Chapter 7: a “straight” liquidation bankruptcy involving an appointed trustee to sell all assets by auction or other means to pay creditors and trustee fees. Chapter 11: a process which allows a business to gain temporary relief from paying debt in order to attempt a successful reorganization. The debtor remains in control of the business during the bankruptcy and the business continues to function. Chapter 13: a bankruptcy plan available to individuals whose “income is sufficiently stable and regular to enable such individual to make payments under a plan.” The debtor makes payments to a trustee who disburses the funds to creditors. Involuntary bankruptcy: the debtor is forced into bankruptcy by secured creditors whose claims total at least $5,000. Involuntary bankruptcy may be filed under Chapter 7 or 11. aka: also known as dba: doing business as fdba: formerly doing business as fka: formerly known as FAW: formerly associated with Shuji Kimura DBA: Loco Cocina Mexicana; Le Petit Marche; Taiyo (restaurant) 4200 Camellia Ave., Studio City 91604 Chapter: 7 Assets: $363,200 Debts: $289,020 Doc #SV00-14402-GM File Date: 05/05/00 Attorney: Jaenam Coe 213-627-4200 Heartbeat Home Health, Inc. (home health agency/nursing svcs.) 16861 Ventura Blvd Suite 310 Encino 91436 Assets: $O Debts: $2,692,190 Doc #SV00-14487-AG File Date: 05/08/00 Attorney: Andrew Bakker 213-996-851. Wolfgang Fritz Dresow DBA: Edelweiss German Restaurant 5079 Sunburst Drive Palmdale 93552 Chapter: 7 Assets: $106,575 Debts: $166,416 Doc #SV00-15120-KL File Date: 05/30/00 Attorney: No outside representation Golden Arrow Corporation; FDBA: Rosebud’s; Personalized Bridals; Bliss Bridals; Bon Bon (clothing mfg.) 4872 Topanga Blvd #333 Woodland Hills 91364 Assets: $O. Debts: $82,465 Doc #SV00-15139-KL Attorney: Cheryle White 310-842-7967 Clothing manufacture. Mexicali Tires, Inc. (tire svc.) 18640 Parthenia St., Northridge 91324 Chapter: 7 Assets: $0 Debts: $163,393 Doc #SV00-14851-GM File Date: 05/19/00 Attorney: Bernal Ojeda 818-886-1291 Starter and Alternator Exchange Inc. (business type n/a) Startex 12224 Montague St., Pacoima 91331 Chapter: 11 Assets: $3,677,709 Debts: $6,500,295 Doc #SV00-14874-AC Attorney: Joel Weinberg 818-594-8822 Rodeo Development, Inc. (construction) 4348 Van Nuys Blvd. Suite 201, Sherman Oaks 91403 Debts: $49,975 Doc #SV00-14964-AG File Date: 05/23/00 Attorney: David Lozano 626-337-8382 Michael V. Vaysman American Glass and Mirrors (glass service) 5301 Yarmouth Ave 37 Encino 91316 Chapter: 7 Assets: $6,608 Debts: $24,515 Doc #SV00-15232-KL File Date: 06/01/00 Attorney: No outside representation. Semmens Construction, Inc. 3677 Dixie Canyon Ave Sherman Oaks 91423 Assets: $401. Debts: $1,108,688 Doc #SV00-15221-KL Attorney: James Tenner 818-760-4700 Leiser U.S.A. Inc. (light mfg.) 8404 San Fernando Road Sun Valley 91352 Assets: $1,490,000 Debts: $1,313,139 Doc #SV00-15346-GM File Date: 06/05/00 Attorney: Joseph Buchman 213-236-0600 William M. Evarts, III DBA: WME Systems 4703 Club View Drive Westlake Village 91362 (mfg. hard drive components) Chapter: 7 Assets: $45,848 Debts: $428,588 Doc #SV00-15279-AG File Date: 06/02/00 Attorney: Elan Levey 310-277-0077 Richard Allen Kempton DBA: Treasure Chest; General Store (gift shop) 3144 Texas Ave Simi Valley 93063 Assets: $349,904 Debts: $590,034 Doc #SV00-15358-GM Attorney: James Allen 805-494-4409 David Y. Conlin DBA: Breakthrough Environmental Technologies (consulting) 1221B Greenleaf Canyon Road Topanga 90290 Chapter: 7 Assets: $2,800 Debts: $125,742 Doc #SV00-15378-GM File Date: 06/06/00 Attorney: John Oh 213-637-1333 Linda M. Richie-Foster LMR Services (sales) 5801 Lake Lindero Drive Agoura Hills 91301 Assets: $5,190 Debts: $40,235 Doc #SV00-15372-GM Calco Autoline, Inc. (import/wholesale auto parts) 11971 Dunnicliffe Ct Northridge 91326 Chapter: 7 Assets: $O. Debts: $1,186,163 Doc #SV00-15452-KL File Date: 06/08/00 Attorney: Yun Suh 213-384-2970 LLO-Gas, Inc. 23805 Stuart Ranch Road Suite 220 Malibu 90265 Chapter: 11 Assets: N/A Debts: N/A Doc #SV00-15398-AG File Date: 06/07/00 Attorney: Daniel Lev 213-430-3000 Claudio Francisco Occhipinti Rancho Auto Sales (auto sales) 6255 Honolulu Avenue, Unit I Tujunga 91402 Assets: $186,000 Debts: $709,513 Doc #SV00-15458-AG Attorney: Stella Havkin 818-999-1568 Cannom Creations, Inc. (business type n/a) 26074 Avenue Hall, #1 Valencia 91355 Chapter: 7 Debts: $449,622 Doc #SV00-15527-KL File Date: 06/09/00 Attorney: Steven Mayer 310-207-0007

Six months ago, the Right Start Inc. was sitting pretty. The company’s retooled retail network was pumping up its sales volume, and the Westlake Village-based retailer of children’s clothing, toys and accessories was expecting to raise $70 million in the initial public offering it planned for its e-commerce division, Rightstart.com. And then, suddenly, e-commerce companies fell out of favor on Wall Street. Since trading at a high of nearly $24 per share in January, Right Start stock has slid south closing at $5.25 per share on June 22, and the company has backed off its IPO plans for the Web spinoff. “It’s pretty much the same as every company that developed in e-commerce,” said Bryant Riley, chief executive of investment house B. Riley & Co. “Investors don’t want to be involved with these companies.” Right Start’s stock price skyrocketed earlier in the year on expectations that its e-commerce division would be spun off. But by the time Right Start began preparing its Securities and Exchange Commission filing for RightStart.com in January, investors had begun to pull out of the IPO market, especially where e-commerce companies were concerned. By May it was evident that the IPO would not fly, and Right Start withdrew its application. “It really had nothing to do with the performance of the company,” said Ray Springer, chief financial officer of RightStart Inc. “Our Internet business was on plan and substantially more robust than quite a few other retailers that got out (with IPOs) late in 1999 or the first month of 2000. It was just a matter that, at some point, the market decided that investing in e-commerce is not where the market wanted to be.” The withdrawal of the IPO was unavoidable given stock market sentiment, analysts say, and it is likely to hamper Right Start’s growth and its future plans. “I think they are in a predicament,” said Tom Taulli, Internet stock analyst for Internet.com, an information technology portal. “They’ve got to make a decision whether to focus on the brick-and-mortar or the online business. I don’t think they have enough money to do a two-front war.” Since acquiring a 60 percent stake in Right Start Inc. in 1995, investment firm Kayne Anderson has worked to re-engineer the retail operation, closing poorly performing stores that were mostly located in shopping malls and adding new units in street-front locations. The company currently operates 54 retail stores. Then, in July 1999, the company raised $15 million in a private placement to launch Rightstart.com, an e-commerce site selling a broad range of products that appeal to kids up to 12 years of age. Though expensive, the moves expanded the company’s sales. For the quarter ended April 29, Right Start posted a net loss of $4.6 million (86 cents per diluted share), compared to net income of $11,000 (a loss of 1 cent) for the comparable period in 1999. (The company had a loss per share despite an income gain that quarter because it had to pay dividends in excess of earnings to preferred shareholders.) Sales for the first quarter rose 38 percent to $15.3 million from $11 million in the comparable quarter of 1999. Springer said the first-quarter loss was largely due to the fact that Right Start, in spite of its store growth, has not yet reached critical mass. “It’s difficult for a chain of 50 stores to make money, especially when you’ve got opening expenses,” he said. “When we open over 70 stores, there’s enough mass there to support the overhead to generate decent profits.” Springer said the company is still on plan to expand its store roster. Right Start expects to open another 20 stores (mostly in Texas, Georgia and Florida) this year. Those stores, with a projected annual revenue of about $750,000 each, will help to fund the expansion. “We expect to open 20 to 30 stores a year over the next few years, and we have a business plan that would show 200 stores and a very profitable business,” Springer said. At the same time, Springer said the company is now hoping to interest private investors in backing its e-commerce operation. Right Start has hired Cappello Corp., a Santa Monica investment bank, to help raise about $12 million through a private placement, Springer added.

Vivendi’s $34 billion takeover of Seagram Co. and its local Universal Studios Inc. operations sent the entertainment industry buzzing last week about the probable fate of Universal’s current American management and other related topics. Analysts and observers say Vivendi can’t possibly manage Universal from France, so it will rely on a local team of studio executives. And many doubt they’ll go with the existing slate. “Realistically, they know they can’t run it here,” said veteran entertainment analyst Art Rockwell. “The key issue in management was what to do with (Seagram CEO) Edgar Bronfman Jr. They now have him overseeing the music business. He has been removed from the rest of Universal’s film and TV production. What they need now is a professional heavyweight to run the studio. They know that the present structure of Edgar Jr. and Ron Meyer (Universal’s chairman) isn’t a model that will work.” Many experts agree with Rockwell. Universal officials aren’t talking about Meyer’s status, or whether he will be replaced. If Pierre Lescure, who as head of Vivendi-controlled Canal Plus SA will be placed in charge of Universal’s film and TV operations, decides to look elsewhere, the buzz is that he might turn to Terry Semel, former co-chairman of Warner Bros. Semel was out of town and unavailable for comment last week, and his assistant at Windsor Media, his production company in Westwood, said he “would have no comment” on the matter. A Warner Bros. insider said he doubts that Semel would join Universal because he is a close friend of Meyer. Moreover, he would be reluctant to take charge of a company unless he was made a significant owner in the studio. “He doesn’t need the money and he doesn’t want to work for somebody else and make millions for them unless he has a major equity position,” the source said. Yet rumors persist that Semel is at least discussing the matter with Vivendi officials. Big-star approach If Semel was put in charge of Universal Pictures, those who know him believe he would revive the model he used so successfully at Warner Bros., at least until the strategy started to backfire in the late 1990s. “It will be big pictures with big stars,” one former Universal executive said. “It will be the Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts-type stars.” But most observers agree that Warner Bros. became too dependent on aging stars like Clint Eastwood and did not respond to the changing tastes of the youth market. It is highly uncertain whether Semel could regain the magic touch he was known for in the late ’80s and early ’90s, when Warner Bros. was regularly the top money-making studio in Hollywood. Amid the buzz about installing Semel or another Hollywood veteran at Universal, several industry experts agreed that the new French owners will probably exert more control over the studio than the Japanese did when Matsushita Electrical Industrial was in charge but not very much more. “Canal Plus is a company that has experience with entertainment,” said Frank Price, former chairman of Columbia Pictures and a Universal TV and film executive. “Sony and Matsushita are hardware manufacturers.” Leonard Goldberg, an independent producer and former head of Twentieth Century Fox’s film arm, believes Lescure will have a tough time dealing with Hollywood because of the cultural differences between France and America. “History has borne this out,” Goldberg said. “Foreign companies have a very difficult time dealing with Hollywood. Our culture is so different than other cultures. Also, the movie business in this country is unlike any other business and is so much a part of the American culture. You can’t have someone come in from the Harvard Business School or the London School of Economics to oversee it. Their financial models don’t work.” Moreover, he said, running Canal Plus isn’t the same as running a movie studio, whether Lescure starts hanging out at Spago during visits to Hollywood or stays in touch by cell phone while sipping champagne at Harry’s Bar in Paris. “You have to be in the trenches with the Sherry Lansings (who runs Paramount’s film division) and the Bill Mechanics (who runs Fox) and the people from Disney and Warner Bros.,” Goldberg said. Getting burned in Tinseltown Lescure is no newcomer in dealing with Hollywood. As head of Europe’s top pay-cable company, he has wide experience with the entertainment industry. But past French forays into Hollywood including those in which Lescure himself was directly involved have been mostly disastrous. Credit Lyonnais got burned when it became involved in a buyout of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., and Canal Plus itself lost millions in its deal to buy a slice of Carolco Pictures, which produced the hit “Rambo” movies but went bankrupt in 1995. As head of Canal Plus, Lescure also invested in a slate of movies produced by Arnon Milchan’s Regency International, losing millions more when most of them flopped. Despite lessons learned from those painful experiences, Lescure will face a steep learning curve when it comes to the American way of making films, industry observers said. In part, Price said, this is because the French film industry operates very differently than Hollywood. In France, creative artists writers, directors and actors have much more control of their vehicles and do not take a back seat to the “suits” on the business side of filmmaking. Indeed, there are laws in France that maintain the rights of the artist. “The artist is king, which is why they often do interesting things which are often quite disappointing at the box office,” Price said. Nonetheless, Price believes that the French takeover of Universal is ultimately good news for the film industry as a whole. “It’s exciting from the standpoint of the motion picture business, which is now global and worldwide,” he said. “Having ownership of these companies spread internationally is very healthy because it helps keep the business international.” Price also doubts that Lescure will remain aloof from the capital of movie making, despite his highly publicized remarks to the contrary.”Hollywood is very seductive,” Price said.

Wednesday, June 28 Neighborhoods The Los Angeles Department of Neighborhood Empowerment holds a public meeting to explain the process for creating neighborhood councils under the new city charter. Meeting runs from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at CBS Studios, 4024 Radford Ave., Studio City. Information: (213) 485-1360. Sales Strategies Corporate Strategies and Solutions holds a seminar on how to make a better sales pitch. Seminar runs from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at 20315 Ventura Blvd., Suite C, Woodland Hills. Information: (818) 247-3191. Thursday, June 29 Diverse Results The American Society for Training & Development holds a seminar titled “Measuring Diversity Results for Better Strategic Performance.” The event runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 100 Universal City Plaza, No. 1220, Universal City. Information: (818) 702-6537. Monday, July 3 Investing Advice Morgan Stanley Dean Witter holds a seminar titled “Investing Strategies” at its Sherman Oaks office. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. at 15490 Ventura Blvd., third floor. Information: (818) 907-2464. Tuesday, July 4 Independence Day Most businesses and government offices will be closed for observance of the national holiday.

Executive summary The New Economy has had a major impact on the list of the San Fernando Valley’s highest-paid public company executives. Last year, the No. 1 executive on the list was Superior Industries International Chairman and President Louis L. Borick, whose 1998 compensation package totaled $6.8 million. But that’s chicken feed compared to this year’s top player, NetZero CEO Mark R. Goldston, who raked in $153 million in 1999. This year, Borick placed No. 13, with a $3.2 million compensation package. If the list were extended to include the 25 highest-paid executives in the Valley, Amgen Inc. would have the most entrants on the list, with six. Wellpoint Health Networks Inc. would have four of its top executives among the top 25, and Countrywide Credit Industries Inc. and Xircom Inc. would each have three. The pacesetter Mark R. Goldston The chairman and CEO of Westlake Village-based NetZero led the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles County as a whole as the highest paid public company executive in 1999. Like many New Economy executives, Goldston’s pay package is weighted heavily with long-term compensation meaning he is loaded up on stock options. While Goldston took home a modest $127,000 in salary and bonus last year, his stock options were valued at $153 million. The difference between Goldston’s pay and that of the list’s second-place finisher, Wellpoint Health Networks chief Leonard Schaeffer, points up the difference between compensation packages at New and Old Economy companies. Schaeffer’s 1999 salary of $3.2 million was far greater than Goldston’s, but the Wellpoint chief’s long-term benefits, at $8.6 million, were a relative pittance. The 40-something Goldston was hired last year to head NetZero, the nation’s largest provider of free Internet access service. The company went public last fall, closing at $27.75 on its first day of trading. The stock as of late June was trading at around $7 a share. Prior to joining NetZero, Goldston was chairman and CEO of the Goldston Group, a strategic advisory firm. Goldston has also held top positions at Einstein/Noah Bagel Corp., L.A. Gear and Odyssey Partners LP, a private equity firm.

NEW FACILITIES CLOSE TOO FAST TO SERVE WELFARE MOMS TRYING TO GET OFF DOLE Demand for affordable day care is exploding throughout Los Angeles, as an increasing number of welfare parents make the transition to work. And while a government program launched in 1998 to help meet that demand has resulted in more than 1,000 new day-care facilities being opened in L.A. County, the shortage remains acute. A big part of the problem is that many operators of the new facilities, particularly the smaller operators who use their own homes to care for children, don’t have the crucial skills or training needed to successfully operate a business. The result: about 16 percent of family day-care services in L.A. County are shutting down within six months of opening, and some 30 percent are closing within a year, according to industry officials and a recent survey. “Many people go into this business thinking they’re going to be very profitable, not recognizing it truly is a business,” said Lisa Nunez, division chief of the Department of Public Social Services for Los Angeles County. “But if you don’t market, train staff and do all those things that help improve quality and keep up all those things that pertain to your business, it won’t happen.” Kathy Nuno is one of the newly licensed day-care providers having problems. She got her license in April after spending several years working part-time at another center and attending a number of child development classes. But Nuno’s fledgling business has yet to enroll its first child. “I had an idea (of how long it would take to start up) because I worked in a day-care center before, but there are more things to do than I thought,” said the Sylmar mother and entrepreneur. “It kind of takes time to understand these things and to put these things together for the business part of the day care.” Nuno is typical of many new day-care operators. She chose to open a center because she likes kids and because the business allows her the flexibility to be home with her own children as well. But there is little in her background to prepare her for many of the tasks involved in running a small business, including hiring, training and supervising workers; managing cash flow and record-keeping; and marketing the service. Even more established day-care providers face the same daunting dilemma. “While providers have been in business for several years, many are operating with as much as a 25 percent vacancy rate,” said Nunez. “It is those family day-care homes that maybe aren’t marketing. They need to draw in the families to those homes.” Easing the burden When California passed the Welfare-to-Work Act in 1997, officials realized that welfare recipients being turned out into the workforce would place an added burden on the already tight availability of day care. In response, officials included a child-care component to help address the anticipated need. As part of the program, the County Department of Public Social Services in 1998 received just under $2 million from the state, earmarked for child care. While setting up a child-care training institute and providing funds to existing centers for supplies, the county also provided the local Community Care Licensing Division of the state Department of Social Services with just under $500,000 to expedite the opening of child-care facilities in the area’s neediest communities. (Another $500,000 was allocated in fiscal 1999.) Using a study that identified 102 zip codes representing most of the city of L.A. along with portions of Pomona, Compton, Pasadena, Long Beach, the Antelope Valley and other areas as those most in need of the services a special section of the licensing division was set up to recruit day-care operators and speed up the processing of their licensing applications. About 1,000 new day-care centers have opened annually statewide since the so-called CalWorks program began in 1998. The L.A. region alone has succeeded in helping to open 1,269 new facilities in the targeted zip codes, creating 12,583 new day-care slots for children since then. “Word about the program has gotten out,’ said Angela Bonner, special projects manager for the L.A. region of Community Care Licensing. “We average over 200 applications a month.” To boost the population of day-care centers still further, the state in April allocated another $10 million to L.A. County for a grant-and-loan program for those who want to open day-care facilities or expand existing ones. Starting next month, the program will begin providing interest-free grants from $2,500 to $100,000 and low-interest loans ranging from $5,000 to $1.5 million to those who want to open home facilities or centers catering to CalWorks recipients. But even as these new centers roll out, there has been a growing realization that it will take more than licensing new facilities to help get the service out to the communities that need it most. In the San Fernando Valley alone, there’s a shortage of 20,000 day-care slots for kids ranging from infants to 2 years old. There’s also an estimated shortfall of 31,000 spots for school-aged children from 6 to 10 years old, according to a recently released report by the Child Care Resource Center, a non-profit organization in Van Nuys that provides day-care service referrals and subsidies for low-income families and training for operators. Government officials said a comprehensive study is now underway to determine day-care needs throughout the county. The report by the Child Care Resource Center found no shortage of day-care slots for kids between the ages of 3 and 6. But that’s mainly because tallies for that age group included Head Start centers, which only provide care for three hours a day and are therefore not meeting the needs of many parents. “There are definitely more child-care spaces available now than there were three and four years ago, but we also have this turnover issue (with new day-care centers shutting down after only a few months),” said Laura Escobedo, associate director of community relations for the Child Care Resource Center. In some cases, operators are enticed by the opportunity to run their own business, but once in operation, they determine they’re not cut out to deal with children 10 hours a day. “You have to know yourself and have patience,” said Loretta Weatherspoon, who has run her San Fernando Valley-based home day-care center for 16 years. “This is not a business you get into just for the money.” Learning the ropes Those who do get into the business because they like kids often find they are ill equipped to handle the day-to-day business needs that a center, even if it is run in the home, demands. In addition to marketing, bookkeeping and administrative skills, day-care operators also need specialized expertise in first aid, child development and parent relations. Day-care services that cater to welfare-to-work recipients can be even more demanding because, unlike traditional centers, where parents are typically required to pay monthly for the service, payment for these recipients comes through the government.

Architecture Dilip L. Nandwana was elected president of International Parking Design in Sherman Oaks. He will be responsible for all company operations. Nandwana was most recently managing partner and head of the firm’s Oakland office. Michael Pinto was named principal of design at Osborn Architects in Glendale. He will be responsible for strategic direction for the design team. Pinto was previously a consultant for the firm and operated his own company, Intercision. Lawrence Wong was named job captain at Ware & Malcomb Architects in Woodland Hills. He will be responsible for consultant coordination, construction documents and construction administration. Wong was previously with Leidenfrost/Horowitz & Associates in Glendale. Banking & Finance Kevin W. Bartlett, Thomas H. Boone, Carlos M. Garcia and David Sambol were promoted to senior managing directors at Countrywide Home Loans in Calabasas. Bartlett will be responsible for secondary markets. Boone will oversee global mortgage services. Garcia will be responsible for all corporate operations. Sambol will oversee consumer and institutional production of mortgages and related services. All four were previously managing directors with the firm. Susannah L. Greene was named business development officer at U.S. Bank’s Small Business Administration division in Glendale. She will be responsible for providing SBA-guaranteed loans to small businesses in L.A. and the San Fernando Valley. Greene was most recently assistant vice president of commercial lending at Bank of America. Entertainment Maren Christensen was promoted to senior vice president and intellectual property counsel at Universal Studios. She will be responsible for establishing company policy on international and domestic intellectual property issues. Christensen was most recently vice president and intellectual property counsel. Doug Moreland was promoted to senior vice president of pre-development at Walt Disney Imagineering in Burbank. He will be responsible for worldwide real estate pre-development strategies. Moreland was most recently vice president of development. Lori Shackel was promoted to senior vice president of marketing and creative services at Universal Worldwide Television in Universal City. She will manage all marketing activities relating to first-run television shows and will oversee all online activities. Shackel was previously vice president of marketing and creative services. Also, Kay Solomon was appointed senior vice president of human resources at Universal Studios. She will be responsible for employee staffing, labor relations, employee relations and management and organizational development for Universal Studios Hollywood and CityWalk. Solomon was most recently vice president of human resources at Universal Music Group. Health Care David Tillman was promoted to president and chief executive of the Motion Picture and Television Fund, a health and human services organization for the entertainment industry based in Woodland Hills. He will be responsible for overseeing all activities, including health care, child care, and retirement and social/charitable services. Tillman is a medical doctor and was most recently chief executive at the organization’s Industry Advantage Health System. Media Jonathan L. Block was promoted to vice president and general counsel at Salem Communications Corp., a Camarillo company that operates Christian-oriented radio stations. He will be responsible for all legal matters. Block was previously secretary and associate general counsel for the firm. Gene Pritchard was appointed group publisher of HP Professional and Enterprise Linux magazines at 101communications in Chatsworth. He will be responsible for relaunching Enterprise Linux from a quarterly to a monthly publication, as well as strengthening HP Professional’s marketplace position. Pritchard was formerly group publisher of Advanstar Communications. Real Estate Steve Alkana was promoted to regional director of project development at NewMark Merrill Cos. in Tarzana. He will oversee the development of current and future retail projects in the Las Vegas region. Alkana was previously vice president of operations. Kenneth Self was named vice president of operations. He will be responsible for management and operations for the firm’s multi-state portfolio of shopping centers. Self was formerly vice president of project administration for the Southland Cos. in Pasadena. Jennifer Marsan was appointed director of marketing. She will oversee all regional and corporate marketing. Marsan was most recently marketing director for A.F. Gilmore Co./Farmers Market in Los Angeles. Mark T. Deveau was appointed director of development and construction at the Johnston Group in Calabasas. He will be responsible for overseeing all development, design and construction activities. Deveau was previously with C.L. Peck.

How would you like to have the benefits of margin buying without the expense or risk of getting a margin call? Well, it can be done. Instead of buying stocks and bonds in a margin account, paying interest on the margin debt, and worrying about a possible margin call if your holdings go down, we can achieve much the same thing using another type of investment. We’re talking about closed-end mutual funds. These funds invest in a portfolio of stocks, but their shares are sold on an exchange rather than redeemed at net asset value per share. Since the shares trade at whatever the market will pay, they may trade at a premium to the actual value of the underlying portfolio, or at a discount. Right now most closed-end funds are selling at record discounts, regardless of their investment objective. Let me give you an extreme example. The Morgan Stanley India Investment Fund was recently selling at $12.13 a share while the market value of the underlying portfolio was $18.50 a share. That’s a discount of 34.5 percent. As a result, you get $1.53 in assets working for you for every $1 you invest. As I said, it’s like having a margin account without paying interest. Why is this happening? There are two main reasons. One is a lack of sponsorship from the brokerage community. The other, and more recent, is the growing competition from ETFs the low-cost Exchange Traded Funds that duplicate an index and trade through the day. On any given day, the highest-volume individual security on the American Stock Exchange is likely to be the SPDR, a trust that mimics the S & P; 500 Index, operates at low cost and trades through the day. To build a basic portfolio, I started from a Couch Potato-like premise. I wanted to put half the money in domestic equities and half in intermediate bonds. After that, I limited my search to funds that had done better than their open-end counterparts, were well-rated by Morningstar (four or five stars), and selling at attractive discounts to net asset value. Just as you can build your Couch Potato portfolio with two funds Vanguard Index 500 and Vanguard Total Bond (you could also substitute Vanguard Intermediate Government or Vanguard GNMA for Total Bond) you can build your closed-end fund portfolio with as few as two funds. In fact, I let things get a little complicated and chose four. Here they are: The market price of Central Securities (ticker: CET) was up 20.2 percent year to date at the end of May, and has beaten both the average managed domestic equity fund and the Vanguard Index 500 fund over the last three and five years. It has an expense ratio of 0.22 percent (nearly as cheap as Vanguard Index 500). In spite of all that, it sells at a 20 percent discount to net asset value. That means you get $10,000 working for you when you make an $8,000 investment. Morningstar, the Chicago investment data firm, classifies the fund as mid-cap value and gives it a top, five-star rating. American Select (ticker: SLA), a fund that invests in intermediate-maturity domestic bonds, has done better than the average open-end taxable bond fund in recent years, sells at a discount to net asset value of 9.6 percent, provides a yield of 8.5 percent, and has a Morningstar rating of five. Adams Express (ticker: ADX), is a domestic equity fund selling at a 14.1 percent discount to net asset value. The fund invests in large-capitalization stocks, has a Morningstar rating of four, and has beaten both the S & P; 500 index and the average domestic equity fund over the last three and five years. If you wanted a broader portfolio, this would be a good equity addition. Its expense ratio is a modest 0.51 percent. Van Kampen Income (ticker: VIN), selling at a 14.1 percent discount to net asset value, is another five-star fund that invests in intermediate bonds. Its current yield is about 9.70 percent. Invest equal amounts in all four funds and your annual interest and dividend yield will be about 5 percent attractively higher than the 3.8 percent yield you’d get from comparable open-end funds. Since many of the closed-end equity funds have large unrealized capital gains, prudent investors might want to limit the use of these funds to tax-deferred accounts. Can you make investments like this all the time? Yes, but some times are more attractive than others. This is one of those times. Question: What do you think of Series-I U.S. Savings Bonds for a fixed-income investment? My company recently had a payroll deduction savings bond campaign. I passed this up, but based upon what I learned, I bought some Series-I U.S. Savings Bonds. These inflation-indexed bonds currently pay 7.49 percent. The earnings rate combines the 3.60 percent fixed rate of return with the 3.82 percent annualized rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers. You can cash an I bond anytime six months after the issue date to get the original investment plus the earnings. However, if you redeem an I bond within the first five years, there is a three-month earnings penalty. The rate looks good to me, and if it should drop greatly or be bypassed by other opportunities, the penalty does not seem excessive. I bought mine at a bank, but you can buy up to $500 worth of bonds in a single online transaction and use Visa or Master Card. From a bank, $10,000 denominations are available. There is a limit of $30,000 per purchaser per year. D.J., Dallas Answer: Inflation-adjusted savings bonds are a great deal 7.49 percent for five years, tax deferred, with no credit risk, beats just about anything. According to Fisher Publishing, a Dallas firm that has the largest database of fixed-income annuity products, the average tax-deferred annuity yield in May was 6.97 percent. Because they are sold on a commission basis, these annuities usually have large surrender penalties if you redeem early. These penalties can start at 10 percent of your total investment in the first year, although most are at 7 percent. The average five-year CD-type annuity was yielding 6.39 percent. Either way, the inflation-adjusted savings bond is a great deal, particularly for small investors. Questions about personal finance and investments may be sent to Scott Burns, The Dallas Morning News, P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, TX 75265; or by fax: (214) 977-8776; or by e-mail: [email protected].

In today’s “information-age” environment of internet purchasing, credit card fraud causes more financial headaches than ever before. Compiled below are twenty practical tips to avoiding credit card-related crimes being committed at your expense. 1. Protect your card as if it were cash. 2. Save your receipts and compare them with your monthly statement. 3. Keep a record of account and phone numbers for reporting lost or stolen cards. 4. Only give your card number over the phone if you have initiated transaction. 5. Do not write your card number on any check. 6. Do not reveal personal information when using your credit card. 7. Check your carbons and tear them up. 8. Avoid putting your card payment into your home mailbox, where thieves look for such information. 9. Report lost or stolen cards and suspicious activity immediately. 10. Know who has access to your card. 11. Do not leave cards unattended at your workplace. This is where most credit card thefts occur. 12. Do not leave your card in a vehicle. A high proportion of cards are stolen from vehicles. 13. Make sure it is your card that is returned to you after a purchase. 14. Sign or destroy your card as soon as you receive it from the credit card company. 15. Carry your card separately from your wallet, if possible. 16. Try to keep an eye on your card after you hand it over to a clerk or waitress. 17. Notify your issuers of any change of address before you move. 18. Guard your PIN! Make sure it is not similar to information found in your wallet. 19. Draw a line through any blank spaces above the total so that charges cannot be added. 20. Do not sign blank charge slips.

The mid-June catastrophe for high-flying biotech firm MiniMed Inc. appears to be blowing over nearly as quickly as it started, with Chief Executive Alfred E. Mann saying the research report that caused the company’s stock price to plummet was overblown and taken out of context. A research report released June 9 stated that the Food and Drug Administration would require an additional seven months of testing on a forthcoming diabetes product from MiniMed. Wall Street pummeled the stock in response; it fell 27 percent to $96.50 a share on June 12. But on the strength of continued recommendations from analysts, MiniMed has already won back much of the ground it had lost. As of late June, the stock was trading back up above $105 a share. Mann, founder of MiniMed and one of L.A.’s wealthiest residents, said the FDA will require the company to do minor additional tests, which could tack an additional month onto the approval process, not the seven or more months predicted by two analysts. “It was taken out of context,” Mann said. “There could be delays, but the company plans to move ahead and has gotten no word from the FDA that there will be major delays.” MiniMed, which makes external insulin infusion pumps for the treatment of diabetes, is developing a pre-filled insulin cartridge that ING Barings analyst Kevin Kotler said would be delayed until late 2001 or early 2002 because of additional clinical trials required by the FDA. That delay, in turn, will affect the company’s expected revenues for 2001, Kotler said. Approval had been expected in mid-2001. But Mann, who along with other company officials met with FDA officials June 9, said the new tests required by the agency are minor. The most cumbersome of the requirements is a three-day overnight study on patients to test delivery of the new insulin product. Mann said the company is hoping to complete the tests by early next year, with FDA approval coming later in 2001. Mann and Kotler actually don’t disagree on the timing of the approval process simply on when Wall Street was supposed to be expecting the new cartridge to get the nod. Mann said some analysts have been overly aggressive in their predictions that the product would be approved in early 2001. He said MiniMed has all along been expecting to put the product on the market in early 2002, and there are no expected changes in that time frame. Nonetheless, Kotler says that while MiniMed may have been targeting early 2002 for the product’s release, analysts had expected it earlier. Now that it is clear that won’t happen, it will change the revenue models used by Wall Street analysts, Kotler said. “What the Street was expecting and what Al Mann was expecting may be different, but what the Street expects is more important because it’s what investors were watching,” Kotler said. Yet many investors seem to have already gotten over the temporary shock caused by the June 9 report. With the stock price rising steadily ever since, many analysts agree MiniMed is a good buy.