Ponovno predvajanje sobota, 16. julij 1994

The Big City; FALLING FOR IT

Date: 17 July 1994

By John Tierney

John Tierney

Each of these letters to dog shelters across America bears the logo of a nonexistent Korean company, Kea So Joo, which means Dog Meat Soup. The company offers 10 cents a pound for dogs that will be cooked and canned for sale to Asians fond of this traditional dish. "Dog is good food. Dog is good medicine," the letter explains. "Our business getting very big. Need more dog." It offers free pickup and a promise: "Dog no suffer. We have quick death for dog." This is the first stage of a genre that Skaggs has been developing since the 1960s. Now 48 years old, he began as a conventional artist in Greenwich Village: painter, sculptor, organizer of political protests. He carried a cross up Fifth Avenue on Easter, built a Vietnamese nativity scene in Central Park and gradually got annoyed at the way the press covered him. Like everyone else in America, he resented having the world explained by journalists in midtown Manhattan. He realized that many of New York's media know-it-alls are just moderately educated folks churning out information obtained from press releases and from phone conversations with strangers. They're paid to sit in windowless rooms and pretend they can see the political situation in Prague or the best place to rock climb in Arizona. Skaggs saw an opportunity for what he calls conceptual performance art or media pieces. He has staged dozens of media hoaxes that have fooled hundreds of newspapers and television shows ranging from network news programs to "Geraldo."

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Public & Private; A Good Fire

Date: 16 July 1994

By Anna Quindlen

Anna Quindlen

When I was a little girl I was enamored of the comic strip "Brenda Starr." Brenda was beautiful, a world traveler with masses of gracefully waving red hair and stars where her pupils ought to be. She had a mysterious boyfriend with a black eye patch named Basil St. John, and she never wore the same gown twice. Brenda was a reporter. This was my introduction to the newspaper business.

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TELEVISION; Not Necessarily What the Spin Doctor Ordered

Date: 17 July 1994

By Jeff Macgregor

Jeff Macgregor

Tommy, Sorry you had to miss the weekend retreat. I trust the Lincoln Bedroom was as you remember it. In addition to crafting some incredible soft sculpture and a day of very cathartic role playing, R. & D. really jammed on some new ideation that is just too hot! Briefly:

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JUDITH REGAN

Date: 17 July 1994

"Judith Regan," SHE SAYS IN HER CLIPPED VOICE, returning my first phone call from her office at Simon & Schuster in November. "Judith, hi. How are you?" I ask.

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Westchester Q&A;: Dr. Paul Thaler; Justice and Television's Unblinking Eye

Date: 17 July 1994

By Donna Greene

Donna Greene

LIKE millions of others, Dr. Paul Thaler watched the O. J. Simpson pretrial hearing. But he did so with a special eye to see if the hearing supported what he concluded after six years of research -- that television coverage of trials interferes with the process of justice. Dr. Thaler, a former newspaper reporter and now the director of journalism and media at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, is the author of "The Watchful Eye: American Justice in the Age of the Television Trial" (Praeger). In that book, he focuses on the history and consequences of still cameras and television equipment in the courtroom.

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HOOK-SUPERX ACQUISITION IS COMPLETED BY REVCO

Date: 16 July 1994

By Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

Revco D.S. Inc. completed its $600 million acquisition yesterday of Hook-Superx Inc., creating the nation's second-largest drugstore chain. Revco completed the purchase after the Federal Trade Commission said it would require the company to sell three stores in Virgina. The purchase, which comes about two years after Revco, based in Twinsburg, Ohio, emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, creates a retail drug chain of 2,381 in 25 Eastern and Midwestern states. The company trails only the 2,600-store Rite-Aid chain in the number of stores. Under the agreement proposed by the F.T.C., one of Revco's stores in each of three Virginia cities -- Covington, Marion and Radford -- must be sold to an F.T.C.-approved company within a year.

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PURCHASE OF FARLEY'S INFANT UNIT IS APPROVED

Date: 16 July 1994

By Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

The H. J. Heinz Company's planned purchase of Farley's infant milk and food business from the Boots Company P.L.C. was approved yesterday by Britain's Department of Trade and Industry. The decision clears the way for Heinz's acquisition of Farley's from Boots for $:94 million, or about $141 million. Heinz said the acquisition, first announced on May 27, would help it expand its baby food business into Europe. It will enable Heinz, which already has about 50 percent of the British baby-food market, to strengthen its worldwide baby food business.

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STANDARD & POOR'S LOWERS RATING OF MET LIFE

Date: 16 July 1994

By Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

The Standard & Poor's Corporation lowered its ratings yesterday on $150 million of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's debt. S.& P. cited a reduction in Met Life's sales of life insurance. Sales have dropped this year amid a nationwide investigation into the sales practices of the company, the nation's second-largest life insurer. "The disclosures in recent months about the investigation into their sales has affected the company," said Jayan Dhru, associate director for S.& P. A lower rating could make it more expensive for the insurer to borrow money or sell new insurance policies. Met Life's debt rating was dropped to AA+ from AAA by S.& P.

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COOPER GETS FINE ON INSIDER-TRADING SCHEME

Date: 16 July 1994

By Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

A Federal judge ordered the Cooper Companies yesterday to pay $3.1 million for the company's role in an insider-trading scheme that led to the conviction of Cooper and its former chairman, Gary Singer. United States District Judge Robert J. Ward ordered Cooper to pay a $1.8 million criminal fine as well as full restitution of $1.3 million to Keystone Group, a Boston mutual fund company. Last January, Cooper was convicted of six counts of mail fraud and one count of wire fraud, related to the insider trading by Mr. Singer. Mr. Singer was convicted of bribing a former Keystone bond analyst to give him confidential information about Keystone's investment strategies. Keystone was not accused of wrongdoing. Cooper, based in Fort Lee, N.J., makes contact lenses and health care products. It also operates several psychiatric hospitals.

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A Confidence Index Falls Confidence Index Falls

Date: 16 July 1994

By Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

The University of Michigan's preliminary index of consumer sentiment for July fell to 88.9 from 91.2 in June, people with access to the report said yesterday. "While a drop was expected, the extent of the fall was a surprise," said Dana Sorrentino, an economist at Stone & McCarthy Research Associates. "We assume it reflects the turmoil in the stock and bond markets in early July."

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