Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 36

Albuquerque Journal COVERAGE PLAN An insurers group that fought universal health care backs new bill 7 10 INDEX DOW NASDAQ NYSE no b4 0 5626.88 1099:79 2.04 348.06 144.02 Minding Your Business CB Commercial To Lose VP 4 -J Thrash is a close, long-time friend with Purdue men's basketball coach Gene Keady, who was in the Duke City last weekend for the NCAA Tournament. Thiash was even quoted as saying he'd "jump back into coaching with (Keady) if the right opportunity came along." Thrash, 50, would not say Thursday where the coaching positions are, His visit "was somewhat timely," Thrash said. "He happened to be here when I got one of the offers. He said I'd be crazy if I didn't pursue it." Thrash coached for more than a decade including a three-year stint as head coach of Manzano High School before taking a job at CB. He said he left coaching to spend more time with his family.

As his children grew up, his desire to return courtside has grown. "My first love has always been working with young people, and basketball has always been a big part of my life," Thrash "It's something I very much look forward to." Thrash started at CB in 1983. He moved up the ladder and took over his current role with the firm in 1987. Thrash said he coached basketball at Manzano High from 1971-1977, and the team accrued a 141-32 record while he was there. He left Manzano for Fresno State, where he served as an assistant coach for six years.

He said that team built up a 132-41 record during those six years. The team also won the National Invitational Tournament title the last year he was there. He said he left coaching and returned to Albuquerque to spend more time with his wife, Denise, and his sons, Jason and Mark. Jason is now 24, and Mark is 16. Thrash would not say how much he makes at CB or what the coaching jobs have offered.

But he said "it will be very similar. The opportunities I'm looking at are very good jobs." Thrash To Trade Real Estate for Coaching By Jeff Jones Journal Staff Writer The head of Albuquerque's largest commercial real-estate company is leaving his job to reunite with an old flame basketball. Jim Thrash, senior vice president and managing officer of CB Commercial, said Thursday that he'll leave the company sometime in the next three months to become a men's basketball head coach or assistant coach at one of two out-of-state colleges. THRASH: Basketball a big part of his life but he said there's no openings at Purdue. He did say, however, that Keady played some role in his decision.

AFFORDABLE TOWNHOMES i1 A r-J 1 0 I mm 7 JIM THOMPSONJOURNAL From left, Noel Behne of First Security Bank, Gene Ortega of Rural Housing and construction company owner Chris Vigil visit the site a lower-income 10-townhome project on Indiana SE near Bell. Townhomes will be sold to first-time homebuyers for $68,000 to $70,000 and should be completed In June. For details, call the United South Broadway Corp. at 764-8867. BARBARA CHAVEZ 0ie Journal Sub Leaves Big he man Gov.

Gary Johnson hand-picked to head Big Enterprises is leaving the company April 1 to return to consulting. Robert Morando, 38, president of Big Enterprises, was named to the position in January 1995 when Johnson put his company into a blind trust. Morando said he's leaving now because he wants to return to consulting, which gives him "more flexibility with my personal time." Harold Field, vice president and treasurer of Big will take over as president. "Bob is going to continue doing some consulting work for the company," said Field, who is the trustee for the blind trust. "We're going to continue having a business relationship." Field said Johnson has been informed of the management change.

"I think he may have been a little surprised, but people come and people go and people's lives change," he said. CAMELOT ON THE BLOCK: Albuquerque broker Patricia Barey, of Christopher Webster Real Estate, will have available, by appointment, the catalog of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis' estate, which will be up for auction at Sotheby's International in New York on ''April 23-26. Barey welcomes individuals who are "interested in "perusing" the brochure to contact her 345-2533. Christopher Webster Real Estate is the exclusive affiliate in New Mexico for Sotheby International Realty, Estates Club and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. "I wouldn't be surprised if we saw some people with a genuine interest in bidding," Barey said.

Items said to have the most historical significance have already been donated by Kennedy Onassis' children to the John F. Kennedy Library BAREY: Has the lowdown on Jackie's stuff Foundation. But for estates of this magnitude, there will always be affordable items up for bid, Barey said. NEW HISPANO CHIEF? The Hispano Chamber of Commerce has made a bid of its own in hopes of finding a replacement for former president Leroy Pacheco, who resigned in September. Chamber board members think they may have found his successor: a Denver man with a background in accounting.

Ron Rivera, the chamber's chairman-elect, says the organization has extended an offer and is negotiating but declined to give the man's name. If accepted, expect an announcement as early as next week. MOVING ADVERTISEMENT: If the sound of a high performance engine when it's crankin' is your idea of beautiful music, South Valley mechanic Frank Sanchez has got a place for you to plant your company logo. Sanchez is looking for a sponsor for his National Hot Rod Association 1955 Super Gas Chevrolet, a flashy orange hot rod his team, Sanchez Brothers Racing (Frank, Billy, Angelo and Derek), has worked on for several years. The car was the Editor's Choice Award winner at the Denver Super-Chevy Show last August.

Besides some 20 races across the country, the car's also going to be in major car shows, Sanchez said. "There's a potential for thousands of racing fans to see the car nearly every weekend," he said. And here's good news for potential corporate sponsors: Money used for the car is tax deductible as an advertising expense. Sanchez can be reached at 873-2730. YOUR NAME HERE: Frank Sanchez needs a sponsor for his award-winning Super Chevy.

Minding Your Business includes contributions from the Journal staff and appears each week on the Friday Business page. I Stt PNM Wants To Buy Back Some Palo Verde Bonds GM, Union Reach Accord Workers May Be Back on Job Today By Mike Casey Knight-Ridder News Service DETROIT The United Auto Workers union and General Motors Corp. have reached a tentative agreement in a 17-day strike in Dayton, Ohio, that crippled the No. 1 U.S. automaker's assembly operations and put tens of thousands of workers on layoff.

Joe Hasenjager, president of Local 696 of the UAW, announced the tentative agreement, which came after almost 50 hours of negotiations to end the strike at two Delphi Chassis Systems parts plants, which make brake components for almost all GM's cars and trucks. "We made great strides in health and safety questions," Hasenjager said. "It's a good contract. I think the people will be pleased with it." He said members would vote on the agreement today. If approved, some workers on today's first shift could be back on the job, and both plants could be back in full production by this afternoon's second shift.

Hasenjager said the tentative agreement also addressed the union's concerns about GM's plan to move work from the Dayton facility to outside sources. He also said the deal spoke to fears over outside contractors working in the GM plants and staffing requirements at the facilities. Hasenjager declined to discuss the specifics of the agreement, saying he wanted to brief the membership on the details before discussing it with the media. A settlement in the strike has broad implications for the company, the union and the U.S. economy.

The strike, which started March 5, paralyzed GM's assembly operations in North America and cost the automaker millions of dollars in lost profits. The walkout closed at least 26 of GM's 29 assembly plants. GM went into the strike with a high inventory on cars and trucks, but still lost production on such popular models as the Chevrolet Suburban and Chevy Blazer. Wall Street analysts have estimated that the walkout, once it had closed the vast majority of GM's assembly plants, cost the automaker $190 million to $250 million a week in lost profits. Analysts have said they want to wait until the strike is over before revising earnings estimates for the first quarter.

GM's stock price slipped about $2 in the first few days after the strike, but has rallied resolutely since bottoming at $5012 March 8. The stock was last up $1 at $5412, the highest level since June 1994. A settlement in the strike also is important to the UAW. The union has battled the Big Three, automakers on moving production from its facilities to other sources, threatening the number of jobs for its members. Meanwhile, the Big Three have taken the actions to try to reduce costs.

The strike forced the closings of GM facilities and outside suppliers, causing at least 150,000 workers to be laid off. 6 Til 4mm I thing for PNM customers," spokesman Bob Hagan said. "It will enable us to lower our costs, and the savings will be passed on to PNM customers in terms of lower prices." He said customers had already received $30 million in electric rate reductions in 1994, with a pledge of a rate freeze lasting until 1998. Residential customers got $6 million of that, or an average $1.70 a month. The proposed purchase is the latest step in PNM's efforts to improve its financial condition.

Last year, it retired $132 million in similar bonds, and, in 1994, it retired $45 million in mortgage bonds. The company recently declared a stock dividend for the first time in seven years. Hagan said the utility expects to save $8.6 million to $10 million or more a year in interest payments from 1996 through 1999 for each $100 million in bonds it buys. The bonds, issued in 1985 and 1986, pay either 10.15 or 10.3 percent a year. That compares with a going rate of about 7.5 percent for investment-grade corporate bonds today.

The bonds are held by a handful of big institutional investors, Hagan said. Stocks Slide Following Unemployment News NEW YORK- Market i Watch i ran Stocks drifted lower in light trading Thursday, following the release of mixed economic data and a continued sell-off in computer-related shares. The Labor Department said new claims for unemployment benefits Nondeductible IRAs Have Advantages Workers who aren't eligible to make tax-deductible contributions to an Individual Retirement Account can still make contributions to an IRA. Of course, without a deduction, IRAs are far less appealing. And many tax practitioners have been critical of nondeductible IRAs because of recordkeeping requirements.

Nevertheless, nondeductible IRAs can be flexible tax shelters. Although you won't earn a deduction for your deposits, your money can be invested in a wide-variety of ways in stocks, bonds, CDs, money-market funds and the earnings will remain sheltered from tax until you withdraw the funds. But before investing in a nondeductible IRA, consider alternative tax-advantaged investments, such as employer-sponsored 401(k) plans, tax-exempt municipal bonds and U.S. Savings Bonds. Gary Klott Tribune Media Services Purchase Would Reduce Debt But Not Users' Rates By David Staats Assistant Business Editor Public Service Company of New Mexico said Thursday that it hopes to buy more than half of the $516 million in nuclear-power bonds for which it has been paying generous interest rates the past 10 years.

PNM asked the state Public Utility Commission to let it buy up to $300 million in lease-obligation bonds issued when PNM sold, and then leased back, its share of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona. The money to buy the bonds would come from the cash PNM collects from its ratepayers, but they would get no immediate savings from the deal, despite consumer complaints that PNM's rates are too high. It would cut the company's debt, however. The company hopes that will help it improve its credit rating, which is below investment grade. "Over the long term, this will be a good IN BRIEF SCC To Hold Meeting On Communications Act State telephone regulators are inviting the public to a meeting next week to review the new federal telecommunications act.

The State Corporation Commission has scheduled the meeting at 8 a.m. Friday in the Public Employees Retirement Association building at the corner of Old Santa Fe Trail and Paseo de Peralta in Santa Fe. The act allows local telephone companies such as West, long-distance carriers such as and cable companies such as Jones Intercable to get into each others' businesses. The commission is also taking written comments. Write to the Office of the Chief Clerk, P.O.

Drawer 1269, Santa Fe, N.M. 87504-1269, and refer in your correspondence to Docket No. 96-92TC. Journal Staff Report rose 32,000 last week. That was less than economists expected, suggesting that the .13 from Wednesday.

The Associated Press Cost Plus Recalling Canadian Candy Bars OAKLAND, Calif. A third major North American retailer has pulled products by a Canadian candy maker from its shelves after receiving an anonymous letter claiming the chocolate might be tainted. Cost Plus Inc. of Oakland on Thursday ordered a recall of its World Market brand of chocolate bars after receiving the letter. There have not been any reports of illness related to the chocolates, Cost Plus said.

Cost Plus urged anyone who purchased the World Market bars before March 20 to return them to any Cost Plus. The Associated Press economy is stronger than they had thought. According to Bloomberg Business News, Thursday's New Mexico Index, which tracks the performance of 66 companies with operations in New Mexico, was 144.02, down.