Kenosha News from Kenosha, Wisconsin • 22

i Tf Wednesday May 8 1996j 22 JO ft News Jackson calls for boycott of Mitsubishi utwe imagine any of the 50 percent of new car buyers who are women or the men who care about them to buy a product of this kind of Patricia Ireland president of NOW have indicated that they would like to settle the lawsuit Ireland said the company appears' to be following a cop-bad strategy in which some executives give indications that they want to settle while others are more militant in their resistance to settling She said that while her members would engage in informational picketing at Mitsubishi dealerships her board had not authorized a boycott we imagine any of the 50 percent of new car buyers who are women or the men who care about them to buy a product of this kind of Ireland said Mitsubishi tried to sound conciliatory in its statement even as it criticized the boycott effbrt factjs action could unfairly impact and penalize 510 dealerships small independent businesses that are integral parts of their communities and have nothing at all to do with the charges made against our Normal HI said the statement from Gary Shultz vice president and general counsel MMMA has publicly stated one incident of sexual harassment is one too By Mike Robinson Associated Press Writer CHICAGO (AP) Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson stepped up the pressure on Mitsubishi Tuesday asking consumers to stop buying the Japanese products until it settles a sexual harassment lawsuit will organize a massive national Jackson told a news conference held with Patricia Ireland president of the National Organization for Women She said members of her group would join in picketing of Mitsubishi dealerships this coming weekend The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a class-action lawsuit accusing Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America a Normal 111 subsidiary of the Japanese automaker of permitting sexual harassment of hundreds of women at its assembly plant Mitsubishi issued a statement expressing regret over the boycott and picketing threats and said it would fully with the EEOC to resolve this issue fairly and Ireland and Jackson the leader of the civil rights groups Operation PUSH and the National Rainbow Coalition spoke at a news conference after meeting for one hour with EEOC officials in Chicago The EEOC lawsuit lawsuit accuses Mitsubishi of allowing widespread harassment of female production workers including obscene remarks fondling and lewd graffiti The company denies that it tolerates sexual harassment Mitsubishi on April 22 bused more than 2000 of its workers to Chicago for a demonstration against the federal government saying it would fight the lawsuit Since then however company officials Jesse Jackson Patricia Ireland taking over 1 1 stores in Philadelphia -tt Business Digest Greenfield company buying Cinema 5 A Greenfield company is buying the Cinema 5 theater complex at 7310 57th Ave from United ArtistSj Cinescape is purchasing the complex along with four other UA theater complexes in Fox Point and two in Milwaukee Negotiations for the sale reportedly have been underway for 15 months Friday is the tentative date for the sale to be finalized UA is based in Englewood Colo Dollar stores still open pending liquidation MILWAUKEE (AP) All of the A Dollar stores are back open for the time being pending the liquidation of the parent company a spokesman said Tuesday Value Merchants had earlier sought reorganization under Chapter 11 of US bankruptcy laws oh March 21 listing assets of $489 million and liabilities of $588 million It said then that it wanted to find buyers for 115 of the stores But the Milwaukee-based retail parent company Value Merchants Inc entered Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings Friday Statements made during a federal bankruptcy hearing Monday indicated that some stores had closed because employees stopped coming to work after their paychecks bounced and their medical insurance was canceled last week Associates file suit against Helmsley NEW YORK (AP) Two longtime associates of real estate mogul Harry Helmsley charge that Leona Helmsley has stripped the Helmsley-Spear company of up to $40 million to avoid paying them millions of dollars Alvin Schwartz and Irving Schneider filed a $100 million lawsuit Monday alleging that Mrs Helmsley looted the company during the past five years and was rendering it insolvent in order not to pay them what they are owed The dispute grew after her 1993 release from prison where she served 18 months for tax evasion Time Waraertumer merger concerns FTC WASHINGTON (AP) Raising antitrust concerns the staff of the Federal Trade Commission is recommending that the $75 billion proposed merger of Time Warner Inc and Turner Broadcasting System Incbe reworked The staff is concerned that the deal which would create the largest media and entertainment company would hurt competition by giving the merged company too much control over cable programming attorneys close to the matter said Tuesday The objections are significant than just said one of the attorneys who spoke only on condition of anonymity customer recognizes Vasqhes said appeals to time-' pressed shoppers with stores in strip' centers where they can park near the door and get in and out fast has central checkout lines like a retailer but also has some department store amenities such as fine-wood trim and mannequins Stores in the Philadelphia area will give the company a strong mid-Atlantic base Vasques said already has announced plans to open stores in the Washington DC and Charlotte NC'S' markets The mid-Atlantic stores will be served by a distribution center under construe- tion in Winchester Va has opened eight new stores this year It has 136 stores in 13 states plans to open 14 more stores be-i" fore the end of the year The company' plans to open 25 to 30 stores in 1997 in-eluding the ones in Philadelphia strategy of selling popular moderately priced brand-name products should play well against its East Coast competition said Steve Ashley a retail analyst with Cleary Gull Reiland McDevitt Inc MENOMONEE FALLS Wis (AP) Corp hopes the takeover of 11 Philadelphia discount chain stores will give it a strong mid-Atlantic base as it expands on the East Coast The suburban Milwaukee-based retailer has announced plans to renovate and lease 11 of the 26 former Clover Stores a discount chain that had been operated by Strawbridge Clothier of Philadelphia The 11 Clover stores are set to close in the pending sale of Strawbridge Clothier said it will take over the stores in 1997 will hire about 1600 employees for the Philadelphia stores including part-time workers Gary Vasques senior vice president of marketing said in announcing the expansion Monday think a niche for us in Vasques said bring the brands and the value and the service which we feel is Vasques said was not afraid to enter the Philadelphia market despite the struggles of other retailers because it offers a new format are a niche Vasques said offer value and I think the Fleet Financial to pay $4 million to blacks Hispanics Fleet clients will receive up to $15000 each depending on the size of their mortgage The civil rights division sued Fleet Mortgage Corp and simultaneously agreed to settle the case in US District Court in Brooklyn The court is expected to approve the settlement The lawsuit alleges that the company based in Columbia charged African-Americans and Hispanics higher interest rates or up-front fees" called overages for home loans than similarly situated white borrowers The government said this violated the Fair' Housing Act and the Equal Credit Op4 portunity Act The company said it settled to avoids costly litigation and without -admitting any violation of law WASHINGTON (AP) Fleet Financial mortgage subsidiary will pay nearly $4 million to black and Hispanic clients to settle allegations it charged them more for home loans than comparably qualified whites the Justice Department announced today Fleet agreed to establish a $38 million fund to compensate 600 black and Hispanic clients who got mortgages from branches in Westbury NY and Wood-bridge NJ between Aug 1 1993 and June 1 1994 Fleet will spend another $200000 on community outreach and education about home mortgages and will institute a new monitoring system to ensure compliance with a recently adopted policy of fair pricing without regard to race or national origin Kenosha News photo by Brian Passino husband James bought the Cleland Industries 5915 customized polyurethane employs six people The company Its 25th anniversary this new purchase Cleland Industries Inc last week took ownership of a new Computer Numerical Con-trolled-machlne the company's first major purchase for Its tool room In a decade Bea Olsen company president Is shown here with the $48000 machine that was purchased to Increase In-house production Basic rates must be affordable: FCC chief late company In 1979 35th Ave makes castings and Is celebrating year 1 'LIVESTOCK' consumer debt has small gain in March IM If NJationwide the cost of basic service averages about $18 a month according to industry officials Purchases of durable goods I usually expensive items such aS' appliances and automobiles that' often require borrowing accelerated at a 7 percent rate But in March auto loans edged up a barely perceptible 02 percent rate nearly stalling after jumping at a 126 percent rate a-month in February and 99 per-cent in January MILWAUKEE (AP) Milwaukee Stockyards report: Cows: high-yielding cutters 29-34 canners and cutters 26-28 utility cows 33-37 with a few at 38 Holstein steers: high choiceprime 1400-1650 lbs 52-55 with sales above choice Holstein steers 48-52 mixed select and choice 45-48 Bulls: premium bulls 40-42 common to good bulls 37-39 Beef cattle: choice steers 1100-1400 lbs 54-56 choice heifers 54-56 select steers 49-54 select heifers 49-54 Replacement calves: feeder bull calves 90-105 lbs 40-60 feeder bull calves 110-140 lbs 40-60 heifer calves 100-135 Slaughter calves: choice veal 35-55 boning calves 10-20 Sheep and lambs: choice to prime 70-78 good to choice 60 70 cull and lightweight 50-60 ewes and bucks 15-25 estimated receipts: 250 cattle 10Q calves and 5 lambs lOCpalv WASHINGTON (AP) consumer debt rose at a 73 percent annual rate in March the smallest gain in six months held back in large part by lagging automobile loans The Federal Reserve said Tuesday that consumer credit increased by $64 billion about half the $122 billion advance in February It was the smallest increase since installment debt grew $41 billion last September Many analysts had expected growth in consumer credit to slow but still increase by about $10 billion in March The advance boosted total consumer debt to $1054 trillion 13 percent higher than the $933 billion in March 1995 Consumer credit includes all household debt not secured by real estate 'It represents about two-thirds of the economic activity they are in bed read the new (telecommunications) law because the new law says in black and white that it is the law of the land that basic phone service should remain said FCC Chairman Reed Hundt FCC is supposed to make sure that that happens and what going to Roy Neel president of the United States Telephone Association the trade group predicted that competition brought about by the new law will eventually drive local rates down to the doomsday predictions about skyrocketing telephone bills we firmly believe that phone bills wall decline dramatically over the coming The Consumer Federation of America and the American Association of Retired PA sons pro- WASHINGTON (AP) Local telephone companies are proposing to increase the cost of basic local telephone service for most Americans by $10 a month over the next five years a consumer group told federal regulators on Tuesday The companies acknowledge that while basic rates could go up a total bill might not because fees for other services such as caller identification or call waiting would go down The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission which along with individual state regulators would have to approve the plans said rates could go up in some places but that the FCC was committed to ensuring that local phone service remain affordable should take two aspirins and go to bed and while jected the increase after analyzing filings of 13 phone companies and groups made to the FCC Phone company officials say that basic service rates could rise but they add that higher rates would be offset by lower rpices for add-on services Nationwide the cost of basic service averages about $18 a month according to industry officials By Nov 8 a board of federal and state regulators are to recommend how to revamp the existing program and what new telecommunications services if any should be made available to all Americans and how they would be paid for MICHAEL II FAMISH CRA Accounting Taxes Business Individuals 4531 ltd.