Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 11, 1993 TAG: 9303110135
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
IN BUSINESS
New Sprint unit has transition teamBRISTOL, Tenn. - A transition team is to be formed to plan and integrate operations of United Telephone-Southeast, the company that serves Southwest Virginia counties, with Carolina Telephone and Centel-Virginia/North Carolina into a new Sprint Mid-Atlantic unit with headquarters in Wake Forest, N.C.
John Brooks, United's vice president for human resources and corporate communications, has been named its vice president and general manager. His office will continue to be in Bristol.
Brooks will report to Bill Smith, executive vice president and chief operating officer for the new Sprint unit. Smith was formerly United's president.
Sprint said Tuesday it had completed its merger with Centel Corp. It now provides service to 5.9 million customer lines in 19 states, with cellular operations serving more than 20 million people. - Southwest bureau
GM seeks new trial in fiery truck death
ATLANTA - General Motors Corp. is seeking a new trial in a lawsuit in which a jury awarded $105 million to the parents of a boy who died in a fiery pickup crash. GM says new witnesses have come forward.
GM filed a motion for a new trial Monday, saying the evidence will "almost certainly" bring a different verdict. But a lawyer for the family that sued GM called the motion a publicity stunt.
GM said in court documents it has two witnesses who can testify that 17-year-old Shannon Moseley of Snellville died before his truck caught fire.
A state jury last month found the world's biggest automaker negligent in the fuel-tank design of the pickup and ordered GM to pay $101 million in punitive damages and $4.2 million in compensatory damages to Elaine and Thomas Moseley. Whether Moseley died immediately was a crucial issue in the trial.
GM said the jury's punitive-damages award should be thrown out unless it can be shown that Moseley suffered in the crash.
In its court papers, GM said witnesses Donald Sutherland and Peter Lashway have given statements that Moseley did not move or scream while the truck burned. Witnesses at the trial said they heard Moseley scream while trying to escape the burning truck.
GM said the new witnesses arrived just after the crash, before police got there. - Associated Press
Parents' magazine to join Rolling Stone
NEW YORK - The publishing company best known for Rolling Stone magazine said Wednesday it plans to launch a magazine later this year aimed at parents.
Straight Arrow Publishers Inc., headed by Rolling Stone founder Jann S. Wenner, said it will launch Family Life magazine in August.
The list of magazines aimed at parents has been growing. But Family Life will target only a segment of that audience, a group defined as "active families" with children aged 3 to 12.
Family Life is the fourth magazine in Straight Arrow's lineup, joining Rolling Stone, Us and Men's Journal, launched last April.
- Associated Press
Roanoke Valley to get 2nd Roasters
A second Kenney Rogers' Roasters restaurant will open in the Roanoke Valley in early April, said franchise owner John Fahlgren. It will be in the Ridgewood Farm Village Center across from Lewis-Gale Hospital. The company now operates at Towers Shopping Center. - Staff report
Keywords:
FATALITY