Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 8

8A Reno Gazette-Journal Friday, January 22,1999 of Harrah's headquarters 'right move at right time' Relocation Bound for Las Vegas: Stock gains ground on NYSE. By John Stearns RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL Harrah's Entertainment Inc. said Thursday that moving its corporate headquarters to Las Vegas is the right move at the right time. "We are convinced that immersing our senior executives in the heart of the industry will improve our business and market knowledge base, enhance product and service innovation and fuel our corporate development," Philip Satre, chairman and chief executive officer of to John Packer, a spokesman for Harrah's Lake Tahoe, said Thursday's announcement was a "welcome surprise." He added: "I think it's where we need to be." Following are some of the highlights of Harrah's evolution to the 18-casino company it is today, as provided by Harrah's: 1937i Bill Harrah opens his first bingo parlor in Reno. 1946: Harrah opens Harrah's Club at its present location on N.

Virginia Street in downtown Reno. 1955-56: Harrah's purchases several clubs at Stateline, beginning with what would become Harrah's Lake Tahoe. 1 964-76: Various projects to expand Reno, Tahoe properties. 1978: Bill Harrah dies. January 1990: Holiday stockholders OK.

transfer of Holiday Inn hotel business to Bass PLC and spinoff of Holiday remaining brands Harrah's, Embassy Suites, Hampton Inn and Home-wood Suites and assets into The Promus Cos. 1991: Harrah's headquarters move from Reno to Memphis, Tenn. 1992: Conversion of Holiday Casino in Las Vegas to Harrah's Las Vegas completed. 1995: The Promus Cos. Inc.

spins off its hotel brands Embassy Suites, Hampton Inn, Home-wood Suites into a new corporation. The remaining company, which consists of the Harrah brand, all Harrah's assets and people, is renamed Harrah's Entertain 1980: Holiday Inns Inc. buvs Harrah's. Holiday Inn has 1,600 hotels and interest in two casinos. 1985: Holiday Inns Inc.

shareholders OK a new corporate name. Holiday to reflect the growing diversity of the company's products Harrah's Casinos, and Holiday Inn, Embassy Suites and Hampton Inn hotels, 1 987: Bill's Casino opens in Stateline. 1988: Holiday completes sale of certain Holiday Inn international assets and 13 domestic hotels to Bass PLC of Great Britain. August 1989: Holiday Corp. OKs purchase of Holiday Inn hotel business by Bass PLC.

November 1 989: Holiday announces name of new spin-off company, The Promus Cos. Inc. Harrah. said in a ritten statement. "We believe our entire national distribution network will benefit from this exposure within the world's largest casino marketplace," Satre continued.

"Establishing a headquarters in Las Vegas will also enhance Harrah's ability attract and retain the highest quality senior executives in gam-ing-industry roles, many of whom are naturally drawn to this market." The announcement has no bearing on Harrah's casino employees, he said. Wall Street reacted nonchalantly to the news Thursday. Harrah's stock closed at $16.13 per share in New York Stock Exchange trading, up 56 cents. Environmentalists seek snowmobile ban ment Inc. June 1998: Harrah buys Showboat Inc.

July 1 998: Harrah's invests in a start-up airline to be based in Las Vegas, National Airlines, which will offer nonstop flights to Vegas from most of Harrah's key feeder markets, October 1998: Harrah updates plans for New Orleans land-based casino following emergence of the proiect from federal bankruptcy protection. Harrah's is initially a 44-percent minority partner in the casino. The casino will operate under Harrah's name and is scheduled for an October 1999 opening. January 1999: Harrah completes merger with Rio Hotel and Casino Inc. Lake Chelan National Recreation Area, Wash.

Mount Rainier National Park, Wash. North Cascades National Park, Wash. Olympic National Park, Wash. Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial, Mich. Pictured Rocks National Seashore, Mich.

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colo. Ross Lake National Recreation Area, Wash. Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, Calif. St. Croix National Scenic River, Wis.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, N.D. Voyageurs National Park, Minn. fl Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. Zion National Park, Utah "The Associated Press lege campuses and in inner cities. Stanton began his park service career more than 30 years ago as a summer hire in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park.

And the service is conducting more surveys of park visitors. A 1998 survey of five sites in different regions disclosed that groups of whites constituted at least 85 percent, and as much as 95 percent of the visiting groups. Such findings endanger the future of the 378 parks, historic sites and monuments under the service's jurisdiction as the nation's ethnic makeup shifts, said John Reynolds, director of the service's Pacific West Region. "If we cannot be relevant, we will not be supported," Reynolds said in the conference's opening speech. Me Appalachian National Scenic Trail, W.Va.

Acadia National Park, Maine Bighorn Canyon, Wyo. Blue Ridge Parkway, N.C.-Va. Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument, Colo. Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah Crater Lake National Monument, Ore. Curecanti National Recreation Area, Colo.

Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, Dinosaur National Monument, Utah-Colo. Grand Portage National Monument, Minn. Grand Teton National Park, Wyo. Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, Iowa John D. Rockefeller Jr.

Memorial Parkway, Wyo. have said, if they see employees who look more like them. Of the park service's 15,929 permanent employees, 79 percent are white and 1 1 percent are black. Few of the service's black employees serve as park rangers, where they would come into contact with the public. Just two years ago, the park service's Western Regional office compiled the organization's first list of media outlets aimed at ethnic communities and distributed it to all the parks.

Park superintendents have begun to refer to the list when they send out news releases, contact reporters about stories or send notices of job openings. The service also has begun recruiting temporary summer employees on traditionally black col Associated Press file WINTER IN YELLOWSTONE: Snowmobilers 120,000 snowmobiles go into Yellowstone each year, view bison in Yellowstone National Park's Hayden and the air around the park's west entrance, where Valley in this Dec. 17, 1997 photo, on opening day of they congregate, is sometimes thick with their blue the park's winter season to snowmobiles. Some smoke. seeks to diversify its staff, its appeal two U.S.-based manufacturers.

The park service monitors air quality around Yellowstone's west entrance and is considering new regulations on snowmobiles in the park, including reduced use in some areas. In Voyageurs, snowmobiles have been banned from areas where gray wolves feed. The groups making up the Bluewater Network include the Natural Resources Defense Council, Friends of the Earth, American Lands and numerous regional organizations. They did not rule out seeking a ban on off-road vehicles, which are currently permitted at some seashores and recreation areas. But snowmobiles have "far greater impact" on wildlife than off-road vehicles, said D.J.

Schubert, a wildlife biologist who co-authored the 55-page petition. Ml QH0 week with such titles as: "National Parks: Places of Isolation or Inclu-sivity?" and "Achieving a National Park System Relevant to All Americans." "We need to continue our efforts internally and to work with other organizations to assure that all citizens of the United States understand that these parks are being preserved for their benefit," Park Service Director Robert Stanton said in an interview. Appointed in 1997, Stanton is the service's first black director. He sees a link between the relatively small number of ethnic minorities visiting the parks and the fact that only a handful of minorities work for the park service. Nonwhite visitors may feel more comfortable in the parks, he and other officials Pollution in national parks: Air quality the issue.

By Philip Brasher ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON First it was Jet Skis. Now environmentalists want snowmobiles banned from the national parks. "They're killing our wildlife, ruining our air and water quality, poisoning the health of rangers exposed to snowmobiles' carbon monoxide exhaust, and destroying the solitude and peace cherished by other winter visitors," said Russell Long, executive director of the Bluewater Network, a coalition of groups that filed a petition with the National Park Service on Thurs-' day. Snowmobiles are permitted in 28 park units, with the heaviest use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks in Wyoming, and at Voyageurs National Park in Min nesota. Some 120,000 snowmobiles go into Yellowstone each year, and the air around the park's west entrance, where they congregate, is sometimes thick with their blue smoke.

At Old Faithful geyser alone, snowmobiles create more pollution in one weekend than a year's worth of automobile traffic, says the petition. It also blames the machines for causing bison to leave the park and disturbing other wildlife, including grizzly bears. The park, service is required by law to respond to the petition, but agency officials had not reviewed it and declined comment Thursday. Last fall the park service turned down a ban on Jet Skis but proposed regulations limiting their use to 25 recreation and seashore areas. Separately, the groups are asking the Environmental Protection Agency, Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to consider new emission and safety standards for snowmobiles.

Snowmobiles use the same two-stroke engines as Jet Skis and many boats, making them one of the nation's largest sources of "unchecked pollution," the groups say in a letter to the EPA. U.S. sales of snowmobiles have doubled since 1992 to more than 160,000 units a year, according to the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association. Snowmobile owners say the machines are accused unfairly of being dangerous and dirty. "More often than not the facts and figures are twisted.

They paint the worst-case scenario whenever possible," said Jeff Mausolf, a former president of the Minnesota United Snowmobil-ers Association. The manufacturers are working on a fuel-injected system that could reduce emissions by 80 percent and make the machines quieter as well, but the motor would still not be as clean as a four-stroke engine. Two-stroke motors are preferred for snowmobiles because they start better in the winter and accelerate more quickly. "We're testing so many types of new technology that there's really nothing we're leaving untouched," said Heather Hauschild, a spokeswoman for Arctic Cat one of I ii All Lakeview Mortgage A Source One Company Mortgage Bankers "This Course Loans To Go! Call One of Our 6 Offices. 828-3383, Reno 588-0881, So.

Lake Tahoe 782-5670, Gardnerville 885-7277, Carson City 583-8866, Tahoe City 833-0222, Incline Really Gave Park Service By Mary Curtius LOS ANGELES TIMES SAN FRANCISCO For most of this century, the National Park Service has worked hard to preserve the country's natural resources and history. But for whom? Responding to criticism that its work force is mostly white and the vast majority of park visitors are too, the service held its first conference on diversity here. About 550 people from across the nation, many of them from community organizations representing blacks, Asians, Latinos and other ethnic minorities, gathered for a traditional blessing by a American Indian of the Porno tribe before attending workshops last QCDflSft in need or some IT winter fun? Next to fieddies Roost, we re serving it on ice. AnJ we re not, talking drinks. Come in (or dinner and receive a coupon for ice skating at our rink.

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