The Press Democrat from Santa Rosa, California • 37

The Press Democrat Dow Jones industrial average April 14, 1993 Total volume: 256.1 million snare I Santa Rosa, California, Thursday, April 15,1993 Enthusiasm returns for IRA accounts STTGaPCTILV BQDSOrJESS Retirement planning enjoys a boom By AI.l.KN R. MVKRSON New York I Inwi For Linda Wollman, the perils of darting through Park Avenue's rush-hour pile-ups on her Rollerblades were nothing compared with the risk of getting caught short of cash when she retires in, oh, about the year 2029. So with Thursday's deadline for IRA contributions looming, on Tuesday even-ing she rolled into the Fidelity Investments office at Park and 51st Street in Manhattan to drop off a check and an Individual Retirement Account form for her husband. retirement plans, with incomes above certain limits about half of all workers only the earnings on their IRA accounts remain tax-free until withdrawn. The new rules on deductions initially curtailed the growth of IRAs, with fewer than 700,000 mutual fund accounts added in 1988.

But a new surge in Interest, many financial executives say, has come as those born after the World War II recognize that decisions made now will help determine how comfortably they pass the final decades of their lives. them set records last year, according to the Investment Company Institute, a mutual fund trade group. The year-end total of 24.3 million accounts was up by more than 3.7 million from the end of 1991. The growing ranks of part-time and temporary workers, usually lacking retirement plans at their jobs, are among those who can still take full or partial tax deductions for IRA contributions of up to $2,000. For those covered by corporate Fearful of losing their Jobs, unwilling to count on pensions or Social Security, like Wollman, are turning to IRA's with greater enthusiasm than at any time since Congress sharply limited the deductibility of contributions made after the spring of 1987.

Several mutual funds and brokerage firms say that today will conclude their strongest IRA season ever. The increases In the number of IRA mutual fund accounts and the money invested in Airgiuis-Coimier retamdies Captain's Tabic bought by northbay Savings The closed Captain's Table restaurant, which in the 1950s and '60s was home to two drive-In restaurants, Is earmarked to become a bank. Northbay Savings Bank of Petaluma has purchased the Captain's Table, which went out business last year at Fourth and College Avenue in Santa Rosa. Alfred Alys, bank president, said the bank plans to remodel the building into a drive-through branch, but a construction date hasn't been set A public hearing on the proposed bank is scheduled before the planning commission at 2:30 p.m. April 22 in City Council chambers.

The planning department said it recommends approval of the design. When completed, the bank branch would be the eighth in the Northbay Savings chain. The original restaurant, Quinley's, was built in 1947. In the 1 950s and '60s, it became a popular cruising spot known as Gordon's Drive-in. Mary richer Microphor of ITJillits gets Amtrak contract Microphor of Willits received a 1 .8 million contract to provide 75 toilet systems for Amtrak cars.

The company said the installment comes in the second year of a four-year contract for the train system's Amfleet II cars to meet environmental standards. year, Microphor delivered 52 similar systems to Amtrak in Delaware. company also received a $1.4 million contract from Morrisen-Knudson Corp. of Idaho to supply waste systems for commuter and intercity rail cars being manufactured for CalTrans in Sacramento. Microphor has been a supplier of waste treatment systems to railroads throughout the nation and Canada since 1970.

Dick Phillips 4 il Suni. 1- nt ft- ,6 i I. 0111111 3 Petaluma paper cuts publication to 2 days a week ByGUYKOVNER Press Democrat Bureau PETALUMA Plagued by declining circulation and lower advertising revenue, the Petaluma Argus-Courier announced Wednesday that it will cut back its publication to two days a week. The announcement surprised and saddened readers, employees and competitors of the 138-year-old newspaper, which said it will publish only on Tuesday and Saturday afternoons effective May 11. The change leaves the Press Democrat as Sonoma County's only locally produced daily newspaper.

Founded in 1855 and a daily newspaper since 1928, the Argus-Courier now publishes Monday through Saturday. Its last local owners, the Olmsted family, sold the newspaper in 1965 to the Scripps League Newspapers a Charlottesville, chain that owns more than 40 newspapers. Scripps closed the 48-year-old Roh-nert-Park Cotati Clarion, a twice-weekly newspaper, in December, laying off the 15-person staff. Argus-Courier publisher Barry Blan-sett said the paper's retrenchment would reduce the publication's staff of 40 full-time and about 40 part-time employees, but he declined to say specifically how many positions would be eliminated. Two sources who asked not to be named said the Argus on Wednesday terminated two of the newspaper's 12 news staffers effective June 1.

Blansett said there would be job cuts in production and circulation. Regarding the news staff, he said: "If there's going to be any change over there, it would be minimal." Employees were told of the cutbacks Wednesday morning as the newspaper carrying a page one story on the change was rolling through the presses. Blansett attributed the cutback to See Petaluma, back page ASSOCIATED PRESS VA members protest outside Wednesday's Caterpillar Inc. annual meeting in Wilmington, drawing attention to the union's 19-month contract stalemate with the heavy equipment manufacturer. Caterpillar lost $1.4 billion last year.

Workers try to put heat on Caterpillar Turn the TV to Channel Sega Computer male crs agree to install Next software SAN JOSE Next Computer Inc. announced Wednesday that a number of worldwide computer makers will install the NextStep operating system software in their high-end personal computers. Dell Computer Epson America Data General NEC Technologies Inc. and Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems AG will install NextStep in some of their products using Intel 486 and Pentium chips, Next said. Hewlett-Packard the world's leading client-server computer maker, will not install the software but will certify that its machines can run it if users choose.

"These partnerships lay the foundation for the success of NextStep in the Intel marketplace," said Steve Jobs, chairman and chief executive of Next "This will complete our transition to a software company." By May 25, prepackaged NextStep software also will run on more than 100 different 486 and Pentium-based PCs, including those made by AST Research, Digital Equipment, Gateway 2000 and Zenith Data Systems. Analysts saw the series of agreements with manufacturers and distributors as a crucial move for Next, which has tried for several years to gain wider acceptance of its critically acclaimed but slow-selling object-oriented operating system. Next, headquartered in Redwood City, employs about 200 people. Major Next investors include Jobs, Canon Inc. and Ross Perot.

Associated Press Video game giant teams with cable Tele-Communications Inc. and Time Warner, each of which plans to conduct a test of the service later this year. If the experiments prove promising, the cable companies would begin introducing the service nationally next year. "The Sega Channel," as it is to be called, would allow cable subscribers who own Sega's Genesis video-game machine to select and play hundreds of games that would be offered 24 hours a day. Consumers would have to buy a special adaptor to receive the games via cable and would be charged about $10 a month, about the cost of current cable subscription channels for movies and special events, according to a Time Warner spokesman.

Users would be able to retrieve software copies of a game and play it for as long as they liked at one sitting. But the game could not be saved for repeated play. The service would be the first nationwide offering in a growing wave of new See Sega, back page By JOHN MARKOFF New York Times SAN FRANCISCO Sega America a video game leader with titles like, "Sonic the Hedgehog II" and "Streetfigh-ter II: Champion Edition," said Wednesday that it would form a venture with the nation's two largest cable television companies to transmit Sega's games directly into homes via cable. The service, which is to begin tests later this year and would be the first of its type, would eliminate the need for even the quickest of jaunts to the software store or video rental shop. Sega's powerful cable partners will be Short-sellers target shares of Wal-Mart for a killing Survival, in Stoclcwatch Local and Bay Area stocks of interest.

Retirement month that it was cutting cigarette prices to compete with unbranded products. But the stock's weakness also reflects some fundamental concerns. Analysts and retail consultants generally isee three Achilles' heels for Wal-Mart: its warehouse club business, its new combination discount and grocery stores, and the prospect of higher health-care costs. Wall Street is antsy about the entire warehouse club business. Analysts believe sales at Wal-Mart's Sam's Club warehouse stores, which were once touted as the key to the company's growth into the 21st century, are slowing.

REB 9 Ve REB pf 11 -Vs ServiceMaster 27 -Vi Unocal 30V2 -Vs Wells Fargo 113 -2 Westamerica 27 Bid Ask Bk of Petaluma 10 11 Bk of Lake County 13V2 14 Clearlake Natl. Bk 9 9Vz Codding Bank 8 9 Exchange Bank 57 60 Lake Comm. Bk 9V? 10 No. Empire Banc." 8 8 Novato Natl. Bank 6 6 Solar Electric 1316 1 Sonoma Valley Bk 14Y4 Summit Savings 15 Vacu-dry 92 1014 Windsor Oaks Bk 914 10Vi The ASK Group 13 Autodesk 42 nc Bank of America 53 California Energy 18 Carolyn Bean Publish 6S 'M Chevron 85Vfe Circuit City 30 Fund American 83 Good Guys 8 -V Hewlett-Packard 74Vi -V Homestake Mining 14 Kornag 18 nc Louisiana-Pacific 72 V2 Napa Valley Bank 17 nc New York Times 30 -Vs N.Amer.

Mortgage 28 Northbay Savings I6V2 -V Optical Coating 11 -V 34 nc Pacific Telesis 481A Vi Conducted by Kirk G. Aguer, Vice President I Financial Consultant If you are planning to retire or have already retired, you may be thinking about higher monthly income. Hear about ways to maximize the return on your existing annuity, lump sum distributions, ideas for your existing IRA's, some unique opportunities in California tax-free municipal bonds, and how to get 10.4 taxable equivalent yield. Come listen to Shearson Lehman Brothers' "Survival in Retirement" TIME: Saturday, April 17th, at 9:00 a.m. PLACE: Red Lion Hotel 1 Red Lion Dr, Rohnert Park Complimentary breakfast will be served.

By STEPHANIE STROM New York Times Investors in Wal-Mart Stores Inc. suffered another blow Wednesday, as erosion continued in what was one of Wall Street's premier stocks for several years. In extremely heavy trading, Wal-Mart shares fell $1.75, to $27.25, on the New York Stock Exchange after the company's chief financial officer, Paul Carter, told analysts that if Wal-Mart posted 7 percent to 8 percent sales growth this year, it would be "a good performance." Analysts, who were expecting 10 percent growth, said the growth rate predicted by Carter would be Wal-Mart's smallest in 10 years, a sign that the retail Juggernaut may be slowing. Over the last 10 years, sales have grown more than 30 percent annually. A Wal-Mart spokesman, Don Shinkie, said that company officials were somewhat perplexed by the analysts' reactions and that the company's fundamental strengths had not changed.

Shinkie added that Carter was not available for an interview. Shares of Wal-Mart the nation's largest retailer, have seesawed since splitting in February. In fewer than 30 trading days, the stock fell to $25.75 in interday trading Tuesday within a hair of its 52-week low from a 52-week high of $34.50 on March 10. And in a scenario unimaginable just a year ago, short-sellers, the buzzards of the trading floor, are circling to make a killing on Wal-Mart stock. Short-sellers borrow shares, betting that they will be able to pay back the debt with shares purchased later at a lower price.

On March 15, investors had a short position of 12.75 million shares in Wal-Mart up sharply from 7.83 million shares on Feb. 12. Wal-Mart's volatility can be attributed in part to the market's uneasiness about consumer products and their merchandisers after Philip Morris announced early this (Quotes are a courtesy of Kemper Securities Sutro and Merrill Lynch and A G. Edwards Sons, all of which make a market in local bank stocks. The quotes for Lake Community Bank and Clearlake National Bank are provided by FNI Investments of Lakeport.

Quotes for Bank of Lake County are from First Associated Securities of Lakeport.) NT-No shares traded. ASK is the owner of Data 3 In Santa Rosa. Northern Empire Bancshares is the holding company for Sonoma National Sonoma Valley Bank Is currently conducting a secondary stock offering at $14 29 a share. REB, Redwood Empire Bancorp, is the holding company for National Bank of the Redwoods and Allied Savings. Key rates Booking liabilities hurt Pacific Telesis Press Democrat news services Pacific Telesis Group announced Wednesday in San Francisco it would show a loss in first quarter earnings resulting from booking liabilities of about $2.9 billion.

The liabilities, combined with other restructuring and disposition reserves, will reduce first quarter 1993 net income by nearly $2 billion and 1993 pretax income by $2.6 billion. The accounting changes are required by the Financial Accounting Standards. Pacific Telesis Group also announced it would establish additional reserves that will lower net income by about $260 million. Nearly $210 million is related to a recent decision to sell its real estate portfolio over the next three to five years. See Earnings, Page E2 SHEARSON LEHMAN BROTHERS Prime lending rate: 6.00 percent.

30-year government bond market rate: 6.75 Treasury bill auction results, average discount rate: 3-month as of Apr. 12: 2.89 6-month as of Apr. 12: 3.00 London Interbank Rate (LIBOR), six months: 3.3125 U.S.' dollar vs. Japanese yen: 113.85, up .37 Oil, West Texas Intermediate: $20.40, down $0.05. Gold price, NY Republic National Bank: $338.50, up $1.55.

(More money rates are Inside the slocks tables.) For free tickets, call: Debby Jimenez at 578-7100 or 800-427-5008 MFMBI arc idshfarson I fhman brothfrs ffHH An American Express Company.