European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 12, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday August 12, 1991 the stars and stripes b Page 17 Money matter today s tip business failures have increased dramatically up about 50 percent in the first six months of 1991 compared with the same period the previous year according to Dun amp Bradstreet corp. The vast majority of those failures Are Small businesses Many of them started during the entrepreneurial decade of the 80s. The problem was described As too Many entrepreneurs knowing How to produce a product or deliver a service but not having the expertise in finance and administration. When hard times hit Lack of management experience often throws Small companies into chaos Dun amp Bradstreet said. Conversion rates London up fridays closing rates for the . Dollar to other currencies. Figures Are expressed in dollars to the British Pound other local currencies in dollars Gold was quoted at s358.25 an ounce Silver at $3.96. British pound.17835 a6�95 German mark.1.7045 1.7255 French franc.5.8070 5.8490 dutch guilder.1,9195 1.9360 belgian franc 35.2625 35.4075 italian lira.1,278.6 -1,287.85 Swiss franc.1.5055 1.5130 greek drachma.188.60 189.95 turkish lira .4,398.60 4,428.40 saudi arabian riyal.3.7501 3.7501 Spanish peseta.106.68 107.56 portuguese escudo .146.40 a 148.13 Canadian dollar.1.1458 1.1460 austrian schilling.12.9975 12.0825 norwegian krone.6.665 6.715 danish krone.6.6075 6.65 these Are unofficial rates As reported by wire service and banking sources and they Are listed to give some idea of daily currency fluctuations. The Only official rate concent the Sale of German Marks to . Personnel for personal use and this will be 1.68 monday based on fridays noontime  Diego Thrift taken Over by . Regulators by the new York times los Angeles the great american Bank a san Diego based savings and loan association that buckled under the weight of bad real estate Loans was seized Friday by Federal regulators after a Long downward spiral. The failure of the savings and loan once one of californians largest had been anticipated for some time. Great american has for some time failed to meet any of the governments minimum capital requirements. In addition it violated a plan of recovery filed with the Federal government last year. The office of Thrift supervision which seized the institution said in a statement that great american had assets of $10.1 billion and liabilities of $9.98 billion and was operating in an a unsafe and unsound conditions with insufficient capital and no Prospect of replenishment without Federal help. As of March 31, the Thrift office said 24.2 percent of the company a assets were considered substandard doubtful or lost. The Bank recently completed the Sale of its 130 California branches to Wells Fargo amp co. For $472 million. Proceeds were not sufficient to lift the company out of insolvency. Investor sex chairman making bid for greyhound Union says Dallas apr an investment firm and a former greyhound lines inc. Chairman Are seeking to buy the bus company and put striking Drivers Back to work according to leaders of the Drivers Union. Richmont corp., an affiliate of Dallas based cosmetics manufacturer Mary Kay corp., signed a labor agreement Friday with the amalgamated transit Union Union leaders said. Greyhound based in Dallas filed for bankruptcy in june 1990, three months after its 6,300 Drivers went on strike. It hired More than 3,000 replacement Drivers and is operating a scaled Down system As it tries to reorganize. The investment firm confirmed it a is considering making a proposal to the bankruptcy court to Purchase 51 percent of the company said . Gibson president of amalgamated transit Union local 1313. The local based in Kansas City mo., is the Union s largest division. In return the Union declared its support of the buyout Gibson said. A they would put All our people Back to work and All the replacement workers would be added to the Bottom of the list Quot Gibson said. Details of the buyout offer Haven t been formulated said Earle Putnam a Washington attorney for the amalgamated transit Union. Richmont officials could not immediately be reached for comment. If the buyout is successful former greyhound chairman James Kerrigan would assume the company Stop Post Gibson said. Kerrigan was chairman of greyhound until he was dismissed by the company a Board of directors in 1978. A year later Kerrigan assembled a group that purchased trailways inc. And ousted its chairman Fred Currey. In 1987, Curry led a group that purchased greyhound and Kerrigan was ousted when greyhound later acquired trailways. The labor agreement which must be approved by the Union s membership would maintain the current top wage for Drivers at $12.79 an hour and increase it to $15.38 an hour Over six years Gibson said. Greyhound spokesman Bill Kula said the company is aware that Kerrigan and Richmont have contacted the Union regarding a buyout. He declined comment on the proposed offer however. A . Bankruptcy court judge is scheduled 011 aug. 27 to evaluate greyhounds reorganization plan which would Cut the company a debt by 25 percent and make it a Public company. The buyout proposal was reported saturday in the Dallas morning news and Cleveland Plain dealer. Dry cleaners asked to come clean about higher prices charged women Chicago apr Are launderers taking women to the cleaners the Illinois human rights department says yes dry cleaners routinely charge More to clean women a shirts than menus. Dry cleaning Industry officials say that a True but there a a Good reason blouses typically require More hand cleaning than shirts. The state is trying to determine whether there is sufficiently serious gender discrimination to warrant negotiating a formal Price agreement with five Chicago cleaners that it studied recently a spokesman for the human rights department said. If one can to be reached the next step would be to file a complaint with the Illinois human rights commission said the spokesman Dick Battles. The commission could Send the Case to an administrative Law judge. At the five Chicago cleaners studied by the state women were charged 35 cents to More than $2 above what men paid for the same services Battles said. The Illinois human rights act prohibits any company providing a Public service from discriminating because of gender. A we understand that the practice is Universal. We Are aware that it has been a Long standing procedure a Battles said. Dry cleaning officials said Price differences have been an Issue for years and they acknowledged that charges often arc higher for women a cleaning than for menus. But they said the difference is dictated by economics. Machinery used to finish menus shirts can to be used on smaller women a shirts said Alice Laban a spokeswoman for the International fabricate Institute in Silver Spring my. A those shirts have to be finished by hand so it naturally takes longer and costs More a Laban said. A we done to support any kind of sex discrimination but we do understand Why dry cleaners charge a different  the average Price to dry clean a Blouse ranged from $2.74 in the South to $3.37 in the Northeast according to Institute statistics from november 1990. Laundering a Many a shirt costs Between $1.20 in the South and $1.43 in the West the Institute said. Battles said the state does not object to higher prices for special handling. A a we re looking at cleaners charging More to women than men when exactly the same processing is indicated Quot he said. He said he did hot know the prices charged by the cleaners under investigation. The state has not identified the cleaners. He added that the state has no plans to expand the investigation. Similar complaints come up periodically around the country said Hal Horning editor of the monthly Trade Magazine National clothesline published in Philadelphia. Two complaints before the District of Columbia human rights office Iii 1989 accused two Washington dry cleaners of charging women More than men according to National clothesline. Local Trade associations settled the complaints by writing gender free pricing guidelines the Magazine said. The guidelines approved extra charges for special handling required by such things As dark or Bright colors frills gathers padded shoulders ruffles delicate trims zippers and closed fronts. A a we be always advised cleaners that. If you re not doing any hand pressing or anything special there a no reason to charge anything More for a woman a shirt a Horning said. Education Secretary says investment by wife posed no conflict of interest Nashville Tenn. Apr . Education Secretary Lamar Alexander former president of the University of Tennessee on saturday defended the schools use of a country inn partly owned by his wife. Gov. Ned Ray Mcwherter last week ordered a review of $65,000 the University paid to Blackberry farm in Walland Tenn. Alexander said neither he nor his wife Honey profited from the arrangement. His wife who owned a one third interest in the inn for slightly More than two years lost Money on the investment Alexander said. The ownership share originally be longed to him but Alexander said that when he became University president he transferred it to a Blind Trust with his wife As beneficiary. The former Republican governor of Tennessee said the payments were examined by the Senate committee on labor and human resources a headed by sen. Edward m. Kennedy d-mass., a and by White House officials and the Fri before he was confirmed As education Secretary in March. All found no wrongdoing he said. Alexander said the inn May have benefited from University functions but he saw no problem because he did no to profit. He had served As University president since 1987, after serving eight years As governor. He said he saw no reason to mention his wife a interest in the inn when school events were scheduled there. A at no time did any state form Ever require that Blackberry farm be specifically mentioned. So it Wasny to Alexander said. Alexander bought a $9,516 ownership share in the inn in 1977, sold it for the same Price later that year before he became governor and reacquired it in 1987 by trading $8,366 Worth of land. The Blackberry farm Stock was sold in january for $8,000, he said