Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 25

ALBOQUERQUE JOURNAL DOW NASDAQ NYSE LOCAL SHOWING For a closer look at N.M. stocks' performances, turn the page 1l0)n INDEX 0 C5 5551.37 28.18 1039.54 2.51 347.76 143.49 6 Minding Your Business Matooffs Sellkg Three Hotels i 1 Ramada Classic Among Properties BARBARA CHAVEZ hotel operations. "We are actively pursuing other interests, possibly other hotel properties, in the state." Maloof said he couldn't specify which properties the family was pursuing, or if they were interested in building new ones. "There are several areas we are looking at in New Mexico," he said. The Classic, at 6815 Menaul NE, was built in November 1980 and opened just seven days before George Maloof Sr.

died of a heart attack. "It's going to be hard to drive by Menaul and Louisiana and not think about my father and all the memories associated with that hotel," said George 31. "It was his project, and something that he was very proud of." Maloof said the decision to sell the properties was a difficult one. "The hotels have been very prosperous," he said. "When we sell anything, it's going to be something that has been part of our family.

We're not into flipping properties left and right. We just felt this was a good opportunity for our company at this time." The Maloofs have owned the Phoenix Ramada Inn for 20 years and had the Ramada Inn Taos built in 1986. "All of them were and are profitable," Maloof said. The Maloofs sold five other hotels in 1993, including properties in Roswell, Las Cruces and Gallup. At that time, they said they were concentrating effort on the hotel they were building in Las Vegas.

The Fiesta Casino Hotel, which cost $35 million to build, was completed in December 1994. The Maloofs are currently expanding the hotel to include a larger gaming area, 500-seat buffet and other lounge areas. The expansion is expected to cost between $15 million and $20 million. Maloof said the sale is expected to close at the end of the month. The hotels being sold are the Classic, the Rancho Ramada de Taos and the Holiday Inn-North Central in Phoenix.

Calls to the Stanford Hotel Corp. weren't immediately returned Thursday, and it wasn't known whether the chain planned to continue operating the hotels under the Ramada and Holiday Inn flags. The Maloofs also own the Coors beer distributorship for New Mexico, a trucking company, and a hotelcasino in Las Vegas, which they opened last year. "This in no way means we're packing our bags and leaving New Mexico," said Maloof, who runs the family's By Barbara Chavez Journal Staff Writer The Ramada Hotel Classic and two smaller hotels owned by Albuquerque's Maloof family are being sold to a California chain for an undisclosed amount, a family member said Thursday. The properties, including one in Taos and one in Phoenix, were sold to Stanford Hotel said George Maloof Jr.

Stanford, headquartered in San Francisco, operates several hotels under various flags including Sheraton and Ramada. The Ramada Classic and the Taos hotel will be the company's first New Mexico properties. Its other hotels are in Arizona, Florida and Virginia. Ms (' -r-WWpi wmmt mu" 1 GREG SORBERJOURNAL Emlllano Ballejos, left, and Rick Heyman show one of three Magnl motorcycles In the United States. The highly coveted bikes, which retail for about $25,000, are made In Italy.

Only 70 of the motorcycles exist, the two Albuquerque residents said Thursday. They plan to sell the cycle and are considering opening an exotic cycle shop here. Watch For Closing Hour Wal-Mart's doing an about-face. After more than five months of being "open all night" in Albuquerque, Wal-Mart is returning to its 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

store hours beginning Feb. 23, said Jo Anne Gutierrez, at Wal-Mart's district office in Albuquerque. The only 24-hour Wal-Mart in town will be the store at 400 Eubank NE. "The Eubank store does good business all the time because it's right off the interstate," Gutierrez said. But she said the other stores weren't drawing enough customers late at night and in the early morning hours to justify staying open at those times.

"We had the stores open 24 hours on a trial basis," she said. "Due to customer response, we've decided to go back to the original schedule." CASHING IN: What happens when a banker needs cash? If he owns part of a bank, he can always sell some shares. That's exactly what First State Bancorp. CEO Michael Stanford did recently. Stanford, one of the largest shareholders of Albuquerque-based First State, exercised some options and sold 19,600 shares, according to Securities and Exchange I Commission documents filed this week.

His options let him STANFORD: Sold some stock, made some cash buy the shares at $5.01 per share, then sell them on the open market at about $11.38 each, netting him a cool $124,852. "It's the only time I've sold anything," Stanford said. The bank president said he needed some cash to make some tenant improvements on a commercial building he and partner, Leonard DeLayo, own in Taos. DeLayo is a member of the Albuquerque Public Schools board of education. Stanford owns about 54,500 shares of First State and has options on another 112,000 shares.

MIKE'S BACK: Mike Chavez, formerly owner of Mike's Mexican Kitchen on San Pedro, is making his return to the restaurant business with his girlfriend Cynthia Copley. The new restaurant, Mike and Cynthia's, is on the northwest corner of Menaul and Wyoming NE, and features Mike's specialty chicken enchiladas and carne adovada. PRESIDENTIAL DELIVERY: Sandra Butler's got two very valuable customers at Chase Candles, her small business off Jefferson NE in Albuquerque. Butler even saw some of her merchandise prominently displayed when she turned on CNN recently. "When the French Prime Minister was in Washington, D.C., they showed him speaking at the White House," Butler said.

"And right there, on either side of him, were our candles. They were lit, and they looked beautiful." Chase candles are made of metal with special wax-like inserts. The candles look like regular wax, but they don't drip wax, which is what really sold First Lady Hillary Clinton on them, Butler said. An aide of Mrs. Clinton's has called in three orders direct to the company since January.

The candles have been used at the White House by past administrations, but usually they've been purchased through wholesalers, not direct from Chase. "The person that called us said Hillary Clinton requested them personally," Butler said. "We had to overnight some of the orders, and the address is just 1600 Pennsylvania Washington, D.C." Even with the nation's budget problems, Butler's not worried about getting paid for the nearly $2,000 in orders she's sent to Washington. "This is just a real nice thing to happen to a small business like ours," she said. NO DRIPS IN D.C: Sandra Butler's candles are In demand at the White House.

Minding Your Business includes contributions from the Journal staff and appears each week on the Friday Business page. i li I MALOOF: Taos, Phoenix hotels also sold to Stanford Hotel a San Francisco company Cyberporn Ban Put On Hold The Associated Press PHILADELPHIA A federal judge Thursday banned the government from enforcing a new law forbidding the transmission of "indecent" material to minors over computer networks. U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buck- waiter said his temporary restraining order would remain in effect at least until he hears arguments on a lawsuit the American Civil Liberties Union and 19 other groups filed on Feb.

8 the same day President Clinton signed the telecommunications bill into law. At the time, the Justice Department said it would wait at least a week before prosecuting any violators but didn't rule out gathering evidence in the meantime. The ACLU argued the law would violate privacy rights and strangle free speech by authorizing the government to prosecute people even for the private messages they send about AIDS, abortion, politics and science any subject involving sex. The Justice Department argued that the law will protect children from pornography. Federal officials denied that the ban would affect general information about -abortion and AIDS.

The law carries fines up to $250,000 and prison terms of up to five years. The law defines indecency as "any comment, request, suggestion, proposal, image or other communication that, in context, depicts or describes in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards, sexual or excretory activities or organs." Filing Jointly Best For Most Pairs Have questions about your taxes? Don't forget Saturday's TaxTip Hotline, sponsored by the Albuquerque Journal, New Mexico Society of Certified Public Accountants and Bank of America. The hours are 9 am. to 3 p.m. The phone numbers are: 246-1699 in Albuquerque, and 1-800-926-2522 elsewhere in the state.

In most cases, married couples will pay less tax by filing a joint return rather than separate returns. Higher tax rates kick in at lower income levels on separate returns, and certain tax benefits such as the child-care credit can't be claimed if a couple files separately. But there are a few situations in which it can pay husbands and wives to file separate returns. The most common is when one spouse incurred especially large medical or "miscellaneous" itemized expenses. Filing separately may also help some couples avoid part of the phase-out of personal exemptions and reductions in itemized deductions that apply to upper-income taxpayers.

If you think you might benefit from filing separately, calculate your tax both ways to see which filing method results in the lowest tax. Gary Klott Tribune Media Services i4 Opinions Differ on THbes' Debts 1W 1 there were no outstanding debts." In their push for court or legislative action to sanction their gaming, the tribes have made much of the debts incurred to get the casinos up and running. Clark said the debt issue "has been an enormous part of the public and legislative appraisal." On Thursday, two tribal leaders and one creditor said millions of dollars of debt are still outstanding. "We are very, very much in debt," said Pojoaque Gov. Jacob Viarrial.

"We have about $30 million in gaming activities and about $10 million on properties, which we bought with the idea that we would be able to pay for them on the gaming revenues." Acoma Pueblo Gov. Ron Shutiva also said his tribe owes about $2 million to vendors and gambling equipment companies. Sodak Gaming Corp. of South Dakota, which markets and distributes gaming equipment, said a number of tribes are in hock for a total of $10 million to $15 million. "There are still substantial amounts owed to Sodak, and we are only one of many vendors out there," said Kent Hagg, corporate counsel for Sodak.

At least two tribes, Santa Ana and Sandia, say they have no casino-related debts. I I I v. RARE RIDE During the 20-minute question-and-answer period that followed presentations, Gover fielded queries about out-of-state economic interests involved in New Mexico gambling. "The question was something like, 'Is this money going out of Gover said. "I said that some of the tribes have no debt, and what I was trying to say was that only one tribe had borrowed money out-of-state.

I was trying to convey the fact that the financing was done in-state." Clark recalls it differently. According to him, Gover said all but one of the casinos was paid for, free and clear. "I don't see how I can misinterpret that," Clark said. At least two other attorneys said Thursday that they also left with the impression that all but one of the tribes was debt-free. "I don't have a specific recollection of what he said," said Jim Branch, an attorney.

"I got that impression. I did walk away with sort of surprise that in one year you could service that kind of debt." But other listeners said they didn't have the same impression. Maureen Sanders said she also remembers the discussion about in-state financing, but "I didn't get the impression that Traders said computer-driven selling programs were responsible for more than 10 points of the loss in the Dow, ahead of today's double expiration of options and futures contracts. According to Bloomberg Business News, Thursday's New Mexico Index, which tracks the performance of 66 companies with operations in New Mexico, was 143.49, down .48 from Wednesday. The Associated Press Travelers Try To Take Excise Tax Deduction Airline telephones are ringing from callers seeking information about the 10 percent federal excise tax refund due travelers who bought air tickets in 1995 for By Peggy Lee O'Neill Journal Staff Writer A recent forum on Indian gaming didn't do much to clarify the current status of casino-related debts run up by New Mexico's gaming tribes.

Anti-gaming activist Guy Clark and some attorneys who attended a Feb. 8 legal soci- ety meeting said they thought Tesuque Pueblo lawyer Kevin Gover told the forum that only one of the 10 tribes involved in gaming still had unpaid loans tied to gambling operations. Gover said in a telephone interview Thursday that he didn't recall saying that. He added that "it would be incorrect to say none of the tribes are in debt." Gover's comments were made during the monthly meeting of The Juan G. Burciaga American Inn of Court, a group of lawyers and judges who gather periodically to provide mentoring to younger members and promote comradery in the legal profession.

At each meeting, some presentation is made to the roughly 60 members about a current topic with legal implications. This month, it was Indian gaming, and Gover was invited to speak. Other guest speakers were Clark and two sociologists from the University of New Mexico. IN BRIEF Computer Soiling Adds To Dow's Ongoing Slide NEW YORK Blue-chip stocks succumbed late Thursday to pressure from the bond market, closing in negative territory for the second day in a row. The broad market ended mostly lower.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 28.18 to 5,551.37, extending a loss of 21 points on Wednesday that broke a seven-day runofrecordhighs.lt was still the fourth-highest finish ever for Wall Street's best-known indicator. travel in 1996. The excise tax expired at the end of 1995 because Congress was too busy with the budget to renew it. Since the first of January, airlines have no longer included the tax in the price of air travel. The methods the airlines are using to i provide the refund vary.

American and United, for example, are automatically Refunding the tax to travelers who used a credit card to buy tickets. USAir, Continental, Northwest and TWA ask passengers to fill out Internal Revenue Service Form 8849. Passengers can call the airlines they used to find out how the refunds are being handled. Those who are told to get the refund through IRS can call (800)TAX-FORMS. The Associated Press.