Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Thursday, January 1, 1998
30-year mortgages up slightly to 7.03%
WASHINGTON -- Mortgage interest rates rose this week from a 22-month low. The average rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages was 7.03 percent, up from 6.99 percent last week, according to Freddie Mac.Mortgage rates have been keying off the U.S. Treasury securities market, where investors fleeing Asian turmoil have been snapping up bonds. Thirty-year mortgage rates hit a peak for the year of 8.18 percent in early April, after the Federal Reserve last raised interest rates.
Fifteen-year mortgages averaged 6.61 percent this week, up from 6.57 percent. One-year adjustable-rate mortgages had an average initial rate of 5.50 percent, down from 5.53 percent.
The rates do not include add-on fees known as points.
E-mailers, AOL trade threats
RICHMOND, Va. -- A group that says it represents small Internet businesses has threatened to make public the e-mail addresses of 5 million America Online Inc. members if AOL continues to bar the businesses from pitching products to its subscribers.The Chino, Calif.-based National Organization of Internet Commerce plans to post the e-mail addresses on the Internet on Jan. 8, Joe Melle, the group's president, said yesterday. NOIC initially threatened to post 1 million addresses, but increased the number after Chantilly, Va.-based AOL threatened legal action.
AOL, the world's largest Internet provider with 10 million members, reacted strongly to NOIC's threat. "We would avail ourselves of any legal remedies we need to protect our members ... from this threat," said AOL spokesman Rich D'Amato. "We see this threat as some sort of cyber-terrorism."
D'Amato said AOL members have made it clear "they do not want junk e-mail."
Federal judge affirms Carey disqualification
NEW YORK -- A federal judge upheld the disqualification of Teamsters union President Ron Carey from seeking re-election.U.S. District Judge David Edelstein affirmed a decision by a court-appointed monitor to bar Carey from running again. He also refused to order a formal hearing Carey requested to attempt to refute charges of illegal fundraising.
Carey, 61, was barred from seeking re-election on Nov. 17, after election officer Kenneth Conboy ruled the union president was aware of a plan by aides to divert union funds to his campaign during the 1996 election against James P. Hoffa.
Carey is on an unpaid leave from his post as president to defend himself against the charges.