The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 17

Business Stocks overview Detailed reports Iniide 161.15 -1639 2.60 43 30 Tuesday, July 16, 1996 The Pantagraph 3.01. 4.09 5349.51 629.80 1060.19 Rain finally falls on parched crops Teamsters confab starts rowdy Jeering Hoffa supporters shout down day's speakers The chaos escalated when Carey who has tried to build a reputation as a reformer accepted a voice vote, which appeared close to many in the hall, on approving the official list of delegates to the convention. On that list were a significant number of delegates he had appointed and who support his agenda. The process opened him to criticism from Hoffa's contingent, who said Carey was trampling members' rights by not actually counting the vote tally. Hoffa's backers walked off the convention floor although not out of the building during the afternoon session.

"We're seeing a charade, an ex-See ROWDY, next page By Knight-RidderTribune Service PHILADELPHIA When Ron Carey was elected Teamsters president five years ago, he vowed to return democracy to the corruption-riddled union. And Monday, as the 25th meeting of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters opened at the Convention Center, Carey found out that democracy can be loud, boisterous and occasionally obnoxious. The tumult began as soon as he opened the morning session. He was greeted with a steady roar of shouting and heckling from his opponents, loyalists to James Hoffa, son of the former union president, that drowned out Carey and virtually every speaker who followed. By CHRIS ANDERSON Pantagraph farm editor If you looked hard at some Central Illinois crop fields Sunday, you might have spotted some farmers out dancing up and down the rows of corn and soybeans.

Most fields had not received rain for about 21 days, following an extremely wet May and June. Still, rainfall proved widely scattered ranging from mere dew in northeastern Livingston County to l'2 inches or more in Logan County. "I would say the rain was a multi-million dollar godsend," said Don Meyer, McLean County Extension unit leader. "This is a critical time for the corn crop. July weather makes corn yields." Tassels are emerging in some fields.

Pollination will likely occur in most Central Illinois fields in the next two weeks. Many Logan County fields received an inch to l'2 inches of rainfall. Topsoil moisture, according to John Fulton, Logan County Extension unit leader, had become significantly depleted. Despite some thin and spotty plant stands, Fulton rated the county corn crop as good to excellent. Livingston County growers were not as fortunate.

Rainfall ranged from heavy dew to '4 inch. The driest areas extend from Pontiac to Saune-min and then slightly northwest to Dwight. "The crops went into mud. A lot of fields have had no rainfall since they were planted. Corn plants have been rolling to conserve moisture," said Marion Shier, Livingston County Extension crop specialist, who rated the corn crop poor to good.

News of rain in parts of Illinois and Indiana unnerved investors, sending September corn futures 12 cents lower Monday to per bushel, and August soybeans down .25 cents to $8.38 per bushel. The rains by no means drenched bone-dry fields. And Meyer noted that the rainfall received Sunday will evaporate from soils within two days. The corn crop will continue to need an inch or so of rain per week for the rest of the month. Nationally, the corn crop retained its rating from last week with 61 percent in good to excellent condition.

Soybean status worsened slightly with 55 percent in good to excellent condition compared to 58 percent a week ago. Soybeans, Meyer and Fulton agreed, cannot be judged this early in the season with some fields having been planted just two weeks ago. August weather will influence soybean yields, they said. Fulton urged soybean growers to scout for soybean cyst nematode. He said the pest can easily be seen on roots this year.

Growers should identify fields where cyst nematode is present so they can lab test soil and roots in the fall or spring. Rotating crops and growing resistant varieties may be necessary in fields where nematodes are prevalent. ft 1 (I" nA': Immi AP Above, incumbent Teamsters President Ron Carey gestured while calling the convention to order at the opening of the Teamsters International Convention in Philadelphia Monday. Right, James P. Hoffa, son of former Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa, signed the shirt of Teamsters delegate Bill Kehrer in the delegate area before the opening of the convention.

1 tmml Insurer's hurricane costs at $18 million Lloyd's 'names' OK using profits to fund turnaround By KATHY McKINNEY Pantagraph business writer State Farm Insurance Cos. expects to pay about $18 million to nearly 12,000 North Carolina homeowners with damages from Hurricane Bertha, a spokesman said Monday. The number of damage claims the company expects was reduced from an earlier estimate of 20,000, said State Farm's Chris Brathwaite. Most of the damages are in the Wilmington area, he said. The majority of claims are for such things as damaged roofs and siding and downed trees.

The company has 100 people from around the country in the area helping local claims adjusters and agents. There are catastrophe clajms offices set up in Wilmington, Jacksonville and Greenville, N.C., he said. The catastrophe mobile unit also is set up in the Wilmington area. One of the company's top agents is struction of Lloyd's." If the Lloyd's restructuring plan does not fall in place, the insurance market will likely be insolvent next month and it is unclear how British regulators would handle such an unprecedented crisis. At the Lloyd's annual meeting Monday morning, Rowland urged the investors to vote for what he called the market's only way out of its financial mess.

"The signal of commitment you give this afternoon is important," Rowland said at one of four separate meetings before the vote. Rowland also used the annual meeting to appeal to all investors, including those who lost their fortunes, to agree to a settlement package that will See LLOYD'S, next page LONDON (AP) Lloyd's of London can use millions from recent profits in its bid to bounce back from devastating losses, investors decided Monday in a major victory for the insurance market. The investors, known as "names," voted overwhelmingly to contribute 440 million British pounds, about $682 million, of profits from the years 1993-95. They will get the money back after seven years, but Lloyd's needs the cash now as part of its plan to recover from some $12 billion in losses in the five years ending in 1992. "These results are a ringing endorsement of our plan," said Lloyd's chairman, David Rowland.

"I am very pleased that the membership has shown such massive support for these contributions. They are an essential building block to our plan for the recon Coke plans Olympic ad blitz for Atlanta Games 2 stores set openings at outlet mall By KATHY McKINNEY and PAUL SWIECH Pantagraph business writers The Bloomington-Normal Factory Stores will gain two new stores in the near future. I Kid Spot, part of a family-owned chain called House of Bargains, will open Friday at the outlet mall on the Twin Cities' west side. The mall also announced Monday Linen Barn, which claims to sell brand-name linen at 25 percent to 40 percent off department store prices, plans to open Aug. 15.

Kid Spot will open with temporary, shorter hours. A grand opening is set for early August. Kid Spot's temporary hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The store carries children's clothing from newborn to size 14 to 16 for girls and size 20 for boys, in addition to accessories.

The company "buys overstocks, overruns, buys everything at a discounted price and passes that along to the customer," said Alice Polyak, district manager for Illinois and Michigan. "We carry everything that everybody else does, at considerably lower prices." The Bloomington store will be the 11th in Illinois for the company that has 56 in Michigan and the East, Polyak said. Manager of the new store is Lori Wheeler, who is moving to the Bloomington operation from Joliet, where she was assistant manager. The store will have 10 to 12 employees. Linen Barn will occupy 8,000 Square feet and will have six full-time and four part-time employees.

Its stock will include towels, sheets, blankets, comforters, pillows, table linens, kitchen towels and accessories. Linen Barn is based on the East Coast and has 14 stores nationwide, said Factory Stores manager Eric Samdahl. Linen Barn and Kid Spot will be in the Factory Stores' first phase, which began opening last year. Construction of phase two, which is being built to the north of phase one, should be complete next month. Factory Stores is at 310 Wylie Drive west of Interstates 55-74, between Market Street and College Avenue.

SI 111 IlllliiSI in the Wilmington area, Brathwaite said, and he took more than 100 calls from customers over the weekend. A Florida State Farm agent, who had dealt with hurricane aftermaths in his own state, was on vacation in the area. He took part in some of the agent meetings to tell people what to expect. Hurricane Bertha is another reminder of the need for a long-term plan for how the country deals with disasters, Brathwaite said. The National Disaster Protection Act is before Congress.

The National Disaster Coalition estimates that natural disasters have cost every citizen $500 in the past five years, or a total of $50 billion, he said. There are potential natural disasters that private insurance companies could not handle. For example, he said, quoting industry figures, a hurricane with a magnitude of 5 (Hurricane Andrew was a 4) hitting Miami would cost $52.5 billion. Radisson gets backing for liquor license By KAREN HANSEN Pantagraph staff General Manager Bob Bleavins can cross off one more item on his list of things to do before the Radisson Hotel Conference Center opens next month. The facility received preliminary approval for a liquor license at a Bloomington Liquor Commission hearing Monday.

The City Council will take final action in a week. The license will allow the facility at 10 Brickyard Drive to operate a lounge daily from 4 to 10 p.m., as well as serve guests in their rooms and at hotel events. "We're not operating a bar for a bar's sake," Bleavins said. An adjacent restaurant, T.G.I. Fridays, has a separate liquor license.

He said he hopes the upscale hotel, at Veterans Parkway and Brickyard Drive, will open sometime or to mid-August, but added "it's kind of a day-by-day thing." The facility includes 153 guest rooms; four suites; 40 training rooms; three smaller meeting rooms and a conference center. At the hearing. Mayor Jesse Smart, chairman of the liquor commission, questioned how the hotel will prevent alcohol from bring served to minors when room service is requested. "We don't rent to teen-agers and we have restrictions on the number of people that can be in a room," Bleavins said. In addition, if the hotel staff observes anything out of the ordinary when they deliver liquor, they must make an immediate report to a manager, who will investigate the situation with hotel security.

Smart also asked if the facility is already being booked for engagements, even though it hasn't yet opened. "Our catering director booked four functions this morning before noon," Bleavins said. NEW YORK (AP) Coca-Cola the single biggest sponsor on NBC's Olympics coverage, has a plan it hopes will prevent commercial burnout The soft drink maker plans to run 100 different commercials most of them only once during NBC's 17 days of coverage of the Summer Games starting Friday. Coca-Cola's top marketing executive, Sergio Zyman, said Monday no advertiser has ever run a larger or more diverse group of commercials on a single event He says the approach will heighten the campaign's impact Viewers may appreciate that they aren't being asked to sit through the same commercials endlessly repeated. At the same time, the variety of ads may subtly reinforce Coke's message that the drink has universal appeal.

The Atlanta-based soda marketer has also come up with daily themes for its advertising on each of the 17 days of the Olympics, and has picked commercials for each day that fit the night's theme. There will be Cool Summer Day, Getting in Shape Day, One World See COKE, next page iJi If" A 'V- -1 IP it U- 1 it Kh 1 An ape peered through bars at a bottle of Coca-Cola in this handout photo from an advertisement which will appear on television during the Olympics. Coca-Cola Co. plans to run 100 different commercials during NBC's 17 days of coverage of the games and will run most of them only once, hoping to avoid commercial burnout by viewers. IS MONEY POWER their extra cash to 401(k)s.

His company currently manages about $1 billion in retirement money for 5,000 clients. Scarborough claims his assets under management are growing 75 percent a year. He charges clients a flat fee of $325 a year to manage their 401(k) investments, regardless of the balance in their plan. He recommends, however, that a client have at least $20,000 in plan assets to justify the fee. One of his clients, William Mahoney, thinks the fee is a bargain.

He estimates his account has increased in value by 30 percent to 40 percent over what it would be worth under his own management Scarborough also provides financial and retirement planning, and produces monthly statements for clients. Martin Shapiro, a consultant with Buck, says advisers such as Scarborough are useful because the average 401(k) participant does a poor job of allocating assets and is too conservative when devising an investment strategy. And as the amounts in 401(k) accounts grow, the demand for help is also likely to grow. "There is more information available to the public today than 1 had as a professional five years ago," says James Kruzan, an investment adviser who manages about $100 million in 401(k) assets for 400 clients. "Clients pay us to filter through all this information, to keep track of the economy and management changes, and to adjust their holdings accordingly." Buck Consultants, an advisory firm headquartered in New York City, says the average plan offers six investment options.

But a growing number of companies, particularly large ones, offer a veritable smorgasbord. Ford Motor for example, has 60 mutual-fund choices on its 401(k) menu, and General Motors has 43 for salaried employees. A few 401(k)s even offer self-directed brokerage accounts, giving participants unlimited access to stocks, bonds and funds. But a lack of confidence and time to keep up with the financial markets has created a lucrative niche for firms which are ready to offer 401(k) plan participants a helping hand. J.

Michael Scarborough, a former stockbroker, started his company in 1989 after noticing that many of his clients were steering Companies offering more 401 (k) investment options Since the creation of 401(k) plans 15 years ago, workers have clamored for employers to offer more investment choices. Now they're getting their wish, in spades. In fact, some employees have so many options that they are hiring professional money managers to tell them where to put their money..