Reluare luni, 5 decembrie 1994

Man in the News; Ascendance of an Improbable Leader -- Richard Keith Armey

Date: 06 December 1994

By Katharine Q. Seelye

Katharine Seelye

Here is how Newt Gingrich says someone can tell that a "revolution" is truly at hand. When he and Senator Bob Dole of Kansas had to leave an important meeting of Republicans on Friday, they left Representative Dick Armey and Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi in charge. Mr. Gingrich of Georgia, the next Speaker of the House, told this anecdote to a gathering of conservatives here, and the audience cheered wildly.

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Press

Date: 05 December 1994

By William Glaberson

William Glaberson

PRESTIGIOUS news organizations hate to become the story. So it was a rare exercise in contrition when The Washington Post ran a front-page article describing its own "deep embarrassment" at the way it had been dragged into the GATT debate. The Post, as the Nov. 25 article explained in extraordinary detail, had been caught violating its own rules. In September, the newspaper editorialized in favor of a pending bill to expand the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade without disclosing to readers that The Washington Post Company had a multimillion-dollar interest in seeing that the bill passed.

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Fox Petition Counters NBC On Foreign Ownership Issue

Date: 06 December 1994

By Bill Carter

Bill Carter

Responding to NBC's contention that the ownership of the Fox network television stations violates Federal law, Fox Inc. filed a harshly worded petition to the Federal Communications Commission yesterday asserting that NBC was lying in an effort to derail Fox as a competitor. Fox accused its rival's parent, the General Electric Company, of engaging in criminal conduct that called into question NBC's qualifications to continue as a broadcaster.

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China Names Names in Steroid Bans

Date: 05 December 1994

The state-run Xinhua News Agency in Beijing has released the names of the 11 Chinese competitors at the Asian Games in October who tested positive for steroids. The five women were the swimmers YANG AIHUA, LU BIN and ZHOU GUANBIN, the hurdler HAN QING and the cyclist WANG YAN. The six men were the swimmers XIONG GUOMING, HU BIN, ZHANG BIN and FU YONG and the canoeists ZHANG LEI and QIU SUOREN. The Olympic Council of Asia said on Saturday that the 11 had tested positive for illegal drugs. (AP)

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Lawyer Sees Travel Office Indictment

Date: 05 December 1994

By David Johnston

David Johnston

A lawyer for the former head of the White House travel office, Billy R. Dale, said today that he expected Federal prosecutors to seek an embezzlement indictment against Mr. Dale this week, charging him with stealing $69,000 in money paid by news organizations for Presidential trips. Steven C. Tabackman, Mr. Dale's lawyer, said his client would plead not guilty to the charges, which are likely to revive an embarrassing issue that created a furor when it erupted in May 1993, and left a powerful impression of White House bungling on ethical matters.

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Restrain Those Prior Restraints

Date: 05 December 1994

It has been 23 years since the courts, responding to the most urgent pleas of the Federal Government, temporarily enjoined publication of the Pentagon Papers, a Vietnam War history. That temporary prior restraint on publication was thought necessary to let the Supreme Court examine the Government's dire warnings of peril to national security -- which the Court dismissed after inspecting the documents. That experience should have taught judges to deny out of hand virtually any request to restrain publication, even temporarily. Yet over the years judges, almost casually and on flimsy one-sided pleadings, often issue those restraints. Judge Peter Leisure of New York's Federal court acted in that silly tradition the other day, ordering a halt to the distribution of Penthouse magazine's January issue.

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INSIDE

Date: 06 December 1994

Widening Net for Inquiry The Whitewater inquiry moved near Gov. Jim Guy Tucker of Arkansas after a land appraiser pleaded guilty to inflating estimates used to support loans to Mr. Tucker. Page B9. Battle Laser Ready to Go "Star Wars" is not dead after all. After 15 years, an antimissile space laser has overcome many technical problems and is ready to be tested in orbit. Science Times, page C1.

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WIREKRAFT ACQUIRES MEXICAN UNIT OF G.E.

Date: 06 December 1994

By Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

Wirekraft Industries Inc. said yesterday that it had acquired Electro Componentes de Mexico, the Mexican wire harness unit of General Electric's appliance division for an undisclosed price. The acquisition by Wirekraft, which is based in Rolling Prairie, Ind., will create a company with annual sales of about $300 million, making it the industry leader. It also gives Wirekraft an exclusive agreement to supply wire harnesses for all G.E. appliances. Wirekraft is owned by Hicks, Muse, Furst & Tate Inc., a leveraged buyout firm in Dallas. Harnesses are bundles of wires that connect appliances' motors with their controls.

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MERCANTILE BANCORPORATION TO ACQUIRE TC BANKSHARES

Date: 06 December 1994

By Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

Mercantile Bancorporation Inc. said yesterday that it would acquire TC Bankshares Inc., the third-largest bank holding company in Arkansas, for $155.7 million in common stock and the assumption of preferred stock. Mercantile, which is based in St. Louis and had assets of $12.2 billion as of Sept. 30, will issue 4.75 million common shares for all the outstanding shares of TC Bankshares, in addition to assuming $12.1 million of nonconvertible preferred stock. TC Bankshares, based in North Little Rock, Ark., had about $1.4 billion in assets as of Sept. 30, and owns six banks. Shares of Mercantile rose 12.5 cents, to $30, on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday.

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UNOCAL TO TAKE CHARGES OF UP TO $489 MILLION

Date: 06 December 1994

By Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

The Unocal Corporation said yesterday that it would take charges totaling as much as $489 million in the fourth quarter, mainly to write down United States oil and gas fields. The biggest part of the charges, $275 million, relate to a change in the way Unocal values its oil and gas properties. Under the new policy, Unocal said it would evaluate reserves on a field-by-field basis instead of the country-by-country method it previously used. The charge, about $445 million before taxes, reflects the write-down of producing properties in the United States whose estimated future cash flows are lower than their current book value. Unocal, based in Los Angeles, also expects to add from $93 million to $155 million to its provisions for environmental clean-up costs.

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