Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 28

Albuquerque journal DOW NASDAQ NYSE 0 ni Da ffa rnj rr IMBALANCE Senator speaks out against pay inequ ity for women C7 INDEX 1 G4 6391.69 143.36 1206.90 389.47 159.64 3.97 IN BRIEF iBow Drous 1 oe BEANIE BABY 48, 9flV7 ij j- Strong Economic Reports Fuel Dive Market was touched off by two government reports that showed the economy was even stronger than many had thought in the first quarter. The Commerce Department revised upward its retail sales figures for January and February while core producer prices jumped at a Watch 5 lV 0 About $4.1 billion in new money was invested in equity mutual funds for the week ended April 9, Adler said, the biggest inflow since the week of March 12. Intel, which led the whole market on the way up, dropped $6.75, or nearly percent, to $130.50 Friday. Investors are concerned the giant computer-chip maker will slash prices to maintain its market share, thus hurting profits. It was Intel's third fall in a row, and it lost 6.6 percent for the week.

Intel's first quarter earnings will be released after the market close on Monday. Several other blue-chip market leaders also will announce earnings, which will work somewhat to set the tone for the market. But traders said the main event will be Tuesday's release of the consumer price index, which, will give the market a fresh signal on what's happening to prices. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 148.36 points to close at 6391.86, down about 1 percent for the year and nearly 10 percent from its peak in March. Bond prices dropped, too, sending the yield on the bellwether 30-year U.S.

Treasury bond to 7.16 percent, from 7.10 on Thursday. "The market's been trying to stage a rally all week, and they've failed," said one trader who asked not to be named. "We're still in a correction, and, given how the market closed, we're probably heading lower." Bargain-hunting mutual fund investors, who slackened their pace of stuffing new money into the equity markets during March's selloff, had begun tiptoeing back in over recent days when it appeared prices were stabilizing, according to Robert Adler, president of AMG Data Services in Areata, which tracks mutual fund flows. By Jill Dutt The Washington Post NEW YORK The popular stock market mantra of "buying on the dips" was sorely tested Friday, as stock prices fell sharply to their lowest levels since December. "There's a little bit of a standoff here," said John Olesky, managing director and head of block trading at Morgan Stanley Co.

"Many large investors are not comfortable with the fundamentals of the market. They're looking for some signs of a bottom in the bond market before jumping in." The selling wave in both stocks and bonds higher-than-expected rate in March. "Two uglier economic reports could hardly be imagined," said Bruce Steinberg, manager of macroeconomics at Merrill Lynch Co. He said the data reinforce the likelihood that Federal Reserve policymakers will raise short-term interest rates by as much as one-half of 1 percentage point in May to try to cool off the economy. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Nick Pappaa, 1, dives into a box of Teenie Beanie Babies at a McDonald's In St.

Clair Shores, Mich. The fast-food chain began offering miniature versions of the popular collectibles with the purchase of a Happy Meal on Friday. if Local Postal Staff Protests Management Las Cruces Utility Takeover Approved ft 4 V'', ft A it iff 1 1 By John R. Kent Journal Staff Writer About 30 postal workers picketed the main post office in Downtown Albuquerque on Friday afternoon, accusing management of resorting to mean-spirited, oppressive supervisory tactics. "This has been going on for some months," said a member of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Branch 504, who requested anonymity, saying he feared retaliation.

"We feel that conditions have become oppressive and hostile, making it very difficult to work." The Letter Carriers voted at their most recent meeting to hold Friday's informational picket. The unnamed carrier said work conditions at the North Valley Carrier Annex on Academy Parkway NE precipitated the strike and that not all Albuquerque-area workers are victims of bad management. North Valley Annex manager Carlos Mon-toya declined to comment on the accusations, referring the Journal to customer relations coordinator Wayne Peterson. "Basically, the Postal Service is interested in any concerns the workers have regarding their work conditions," Peterson said. Although Postmaster Eric Martinez and postal workers "have been working together on this and all issues," few complaints about intimidating management techniques have been lodged, Peterson said.

Neither side disclosed specific instances qf alleged abuse by management, but Peterson said the postmaster would continue to meet with workers to resolve the issue. 1J i Prudential Healthcare To Pull Out of N.M. Prudential Healthcare, which provides managed health care administrative services to roughly 100,000 people statewide, has announced it will close its New Mexico operations at the end of the year. James Cassity, the vice president of, Prudential's health plan in Albuquerque, said Prudential will cease its New Mexico business Dec. 31.

Prudential employs nearly 150 people at its 1700 Louisiana NE offices. Those employees are being considered for work within the Prudential network at several other cities, Prudential spokeswoman Susanna Jakubik said Friday. Those who do not get jobs elsewhere will be given severance packages, she said. Prudential lost a large contract with the New Mexico Public Schools Insurance Authority last year that made up about 50,000 of Prudential's New Mexico members. Journal wire kkport Respiratory Division Of Sun Changes Name Sun Healthcare Group Inc's respiratory therapy subsidiary, Golden Care has a new name, Suncare Respiratory Services.

The company, founded in 1990 and acquired by Sun Healthcare of Albuquerque in 1995, provides respiratory therapy services to long-term care facilities within and outside Sun. "Our new identity will expand our national marketing advantage and align the company with Sun's other subsidiaries," said Tom L. Futch, Suncare president and chief executive officer. Suncare provides therapy in more than 300 facilities in 35 states and is delivering respiratory care programs for 50 acute-care hospitals. Sun has operations across the country, Canada and in the United Kingdom.

Journal staff rf.port Federal Taxes Can Be Paid in Installments If you can't afford to pay your federal income taxes in full, you can negotiate with the IRS to pay the balance in monthly installments. To request an installment arrangement, file Form 9465, "Installment Agreement Request," and send it in with your By Michael G. Murphy Assistant Business Editor Gov. Gary Johnson signed a bill Friday giving Las Cruces the green light to condemn El Paso Electric transmission system and bring in a less-costly electric supplier and operator. The action makes moot the argument on appeal to the state Supreme Court about whether Las Cruces had the authority to pursue the condemnation.

And it delivers a strong message to all electric utilities that it's time to, move tp a competitive environment to make such action unnecessary, said Ben Montoya, CEO and president of Public Service Company of New Mexico. Las Cruces Mayor Ruben Smith said, "This a milestone in our pursuit of local control and lower rates. "The message has been very clear, from the public, from the Legislature, and now from Governor Johnson," he said. "Hopefully, this message will get through to El Paso Electric." The mayor made his comments from New York City, where he is part of a city of Las Cruces contingent visiting with bond counsel and bond rating 1 i mi urilirilildTT-lliTii '-i inr ri ii i iiriilnmil -i i irn-mit1 x'-rinli 11" DON ARMSTRONGFOR THE JOURNAL PEER SUPPORT: Postal worker Jim Copeland Joined other members of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Branch 504, for an Informational picket outside of the main post office on Broadway NE Friday. Copeland said he has no problem with his manager at the Highland Station, but that other managers are oppressing employees.

LEGISLATURE agencies regarding the electric issue. El Paso Electric officials issued a release Friday that outlined a number of remaining legal hurdles including "just compensation" and said the condemnation is still a long way niii Associated Press Poll What Americans think of the IRS Q. How much confidence do you have in the ability of the IRS to promptly and accurately handle taxpayers' returns and inquiries? N.M. Casts Doubt On Utility Idea PUC: Regional Electric System 'Discriminatory' Very confident Somewhat confident TAX completed income tax return. The IRS will let you know within about 30 davs whether vou TIPSi 1 Not very confident request is approved.

S' On the form, you'll 5 -No answer confident at all Q. How much of the time do you think the IRS Is fair to people like you? De asKeu now mucn you can afford to pay each month. The IRS expects the amount to be reasonable. But don't offer to pay more than you realistically Some of the time Most of By Patrick Armijo Journal Staff Writer A plan by regional electric companies to create an organization to independently operate transmission lines to deliver electricity in a competitive market met with skepticism Friday. Dave Warren, executive director of New the time 4jl 71 33 Just about always No answer can afford because if you can't make the payments, the IRS will terminate the installment agreement and require you to immediately pay any remaining balance in full.

Paying on the installment plan isn't cheap. Besides the usual interest and penalty charges for late tax payments, the IRS assesses a $43 fee to enter into an installment agreement. Triblnk Media Services Americans Thist IRS, Poll Finds The Associated Press NEW YORK Americans may be muttering bad things about the IRS as they face Tuesday's tax deadline, but seven in 10 give the agency a positive rating on its ability to handle returns and inquiries. In an Associated Press poll, 21 percent are very confident in the IRS to be prompt and accurate, 51 percent somewhat confident, 15 percent not very confident, and 8 percent not confident at all. The rest are unsure.

"Given all the bad press the IRS gets and the fact that a very large share of Americans don't like the income tax, it's surprising the IRS is not more hated and more distrusted than it is," said J.D. Foster, executive director of the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan research group in Washington, D.C. The Internal Revenue Service has been criticized for its inability to handle all its phone calls and a $4 billion computer modernization that went awry. But attacks on the agency grew much broader in the 1996 presidential campaign, with Ross Perot and Bob Dole promising to eliminate the agency "as we know it." In the poll, 61 percent said the IRS has too much power. About half those polled and a majority of those with family incomes above $40,000 a year said the IRS was fair to people like them at least most of the time.

But 33 percent said the agency was fair only sometimes and 12 percent said it was almost never fair. Respondents who give the IRS low confidence ratings in the poll are disproportionately male, over age 45 and live in the West. The poll of 1,008 adults was taken Q. Do you think the IRS has too much power, not enough power or about the right amount of power in the United States today? Not enough from being determined. El Paso Electric CEO Jim Haines said in a phone interview with the Journal that all the new law has done is shift the focus of the controversy between Las Cruces and El Paso from a question of legal authority to the question of how much the.

city should pay. "We believe that they should pay us in excess of $225 million," he.said. Haines said the costs Las Cruces should pay El Paso Electric include part of the power plants and lines the utility built to serve the city. He also said Las Cruces should compensate the utility for potential lost revenue that could occur if its customers leave El Paso's system. Las Cruces hired consultants who estimated the system to be worth about $40 million, said Nann Houliston, a special counsel to Las Cruces on the electric issue.

El Paso Electric's residential rates per kilowatt hour are 10.6 cents compared with PNM at 9.3 cents, Texas New Mexico Power Co. at 8.4 cents and Southwestern Public Service at 6.4 cents. PNM fought alongside El Paso in court and in the Legislature and still objects to the action, but given that the people of Las Cruces voted to condemn the system and put their money behind it, the governor's action is understandable, Montoya said Friday. "It is all the more imperative we at PNM and all the other utilities get on with restructuring of the utility industry because municipalization of a system will be unnecessary when you have an open market," he said. Las Cruces has passed an ordinance establishing a municipal electric utility and already authorized $72.5 million in bonds to buy the system.

The next step is to get the expected Las Cruces City Council nod to file condemnation proceedings in federal magistrate court, Houliston said. The utility serves about 32,100 customers within the city of Las Cruces, which represented about 7 percent of El Paso Electric's revenues last year. ik Too much i ill power STAR site Information on the proposed Independe nt System Operator, Desert STAR. Is available on the Internet at www.swrta. org Mexico's Public Utility Commission, said the utilities' idea to create a so-called Independent System Operator was "discriminatory" because initial plans and the group's steering committee have not included all the stakeholders affected by a competitive market.

Under the utilities' plan, known as Desert STAR, final decisions in the process to create an Independent System Operator would be made by a steering committee that would be made up of only of executives with some ownership stake in the current I Et cetera No answer Q. Thinking about the people you know-your friends and relatives-would you guess that they pay all the federal income taxes they should pay or do they sometimes cheat on their taxes? Pay an taxes "tiiV Sometime No answer cheat RIO RANCHO TARGET: Target plans to build a store adjacent to the Jewel Osco at Crestview Drive and NM 528 in Rio Rancho, said John March of West Wood Realty. March said if development is approved by the city of Rio Rancho, he expects Target to begin building sometime in May. FIESTA TIME! The Fiesta Casino Hotel in Las Vegas, won four awards in the Las Vegas-Review Journal's "Best of Las Vegas" poll. The hotel and casino, owned by Albuquerque's Maloof family, won the staffs choice for "Best-Paying Slots" and for "Best Video Poker." The staff also selected Gardufios, which has a restaurant at the Fiesta, as "Best Mexican Restaurant" Readers named the Fiesta Casino "Best Slot Club." SOURCE: AP national telephone poM of 1.008 adults taken April 26 by ICR of Media.

Pa. Results have a margin of sampling ffoi of plus or minus 3 percentage points. transmission lines, he said. "If the steering committee is made up only of the owners of the current transmission lines, and they have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders," Warren said, "then the discussion becomes: How truly independent is it? "I don't know if you can ensure open access to all wires by all providers. I see a whole range of stakeholders who are not represented." See REGIONAL on PAGE C7 AP April 2-6 by ICR of Media.

Pa. Results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points..