Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 9

if A12 Republic Tuesdav. February 3, 1998 NATIONAL BRIEFS Florida sues magazine marketer 2 entertainers also are accused in consumer case Arizooa mMomary is arrested to Laos Arkansas pair also held on religion charge 1 1 Dick Clark (left) and Ed McMahon are "high-profile pitchmen" who have misled millions of consumers, says Florida's attorney general. Our government is negotiating with their government. That's all we know. Bill McDonough director of partners in progress defraud." The company said McMahon was unavailable for comment.

A spokeswoman at Dick Clark Productions in Burbank, Calif, said that Clark was out of the country on vacation and that no one could comment. Butterworth said each of the millions of sweepstakes entries the company mails to Floridians could be a $15,000 violation, meaning fines could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The state also wants the court to ban the company from using its familiar marketing device in the future. Dozens of people, many of them elderly, haven't been willing to gamble with the Postal Service and have flown to Tampa with their supposed winning ticket. Last week88-year-old Richard Lusk hopped a plane from California clutching a letter that carried a five-day deadline and read, in part: "Richard LuSk, final results are in and they're official: You're our newest $11 million winner." However, the fine print said Lusk was a winner only if he held the winning ticket.

It was the second time in four months he mistook an entry for a winner and flew across the country to claim the prize. By Tom Bayles Associated Press TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Dick Clark and Ed McMahon will have to defend themselves against a lawsuit, filed by the state Monday that accuses American Family Publishers of trying to dupe people into, believing they've won $11 million. The celebrity spokesmen are among those accused in the lawsuit of taking part in an "unethical, oppressive, unscrupulous" tactic to sell magazine subscriptions. Attorney General Bob Butterworth alleges the company's sales pitch had dozens of elderly people flying to Tampa to collect prizes they had not won.

I "In their zeal to sell magazines, American Family Publishers and its high-profile pitchmen have misled millions of consumers," Butterworth said. "They have clearly stepped over the line from advertising hype to unlawful deception." Florida is the first state to file charges of deceptive advertising against the sweepstakes publisher and its spokesmen. Time Customer Service which handles the sweepstakes entries and magazine orders for American Family Publishers, also was named a defendant. The lawsuit comes three days after two Georgetown University Law Center professors filed a class-action lawsuit in Maryland against American Family Publishers on similar charges. In a statement, American Family Publishers said it has paid out more than $77 million in prize money and their mailings are not designed to entice people to fly to Tampa, the return address listed on the entry.

"Our mailings are not deceptive, and are not written to be. In fact, the language used in our mailers is purposefully clear and is understood by those who read them," the statement said. "Nor are they designed to By Stacl Burch Associated Press LITTLE ROCK An Arizona missionary and two colleagues have been arrested by Laotian authorities on suspicion of illegally spreading religious information. Kenneth Fox of Arizona, the Thailand director of Partners in Progress, was being held with two other members of the Arkansas-based organization, Jerry and Meg Canfield. Bill McDonough, director of Partners in Progress, said Fox's family declined to be identified and asked that no other information be provided for fear of alienating Laotian officials.

"As long as he's still detained, they don't want anything going out," McDonough said. "Our government is negotiating with their government. That's all we know." McDonough said Fox, in his mid-50s, has worked in Southeast Asia the past three years. He and the Canfields provided humanitarian aid including medicine, hygiene instruction and water wells. That was until Friday, when they were arrested.

A congressman's office said the trio was charged with unauthorized assembly, unauthorized dissemination of religious material and creating dissension between Laotian people and the government. Jerry Canfield, the city attorney for Fort Smith, and his wife "appear to be in good spirits," a spokesman for the U.S. embassy in the Laotian capital of Vientiane said Monday. The Canfields entered Laos using credentials obtained through Partners in Progress, an evangelical organization run by the Sixth and Izard Church of Christ in Little Rock, McDonough said. The couple knew the perils of missionary work in a Communist country, but had no warning of their arrest, said family friend Dr.

Michael Cole. All three Americans are being held at an immigration department facility just outside the capital, where they were visited Monday by a U.S. consular official, according to an embassy spokesman. When first detained, they weren't allowed to speak to anyone at the consulate but later were allowed contact, he said. Cole said he has had no contact with the Witnesses dispute Oprah editing order Canfields, but people across the country are giving him updates and keeping in touch through e-mails and the Internet.

"Meg called an answering machine in Fort Smith on Monday and said 'It's 4:30 in the afternoon in Laos. We're all doing fine. Do not Cole said he heard from a fellow church member. Although Hutchinson's office said the pair were charged with engaging in religious-type activity, other reports from the country are less clear. An embassy spokesman said the Americans have not yet been charged with any crime.

McDonough said problems were "always to be anticipated when you work in politically sensitive areas. Lots of times there are misunderstandings." The U.S. Embassy was unable to confirm private accounts that a number of Laotians and a French citizen were detained along with the Americans for holding a Bible-study meeting on Friday night. U.S. Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin on Saturday contacted acting Foreign Minister Soubanh Srithirath to express her concern about the arrests and ensure consular access to the detainees, said the embassy spokesman.

Because tfte incident was being handled by the embassy and the Laotian government, McDonough said, "It's better that we stay out of it at this point." Partners in Progress, founded in 1980, sends medical personnel, teachers, clothing and medical and technical supplies to about 40 countries, McDonough said. PRESSURE To hear the latest on fJprah Winfrey's "beef defamation" trial, call PressUne at 271-5656 and push 9059. Producer told to cut 'boring ex-employee says Associated Press AMARILLO, Texas Oprah Winfrey told the producer in charge of editing her talk show to "cut that boring beef guy out" of an episode on "mad cow disease," said a former senior producer of the program. In testimony videotaped in December and played for jurors Monday, LaGrande Green, who was fired from the Oprah Winfrey Show last summer, said producer James Kelley told him that Winfrey ordered pro-cattleman statements edited out of the final show. Ranchers are suing Winfrey, her production' company and food safety activist for $10.3 million, claiming that remarks made on an Oprah show titled "Dangerous Foods" forced already slumping beef prices to 10-year lows within a week after the show aired in April 1996.

Gary Weber, a spokesman for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, claims he told the show's studio audience that cattlemen were already observing a voluntary ban on feeding ground-up cattle parts to herds, but that his statement was cut. According to Green, Kelley said Winfrey told, him to "cut that boring beef guy out he's rambling on and on and on." But in other videotaped testimony shown to jurors Monday, Kelley said that Winfrey told him only "to cut out the redundancy in Dr. Gary Weber's discussions." iniMlllll IIMII IMBIIIIH Ml I WIW II Hill lg "HIMaWilHHfc IIIII1P- y- -I Mill 1111 III IIIIM ll IWHIMIIM II 3Mm (0)) on Ladies' Apparel Accessories lf ZT 50 OFF Entire Stock of Coats Choose wool, active, leather and rainwear coats. 50 OFF Ladies' Gloves Selected Warmwear 50 OFF Selected Handbags 50 OFF Entire Stock of Women's Fall Winter Dress Casual Shoes, Boots Booties Does not include basic, on-going styles. 50 OFF Fall Holiday Suits Pantsets In Misses', Petites' and Women's World sizes.

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