South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 30

2D Sun-Sentinel, Wednesday, July laai Farmers suing BuPont say fungicide was contaminated minds. But others could say, 'Well, that's his case, not Last month, DuPont Chairman Edgar S. Woolard Jr. made an offer to those who have sued the company: He asked them to try Benlate DF again on their plants, with the promise to pay if the plants died. If the plants lived, the offer stated, the suits must be dropped.

The offer lias not drawn a single taker, Getter said earlier this week. Georgia, Alabama, Michigan and Hawaii. It is the first of hundreds of cases over the fungicide to reach trial. The jury of seven women and five men was picked on Tuesday to hear the case. The trial is expected to last about six weeks.

DuPont pulled Benlate DF from the market in 1991 after receiving widespread complaints of crop damage that growers blamed on the fungicide. Pope said the main reason for the damage was that Benlate was contaminated with an herbicide, called sulfonylurea, which was made at a West Virginia plant close to where Benlate was manufactured. DuPont has staunchly denied the charge of contamination. Faced with reports of extensive damage to crops from cucumbers to strawberries to house plants, DuPont removed the fungicide from the market in 1991 and began a series of settlements that totaled $500 million. After conducting more tests, the company concluded last November that Benlate was not at fault.

DuPont now says other conditions including weather, plant disease and herbicide abuse killed the crops. The worst damage attributed to Benlate occurred in Florida, where officials say the chemical destroyed about $1 billion worth of crops. Numerous lawsuits are pending there. Last Friday, DuPont announced it had settled a case with a California grower. The U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency also is reviewing Benlate. DuPont, the giant chemical corporation based in Wilmington, said it expects the other suits to proceed, regardless of the outcome in the Georgia trial. "We realize, because it's the first it takes on a life of its own," DuPont Spokeswoman Pat Getter said. "If we win, it could influence some people to change their The Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ga. A DuPont Co.

fungicide caused extensive crop damage in four states because it was contaminated with a potent herbicide, an attorney for farmers suing the chemical com-pany charged in court on Tuesday. Neal Pope made the claim during his opening statement in a fe-deral court trial over suits against DuPont concerning Ben-late' DF filed by plaintiffs in TRIBUNE COMPANY PURCHASES Compton's Multimedia Publishing Group Tribune buys two companies offering a set price on a well-equipped model. That can save a buyer hundreds to thousands of dollars over the same car with options purchased separately. It also lowers the factory's cost be- cause it can build more models me same way. All GM car divisions, including I Products: 26-volume print encyclopedia; 31 titles on compact disks and 16 on computer floppy disks; distributes 81 titles on compact discs.

Works include reference, education, entertainment and business information titles. I Headquarters: Carlsbad, Calif. I Employees: 140 in Carlsbad and Chicago. I Revenues: $28 million for 12 months ending in June. I Background: Compton's Encyclopedia was first published in 1922 as the "picture encyclopedia." Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is selling Compton's Multimedia, acquired the company in 1961.

CARS Now Accord appears poised to fall out of the top 10 among total vehicles and headed for sixth place among passenger cars. The biggest climber on the list of best-sellers was the Chevrolet Cavalier, an 11-year-old subcom-pact due for a new model in 1995. In contrast with Accord, whose sagging sales were partly attributed to age, Cavalier is succeeding despite an older body style. Chevrolet is aggressively marketing Cavalier for value. Its base model includes antilock brakes, which are still an option on many models.

Led by Chevrolet, GM is heading into the new model year with a heavy push on value pricing FROM PAGE 1D Lexus tops survey for satisfaction; Infiniti gaining and 16 finished below. At the halfway point in the sales year, the best-seller list shows several changes from a year earlier. Most notable is the fall of the Honda Accord. The Accord, due to be replaced by a redesigned model this fall, was the best-selling car in the United States for three consecutive years before being edged out last year by the Ford Taurus. Will uc Jiuoiiiiig miwv.

pricing this fall, especially in California, where GM's market share has suffered from imports. In June, GM car sales were up 1 AUA.sl nHfl i tsMistlr en lac Contemporary Books were up 12.3 percent for an overall gain of 4.9 percent. Its GMC rtiiricirtn aa si Q1-VP5r fP- cord with 41,646 sales. I Products: Publishes popular nonfiction titles as well as educational books and materials primarily for adults. Published 75 titles in 1992, has 450 in print.

I Headquarters: Chicago I Employees: 100 in the Chicago area I Revenues: $20 million for 12 months ending in June. I Background: Founded in 1946 as the Henry Regnery acquired the trade book division of Cowles Communications in 1971. Chief executive Harvey Plotnick, also the controlling stockholder who is selling the company, changed the name in 1978. 3 Staff and wire reports CHICAGO Tribune Company on Tuesday further broadened its operations by agreeing to pay nearly $100 million for a book publisher and a leading company in the growing field of multimedia software. The Chicago-based parent of the Sun-Sentinel Company said it would acquire Compton's Multimedia Publishing Group, a unit of Encyclopaedia Britannica for about $57 million.

Comptons Multimedia, based in Carlsbad, produces compact discs for computers that combine words, graphics, sound and pictures. Tribune also will purchase Contemporary Books of Chicago, a privately held nonfiction publisher for $40 million in cash and Tribune stock. Both transactions are expected to be completed in the third quarter. The company said its Tribune Newspaper Co. subsidiary, which includes the Sun-Sentinel Com- SOURCE: Tribune Company pany, publisher of the Sun-Sentinel, will be renamed Tribune Publishing Company to reflect diversified interests.

Compton's publishes reference, education, entertainment and business information titles, principally on the interactive compact disc format known as The electronic media research firm LINK Resources projects that total multimedia software sales will grow from less than $100 million in 1992 to $2 billion by 1996. Contemporary Books publishes popular nonfiction titles as well as educational books and materials primarily for adults. isasa FPL significant reductions in personnel," Broadhead's letter said. FPL has just over 14,000 employees. The proposed $100 million would be pared from operating expenses that totaled $4.3 billion at the end of 1992.

"It's not really related," FPL spokesman Dale Thomas said about the timing of the announced cut and the state-ordered profit reduction. Thomas said FPL had been engaged in a sweeping cost-cutting movement since a 1991 restructuring and that Tuesday's announcement was just part of that trend. About 2,300 company jobs have been eliminated since 1991. The overall reductions are designed to help the company com- pete against such rivals as co-generators which sell power culled from sources as diverse as sugar cane and garbage and independent power producers. FPL also has sunk $2 billion into a new building program, recently opening two power-generating units in the Fort Lauderdale area.

Two more are scheduled for Martin County. i Walker said the cost-cutting is needed to avoid customer rate increases. He also said that FPL's willingness to reduce profits was not part of an effort to win favor with state regulators before asking for higher rates. "This isn't part of any strategy at all to come back to the commission and try to increase rates," Walker said. FROM PAGE 1D Regulators trim FPL profit margin from 12.8 to 12 Walker said the reduction could represent as much as $60 million in potential lost profit for FPL shareholders.

The company, though, apparently had been bracing to absorb that loss. On Tuesday, FPL Chairman James L. Broadhead announced in a letter to employees that the company planned to cut its annual operating costs by $100 million by next year. "All options will be considered, but it is unlikely that adequate savings can be realized without Murdoch could close Tost9 by week's end ation of the Post "is not economically viable," the statement said. "If NYP and the unions do not reach agreement on or before July 9, 1993, NYP will cease publication of the Post with the completion of the Friday, July 9, editions," the statement said.

Part of Murdoch's deal to take over the newspaper was to renegotiate contracts with the based News said in a statement that they gave notice to terminate their agreement to manage the Post effective Friday if agreements are not reached with the unions. Under an order issued by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, NYP is permitted to terminate its agreement with the Post if it cannot reach "acceptable terms with the unions" and the continued oper Reuters NEW YORK Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Ltd, publisher of the New York Post, threatened on Tuesday to close down the 200-year-old tabloid if agreements are not reached with the Post's unions by the end of the week. News American Publishing and NYP Acquisitions Corp, both subsidiaries of Austrialian- A OuJ Li Li if ITS If 1 It Save Hundreds of Dollars THE FREE INSTALLATION HSU, LLL.illi) 8 SHI yr hasR I 1 FXTFNOF.D Good news.

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