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

DATE: THURSDAY, January 12, 1995                   TAG: 9501130050
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN BUSINESS

Leggett Stores said Wednesday it will discontinue a check-identification policy used in several Tidewater-area stores. The department- and outlet-store company said stores will no longer record race and gender information on customers' checks as part of check verification procedures.

"We apologize to any customers who may have been offended by this practice," the company's statement said.

Roanoke Valley Leggett stores did not have the policy of identifying race and gender, an executive said.

Associated Press

Merger to swell publisher's payroll

CHARLOTTESVILLE - The Michie Co., which employs about 740 people, is merging with another publisher of books for the legal profession, a move expected to add about 100 jobs to the Charlottesville company.

But most of the jobs likely will be filled by the employees of Butterworth Legal Publishers of Salem, N.H., said Reginald B. Ryals, vice president of human resources and administration for Michie. Ryals said a few additional openings were possible for law editors, copy editors and proofreaders.

The new company, Michie Butterworth, expects its annual sales to top $100 million.

Butterworth employs about 195 people, with 135 at the company's headquarters in Salem and another 60 at its offices in Carlsbad, Calif., and Orford, N.H.

The competing legal publishers, Michie and Butterworth, became affiliates Dec. 2, when Reed Elsevier completed its acquisition of Mead Data Central. Michie had been a part of Mead Data Central, the publishing unit of Mead Corp., since 1989.

The new company will be a unit of Mead Data Central, based in Dayton, Ohio. Mead Data Central was renamed Lexis-Nexis on Dec. 2.

-Associated Press