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Show Pft 10 r UINTAH BASIN STANDARD. December 30. 1997 "I do not take anything for granted, now that I know what the effects (of the strike) sre, said the owner of hectic year in business, evens out by calm Americans A By AMiociated Prru It a fitful year for the atock ofthe Loom were among others with big cuts. But employers in general added triple-dig- it point move in the Dow Jones industrial more than 2 million jobs to nonaverage becoming commonplace. farm payrolls. Unemployment was low of 4.6 percent at Merger mania was back, with price at a tags for big companies in the tens of yearend, making it a job seekers billions of dollars. market And so consumers, although Labor had a big victory in the they were cautious, could afford to Teamsters strike against United be more confident about the economic outlook than theyd been in a Parcel Service. The tobacco industry agreed to a $368 billion settle- generation. ment that would end its liability for It's booming, said Frank illnesses. smoking-relate- d Harrison, a reinsurance broker from Well, so what? While big money Freehold, N J., as he and his family and big deals flew around the busi- visited Manhattan at Christmas. ness world in 1997, the rest of us But he said, "people worry about the bubble bursting. kept cm working, investing, supInflation through November was porting the economy, and, when needed, coping with disruptions like running at an annual rate of 1.8 strikes. percent The combination of moderActually, the American public ate economic growth and price stawas the calming influence when bility meant the Federal Reserve market professionals were frantic, was forced to raise interest rates and they provided the foundation just once, in late March. As Amerion which companies, including those cans kept working and producing, a series of rate hikes that economists cutting the multibillion-dolla- r megadeals, could build and expand. expected just never came to pass. --Even if Black Monday 97 and A look at the top developments in business during 1997, and how they its drop in the Dow forced some baby boomers to rethink their affected the average American: --In 1997, the economy took care dreams of an early retirement, there ofitself. Americans in general were was little indication that individual working, feeling good about their investors panicked on Oct. 27. In feet, it seems some investors pocketbooks, and the country's fig were licking their chops, as if they'd was a nancial The layoffs that started in the been waiting for another chance to buy the. dip, picking up cheap early 1990s were still happening, Thousands ofjobs were cut at stocks, as theyd done since the big companies: 16,600 at stock market crash s decade earliEastman Kodak; 6,400 at Levi er. At Fidelity Investments, invesStrauss; 9,000 at Woolworth which closed its stores. tors started adding money to Fideland Fruit ity stock funds after the latest selloff. Hasbro, Kimberly-Clar- k u market, with . well-bein- nt le At No. 2 Vanguard Group, buyers outnumbered the sellers. But most conspicuous about Oct. 27 was what most investors did: nothing. Good listeners, most held credo regufast to the finWall Streets espoused by larly est many of whom failed to heed their own advice that day. The individual investor, whose calmness and fortitude helped the stock market recover from the 1987 crash and made the huge gains of the 1990s possible, supported the market once again. Sheryl Frank, 3 1, had given birth to her first child in July, and opened a mutual fund account for the baby girl about a month before the market plunge. did remind me that theres no guarantee with these types of investments, said Frank, a psycholo-- , gist in Silver Spring, Md. But it didnt faze me because I kept in mind what my financial adviser said: Just sit tight Ups and downs will happen, but in the long run, things work out who Florence Gold, a depends on investment income to cover the costs ofliving in aTeaneck, NJ., retirement community, said her biggest concern about the selloff was whetherher broker was having a hectic day. I didn't feel one bit threatened- Mrs. Gold said. Lynne Simmons has learned a lesson from the United Parcel Service strike, which had her worried that her specialty foods company might collapse because it couldn't ship to customers. foil-tim- . It non-issu- e. high-profi- Ga.-bas- ld 24-ye- ar 554-poi- Native South. Marietta, I wont be Scarlett O'Hara and say 111 worry about it tomorrow.' HI worry about it today. Hers was one of thousands of businesses disrupted by the first nationwide work stoppage against the delivery giant, which lost loyal customers and $211 million after taxes. UPS' loss was labor's gain. The strike galvanized worker support nationally, giving organized labor its biggest momentum in years. The Teamsters portrayed the strike as a battle against heavy use of part-tim- e workers and to create more e opportunities. They hope to use the success of theirstrike to help recruit new members. Ironically, though, the former UPS worker who led the strike, Teamsters president Ron Carey, was later unseated and prevented from running again because of corruption allegations -- The numbers were astounding. A company called WorldCom said it would pay $37 billion for MCL First Union will buy fellow banker CoreStates for $16.1 billion. At times it seemed like we were back in the 1980s therewere hostile takeover offers and bidding wars for ITT and Great Western Financial. For the most part, the public whose hud work, vacations and purchases make a takeover target worth buying.paid little attention. Of course, shareholders in these companies and that includes millions of individual mutual fund investors made money off the deals. But unless a deal directly affected their lives, most Americans didn't notice, and probably didnt care, who owned the Discover card or Universal Studios. An exception was the banking industry, where consolidation con-- ' tinued at a fierce clip this past year as big regional banks bought up . five-and-di- f Wishing on AH The Best For The Corning Tear. TAX BREAK? The New 6000 & 7000 seHes John Deere's Will Help! YEAR-EN- D ! V 5 . V Agriculture Secretary Dan .f Glickman said more public hearings would be held before a decision is made on those issues, which many formers and environmental groups contend would violate the spirit of organic food. I have intentionally left open some ofthe more divisive questiona, (Rickman told reporters. 1 think its important to have foil national and international discussion of this Hydraulic - V The rules, which won't be final until next year, will implement the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, which became law as interest in natural products grew among the generation. Although organic products account for only about 1 percent of food sales nationwide, sales have grown by more than 20 percent annually since 1990 and account for $3.5 billion in annual sales. Agriculture Department officials forecast a fourfold increase in sales the next decade. Glickman said the rules will replace a patchwork of guidelines around the country that make it baby-boom- -' .. 'M 7 w er w r' gr - impossible for consumers it many of whom pay mors for organic products b to be sure of what theyre getting. The rules also will require imported foods to meet the same standards if they are sold as organic. These rules are about giving consumers choices about how their food is produced, he said. To gain an Agriculture Department seal, the proposed regulation requires that raw products be 100 percent organic and that processed foods contain 95 percent organic ingredients.' . Processed foods with 50 percent to 95 percent organic content could be labeled as made with certain organic ingredients," while those with less than 50 percent organic content must specify the organic ingredients. Those selling or labeling products that do not meet the standards could be fined up to $10,000, it said. The rales, first reported Monday by The New Tork Times, also set standards for producing and handling the- foods, including use of pesticides and a prohibition on antibiotics or hormoes to stimulate growth in livestock About half the states now have their own organic-foo- d regulations, and they would be permitted to issue stricter standards than the onee enforced by USDA, subject to approval by the sgriculture secretary. ."O'.-- M Wonder Bread 'V' - nt sets standard WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal government on Monday took first steps toward regulating organic foods, but sidestepped the most controversial issues such as use of irradiation and crops that have been genetically altered. Reverser option v- Since 1989, the UGS has maintained that oil resources could be trapped in rocks older than ever before produced in Utah. Since then, only three other wells have reached as deep in the geologic record as the Conoco well, about 12,000 feet down into rock formations ofPrecambrian age. Those wells did not find evidence iff petroleum. Conoco's well revealed substantial deposits of gas in two separate deep formations, the Muav and the Tspeats, but the deposits were not extractable. This is the first time evidence iff hydrocarbon deposits has been found at such levels. It is always gratifying to have our science validated, Allison said. We first proposed drilling into the Precambrian layer nearly 10 years ago, and Conoco and a couple of other oil companies acquired multiple leases in the region on the basis of our theory. Politics and commercial viability aside, thi fe aignifi-cafind because it confirms the Precambrian-Cambria- n province as a new exploration play, or target The UGSa mission is to make; Utah richer and safer by genera t--i ing, interpreting, preserving, and distributing geological, paleontological, archaeological, and paleoeco-logicinformation. for organic food Fuel-Efficie- nt . Calling Conocos exploratory well results from the Rees Canyon site exciting and gratifying, State Geologist Lee Allison characterized the findings as a significant scientific discovery for Utah, with important economic implications. For nearly a decade, the Utah Geological Survey has been predicting that there were hydrocarbon deposits at a far deeper level in that region than anyone has ever tried to reach, Allison added. The Conoco results validate that theory. Far from being a dry hole, Conocos well is more a Christmas present for the schoolchildren of Utah because it increases the value iff resources in USDA High Torque - engines waned in the past six months. Lawmakers want to change it, antismoking groups attack it and the Clinton administration is keeping it at arms length. Still, industry analysts give it a better than even chance of passing. But no one expects it to emerge unscathed. Under the pacts current terms, tobacco firms would pay $368 billion over 25 years, curii advertising and pay fines of up to $2 billion if teen """king doesn't drop 30 percent in five years. They would be protected against future suits and win limits on government control iff nicotine. The current plan would require cigarette prices to rise by 70 cents a pack. Under several bills in Congress seeking to alter the deal, a pack that now goes for $2.50 or more would cost an extra $1.50. And smokers? Some estimates range up to 10 percent would quit rather than pay more. The rest are expected to accept the added cost passed on by cigarette makers. Said Jim Dickens, 84, of New York "Tin addicted. They've got me and they know it Eds: Associated Press writers John Hendren, Brace Meyerson, Patricia Lamiell, Joyce Rosenberg and Dan Sewell contributed to this story. Grand Stair Case, section school trust lands emphasize was very conservative and very preliminary while remaining scientifically accurate and technically valid, we indicated there could be millions of dollars worth of oil recoverable from School and Institutional Trust Lands within the monument. Conocos discovery can only push the Initial estimation up. That means the school trust land, which President Clinton has already agreed to trade out for equal value elsewhere, has to be worth more. Best Tlirning radius in the Industry LOOKING FOR A - the monument In our initial assessment ofthe monuments commodities, which I All Of At big 3 tgpipment and From other big regional banks and often closed branches or eliminated amenities and services. Brandywine, Md., population 14,000, was literally devastated when Creator Bank acquired Citizens Bank, the only one in town, and threatened to dose it, customer Claudette Best recalled. She quickly organised an activist group that got Crestar to keep Citizens open until next June. But Creator has cut services, including a drive-u- p window and safe deposit boxes. They left us half a bank; thats what they did, Best said. --The tobacco industry had never lost a major suit to a phuntiff who charged that smoking made them sick. But while Philip Morris, RJ. Reynolds and other cigarette makers swore theyd never cave in to thousands of suits already filed induding those brought by state attorneys general they faced the unsettling prospect of an unknown number .iff cases in the future. So lawyers for tobacco, smokers and the states readied a settlement in June to end the suits, and antismoking activists hope, to help prevent the next generation ofsmokers from even starting. But Congress must approve the deal, and the pacts momentum has 3- : e. A m - . 'j Thrift Store J . . . ' Monday, Wednesday & Friday 4:00 - 5:30 pan. 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