The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 25

WEDNESDAYAUGUST16 Vw giant YRC WDridwIdi Inc among If lop 100 companies renter acMsor 1 inwrtnwnU In $Jn MomaUon tochnotegy-anabiad a Now York manager af aachanga-tradad funds INC High-interest loans in anticipation of tax refunds A5 Jill inf TIm pmslon tand pracUca potentially puts flMBmuflrenmreflw nfi aflulf I -mvviunmi niKa OyKSKBBAKBI The AmocMmI Ms RBaaUMK NC I Managen of IVy three state penrion funds Ink with holdings in HU Block Inc urged du financial Tuesday to refixm its practice of ghr- 1 1 Li aDR ffwWiasff floHH ID IIIUUlipUUD oHederal tax refunds North Caroiins Treasurer Ridurd Moore New Ybrk ConqXroOer Alan Heveai and Connecticut Ibeasurer Denise Nqipier also requested an immediate meeting with Block'S board "We are concerned that continuing to sell UgMnferest loans to the customers least able to afford them is not only a dubious practice but potentially jdaces our wngtoim invest- menta at the group wrote The states hold L6 million shares of raw Block stock about 0l5 percent of the compiany 322 million outstanding shares North Car-aUna's retirement IwLfc more $7millkiwordi of Block stock aocording to the treasurer office 1 Hu company awards foons to customers set to receive a federal tax refund Hu loans generally last about 10 days be fore du refund arrives and can cany anmialimi interest rates as high as TOO percent Moore said About 79 percent of all people who use the loans are low-income Moore AUi "If you continue to abuse your customers the customers will no longer stay with he said "We want to ensure that in this tax season North Carolinians get treatment that's fair responsible and Block spokeswoman Kate O'Neill Ranker said that du Kansas Eompany would meet Moore but mat Block receive his request until shortly after he began a' news conference to announce du letter No time or location for the meeting has been chosen she said Block goes to great lengths to en JUNJI KUROKAWA I THE ASSOCIATED PRESS in i rSTARWATCTTcONSUMER) Sj jf i--'V- Vv- 8oogfelicfcanat)lnguisritoj And and print couponi from msrvs diants ktad tha onina steitii laadart Indte of toed budnassre haw sarvfea li among a daw-J iff fire features dssJgnad to attract'2 more traffic to GoogtrtWsbsKa Mow than 20000 couponi 3T Ware avattdjJe Tlwsday whan tb sarvtoa mada Its dabut on Goo licgfrt popular mapping sarvfea flnltld ftoupan supply Is bring provkfed by VWpak Direct lag Sgatoatowhlcb hai been t4mainfl anwtopos stuffed with bfcoupons and discount ofhw tor Drag directory flaws A federal prescription drag directory Ms to lid more dun $000 medications but catalogs tens of thousands more that am no longer on die market according to a report HseFood and Drag Admlnfe-trallon directory is neither cooqjlete nor accurate accord 1 fay to the inspector general of du Department of HabMnd Hu directory is meant to help du FDA and other govern- mwt ynfiH in Imvffing iwaHtfcWHyliig mariiraHnn errors and co The FDA said iti agreed with the report i working to fix du problems it identified including makhvit easier for OOflDfMh niesto mJimU llatlnn mum dbudk loom patterns orerusa nonpreM til I I Ai senpoon pMKMfi in Qw uvm rufiWm immiiiinir JENceeaaigmcommanasa notes torthruBSlrKiudtooxexoWn and napwaan can toad to utoarfc stomach btoadhgi The practfei may occur whan patients And i ttw pwpsr dose doasrtt feMnSC 4 pdn or whan pedants cant afford NGSBioaocnrfcpvisNfcnm y- Thawsaarch to bit pubfchad bi i thaSaptompar ksua of thaAo--': nab of Emergency Medklne survayad 546 prijanfcil Auto surrey Foyota Motor Corpi led a inrfnmrmfcrtMi(iklwn industrywide quality improvements helped automakers earn their highest maria ever from consumer lbyotascoredan87oda 100-point scale fix the second year a row on the American rudnmff MAftim TnHw -The overall index rose L3per-cent to a record 8L Hyundai Motor Go which had du Indus1' tryt lowest rating in 1994 chmbed to within three points oflbyotaat84 The index was released Ibea--day by the Unhwrsly of MkM- Gonaral Motors Cotpife Buick with an 86 was du top-rated US brand Gift Cadillac scored an 84 The lowest scoter with 77 each were Ford Motor Co's AGfe Jeep and Kh Motets flagship tirand puHng its first appearance in the index I nnwtwssrvtcas vohlclM scored tfw highest In a University of Michigan customer satis-' ImELm kjiAM IahI Aom raciion pone rov jivp end Kle recelvod the lowest sure that customers understand du costa and terms of the loans which OT wided by a third party O'Neill "What's interesting to us the North Carolina Banking Commission has been improving those loans fix 16 she said Moore was chairman of that commission for six of those years and as for as Block knows neither objected to nor voted against the terms of die refund loans when those were up for regulatory review she said Also Block's loon fees in North are among the lowest charged by 800 loan providers in the state and Block Is unaware of a single complaint about them made by any consumer dure O'Neill Raubcr said TJu Start Gam Mayor contributed to ASife ms report on rise By OENE MEYER Tht Kansas CXy Star Low-income and minority homeowners in Kansas City and elsewhere run a far greater risk than their neighbors of losing their homes through foreclosure' according to a national mmrmmity wwniwlinn The national Amoctatlon of RMbmi Now better known as ACORN said in a study released Tuesday that disadvantaged homeowners in Kansas City and 129 other dries aaoiu the US were more than twice as likely as toe general popula-tkm to have an adjustable rate mortgage on which payments are being driven higher by interest istes Small-business owner and ACORN activist Ded Coker of Kansas City Kao said at a news conference called to discuss die findings that even some homeowners who we- -rent in foreclosure might lose their homes if rising mortgage payments forced than to selL Coker said die was-being forced to put her home of 11 years on me market because her house payments had jumped from $415 a month when she refinanced three -years ago to $768 a month after the late increase in her adjus- table rate loan' "And it can still go higher Coker said The ACORN study found 1 that one in five Kansas City area homeowners were making payments on higher-cost sub-prime mortgages but that African-American borrowers were 44 times more likely than whites to receive the loans Latino borrowers were 2J tunes more likely Kansas City KCWEwont air UPN shows much longer: That network and the WB are folding and select programs from the two will air beginning next month on tie new CW network Liepold sold his interest in KCWE in 1999 but remains station president "KCWE has come up and become profitable about as quickly as any station and Hearst gets a lot of credit" Liepold sad Roach Aaron Barnhart at (S16) 234-4790 or TVBamxom No ptsass A muslrisn triad out a classic Otoson modal white panuhifl tha Instruments at tha recant ftafcyo guitar Show Qultara from UL-basid Otoson and Fendar domlnf ttia Japanesa marfcat a Uie flnitar ilsdf is an art fixm very stnxy associitEd with flu ing rocker Tkk Matsumotob signature Lre Paul in qiedal shades such as canary yellow and sunburst is so said Vudd Yunagudu a 19-yearold student who bought a $5400 Tkk Matsumoto Gibson on three-month credit "I open the case and look at in and apt so Gibson is one of (he huge successes izuki an editor at Guttor among American exports which have major Japanese publics- over yean met mixed results in du more Gibson and Bender finicky Japanese market US-made cars and nee Med miserably while UYffl jeans and Appla iPods are hits In feet Gibson does better in Japan against Japanese brands than it does against those same competitors in du United States said Chief Executive Henryjuszkiewicz "Theguitar itself is an art form very stroogly associated with du Jusrkuwkz said "The music thafs played on the guitar is very strongly associated with the US- "Foreign markets tend to revere our brand much more so than the domestic market where we might be considered just another Fender Musical Suzuki an editor at Guitar more Gibson and Fender sell in Japan far in than guitars dominate in Gibson is making elsewhere where demand United States and twice as biggest European market However ou Nashville guitar maker does not makes a range of guitars Japanese market indud-' YUM KAOEYAMA TOKYO The hand-aged Gibson Les is a iqnca of the 1960 FSul but an American master i made it exactly the way du guitar would look today --That is corrqrletewim aging cracked paint and tiny dents from scuffs and scratches Whafk more du instrument is not sold anywhere but in guitar-loving Ja-' pa where du entire Hmited edition of thie electric guitars is sold out un-' deriining this nation'ii never-ending affair with American guitars Never mind drat Jinan has its own I guitar brands including Yb-i and Runaz No JiqwHnade guitar has du ring of an American icon' -ml Gluon gM 1 Corpus biggest competitor far Japu may be snomer American conquny famous fix deo- trie guitars Instm-mfintsCoipL Nobuaki Magazine i tioo said that electric guitars not just domestically made The Americans be said Although marketing pushes pan outside the large as its Grot Britain Ham-based disclose numbers Gibson soldy for the released KMBG-TV toe ABC affiliate and bad applied for an exemption to buy KCWR The two stations have a history that goes baric to KCWEh embryonic days In 1995 a former Sprint executive Robert liepdd held toe buBdhw permit fix a new TV station through bis entity TV 32 Inc But he had ran out of money and was rapidly running out of time Liepold hired a broker who interviewed 50 investors none of whom expressed Interest in Thesday Hearst-Aigyie owns market leader 32 to Owner of KMBC can acquire KCWE government says fmanrinx his venture Finally in late 1995b Hollywood power couple Sonia and David Salz-man bought a minority interest in TV and Hearst agreed to supply equipment financing and programs the new station The station and -Hearst signed an agreement and: KCWB as it was tfaenlmown signed on as a WB network affiliate in 1996 FCC approval of the deal this week cited Heanft: involvement with HCWE tiiat lenhanced both program-' ming diversity and in By AARON BARNHART TIwKmMCItyStw' After living togetoer fix more than a decade two focal- TV stations finally-received thp government's bkssmz to net monied NCWFntnendy a UPN affiliate' Can be acquired by HaarsfriAryyta TilayMoa toe Ftlaml Conwiunlca-tions Commission ruled in an order mAh I 4.