Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 16, 1993 TAG: 9306160068
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
NEW YORK - Eastman Kodak Co. will spin off its Eastman Chemical unit by year-end, reducing its debt by $2 billion, the photographic giant said Tuesday.
Kodak said the move is part of a larger financial restructuring it will reveal in September.
The new unit, Eastman Chemical Co., will be independent and publicly owned. It will assume $2 billion in debt and its proportionate share of environmental liability, said Kodak Chairman Kay Whitmore. Kodak will hold no equity in the new company.
Kodak will retain patents for Eastman's proprietary products, with Eastman paying a licensing fee to use them, Whitmore said. - Journal of Commerce
\ What's that, Seattle? Was Mickey hiccin'?
SEATTLE - Mickey Mouse has been advertising booze for the state of Washington. So have a fluffy rabbit who looks a lot like the Easter bunny and a teddy bear holding an American flag.
Colorful and hand-painted, they peered down from the windows of Washington state liquor stores for several days as part of a Flag Day-July Fourth sales promotion. Mickey was even decked out like Uncle Sam - 4 feet high in the Seattle suburb of Richmond Beach.
Carter Mitchell of the Washington State Liquor Control Board didn't know how many stores had the children's characters on their windows but guessed it was four to six.
Greg Parker, manager of one store, said no parents had complained.
"We do it because we want the store decorated with something besides plain-Jane-painted-green-inside." Besides, he said, children should feel comfortable coming inside when their parents shop.
The Liquor Board ordered the characters washed off.
Walt Disney Co. had not given permission for Mickey Mouse to be used and had planned to write the board. - Seattle Times
\ Chronic crop failure insured no longer
WASHINGTON - Farmers who whose crops regularly fail because of weather, flooding and other problems would lose federally subsidized crop insurance under a spending bill approved by a House subcommittee.
The crop insurance proposal would disqualify growers of crops in counties where a crop has failed 70 percent of the time since 1980.
"We think God is telling us something," said Rep. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., on Tuesday. "It is more of a crop loss subsidy program than it is an insurance program." - Associated Press
by CNB