Santa Maria Times from Santa Maria, California • 20

BRIEFS Stocks sluggish; few are taking chances NEW YORK (AP) Stocks moved lower Friday in sluggish trading, with few investors taking chances amid the prevailing uncertainties about inflation and interest B-10 Saturday, Juna 15, 1996 Santa Maria Umaa KENTUCKY TALKS Winemakers nearing end to dispute LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) California winemakers and Kentucky alcohol regulators have made progress in talks aimed at ending a dispute that has kept some popu-. lar labels off store shelves and restaurant wine lists. The winemakers haven't formally ended their Kentucky boycott, but a proposal offered by the alcohol regulators during a recent meeting in Frankfort drew a pos Komisar was lured a year ago from rival Lucas Arts. The other top executives being replaced are co-founder and executive vice president Madeline Canepa and chief operating officer John Eastburn.

The 30 to 35 other job cuts are expected to take place over the next three months, Ardell said. Clinton goes afTfer: liquor companies WASHINGTON (AP) Already battling the tobacco industry, President Clinton added a new political target: Liquor companies. The White House pressed distillers to honor a 48-year voluntary ban on TV ads for hard liquor. The action Friday pitted Clinton against one of the world's largest distillers, Canadian-based Seagram, which just began airing whiskey commercials in Texas. The company is rtin by a powerful political family with ties to Clinton.

"The president feels the' ban on advertising by hard liquor manufacturers is a good thing and has helped protect children," presidential spokesman Mike Mc-Curry said. Valujet seeking to reduce fleet ATLANTA (AP) ValuJet Airlines is talking with federal regulators about reducing the types of aircraft in its fleet, simplifying training and maintenance. Negotiations about shrinking the airline's fleet are under way with the Federal Aviation Administra vindicated," she said Thursday. "It still doesn't take away the shock of losing our jobs, though." In May 1995, Rubbermaid notified its Carson employees trfat the warehouse and office products distribution center would be closed, and all work moved to Rubber-maid's home base in Marysville, Tenn. Carson is 18 miles south of Los Angeles.

Layoffs began in August 1995. Under terms of the arbitration award, Rubbermaid must pay the 65 people what they would have earned from the day they were laid off until Jan. 28, 1997, when Rub-bermaid's contract with USWA expires. Video game maker reorganizes MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) Video-game maker Crystal Dynamics is cutting its workforce in a reorganization that will emphasize the Internet more than stand-alone game machines.

"The board decided we needed to create a plan more in line with today's market," said Ted Ardell, who will replace Crystal Dynamics' chief executive officer Randy Komisar. Crystal Dynamics also is replacing two other top executives and laying off a third of its 102 employees as part of the restructuring. The 4-year-old, privately held company has been a maker of video games sold on CD-ROM disks, played on machines by Sega and 3DO that connect with televisions and on personal computers. The market for CD-ROM games has not grown as fast as hoped. But games on the Internet, the vast global mesh of computer networks, are expected to become a hot market.

Ardell, a general partner in Technology Partners, which helped provide capital for Crystal Dynamics, said the company wanted to restructure while it still had a comfortable amount of cash. The company is still losirig money but has seen steady growth in earnings, he said. ni'T North pitoliing beauty to steamy Las Vegas, Nev. RENO, Nev. (AP) Lake Taboe's south shore is pitcticj its jeenje v.i mild temperatures Las Lrs potential gxmblars who Eve ia siaciirs soctra Nevada to visit the northern part of tte state.

"Our research showed us that ttere't a great opportunity there, particularly' ia the summer," Skip Sayre, executive director of the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, told the Reno Gazette-Journal. The authority lias launched a $150,000 advertising campaign in Las Vegas aimed at drawing people from the desert to the moun-' tain lake. 4 Some Reno-area executives think the valley resorts might benefit from any influx "of Vegas tourists. Others aren't so Michael Houghton, vice president of marketing for the Reno-Sparks Convention Visitors Authority, wonders if people from the gambling mecca might not be drawn more to the beaches than to the casinos. "More of the trip motivator is to get away, to get up to the lake, to be relaxed and be involved in nongaming activities," he said.

Scott Voeller, director of advertising and public relations for the Silver Legacy Resort-Casino in Reno, said it's difficult to ignore the 30 million- plus visitors a year to Las Vegas could be exposed to an alternative or the more than one million people who live in the area. But he said the northern resorts have to determine whether people in the south view Reno and, Tahoe as one destination or two, since Reno might not offer enough of an alternative to Las Vegas to be a draw. Sayre said the ad campaign, financed by Lake Tahoe Gaming Alliance, will run' through September as part of a three-year program. "This year is primarily an effort to educate Las Vegas residents about Lake Tahoe, what's here, what it looks like," he said. r.

The effects of the radio, newspaper and billboard blitz will be evaluated and adjusted after September. rates. The Dow Jones industrial average fell for the fifth straight day, losing about 8'' points, but the week-long slide has amounted to less than 50 points overall. Broader measures were negative too, with the Nasdaq market showing the worst loss after another slide in technology stocks. It was the second straight session that stocks slipped against an improving bond market, where interest rates continued to back away from 13-month highs set earlier in the week.

Despite today's gains, however, bonds still have not fully recovered from their slide following last Friday's surprisingly strong report on May employment. Rubbermaid must pay, arbitrator says LOS ANGELES (AP) Tennessee-based Rubbermaid Inc. must pay 65 former employees about $1.8 million in back wages and compensation for shutting down a Carson warehouse without helping workers find other jobs. Arbitrator Reginald Alleyne, a University of California, Los Angeles law professor, found that Rubbermaid violated its union contract by letting the workers go "without offering to permit its employees to relocate or, in the alternative, offering to compensate the employees appropriately." Most of the workers needed updated skills training. United Steelworkers of America union president Gladys Williams said she was pleased with the award.

Williams is president of USWA Local 451. "We took a stand and we feel itive response from wine-industry representatives. The proposal would interpret Kentucky's tougher new law against mail-order alcohol sales in a way that would protect wine producers from possible federal action against their licenses. "I asked them, now they have visited Kentucky and found were reasonable folks, when are they going to lift the boycott," said Alcohol Beverage Control chairman Greg Ginter said. "They said they could foresee that coming in the near future." Louisville lawyer Jack Underwood, a lobbyist for the San Francisco-based Wine Industry Council, said there were "positive steps taken" last week, and in talks last month with Kentucky wine and spirits wholesalers.

The council is a trade group representing California wine producers. "We may be on the verge of doing a couple of things that might lead to these (wine) companies doing business here," Underwood said. "I believe if we can get the regulatory process started in a satisfactory way, I'm very optimistic that might signal the end of all this." About 50 California wineries announced in April that they would not sell their products in Kentucky following action by the General Assembly here. The legislature made it a felony to ship beer, wine or liquor into the state without going through a wholesale or distributor. The violation previously had been a misdemeanor.

The bill primarily was aimed at beer-of-the-month clubs and other out-of-state beer or liquor retailers. Supporters said it would help make sure Kentucky collected all the taxes it was due, keep alcohol away from minors and out of dry counties. Opponents said it was anti-consumer legislation, designed to ensure a monopoly for wholesalers and distributors. The wine makers complained they couldn't do business any other way in Kentucky because the wholesalers weren't interested in their low volume of sales. And a felony conviction for shipping wine into the state, even if it was done accidentally, could endanger their federal licenses.

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