European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 16, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 16 the stars and stripes today a hates following arc fixed Rales at which Community banking and credit Union facilities will sell for sign currencies to . Personnel for personal use German Mark .1.62 British Pound. 1.47 dutch Guilder .1.81 greek drachma 213.765 note the Ralo above apply within the Host country. Figures Are expressed in Dollar to the British Pound other cur Rendos to the Dollar following arc Interbank rates that fluctuate and should be regarded As the approximate value of the . Dollar to foreign Curran cies. Quot italian lira 1,551.07 turkish lira 9,067.83 Spanish peseta a a a a a a a a a a 118.59 portuguese escudo 151.43 austrian Schilling 11.675 saudi rial. 3.7501 Bahrain Dinar 0.37675 Kuwait Dinar .0.3840 norwegian Krone 7.051 danish Krone 6.358 British Pound. 1.4187 German Mark. 1.6575 Swiss franc 1.5425 French franc. 5.605 dutch Guilder .1.8682 belgian franc. 34.20 Canadian Dollar. 1.2531 Noto figures Are of Prossos in dollars to the British Pound Othor Curron cios to Tho Dollar Gold quota $323.75 an ounce. A Silver quote $3.70 an ounce. Tuesday february 16, 1993 guests ill Florida hotels but tourist Sites struggling Miami up a South Florida hotels arc having a record season while Many Miami arca tourist attractions arc reporting dismal attendance. Collections of resort taxes Are at a record High throughout Dade county but Many of those staying at the hotels Are workers helping restore South Dade county following Hurricane Andrew which struck on aug. 24. A at some Point All these insurance adjusters and construction workers Are going to Start to leave a said Harold Ginsberg supervisor of resort tax collections for metropolitan Dade county. A that certainly could be a  Many attractions report a drastic drop in attendance. A a it a major. It really is a said Barbara Schuler assistant director at Fairchild tropical gardens. A your attendance is Down 40 percent. A lot of our local audience is gone and Wco re still amazed at the number of Calls we get from people who just done to know we re  Parrot Jungle spokeswoman Amy Smith reported the same problem. A people think Wco re operating amid debris and All our Trees Are gone a she said. A this is a preconception that is wrong. Its in error. The Park is  at ctr zoo attendance was 31,673 from dec. 26, when the zoo reopened to Jan. 31, said a1 Fontana assistant director. In the same period last year attendance was 85,899. Resort taxes collected from july through december 1992, compared with the same six months in 199iy were up 22.4 percent from Dade county and 15.3 percent on Miami Beach. A you have to consider that most of the hotels have been charging Winter tates since september a said Bill Anderson an analyst at the greater Miami convention amp visitors Bureau. Although August september october i and november showed increases ranging from 43 to 55 percent Over the previous car december a resort tax collections levelled off and showed Only a 1.3 percent increase. December is when Winter hotel rates usually kick in. Figures also showed that the number of foreign visitors to Miami grew 15.3 percent to 1.9 million from september through december compared with the same four months of 1991. In the same period  travel to Miami dropped 4.9 percent to 2.44 million. Tourism analysts said the reason is Miami a crime image a an image that seems to turn off americans More than europeans or latin americans. A to us crime is a far greater concern than the Overall image of what the Hurricane left behind a said Mayco Villafana spokesman for the visitors Bureau. A the Hurricane is a natural disaster and things arc slowly coming Back to  insurance stocks come Back to life firm sets up company to curb costs Moline Iii. Apr employees of the worlds leading maker of farm machinery arc lining up at a sparkling new building to see four doctors at a company clinic created in cooperation with one of the nations top medical centers. Deere amp co. Teamed with the Mayo clinic in Rochester minn., to establish the facility where the goal is to Cut company health care spending while preserving nigh Quality treatment. The prestige of the Mayo name helped convince Many Deere employees to abandon their family doctors officials said. Opened in january the clinic has its own lab and drive up pharmacy. Minor surgeries Are performed. It already is considered a Success in attracting patients. A a we signed up 13 percent of the eligible population a said Michael Hammes president of John Deere family health plan. A we were almost astounded at the level of  the company says 4,000 of its 33,000 area employees retirees and family members have joined the clinic. Deere Hopes the new approach will slow increases in its medical costs which Rose from $20 million in 1971 to $220 million in 1992. By Chet Currier a business Witch. New York a while resurgent Bank stocks have received much More attn Tion another financial services Industry a life insurance a has staged an equally dramatic comeback on Wall Street. In just a couple of years the insurers have Transf nned their image with Stock investors from a dowdy Down at the Hicls Industry plagued by bad investments in Bonas Ana real estate to a business of considerable Promise. Over the 12-month period through the first week of february the Dow Jones Index of life insurance stocks racked up a gain of 42.34 percent. That was a better showing than any of Dow Jones Bank Stock indexes Over the same period and topped a 32.18 percent gain by property and casualty insurers benefiting from a much ballyhooed improvement in the pricing Outlook for products like fire Ana disaster insurance. The life insurers gain ranked As the fifth Best performance among 96 groups tracked by Dow Jones. A after under performing the Market during the mid to late-1980s, the life insurance stocks have been Star performers thus far in the 1990s,�?� says Margaret Alexandre an analyst at Salomon Brothers in a recently published report on the group. A was a result of intensified scrutiny from rating agencies regulators consumer advocacy groups and the securities and Exchange commission the Industry today operates increasingly from a position of  memories remain fresh of the woes that afflicted the Industry at the Start of the decade. A the life and health insurance Industry is recovering its financial footing despite continued difficulties with troubled real reports that a study covering n 1,200 life companies a shows estate and mortgages a said Weiss research of West Palm Beach Fla. Weiss More than. That most insurance companies have enjoyed healthy growth in assets and capital while policy surrenders have slowed a at the same time falling interest rates have bolstered the Industry in a variety of ways a not the least by reducing the Appeal of products ranging from Bank certificates of Deposit to Money Market Mutual funds that compete with life insurance for savers Money. Now Alexandre observes the Prospect of possible tax increases has put life insurance and annuities with their exemption from current taxes on the a inside buildup of compounding earnings in a favourable Light. Inventor of Weber Kettle Grill Dies Kildeer 111. Up funeral services were to be held monday for George a. Stephen jr., inventor of the Weber Kettle Grill a known to millions of Back Yard Cooks As the Cadillac of outdoor Barbecue cooking. Stephen 71, died thursday at  Home in the Northwest Chicago suburb of  was owner and president of Weber Grill co. Of Palatine hi., a company he founded in the late 1950s to manufacture the distinctive domed topped vented bowl barbecues that Dot millions of Back Yards and patios around the world. According to company literature Stephen created the Weber Kettle after a bad experience with a traditional open Brick Barbecue in 1950. The old fashioned pit produced thick smoke and charred unevenly cooked meat. A that was the first time 1 Laid a Brick and it was a monstrosity a said Stephen in a 1980 interview with the Chicago Sun-times., was no Way to regulate the heat. It burned  in 1951, Stephen was working for  father at Weber Bros., a Chicago Metal parts manufacturing company when he saw two halves of a steel buoy being made and thought the rounded shape might make a Good Barbecue. A like a lot of inventors he used what he had a said son James Stephen executive vice president of Weber Grill co. And one of 11 Stephen children who work for the firm. Stephen began producing the kettles for friends. The kettles used the rounded shape of the Grill and a Bottom vent to regulate the flow of heat and oxygen during cooking. In 1952, he began Selling them As Georges Barb a kettles and in 1955 formed a Barbecue division of Weber Bros. Parent firm of Jack in the Box cancels expansion plans by the new York times Foo maker inc., the Parent company of the Jack in the Box fast food Chain has cancelled plans to open 85 restaurants this year. The decision announced at Goodmak cry a annual shareholder meeting in san Diego came a month after an outbreak of food poisoning from hamburgers sold at Jack in the Box outlets in the West left one child dead and hundreds of patrons ill. A the company said that it would reconsider its expansion plans after its business had rebounded but it said that was unlikely to happen for several months. A a we re going to wait until our business is normalized Quot Jack w. Goodall the company a chief executive and president said. The company also said that it had received two notices from the Washington state health department in 1992 of new regulations that required hamburger to be cooked at 155 degrees a temperature that experts say would have killed most or All of the e. Coli bacteria that sickened customers. Jack in the Box had been following Federal guidelines that require the meat to be cooked at 140 degrees. The restaurant chains president Robert Nugent had previously said that the company had not been notified of the new regulation. But last week company officials apparently found the misplaced notifications which were dated May 1992 and september 1992. Since the outbreak of illnesses the Federal government has recommended that All states raise their standards for cooking meat to 155 degrees. And the company said it had established a data base for regulatory notices to avoid a similar problem in the future. Foo maker announced at the annual meeting that the company had increased the number of inspections of its meat supplies. It said it had added an extra test at its Supply plants raising the number of such Quality tests to seven before making meat shipments to Jack in the Box outlets. The move will Cost the company $2 million it said. 1 he company has said it will pay All the medical costs of those who became ill from eating at its restaurants