The News and Observer from Raleigh, North Carolina • 29

The News Observer Tuesday Nov 301993 Today Market Watch More mutuals: Mutual fund sales rose in October as investors bought more than a billion dollars' worth a day Page 2D WHAT THE INDEXES DID STOCK QUOTES PAGE SD Hang up: If you get a cold call to invest in unit trusts just hang up It isn't worth the risk Jane Bryant Quinn Page 2D Horror story: Michael Schrage's journal from the smart house of the future could be fact or fiction Technology Innovation Page 2D PC competitor: IBM's Ambra unit is shipping its first notebook PCs for the US market Page 8D DOW -615 closed at 367790 AM EX -278 closed at 46069 500 -116 closed at 46190 NYSE -054 closed at 25507 NASDAQ -333 closed at 75154 WILSHIRE $10138 dosed at $4581621 billion Briefly riangle store in Target plans first Gary mm' Crossrocds1 Target-tog Cary Target Stores Inc reportedly wants to build its first store in the Triangle at Walnut Plaza a planned shopping center oft Dillard Road near Crossroads Plaza Target Stores Inc Parent company: Dayton Hudson Corp Headquarters: Minneapolis Revenue: 104 billion (1992) Stores: 554 States: 32 Stores in NC: 5 (All in Charlotte area) Employees: 100000 Average store size: 100000 square feet ing its first push into the Triangle Home Depot's arrival was reported in July Target wouldn't confirm its intention to share space in the 219600-square-foot shopping center to be called Walnut Plaza But details were contained in a site plan filed by landscape architects Jerry Turner Associates Inc of Raleigh on behalf of the two companies Home Depot spokesman Nell Parker said the chain has the Cary site under contract but has not closed on the property pending completion of the public approval process She said the business also is interested in a site near Capital Crossings and in the Durham area off US 15501 The plan was filed with Cary A site plan filed with the town snows the discount chain would share space in a new shopping center with Home Depot BY Linda Brown Douglas STAFF WRITER CARY Target Stores Inc has revealed a plan to open a store in a new Cary shopping center the first of at least two stores the retailer is expected to build in the Triangle Target a division of Dayton Hudson Corp in Minneapolis has proposed opening its Cary store in a center it would share with Home Depot the Atlanta-based hardware chain that is likewise mak 5 kmerkcm Airlines' Customers AA Flight Attendants HER STYLE: SIMPLE ik on American Airlines and pulled ZJtf fit 4 Triangle jobless rate rises slightly The Triangle's unemployment rate in October rose slightly from its September level the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina reported Monday The Raleigh-Durham area's rate of 28 percent compared with 27 percent in September The figures aren't adjusted for seasonal variations in employment Post-Thanksgiving sales up survey says Retail sales for the day after Thanksgiving were up 67 percent in the Carolinas over the same time last year according to Tele-Check Services Inc a Houston-based check acceptance company As a whole the Southeast saw a modest gain of 3 percent which is attributed in part to strong retail sales in 1992 that resulted from the surge of spending in Florida after Hurricane Andrew Nationally sales were up 5 percent TeleCheck said Delta to lay off 36 more pilots ATLANTA Delta Air Lines Inc said it plans to lay off 36 pilots on New Year's Day and hopes the cuts will be the last in a string of pilot firings The nation's third-largest carrier struggling to return to sustained profitability said it may begin a "few recalls" of fired pilots as early as next summer The Jan 1 layoffs will bring to 448 the number of pilots fired since the summer Delta in its quest to snap a two-year $1 billion losing streak said in June it would fire about 6 percent or 600 of its 9300 pilots Delta said greater-than-expec-ted attrition and scheduling changes resulted in fewer pilot cuts than originally anticipated Hughes gets BellSouth contract GERMANT0WN Network Systems said it was awarded a multiyear contract to provide cellular networking equipment to BellSouth Cellular Corp a unit of BellSouth Corp Financial terms weren't disclosed Hughes a unit of GM Hughes Electronics said it will provide its GMH 2000 cellular network in more than 50 markets in the US Southeast including Orlando and Jacksonville Fla Birmingham and Mobile Ala and New Orleans By winning the contract Hughes becomes a bigger player in the US cellular equipment market which is valued at about $10 billion annually Hughes competes against several other companies that make cellular equipment in the United States ing American Telephone Telegraph Co Motorola Corp and Sweden's LM Ericsson BellSouth Cellular has more than 18 million customers in 15 states BellSouth Corp provides telecommunications services in nine Southeastern states Court to hear Paramount appeal WILMINGTON DeL The Delaware Supreme Court formally agreed Monday to hear an appeal by Paramount Communications Inc and Viacom Inc of a lower court ruling that has blocked their proposed merger The court also set Dec 9 for oral arguments after receiving written assurances by Viacom and hostile bidder QVC Network Inc that they would maintain their bids for the moviemaker and publisher until after it rules Paramount which also is appealing the Chancery Court decision assured the court it will defer considering whether to hold talks with QVC until after the decision Vice Chancellor Jack Jacobs ruled last week that Paramount had improperly rejected QVC's latest buyout offer FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS town planners and must be approved by the Town Council The center would be close to Crossroads Plaza near Walnut Street and Dillard Road The Cary Town Council will consider the center Dec 9 said Susan Harrison a Cary town planner Target also is expected to build a store in the new Capital Crossings shopping complex near Mill-brook Road and Capital Boulevard Construction in that center is under way Charlotte's Faison Associates is developing Capital Crossings Paul Bell of Faison would not say Monday if Target will locate in the center but other real estate See Target page 3D QUIET STRENGTH together a flight attendants union that good policy to have unless you're in a burning building" she said The flight attendants union went on strike against American Nov 18 in a contract dispute involving pay health insurance staffing Baby Bells Cable mergers may doom some siblings By Edmund Andrews THE NEW YORK TIMES Frederic Salerno vice chairman of the Nynex Corp has spent the last 18 months gearing up for the fight of his career Shuttling between his office in White Plains and his investment bankers at Morgan Stanley he has been poring over maps studying demographics and using computer models to size up the competition in Nynex's New York and New England markets His conclusions have been sobering "If we do nothing we can Denise Hedges took The News Obser ver Investors to buy WKFT-TV The sale would turn control of the Fayetteville TV station over to a firm whose top officers are in the National Congressional Club BYCE Yandle STAFF WRITER An investor group that includes the top officers of the National Congressional Club has agreed to buy WKFT-TV an independent television station based in Fayetteville for $44 million The sale if approved by the Federal Communications Commission would turn control of WKFT-TV Channel 40 over to Allied Communications Co Inc whose officers include Tom Ellis and Carter Wrenn Ellis is chairman and Wrenn the executive director of the Congressional Club a political action group known for its financial support of conservative candidates and causes The new owners also would include Robert Holding an Angier real estate and advertising executive with ties to the Congressional Club and Gene Bohi a veteran High Point broadcasting executive "Our goal is to make some money" Holding said "We've been jealous of all those liberals owning television stations and making money" Holding said he doesn't plan any major programming changes initially The station is part of the Charlotte Hornets basketball network but it mainly offers syndicated reruns and movies Holding said his group may be interested in affiliating with either Time-Warner or Paramount Communications both of which have stated they plan to start new broadcast television networks within the next two years The station is owned by Elbert Boyd president of Boyd Associates a Raleigh import and export company Boyd bought WKFT out of bankruptcy court three years ago for $14 million As part of the sale he will become a shareholder in Allied Communications See WKFT page 3D at each other phones and a number of futuristic services To the east on Long Island US West and Southwestern Bell of San Antonio are vying to buy the Cablevision Systems Corp which serves about 2 million customers in Nynex's market Finally Bell Atlantic of Philadelphia is buying Tele-Communications Inc the country's biggest cable company which has systems sprinkled across New York and Massachusetts Ten years after the breakup ot the old Bell System the seven Baby Bells are rapidly dividing into hunters and prey Led by Bell Atlantic and US West the hunters are using their alliances with See Phones page 3D THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Union leader proves tough adversary I was never really considered a rabble-rouser but at the same time I would pursue problems and try to get people on board to in fact understand the nature of the problem and support and help in getting it fixed Denise Hedges By Susan Hightower THE ASSOCIATED PRESS EULESS Texas Her gaze is wide and steady her speech thoughtful and deliberate her broad smile in ready reserve She keeps one cool mien The only sign of strain in leading 21000 scared and scattered flight attendants in a strike against American Airlines is seen in the hands of Denise Hedges when she twists and wrings her papers or a napkin "I don't operate in a panic mode" said the 46-year-old Hedges president of the Association of had lacked unity and scheduling The strike ended last week after both sides agreed to binding arbitration at President Clinton's request though not before shredding American Airlines' flight schedule and stranding tens of thousands of passengers leading into the Thanksgiving travel crunch Hedges who was born in Water-bury Conn was exposed to labor unions as a child growing up in Stamford with her three younger brothers Her father was co-founder of a local teachers union See Hedges page 4D eating away expect an erosion in our residential telephone market share of 40 percent over the next decade" he said That translates to a loss of $16 billion in annual revenue Alternatively if Nynex spends billions a year on fiber optics and video technology it will lose "only" 10 percent of the telephone market but may make back the difference in cable television Who could possibly grab more than $1 billion in annual sales from one of the seven regional Bell companies? Answer: another Bell company or several of them in league with cable television operators In Manhattan and Queens US West of Englewood Colo has hooked up with Time Warner to upgrade cabje TV lines for tele Durham firm survives '60 Minutes' broadside Professional Flight Attendants in the midst of the recent five-day walkout "The way that they teach the kids to stop look and listen before going to railroad tracks it's a when the company and several of its competitors were skewered by Wallace in the show's opening segment The piece featured several tragic cases in which patients were misdiagnosed by emergency room doctors under contract to Coastal or one of its competitors Perhaps most damaging was the case of an infant in Georgia who died of meningitis after she was diagnosed by an emergency room physician under contract to Coastal as having a throat infection The doctor who admitted to Wallace he often "didn't have a clue what I was doing" later gave See Coastal page 3D By Bob Williams STAFF WRITER DURHAM Someone from "60 Minutes" is on the phone There are few phrases that can strike more fear in the heart of the average corporate executive The folks at Coastal Healthcare Group in Durham are no exception Coastal executives learned six months ago that "60 Minutes" correspondent Mike Wallace was working on a story about the credentials of hospital emergency room workers and doctors many of whom were under contract to Coastal So it came as no surprise to Coastal officials Sunday night.