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JANUARY 15,1998 AUGUSTA FOCUS
Homeowners seek a chance
to getback on financial track
BWith interest rates
slipping beneath 7
percent, financial ana
lysts say it’s an excel
lent time to refinance
your home.
By John Cunniff
ASSOCIATED PRESS Writer
; NEW YORK
(AP) It may be bigger than a tax
cut or a yearend bonus or a pay
raise, and it is just waiting to be
claimed. Perhaps hundreds of dol
lars a month, thousands of dollars
a year. And there are people out
there who would love to help you
get it.
There’s just one major qualifi
cation: You have to be a home
owner with a mortgage to refi
nance.
That means a market in the
hundreds of thousands of
homeowners, some of whom
missed out on the last big low
interest opportunity in 1993, when
30-year fixed-rate mortgages
slipped below 7 percent. Rates are
about at the 7 percent level now
and seem destined to fall below it.
While essentially the same op
portunity exists again for those
who missed out in 1993, a new
element is in the market today,
made up of all those homeowners
who have taken out high-interest
Black men press for more funding for prostate cancer
(AP) Black men are two to three
times more likely to die of prostate
cancer than white men, and doctors
today are powerless to explain why
or reduce the risks.
Calling the figures “a disgraceful
tragedy,” the American Cancer So
ciety and 100 Black Men of America
urged a national attack on prostate
cancer Tuesday — hoping to emu
late activists whosuccessfully raised
millions of research dollars to fight
breast cancer and AIDS.
At the top of the agenda is in
creasing federal research. The gov
ernment spent about SBO million
on prostate cancer research last
year, one-twelfth what is spent on
AIDS research and about one-sixth
of breast cancer research and pre
vention funding _ even though all
three diseases kill about the same
number of Americans yearly.
“This country hasn’t even paid
lip service to prostate cancer,” said
Jay Hedlund of the National Pros
tate Cancer Coalition, calling not
for reduced spending on other dis
eases but for equalizing prostate
money. “They are going to have to
do much better, and we are going to
be very aggressive.”
The Clinton administration plans
to seek across-the-board increases
in medical research spending for
1999, but gave Tuesday’s prostate
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equity loans, which have become
immensely popular in the past
decade.
Intoday’s market, itisn’t rareto
find situations in which a home
owner with an 8.5 percent first
mortgage and 10 percent equity
loan can refjnance, combine the
twointooneloan, reducethelength
of the loan and still have lower
monthly payments.
Or, to find financially stressed
homeowners who can take advan
tage of new mortgages with first
year inducement rates of around 6
percent and thus lower monthly
payments by perhaps hundreds of
dollars.
Or, similarly, to find
cancer call a chilly reception.
“We don’t believe in pitting one
disease against another,” said
Health and Human Services spokes
man Victor Zonana.
About 184,500 American men will
be diagnosed with prostate cancer
this year, and almost 42,000 will
die, the American Cancer Society
estimates.
Black Americans have the high
est risk: for every 100,000 black
men, an estimated 234 will get pros
tate cancer thisyear, compared with
135 of every 100,000 white men.
Black men are two to three times
more likely to die of the disease.
The cancer risk increases as men
age and is rare under 50 — but
blacks are more likely to get pros
tate cancer at younger ages.
Scientists can’t explain the racial
disparity, although theories range
from genetics to health care access
and distrust of the mostly white
medical establishment.
But part of the quandary is that
so little is known about prostate
cancer overall, said Dr. Charles
McDonald of Brown University,
president-elect of the cancer soci
ety.
Prostate cancer can grow soslowly
that it will never threaten some
patients, but doctors can’t tell in
advance. Doctorsdon’t know which
therapies are most effective — a
Living Better
homeowners with 20-year mort
gages who can free up thousands
of dollars a year by refinancing at
lower rates while simultaneously
extending maturities, that is, by
exchangingold loans with perhaps
18 years remaining for new 30-
year loans.
Or, to understand why couples
who overborrowed on credit cards
and other installment loans can
find salvation in consolidating
debtsin a new home mortgageata
much lower rateand, perhaps, earn
income tax deductions on the in
terest paid.
All such scenarios exist abun
dantly today, especially the latter.
While increasesin credit-card debt
key question since certain treat
ments cause serious side effects —
nor how to reduce the risk of get
ting prostate cancer.
Even prostate screening is con
troversial: The cancer society rec
ommends offering men over 50 a
blood test called PSA that can de
tect early cancer, if they first are
told about the uncertaintiesof treat
ment and that PSA can be wrong.
But the National Medical Associa
tion, a black physicians’ group, says
all black men should get PSA test
ing and education starting at age
40, said Dr. Isaac Powell of Wayne
State University.
The American Cancer Society
decided the questions were so im
portant that it dedicated 10 percent
of its research budget — about $lO
million — solely to prostate cancer
this year.
Thomas Dortch, president of 100
Black Men, said that the group plans
nationwide rallies to raise grass
roots support for increased federal
spending on prostate cancer, and
that Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., has
promised to press for the money in
Congress.
In addition, the advocacy groups
will create prostate cancer educa
tion programs targetingblack men,
and attempting to dispel cultural
barriers.
Another goal is to get more black
have slowed in the past year, the
amounts continue to grow and the
rate of overdue accounts remains
above a very high — some would
uytdnnxmusly high — 3.5 per
cent.
Credit-card delinquencies,
lender writeoffs, more than a mil
lion personal bankruptcies a year
and other indicators all point to a
high and broadly based level of
stress and an acute need for relief
for American families.
While wages have increased
lately, they had remained stag
nant or barely rising for several
years, and some measurements
show many earners with inflation
adjusted incomes no higher than
in the 1980 s.
Relief in the form of lower taxes
has been more in words than in
deeds. The Tax Foundation re
ports that in 1997 federal, state
and local taxes claimed 38.2 per
cent of the income of median, two
income families, up from 37.3 per
cent in 1996.
But the remortgage situation
representsatruly rare, sizableand
somewhat unexpected opportunity
for families to get back on the
financial track.
Not that staying there will be
easy, since lenders continue to so
licit through billions of credit-card
mailings a year. It takes willpower
to resist them but, like recovering
alcoholics, borrowersshould worry
about themselves and let the lend
ers do the worrying.
men into clinical trials attempting
to find a gene for prostate cancer
and better treatments.
McDonald draws hope from
breast cancer: A decade ago, most
women’s only treatment choice was
mastectomy _ removing her entire
breast. Women’s activists in the
1990 s pushed the government to
spend hundreds of millions more
on programs that not only helped
reduce breast cancer deaths, but
today offer women therapies that
can save their breasts along with
their lives.
With the new prostate cancer
campaign, “if we do half as much ...
we will have achieved a lot,”
McDonald said.
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CONSUMER
Gasoline prices drop 2.5 cents per gallon
LOS ANGELES
liu(;AP)l:’l'wu' : na;thonation'lguo
mps fell 2.5 cents per n
in tg: past three weeks d‘:loh to
lower crude oil prices and a de
crease in driving in the winter
months, an industry analyst said.
“The expected demand for crude
oil, especially in some Asian mar
kets, has drastically reduced be
cause of the economiccrisisthere,”
a.u}alyst'l‘rilbyLundbergnidSun
y.
The overall average gasoline
price, including all grades and
Park Sausage still struggling after sale
BALTIMORE
(AP) Business has improved for
Parks Sausage Co. since football
Hall-of-Famer Franco Harris took
it over, but the company is still
losing money.
Harris bought Parks in Septem
ber 1996 for $1.7 million and within
six months laid off one-third of its
employees. With increased sales,
many of those employees have been
hired back, bringing the workforce
to more than 90 people.
“I wish I could tell you we’re
doing well,” said Lydell Mitchell,
president of the Baltimore-based
company. “No question about it,
we still have some things to ac
complish before we’re successful.”
Parks is privately owned now,
but in 1961 it became the first
black-owned company in the
United States to sell stock to the
public.
Founded in 1951 by city council
member Henry Parks Jr., the
company’s pepper-spiced sausage
Restaurant owner wants to restore chain
SANTA BARBARA, Calif.
(AP) Sambo’s, the restaurant
chain that crumbled under finan
cial problems and criticizism for
the stereotypes its name implied,
may soon be making a comeback.
The original Sambo’s still oper
ates on the beachfront here. The
coffee is cheap and the children’s
menu includes Mama Mumbo’s
French toast and Papa Jumbo’s
favorite.
And now, the grandson of the
restaurant’s co-founder wants to
rebuild the Sambo’s chain, which
atitsheight had 1,200 restaurants
767 BROAD ST. (1 BLOCK FROM RIVER WALK) BROAD @ Bth ST.
WE ACCEPT
MEDICARE
& MEDICAID
722-2428
taxes, was about sl.lß per gallon
on Friday, according to the
Camarillo-based Lundberg Survey
of 10,000 stations nationwide.
That was down 2.5 cents since
the last survey on Dec. 19. Prices
are down 12.5 cents per gallon
since a year ago, Lundberg said.
At self-service pumps, regular
gasoline was $1.13 per gallon, mid
grade was $1.23 and premium was
$1.31.
At full-service pumps, regular
was $1.54, mid-grade was $1.63
and premium was $1.69.
and its slogan “More Parks Sau
sages Mom. Please” eventually
made it a household name.
Just before the sale to Harris,
Parks employed more than 200
people but had a debt of more than
$7 million.
In the last year, the company
signed new contracts with two New
England grocery store chains and
a r%staurant distributor, Mitchell
said.
Parks also increased business
with Landover-based Giant Foods
Inc., he said.
Giant spokesman Mark Roder
confirmed the chain has been buy
ing more of the company’s pork
and beef products to meet con
sumer demand.
Mitchell said Parks has empha
sized efficiency at the factory as
well as sales, with more continu
ous runs instead of stopping and
re-starting the line.
“Thingsarebetter,” hesaid. “We
just keep working on it.”
in 48 states.
But some say using the Sambo’s
name and character — a dark
skinned boy with wild nappy hair
and bigred lips—is problematicat
best.
“It’s racially insensitive,” said
Jeffrey T. Sammons, a New York
University history professor.
The Sambo character originated
ina 1899 children’s book by Helen
Bannermanin “The Story of Little
Black Sambo.” The boy outsmarts
agreedy tiger that eventually turns
into a stack of pancakes.
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