Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 43

mm rinri SECTION NYSE, Page 3 Amex, Page 4 Mutual funds, Page 4 Call Business: 222-8765 ri An IRS goof let some taxpayers get loans secured by seized refunds. Page 2E. Friday, Feb. 7, 1992 Detroit 4frcc INSIDE: edging up Sales up from war levels but retail trend uncertain Major retailers reported sales gains for January over the same month in 1991, but industry analysts cautioned that last year's figures were hurt by the Persian Gulf War. Stocks end mixed as Dow closes lower THE DOW CHANGE FOR SALES PERCENT STORES OPEN A (Millions) CHANGE YEAR OR MORE 32.7 13.0 8.6 7.7 10.3 6.2 15.5 8.2 6.5 6.0 13.0 8.7 19.0 21.0 analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott Inc.

in New York. However, he said, "even with that, it's a general improvement over recent trends." Discounters like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Troy-based Kmart Corp. turned in the strongest performance as budget-conscious consumers turned to lower-priced stores for better values. Some specialty stores in particular apparel retailer Gap Inc.

also thrived by offering consumers moderate prices and good merchandise selection. Kmart said its January sales at stores open at least one year rose 6.2 percent, while overall business was up 10.3 percent. Chairman Joseph Antonini credited the renovation of Kmart's aging stores for its improved performance. Kmart overtook Sears, Roebuck Co. in yearly sales to again become the nation's second-largest retailer.

Kmart's sales for the year were $34.58 billion, up from $32.07 billion. Sears fell to No. 3 behind Wal-Mart and Kmart. Dayton Hudson Corp. reported a same-store sales gain of 8.2 percent and 15.5 percent overall.

Free Press staff and wire services The nation's largest retailers Thursday reported better-than-ex-pected sales results for January, but industry analysts cautioned that it's too early to say whether business is rebounding from a long slump. Last month's results were compared against the extremely depressed performance of January 1991, when the nation was preoccupied with the Persian Gulf War. "You have to keep them in context we were at war a year ago," said Terence McEvoy, an Wal-Mart Sears Kmart Dayton Hudson i JC Penney May Gantos Four weeks ended Feb. Source: Companies President Stephen Watson said sales were better than expected at the company's Target discount stores and Mervyn's apparel chain, but he cautioned that business was primarily driven by price-cutting $3,310 $2,793 $2,711 $1,140 $801 $663 $14.8 The stock market ended its session on a mixed note, with blue chip stocks slipping but secondary issues rising to record highs for the third day. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 2.01 points at 3,255.59.

Volume was active at 238.2 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange, where advancing issues led declines 899 to 769. Unemployment Claims Drop: Jobless claims fell modestly in January as 450,000 Americans made first-time visits to unemployment offices 10,000 fewer than the week before. United layoffs At O'hare: Market details, Page 3E DOW JONES QUICK CALL For stock updates call 1-900-246-4444 Each call costs 95 cents per minute Touch-tone phones only. LAC DC United Airlines will layoff 300 workers, most of them ramp workers, aircraft cleaners and food handlers, at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. No comment from United on whether the layoffs will affect travelers.

TURTLES OUT, DUMMIES IN: Toy makers expect a more Tracing their roots cheerful New York Toy Fair this year than last. Smaller companies hope to pick up sales now that the aging Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have plummeted in popularity. Expected big sellers: American Gladiator and James Bond Jr. dolls and Incredible Crash Dummies, whose arms and legs fall off on r- i -I Aging turtle impact. INSURANCE FRAUD CRACKDOWN: The nation's largest carriers of automobile insurance have greatly improved their capacity to stop fraud in recent years by enlarging their antifraud investigative units.

The nation's second-largest auto insurer, Allstate, plans to double its antifraud units this year. Durable Good Orders Plummet: Orders to u.s. factories, slashed by a huge drop in demand for long-lasting durable goods, fell 3.8 percent in December. It was the first decline in three months and the steepest in more than a year. NO MORE FREE BOOKS: Let's Go, the travel guidebooks that have been as essential as a backpack for budget travelers for 30 years, are going to cost you from now on.

Harvard Student Agencies Inc. says the books have become so popular, it has to begin charging for them. No word yet on the price. JOHN LUKEDetroit Free Press Museum, cleans glass near an Camile Craycraft, a senior designer at the Detroit Historical exhibit featuring a 1930s-era dentist's office. Museum to open exhibit on city black businesses by Hiawatha Bray Free Press Business Writer here's a lot more to black business in the Detroit area than Motown Records and Mel Farr's car dealerships.

A new exhibition at the Detroit Historical Museum traces the history of black capitalists in the Motor City from 19th-century real estate magnate James H. Cole to cable television tycoon Don Barden, "African-American entrepreneurs have struggled against a variety of challenges," said the exhibition's curator, Thomas Dietz. "Despite those challenges, they have succeeded some quite nicely." "Striving to Succeed: African-American Business in Detroit" opens Saturday at the museum. The exhibition features photographs and artifacts from several generations of black-owned businesses. Here are the carpentry tools Barney Mahoney used to feed his family.

A few steps away are documents from Great Lakes Mutual Life Insurance founded in 1928 by Mahoney's son Charles. Blacks were scarce in Detroit during the 19th Century. "To Detroit Area's 10 Black-Owned Firms In Michigan 1 Detroit Historical i Museum f- Wayne Jtf area TED WILLIAMSON Detroit Free Press and clearance sales. Among other Michigan retailers, Gantos Inc. continued to show improvement, reporting a 21 percent same-store sales gain, 19 percent overall.

Teamsters janitor's record probed BY DAVID McHUGH Free Press Staff Writer Officials of Teamsters Local 614 describe Kenneth Baker as a janitor at the union hall in Pontiac. Federal prosecutors describe him as a convicted drug trafficker who helped run Detroit's mob-controlled numbers racket in the 1970s. The connections between Local 614 and Baker are under investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Labor Racketeering in Detroit, according to documents filed in federal court last week. The government statements about Baker are contained in documents filed to oppose Baker's bid for an exemption from labor laws forbidding union employment by people convicted of certain crimes within the past 13 years.

Baker dropped his bid for the exemption this week, according to court officials. His attorney, San-ford Plotkin, did not return phone calls. Last week, Labor Department agents searched the local's Telegraph Road office, carting away numerous boxes of documents. In 1988, Baker pleaded guilty to one count of cocaine trafficking and received probation. Assistant U.S.

Attorney Eric Straus wrote in court pleadings that the conviction disqualifies him from working for a union. Baker, 52, was also convicted in 1977 on federal gambling charges and sentenced to a year in prison. See TEAMSTERS, Page 2E Employers to negotiate health costs BY MICHELE CHANDLER Free Press Business Writer Intent on lowering their healthcare costs, some western Michigan employers have banded together and will begin negotiating with area hospitals. The coalition has its sights on reaching agreements with three western Michigan hospitals, Kalamazoo's Borgess Medical Center and Bronson Methodist Hospital, and the Battle Creek Health System. Next will come negotiations with western Michigan physicians.

Among the 25 members of the Southwest Michigan Health Care Coalition are Upjohn Stryker Kellogg Western Michigan University, the City of Kalamazoo and the Portage Schools. "It's in everybody's interest to make this work," said the coalition's president, Peter Franklin. "If we do it together, there ultimately will be an effective plan." A former chief executive of the Ancilla Systems hospital company in Chicago, Franklin assumed his See HEALTH, Page 2E Dow Chemical Image Poll Dow Chemical Co. is taking a poll to determine whether its image has suffered from publicity about Dow Corning silicone gel breast implants. Some news reports about the implant controversy referred to Dow Corning as Dow.

The two are separate, although both companies have headquarters in Midland. Southland Expands: southland Mail win break ground Feb. 13 for a expansion that will house a food court with 12 units, two new retail stores and seating for 475. The expansion is to open in November. Gas Company Profits Up: mcn parent company of Michigan Consolidated Gas Ironically, this led to a golden age for African-American business in Detroit.

Between 1910 and 1950, black businesses built strong firms which catered to blacks who could not spend their money in white-owned businesses. During this period, Sidney Barthwell built a $500 stake into Barthwell's Drugstore, the largest black-owned drugstore chain in America. Ed Davis opened a Studebaker auto dealership the first new car franchise held by a black American. And Curtis Laboratories became a successful cosmetics firm. Of these three companies, only Curtis Laboratories survives.

Many black businesses have vanished since the 1950s. "Freeway construction and urban renewal ripped the heart out of the African-American community," said Dietz. For example, a major black business district was destroyed to make way for the Chrysler Freeway. In addition, the end of legal segregation meant that African-American businesses no longer had a lock on the black consumer market. Blacks could shop in white stores, and many did.

Still, Dietz notes that black businesses have survived, and new ones are constantly being started. He hopes visitors will remember this message of hope. reported profits of $35.1 million, or $1.42 a share, for 1991. The Detroit-based company earned $32.3 million, or $1.32 a share, in 1990. Slightly colder weather and gains in gas markets were credited for the increase, MCN Chairman Alfred Glancy III said.

State Liouor Plans Proceed: Company 1990 revenues (in millions) Barden Communications Detroit $86.0 Mel Farr Automotive Group, Oak Park $85.0 The Bing Group. Detroit $61.0 Jim Bradley Pontiac-Cadillac-GMC Truck, Ann Arbor $25.1 Summa-Harrison Metal, Royal Oak $25.0 Riverside Ford Sales Inc. $23.7 TAS Graphic Communications Detroit $23.0 Ferndale Honda, Ferndale 'y $21-3 Regal Plastics Roseville $21.0 Harrell Chevrolet-Oldsmobile-Geo, Flat Rock $17.5 succeed, African-American businesses had to draw white customers," said Dietz. Many Detroit blacks prospered as barbers, carpenters and grocers. A domestic servant, Elizabeth Denison Forth, became a prominent real estate investor and owner of a steamboat.

During the great migration of the 20th Century, millions of blacks moved from the rural South to the industrial North. In cities like Detroit, the surging black population was forced to live in segregated communities. Black businesspeople lost their white clients. Largest introduced in January 1993, said Ford's Neil Ressler, who has headed the Cobra team. Although Ford officials declined to discuss the Cobra's horsepower potential, one source familiar with the project said it will be capable of 296 horsepower.

The Cobra and a similarly modified version of the F-150 pickup truck are the first fruits of Ford's new special vehicle team, a group of engineers and marketing workers who are avid auto enthusiasts. Robert Rewey, Ford's top North American sales executive, projected that the company would) sell about 10,000 high-perfor- SOURCE: Crain's Detroit Business Striving to Succeed: African American Businesses in Detroit Where: Detroit Historical Museum, 5401 Woodward at Kirby When: Saturday through September 1993; museum hours are 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday Admission: Free, but the museum welcomes donations. For more information, call 833-1805 during museum hours ROGER HICKS Detroit Free Press time, anything that boosts sales of the existing pony car will be welcomed.

Last year, Ford sold only 80,000 Mustangs, down from more than 130,000 a year in the Aiid-1980s. Mustang gets more kick with return of Cobra Glancy state government is going ahead with plans to turn over parts of the state's liquor operation to private enterprise. Gov. John Engler said restructuring the state's monopoly on the wholesale distribution of liquor will let the Liquor Control Commission concentrate on regulating establishments that sell liquor. Incentives Spur Hiring: More than 7,100 hard-to- place workers were hired in Michigan last year due in part to the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit program.

State officials said the tax-incentive program saved state employers more than $8.5 million in federal taxes last year. Saturns Will Go To Taiwan: in its first exports outside North America, Saturn Corp. in June will begin sending between 200 and 400 cars a month to Taiwan. Ford Trims Incentives: Ford Motor Co. has scaled back slightly its cash-back incentive program, reducing rebates on the Ford Mustang, Crown Victoria and Mercury Grand Marquis cars and the Ford Aerostar minivan, F-Series pickup and Bronco sport-utility vehicle.

Court Upholds Airport Fees: Kent County International Airport in Grand Rapids could net more than $1 million in back fees following an Appeals Court ruling that most of its landing and rental fees are legal. Nine airlines sued after fees were raised jn April 1988. BY GREG GARDNER Free Press Automotive Writer Gambling that there is some spring left in its automotive serpent, Ford Motor Co. is reviving the Cobra in a limited-edition, souped-up version of its Mustang muscle car. The Cobra, which has gone through eight incarnations, began as a small V8 engine for the British-built Ace roadster in 1962.

Ford, which discussed the project Thursday at the Chicago Auto Show, hopes to squeeze significantly more power from the Mustang's 5.0-liter V8 engine. The goal is to sell 5,000 Cobras a year once it is JOHN SWARTAssociated Press The 1993 Ford Mustang Cobra was unveiled Thursday in Chicago. The car has a more powerful engine. mance full-size pickups a year. Another team of Ford workers has been working for more than a year on the next-generation Mustang, scheduled for introduction sometime in 1994.

In the mean.