St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 23

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH BIMNE SECTION THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1994 Stifel Bond Exec Resigns Newest Chip To Break All Speed Records Corcoran is still with Stifel "as we speak." Stifel has previously reported spending hundreds of thousands of dollars responding to the SEC inquiry. The agency is examining several Oklahoma bond issues underwritten by Stifel. The inquiry is part of a national investigation into the relationship between political contributions and the municipal bond business and potential conflicts of interest in the market. Stifel dominates the public finance business in Oklahoma.

The Daily Oklahoman story said that Stifel's Oklahoma bond transactions are also being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service. Von Feldt earned $1.8 million last year, more than Taylor, and $2.4 million in 1992. He earned no salary; the compensation was all bonuses for performance. On July 20, Von Feldt sold 33,972 shares of Stifel stock at $7 a share, leaving him with 18,350 shares. By Fred Faust Of the Post-Dispatch Staff DeWayne R.

Von Feldt, the highest-paid employee of Stifel Financial has resigned. He ran the company's municipal bond operations in Oklahoma, which are under investigation by federal authorities: Stifel did not announce the resignation. In response to questions Wednesday, Gregory F. Taylor, the company's chief executive, referred to a story Friday in an Oklahoma City newspaper. The Daily Oklahoman reported that Von Feldt, who was an executive vice president and member of Stifel's board of directors, resigned Thursday, saying he would "pursue new opportunities in the securities business." The paper said Von Feldt, 59, was based in Oklahoma City and supervised more than 40 Stifel offices in Oklahoma and Texas.

In the article, Taylor was quoted expressing appreciation for more than 30 years of Von Feldt's work for the Stifel Nicolaus Co. subsidiary. Firm's Highest-Paid Employee Ran Unit Now Under Probe When asked in a telephone interview Wednesday whether the resignation was related to the Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, Taylor referred to the newspaper article, which didn't touch on that question. Von Feldt said "absolutely not" when The Daily Oklahoman asked about a relationship between his leaving and the investigation. Taylor declined to say Wednesday when he had learned of Von Feldt's resignation.

He also declined to discuss the future status of Bob Corcoran, an investment banker in the Oklahoma City office. An industry source said that Corcoran had also left. Taylor said Wednesday evening that 1994, Reuters News Service MAYNARD, Mass. Digital Equipment Corp. said Wednesday it introduced the world's fastest computer chip, able to process more than 1 billion instructions a second.

The new Alpha AXP 21164 chip, also the computer industry's most powerful and the first to break the 300 megahertz (MHz) speed barrier, beat another Digital chip the Alpha AXP 21064A for the top title, Digital President and Chief Executive Robert Palmer said. The technical advance comes while the company is in tough shape. The third-largest U.S. computer maker is trying to claw its way back from years of losses totaling more than $3 billion. Digital, of Maynard, said the chip performs at speeds previously possible only in large multiprocessing systems, such as expensive supercomputers, and is more than twice as fast as the Pentium, PowerPC and MIPS microprocessors.

Digital is making available two versions of the new microprocessor, at 300 and 266 MHz, priced at $2,669 and $1,865, respectively, in quantities of 5,000. Mum Plastics Plant To Close; 200 Jobs Gone By Jim Gallagher Of the Post-Dispatch Staff About 200 people will lose their jobs in November when Packaging Resources Inc. shuts its factory in Louisiana, the company said Wednesday. "It will have a terrible effect on our town," said Bill Wunderlich, mayor of the Mississippi River community of 4,000 people. Packaging Resources, which makes plastic cups, said it is moving production to a newly purchased plant in Kansas City.

The Kansas City plant is closer to interstate highways, a big airport and other V1 I AP Largest U.S. Roaster Hikes Coffee Price Again As if getting up in the morning wasn't tough enough, now coffee drinkers will have to pay 'even more for their morning cup. Maxwell House Coffee the nation's largest coffee company, said Wednesday it was raising list prices for some of its most popular brands again due to the rapid rise in green coffee prices caused by frost and drought in Brazil. Maxwell House, whose brands also include Yu-ban, Sanka and Brim, said it raised prices of its ground coffees by 20 cents for a standard can and its instant coffees by 3 cents an ounce across most of its product line. Reuters Hiring Mentally III Earns Awards Forty-five St.

Louis companies will be honored today for providing employment over the past year for 250 adults with mental illnesses. Among the firms being honored are A.G. Edwards Sons Ace-Acme Supply Bee Hat Canteen McDonnell Douglas Min-uteman Press in Olivette, Sam-Sen Cap St. Louis Pre-Sort Inc. and Venture Stores.

The awards celebration at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel is sponsored by the not-for-profit Independence Center, a psychiatric rehabilitation center. SON OF SNAIL DARTER Fish May Dry Up Waterway Traffic One small fish poses a giant worry for the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering whether to services the opera-tion needs, a comoa- 3 ackaging Resources is ny statement said. The closing had moviner Storm Yields To Calm The United Rubber Workers reached tentative agreement Wednesday on a new contract with Dunlop Tire one day after this rock-throwing picket line melee at the plant in Huntsville, was quelled by police.

Officials from both sides said union members will vote Saturday on the new pact. nothing to do with productjon the Louisiana work- JT ers' performance, "OITI the company said. Louisiana, Louisiana is in ru- MoM to a ral Pike County, pant in Packaging Resources is the town's fourth-largest employer. Workers at the plant averaged $8.25 an hour. "They got full benefits and pensions with lots of overtime," Wunderlich said.

"Now, we've got to find more than 200 jobs for people." The workers include several husband-and-wife pairs along with workers approaching retirement. The plant opened in 1958. The unemployment rate in Pike County was 5.6 percent in July. Holy Thrills, Batman! New Ride At Six Flags FOCUS ON DIET FOOD name the Alabama sturgeon an endangered species. Designation could limit dredging of the waterway, crippling commercial shipping, said Don Waldon, ad- minictratrtr rf tha TannTom 77 I Waterway Development Au- 'Liter' Food, Fatter Bodies We buy billions of dollars worth of diet soft drinks, lean prepared opran meals and diet supplements.

We watch the scales for Opra Winfrey and Tommy Lasorda. But still the average American put on eight pounds between 1980 and 1991. 8 MARKET INDEX ride and the Batman theme area. "But I can tell you the estimated economic impact on the St. Louis economy," Stankey said.

"The ride will, in 1995, add an estimated $80 million to the park's total economic impact of $200 million a year." Stankey said the economic impact includes tourist spending as well as employee salaries, local vendor purchases and other economic spinoffs. The company said the ride's economic impact is based on the three existing Batman theme rides at Six Flags parks in Chicago, Los Angeles and northern New Jersey. Stankey again citing corporate policy refused to disclose the park's annual attendance figures. But she did say Six Flags employs 2,900 workers at the height of the summer season. Six Flags is owned by Time Warner Entertainment a division of the multimedia giant Time Warner which had 1992 annual sales of more than $13 billion.

By William Flannery Of the Post-Dispatch Staff In the explosive tradition of Batman himself, Six Flags Over Mid-America used explosive charges on Wednesday for its ground-breaking ceremony for the park's new Batman The Ride. The Batman is an inverted roller-coaster type ride where passengers hang under the track, ski-lift fashion in four-across seats. The 50-mile-per-hour ride will be 105 feet high at its highest point and will have five "head-over-heels experiences," the company said, including two vertical outside loops, one 77 feet high. The length of the ride will be 2,693 feet. It will be located in the "Movie Town U.S.A." area of the Six Flags in Eureka.

The Batman is slated to open next spring. The company said the multimillion-dollar investment is the largest in the park's 24-year history. But park spokeswoman Tammy Stan-key citing corporate policy refused to disclose the cost of building the lain nuintia uaiu liiv. a a ucaua and it is already hurting the town's economy. "The carpeting company had several cancellations.

One house is already up for sale," said Wunderlich. The mayor said he asked a top company official if the town could offer incentives to keep the plant open. Wunderlich said he was told the decision "was etched in stone." The Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, which represents 150 plant workers, said it will see if it can do anything to reverse the decision. "The plant was healthy, productive and profitable," said Joan Suarez, the union's regional director. News of the closing "just dropped out of the sky." A company official said the Kansas City plant also is unionized.

Wunderlich said the Louisiana plant has never had a strike, and labor relations appeared cordial. The plant will close Nov. 7. Packaging Resources is based in suburban Chicago. It bought the Kansas City plant about three months ago.

American Exchange Bonds Futures Money Market Funds Money, Rates Mutual Funds NASDAQ New York Stocks PostFax St Louis Markets Treasuries iiiuiiiy. i lie wdieiwdy, wmiii opened in 1985, connects the Tombigbee River in Alabama to the Tennessee River, providing a. shortcut to the Gulf of Mexico. Journal of Commerce Unfair Labor Practice Charged Teamsters Local 133 has filed an unfair labor practice charge against St. Louis Beer Sales, which took over distribution of Miller beers after Riverfront Distributing went out of business.

The union says St. Louis Beer Sales failed to interview or hire any of Riverfront's 43 union drivers. The drivers have been promoting a Miller boycott here joined by more than 250 taverns and other beer sellers. Mallinckrodt Shutting N.Y. Plant Mallmckrodt Medical Inc.

says it will phase out a tracheal tube manufacturing plant in Argyle, N.Y., over the next years, idling about 450 workers. Mallinckrodt says it will transfer the work to plants in Athlone, Ireland; Irvine, and Juarez, Mexico. The company expects to start shutting down the first lines in Argyle in about six months. Mallinckrodt officials said they needed to cut costs in manufacturing tracheal tubes, which are used on patients for anesthesia during surgery. QUOTABLE "Our flight attendants report that customers have on occasion actually cheered the public address announcements that smoking will not be permitted on smoke-free international flights." JAMES GUYETTE, United Airlines executive vice president for marketing and planning, in announcing Wednesday that United will ban smoking on four more overseas flights after a six-month test ban met with customer approval.

New-Look Chevy Hot Seller hit the car lots, area dealers say, partly because the vehicles are arriving only a few at a time as production starts up. "We've only had six of them." said Tim Ruediger, sales manager of Lou Fusz Chevrolet in SL Peters. But Dow Jones From Staff and Wirt Report With the tires barely dirty on the first of GM's '95 Chevy Blazers, the company already is sitting on a fat book of orders and hoping for twice as many more. A new design for the Blazer, what's known as a sport-utility vehicle, seems to have caught the eye of dealers and customers. General Motors Corp.

said Wednesday that it has more than 100,000 dealer orders for the vehicle with its advertising blitz still a month away. The company says it hopes this model year will bring sales of as many as 300.000. The Blazers don't sit long when they GM says the orders are pouring in for the been selling every we ve Yen 99.43 Deutsche Marks 1.55 one of them as soon as we get them. SAP 500 470.99 General Motors Corp. 1995 Chevrolet Blazer.

never owned a truck and that it will steal sales from its rivals Ford's Explorer and Chrysler's Jeep Cherokee and Grand Cherokee. Although GM practically invented the sport-utility segment in the early See BLAZER, Page 5 swapping with each other to try to satisfy their customers." As they spoke on Wednesday, each manager had just one Blazer on his lot. GM says it hopes the new Blazer, with its aerodynamic styling and plush interior, will appeal to people who have Sometimes they're even presold." Jim Butler Chevrolet in Crestwood is having the same experience. "We're selling them as fast as they come off the truck." said Tom Butler, general sales manager. "And all the dealers are $390 30-Year T8ood 7.56 Per ounce.