Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 5, 1993 TAG: 9302050407
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
IN BUSINESS
Fire ruins loader at NS dock; 1 hurtNORFOLK - Fire destroyed one of two coal loaders at Norfolk Southern Corp.'s Lamberts Point dock Thursday, and one worker was treated for smoke inhalation, authorities said.
A collier, identified by the Coast Guard as the Trade Daring, was underneath the loader during the fire but was not damaged, said Bob Fort, NS spokesman. He said the railroad employee's injuries did not appear to be serious. A spokeswoman for the Norfolk Fire Department said the worker was injured aboard the coal ship.
Fort said the cause of the fire was not known. He did not have an immediate estimate of damages.
Lamberts Point loads about 40 million tons of coal a year through its two loaders. The second loader was not damaged, he said.
Milken finishing sentence at home
LOS ANGELES - After 22 months in prison and a month in a halfway house, Michael Milken is finishing his two-year sentence at home.
The junk-bond financier has entered a home-confinement program that requires him to stay at his Encino residence when not working at a research job with his lawyer. His sentence is up March 2.
Milken had been staying at a halfway house in a rundown section of Hollywood since his release from federal prison on Jan. 3. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and paid more than $1.1 billion in fines after pleading guilty in 1990 to securities crimes stemming from his junk bond deals. In August, a federal judge cut his sentence to two years.
Milken also must complete 1,800 hours of community service each year for three years, or about 35 hours a week.
Airline complaints down for 5th year
WASHINGTON - The number of complaints passengers filed about airline service fell in 1992 for the fifth straight year to the lowest level since the government began keeping track, the Transportation Department said Thursday.
Last year, passengers filed 6,849 complaints about airline service. In 1991, they filed 7,532. The department began compiling the figures in 1970.
The agency offered no explanation for the decline. But consumer groups have said the airlines have lowered expectations about service, primarily by offering later estimated times of arrival for flights.
The 10 largest U.S. carriers posted an 82.3 percent on-time arrival performance last year, compared with 82.5 percent in 1991. The on-time level was 73.9 percent in December compared with 80 percent for December 1991 and 82.7 percent for November.
Coal's future rides on use of electricity
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - Coal industry executives are hoping for an increase in consumption in 1993 so they can trim stockpiles from two consecutive warm winters.
The National Coal Association estimates consumption this year will increase to 1.010 billion tons from 1.008 billion tons at the end of 1992. Meanwhile, production likely will remain stable at about 1 billion tons, the association said.
The increase will come primarily from an increase in demand for electricity, said National Coal Association President Richard Lawson. About 80 percent of the coal produced in the U.S. goes to generate electricity.
Coal production in 1992 increased 1.2 percent from the previous year, but did not match the industry record of 1.029 billion tons set in 1990.