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The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 15

Location:
Orlando, Florida
Issue Date:
Page:
15
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

The Orlando Sentinel WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1996 Inside, D-5 Blue chips slip, but Nasdaq leaps to another record high Markets, B-2 9, osniess so. Hospital buys in-home agency group Orlando Regional Healthcare System will purchase the Visiting Nurse Association. By Terri Coole tion has expanded services to include rehabilitation therapy, in-home health aides and wellness programs. It serves Brevard, Citrus, Hernando, Lake, Levy, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Sumter counties. ORHS' in-home programs generally concentrate on acutely ill persons in need of outpatient care while recovering from a hospital stay.

VNA specializes in caring for people who are able to remain at home, with help, during a chronic illness. Please see ORHS, B-6 home health-care agencies in the state. ORHS, the area's second-largest hospital network, said Tuesday it has an agreement to purchase the assets of Orlando-based VNA Healthcare Group of Florida Inc. Neither ORHS nor VNA would reveal the purchase price. ORHS will retain the VNA name and the organization's 900-member staff, which serves a 10-county area that includes metropolitan Orlando.

The acquisition will increase the number of in-home health care patients served each year by ORHS from 150,000 to more than 1 million. "In our day-to-day operations we will see no change," VNA President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas Skemp said. "Our procedures, protocol the way we do things will stay the same." ORHS Vice President Garry Singleton said Skemp will remain VNA president. The agency will be renamed VNA Healthcare System and will become an ORHS subsidiary. The Visiting Nurse Association is the oldest and largest of the area's in-home health-care agencies, dating from 1951.

Over the years the nonprofit organiza SENTINEL CORRESPONDENT In a major expansion of its in-home health-care operation, Orlando Regional Healthcare System is buying Visiting Nurse Association, one of the biggest in- I I FPL will pay confidential sum to ex-engineer Florida Power Light reached a settlement with a former worker who said he was fired for raising safety concerns. By Maya Bell Hi THE MARKETS Dow Jones industrials 6004.78, down 5.22 500 702.57, down 0.97 NYSE index 373.60, down 0.63 Nasdaq index 1258.10, up 1.74 AMEX index 575.65, down 3.68 Dow Jones bond index 102.55, up 0.07 Gold, Comex close down $0.40 Silver, Comex close $5,009, up $0,012 Dollar, Fed index 88.36, up 0.30 Prime rate 8.25 Mortgages, 30-year fixed 7.125-8.125 1-yr. Treasury index as of Oct. 15 5.57 Consumer Price Index, Aug. 157.3 LOCAL-INTEREST STOCKS Albertson's 35VS ITT 42V4 Unch.

39 Kmart 10V -V Anheuser 38 -V LockMartn 95V Barnett 37V V4 Marriott 59 BellSouth 36 NorthropG 78 -Vi ColumHCA54V4 PepsiCo 28 -V DardenR 8 Unch. PlanetHlywd22 -1'm Delta 69 Sprint 40V4 Disney 64 V4 SunTrust 43 Eckerd 26 Tribune BOV Unch. First Union 67 Tupperware 48 Harris 65 Wal-Mart 26 Hughes 38 -V Winn-Dixie 33 Stock updates: http:www.orlandosentinel.com Kiwi suspends all service Kiwi International Air Lines said Tuesday it was grounding itself and would shut down next week if it doesn't find an investor to keep it running through bankruptcy reorganization. The airline entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sept. 30.

It had already suspended flights into and out of Orlando. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Rosemary Gambar-della had been set to consider Tuesday whether the ailing carrier could continue to put cash that was pledged for debts toward its operations. At midday, the airline announced it would suspend service. GM layoffs keep rising Nearly 4,000 General Motors Corp.

workers in the United States and Mexico were sent home from assembly and parts plants as the flow of supplies from GMs striking Canadian subsidiary dried up. More layoffs were expected. More than 5,900 assembly and parts workers at General Motors in the United States and Mexico have lost their jobs since the Canadian union's 26,000 members went on strike Oct 3. GM, other earnings, B-5. Treasury bill rates head higher Interest rates on short-term Treasury securities rose in Tuesday's auction to the highest level in several T-bill discounts wee.

The Treas- A A. ran ft. I III 1 MIAMI BUREAU -full-- 1 fiii hL AM: i. IJ: ASSOCIATED PRESS On track. CSX will purchase Conrail to form one of the world's largest freight companies.

CSX, Conrail merger creates nation's 3rd-largest railroad r--mrn f-rs eami uhdc DCDnDTQ i WIRE REPORTS MIAMI A 5-year-old battle between Florida Power Light Co. and an engineer who said he was fired for raising nuclear-safety concerns ended quickly and confidentially in a federal courtroom Tuesday. In exchange for an undisclosed amount of damages and back pay, Regino R. "Richard" Diaz Ro-bainas, 49, waived his right to reclaim a job comparable to the one he held when he was fired in August 1991. A senior engineer when his 11-year FPL career abruptly ended, Robainas had been assigned primarily to company headquarters in Juno Beach but worked on projects related to the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant in south Dade County.

In addition to the confidential sum FPL will pay Robainas, the power company agreed to drop its appeal of a decision by U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich concluding that Robainas had been fired as punishment for accusing the utility of putting profits ahead of nuclear safety. Still unsettled is whether the power company, which admits no wrongdoing, will pay or challenge a $100,000 civil penalty proposed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for alleged discrimination against Robainas. It was Reich's order that laid the groundwork for both the proposed NRC fine and Tuesday's hearing before Administrative Law Judge Robert G. Mahony in U.S.

District Court in Miami. In October 1993, a year after presiding over a four-day hearing, Mahony ruled that FPL did not violate a federal law protecting whistleblowers when it fired Robainas, who lives in Stuart. A compliance officer with the Department of Labor previously had reached the same conclusion. In January, however, Reich overturned Mahony's findings. The secretary ordered FPL to rehire Robainas and reimburse the wages and benefits plus interest that he would have earned during the past five years, as well as any attorneys' fees and compensatory damages to which he was entitled.

The hearing to determine the amount of the award lasted only a few minutes and concluded when FPL attorney James Bramnick and Robainas' lawyer, Robert Weisberg, told the court they had reached a confidential settlement satisfactory to both sides. Past estimates of Robainas' back pay and benefits had been about $500,000. Leaving the courthouse with his wife of 22 years, Robainas smiled broadly and said he was happy but, on the advice of his lawyer, would not comment further. FPL's Bramnick likewise would not comment, re- oct. is -syissrE at an average discount rate of 5.01 COMPILED FROM The deal nrzTtn percent, up irom 33S 4.96 percent last The companies week.

Another $13 CONRAIL CORPORATION Corporate holdings include CSX Transportation Sea-Land Service CSX Intermodal Inc. and American Commercial Lines. Headquarters: Richmond, Va. Route: 18,645 miles. Employees: 47,965 Created by the government in the 1970s to buy bankrupt railroads of the Northeast and Midwest.

Sold to the public in 1987. Headquarters: Philadelphia Route: 11,000 miles. Employees: 23,5 10 The routes The deal CSX Corp. announced Tuesday it plans to buy Conrail Inc. for $8.4 billion to create the nation's third-largest railroad with all its tracks concentrated in the eastern half of the country.

Amid the prospect of interference from rival Norfolk Southern and protests from a union official, Conrail tried to downplay the deal's effects on competitioa "Where there are two railroads today, there will be two railroads tomorrow." Conrail spokesman Bob Sullivan said, adding that a combined CSX and Conrail would be willing to allow competitors to use its tracks. Competitor Norfolk Southern widely rumored earlier this year to be interested in buying Conrail, says it hasn't ruled out any options. "We are deciding what our next step will be," said Bob Fort, a spokesman for Virginia-based Norfolk Southern. Officials with CSX and Conrail said they plan to talk with Norfolk Southern officials and try to accommodate their concerns. Officials of CSX and Conrail, which would have total revenue of more than $14 billion, wouldn't say how many jobs may be lost.

Conrail has a virtual monopoly in the Northeast, and it is unlikely that regulators would approve a transaction without forcing Conrail or CSX to share some of their tracks with a competitor or sell some tracks outright. Stephen FitzGerald, a spokesman for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in Cleveland, said the union would Please see MERGER, B-6 Montrealn t-. Please see FPL, B-6 Boston Chicago Newark hiladelphia 3 i i i i i i i i uluiuii wcta auiu lit 29 519 2B 30 Six-month bills at an average rate of 5.11 percent, up from 5.07 percent The new discount rates understate the actual return to investors 5.14 percent for three-month bills and 5.32 percent for six-month bills. Ghostbusters attraction closes Officials with Universal Studios Florida announced Tuesday that they will shut down the park's Ghostbusters Spooktacular attraction Nov. 8, saying it was time for a change.

Park officials would not discuss plans for a replacement or when a new attraction might open. Court blocks new FCC rules A St Louis federal appeals court on Tuesday blocked the Federal Communications Commission from enforcing a new set of rules for competition in the local phone business. The state of Florida as well as phone and cable television companies had asked for the temporary stay, saying the FCC had exceeded its authority. The ruling may delay competition for local phone business nationwide, but not in Florida Limited competition has already begun here because of state deregulation approved by the Legislature. Execs still being investigated A federal judge Tuesday accepted Archer Daniels Midland price-fixing guilty plea and ordered it to pay $100 million in fines, but the action did not put an end to the scandal at the farm products giant Shortly before U.S.

District Court Judge Rueben Castillo accepted guilty plea to two counts of price fixing, U.S. Justice Department officials in Washington said they were continuing their investigation of two company officials: Vice Chairman Michael Andreas and Ter-rance Wilson, a vice president in charge of ABM's corn refining division. Compiled firm staff and wire reports Rite Aid to sell 85 stores in South Baltimore Washington Terms of the deal, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval: CSX would pay $8.4 billion in cash and stock for Conrail. Annual revenues of more than $14 billion, serving shippers in 22 states with a system. Conrail shareholders will get $92.50 worth of cash and stock for each of their shares.

By Susan Strother HrTVk-LCNorlolk I St. Louis hN. Memphis Xa ypCharleston 'JO Jacksonville OF THE SENTfNEL STAFF VP Miami ASSOCIATED PRESS How bad is vorst boss? Gross, greedy ASSOCIATED PRESS Rite Aid Corp. is looking for a buyer for its 85 stores in Florida, Georgia and Alabama, the company said Tuesday. The search is part of the drugstore chain's announcement Monday that it would acquire a West Coast competitor, Thrifty Payless for $1.4 billion in stock.

Craig Muckles, a spokesman for Rite Aid, said the Pennsylvania company has spoken with several prospective buyers for its stores in the South. Although no deals have been made, the company expects to find a buyer before the end of the fiscal year in March. "We are optimistic we can," Muckles said Muckles would not identify the prospects, and he would not say what the company would do or if it would close the stores if a buyer isn't found. Rite Aid operates 22 stores in Florida, including one in Sanford and two each in Volusia and Lake counties. Each store has 10 to 20 workers, Muckles said.

The chain has been leaving areas where it doesnt have enough stores to negotiate lower prices from drug makers. In North Carolina and South Carolina, the company plans to sell 200 stores to Thrift Drug a division of J.C Penney Co. Last year, Rite Aid sold more than 100 Florida stores to Eckerd Corp. normal behavior." There were 26 reasons in all detailing the horrors of this person. Miller, author of the best seller Best Boss, Worst Boss, also selected the nation's best boss: Bill Barnes, a principal at Spring Garden Elementary School in Bedford, Texas.

Having a rotten boss did pay off for the anonymous underling: He gets a one-week trip for two to Hawaii. Having a good boss meant the same prize for Andra Endebrock of Bedford, Texas, who submitted Barnes as the nation's best boss. from the East, but his identity must remain secret the employee who nominated him is still working for Mr. Nasty. What makes him so awful? Here's the winning nomination, submitted in the form of a want-ad: "Most Wanted List: Office manager.

Successful candidate must be able to: Schedule fake business trips to spend time with another woman. Forcibly kiss secretary on the lips. Wear the same clothes all week. Cough in employees' faces and pass gas and act as though this is The Orlando Sentinel NEW YORK America's worst boss of 1996 is sexist and a slob, a cheapskate and a cheater, greedy and gassy. The winner (loser?) of the nation's fourth annual search for supervisors who make their employees' flesh crawl was announced Tuesday by management techniques expert Jim Miller, who sorted through more than 300 entries.

The worst of the worst emerged la Watch for Sentinel business news on WFTV-Channel 9, Mondays through Fridays at 5:52 a.m. 1V.

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