THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 8, 1996 TAG: 9602080469
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Briefs
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
Web usuers go "black" to protest telecom bill
About 150 people and groups have pledged to turn their home page on the Internet ``black,'' said Shabbir Safdar, head of the Voters Telecommunications Watch, to protest legislation restricting smut on computer networks. Protesters will change the background color of their home page - the electronic equivalent of a calling card with lots more information - to black. The disputed anti-smut provision is contained in a massive telecommunications bill President Clinton is expected to sign into law today. The American Civil Liberties Union intends to challenge the anti-smut provision in federal court, saying it is overly broad and would outlaw electronic transmissions of legal speech, including literature such as ``Catcher in the Rye,'' rap lyrics and profane conversations. (AP)
Hughes Aircraft moves
headquarters to Virginia
Hughes Aircraft Co. has relocated its headquarters from Los Angeles to Arlington. The company, founded by Howard Hughes in 1932, designs and makes electronic systems for military and civilian aircraft. Its annual revenues are about $6 billion and it employs about 35,000 worldwide. ``The opportunity presented itself for us to move the company headquarters closer to our principal customers. We're now postured to provide our customers even better service,'' said Michael T. Smith, Hughes Aircraft Co. chairman. The new headquarters has 135 employees. Fifteen transferred from Los Angeles and another seven to 10 will join them this summer. (AP)
Trans World Airlines Inc. plans to hire 2,100 workers in 1996, including the company's first new flight attendants in two years. The employees will be hired for TWA locations throughout the United States. The airline employs about 23,000 people nationally, including more than 7,000 at its headquarters and hub in St. Louis. Twenty people began flight-attendant training Tuesday. They will be the first of more than 500 flight attendants TWA plans to hire. TWA also expects to hire more than 300 pilots and more than 1,300 reservation sales agents. The airline also plans to recruit and train ticket agents and ground workers. TWA serves Norfolk International Airport. (AP)
Shipbuilder has agreed
to settlement with liner
Newport News Shipbuilding and the owner of the Hawaiian cruise liner SS Independence have agreed to settle a dispute over the vessel's unpaid repair bill. The two sides agreed in principle to an out-of-court settlement, but the agreement bars any release of details, said Jordan B. Allen, vice president of American Classic Voyages Co., which owns the liner. The Independence, one of two cruise liners purchased by the Chicago-based American Classic in 1993, arrived in Newport News for a $13 million overhaul in July 1994. (AP)
Chesterfield Trojan plant
slated to triple in size
America's leading condom maker will spend more than $20 million to consolidate its manufacturing at its Richmond-area plant, adding 300 jobs to the Chesterfield County factory. Carter-Wallace Inc., based in New York, makes Trojan condoms and several other brands at plants in Chesterfield and Trenton, N.J. The company plans to close the New Jersey plant by late summer. It will triple the size of the Chesterfield plant off Interstate 95 to 200,000 square feet, adding three production lines. (AP) Many banks tightening standards for credit.
Many banks have begun to tighten standards for approving a wide variety of loans over the past three months, the Federal Reserve says. The Fed survey of senior loan officers at 59 domestic commercial banks and 23 branches of foreign banks showed about one-fourth had tightened standards for new credit-card accounts. Another one-sixth had increased their terms for new automobile loans. Standards for home mortgage loans were unchanged. Terms for commercial real estate loans were tightened, the survey found. (AP)
FCC prepared to approve
Disney takeover of ABC
Federal regulators are prepared to remove the last obstacle to The Walt Disney Co.'s proposed $19 billion takeover of Capital Cities/ABC Inc., creating the world's largest media company. But they are likely to make the company divest some properties. If the Federal Communications Commission approves the deal today, Disney would replace Time Warner Inc. in the industry's top spot. But Time Warner would take it back if the FCC approves its proposed $7.5 billion buyout of Turner Broadcasting System Inc. The most contentious issue before the FCC is whether it should let Disney permanently own, as it has requested, radio stations and a newspaper in Forth Worth, Texas, and in Pontiac-Detroit, Mich. Federal regulations prohibit one company from owning a newspaper and a radio station in the same market. (AP)
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT SETTLEMENT by CNB