LOOSE LIPS SHRINK PAY SLIPS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, February 24, 1992                   TAG: 9202240027
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
LOOSE LIPS SHRINK PAY SLIPS
The old saying that talk is cheap doesn't apply at Sparta Inc.
The Laguna Hills, Calif., company has a policy of fining any employee caught talking to a reporter.
And that even goes for the company president, Wayne Winton. Or so he said, anyway, when a reporter called Friday to inquire about the company's participation in an Army research project.
"We have a policy of not talking to reporters," Winton said tartly, "especially if they [the projects] are classified." Told that the project in question was not classified, he replied:
"It doesn't matter. We have a policy that anyone who talks to a reporter is fined $5,000, and it's not worth $5,000 to talk to you."
With that, he hung up.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB