Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 29

rv (lilt Arizona Bailn Star Tucson, Friday, June 1, 1984 Page Nine In brief From wire and staff reports Jim Davit, The Arizona Dally Star Supporting rows Workers cap the tops of columns in general contractor on the building designed by what will be the entrance of the clubhouse at La Paloma, an 800-acre Douglas Seaver Associates. The work is keeping 35 to 40 workers development by Cottonwood Properties Inc. southeast of East Skyline busy and is to be completed by Thanksgiving, along with 18 of 27 holes Drive and North Campbell Avenue. Lawrence Hickey Sons Inc. is the of the golf course.

other firms team up to give discounts Economy growing slowly. U.S. says WASHINGTON (AP) Providing new evidence the national economic recovery is slowing, the government said yesterday that its main economic forecasting gauge rose a modest 0.5 percent in April while new orders for manufactured goods took their steepest plunge in four years. Government officials and private analysts said the long-expected slowdown from a full year of rapid growth was not necessarily bad news. In fact, they said, it could mean the economic expansion is more likely to continue rather than explode with a new burst of high inflation.

The two reports, both compiled by the Commerce Department, said: The Index of Leading Economic Indicators, which is designed to forecast the nation's economic health six to nine months in advance, resumed its upward trend of nearly two years after dipping 0.1 percent in March. However, the new increase was much smaller than the gains that were typical much of last year. Factory orders for manufactured goods dropped 3.6 percent in April, the biggest slide since May 1980. Most of that was accounted for by a huge 44.8 percent decline in the volatile category of military hardware, a category not expected to remain depressed. Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige said the relatively modest increase in the leading indicators meant that "less robust economic growth lies ahead." "After a year and one-half of vigorous rebound, smaller gains in the Index of Leading Indicators and in many other economic statistics are a normal development signaling a more moderate, sustainable growth period ahead," he said.

At the White House, deputy press secretary Larry Speakes said the April figures "show the economy to be moving ahead at a brisk but sustainable pace." Private economists said the fact that interest rates have been rising for several months undoubtedly had a lot to do with the slowdown. But Michael K. Evans, head of Evans Economics in Washington, said weaker economic growth, coupled with lower-than-expected inflation, could well bring lower rates. And he said a decline in interest rates could mean that, contrary to some analysts' long-range forecasts of economic trouble, "1985 will be all right, too." The survey of leading indicators, which pulls together a broad range of economic figures, had not showed a decline since the summer of 1982 before recording the tiny March dip. However, it has now risen an average of just 0.5 percent a month during the past six months, compared with an average of 1.5 percent for the preceding 10 months.

The broadest measure of economic expansion the inflation-adjusted gross national product charged ahead at an 8.8 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter, but most analysts are estimating only about half that growth for the April-June period. In all, the survey shows, the index of leading indicators rose to 167.8 percent of the 1967 base level of 100. The basic money supply rose $3.3 billion in the third week in May, a larger gain than most analysts expected, but the increase caused no negative reaction from credit markets. The Federal Reserve Board said yesterday that the Ml measure was slightly below the upper end of the growth range allowing economic growth without more inflation. The nation's retailers reported strong sales gains for May, and analysts say the trend should continue with a little help from heavy sales promotions to lure customers.

Sears, Roebuck Co. reported May sales were 6.1 percent over May 1983. mart increases were 9.7 percent, and J.C. Penney Co. had store and catalog gains of 19.8 percent.

Jobless Americans collecting unemployment-compensation benefits in mid-May totaled 2.7 million, compared with 5.6 million for the same period a year ago. First-time claims of people applying for benefits totaled 353,000 in the week ended May 19, down from 361,000 the preceding week. Median-income families couldn't afford a $72,600 median-priced resale house in April, says the National Association of Realtors. The group said with the $25,276 April median income, the typical family could afford the mortgage on a $63,500 house. A spokesman said af-fordability won't change much through this year and all of 1985.

Farm crop prices fell by 1.4 percent in May compared with April. Prices of eggs, cattle, onions, tomatoes and milk declined, reversing a seven-month climb in the Agriculture Department's prices-received index. The declines were partly offset by increases in prices for oranges, soybeans and cotton. Costs to operate a farm were unchanged. Certain steel imports to the United States are being subsidized by Brazil, the International Trade Commission has ruled.

The decision means that additional duties will be imposed on items shipped by Usi-minas, Cosipa and CSN companies, effective Feb. 10. U.S. Steel filed a complaint in November. Mattel which lost $403.5 million for the fiscal year ended Feb.

2, has announced the signing of agreements with a group of investors and lenders that will permit the toy-maker to pay off its $349 million in domestic debt. The agreements are considered a long-term solution to financial problems following a failure of Mattel's electronics operations. Entre Corrputer Centers the largest puolicly held computer retail franchiser in the country, has been named merchandiser of the year by Computer Merchandising magazine. The company has more than 225 franchise agreements in 45 states. The Tucson outlet is at 7332 N.

Oracle Road. The Mexican government plans to turn the area near Puerto Angel into a new Pacific resort that will "rival Acapulco and Cancun," and transform a remote village into a metropolis serving 875,000 tourists a year. The resort is to be built near Puerto Angel on the Bay of Hua-tulco, 300 miles southeast of Mexico City. Mexico's 20-centavo coin is to be taken out of circulation soon and the new peso coin will be used in pay telephones instead. Since three sharp devaluations in 1962, the 20-centavo piece has been virtually worthless except for use in pay tele-' phones.

A peso is 100 centavos. Avis Inc. and Amtrak. Customers also will be limited to $300 a month in credits, said John Smart, vice president for marketing at Communications, the unit responsible for long-distance service. Smart said at a news conference that about 25 million of 80 million residential long-distance customers have average bills of $11 or more a month and are being automatically enrolled in the plan.

They are being mailed packets that explain the discount program, he said. The program is retroactive to April to those customers enrolled by July 31, he said. announcement came one day after MCI said it would reduce its long-distance rates by as much as 6 percent, effective yesterday. MCI said that with the reduction, its rates would remain as much as 40 percent below those charged by MCI said that calculation includes the 6.1 percent rate cut last week that had been mandated by the Federal Communications Commission. MCI also intends to realign its entire rate structure July 15, a spokesman said Wednesday.

NEW YORK (AP) American Telephone Telegraph Co. said yesterday its residential customers can receive discounts on airline tickets, stereos and other goods and services depending on the number of long-distance calls they make. in stepping up its battle against other providers of long-distance service such as MCI Communications and GTE-Sprint, said its program is available to customers who make at least $15 worth of longdistance calls a month within the United States and to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Those customers will receive $1 of credit toward the purchase of goods and services available in the program for each $1 of long-distance calling.

The discounts will not alter the customers' phone bills, and the discounts cannot be used against those bills, said. In addition, people using the credits will not be able to apply them against the full price of an item or service. The 28 participating companies have set limits on how much of a price can be offset by a credit. The companies include General Electric Trans World Airlines, Polaroid Levi Strauss Hi i 1 iw 41 Seattle company may cancel plan to purchase KZAZ The $13.2 million purchase by a Seattle company of independent television station KZAZ, Channel 11, has been postponed and may be canceled, a spokesman for the company said yesterday. "As of the moment, we have no plans to proceed any further with the purchase," said Lew Blakeney, treasurer of Ackerley Communications Inc.

In mid-March, Ackerley, which owns three network-affiliated television stations and the Seattle SuperSonics professional basketball team, said it would buy KZAZ, the only commercial independent station serving Tucson. But Blakeney said that operating revenues claimed by Roadrunner Television which owns the station, were overstated. "The purchase price is predicated upon operating revenues, and our people just didn't see the numbers (that were represented to Ackerley)," he said. He declined to elaborate. Roadrunner partners Gene Adelstein and Edward B.

Berger were unavailable for comment yesterday. The Associated Pr Gentle persuasion President Reagan yesterday nominated Martha Seger, a professor and a former bank regulator from Michigan, to replace the most liberal governor on the Federal Reserve Board. Seger broke her arm in an accident, but Reagan joked with reporters that he had to twist her arm to get her to take the post. If her nomination is confirmed, she will succeed Nancy H. Teeters, the first woman appointed to the independent agency that controls the supply of money in circulation.

In Arizona Computer software advances hinge on improved hardware Arizona wheat growers may reap an extra several million dollars from this year's crop. More than 88 million pounds of wheat now being harvested will be used as planting seed in Saudi Arabia this fall, which could mean a bonus of $3 million to $4 million to Arizona growers and sellers, compared with prices of wheat for food. The Sun City News-Sun is to be purchased by Ottaway Newspapers Inc. Burt Freireich, 59, News-Sun editor and publisher who will retire, and James H. Ottaway president of the Dow Jones ft Co.

Inc. subsidiary buying the suburban Phoenix newspaper, said the transaction is expected to be completed June 30. Terms weren't disclosed. Negotiations on a new contract axe continuing between the United Cement, Lime ft. Gypsum Workers Union and the parent companies of Arizona Portland Cement Co.

and Phoenix Cement Co. The previous contract expired May 1, but no strike occurred. The last talks were held May 22 and 23, and the next round of negotiations is Sunday. limitations, its powerful Motorola 68000 microprocessor and other features have permitted Microsoft and others to design programs that vary the size and shape of type fonts on the screen, make it possible to draw small pictures and make it easier to skip from one window to another. Most software executives seem convinced that computer hardware limits will soon be overcome, and some hint that they have already seen new microprocessors and new computers that will open new horizons.

In fact, rather than writing programs for individual computers, most now compose their programs in a language called that essentially creates the outline of a program. Later, those programs can be operated, after some translation, on a specific machine. "But you must remember that we are dealing with constantly rising expectations," said Darrell Miller, marketing manager for Digital Research which recently announced an alternative operating system for the IBM Personal Computer. i When will those expectations be satisfied? "When I can sit in front of the computer with my hands in my pockets," Miller said, "and it does exactly what I want." search and development at Lotus, and one of the architects of Symphony. Those limits take three forms.

The first has to do with the "addressable memory" of the computer; that is, the size of the internal memory of a computer that can deal with a complex program. Both Symphony and Desq, for example, take up to 320,000 characters of memory and more when individual applications programs, like word processors and spreadsheets, are added. The second concerns the speed of the microprocessor. The chip at the heart of the IBM and many other microcomputers is the Intel 8088, but what seemed unusually powerful when the computer was introduced three years ago is somewhat humdrum today. In fact, some companies creating IBM-compatible computers, like the Tandy have sacrificed some of that compatibility in order to use speedier members of the Intel microprocessor family.

And the third limitation concerns the graphics capabilities of the computer's monitor. "When you understand graphics, you understand why the Macintosh has been so successful," said Jeff Raikes, marketing manager for Microsoft referring to Apple Computer latest entry in the personal computer field. Although the Macintosh has other market for example, no less than six companies proclaimed last week that their latest offerings ushered in "the dawn of a new era" in software technology true advances have been few. The most notable has been the successful design of a second generation of integrated programs, like Ashton-Tate's Framework, Lotus Development Symphony and Quarterdeck Office System's Desq that permit a microcomputer user to perform a host of tasks at once. With such packages, individual functions that once came in separate programs, like word processing or spreadsheets, are now contained on a single disk.

The beauty of integrated packages is that all the functions in a program can be used at once. Thus, it becomes relatively easy, for example, to merge a pie chart or a statistical table into a letter. And the user can monitor his progress through "windows." or boxes that allow him to see the text of the letter in one comer of the screen, the spreadsheet in another and the pie chart in yet a third. Such complexprograms, however, tax even some of the more powerful microcomputers now on the market. "The problem is that we have about built to the limits of the IBM PC." explains Jonathan M.

Sachs, vice president-re By David E. Sanger 1984 The Now York Timet NEW YORK Computer retailers like to say these days that "software drives the market." What they mean is that many of their customers couldn't care less about the computer they buy, but are primarily interested in whether the programs designed for it will keep their books, churn out their letters or foresee their business problems. Although software fanatics rejoice at anything that is faster, cheaper and quicker, most learn quickly that it is impossible to divorce a program from the computer that is designed to run it. Now, just as some of the most complex and powerful programs yet devised for microcomputers are poised to hit the market, many designers say they have run into something of a brick wall. "There are just not going to be any major technical improvements' made in software until the next big change in the hardware itself," predicts David Cole, the president and chief executive of Ashton-Tate, the Culver City, software house that many say is taking a leading role in the industry.

Many of his competitors agree. Despite the apparent glut of new software products on the.