St. Cloud Times from Saint Cloud, Minnesota • Page 6

Fridays Market Watch Stocks Today's listings on Page 7A Dow Nasdaq Close: 7,986.02 Close: 1,221.09 Close: 845.39 Up: 43.63 Up: 4.64 Up: 2.07 6A St. Cloud Times Saturday, Sept. 21, 2002 Business reporter. Sue Halena, 255-8743 CONUS cuts most operations ff diiill r- people, with about 60 percent in St Paul and the rest in Washington, New York or seven regional offices. The measure is expected to save "millions" of dollars.

As part of the shutdown, AllNews Channel will be going off the air. The Channel is a 24-hour-a-day network produced by CONUS and delivered by DirecTV. ANC started as the news channel of Hubbard-owned US. Satellite Broadcasting. USSB merged into DirecTV in 1999.

evision stations across the United States to extend their five capability and rely less on network coverage. CONUS (which stands for Continental US.) allowed for shared news coverage among stations and for coverage outside their areas. The cooperative's news service provided a 24-hour video wire service to about 100 stations nationwide. The service also provided reporter stand-ups from Washington for stations that did not have their own political or government reporters. CONUS President Terry O'Reilly said dramatic changes in the TV business, brought on by corporate mergers and the downturn in the ad market, have made it difficult for an independent news service to survive.

He said CONUS will remain in the business of providing satellite time for local TV stations and companies, and the service's archives will remain available. CONUS employs about 165 MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -Almost two decades after pioneering the use of satellites for sharing news among television stations, CONUS Communications is shutting down most of its operations, the victim of cutbacks in the industry. Stanley S. Hubbard, president and chief executive of St. Paul-based Hubbard Broadcasting established CONUS in 1984.

He and his son, Stanley E. Hubbard, pioneered the use of satellites as a way for tel AP photo A satellite truck is seen at CONUS Communications on Friday in St. Paul, after it was announced that the news service, which started in 1984, is shutting down most of its operations. RflairEs eft Briefly Compiled from Times staff and news service reports Medtronic settles patent dispute NATICK, Mass. -Medtronic Inc.

agreed Friday to drop its appeal of a $175 million settlement award to Boston Scientific as part of a broader settlement to patent disputes between the two medical device makers. Last year, an arbitration panel awarded BSC $169 million, plus interest and lawyers' fees, and ordered Medtronic to pull its rapid exchange delivery system from the market. The settlement ends that case, though BSC spokesman Paul Donovan said some lawsuits between the companies are not covered by the agreement. SEC: It's safe to return to market WASHINGTON It is "more than safe" for investors to return to the stock market as the government and business work to restore integrity to accounting and company conduct, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday. The SEC's receipt last month of sworn statements from the top executives of more than 700 of the biggest companies, vouching for the accuracy of recent financial reports as ordered by the agency, turned up problems with some companies but showed that the vast majority stood behind their numbers, SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt said.

Disney to sell baseball team LOS ANGELES -Fans are thrilled by the Anaheim Angels' winning season, but the baseball team's success could hasten a breakup with its corporate parent, The Walt Disney Co. Disney, which first bought a share of the Angels in 1996, has been trying to sell the team for several years, even as it poured $100 million into renovating Edison Field and ponied up millions more to pay star players. Troubles, lawsuits sink aortic grafts' credibility mimi Gannett News Service Helen Gaines has giv en up golf, stopped driving and learned to live with pain. I ft I "Sometimes it feels like ddhhD an ice pick going into my leg," said the Chesterfield, retiree. Her life-changing torment, she said, began with an operation in 1998 to slip a new polyester cloth graft into her body to shore up a dangerous bulge in her aorta, the thumb-thick vessel that carries blood to the lower body.

Unfortunately, the graft, made by Guidant Corp. of Indianapolis, kept slipping out of place, and the tiny metal hooks that were supposed to sink into the aorta's walls didn't deploy right Gaines, then 73, had to spend nine hours on the operating table as doctors cut open her abdomen, removed the troublesome graft and sewed up the aorta by hand. The horrifying outcome was an example of what can go wrong with aortic grafts, a promising product that was supposed to be a NEW YORK (AP) -Buyers cautiously returned to Wall Street on Friday, sending stocks higher on bargain-hunting following three days of big losses. But the market's three main indexes still posted a fourth straight weekly loss. Analysts said investors were ambivalent about the strength of the economic recovery and third-quarter profits.

After disappointing earnings announcements this week from Electronic Data Systems and J.P. Morgan Chase, the market got a boost on a positive outlook from Qualcomm. "I think what we're seeing is a tug of war between one camp looking for the economy and corporate earnings to fall significantly further from where we are and the other camp looking for the economy to expand, albeit on a modest path," said Kevin Caron, market strategist at Ryan, Beck Co. The Dow Jones industri al average rose 43.63, or 0.6 percent, to close at 7,986.02. On Thursday, blue chips dropped 230 points to close below 8,000 for the first time since July 23.

The broader market also finished higher. The Nasdaq composite index rose 4.64, or 0.4 percent, and the Standard Poor's 500 index inched up 2.07, or 0.3 percent to 845.39. The three major market gauges all finished the week lower for a fourth straight week, a distinction not seen since the weeks ending May 31 to June 21. For the week, the Dow lost 3.9 percent, the Nasdaq declined 5.5 percent and the fell 5.0 percent Trading was brisk because Friday was what is called a triple-witching session, the quarterly expiration of index futures and index and stock options. But there was little of the price volatility that often accompanies triple-witching days.

i ill Some laid-off workers organize own businesses The investment finally is paying off. The team is contending for its first playoff spot since 1986 after setting a record for victories for the 41-year-old franchise. Success has made the team a hotter commodity, although the weak economy is making it a hard sell. Poll: Executives still act ethically ST. PAUL -Regard for business leaders in the eyes of Minnesotans has been diminished by reports of alleged wrongdoing involving Enron and other corporations, according to a poll released Friday.

But the poll, conducted for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Minnesota Public Radio, also shows that a majority of Minnesotans still give business leaders the benefit of the doubt. Corporate leaders generally act ethically, but there's always a certain number of "bad apples," several poll respondents said. The statewide poll posed questions to 625 registered voters last week. safe and less-invasive way to treat often-fatal aneurysms in the body's largest blood vessel.

The handful of companies that make the grafts, including Guidant, maintain that their devices still are safe and effective alternatives to abdomen-opening surgery to treat aortic aneurysms. But problems that have cropped up with the grafts have made them subjects of lawsuits and, in Guidant's case, led to a federal investigation into possible criminal wrongdoing. The problems also have caused even some avid physician-proponents of the grafts to become more skeptical. "We've backed off" on use of the grafts since they came on the market three years ago, said Dr. Frank J.

Veith, professor of surgery at Montefiore Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and a pioneer in the use of aortic grafts. Gannett News Service photo Surgeon David Hormuth (center) leads a coronary artery bypass graft and valve replacement operation at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. Scrub nurse Arlene Lan-gen (left) and physician's assistant Danielle Starns assist. ST. PAUL (AP)-There may be a silver lining in the dark cloud of unemployment that has hovered over Minnesota since the economy began slowing early last year, according to the state Department of Trade and Economic Development The department released a report Friday indicating that many of the laid-off workers are interested in starting their own businesses and some have done so.

The department examined data from 5,420 work ers who participated in the state's Dislocated Worker Program in 2001. Of those workers, 631 (almost 12 percent) said they were interested in starting businesses. Follow-up surveys with 158 of those workers who responded showed that 11 percent (18 workers) had started their own businesses, another 18 percent (28 workers) were in the process of starting a business and almost 40 percent (63 workers) still were thinking about starting their own companies. ny's nonreporting to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of adverse effects in patients outfitted with its graft.

Companies are required to report to the FDA any product problems they receive from patients or doctors. Guidant said its own in ternal audit discovered the nonreporting, which led it to voluntarily recall its An-cure graft from the market for five months in 2001. The FDA allowed the graft back on the market and cleared the company's revamped product quality systems last summer. The problems have led to about eight lawsuits being filed against Guidant Those lawsuits, including one by Gaines, still are in the early stages. Guidant may be more legally vulnerable to lawsuits because it faces a Department of Justice investigation into the compa -FILL CLEARANCE aLl trees.1 ririVs off- Find your I St Cloud Times at any newsstand and at the fol-I lowing locations: informed.

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