The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 37

37 THE BOSTON GLOBE THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1992 tarn myimtMZffltBiiiifflm' SHARING! your time and talents as a volunteer can be sat Church gets $4m in auction Christian Scientists selling equipment from TV channel mimim isfying and fun. Tall thp VAC at MCM 482-8370. United Way Voluntary Action Center lion they project in income for the fiscal year that began May 1. The treasurer's report said officials had lived up to that promise over the first 6 months of the fiscal year. i Qms Your New England Outfitter Since 1856 GEORGIA FATWOOD mm Www cording to a recent report by church treasurer John L.

Selover. The church's television station, WQTV, Channel 68 in Boston, has been for sale for months. Selover's report also said the church has signed a letter of intent but did not disclose the name of the proposed buyer. The Monitor Channel ceased new programming in April, but Channel 68 continues to broadcast reruns of Monitor Channel programming. Church officials have indicated that the proceeds of the sales would be used to repay part of the huge losses on television.

Television operations cost the church $259 million, plus another $68.5 million in shutdown costs, including up to a year's severance pay for television employees. The huge TV losses were covered by borrowing from the church's restricted endowment funds and from its employee pension plan, transfers that were not disclosed until the information was leaked by a senior financial official at the church. Those financial issues drew unusual protests from members, which officials tried to meet by releasing more detailed financial information at the church's annual meeting last June. Members of the church's board of directors also announced they would balance their budget this year, spending no more than the $70 mil oil oWlfMB THE WORLD'S FINEST KINDLING A favorite gift from Orvis. Fragrant, clean and useful, just two sticks of fatwood start a roaring blaze.

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1 0 amp motor; power nozzle; auto cord rewind; dual motor; electronic display panel. Two clean sweeps included. (001 73) By James Franklin GLOBE STAFF An auction of equipment from the Monitor Channel, the ambitious cable television venture of the Church of Christ, Scientist, yielded better than expected results, church officials said yesterday. In all, about $4 million was raised from the auction in Boston and Los Angeles of equipment originally valued at about $8 million, according to Matt Adams of the Christian Science Publishing Society. Adams said he had originally estimated the 975 pieces in the auction would bring "between 30 and 50 cents on the dollar, so we are on the high side of our estimates." Some of the equipment was as much as five years old, dating from the first broadcasts of the World Monitor news show in 1987, Adams said.

"We did well to get 50 cents on the dollar." The auction follows the announcement that the church had turned a profit on the sale of its largest single equipment asset, a satellite transponder that was to have distributed Monitor Channel programs to local cable television service. The transponder was sold to the Discovery Channel for $142 million, more than the church paid for it, ac- Mattress seller to pay $950,000 in ad fraud By Doris Sue Wong. GLOBE STAFF I The nation's largest mattress retailer agreed yesterday to pay $950,000 including $100,000 worth pf bedding to Massachusetts homeless, shelters to settle consumer fraud charges brought against the company by state Attorney General Scott Harshbarger. The settlement with Mattress Discounters is the largest in a false advertising case in recent memory, according to Thomas Samoluk, a spokesman for the attorney general. While acknowledging the retailer cooperated in the investigation, harshbarger said, "This case should send a message to all retailers, and particularly those in the furniture industry, that blatant disregard for this state's strong consumer laws and regulations will not be tolerated." Mattress Discounters, which has 18 locations in Greater Boston, was charged with defrauding consumers through various deceptive advertising schemes.

One involved inflating prices to offset advertised coupon discounts. A second involved doubling the price of mattresses when box springs were advertised as free with any mattress purchase. A third entailed selling mattress sets without disclosing that the "box springs" contained no springs. In addition, the retailer was accused of running perpetual "sales" and of failing to substantiate its claims that it offered savings below list or department store prices. "Practices like these," Harsh-bargher said, "cleverly and deceptively take real dollars out of consumers' pockets.

The savings are often illusory and the products are not always what they appear to be." Under the settlement, Mattress Discounters will pay a total of $700,000 in restitution before next September to 20,000 consumers, identified by company records, who were victims this year of the deceptive sales practices. Consumers do not have to file claims. The company also agreed to donate $100,000 in mattresses to the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, which will distribute the bedding to shelters; $100,000 to 18 local consumer programs for mediation services; and $50,000 to SCORE, a program designed by the attorney general to reduce urban violence among students. In addition to the financial settlement, Mattress Discounters is required to stop deceptive advertising The attorney generaTs office will monitoring the company's compliance with the settlement i uur reg. 549.yy 499 98 00 mm 0 Tool Set 39.98 Amp earn wun 1992 Mt -Tv to win mvm Save $50 on Electrolux Regency Vacuum With 8.5 amp, high-performance two-motor system for powerful suction; four-sided cleaning; 30-ft.

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