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Friday, January 28, 2000 Page: 4C
College Misericordia accounting and business students and volunteers from
the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program will again offer free tax preparation
assistance to low income, elderly and handicapped people.
The tax service is available at College Misericordia by appointment from 9
a.m. to noon Feb. 12, 19 and 26; March 18 and 25; and April 1 on the fourth
floor of the college administration building.
The RSVP service is available by appointment through the Luzerne/Wyoming
Counties Bureau for Aging at various senior centers beginning in February.
Call the nearest senior center to schedule an appointment.
Walk-in help will be available in the cafeteria of the Stegmaier Building
on Wilkes-Barre Boulevard between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and
Thursdays.
Taxpayers should take their 1099s, Social Security 1099, W-2s, tax or rent
receipts, copy of last year’s taxes and rebate and information on any other
income received.
Southern Union sees rise
Southern Union Co. reported second-quarter net earnings of $7.1 million, or
17 cents per common share, for the three-month period ended Dec. 31. The
figure is higher than the 16 cents per share reported for the same period in
1998.
The company’s net operating margin increased to $83.2 million for the
quarter, compared with the $61 million for the same period in 1998.
Security notes dividend
The Board of Directors of Security of Pennsylvania Financial Corp. have
announced a cash dividend for the quarter ended Dec. 31 of 5 cents per share,
payable Feb. 20 to shareholders of record at the close of business Feb. 7.
The common stock of Security of Pennsylvania Financial Corp. is listed on
The American Stock Exchange under the symbol SPN.
Security of Pennsylvania Financial Corp. is the holding company of Security
Savings Association of Hazleton.
AutoCAD training set
Penn State Wilkes-Barre’s Center for Quality Continuing Education &
Training will offer the AutoCAD Certificate Program this spring through the
College of Engineering.
The certificate involves three 18-hour courses beginning March 7 and
running through May 18. Sessions will be held at Intellacom on Route 315 in
Wilkes-Barre (opposite Motor World) and registration is limited.
The AutoCAD Certificate Program was designed for individuals who are
looking for formal training in computer-aided design.
To earn the certificate, participants must successfully complete the three
courses and a final project.
Participants should have a working knowledge of the Windows Operating
Systems. Some participants may be eligible for a state training grant.
For information, call Estella Parker-Killian, Continuing Education
Representative, at 675-9117 or e-mail: exp20@psu.edu.
Benetton ads draw fire
Crime victims’ advocates in Texas and New York are calling for a boycott of
fashion giant Benetton to protest its new advertising campaign, which
sympathetically portrays Death Row inmates.
The Italian company and its products, including a line of clothing carried
by Sears, are being targeted in Texas by Justice for All, and beyond by the
New York group Center for the Community Interest.
“We are going to organize a boycott of Benetton products and just ask
people up front not to buy Benetton products,” said Dianne Clements,
president of Justice for All. “Benetton is in bed with killers, and Sears is
in bed with Benetton.”
At issue is a $20 million ad campaign, to be carried on billboards and in
major magazines, titled “We on Death Row.” It features pictures of and
interviews with more than two dozen condemned killers.
Repeated attempts to reach a spokesman at Benetton U.S. headquarters in New
York were unsuccessful.
Rite Aid delay wins OK
Rite Aid Corp. says it has received approval from its public debt holders
to delay the release of several scheduled financial reports until July.
The nation’s third-largest pharmacy chain announced two weeks ago that it
had reached agreement with its private lenders on the delay and planned to
seek extensions on Securities and Exchange Commission filings for the
remaining quarterly and annual reports for fiscal year 2000.
The approval from bondholders announced Wednesday now eliminates the threat
of a default in Rite Aid’s public debt documents because of the delay in
scheduled reporting, the company said.
Rite Aid says it needs extra time to prepare its financial reports in light
of recent accounting difficulties. The Camp Hill chain switched auditing firms
in November as part of a planned restatement of its earnings for the past
three years that was expected to result in a $500 million reduction.
The company also installed a new management team led by Miller last month
after former top executive Martin L. Grass was ousted amid the financial woes
that sent the company’s stock tumbling by more than 80 percent in a year.
Go.com changes focus
Go.com, the newly formed Internet subsidiary of the Walt Disney Co., will
no longer try to compete with America Online Inc., Yahoo! Inc. and other
all-purpose “portal” sites on the World Wide Web, the company confirmed
Thursday.
Instead, go.com and Disney are in the midst of revamping their strategy to
focus on entertainment and leisure as a way to differentiate go.com from other
large Internet sites, said go.com president Steve Wadsworth.
Two weeks ago, go.com chairman Steve Bornstein told employees that go.com
would transform itself into a focused site primarily dealing with
entertainment, recreation, leisure and lifestyle, Wadsworth said.
Although the new strategy will play down go.com’s current role as a
catch-all Internet portal, or site where people usually start their Internet
viewing, it will continue to offer the services it currently features, such as
search capabilities.
Wild session ends calmly
Stocks fell Thursday in another volatile session on Wall Street as
investors looked ahead to next week’s Federal Reserve meeting and anticipated
that an interest rate increase will be the first of several this year.
The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 4.97 points to close at 11,028.02.
The modest finish, following a 3.10-point gain on Wednesday, belied a wild
session in which the Dow rose as much as 130 points and tumbled as much as
116.
Broader stock indicators also gave up early gains and closed lower. The
Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 5.53 to 1,398.56, and the Nasdaq composite index
fell 30.35 to 4,039.56. Trading was heavy.
Analysts could find no single catalyst for the selloff that put the brakes
on the market’s latest attempt to rebuild from steep losses in recent
sessions. The Dow has fallen 6 percent from its Jan. 14 closing high of
11,722.98, and the Nasdaq has sliced nearly 5 percent from its closing high of
4,235.40, set just last Friday.
But market watchers said the continued volatility stems in part from
worries about the Federal Reserve’s upcoming meeting on interest rates.