The Times from Munster, Indiana • 23

Keep track of your stocks' performance Pages C-2, C-3 Find your next home sweet home Inside Indiana aose: 3437.54 Change: 4y DOW Change: NYSE tops jIb -j' v. AM EX racfe for Close: 417.16 Change: 0.63 Close: 698.44 Change: .1 NASDAQ IRS won't make ruling on home offices retroactive WASHINGTON (AP) The Internal Revenue Service said Monday that it will not apply a new Supreme Court ruling to taxpayers who claimed a deduction for business use of their homes before 1992. In a Jan. 12 decision, the court generally upheld the IRS position for de-terniining whether a person's home is the principal place of business. In making that determination, the court held, a taxpayer must consider the relative importance of activities conducted at each business location and the amount of time spent at each.

Times photo by John J. Watkins Anne Cooper shows Jamillah Madlock and Cora Smith how to assemble a display shelf at the Kohl's Department Store in Merrillville. The store is scheduled to open March 12. airs mie Retailer readies for March 12 opening By KRIS FALZONE Times Business Writer By PATRICIA LAMIELL AP Business Writer NEW YORK In this year's recruiting season for college graduates, nurses are hot but aerospace engineers are not. Companies hope to hire more college graduates this year than they did in 1992, but only a handful of fields are expected to benefit, college placement officers say.

With many U.S. firms restructuring and eliminating jobs, there are fewer openings for job-seekers straight out of school. Health care is one industry that is hiring, said Dawn Oberman, a statistical services specialist at College Placement Council Inc. in Bethlehem, Penn. Jobs are also available in management information systems, for people who teach others how to use computers.

A focus on the environment has created openings for engineers, geologists, biologists, and chemists. And with the attention that President Clinton has promised to pay to rebuilding the nation's infrastructure, times should be good for civil engineers, Oberman added. But other industries are cutting jobs just as aggressively. Military cutbacks and hardships in the commercial airline industry have' virtually shut down the market for new aerospace engineers. Would-be nuclear engineers may need to find another specialty.

Jobs in finance and banking, except for technical and back-office jobs, are still hard to come by. Study concludes unions should organize women By JOHN D. McCLAIN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON Labor unions need to organize female workers, who now are under represented, underpaid, and may soon be a majority of the workers in America, according to a study released on Monday. "Union elections held today with a majority of women or 'minority' workers are won more often than those in traditionally male- or white-dominated workplaces," the study said. "Thus attention to organizing and mobilizing women members will be critical to the future" of the U.S.

labor movement, concluded the report written for the International Labour Organization, a U.N.-sponsored agency headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The report said there were 48.9 million women employees in 1990, representing 47 percent of the U.S. work force. The study, "Women Workers, Unions and Industrial Sectors in North America," projects that by the end of the decade, women will represent a majority of the work force. scheduled for opening this year.

The chain will open two stores in Des Moines in April and sites in Wheaton, 111., Columbus, Ohio, and La Crosse, in July, said Don Oscarson, Kohl's senior vice president of marketing. More openings should be announced in the fall, Oscarson said. The Milwaukee-based retailer plans to add eight to 12 new stores a year. Kohl's stores occupy a niche at the base of the traditional department store category, with fewer departments than J.C. Penney or Carson Pirie Scott but considered a notch above discounters like Wal-Mart and Kmart.

"We are family-focused, value-oriented, specialty department stores," Oscarson said. "We are strong in national brands and have a greater selection of mer chandise within departments" than other retailers. Kohl's merchandise mix is about 70 percent family clothing and 30 percent products for the home, such as linens, housewares and decorative items. Oscarson said Kohl's entered the Chicago market in 1988 and opened two in the suburbs -Hodgkins and Schaumburg last year. Its other south suburban locations are Burbank, Calumet City, Chicago Ridge and Orland Park.

Its other Indiana locations are in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Lafayette and Anderson. "We thought the Merrillville area was terrific demographically for us," Oscarson said. The typical Kohl's shopper is female, between the ages of 24 and 54, with children living at home and a household income of $30,000 to $60,000. ROSS TWP. The newest kid on the local retailing block is set to open March 12.

By late last week, 21 truckloads of goods had been unloaded at Kohl's Department Store, located on an outlot of Southlake Mall at the southeast corner of U.S. 30 and Mississippi Street. Store Manager Jan Hill said Kohl's is "very close to our goal" of hiring about 300 permanent and temporary employees. Hill expects to finish taking applications this week. "We have been well received in the community," she said.

"Overall, in talking with people, (shoppers) can't wait until we open." The store is Kohl's 80th and the first of six Reed Minerals' parent sees increase in earnings for '92 Harrisburg, Harsco Corp. said Monday that it expects to earn $84.3 million, or $3.25 a share, on sales of $1.6 billion for 1992. The company, which owns Highland-based Reed Minerals, said the preliminary results include a one-time charge of $11.5 million resulting from the adoption of a new accounting standard on retiree benefits. The results compare with year-ago earnings of $76.5 million, or $2.91 a share, on sales of $1.6 billion. The Industrial Services and Building Products Group, which includes Reed Minerals, improved over 1991, despite the sluggish economy, Harsco officials said.

They attributed the gain to recovery in domestic and international steel production and stronger global demand for railway maintenance equipment. However, weakness in domestic construction hurt results. Reed Minerals makes slag abrasives, roofing granules and other construction-related products. Genesis Center set to host second area business expo GARY Local businesses can showcase their products and services at the second-annual Northwest Indiana Business Expo, set for April 7 and 8 at the Genesis Convention Center. The expo will focus on the enterprise zones in East Chicago, Gary and Hammond and marketing a business, said Earl Adams, director of sales at the Genesis Center.

Cost for a booth is $225. Included in the price is a reception dinner with several motivational speakers. For more information, call Adams at (219) 882-5505. iRepmtolfc terns profit By NANCY PIETERS Times Business Writer Republic, union reopen pact By NANCY PIETERS Times Business Writer The contract, which doesn't expire until August 1996, has a no-strike and no-lockout provision. The parties can choose to reopen it at any time.

Any issues Massillon, Ohio-based Republic and the USW can't agree on are submitted to an impartial arbitrator for a final decision. Neither the bar and specialty steel company nor union would release detailed information on what issues are being targeted in the talks. Republic Engineered Steel Inc. and the United Steelworkers of America quietly reopened their labor agreement last week to discuss possible amendments. The contract covers about 3,700 steelworkers nationwide, including about 125 members of USW Local 3069 at Republic's Gary plant and about 350 members of USW Local 1033 at its Chicago plant.

Reduced competition at home and from abroad helped Republic Engineered Steels Inc. turn an operating profit in the second quarter, ended Dec. 31. Republic, which operates plants in Gary and Chicago, reported an operating profit of $6 million for the three months, compared with a $5.9 million operating loss in the same period a year ago. Competitors quitting the market and favorable results in unfair trade cases filed by U.S.

steel companies against foreign steel producers helped results, said Russell Maier, president and chief executive of the bar and specialty steel producer. "We continue to concentrate on the cost side of the business because pricing of our products remains at unacceptably low levels," Maier said in a statement. "The marketplace clearly is improving, even though it is slow improvement. Our December shipments historically a slow month for steel were the best for a December since 1988. "However, there are many uncertainties still ahead, which require a EsvsT 7i 7 company.

It formerly was the bar division of LTV Steel Co. "We have made dramatic progress since we were formed on Nov. 28, 1989," Maier said. "We have survived a very long and difficult recession and we have done much to change the corporate culture the way management, labor and salaried employees relate to each other and the way we do our work." cautious approach as we proceed through the balance of 1993," he added. Fourth-quarter shipments increased almost 23 percent from the year-ago period to 216,306 tons.

Sales rose about 15 percent to $149.7 million. During the quarter, Massillon, Ohio-based Republic marked its third anniversary as an independent A NIPSCO agrees to buy pipeline Interest rates on T-bills decline in latest auction WASHINGTON (AP) Interest rates on short-term Treasury securities fell in Monday's auction. The Treasury Department sold $11.6 billion in three-month bills at an average discount rate of 2.94 percent, down from 2.97 percent last week. Another $11.6 billion was sold in six-month bills at an average discount rate of 3.09 percent, down from 3.10 percent last week. The three-month bill rate was the lowest since they sold for 2.94 percent on Oct.

19. The six-month bill rate was the lowest since they averaged 3.09 percent on Jan. 25. NIPSCO plans to convert the line to an interstate gas pipeline capable of expanding purchase and dehvery options to utility and industrial customers in northern Indiana and Ohio. Gary Neale, NTPSCO Industries executive vice president, said the purchase is part of the company's "overall strategy of realizing opportunities created by the continuing deregulation of the natural gas Union Oil Co.

of California and 20 percent by Ashland Oil Inc. The deal is subject to final certification of system integrity and approval of the transaction by the boards of NIPSCO and Tecumseh. Terms were not disclosed. Tecumseh built the pipeline, which begins about a mile southeast of the intersection of Kennedy Avenue and Main Street, in 1957. It was used to transport crude oil to Indiana and Ohio refineries.

AP Laserphoto Setting the standards Marc Porat, president and chief executive of General Magic, holds a prototype of a personal communicator in the company's Mountain View, headquarters. General Magic, along with Sony, Apple and other companies, announced an alliance Monday to develop communications standards and technology for personal Times Staff Report MERRILLVILLE NIPSCO Industries Inc. on Monday agreed to buy a pipeline running 202 miles from Schererville to northwest Ohio. NIPSCO, the parent company of Northern Indiana Public Service plans to purchase the 20-inch pipeline from Tecumseh Pipe Line which is 40 percent owned by Atlantic Richfield 40 percent by -4 (...