Banner Graphic, Volume 17, Number 133, Greencastle, Putnam County, 6 February 1987 — Page 2
A2
THE BANNERGRAPHIC. February 6,1987
Chrysler, GM decline in earnings c. 1987 N.Y. Times News Service CHICAGO Two of the Big Three auto makers on Thursday reported earnings declines for 1986, as the industry began to close the books on its fourth prosperous year in a row. The General Motors Corp. reported that it earned $2.95 billion, or $8 .21 a share, on sales that surpassed SIOO billion for the first time, at $102.81 billion. The 1986 earnings were down 26 percent from 1985, when GM made $3.99 billion, or $12.28 a share, on sales of $96.4 billion. The giant auto maker, which released its earnings here because many top executives are attending the annual Chicago Auto Show, reported that its fourth-quarter net also fell. Its quarterly earnings of $382 million, or 97 cents a share, compared with $1.25 billion, or $3.85 a share, in 1985 a decline of nearly 70 percent. The Chrysler Corp. reported annual earnings of $1.40 billion, or $9.47 a share, compared with $1.64 billion, or $9.38 a share, in 1985. In the fourth quarter, Chrysler’s net was $323.6 million, or $2.21 a share. That compares with $215.0 million, or $1.31 a share, in the period a year ago, for an increase of 50.5 percent. The Ford Motor Co. will report its profits later this month, and its annual earnings are expected to surpass GM’s for the first time since 1924. Analysts believe Ford will show a profit of $3.2 billion. If so, the Big Three will have ended the year with a combined net income of about $7.5 billion. That figure would be less than the $7.9 billion earned in 1985 and the record-setting $9.8 billion of 1984. However, it would mark the fourth consecutive year that combined profits have exceeded $6 billion as the industry continues to recover from its losses of the early ’Bos. Analysts said that GM’s performance for the year was in line with expectations, but that the four-th-quarter results were below the anticipated earnings of $1.50 a share or more. During the quarter, GM absorbed most of a write-off of $1.29 billion, reflecting what the company termed “the anticipation of costs attendant to phasing out inefficient, redundant older systems.” The write-off reflected plans to close 16 plants in the United States by 1989. GM said the write-off took 92 cents a share from fourth-quarter earnings. GM said that without the write-off and the related tax benefits, its fourthquarter earnings would have totaled $655 million, or $1.83 a share.
Banner Graphic (USPS 142-020) Consolidation ot Ths Dally Bannar Established 1850 The Herald The Dally Graphic Established 1883 Telephone 653-5151 Published daily except Sunday and Holidays by Banner Graphic, Inc. at 100 North Jackson St., Greencastle, IN 46135. Second-class postage paid at Qreencaatle, IN. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Banner Graphic, P.O. Box 509, Greencastle, 'N 46135 Subscription Rates Per Week, by carrier *1.20 Per Week, by motor route *1.25 Mail Subscription Rates R.R. In Rost of Rest of Putnam County Indiana U.S.A. 3 Months *17.40 *17.70 *19.00 6 Months *32.25 *32.80 *36.70 1 Year *63.00 *64.00 *72.70 Mail aubacrlptiona payable In advance ... not accepted In town and where motor route service Is available. Member of the Associated Press The Associated Press Is entitled exclusively to the use for republlcatlon ot all the local news printed In this newspaper.
TAX CLEARANCE SALE AND OUT THEY GO!
*IOOO Cash Rebate •Celebrity <4 cy i.> •Cavalier •Camaro
Limited Time Offer Hurry Out For Best Selection
See Wyatt Brummett Jr.,Bill Tindor or Max Inglert
(Lf&Carneu -Wcholi WKKMb urcKßgggJ Indianapolis Rd. Greencostle 653-5178 1-800-854-7115
W \c -r
Why is this woman smiling? No doubt, it's the quadruplets Dixie Schock, 36, Gillette, Wyo., gave birth to recently at a Denver hospital. The youngsters Ryan, Ashley, Colton and Amber - as well as
world
Rep. Thomas to chair subcommittee
State marital property bill advances
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Three proposals to rewrite Indiana’s property law have been referred to a special House subcommittee with the hope a compromise measure can be drafted, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee says. Judiciary Chairman John W. Donaldson, R-Lebanon, named a special five-member subcommittee Thursday to consider the proposed Uniform Marital Property Act and alternative measures recommended by the Indiana State Bar Association. “We’re all interested in the same thing fairness in marital property,” said Donaldson, an opponent of the property act proposal. Donaldson said he hoped a compromise could be reached between the supporters and opponents cf the proposed marital property act, noting that they “are willing to talk.”
WE WILL CLOSE FOR INVENTORYFebruary 11th-12th We will reopen regular hours Feb. 13th Gjesvolo Aw Ihoto & art center 1062 Indianapolis Rd. 653-3272
m
GM QUALITY SERVICE PARTS
GINIPAL MOTOBS COBPOBAHON
mom and father Dean, are all reported doing well. Mrs. Schock delivered the quadruplets on Jan. 19 and they left the hospital for home Thursday. (AP Wirephoto).
He said he expects only portions of the marital property act to survive as the subcommittee considers compromise proposals. Susan Bayh, a representative of the Fairness Coalition, said she and other supporters of the property act “would like the opportunity to work together to get this problem solved. ” Donaldson appointed the special panel after the judiciary committee completed its second two-hour hearing on the proposals. The marital property act, proposed in House Bill 1354, would treat all property acquired during marriage as marital property, owned equally by each spouse. Gifts and inheritances to one spouse would be excluded. Property owned by either spouse before marriage would continue to belong to its original owner. A couple could opt out of the marital property act by signing an agreement on
5.1200 Cash Rebate •Skylark •Somerset •Century •Regal •LaSabre •LaSabre Estate Wagon •Electro Estate Wagon (Bw«d on Value Factory liutadod Options)
GM
Waite observed in Beirut as rumors of shooting circulate
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) Two taxi drivers said they saw 10 gunmen and four turbaned Shiite Moslem sheiks escorting Anglican envoy Terry Waite through a southern Beirut suburb as the missing hostage negotiator waved at onlookers. “I stopped my taxicab to watch, but the escorts waved me away, shouting: ‘Don’t stop. Drive on.’ I did,” said one of the two drivers who reported seeing Waite walking in a street close to Beirut’s airport highway at about 3 p.m. Thursday. “I saw him smiling and waving his hand to onlookers as he walked. He wore a gray raincoat,” said one of the witnesses. “I haven’t the slightest doubt about his identity. I know him and I saw him this afternoon.” Waite wore a raincoat when he was last seen by reporters Jan. 20 leaving the seaside Riviera Hotel in west Beirut to meet with members of the pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad. Islamic Jihad, made up of Shiite Moslem extremists, has been holding Americans Terry Anderson and Thomas Sutherland since 1985. Waite, Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie’s personal emissary, has not contacted the church or his family since Jan. 20. There have been several unconfirmed reports he was seen, including in east Lebanon’s Bekaa valley. Both drivers work in the neighborhood of the Riviera hotel where Waite stayed after arriving Jan. 12 on his fifth mission seeking to free foreign hostages. The drivers said that before his disappearance they frequently saw Waite strolling along the beach or traveling in motorcades to meet with Moslem religious and militia leaders.
property division. The Indiana State Bar Association, which opposes the property act, has endorsed two less sweeping alternatives. H.B. 1694 would set at 50 percent a surviving spouse’s normal share of an estate. That share now is usually 25 to 33 percent, depending on the number of children the couple has. H.B. 1452 would augment estates, adding to the property that goes through probate certain property transferred to a third-party during a couple’s marriage. Sen. Virginia Blankenbaker, RIndianapolis, sponsor of marital property acts that passed the Senate the last two years, maintained that the proposal “wouldn’t affect people’s business, the way they’re conducting it” daily. However, opponents argued that the marital property act is too sweeping a rewrite of Indiana
Amtrak crewmen may have been watchingTV
WASHINGTON (AP) Authorities began dragging a river near the recent Amtrak accident in Maryland in search of a television after a tipster raised the possibility that two train crewmen involved in the crash were watching a football game. The National Transportation Safety Board disclosed Thursday that an anonymous telephone caller urged authorities to look at a certain location of the river near Baltimore, saying someone was seen throwing a television into the water shortly after the Amtrak train collided with a Conrail locomotive. A National Football League playoff game between the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers began about 30 minutes before the Jan. 4 accident, and several dramatic plays occurred in the minutes just before the collision. A spokesman for the Baltimore County Police Department said
Florida jury convicts ex-trooper
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) hours of deliberation for a jury to convict Indiana fugitive Jerry Wayne Cliver of trying to kill a Florida highway patrolman and a passing motorist. “I feel good about the outcome. I feel that justice was served,” said officer Harry Dennard Jr. after the verdict in Orange County Circuit Court Thursday. “It’s important that he not be out on the street,” added Dennard about
Seib lands in Zurich
ZURICH, Switzerland (AP) Wall Street Journal reporter Gerald F. Seib, expelled by Iran after being held nearly a week as a suspected spy, arrived in Zurich today aboard a Swissair flight, airline officials said. Seib, a 30-year-old American based in Cairo, was detained by Iran on Saturday and accused of spying for Israel during a govern-
In London, Runcie’s spokeswoman Eve Keatley said: “We have no information to confirm a report circulating this evening that Terry Waite has been seen in Beirut under armed guard.” “Also, we certainly have heard nothing to suggest a report in a German newspaper that Mr. Waite has been involved in a shooting incident is true,” she said. She was referring to a report by the West German mass-circulation newspaper Bild that quoted unidentified “Beirut security circles” as saying Waite was shot and critically wounded when he tried to escape from captivity in Lebanon. The newspaper, in a report prepared for today’s editions, did not say when the alleged shooting occurred or provide other details. Shiite and Druse militia officials in Beirut scoffed at the newspaper report. “It’s absolute fantasy,” said one militia official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. Also Thursday, police and military officials in Beirut denied rumors that U.S. Marines were landing in
property law. More focused revisions are needed, the opponents said. “If you’re going to add a room to the house, you don’t destroy the whole house before you begin,” said Thomas W. Dinwiddie, representing the Indiana Land Title Association. Donaldson appointed Rep. John J. Thomas, R-Brazil, to chair the subcommittee. Thomas said he does not know when the group would meet. Donaldson also appointed Mrs. Blankenbaker and Sen. William H. Vobach, R-Indianapolis, as advisers to the subcommittee. The senators have been on opposite sides of the issue in the Senate the last two years. The property act has never reached the House floor for a vote. It failed to get a committee hearing two years ago and was voted down in the Judiciary Committee last year.
divers stopped searching the Gunpowder River near the accident site late Thursday afternoon without finding anything but that a resumption of the search has not been ruled out. Investigators have been focusing on the conduct of the Conrail engineer, Ricky Gates, and brakeman, Edward Cromwell, whose locomotive ran a series of signal warnings before skidding into the path of the Amtrak passenger train. Sixteen people were killed and 175 injured in the accident. John Rehor, chief NTSB investigator in the accident, said any conclusion that the two Conrail crewmen may have been watching television in the locomotive cab remained “highly speculative.” There had been unconfirmed rumors earlier that the two crewmen may have been listening to the game on radio, although that also has never been confirmed, according to sources close to the investigation.
his assailant, a former Indiana state policeman fleeing from murder and attempted murder charges in his home state. Cliver, 34, faces life in prison when he goes before Circuit Judge James Stroker for sentencing March 10 as a result of convictions of attempted murder, attempted manslaughter, kidnapping and using a firearm during a criminal offense. Dennard, 28, stopped Cliver’s stolen car near Orlando last October to give him a written warning about
ment-sponsored press tour of the battlefront. Iran said Wednesday he was to be “expelled.” A senior Swiss government official, requesting anonymity, told The Associated Press he would come to Switzerland. The Swiss government has acted as a gobetween in Seib’s case because it handles U.S. diplomatic interests in Iran.
Lebanon with plans to attack Shiite guerrillas. “We have had no report of any such attack anywhere in Lebanon, yet,” a police official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity. A flotilla of more than two dozen U.S. warships and support vessels sailed into the eastern Mediterranean this week. The ships were stationed 50 to 100 miles off Lebanon’s coast. The Reagan administration announced Thursday that the aircraft carrier USS Kennedy would begin a port call in Israel today and four of its escort warships had been ordered to sail for home. “We’re dropping back a bit because our presence there is being blown out of proportion with rumors of invasions,” one U.S. official said. Beirut’s leftist As Safir newspaper today quoted Karin Brutents, the visiting deputy chief of the International Department of the Soviet Communist Party’s Central Committee, as saying any American military intervention would have “dire consequences” for U.S.-Soviet relations.
First lady says Reagan fit at 76 WASHINGTON (AP) President Reagan, still shunning questions from reporters about the Iranian arms sale controversy, is turning 76 today without any of the fanfare that has marked some of his previous birthdays in the White House. First lady Nancy Reagan said Thursday there will be a big birthday cake on the table as she and the president celebrate with friends tonight in a White House dining room. Some of Reagan’s past birthdays have been celebrated in public, with Mrs. Reagan bringing a cake into the White House briefing room or onto the stage at a speaking event. Mrs. Reagan told reporters the president, who has had no give-and-take sessions with journalists in recent weeks, would wait until he had more information before answering questions about the crisis brought on by secret arms sales to Iran. But she scoffed at stories that have appeared suggesting that Reagan, the oldest man ever to serve as president, might be slipping mentally. “I thought they were ridiculous,” she said. “And anybody who has been in meetings with him lately would tell you the same thing.” The first lady suggested that her husband’s recuperation from his prostate surgery on Jan. 5 might also be a reason that he has not scheduled any news conferences or other opportunities for reporters to query him. She said he was “all recovered” from his surgery, but White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said that, although in “excellent health,” the president will continue on an abbreviated schedule for a few more weeks. “I know he looks forward to all restrictions being removed as soon as possible,” he said. “But it doesn’t pay to hurry the process, and when the doctors say ‘Go’ the president will be ready. ”
not having a light on his license plate. Before the trooper could get out of his car, Cliver shot him pointblank in the chest. Dennard suffered only minor injuries because he was wearing a bulletproof vest. The jury found Cliver guilty of attempted manslaughter as a result of an exchange of gunshots with Wells Fargo security man John W. Harvey, who wounded him in both legs as the gunman ran from Dennard’s patrol car.