ROANOKE TIMES

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

DATE: SATURDAY, July 17, 1993                   TAG: 9307170091
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium


IN BUSINESS

Shenandoah Valley farmland threatened

STRASBURG - The Shenandoah Valley, known as the nation's breadbasket during the Civil War, has been listed one of the farming regions most threatened by development.

The American Farmland Trust ranked the Shenandoah Valley 11th on a list of endangered agricultural regions and two counties, Shenandoah and Frederick, were placed on a "condition red" list of most endangered areas.

About 60,000 acres of farmland have been lost in the valley in the past 10 years, the trust said. - Associated Press \

Airline accused of raiding secrets

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The ongoing legal war between Northwest Airlines and American Airlines moved into a Minneapolis courtroom Friday, with American alleging that Northwest raided American's employees to get trade secrets.

Northwest denies that it ever received any truly secret information from former American employees. Northwest asked U.S. District Judge Diana Murphy to put an end to the case that's been pending for two years instead of letting it go to trial.

The airlines estimate a trial will take two to three weeks. The two companies also are involved in a separate suit that began this week in Galveston, Texas, and is expected to last five weeks. In that case, Northwest and Continental Airlines claim American Airlines used predatory pricing, or air fares too low to cover costs, to hurt its competitors.

In the Minnesota case, American claims Northwest hired 17 of its employees to learn how to design a "yield management" system for juggling air fares so it could fill the maximum number of seats with high-paying customers. - Knight-Ridder/Tribune



 by CNB