Northwest Herald from Woodstock, Illinois • Page 33

Section Northwest HenskJ ins telecom MM CMmifoini ig On THE Street oICCKS Si iOi i liyri- I I OTT1 1 er Thursday, adding 47.33 iLLiimiiiiiLiJiLMiMiiJi mining A mu ir i mm ii iff i it- wmmmmmamt. iZlm i wimmmmmJ points to close at 5,539.45. Maior chanses on the horizon with new law Markets Page 3 njfs, r( By JEANNINE AVERSA The Associated Press WASHINGTON President Clinton signed legislation Thursday likely to open up new forms of communication through telephones, TV sets and computers. Surrounded by books some more than 200 years old at the Library of Congress. Clinton signed the bill the old-fashioned and the high-tech way LAWSUIT: The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups filed suit over provisions of the telecommunications measure banning indecent material on computer networks.

Page 2 first using a regular pen and then an electronic one. "Today, with a stroke of a pen. our laws will catch up with our future," the president said. The law, already under legal attack by groups opposing an anti-indecency provision, revamps the Communications Act of 1934. In Brief Denies rumors: Apple Computer Inc.

officials broke weeks of silence Thursday, saying they are not discussing a merger "with any party." They also said they expect the struggling computer company to post an operating loss for the first three months of this year that will exceed the loss reported for the last three months of 1995. Apple officials said they are abandoning a policy of not responding to "rumor and speculation" because the talk about a possible takeover was making customers shy away. Officials said, Apple "expects to report an operating loss for its second quarter that will significantly exceed its first-quarter operating loss of $69 million." Rates unchanged: Thirty-year, fixed rate mortgages averaged 7.02 percent this week, unchanged from a week earlier. The latest average from Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. also matched the 7.02 percent rate during the week of Jan.

18, which had been the lowest since rates averaged 6.97 percent during the week of Feb. 3, 1994. Fifteen-year mortgages averaged 6.51 percent this week, down from 6.52 percent a week earlier. The rates do not include addon fees known as points. Days Inn sued: The Justice Department sued the Days Inn hotel chain Thursday.

Officials contended a a hotel in Champaign and at least four other places failed to provide facilities for disabled travelers required under a landmark 1990 law. Five lawsuits, filed in U.S. District courts in California, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and South Dakota, are the first under the Americans with Disabilities Act that challenge design and construction of a building erected after the law took effect, the department said. The suits seek court prders requiring Days inn of Amenca its parent, Hospitality Franchise Systems and the five hotels' individual owners, architects and general contractors to correct each violation and pay a civil penalty of up to $50,000. Officials for Days Inn and HFS, both based in Parsippany, N.J., refused comment.

From wire reports AP photo President Clinton signs the telecommunications bill into law Thursday with an electronic pen, as Vice President Al Gore looks on. Host of changes due with overhaul Opponents mostly consumer groups also say more jobs will be lost than gained through consolidation and cable and telephone rates likely will rise because the level of competition envisioned by supporters will not emerge. It will let local and long-distance phone companies and cable companies into each others' businesses, deregulate cable rates and allow media companies to expand their holdings more easily. Supporters say the measure will boost jobs, expand consumer choices and potentially lower prices for cable, telephone and other communications services. "This new law is truly revolutionary legislation that will bring the future to our doorstep," Clinton said.

Just hours after the signing. Corp. Chairman Robert Allen described plans to expand into the local telephone market as early as this summer. Allen said he thinks the company can win "at least one third" of the $90 billion local phone market in five to 10 years, he said. The law, for the first time, outlaws transmission of indecent and other sexually explicit materials to minors over computer networks.

It also would require new TV sets to be eauinned with a snecial mmnutpr rhin tct allow parents to zap from their screens programs electronically rated for violent and other objectionable content. "With freedom, comes responsibility?" said Clinton, who is to meet with members of the TV industry Feb. 29 in part to persuade them to rate their programs. If they don't, the chip is useless. See TELECOM, page 2 "We in the television industry have always been supportive of giving families the ability to control viewing." John Taylor Zenith Electronics Corp.

Broadcasters will be required to put signals in programs that contain violent content. Television owners will have the option of blocking programs through those signals. "We in the television industry have always been supportive of giving families the ability to control viewing." Taylor said. Zenith was one of the first manufacturers to build in parental control features that allow specific channels to be blocked out for specific periods of time, he said. to develop this technology in a very cost-effective manner," Taylor said.

Taylor said the first television sets with the ability to block violent programs probably won't be on the market until 1988. All sets larger than 13 inches are required to include this technology in the next two years. See CHANGES, page 2 By KEVIN LYONS The Northwest Herald with wire reports Getting through dinner without a call from a phone or cable company that wants your business could become tougher. Also coming are mail offers and broadcast and print ads. But there will be an easier way to tune out those violent television programs you do not unur rViilr1rtfn coo ft All of these changes will come about as the result of the telecommunications overhaul bill signed into law Thursday by President Clinton.

Among the more controversial provision of the new law is a requirement television manufacturers provide sets capable of blocking violent programs. But those manufacturers apparently are prepared to comply with the provision. John Taylor, spokesperson for Zenith Electronics Corp. in Glenview, said the com-puny wHiCii riiCiriuAuCtvaTCS I dr tr qji-sumer electronics products, is prepared to develop new the technology lawmakers have referred to the "V-chip." "The chip itself is kind of a misnomer," Taylor said. "It's not necessarily a separate computer chip inside the TV." Taylor said Zenith and other manufacturers will use the same technology used for closed-captioning to block violent Denny's set to open near Spring Hill Mall FCC approves Disney takeover of Cap Cities By KEVIN POLZIN The Northwest Herald CARPENTERS VILLE An area Denny's franchisee is opening a restaurant and moving its corporate offices to a site near Spring Hill Mall.

Laurie Billingsley, marketing director for Prairieland Food said Thursday the company will open a 24-hour restaurant across from TGI Friday's early in March. The location also will include offices for the franchisee, which operates five other Denny's restaurants in the northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin areas. The new restaurant the first in the area will create 130 full-and part-time jobs. Billingsley said Prairieland officials chose the Carpentersville site for their headquarters and newest 24-hour restaurant because of the growth in the area and the lack of other similar ventures. "There's no one really to compete with," she said.

"We're 24 hours and there isnp one else that has that in the area." Prairieland officials now operate out of their homes or at a base office in Gurnee, where the corporation also has a restaurant. Billingsley said the Carpentersville location is large enough to accommodate a full-service restaurant and corporate offices. "We're kind of crammed in in Gurnee," she said. Darrell Nance, restaurant manager, said remodeling work at the former Ponderosa restaurant site is proceeding as planned. Denny's is owned by Flagstar a Spartanburg, S.C.-based company that also owns the Hardee's fast-food chain and several other restaurant groups.

Flagstar has more than 1,500 Denny's restaurants, which serve everything from pancakes and eggs to full dinners. Billingsley said Prairieland would like to expand further, possibly into McHenry County. "We are proposing quite a lot of growth," she said. "We would like to go a little further north." Merger creates world's biggest media company The ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON Federal regulators cleared the way Thursday for The Walt Disney Co. to take over Capital Cities ABC Inc.

But the company will have to shed some properties. The Federal Communications Commission voted 5-0 to remove the last hurdle to the $19 billion deal that creates the world's largest media company. Disney officials said they would complete the acquisition by the end of the week. The commission won't let Disney permanently own, as it had requested, radio stations and a newspaper in Fort Worth, Texas, and in Pontiac-Detroit, Mich. Instead, the commission would provide the company with a tem porary waiver of one year from cross-ownership rules to give Disney time to sell or swap either the radio or the newspaper properties in each city.

The choice would be Disney's. Still. Disney might be able to keep the Fort Worth and Pontiac-Detroit properties. The FCC said it would reexamine its newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rules within the year. "We are hopeful that it will ultimately allow us to retain the properties in the two cities," said Disney chief Michael Eisner, who otherwise applauded the FCC's action.

Even though all five commissioners voted to clear the deal, two of them James Quello and Rachelle Chong opposed the FCC's decision not to let Disney permanently own the properties in Fort Worth and Pontiac-DetroiL Both said there is amply media competition in the two See DISNEY, ppT2 AP photo NEW CONCEPT A.K. Jacobson, a design director for Ford Motor stands with the Chicana V-10 concept van during a Chicago Auto Show preview at McCormick Place. The 88th annual show opens Saturday and runs through Feb. 18. Car and truck makers from around the world will have vehicles on display during the event.

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