The Commercial Appeal from Memphis, Tennessee • 16

IBisimess B1 Memphis Tenn Saturday August 17 1985 Union Carbide takes late-notice blame TVie Commercial Appeal surrounding the storage tank prompting a chemical reaction that blew out three gaskets Anderson promised more information by next week and said a full report to the public is needed to convince residents "that we know what we're Carbide's local supporters plan a march today emphasizing its economic importance to the area and South Charleston Mayor Richie Robb said he will be in the forefront He said the com-iny been responsible and i been good to the ried about their own workers and relied on computer predictions that the white toxic cloud would remain over the plant Instead it settled on nearby homes before community warnings sounded think we should have pulled the cord Anderson said adding that workers no longer will make such decisions have good people with good judgment but I'm taking that judgment away I'm saying 'You pull the cord Anderson was last in West Virginia's "chemical valley" where leak sickened 135 people Anderson also confirmed reports that substantial amounts of methylene chloride a suspected carcinogen escaped during the accident in addition to the toxic pesticide ingredient aldi-carb oxime Early company reports dwelled on the aldicarb oxime However Anderson said chemical reactions could have occurred in the air and that officials know until next week precisely what substances settled on Institute a town of 3100 people Gov Arch Moore said after meeting with Anderson that Carbide suffers from an gap" 20-minute gap (in alerting the public) contributes to the question of credibility" Moore said the public perception and in my perception Carbide certainly fumbled the Carbide spokesmen have accounted for the reporting delay by saying supervisors were wor Virginia after a leak of methyl isocyanate from the company's plant in Bhopal India Killed more than 2000 people last December The Institute plant is the only US producer of MIC but Anderson said at the time that a comparable accident in Institute was Yesterday he said no comparisons could be made between Bhopal and this week's leak was not a life-threatening he said Carbide spokesmen have said steam somehow entered a jacket By KELLY KISSEL CHARLESTON WVa (AP) The chairman of Union Carbide Corp acknowledged yesterday that its Institute plant was too slow to warn the public about a poison gas leak and said he has told employees in the future to the cord" first and worry later about whether it was necessary rather be accused of crying wolf than be accused of not doing the proper thing at the right Warren Anderson said during a visit to West Low-income feared facing a rental crisis Rent increases faster than Income In 1983 compared with a dacada earlier median groaa rent (rent plus cost of utilities and fuels) rose from $133 to $315 a 137 percent increase Unfortunately the median family Income for renters only increased 79 percent from $7200 to $12900 MEDIAN DROSS RENT VS MEDIAN FAMILY INCOME serious attention to low-income housing needs" The study suggested aggressive program to rehabilitate existing rental housing stock and a of higher levels of federally subsidized housing In Business Haulers return to jobs ahead of vote count More than 20000 striking Teamster haulers and yard workers will go back to work tomorrow although their votes on a proposed three-year contract renewal will not be counted until around mid-September the union said yesterday The 18-member general executive board of the Teamsters its top governing body gave rare authorization for an end to the strike before rank-and-file approval of a proposed contract a union spokesman said Picket lines around auto car-hauling terminals will come down at noon tomorrow local time and drivers maintenance and warehouse workers will be told to go back on duty pending the outcome of the mail ballot referendum Negotiators for the Teamsters and the industry reached agreement Wednesday on a tentative three-year pact to settle the strike which began July 26 That pact was approved Friday by 91 of 92 union local leaders assembled to decide whether to recommend its ratification by the rank and file Kizer firing results in a lawsuit Peter A Kizer filed a lawsuit against the Evening News Association and its board of directors alleging breach of contract for firing him as vice president and head of the Broadcast Division The ENA which publishes the Detroit contract for firing him as vice president and head of the tudy andn I MEDIAN FAMILY FORNENTEKS In dollars: MEDIAN MOSS RENT In dollars: 0 150 200 Ht I 300 250 11400 7400 I 13400 I 9400 By DAVID ANDERSON WASHINGTON (UPI) The nation faces a serious shortage of rental housing that could become a crisis for low-income families by the end of the decade unless the government encourages and provides affordable housing a new study said yesterday "Prospects for providing standard affordable rental housing for low-income households at mid-decade in the 1980s are discouraging and there appear to be no developments on the horizon to alter this appraisal" the study said The 41-page study Housing in the 1980s: Prospects for Low-Income Housing was published by the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials an organization of individuals and agencies involved in local housing and community development programs may be that a rental housing crisis which was debated but did not occur in the late 1970s will finally erupt in the last years of the the study said appears to be the sad fact but the best hope for JEEESPS 73 74 78 77 70 80 73 74 70 77 78 $1 maintaining a home has risen steadily since the 1970s placing pressure on the existing rental housing inventory It also said 600000 new units annually are needed to meet shortfalls in rental housing construction caused by the low levels of construction from 1980 to 1982 The 1984 level was 477000 units mostly in the high-rent category According to the study some social and demographic trends favor rental housing but affordability and financing obstacles" are impeding rental housing development The administration has long insisted that there is no overall rental housing shortage and has tailored aid to low-income families to a voucher plan in which families seek housing on the private market rather than looking to new construction News and has several other media holdings fired Kizer for providing financial information to a company engaged in a hostile bid to acquire ENA 4 $11700 81 Baginning In 1981 data taken every two yaara NOTE: Data on ranters are tor units on tower than 10 acres and financial data is unadjusted SOURCE: JS OiplnlR tl Hpyplwi MS UlftM Dmllpwm InfoGrapiuct Nwi America lyndieplp 1SSS ComputerCraft closes stores in consolidation ComputerCraft isn't the only retail chain experiencing hard times Many other computer retailers nationwide have closed -stores or reported flat to declining sales experts said Computer sales have slowed dramatically i January said Richard Matlack pr dent of InfoCorp a Cupertino Calif re- Dollar mostly lower in listless trade The dollar was mostly lower in listless trading as dealers considered new reports on the sluggishness of the US economy Gold rose in reaction to developments in South Africa Scripps Howard buys in Florida Scripps Howard owner of The Commercial Appeal has purchased The Polk County Shopper Lakeland Fla from Thomson Newspapers The sale included the plant and equipment of the commercial printing operation in Polk County New loans to help Chile repay debts Loans of S821 million to Chile were announced by the International Monetary Fund the key to a package aimed at helping the military government of President Augusto Pinochet keep up payments on its $21 billion debt Much of the sum is owed to uS banks Chile will have up to 10 years to repay some of the fund's money Interest rates are expected to average about 8 percent a year considerably less than commercial banks would charge Chile already owes the fund about $795 million Icahn vows to oppose Texas Air bid Financier Carl Icahn who is competing with Texas Air Corp for control of Trans World Airlines Inc said he would oppose any offer" Texas Air might make for TWA Icahn owns 4554 percent of common stock and has offered $24 a share in cash and securities for the remainder TWA and Texas Air had agreed in June on a merger in which Texas Air would have paid $23 a share in cash and securities for TWA but Icahn renewed his bidding for the airline Texas Air then increased its offer to $26 a share Cotton futures dip as Danny fades Cotton futures prices fell sharply on the Cotton Exchange in New York as threats of crop damage from Hurricane Danny dissipated Rick Lorusso a cotton analysUn New York with Shearson Lehman Brothers said prices rallied earlier in the week on concern that the hurricane might move inland and damage the crop But prices fell 06 cents to 104 cents per pound yesterday after the hurricane dwindled to a tropical depression By MIKE BRENNAN ComputerCraft has closed two Memphis stores and plans to consolidate area operations at its Poplar Avenue headquarters a company official said yesterday just a said district manager Steve Tune of spreading our resources over three locations concentrating on creating a superstore ComputerCraft a national computer retail chain is consolidating many other metropolitan stores around the country Tune said principally because consumer computer safes have dropped off sharply this year Business sales remain strong he added consumer base has Tune said "We just couldn't the added expenses of maintaining all three stores We're going back to a business (customer) Tune denied the store closings are part of a general computer retail industry consolidation that has gradually been creeping search company The average computer selling price also is on the rise That means more higher-priced business computers and fewer lower-priced home computers are being sold Tune predicted the Memphis consolidation will shave overhead expenses by about 25 percent Only four employees will be laid off he said because all three stores have been operating with smaller staffs since earlier this summer when ComputerCraft was forced to cut employment The company will continue leasing its Union Avenue and Covington Pike stores until other arrangements can be made Tune said Signs have been posted at both locations informing customers that the Poplar store remains open Tune said the Poplar superstore will focus on providing computer networking and other office automation products and services Computer software and hardware inventories will be beefed up he said and customer service will be emphasized UPI through Memphis Last year Executive Computer and Savvy Learning Center closed Last month Entre Computer also closed But declining computer sales and high overhead costs have produced multimillion dollar losses for ComputerCraft during the past year according to company financial reports TV firm plans sale of shares Channel 30 has an involvement By DAVID FLAUM TVX Broadcast Group Inc the parent company of WMKW-TV Channel 30 in Memphis plans to sell shares of its stock to the public for the first time The Virginia Beach Va-based firm has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to get clearance to sell 2 million shares of stock at $14 to $16 per share according to a preliminary prospectus If approved stock will be issued in early or mid-September stid William Calliott executive vice president of Investment Corporation of Virginia a Norfolk Va investment firm that is one of the underwriters of the issue Timothy Lynch general manager of WMKW and Kemmons Wilson minority owner of the station said yesterday the stock issue would not affect operations of the Memphis station Minority owners headed by Wilson have agreed to exchange their 49 percent interest in the station for TVX stock he said The prospectus said that exchange will be for 300000 shares In addition Wilson will own 96673 shares of TVX stock after the public offering and his three adult sons and two sons-in-law will own 12245 each the prospectus said Of the money to be raised by the stock offering $16 million will be used to repay loans and $36 million will be used to redeem preferred stock The rest will be used for working capital the prospec- Figures in that document show the firm lost about $18 million from 1980 to 1984 TVX showed a profit of $61 million for the first half of 1985 It earned about $10 million on the sale in June of WRLH-TV Richmond Va the prospectus said to anticipated continuing losses from exisiting stations and construction or acquisition costs and initial working capital requirements for new stations TVX will continue to need substantial amounts of the document added In addition to WMKW the company owns WTVZ in Norfolk-Virginla Beach WNRW in Winston-Salem Greensboro NC and WCAY in Nashville It has an agreement to buy WLFL in Raleigh-Durham NC is trying to get extension of a construction permit it acquired to build WJMT in Pine Bluff-Little Rock has agreed to buy a construction permit for WNYB in Buffalo NY and has 49 percent Interest with an option to buy 31 percent more in KRRT in Kerrville-San Antonio Texas the prospectus said 1 Housing Starts Seasonally adjuatad annual rates in millions i Another disappointing month racked up in housing starts Every report has been below market said David Wyss financial analyst at Data Resources Inc a private forecasting firm housing start number is just the latest evidence that things are not going to pick up in the second half the way people had id" Commerce Department report showed that new housing was built at the income gains they did early In the recovery and they are beginning to worry about the said James Christian chief economist for the US League of Savings Institutions The administration however maintained that further gains in housing activity can be expected A strong housing sector is one of the keys to the forecast that growth will rebound to a Spercent annual rate in the second half of the year five times the pace of the first six months levels of consumer confidence and small increases in new home prices relative to other price a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 165 million units in July as a slight advance in single-family construction figures cloud hopes for a rebound By MARTIN CRUTSINGER WASHINGTON (AP) Housing construction fell 24 percent in July the third consecutive month of weakness as residential building starts continued to disappoint those looking for a rebound spurred by falling interest rates In other pessimistic news the government also said yesterday that US factory operating rates were frozen in July for the fourth straight month as US manufacturers kept suffering from foreign competition The latest reports reinforced recent news on unemployment auto sales retail sales and business inventories all of which have pointed to continued sluggishness for the economy and not the rebound hoped for by the Reagan administration cant remember a week when we have had this much bad news come in Malcolm Baldrige said in a statement was overshadowed by a steep drop in apartment building The July decline followed a huge 13 percent fall in May and a weak 08 percent June increase This weakness has been occurring against a backdrop of declining mortgage rates which normally would lead to a rebound in housing activity Fixed-rate mortgages now stand at about 1225 percent down from a 1984 high of 152 percent However some analysts said the benefits from falling interest rates are being overridden by the weakness in the overall economy have fairly high levels of consumer debt consumers are not But many private analysts are predicting growth in the second half of the year will be at just half the rate forecast by the administration The Federal Reserve said U5 factories mines and utilities operated at 808 percent of capacity in July the fourth consecutive month that the operating rate has been stuck at this level While autos and steel showed good tins in July these increases were eld back by widespread declines in other industries In the housing report the Commerce Department said the decline stemmed from a 7J percent drop in construction starts for apartments with five or more units This followed a 56 percent May decline.