Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 28

Today's tip 8B Friday, March 20, 1987 Reno Gazette-Journal BUSINESS EDITOR: MIKE NORRIS, 788-6336 ines The recently published "Guide to Modern Business and Commercial Law" is available from Commerce Clearing House News Bureau, 4025 W. Peterson Chicago, III. 60646. Cost is $65. Bryan: School woes threaten state's economy Governor signs bill to shield corporate officials Dow hits new high with 12-point gain NEW YORK The stock market pushed ahead to new highs Thursday, leaving the Dow Jones industrial average just shy of the 2,300 mark at the close.

Trading slowed a bit, however, as investors awaited the quarterly triple witching hour today. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials climbed 12.64 to 2,299.57, stretching its gain over the last three sessions to 51.13 points. Volume on the New York Stock Exchange came to 166.12 million shares, down from 198.14 million in the previous session. Advancing issues slightly outnumbered declines in the overall tally on the NYSE, with 809 up, 769 down and 387 unchanged. The exchange's composite index of all its listed common stocks rose .64 to 167.28.

By Mike NorrisGazette-Joumal CARSON CITY Deficiencies in Nevada schools threaten economic development in the state, Gov. Richard Bryan said Thursday. He told nearly 200 of the state's educational leaders gathered for a gubernatorial conference called Nevada Jobs 2000 that an estimated 90,000 Nevadans have only fifth-grade educations. "These people are in real trouble," he said, because they are not prepared to adapt to the changes in the kinds of jobs that will occur by the turn of the century. To reverse the trend, he said, "We need to make people aware that ongoing adult education is going to be required" for those not sufficiently educated for new kinds of work.

The second-term Democratic governor promised that his administration will prepare programs to help stem the dropout problem in Nevada schools without compromising academic He condemned a legislative proposal to reduce the number of days in the school year from 180 to 175. "That clearly is a trend in the wrong direction," Bryan said, noting that in Japan, a principal economic competitor to the United States, students attend 240 days of school a year. While the exact nature of new jobs that will be created is not known, Bryan said the common denominator of schooling for the next 13 years must be "to provide basic verbal and mathematical skills, as well as "some minimal analytical capability." The conference sponsored by the state Job Training Office continues today in the Ormsby House hotel-casino. Barbara Weinberg, director of the Job Training Office, said the purpose of the conference is to raise awareness among Nevada's educational leaders that "the year 2000 will be here in just 13 years" and "we can't wait until the new century is on us" to enact changes in schools. Broker admits illegal stock trades i 5 1 more than half of all Fortune 500 companies are registered, as well as Texas, New York and Indiana.

Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, sponsor of the measure, said it should help attract corporate headquarters to the state. This, in turn, would help economic development, he added. Other advocates said that because of the concern of big awards or settlements that can result from lawsuits, corporations have had difficulty in finding qualified people to serve as directors. Proponents also said they needed the law on the books quickly so that two Nevada corporations could file proxy statements with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission in time for stockholders to vote on changes in their articles of incorporation at upcoming spring meetings.

Wire service and staff reports Head of LA firm resigns, say he'll enter guilty pleas NEW YORK Boyd L. Jefferies, the chairman and founder of the Los Angeles brokerage Jefferies resigned from the firm Thursday and said he will plead guilty to two federal felonies, one of which is related to illegal stock transactions he executed with stock speculator Ivan F. Boesky. Jefferies, 56, also consented to a Securities and Exchange Commission action barring him from the securities industry for at least five years. Although Boesky is at the center of the largest insider-trading ring ever exposed, the federal charges against Jefferies do not include insider trading.

Instead, Jefferies is charged with having helped Boesky engage in other illegal practices. The charges against Jefferies, whose firm specializes in handling large, difficult stock trades for institutional clients who included many players in the corporate-takeover world, represent a major broadening of the federal investigation into illicit practices on Wall Street. Sources said they may also presage similar charges against a number of other major investment firms, including Drexel Burnham Lambert and the small but influential trading house of Jamie Securities. Jefferies explained the charges to his employees Thursday from New York in a tearful, cross-continental telephone address to his firm's offices in New York and Los Angeles. His position as chief executive officer of the business he founded 25 years ago will be assumed by Frank E.

Baxter, who has been chief operating officer. The post of chairman will not be filled for now, Baxter said. Jefferies' guilty pleas will include one to a charge of aiding and abetting Boesky in making false bookkeeping entries on Boesky's business books and one to a charge of violating margin rules, the regulations limiting the amount of money that can be borrowed against securities. According to government documents, Jefferies agreed to purchase large quantities of stock from Boesky's own brokerage, Seemala secretly agreeing to sell the shares back to Boesky at a later date. Seemala also agreed to compensate See STOCK, page 5B Libraries blue over loss of car-price book IRVINE, Calif.

(AP) From now on, none of the millions of books on library shelves will be Blue. The Kelley Blue Book CfTTi'ai notified libraries acros fh coun try it will no longer sell ttwmits Kelley Blue Book Manual. vVA The lists prices dealers pa-jrfanufacturers for it has been stocked by libraries as a reference book. With it, consumers can determine how much dealer profit is included in new car sticker prices. Kelley also publishes a used car Blue Book, which is used as an industry standard in determining prices for the sale and trade-in of used cars.

That book will apparently remain available to libraries. A group of libraries, upset by the change in policy, went to the state attorney general and asked for an investigation, said Duane Peterson, assistant to the attorney general. A secretary at Kelley Blue Book said Mike Kelley was the only person who could speak for the company. He did not return phone calls. CARSON CITY A bill to protect corporate officers and directors from personal liability in lawsuits against their companies was signed into law Thursday by Gov.

Richard Bryan. SB6 allows both profit-making and non-profit corporations to change their articles so directors and officers can't be sued for negligence. But executives wouldn't be protected in cases of misconduct or fraud, and the corporation itself could still face actions for alleged negligence. "This helps improve Nevada's image as a state to do business in," Secretary of State Frankie Sue Del Papa said Thursday. Corporation lobbyists urged passage of the bill, saying Nevada was losing corporate filing fees to other states with laws that protect officers from liability.

States with such protections include Delaware, where 1 I billion in 1980 to $5.3 billion in 1985. Indirect investment such as stocks and bonds now totals more than $20 billion, according to the trade agency. Japan at year-end 1986 had an estimated $397 billion in long-term foreign assets, compared with a peak of $380 billion held by Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in 1983, according to government and industry figures. Japan's foreign investment has been fueled by a string of trade surpluses that has kept billions of dollars flowing into the country. Because returns on many U.S.

securities such as Treasury bonds until recently were sharply higher than similar Japanese investments, much of that money was funneled to the United States. Japanese investors have been primary sources of financing for the U.S. budget deficit through their purchases of Treasuries in the past several years. Although returns on Treasuries have dropped over the past two years, the Japanese have been just as eager to invest in the booming U.S. stock market.

ideas at seminar from producers all around the state about this conference and some new ideas about doing business." The seminar shares billing with armadillo races, roping exhibitions, livestock judging and more than 60 exhibits. "Agriculture in this state has had a major economic impact on all of us, but it is often overlooked," said Kay Thompson, convention center executive director. She said the Ag Fair and the Mining Expo, which will be held later this spring in Elko, are attempts to call attention to the importance of those two basic industries to Nevada's rural counties. Fair exhibitors came from throughout the West and Midwest. The fair is being held the same weekend as the well-known annual Chariot Races.

Doors at the Elko Convention Center will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and Saturday. The armadillo races are scheduled for 3 and 5 p.m. today and 10 a.

noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday. V'ff Mark CroftMGazette-Journal SCIENCE DAY: Northern Nevada high school students The high school students are, from right, Eugene Koh and watch as University of Nevada-Reno graduate student Ann Mark Ebner of Reno High and Steve Daino of Virginia City Tomiyasu, left, demonstrates a supersonic wind tunnel as High. Approximately 100 students toured campus lab part of Science and Technology Day at UNR on Thursday, facilities and took part in experiments.

Nevada man joins panel Nevada Farm Bureau President Dave Fulstone will join 14 other representatives of agriculture, banking and government on a congressional commission to study ways of stopping the farm debt crisis. The bureau announced that Fulstone will be a member of the National Commission on Agricultural Finance. He said he believes an infusion of cash from the federal government will be needed to save the Farm Credit System. Circus Circus income falls LAS VEGAS Circus Circus Enterprises has reported a sharp drop in net income for the quarter ending Jan. 31 over the same quarter a year earlier.

The hotel-gaming company, which has five Nevada properties, reported net income of $4.1 million on revenues of $88.2 million compared with net income of $4.3 million on revenues of $69.7 million in the same quarter the year before. "The decline in net income compared with the year-ago quarter was caused by non-operating items a higher tax rate and an extraordinary loss," said Circus Circus spokesman Glenn Schaeffer. He said a loss of $1.7 million was the premium the company paid to redeem the remaining $20 million of its 15.75 percent subordinated notes. Help for Special Olympics Organizers of the 1989 International Winter Special Olympic Games, scheduled for the Reno-Tahoe area, got a $10,000 boost Thursday from the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority. The authority board approved a request from the Reno-Tahoe Winter Games Organizing Committee to provide the financial assistance, which will include cash and services to help in the planning efforts for the event.

Committee members asked for services such as the loan of equipment and printing of brochures. Last month, the committee was successful in landing the event. It is planned for the first week of April 1989 and is expected to bring in about 1,200 athletes, 500 coaches and delegates, and 3,000 spectators from 30 countries. The event is anticipated to have an economic impact of about $350,000. Casino license granted CARSON CITY The Nevada Gaming Commission voted Thursday to grant the Robone family a license to continue running their La Mirage casino in Las Vegas, ignoring pleas from a motel owner claiming exclusive rights to the "Mirage" name.

Mirage Motel owner Allen Rosoff unsuccessfully urged the commission to require the Robones to resolve the problem with the similar name within six months. The Rosoffs have run the motel since 1953 and the La Mirage Casino opened a year ago. Gaming Commission Chairman John O'Reilly said the name hassle is something for the courts to settle instead of state casino regulators. Porsche sales decline INGOLSTADT, West Germany -Porsche AG, the West German maker of luxurious sports cars, reported a 6 percent drop in sales for the first six months of fiscal 1986 despite growing exports to the United States. Despite the sharp decline in the value of the dollar, Porsche's exports to the United States grew 11 percent, Porsche said in an interim report from company headquarters in Stuttgart.

Carter Hawley reports loss LOS ANGELES Carter Hawley Hale Stores which owns Weinstock's department stores and is contemplating a major restructuring, reported Thursday it lost $24.2 million in the fourth quarter. The company said the loss compared with earnings of $18.92 million in the same quarter of 1985. i Wire service and staff reports Shearson deal expands Japan's role on Wall Street I tw" Japanese investors want to place overseas investments with an institution they're familiar with. 5 Robert Bruscachief economist Nikko Securities banks and brokerages have attempted to expand or create a presence in U.S. financial markets.

"The (money) stock is here and it's going to get bigger," said Robert Brusca, chief economist for Nikko Securities Co. International the U.S. subsidiary of one of Japan's biggest investment firms. "Japanese investors want to place overseas investments with an institution they're familiar with," he added. The Japan External Trade Organization has estimated that Japan's direct investment in the United States, in real estate, businesses and other areas, rose from $1.4 pick up marketing grouping sales, marketing news, futures contracts and "break-even" pricing, which encourages ranchers to sell livestock at prices guaranteed to cover their expenses and a small profit margin rather than holding off in the hope prices will increase in the future.

Co-sponsoring the workshops are the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, Northern Nevada Community College and the Small Business Administration. Easterly said the workshops will give ranchers a list of alternatives but not provide one easy way for them to sell their cattle. Ron Torell, livestock specialist for the extension service, said that because "we're just coming out of a period of low cattle prices, decreased land value, high interest and big debt loads for many ranchers," interest in the seminar was high. "We'v had a lot of calls and interest NEW YORK (AP) The Japanese expanded their Wall Street beachhead Thursday as Japan's biggest life insurance company agreed to buy a stake in the Shearson Lehman Brothers investment firm from American Express Co. Nippon Life Insurance Co.

agreed in principle to pay $530 million for a 13 percent interest in Shearson, a major investment firm that accounted for nearly a third of American Express' revenue and about a quarter of its profit in 1986. If approved by the American Express board of directors and financial regulators, the deal would be the latest major transaction involving Japanese investors and a U.S. investment firm. Enriched by their nation's hefty trade surplus and a strong domestic currency, Japanese securities firms, banks, life insurance companies and pension funds in recent years have staked out a patch of the investment market to rival that of OPEC in the glory days of the oil boom. While some Japanese investors have bought billions of dollars worth of real estate and businesses in the United States over the past few years, Japanese investment firms some of the world's biggest Nevada ranchers By Dick SnyderGazetle-Journal ELKO Nevada's ranchers are learning new methods of dealing with old problems during the three-day Elko Ag Fair.

A two-day seminar on marketing strategies is taking place during the fair, which started Thursday at the Elko Convention Center. "It's a way to help ranchers make money for a change," said Val Easterly of the Nevada Small Business Development Center, co-sponsor of the seminar. "Ranching, like the rest of agriculture, is all changing," she said. The center is at the University of Nevada-Reno. "Ranchers sometimes wait until about two weeks before the sale of their cattle to.

plan when, where and how they would be sold, and there's a better way to do that," she said. Workshop sessions covered such topics as developing a marketing strategy, using videotape to conduct livestock sales..