The San Bernardino County Sun from San Bernardino, California • Page 16

Markets: Stocks and mutual Businessmoney Maria De Varenne Business Editor (909) 386-3852 Fax (909) 885-8741 The Sun Page B8 Saturday November 6, 1993 Inside: Time for beautification contestB5 0.73 18.45 5.73 2.20 Ffflmnra hpltqsdcdltq woods NYSE 254.20 AM EX 475.33 NASDAQ 762.99 DOW 3643.43 Dow closings last 24 days 3680 3660 3640 VV 3620 3600 A scheduled to begin next year and will be completed in 10 years. The county planning commissioners voted 7-0 Thursday to change the zoning on the 9,600 acres from resource conservation to agriculture. San Bernardino County Agricultural Commissioner Edouard Layaye said the seven-year-old farming operation has proven successful. "It seems like they're doing very well," he said. Although the region only receives three to four inches of rain annually, surrounding mountains receive up to 20 inches of rain a year.

The Cadiz farm, which includes 26,000 acres of mostly flat desert land, has tapped into the underground runoff from the mountains. The farm uses a drip irrigation system that reduces the amount of water that would be lost to evaporation through sprinklers or flooding the fields. Development agriculture chief executive officer, said the Cadiz Valley's abundant underground water source, and a climate of cool winter nights and hot summer days, has made the farm successful. "The long term value of the land is in the value of the water," he said. "We believe the micro-climate at Cadiz is excellent." The expansion includes: Building dormitories for 1,150 seasonal workers.

Adding spaces for 13 mobile homes and building 192 housing units for permanent workers. Starting a natural gas-operated electricity generating station. Creating a refrigeration complex for storing crops until they are shipped. Brackpool said the expansion is County planners approve the addition of 8,200 acres to the Cadiz Land grape and citrus operation. By John Whitehair Sun Business Writer Cadiz Land Co.

which is growing 1,440 acres of table grapes and citrus crops in a desert valley east of Barstow, has received county planning commission approval to add more than 8,200 acres to its operations. If the county supervisors approve the project Nov. 16, Cadiz Land Co. will expand its farm 560 percent to 9,600 acres, company officials said. The county planning commission's approval helped push the company's stock up 25 cents Friday to $4 per share, its highest level in 52 weeks.

Keith Brackpool, the company's TWT FMTWT FMT WT FMTWT FMTWT To Neediest Bristol a Mtns. alB Marble yi Iro Mtns. Bagdad va5-Amboy jHwy. Cadiz Marine COrpS I I Training Center I Py. Twentynine "5, an Palms Bernardino i Co.

0.03 0.31 0.12 5.40 -JT CZj oTl bond dollar gold 42 gallon 30 year u.s. in yen new york 17.09 6.20 108.30 377.10 Business in brief SUN STAFF ends second heaviest Rally i Employment trading week on Big Board tjl'm the drum major trying to bring I people forth. I think not only myself but others need to be Cecil Ford Victorville resident and former manager at Toys Us distribution center in Rialto r. 4 VA ti 0 GINA FERAZZIThe Sun Cecil Ford and his family at their Victorville home. Ford says he was a victim of racial discrimination during his employment at the Toys Us distribution center in Rialto.

The charge is under investigation by a state agency. The stock market finished mostly higher Friday thanks to a late rally that capped a jumpy session dominated by worries about rising interest rates. Renewed buying enthusiasm in the Final hour drove up the Dow Jones industrial average and allowed it to end near its best level of the day with a gain of 18.45 at 3,643.43. Volume on the floor of the Big Board came to 331.29 million shares. The NYSE said the week was the second heaviest ever in terms of trading volume, which amounted to 1.55 billion shares.

It was second only to the 2.3 billion shares traded in the week ended Oct. 23, 1987. Market analysts said the two-day selloff subsided as stock investors put aside worries about rising interest rates. GOOD LIFE ENDS FOR LITTON: After nearly 30 years, Litton Industries, the aerospace and weapons company, is leaving Its palatial Beverly Hills headquarters and heading for a sterile office complex in the San Fernando Valley. The reason, Litton officials say, is that the offices' more than passing resemblance to a grand Southern mansion, complete with English-style furnishings and needlepoint tapestries, is at odds with the no-frills image that military contractors must present in a time of austerity.

QVC REACHES OUT TO BELLSOUTH: QVC Network Inc. said Friday it ended talks about merging with its biggest home shopping rival as it reportedly was talking with BellSouth Corp. about joining Its hostile bid for Paramount Communications Inc. In the plan, BellSouth, the Atlanta-based regional phone company, would replace Liberty Media Corp. as part of the QVC group trying to break up Paramount's planned $10 billion merger with Viacom Inc.

BellSouth would invest about $2 billion in QVC, with half the money going to buy out Liberty Media and the other half enabling QVC to sweeten its bid for Paramount. CROSS-OWNERSHIP LAW TARGETED: Another move to overturn a federal law barring telephone companies from offering cable television in their service areas has been filed, this time by West, a company serving western states. The suit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court is nearly identical to ones brought by Bell Atlantic in Virginia and Ameritech Corp. in Illinois and Michigan.

In the Bell Atlantic case, a federal judge in Virginia found the cross-ownership provisions of the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 unconstitutional as an excessive burden on free speech. That decision is under appeal. CONSUMERS BOOST BORROWING PACE: American consumers increased their borrowing at a 10.5 percent annual rate In September, the largest one-month jump in nearly six years, the Federal Reserve said Friday. Analysts said the $6.68 billion advance, which brought outstanding credit to a seasonally adjusted $769.2 billion, fits with other recent signs the economy has shifted to a higher gear. UNITED MAY DROP SALE OF KITCHENS: Pilots and Machinists at United Airlines could get more time to negotiate a buyout of the airline under the company's offer Friday to drop the planned sale of its flight kitchens.

Machinists union leaders, who represent the kitchen workers, have said they would pull out of the talks if the facilities are sold as planned next week. But United on Friday offered to call off the sale If It could cut wages and vacation time for the kitchen employees. The union had no immediate comment. BOGUS CLOTHING MAKER MUST PAY: Gucci America Inc. and Polo Ralph Lauren Corp.

together won a $3.4 million patent Infringement award against a New York counterfeiter who sold fake designer clothing and leather goods to vendors throughout the U.S. The premium goods makers employed a private investigator to apprehend the counterfeiter, Carlito Geronimo, whose Queens-based Christina Trading distributed the items. From Sun News Services CALIFORNIA October's jobless rate hits 9.8 The unemployment rate climbs to 10.8 percent in San Bernardino County. Sun Staff and Wire Reports California's unemployment rate headed toward double digits, hitting 9.8 percent in October from 9.4 percent in September, the government reported Friday. And a modest creation of new jobs was outpaced by a big influx of job-seekers into the labor force, analysts said.

The October U.S. unemployment rate was 6.8 percent, up from 6.7 percent in bbth September and August. California had by far the highest unemployment among the major industrial states, with No. 2 New York nearly two percentage points back at 7.9 percent and Illinois at 7.8 percent. In Los Angeles County, the unemployment rate was 9.6 percent in October, about the same as 9.7 percent in September and 9.5 percent in October 1992.

Earlier this week, the state Labor Department released Inland Empire unemployment figures. San Bernardino County's unemployment rate edged up to 10.8 percent in September from 10.5 in August and from 9.7 percent in September 1992. In contrast, Riverside County's rate dipped to 13.9 percent in September from 14.1 percent in August and 14.5 percent in September 1992. Economy ANALYSIS Signs point to an overall improvement By Chet Currier The Associated Press NEW YORK Things must be looking up for the American economy. The curmudgeons of the bond market are in full flight.

Over the past three weeks, bond prices have tumbled and interest rates climbed almost half a percentage point as Wall Street studied the latest reports from the producing and consuming economy. When bond traders, notorious for their love of weak economic conditions, are unhappy, it follows that the news must be pretty cheerful. And indeed, that's the way it looks. The latest bit of encouragement came in Friday's report from the Labor Department that payroll employment in this country increased. A few days earlier, preliminary figures on economic growth for the third quarter of the year showed the gross domestic product expanding at an annual rate of 2.8 percent, after taking inflation into account.

The increase would have been more like 3.4 percent without the onetime effects of floods in the Midwest. And economists are now talking about 4 percent growth or more for the October-December quarter. "The new figures confirm the widely perceived improvement in the economy's apparent health," observed David Resler at Nomura Securities International'' Area Black man blames racism for his firing Race relations only Black manager in the Rialto facility since the existence of that facility," Ford said. "Those were clear cut cases of discrimination." While Toys Us has a policy of not discussing individual cases, Eric Jonas, the company's director of employee and labor relations, has disputed Ford's claims. Jonas could not be reached Friday at the company's Paramus, N.J., headquarters.

But in an earlier interview he said, "Quite frankly what I have to say is, in my opinion, Mr. Ford was not discriminated against." And a second official in a previous interview said that Toys Us has minority managers at the Rialto center. "We are trying to reflect the culture and society as a whole," said Richard Cudrin, Toys Us vice president of employee and labor relations. "And I don't know why anybody would be saying that there aren't any minority or women managers within that distribution center, Including Black managers. It simply is not true." Earlene M.

Hinton, district administrator for the Inland Empire's Fair Employment office, said the agency does not discuss current cases. "We have one year in which to investigate a complaint," Hinton said. "So we're just really at the beginning of the process." The agency will review Ford's By Teresa J. Gaines Sun Business Writer A former employee of Toys Us' Rialto distribution center has filed a discrimination complaint with the state's civil rights agency saying he was wrongfully fired from the company. Victorville resident Cecil Ford filed the complaint earlier this week with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

"I was terminated because of my race," said Ford, who is Black. "I want compensation and justice or fair treatment for all." Toys Us officials on Friday could not comment about Ford's complaint' because the company has not been notified by the state that a complaint has been filed. "We need to see the charges from Fair Housing," said Laurie Lambert, human resources manager at the Rialto distribution center. "When we receive the allegations from Fair Housing we will research it." Ford said he was fired from Toys Us in June without sufficient explanation. "I was the only manager that my supervisor would not ride with to critique my performance in the department although I asked him many, many times to do so," Ford said.

"I was the only individual who was denied books or seminars to help me be successful in that department. "And I might add, I was the case further to determine if it should become a class action complaint. "A class action complaint simply indicates they are filing the complaint on behalf of themselves and others who are also aggrieved," she said. "The other folks who are similarly aggrieved would have to present themselves to us." Ford said he thinks there are other Toys Us employees and former employees who will join him in his action, "I'm the drum major trying to bring people forth," he said. "I think not only myself but others need to be heard." Willie Clark, acting president of the local NAACP, agrees.

A dozen former and current employees of Toys Us in Rialto have filed complaints with his group, he said. In an interview prior to the filing of Ford's formal complaint, Toys Us' Jonas said he would welcome the involvement of an outside agency. "At the very least all the facts are put on the table," said Jonas, who met with the NAACP in San Bernardino about the allegations. "If there is a problem we'll go fix it." Jonas said the meeting with the NAACP ended at an impasse because the organization refused to reveal the names of those complaining or the specific problems the employees encountered. MONEY HOT LINE Call 900-773-6000 lor stock quotes.

CilJl: 95 cents per minute. i.