Leader-Telegram from Eau Claire, Wisconsin • 2

TUESOAY.Februay9.1993 II UadfTaiegrsni From Page One Sears posts Clinton proposes jobless changes Weather Watch pmnlfivment benefits. record loss (AP) Sears, and Co. today reported $1 .8 billion loss for the fourth auarter of 1992 and a $3.9 billion loss for the year, the worst in its history. The fourth-quarter results included a previously announced $1 .7 billion charge for restructuring the Sears Merchandise Group, which includes killing the venerable Sears catalog and closing 113 stores. Sears also increased by $300 million its estimate of claims paid by its Allstate Insurance Group for damage caused by Hurricane Andrew, bringing the total to $1.65 billion.

In midmoming trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Sears was off 12'2 cents a share at is higher taxes on Social Security benefits received by the affluent elderly. Meanwhile, Clinton said he was nearly finished with the portion of the economic plan that will provide short-term economic stimulus. The president announced he will send Congress a bill to extend for seven months a program allowing unemployed workers who have exhausted their regular unemployment benefits to keep drawing them for 20 to 26 additional weeks. The current program, already extended several times, expires March 6. At the same time Clinton said he was directing Labor Secretary Robert Reich to use the unemployment benefit system to "link structurally unemployed workers with the reemployment services they need to re-enter the workforce." Under the plan, within five weeks computer profiles will be established on those claiming un- FRONTS: 70SQj 70svj 0 HOTHMuW Me COU immi nnoNiwv 0 0 EZ3 mom low mmm ham (tonus numes The national forecast for noon Wednesday: Showers for portions of California, Oregon and Washington with flurries predicted from Montana through Nebraska to the Great Lakes.

Thunderstorms are predicted for portions Of Texas and Oklahoma with rain expected for Kansas, portions of Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri. Heavy rains splash through California A weaker disturbance produced rain today along the Pacific Coast on the heels of a system that dumped more than 2 inches on Southern California. Rain fell this morning in San Francisco and Seattle. Monday's storm, meanwhile, pushed into the Rockies, bringing morning snow to Denver. Moist air from the Gulf of Mexico produced scattered showers today in the Plains and northern Mississippi Valley.

Freezing rain fell this morning in Minneapolis, Omaha, and Des Moines. Iowa. Bismark. N.D.. had snnw ca amow ice sumiv aouor ctoupr Almanac At 8 a.m.

today: Skies: flurries Temperature: 26 Dew point: 20 Relative humidity: 78 percent Barometric pressure: 30.06 and falling Winds: south at 6 mph Today: Normal high: 25 Normal low: 3 Year ago today: High: 23 Low: -5 Records for today: High: 48 in 1966 Low: -36 in 1899 Monday: High: 26 Low: 17 WASHINGTON (AP) President Clinton is proposing a face lift for the nation's unemployment insurance program that will line up retraining programs with jobless workers who most need them. The plan an advance component of the economic program Clinton will unveil Feb. 17 came as the administration backed away from one controversial option, a one-year freeze in Social Security benefits. "I think it's very unlikely it's something the president wants to do," White House spokesman George Stephanopoulos said Monday of the freeze in cost-of-living increases. Earlier Stephanopoulos had said the freeze was one of a number of deficit-reduction items on the table.

Speculation that the White House might go ahead with such a plan drew outcries from senior citizens and some congressional Democrats. Now seen as a more likely move NBC says it rigged GM tests By The Associated Press NBC News acknowledged using incendiary devices in a test crash designed to show that some General Motors Corp. pickup trucks are prone to catch fire. But it said a spark from a broken headlight actually caused the blaze. The network on Monday was sued by GM over a "Dateline NBC" report on the alleged dangers created by the "sidesaddle" gas tanks on "GM pickups made in the 1970s and '80s.

"The 11 million households that viewed the program were never told that NBC used incendiary devices to try and ensure that a fire would erupt, seemingly due to the collision, GM Executive Vice President Harry Pearce said. The defamation lawsuit, filed in a state court in Indianapolis, was the first ever by GM. The world's No. 1 automaker also threatened an advertising boycott of NBC and other action to counter the public relations battering it has been taking. Last week, an-Atlanta jury found GM negligent in the design of the gas tanks.

The jury awarded $105.2 million to the parents of a teen-ager killed when his truck crashed and exploded in 1989. GM is appealing the verdict. NBC acknowledged on its "Nightly News" Monday that it rigged two crashes for a Nov. 17. segment of "Dateline NBC" with model rocket engines taped to the bottom of the trucks and that it didn't disclose the fact to viewers.

NBC News President Michael G. Gartner said that while a particular crash might not produce sparks needed to ignite a fire, NBC want- The profiles will help the govern ment link jobless woreerr wim specific jobs programs, adminis tration otticials said. "UnemDlovment compensate must now be both a shortflennfife line for workers and alonE- link to the skills that-it-will take for them to eet whert they want to be back in the workforce, Clinton said. The administration estimated the cost of the-extensionff additional benefits at roughly $3 billion and. the cost of the new profile system at $20 million to $30 million.

In all, Clinton was expected to propose about $31 billion in short-term stimulus steps, divided about evenly between job-producing programs and tax breaks for businesses to encourage them to increase employment. r7) about the propriety ot a news organization simulating events without disclosure. "I don't like re-enactments and stagings to begin with," said Joan Konner, dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. "It's very confusing." But she added about the NBC crash: "It sounds like it's going to be up to a jury to determine how a fire started. This could be a question not of ethics but of relevance if the fire started the way NBC says it did." GM is seeking a retraction and unspecified damages.

"The networks and CNN" and everybody have run footage of this thing over and over and jover again," said Joseph Phillippi, an auto industry analyst for Lehman Brothers Inc. "The damage to J3 13 Nov. 7 crash against NBC, used incendiary Eau Claire area forecast Tonight: Cloudy with a 30 percent chance of light snow late. Lows in the low 20s. South to southwest winds 10 to 15 mph becoming northerly toward morning.

Wednesday: Turning colder and windy with a good chance for snow. Highs 25 to 30. Chance for snow 50 percent. Sunrise: 7:14 Sunset: 5:27. Wisconsin forecast Tonight: A chance for snow northwest.

A chance for light snow mixed with freezing drizzle or drizzle late -most elsewhere. Lows in the teens north to mid-30s south. Wednesday: A chance for snow north. A mixture of snow and rain central and mainly rain south. Turning windy north.

Highs from the 20s north to low 40s southeast. Extended Forecast: Windy and colder Thursday and Friday. Associated Press test. Pearce announced a lawsuit stating the "Dateline NBC" program devices to start a fire in the test Behind General Motors Executive Vice President Harry Pearce at GM headquarters in Detroit Monday is a Chevrolet pickup truck used in an NBC Data provided by The Associated Press, National Weather Service Newsmakers (GM's) reputation in some respects is incalculable." Safety groups claim at least 300 people have died in fiery, side-impact crashes involving GM pickups. Critics contend the automaker knowingly endangered lives by put- ting twin gas tanks outside of the truck frame.

GM later changed the design to put a single tank inside 1 the frame. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against GM, and many have 1 been settled out of court. Gartner accused GM of trying to divert attention from the verdict in Atlanta and a federal investigation of the 1973-8? trucks. GM's Pearce denied that. He said GM filed a-declaration of intent to- 5 sue NBC before the verdict.

Lee sticks up for Tyson after visit INDIANAPOLIS Spike Lee visited Mike Tyson in prison and said the former heavyweight champ "got railroaded." Lee, whose films include "Malcolm and "Jungle Fever," said he and Tyson spoke on Monday at the Indiana Youth Center, where the fighter is serving a six-year sentence for rape. "Look at what happened to Mike, then look at what's-his-name, Kennedy. He's walking free. Mike's in the slammer," Lee said, referring to William Kennedy Smith, the nephew of Sen. Edward Kennedy who was acquitted of rape in 1991 Tyson was convicted of raping a beauty pageant contestant in Indianapolis in 1991 He was sentenced last March and could be eligible for parole in two years.

"I'm just praying that he won't have to wait another two years to get out on parole," Lee said before speaking at Butler University as part of the school's African-American History Month program. Judge given secret Jackson contract Efforts to found station span nearly a decade AREA DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S ENDORSE RAY PELRINE FOR CIRCUIT JUDGE LOS ANGELES Sony Music 5 leaded with a judge to keep the terms of lichael Jackson's contract secret. The contract one of the most closely guarded secrets in the industry may prove crucial in a dispute between an inventor and the singer. Sony gave the inch-thick agreement to Superior Court Judge David Yaffe to review but argued Monday that releasing the details would spill trade secrets and throw the business into chaos when other stirs renegotiate their deals. Hugo Zuccarelli, creator of a three-dimensional recording system called Colophonies, savs in a lawsuit that Jack ed to illustrate the danger a gas-tank rupture poses if a heat source is present, and so it attached the devices.

But he said a broken headlight not the rocket engines ignited by remote control, as GM alleged wound up starting the fire in one crash. The other crash did not result in a fire. "We remain convinced that taken in its entirety and in its detail, the segment that was broadcast on 'Dateline NBC was fair and accurate," Gartner said in a statement. GM said it was suspicious of the NBC report but had no evidence until receiving an anonymous tip from a journalist who had heard of the rigged tests from a firefighter at the scene. The episode raised questions Roland Bushland then applied for the television' license, but by then he had competition.

On Aug. 26, 1986, Family Group Brodcasting of Tampa, owners of WLAX, filed an application of its own for the license. Bushland eventually dropped out after reaching a financial settlement with Family Group. On March 20, 1987, a press release boasted: "Tampa-based Family Group Broadcasting has announced that its newest independent television property, WEUX-TV, Channel 48, Eau Claire, is now scheduled to be in full operation by mid-summer It was the first of many disappointments surrounding WEUX. Family Group's proposed antenna site in the town of Colfax in Dunn County opposed by the Federal Aviation Administration.

While that procedure was dragging on, the economy was softening. Family Group on Dec. 19, 1988, Family Group agreed to sell its stations, including WEUX's license, to Krypton Broadcasting Corp. of New York. That deal fell through, leaving Family Group to file for Chapter 1 1 bankruptcy on April 7, 1989.

Fam- ily Group Ltd. Ill was appointed as the station's new owner during the bankruptcy proceedings in Florida. After getting out of bankruptcy WEUX and WLAX were sold in 1990 to Aries Telecommunications which has offices in Green Bay and is incorporated in Nevada. Donald E. Clark of Port Charlotte, is the primary owner of Aries.

Aries was granted a construction permit for Channel 48 on Feb. 28, 1992, one of the final steps for WEUX to finally begin Jackson son used the technology on singles from his 1987 album, "Bad," without paying a license fee am that he gave inaccurate credits. Cyrus' inner voice: Band, not baseball RADNOR, Pa. Billy Ray Cyrus says an inner voice that came to him at a Neil Diamond concert told him to give up baseball, buy a guitar and start a band. That was 1 1 years ago, when Cyrus was a 20-year-old aspiring ballplayer who had never sung professionally.

Today he's among the brightest stars of country music on the strength of his hit "Achy Breaky Heart." "Neil Diamond was saying how if you believe in yourself and believe in your dreams, then you will have everything you want," Cyrus said in the current issue of TV Guide. "Just that second, my voice said to me, "There's your answer. Use your music to do something And I knew, right then, that this was my calling." From news services TV from Page 1 WEUX, a Fox Broadcasting Co. affiliate, has an office at 1324 W. Cfairemont Ave.

in Eau Claire, and its antenna is in the Chippewa County town of Lafayette at a site about seven miles southeast of Chippewa Falls. It has been broadcasting test patterns and programming since at least Sunday. WEUX will replace WLAX's signal on cable channel 8 of the Wisconsin CATV-CableVision lineup in Altoona, Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire, Cablevision General Manager Jan George said. "The station is looking forward to expanding operations in the future and continuing community outreach," a station press release said. The station will carry the same programming as its sister station, WLAX-TV, Channel 25, including about 40 Milwaukee Brewers baseball games this year.

It will not have local programming. That's disappointing to Roland Bushland, who first began the licensing procedure for Channel 48 nearly 10 years ago. "It's a relay station. It's just a clone," Bushland said of WEUX. Bushland, owner of WCFW-FM (105.5) in Chippewa Falls, petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to assign Channel 48 as a Chippewa Falls frequency on June 24, 1983.

That request was granted. It turned out to be the easier obstacle to clear to get WEUX on the air. Bushland's wife, Patricia, applied for the station's license on Nov. 1, 1984. But the FCC blocked that because Roland Bushland held WCFW's license, a provision the FCC later repealed, he said.

Ray Pelrlne has served as a Special Prosecutor In each of our counties in recent years. In this capacity, Ray has displayed a unique combination of keen legal knowledge and common sense. As a result, we can whole-heartily endorse Ray's candidacy for Eau Claire County Circuit Court Judge. Wisconsin needs more Judges who possess Ray's ability to knowledgeably interpret the law in a common sense fashion. Jim Babler (Barron Co.

DA) Scott Home (LaCrosse Ca DA) Jim Peterson (Dunn Co. DA) Eric Johnson (St. Croix Co. DA) Correction Authorized and Paid for By: Friends of Ray Pelrlne, Martha Pelrlne, Treasurer A letter in the Feb. 3 Voice of the People (Page 8A) incorrectly referred to lactosemia.

The reference should have been to Lotteries Winning lottery numbers for Monday, Feb. 8, are: SuperCash: 10-1 4-1 6-1 8-22-30 Pick 3: 5-9-3.