Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 258, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 31, 1991 Page: 4 of 20
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Hopkins County Area Newspapers and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Hopkins County Genealogical Society.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Compaq unveils new color
screen portable computer
NEW YORK (AP) — Compaq
Computer Corp., which built its
reputation on portable computers,
unveiled its first color-screen
model, a machine it claims is the
most advanced portable available.
The computer features a new type
of color screen called active matrix.
It provides higher picture quality
than the lower-cost screens used on
most other color portable
computers.
But though it is portable, the new
Compaq model is not a laptop. At
17.6 pounds it is far heavier than
laptops, which generally weigh less
than 12 pounds. And it must be
plugged into a wall outlet, unlike
most laptops, which are battery-
powered.
At $9,999 list price for the base
model, the new Compaq also is
substantially more expensive than a
laptop.
Such portables are designed for »
more intensive uses than laptops.
Compaq says its model is aimed at
architects, engineers, computer
programmers and others who need a
high-powered computer but may
want to take it on the road.
The wall plug is required mainly
because of the power demands of
the high-tech color screen, said
Eckhard Pfeiffer, chief operating
officer of the Houston-based
computer maker.
Pfeiffer said that Japanese
computer makers Toshiba Corp. and
NEC Corp. also are selling
portables with active-matrix color
screens, but these computers are not
as powerful.
Industry analyst Leslie Fiering of
Gartner Group Inc. said the Compaq
computer appears to be a bargain
compared with other portables of
similar performance. It is cheaper,
for example, than a model from
International Business Machines
Corp. that has only a monochrome
screen, she said.
“You pay no premium for the
(color) screen,” she said. “To get
that level of performance it makes it
an incredible system.”
The portable is powered by a
version of Intel Corp.’s top
microprocessor, the 486. A
microprocessor acts as the “brains”
of personal computers.
The flat-panel color screen is
made in Japan, the only nation
producing these monitors. Each of
the 1.8 million picture elements, or
pixels, on the screen is powered by
a separate transistor, so it can
respond instantly to changes in the
screen image, such as when a chart
is updated.
The lower-cost passive-matrix
screens, by contrast, often respond
sluggishly to changing images.
Imports of active-matrix screens
recently were subject to stiff U.S.
duties after several small U.S.
companies trying to enter the field
said the Japanese competitors were
selling the screens in this country at
less than fair price.
Smart Money
By Bruce Williams
Have lawyer fix credit mixup
DEAR BRUCE: My wife and I applied for a home
mortgage and we were denied. When we asked to see
a copy of the credit report, we found out that it was
not our bad credit history, but my brother's. He and I
have similar names, and of course we lived with our
parents before I was married.
I have contacted the credit-reporting agency and they
said that although they are sympathetic, the people
who reported the information will have to correct it;
otherwise, the information stands.
In the meantime, the bank we’re dealing with has
indicated they will not give us a refund on our
' application fee. They told us privately that there’s not
much point in applying elsewhere until the credit
report is cleared up. They say no one will grant us a
mortgage.
In the meantime, we would like to take advantage of
the low rates and the low housing prices. Is there
something we can do? _ T.E., Arcadia, Fla.
DEAR T.E.: Of course there’s something you can do.
Have your attorney, in writing, contact the issuer of
the credit report with documentation that this
information is erroneous. Your attorney will explain
to them that your valuable credit reputation has been
damaged by their irresponsible activity and unless
these reports are corrected immediately, you will
bring suit. '*•
You have rights under federal law, but the credit-
reporting agencies are less responsive to individuals
since the lending institutions, not you and I, are their
customers. This is an area, which in my opinion,
requires some regulation in that you and I as
individual customers have little clout. It is a shame
that a company can make an error, have the error
pointed out to them and still refuse to correct it on the
basis of their relationship with their clients.
In the event that they do not correct their records, and
so notify the lender that you’re dealing with, I would
consider a suit. It seems to me that you have been
damaged and would very possibly prevail.
DEAR BRUCE: We put $500 down on $3,500 worth
of furniture. We made the deposit on Thursday, and a
week and a half later, we read in the paper that the
store was in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
We went to pick up our deposit because, obviously,
we weren’t going to get any furniture since they
would be gone. They said they were sorry but the
deposit was not returnable and that we would have to
file with the bankruptcy people to try to get a portion
of it back.
We feel we’ve been robbed. They knew they were
going bankrupt. They must have known weeks in
advance, yet they still took our deposit just a few days
before they declared bankruptcy. Now we are stuck.
What can we do? _ A.M., Detroit
DEAR A.M.: You said it right: You’re stuck. You are
now a general creditor of die bankrupt organization.
By all means, contact the bankruptcy court and file
your claim. You may get a few pennies on a dollar,
but unhappily, while the company acted unethically, I
don’t know that they did anything illegal.
Many companies, right to the last day, hide their
financial weaknesses and continue to accept deposits
for future work to die detriment of their customers.
(Send your questions to: Smart Money, P.O. Box
5202, Hudson, FL 34674. Questions of general
interest will be answered in future columns. Due to
the volume of mail, personal replies cannot be
provided.)
(C)1991 NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN.
New additions
Mark Smidebush, left, and John Blankenbaker have joined the management team at Ocean Spray
Cranberries, Inc. in Sulphur Springs. Smidebush was promoted to the position of production manager,
after serving as warehouse manager at the company's plant in Kenosha, Wb. Blankenbaker joined Ocean
Spray in August as production supervisor after serving 10 years in the military.
-Staff photo by Larry Barr
Employment picture could
be even worse than it seems
NEW YORK (AP) — The jobless
rate has changed little over the past
few months, suggesting that while
the employment picture might not
be improving it hasn’t worsened.
The assumption is wrong. The
employment picture has darkened
through much of the year, and it
might be growing darker still. That
6.7 percent jobless rate might be an
illusion. The true rate might be
higher.
, ’-j {ip*
The explanation requires no deep
understanding of the Labor
Department’s analysis, but only a
cursory glance beyond that popular,
oft-cited percentage figure — the
jobless rate — that seems to tell all
but doesn’t.
It doesn’t say a thing about the
number of “discouraged workers,”
capable people too discouraged to
actively pursue a job and who,
therefore, are simply eliminated
statistically. They are dropped from
-fo
the labor-force count.
The discouraged worker count
rose 100,000 in the third quarter of
the year to a total of 1.1 million, but
they are not counted among the 8.4
million persons who are
“officially” unemployed.
Nor does the jobless rate say a
thing about a much larger category
of individuals, those employed part-
time because they can’t find full-
time jobs. There are 6.4 million of
them. Their number rose by
500,000 in September.
The jobless rate reveals almost
nothing about a disaster in the
making if not already a disaster in
fact, the 18 percent jobless rate for
teen-agers as a group and the 38
percent rate for black teen-agers —
much higher in some cities.
The official jobless rate gives
little indication of the continued
loss of jobs in construction, which
has brought that industry’s
unemployment rate to 15.7 percent.
Or any indication of the extreme
weakness in retailing jobs.
The official measurements fail to
convey the sense of finality about
many of the job losses. That is,
more so than in most recessions the
unemployment numbers refer to job
terminations — eliminations —
rather than mere layoffs.
Many of these job eliminations
involve white-collar workers, some
of them highly paid and many of
them at a critical pre-retirement age.
Their jobs will not be filled again
for years, if ever, because corporate
America is on a diet.
Blue-collar workers, especially in
construction, are more attuned to
layoffs, but in effect many of them
also have bean terminated. The
recovery is too slow, too anemic for
them to employ their skills in their
usual occupations.
Many of these labor problems are
hidden from view by an over-
concentration on the jobless rate,
which has barely changed since
spring, and Ijy only one-tenth of one
percentage point in the July*
September period.
There has been erosion in the job
picture, and indications are that
some of it might persist for many
months to come, especially in view
of the slow — in some respects
almost imperceptible — rate of
recovery.
Much of it also is structural rather
than temporary, and of a sort that
might produce other problems.
Unemployed teen-agers, for
example, mean not just a weak
entry-level work force for the future
but anti-social behavior now.
Rockwell
Two-Year Weekly High-Low Ranga
A
.......fa.........................................
i'"i j%y i
Aar My Oct »ei Apr July Oci
MM-TthanMi anw*
4—THE NEWS TELEGRAM, Su*hur Springs, Taxaa, Thursday, October 91,1991
Business
Pete Dsrlin, second from right, with Price Ford Lincoln Mercury Nissan, presents a $100 U.S. savings bond
to Mary Lawrence as part of a promotion ^ponsorriby th* <j^**er8hlP- Other winners of bonds include
-Staff photo by Bob Merriman
Lyn Rogers has been promoted to assistant cashier at First American Bank & Mortgage, according to a
release from the bank. Rogers has been with the bank since 1985. She previously held the position of
administrative assistant in operations.
• Staff photo by Larry Barr
Stocks of
local interest
A.P.Greon
Two-Year Weekly High-Low Range
Oct aeo am July o«i aeiAprJuhrOot
Mtac-TMtraft e»«a*
HON Ind.
Two-Year Waaldy High-Low Range
v.
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Keys, Clarke. Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 258, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 31, 1991, newspaper, October 31, 1991; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth824567/m1/4/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.