
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 13, 1994                    TAG: 9406110261 
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY                     PAGE: 18    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BUSINESS WEEKLY STAFF 
DATELINE: 940613                                 LENGTH: Short

SHIPYARD UNDER FIRE

{LEAD} A group of black employees at Norfolk Naval Shipyard says African-Americans will bear the brunt of future cutbacks because they have been disproportionately relegated to lower-level jobs and denied training that would let them advance.

Convinced they are being racially discriminated against, 38 workers at the Portsmouth shipyard, most of them sandblasters, have hired a team of lawyers to bring a class-action suit in federal court.

A brief filed by a lawyer for the shipyard argues there is no basis for the class-action complaint.

\ ICE-SKATING SUPERSTAR Dorothy Hamill is joining Pat Robertson and son's burgeoning entertainment empire.

International Family Entertainment Inc., the Virginia Beach-based company controlled by Robertson and his son, Timothy, said it is buying Hamill's Ice Capades. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

IFE said it will produce TV specials featuring Hamill and her ice show that will appear on its Family Channel cable network.

\ LOCAL COX CABLE subscribers will have between 65 cents and $1 extra in their pockets each month thanks to a second round of government tightening of cable-TV rates.

Cox, Hampton Roads' largest cable operator, said it is cutting rates for its subscribers starting July 14 under reformulated guidelines handed it by the Federal Communications Commission.

But how much of a rate break its 196,000 local customers will get depends on where they live.

by CNB