agencies and regulators, including the Big
Board. The sell-off also has been spurred by Drexel's recent
collapse.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0016-4.1>
Xerox said it will take a $400 million pretax write-off
for the first quarter, effectively abandoning its investment
in VMS Realty Partners, the ailing Chicago real estate firm.
The write-off is Xerox's biggest ever.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0016-5.1>
The Bell companies won a second chance from an appeals
court to seek entry into information services. But the court
upheld curbs on long-distance and equipment making.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0016-6.1>
Eastern Air's unsecured creditors rejected a repayment
offer of about 25 cents on the dollar. They then voted to
seek a bankruptcy court trustee to run the beleaguered Texas
Air unit.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0016-7.1>
Leading indicators slid 1% in February, mainly due to an
unusual drop in building permits. Excluding permits, the
government's main forecasting gauge eased 0.1%. January's
index declined a revised 0.5%.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0016-8.1>
Stocks surged due to the rebound in Tokyo shares and
computer buy programs. The Dow Jones industrials closed up
36.26, at 2736.71. Bonds edged higher. The dollar rose
against the yen but eased against the mark.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0016-8.2>
Tokyo stocks rose sharply the day after the second-biggest
decline ever. The Nikkei index climbed 2.7%.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0016-9.1>
Japan agreed to allow U.S. makers of communications
satellites to bid for orders from Japanese agencies and
Nippon Telegraph & Telephone.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0016-10.1>
Drexel Burnham will sell some of its crown jewels and put
its client list on the auction block April 18.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0016-11.1>
Japanese banks are likely to be hurt by the collapse of
Tokyo stocks and rising interest rates, Moody's said. The
problems could make the banks less competitive globally.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0016-12.1>
The thrift bailout agency said it will approve a plan next
week to pay interest on certain obligations of S&Ls seized by
the government. Uncertainty over the interest payments has
unsettled the bond markets recently.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0016-13.1>
Oil prices may fall soon unless OPEC starts curbing
output, which reached an eight-year high in March, according
to new estimates. OPEC's production continues to rise in the
face of sluggish seasonal demand.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0016-14.1>
USX's biggest shareholder, Carl Icahn, said his proposal
to spin off the company's steel business would value USX's
existing shares at $48 each, or 30% above the current market
price.
</p>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0016-15.1>
Markets --
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0016-15.2>
Stocks: Volume 154,310,000 shares. Dow Jones industrials
2736.71, up 36.26; transportation 1188.83, up 9.95; utilities
215.54, up 1.69.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0016-15.3>
Bonds: Shearson Lehman Hutton Treasury index 3313.82, up
6.37.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0016-15.4>
Commodities: Dow Jones futures index 133.52, up 1.10; spot
index 133.23, up 0.88.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0016-15.5>
Dollar: 159.79 yen, up 0.84; 1.6979 marks, off 0.0030.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0015 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0015-1.1>
MCKESSON Corp. (San Francisco) -- Thomas Simone, 48 years
old, formerly vice president, controller, and Garret Scholz,
50, formerly vice president, treasurer, were named to the new
posts of vice president, finance of this drug distribution
concern.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0014 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0014-1.1>
Contel Corp., a telecommunications concern, said it plans
to restructure its telephone operations sector to make it
more efficient and market-focused.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0014-1.2>
The Atlanta-based company also said it expects to reduce
the sector's work force of 15,000 about 4%, or an indicated
600. Contel said the majority of the reductions will be
concentrated in staff support positions and be made largely
through attrition and voluntary separation programs.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0014-1.3>
Under the restructuring plan, which is expected to be
completed in two years, Contel said it will combine the
sector's three regions and 12 divisions into six operating
units, which will report to the telephone operations
headquarters in Atlanta. Contel said it doesn't expect the
restructuring to have a material effect on consolidated
financial results.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0014-1.4>
Donald W. Weber, Contel president and chief executive
officer, said that as the industry "becomes more competitive,
it is essential that we have in place a structure that
maximizes our resources."
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0013 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0013-1.1>
Forget the free trip. Consider instead a $25,000
full-length lynx coat or maybe a lawn mower.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0013-1.2>
American Airlines yesterday announced a marketing program
in which its frequent fliers can cash in their mileage
credits for discounts and rebates on big-ticket items such as
cars, boats and computers. The airline, a unit of AMR Corp.,
says its research showed that travelers who use the airline
most often don't necessarily want another trip.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0013-1.3>
Although the program is a consumer-oriented marketing
move, it's also an attempt to remove from the books what
could be billions of miles accumulated by its frequent
fliers. The airline, which created the frequent-flier concept
in 1981, has been almost too successful with it. Randy
Petersen, publisher of the travel newsletter Frequent,
estimates that American has a potential liability of 70
billion unused miles. Figures like that have forced airline
accountants to consider new ways to show the liability on
their balance sheets.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0013-1.4>
American, which is based in Fort Worth, Texas, won't say
how many unused miles its fliers have accumulated, although
it says it has 11 million members of AAdvantage, its
frequent-flier club.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0013-1.5>
Industry executives say American's move is the most
far-reaching attempt by an airline to induce customers to
spend their frequent-flier points on something besides
airline seats.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0013-1.6>
"American Airlines is the first airline to put it all
together in a package like this," Mr. Petersen says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0013-1.7>
American, like most of its rivals, still is reeling from
the triple mileage awards started by Delta Air Lines in 1988.
While the program was only a year long, so many fliers racked
up so many miles that airlines are resorting to unusual
methods to ensure that not all the fliers cash in the miles
at once. For example, Canadian Airlines trades bobsled rides
for points at the Canada Olympic Park in Calgary.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0013-1.8>
Airlines limit use of the awards during busy travel days,
such as the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, and keep a
tight rein on how many free seats they allocate per flight.
They also negotiate marketing agreements with other
industries. As part of this shift, American last year played
host to an auction in which several hundred of its best
customers bid frequent-flier points for promotional items
such as a tour package to this year's NCAA Final Four college
basketball championship and the use of a Cadillac from Avis
for a year.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0013-1.9>
Some airlines don't see the need for such a program to
eliminate their excess mileage. Delta, for one, said it's
considered such programs in the past and opted against them.
"The most requested award we offer is the first-class
upgrade," a Delta spokesman says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0013-1.10>
Although it was the airlines that revolutionized the idea
of dangling freebies in front of regular customers, they are
one step behind the hotel industry in cataloging non-travel
promotions. ITT Sheraton Corp., a unit of ITT Corp., began
offering catalog merchandise in mid-1986 in conjunction with
their frequent-stay program. Among their current awards: a
pricey BMW 325i convertible.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0013-1.11>
Holiday Inns Inc., a unit of London-based Bass PLC, gives
away items such an electric wok, a hedge trimmer, grandfather
clock and fax machine, in exchange for points.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0013-1.12>
While the new trade-in program hardly costs American any
money -- Michael W. Gunn, American's senior vice president of
marketing, called it "a spit in the marketing budget" -- the
20 or so companies involved get access to some of American's
best-heeled fliers. Only two million of American's frequent
fliers will receive the glossy, 32-page color catalog filled
with pictures of computers, pianos, Cartier watches and
boats.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0013-1.13>
Fliers can buy a product or service included in the
catalog, negotiating their own price, and then cash in a set
number of miles to get a further rebate. For example, after
buying a lynx coat, the frequent-flier member can cash in up
to 120,000 miles for a rebate ranging from $2,000 to $15,000.
The program also offers special savings on home health care
services or a commission reduction coupon for Quick & Reilly,
a discount brokerage house.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0013-1.14>
Mr. Gunn says that, so far at least, American's offer will
end after about a year. There are no plans now to extend this
program or come up with a new one, he says.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0012 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.1>
THREAT TO WORLD HEALTH

</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.2>
An estimated 500 million people will die from smoking in
the next 25 years, according to a World Health Organization
study released at the World Conference on Tobacco and Health
in Perth, Australia.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.3>
WHO statistician Alan Lopez and Richard Peto, an epidemics
expert at Britain's Oxford University, said their study
indicated smoking would be the No. 1 cause of death in the
world by the turn of the century. "Today there will be 8,000
deaths a day from smoking, but when the kids reach middle age
there will be something like 28,000 deaths a day," Mr. Peto
told the conference.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.4>
If present patterns continued, 200 million people under
the age of 20 and 300 million adults will die of smoking by
2015, Mr. Peto said, adding: "These figures are at the low
end of estimates."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.5>
Two-thirds of the forecast deaths in the 1990s will occur
in wealthy nations, the study said, but developing nations
will probably experience 70% of all world deaths from smoking
by 2025.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.6>
INVESTING IN AFRICA
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.7>
Africa is a better bet for private U.S. investment than
Eastern Europe, Babacar Ndiaye, president of the African
Development Bank, told a news conference in New York. He
conceded that Eastern Europe has great political leverage for
aid because of the West's need to consolidate the East's
shift away from the Communist bloc. However, he said, "We are
more ready to talk of free-enterprise than Eastern Europe. To
adjust our mentality to the free market will be easier."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.8>
VENDING-MACHINE BEEF
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.9>
A joint venture between Japanese and U.S. meat dealers
will sell beef imported from the U.S. in freezer-equipped
vending machines. "Our aim is to supply imported beef at a
cheaper price to consumers by reducing the costs of
distribution-related personnel," said Naoki Sakai, a
spokesman for Japan's Jackson Co. Jackson and Hamilton Meat
Co., a subsidiary of Beef America of Omaha, Neb., set up the
venture last month, Mr. Sakai said. Under the venture,
seasoned beef for steak and sukiyaki will be processed in the
U.S. before being imported in frozen vacuum packages for sale
in 1,000 vending machines throughout Japan.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.10>
EAST GERMANY LOOKS WEST
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.11>
East Germany plans to open its petroleum market to Western
oil companies as part of efforts to rebuild its economy.
Klaus Eichner, director of the state-run Minol company, which
has a monopoly on fuel distribution, told the ADN news agency
that plans being made "would allow Western oil companies to
supply the domestic market." East Germany has traditionally
imported almost all of its petroleum from the Soviet Union.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.12>
CURBING THAI SPECULATION
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.13>
Thailand's Finance Ministry urged commercial banks to
reduce lending to speculative luxury projects. Finance
Minister Pramual Sabhavasu said banks must lend less for such
projects as condominiums and golf courses and should
concentrate on infrastructure and development projects.
Commercial-bank officials said Mr. Pramual aimed to slow the
surge of speculative investment in the booming stock exchange
and real-estate market and curb inflation.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.14>
ROTTERDAM TAKES ACTION
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.15>
Harbor inspectors in Rotterdam are sealing discharge
outlets on vessels carrying harmful chemicals in an effort to
halt illegal underwater dumping in the world's largest port,
the Port Authority announced. Port Authority spokesman Rob
Wilken said, "We know that the dumping occurs regularly, but
it is very hard to check." He added that he believed the move
was the first such preventive measure by any major port.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.16>
THE SCOURGE OF RWANDA
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.17>
Up to 30% of Rwandans living in the capital city of Kigali
and aged between 18 and 45 are infected with the virus that
causes AIDS, according to one of the country's leading
doctors.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.18>
Henri Taelman, the head of medical services at Kigali's
main hospital, said in a report that the total number of
infected people in the central African country had almost
doubled in four years. The report said 25% to 30% of the
sexually active population of Kigali, where 157,000 people
live, carry the AIDS virus. This compares with 18% in 1986.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.19>
In the countryside, where most of Rwanda's six million
people live, the rate was between 2% and 3% but increasing.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.20>
Dr. Taelman said the capital's main hospital treated more
than 4,600 AIDS patients last year -- half of all its
patients. He said drugs to treat AIDS were too expensive for
Rwanda and that the hospital could only try to ease the
suffering of AIDS patients before they died.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.21>
POSTSCRIPTS . . .
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0012-1.22>
Two farmers from the Chinese province of Sichuan were
executed for selling the skins of giant pandas, China's Legal
Daily reported. Only about 1,000 giant pandas survive in
Sichuan and neighboring Tibet, and the Chinese government has
banned hunting of the species. . . . Chai Ling, one of the
top student leaders of last year's pro-democracy movement in
Beijing, appeared on Hong Kong television yesterday to
announce her escape to the West after 10 months as a fugitive
in China. Ms. Chai and her husband are believed to be in
France.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0011 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0011-1.1>
RODMAN & RENSHAW CAPITAL GROUP Inc. (Chicago) -- Kurt B.
Karmin, 62 years old, president and chief executive officer
of this financial services concern, was elected chairman,
succeeding Ira J. Kaufman, who was named chairman emeritus.
Howard B. Silverman, 51, who remains president of the Rodman
& Renshaw Inc. brokerage unit, succeeds Mr. Karmin as
president of the holding company.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0010 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0010-1.1>
E.C. Garcia & Co., a private real-estate development
concern in Tucson, Ariz., said it filed for protection from
creditors under Chapter 11 of the federal Bankruptcy Code.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0010-1.2>
The company has attracted attention in recent months
because of its ties to Charles H. Keating Jr., chairman of
Phoenix-based American Continental Corp., the parent of
Lincoln Savings & Loan Association. Lincoln, based in Irvine,
Calif., was seized by federal regulators a year ago.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0010-1.3>
Ernest C. Garcia II, the real-estate concern's principal
owner, said the filing would make it easier to deal with
creditors, mostly "financial institutions that have been
taken over by the government."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0010-1.4>
Garcia & Co. has liabilities of about $35 million and will
file an estimate of its assets within 15 days, Mr. Garcia
said. The company owns and manages about 3,600 apartments, he
said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0010-1.5>
Mr. Garcia said: "We became grossly over-leveraged" after
borrowing money from Lincoln Savings in 1987 to repurchase an
80% stake in the company from Tucson Electric Power Co.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0009 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0009-1.1>
McDonnell Douglas Corp. said China extended an agreement
with the St. Louis-based aerospace concern for joint
production of MD-80 twin-jet airliners. Terms weren't
disclosed.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0009-1.2>
The extension calls for 20 planes to be built by Shanghai
Aviation Industrial Corp., with subassemblies and parts
shipped from McDonnell's commercial aircraft unit in Long
Beach, Calif., and brings China's total MD-80 orders to 50.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0009-1.3>
Under the initial contract signed in 1985, Shanghai
Aviation agreed to buy 26 MD-80s over six years and took
options on 15 others. Analysts then said the deal had an
indicated value of $1 billion if all the options were
exercised. The latest accord continues the co-production
arrangement, though the options technically expired. MD-80s
usually sell for about $25 million each, but it wasn't clear
how that value would be affected by the Chinese agency's
manufacturing contribution.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0009-1.4>
McDonnell also said it is discussing with China-controlled
domestic airlines the possible sale of as many as 150
aircraft, part of the MD-90 twin-jet series being developed
for service in 1994.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0008 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0008-1.1>
Olympia Broadcasting Corp. reported an $11 million net
loss for 1989, compared with year-earlier profit, and said it
is seeking buyers for its radio stations.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0008-1.2>
The Seattle broadcasting concern said the loss for the
year included $1.1 million in nonrecurring corporate expenses
and a $3.3 million charge to reflect the write-down of its
Alaska radio stations.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0008-1.3>
The net loss was equal to $4.57 a share. For 1988, Olympia
had net income of $10.3 million, or $4.28 a share. Revenue
increased 17% to $15.8 million from $13.6 million in 1988.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0008-1.4>
The company didn't elaborate on its announcement to sell
its radio stations, and executives weren't available for
comment. In addition to its two stations in Anchorage and
Fairbanks, the company owns stations in greater Kansas City;
Fresno, Calif.; and Spokane, Wash. It said it would sell the
stations as a group or individually.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0007 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0007-1.1>
New Hampshire Savings Bank Corp. revised its
fourth-quarter loss to $32.7 million, or $5.31 a share, from
the previously reported $18.9 million, or $3.07 a share, and
said it expects its auditors to raise questions about its
ability to continue as a going concern.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0007-1.2>
The Concord bank holding company -- one of many in New
England to be battered by the region's slumping real estate
market -- has been advised by its independent accountants
that their 1989 year-end report will express "reservations
about the prospects of the company," a spokesman said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0007-1.3>
New Hampshire Savings added that it expects to report a
loss for its first quarter.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0007-1.4>
The company added that it is not currently in compliance
with regulatory minimum capital requirements. As of Dec. 31,
the parent company had a primary capital ratio of 5.87% and
and its principal affiliate, New Hampshire Savings Bank, had
a ratio of 3.94%. The regulatory requirement for each is 6%.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0006 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0006-1.1>
Cambridge Capital Fund Limited Partnership, New York, said
it proposed to acquire the 90.4% of Dallas-based Whitehall
Corp., a defense and electronics concern, that it doesn't
already own for $20 a share, or about $62 million.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0006-1.2>
In New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday,
Whitehall shares closed at $17.50, up 62.5 cents.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0006-1.3>
The investment partnership said in a letter to Whitehall
management that it is prepared to negotiate all terms of its
bid. It also said its proposal would be subject to several
conditions, including acquiring financing. A spokesman said
Cambridge is holding talks with financing sources. Still,
Cambridge said it is proceeding with plans to nominate its
own slate of five directors at Whitehall's annual meeting,
scheduled for April 23. It said it hopes its proxy materials
will be available shortly.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0006-1.4>
Whitehall officials couldn't be reached for comment. Last
month, Whitehall rejected Cambridge's request to meet to
discuss a possible transaction.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0005 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0005-1.1>
National Lumber & Supply Inc. said it filed for Chapter 11
bankruptcy-law protection from creditors.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0005-1.2>
The Fountain Valley, Calif., company, which last week
closed six of its 21 home improvement outlets as part of a
cost-cutting effort, said yesterday that a slowdown in
Southern California's housing and home-repair markets cut
sales and cash flow, prompting the Chapter 11 filing in
federal court in Santa Ana, Calif.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0005-1.3>
Under Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, a debtor
continues operations while trying to work out arrangements
with creditors.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0005-1.4>
National Lumber said it believed it has sufficient
financing to maintain operations while in Chapter 11
proceedings. It said it received a $4 million commitment for
debtor-in-possession financing from Foothill Capital Corp.
and is negotiating with its current principal secured lender
to increase credit facilities. An informal creditors
committee was formed March 26.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0004 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0004-1.1>
TORONTO -- Two brokerage firms, Midland Doherty Financial
Corp. and Walwyn Inc. said they agreed to merge and are
taking on a new partner in exchange for a cash injection.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0004-1.2>
Under terms of the agreement, shareholders would exchange
each Midland Doherty share held for 1.75 shares in the
combined company. Walwyn shares would be exchanged on a
one-for-one basis.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0004-1.3>
Meantime, Mackenzie Financial Corp., a Toronto investment
management concern, said it would pay 19.6 million Canadian
dollars ($16.8 million) for 22% of the new company's shares,
making it the largest single shareholder. Mackenzie said its
purchase was for investment purposes.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0004-1.4>
The transactions are subject to shareholder and regulatory
approvals. The companies said last month that they were
holding discussions about a possible merger.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0004-1.5>
Midland is 31%-owned by Union Enterprises Ltd., which is
controlled by Unicorp Canada Corp., a natural resources and
financial services concern. Toronto financiers Peter and
Edward Bronfman hold a 22% indirect stake in Unicorp through
their merchant bank and holding company, Hees International
Bancorp Inc.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0004-1.6>
Walwyn is 38%-owned by Toronto-based Fairfax Financial
Holdings Ltd., an insurance and financial-services holding
company.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0004-1.7>
After the merger, Fairfax will hold 19% of the combined
company's shares, Union Enterprises will own 10%, and the
rest will be publicly traded.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0004-1.8>
James Moir, president of Midland Doherty and chairman and
chief executive of its operating unit, Midland Capital Corp.,
said the merger would result in some layoffs, particularly
among supporting staff. Mr. Moir said he plans to leave the
company after the merger because of a "duplication of
management talent." He said he has no specific plans at the
moment.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0004-1.9>
The new company, whose name hasn't been disclosed, will be
headed by H.A. Arrell as chairman and chief executive
officer. Mr. Arrell is currently chairman and chief executive
of Walwyn.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0003 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0003-1.1>
WASHINGTON -- The clean-air legislation moving through
Congress could have a big impact on U.S. small businesses
from manufacturers and retailers to dry cleaners and auto
repair shops.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0003-1.2>
But few small concerns have any idea of the kinds of costs
and confusion they are likely to face in getting permits to
operate or expand their businesses, in purchasing new
equipment or in changing the products they use, say small
business groups. Such organizations have been fighting to
make the measures now moving through Congress more user
friendly for their members by providing for small business
ombudsmen and other regulatory breaks.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0003-1.3>
"This is a watershed for small business," says Donna
Singletary, a lobbyist who specializes in environmental
issues for the National Federation of Independent Business,
the largest small-business group. "The clean air act would be
a bear even if they passed everything we wanted in
amendments."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0003-1.4>
The air toxics portion of the Senate bill would require
manufacturers, pest control firms, auto body shops, farmers
and dry cleaners to limit the use of some chemicals or adopt
safer substitutes. To control urban smog, printers, bakeries,
auto repair shops, cleaning and maintenance firms, gasoline
stations and restaurants would face regulation of emissions
from alcohol and petroleum-based products such as paint, ink
and solvents.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0003-1.5>
"My reaction is help! We need big help," says Raleigh
Carr, who has owned a Richmond, Va., Texaco gasoline station
for 20 years. "It seems like everybody in our government is
trying to put us out of business."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0003-1.6>
Mr. Carr, whose station has six gasoline pumps, says it
would cost about $5,000 total to equip them with nozzles to
catch the vapors released while filling a car's fuel tank.
But he says he has already spent $14,000 to prevent leakage
from his underground storage tanks, and the insurance company
tells him he needs to spend at least another $8,000 to
install monitors and pressure tests before they'll consider
insuring him. The station's gross revenue amount to $3,000
monthly, he says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0003-1.7>
"I'm not against clean air or clean water. I'd like to
help {clean up the environment} but there should be a
reasonable price tag on it," Mr. Carr says.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0003-1.8>
In New York and its suburbs, it cost many stations about
$30,000 to install the vapor-recovery systems, according to
Ralph Bombadiere, executive director of the New York State
Association of Service Station and Repair Shops. Over the
past two years, he says, many of the area's smaller stations,
with net income of about $600 monthly, decided to stop
pumping gasoline and concentrate on repairing cars.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0003-1.9>
Small businesses are counting on two amendments to the
clean air legislation to provide some aid. The Senate
approved a change sponsored by Sens. Rudy Boschwitz (R.,
Minn.) and David Boren (D., Okla.) that would direct the
states to offer technical help to small companies that seek
aid. But an amendment by Sens. Don Nickles (R., Okla.) and
Howell Heflin (D., Ala.) to streamline the process of getting
permits to operate was rejected last night. Similar
amendments will be sought in the House.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0003-1.10>
Business owners will first encounter clean air rules when
they apply for air pollution permits, says Theresa Pugh, the
National Association of Manufacturer's director of
environmental policy. Under the permits amendment, companies
wouldn't have to get permits in all states contiguous to
their home states. Also, smaller concerns could estimate
toxic emissions instead of purchasing expensive monitoring
systems.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0003-1.11>
"When we go through the permitting process, I want them to
make sure I can do it," explains Bernard Hofmann, chairman of
Hofmann Industries, a maker of steel tubing in Sinking
Spring, Pa. "I don't want an attorney or an environmental
engineer on my payroll. What are we doing: filling out paper
work or providing jobs?"
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0003-1.12>
The dry cleaning industry, heavily dominated by small,
family-run shops, expects to be hit hard by the clean air
legislation. New, non-polluting equipment or "washers" that
dry cleaners eventually will need, cost about $30,000 each.
In addition, dry cleaners are concerned that eventually
they'll be subject to the same regulations as large companies
considered major sources of air toxics.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0003-1.13>
Perchlorethane, the chemical used by dry cleaners, is
listed as an air toxic. Although a neighborhood dry cleaner
is considered a small or "area" source of pollution, under
the law the government can decide to bunch together small
polluters and regulate them as a major source of the
chemical.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0003-1.14>
"The bottom line is either I'll have to take less of a
profit or increase prices," says Marc Karyo, 25 years old,
co-owner of Valet International, a large Washington dry
cleaner. "But a good point from my perspective is I expect a
large number of cleaners won't be able to afford the
equipment and I'll get more business when they go out of
business." Valet, with revenue of about $1 million annually,
expects to invest about $100,000 in new equipment.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0003-1.15>
Even small businesses that aren't affected by clean air
regulations will see their costs increase in other ways.
Retailers will pay increased transportation and delivery
costs, grocery stores might be taxed for using refrigerants
that damage the ozone layer and the cost of cleaning supplies
will increase as they're reformulated to eliminate any
offending chemicals.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0003-1.16>
"The biggest problem our members have {with the coming
clean air rules} is that they don't know what to do," says
Ben Cooper, director of governmental affairs for the Printing
Industries of America. "Small business people need good
information, consistency and an atmosphere of cooperation
rather than an adversarial one."
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0002 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0002-1.1>
DALLAS -- A group of former Southmark Corp. employees said
it has received consents from a majority of the limited
partners of 16 Southmark partnerships to take over the
general partner role of those private partnerships.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0002-1.2>
The Limited Partner Investor Monitoring Committee Inc.,
formed by former executives of the Southmark unit that sold
private limited partnerships a few years ago, has been
soliciting proxies from 33 private real estate partnerships,
most of which own health-care facilities. The New York-based
group said that so far, it has won enough votes to become the
general partner of partnerships that own 31 nursing homes and
retirement centers, three mini-warehouses and the Pittsburgh
Airport Holiday Inn.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0002-1.3>
A Southmark spokesman said that the troubled real estate
and thrift concern will evaluate the materials submitted by
the committee and "should we find everything to be in order,
we will acquiesce to the vote of our limited partners."
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0002-1.4>
Currently, Southmark affiliates manage almost all the real
estate properties owned by the partnerships for a fee equal
to about 5% to 7.5% of the partnerships' revenue. The Limited
Partner committee said it plans to try to lower those fees to
seek lower-cost management services.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0002-1.5>
However, limited partners will pay a fee equal to 1.75% of
revenues to the committee to be the general partner; in most
cases, those partners already paid fees for a Southmark unit
to be the general partner when they purchased partnership
interests.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0002-1.6>
The Limited Partner committee also said that it plans to
file claims on behalf of limited partners in Southmark's
bankruptcy-law proceedings. The company is operating under
Chapter 11 protection from creditors while it tries to work
out a plan to pay its debts.
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> WSJ900404-0001 </DOCNO>
<TEXT>
<p.WSJ900404-0001-1.1>
LOS ANGELES -- TRW Inc. has sued a "credit services
organization" for advising consumers to flood TRW with credit
report disputes and lawsuits and also for possibly tampering
with the company's computer system.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0001-1.2>
In a complaint filed in state court in Los Angeles, TRW
claims that Michael Jay & Co., which promotes itself as "the
credit repair people," was telling clients to dispute their
credit records without pointing to any particular inaccuracy
in the hope that TRW would be unable to verify negative
information.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0001-1.3>
"This letter-writing campaign has resulted in TRW
literally being inundated with thousands of
computer-generated form letters, purporting to raise the same
`disputes' by the same consumers over and over again," the
complaint said.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0001-1.4>
The complaint also says that Michael Jay has attempted to
access or has accessed TRW's computer system in order to
disrupt it.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0001-1.5>
The result of Michael Jay's actions, says TRW, has made
the maintenance of accurate records more difficult and has
forced TRW to continually reverify financial information. It
has also, allegedly, made it more difficult to respond to
legitimate complaints.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0001-1.6>
The suit seeks unspecified damages and an injunction
against counseling consumers to make false claims or file
lawsuits. TRW also wants the return of any material taken by
unauthorized access to its computer system.
</p>
<p.WSJ900404-0001-1.7>
Michael Jay, president, said his company doesn't have any
access to TRW's computer system and has never attempted to
interfere with it. "We would never advise a consumer to
mislead anyone; in accordance with state and federal laws, we
do advise consumers to challenge information they believe is
unjustly reported on their credit reports."
</p>
</TEXT>
</DOC>
