Iowa City Press-Citizen from Iowa City, Iowa • Page 10

BUSINESS BRIEFCASE Mir 1 TN Page 43 TUESDAY, JULY 7. 1987 Iowa City Press-Citizen Chrysler hit with largest penalty ever The Associated Press WASHINGTON An allegation of fraudu -fill IJj "iff i vmf jffti.t i( lent unemployment insurance claims led the ijjhor DeDartment to an investigation that re sulted in the government hitting Chrysler Corp. with tne largest jod neann ana saieiy penalty ever imposed. The Occupational Safety and Health Admin istration Monday fined Chrysler $1,576,100 for 811 alleged violations, including willfully exposing 131 auto workers at its Newark, assembly plant to hazardous levels of lead ana arsenic in knowing defiance of the law. Chrysler said it will not contest the fine, but the head of its automobile manufacturing arm said most of the violations were for "relatively minor discrepancies." The OSHA fine is the second time in two weeks that Chrysler has run afoul of federal laws.

June 24, a federal grand jury in St. Louis indicted Chrysler and two of its executives on conspiracy and fraud charges, accusing them of disconnecting odometers on cars driven by company officials and later selling the vehi cles as new. Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca last week apologized to the buyers of those cars and promised to extend the warranties on the vehicles and replace cars that were damaged while driven in a test program and later repaired. From staff reports and news services U.S. car sales drop 13.8 in late June Sales of U.S.-made cars fell 13.8 percent in late June compared with the same period a year ago, domestic automakers reported Monday in Detroit.

Light truck sales, however, continued to surpass last year's sales with a 6.8 percent gain in the eight selling days from June 21-30 this year. Domestic makers sold 229,407 cars and 134,170 light trucks during the period, compared with 266,005 cars and 125,640 light trucks a year ago. Domestic car sales moved at a 7.3 million seasonally adjusted annual rate during the period and a 7.2 million annual rate during June. Waterloo, Dubuque get new flights Iowa Airways began service from Waterloo and Dubuque to Chicago's Midway Airport today and is offering reduced fares to promote the flights. The airline has two flights daily each way on the route.

Roundtrip fares between Waterloo and Chicago will be $158 on tickets bought before July 31 and $178 after that date. Those figures are higher than fares charged by Continental Britt Airways and United Express between Cedar Rapids and Chicago's O'Hare Airport. But Iowa Airways spokeswoman Marlene Woller said her company's service to Midway will put travelers closer to downtown Chicago. IBP has fewer overweight trucks IBP inc. and its trucking subsidiary, which just two months ago were the leading violators of road weight limits in Iowa, are almost in perfect compliance now and have pledged even better performance, Attorney General Tom Miller said Monday in Des Moines.

As a result, he said, he has dropped a lawsuit against the firms and will not seek more fines or damages. The firms have had two overweight citations since May, compared with more than 1,000 (in 22 months) before the suit, Miller said. Nissan recalls 280ZX, 300ZX cars Nissan Motor Corp. will ask owners to return more than 180,000 vehicles for addition of a device that is designed to prevent unintended acceleration, a company official said Monday in Detroit. The voluntary recall involves 1979-87 280ZX and 300ZX cars with automatic transmissions, Richard T.

Hartzell, vice president for service at Nissan's U.S. marketing arm in Carson, said. The company will install an interlock free at Nissan dealerships so the car cannot be put into gear without depressing the brake, Hartzell said. US Sprint's long distance to drop US Sprint Communications Co. said Monday in Washington it will lower its long-distance rates by 4.25 percent for residential and small business customers effective Aug.

1. The reduction by Sprint, the nation's third-largest long-distance company, is an effort to remain competitive with American Telephone Telegraph the long-distance leader that dropped its rates 4.8 percent on July 1. MCI Communications the No. 2 long-distance carrier, has announced it will match reduction Aug. 1.

The rate reductions result from an increase in the subscriber line charge that took effect July 1. The increase raised the charge to $2.60 a month, raising subscribers' share of the cost of the line that runs from their telephone to the phone company's central switching office. Business Briefcase appears every day in the Press-Citizen. The column contains information about area business openings and closings, promotions, appointments and transfers. Send items of interest to: Business Desk, Press-Citizen, Box 2480, Iowa City, 62244.

Phone inquiries should be directed to (319) 337-3181. Th Aoclotd Proas OSHA officials said the fines Monday grew out of a complaint by workers at the Newark plant that the company was keeping fraudulent health and safety records. Workers walk outside the Newark, Chrysler Corp. fined Chrysler more than $1.5 million for 811 alleged plant in January 1986. The Labor Department Monday health and safety violations at the plant.

Fine won't hurt sales, analysts say Car auction charged with odometer fraud The Associated Press SPRINGFIELD, Mo. An auto; auction and two people were charged Monday in a 137-count federal indictment with rolling back the odometers on more than 1,000 cars for a total of 16 million miles. A federal grand jury in Springfield charged the 156 Auto Auction and Rosemary Jo Henson and Van Ellen Patrick of Pomona, with conspiracy, mail fraud, interstate transportation of falsely made motor vehicle titles and odometer fraud. Two other men had been Indicted June 5 in the case. fy the consumer by what he did." Chris Cedergren, analyst with J.D.

Power Assoc. in Westlake Village, said the safety fine "sounds like something that will be announced in the papers and then forgotten." He said the fine could prompt General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor the nation's two largest automakers, to examine" their plants before OSHA turns its attention to them. O'Grady said the plant where the violations were found in January was old and made a good target at a time when "OSHA has more clout in general, so it's exercising its powers. "I don't think it's a big deal.

It's mainly something that's pretty well been taken care of and settled." workers to hazardous levels of lead and arsenic. Four days earlier, Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca apologized for selling as new about 60,000 cars driven by company managers with the odometers disconnected. He said the practice was dumb and that Chrysler would extend warranties on those cars and replace 40 damaged during the testing. Analysts lauded Iacocca's handling of the June 24 federal indictment. "The odometer situation was really something which started out as a negative, but the way it was handled, it came out as a positive," O'Grady said.

"Iacocca showed a tremendous combination of initiative and drive to satis The Associated Press DETROIT Chrysler Corp. turned an indictment on odometer-fraud charges to its advantage and probably won't suffer in sales and image from a record $1.5 million fine for plant-safety violations, an industry analyst said. "People are really concerned about the cars, and it has no impact whatsoever on the cars," Thomas O'Grady of Integrated Automotive Resources Inc. in Wayne, said Monday. The U.S.

Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Chrysler Monday for 811 alleged violations at its Newark, assembly plant, including exposing 131 Asbestos-removal industry is booming, analyst says molish a residential or commercial building. In 1980, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered all buildings inspected to determine whether any asbestos in the buildings provided a potentially hazardous condition. There was no law forcing schools to remove asbestos, but public pressure prompted local authorities to take action. Petschek calculates that removal of all the asbestos from commerical and residental buildings and factories could cost $100 billion to $200 billion. "It's an industry whose investment times has come," Petschek says.

Dan Dorfman writes about financial issues for Gannett News Service. His column appears Tuesdays. is banned in building construction. Petschek, who in November recommended a group of pollution control stocks that went through the roof (on average, they're up more than 50 percent), sees more of the same in a number of asbestos-related securities. His top choices: The Brand Companies (21) and Commodore Resources (5 1-2).

He's also said to like Control Resources (21), but he's prohibited from discussing the company because it's in registration with a new stock offering. The big event that signaled the industry's coming explosion was a law passed April 1 in New York City, Petschek says. In effect, a property owner had to eliminate all the asbestos in order to get a permit to renovate or de If you want to know how changes in a law could mean big bucks to you, read on. Briefly, it's an investment bet on a fledging industry asbestos-removal that's about to explode. Just look at industry sales projections from Jay Petschek, 29, an analyst at Ladenburg, Thalmann Co.

$900 million this year, up from $600 million last year. $1.2 billion in 1988. $5 billion in 1992. "It's an industry whose huge growth is as certain as Tuesday follows Monday," Petschek says. "We're looking at potential growth of 50 percent a year over the next five years." Asbestos was widely used from the early 1900s to the early 1970s for insu- DAN DORFMAN lating and fireproofing residential and commercial buildings.

Then it was learned that asbestos could crumble over time and release microscopic particles in the air that could cause a form of lung cancer. The use of asbestos now STOCKS OF LOCAL INTEREST Monday closing: Door to Door Canvass for I Enjoy Press-Citizen Home Delivery no matter what the weather. Call 337-3181, today! Medical Aid for El Salvador 3 -m 45 -1 -V4 even ..25 7 even ..224 ..541 -V, ..51 -1 ..271 ..44 even 51 V. ..44 3 ..52 -1 ,..62 ...11 even ASA 57'4 ATT 28 -V4 AlMCp 27 55 1 Amoco 88 1 ArchD 25 Bandag 66 BurlNth 78 -2 Deere- 28 Exxon 93 Gannett 51 GenElec 55 even GenMot 80 -1 GUlette 38 Goodyear 66 -1 Helni 48 even Heritage 33 even IBM 165 ffG 14 even IntotPw 24 lowaEl 24 even Iowam 41 JamesRiv 33 Kidde mart Kodak Mapco Matt-Marieta MrshM Maytag MidEng Moore Navistar PaylCsh Penney ProctG QuakOat RaythG Rockwell Sara Lee Sears Texaco ThmBet USWest WestgEl Winnbgo 1004 Arthur 337-4173 l. VVX Sa n.

5p.m. I NJAl CM Th 8 30a.ni.-8p m. I Qr r. Bp. m.

8 a.m. p.m. Stay cool while getting a tan! Since 1980, the U.S. has supplied the government of El Salvador with the military equipment to carry out a war against its own people. Currently $1.5 million per day goes to buy the bullets and bombs that have made refugees out of a quarter of El Salvador's population.

The Central America Solidarity Committee will be canvassing Iowa City through July 12th to raise funds for a mobile hospital forSalvadoran refugees. Please give generously when we knock at your door or send your contribution to CASC, SACIMU, Iowa City 52242. 10 Sessions for 25 Offer expires July 31 I i NBC strike delays taping of ABC's 'General Hospital' LOS ANGELES Taping of ABC's daytime serial General Hospital was delayed about an hour Monday by the strike against NBC when at least 15 crew members refused to cross picket lines at a studio used by both networks. Meanwhile, in New York, a small number of strikers were allowed to picket inside the RCA Building, which houses NBC headquarters, after they agreed to stay away from NBC-leased sections of the building. The building includes a public shopping concourse.

The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians is in the second week of a strike against the network. At the Sunset-Gower Studio in Los Angeles where General Hospital is taped, NBC crews were supposed to use a special entrance designated solely for their use. But NABET spokesman Chris Hanson said NBC employees were using other gates to avoid the picket line at the one entrance. As a result, NABET began picketing at least seven gates at the studio, including the gate ABC was using for its 3:15 a.m. General Hospital crew call, Hanson said.

"General Hospital (taping) was delayed for about an hour," ABC spokesman Jim Brochu said. "I understand the picket lines came down about 10 o'clock, and they resumed work." People would be screened to make sure no NBC workers enter through other gates from now on, Brochu said. An estimated 15 to 20 General Hospital crew members refused to cross the picket lines, he said, while NABET estimated the number at 25 to 30. Also Monday, a news conference called by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor to announce its support for the NBC strikers was canceled when a non-union NBC news team refused to leave. XEROX AUTHORIZED DEALER FOR Asked 141i 16W 9 16 5 31 49Mi 40 3M 35 V4 15 17V 30 V4 Dow Jones Averages Industrials 2429.53; Transportationl021.72; Utilities 204.91; Over the Counter Bid NLCS 14V Flexsteel 16 Cycare Stystems 8 Caseys Gen'l Stores 15Mi Statesman Group i7M United Fire It Cas 30 Life Investors 48Mi Bank of Iowa 45H Hawkeye Bancorp 3 Pion'r Hybred Int'l 35 Allied Group HON Ind IA South.

UtUities 29" Furnished by Dean J. Jaraow, DJIA Financial Services Professional Dependable Prompt XEROX MEMORYWRITERS XEROX TELECOPIER TERMINALS SERVICE FOR XEROX TELECOPIES MEMORYWRITERS AUTHORIZED DEALER FOR XEROX INFORMATION PROCESSING SUPPLIES WALL STREET MONDAY: Stock prices settled back a bit Monday as the market drifted through a quiet session. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, up 26.94 last Thursday, dropped 7.17 to 2,429.53. Volume on the New York Stock Exchange came to 155.01 million shares, against 154.93 million in the previous session. Standard Poor's index of 400 industrials lost .12 to 354.92, and 500-stock composite index was down .66 at 299.95.

mm CALL FOR MORE INFORMATION Cedar Rapids, 364-5159 Iowa City, 338-3464 Toll Free, 1-800-332-4847 Office Services Inc Xm amia Indiaarka ot XEROX CORPORATION.