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Terry Schumacher, Portland, Or., stock analyst, said competition from Home Depot and Eagle might have discouraged investors. Another Portland analyst" John Rogers, blamed the stock market slump.

Karl Thunemann, business editor. Journnl Americaq Bellevue, Wa., had pointed out eadier that while Ernst reported more than 107o sales growth in four consecutive years through 1993, the principal shareholder, EHC Cos., Inc., owes $223 million due bv September 1996 with its747o of Ernjt stock as collateral for $150 million owed to banks.

If the debt is not repaid, the banks could order the stock sold, changing majority control of Emst and possible changes in its management and gfowth plans, he noted. EHC is a wholly owned subsidiary of MBL Life, a New Jersey stock life insurance company and successor to Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Co., which is following a court-supervised rehabilitation plan.

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Veteran Calif. Yards Close

Tough times and landlord problems have squeezed out two more 70-yearold Southern California lumber retailers.

The 75-year-old Independent Lumber Co., Hawthorne, will voluntarily liquidate by mid-September. A liquidator is now trying to sell buildings, inventory and other assets as the lease from the 1940s requires the property to be "scraped to the ground," said Rich Giles, a third generation lumberrtan.

The company was hurt by the recession, having its land rent tripled three years ago by the Southern Pacific Railroad and warehouse competition, including a Home Depot two miles away.

Farther south, both the depressed economy and the government were to blame. Founded in1922. BauerLumber Co., Cadsbad, closed last month after losing part of its yard to become a rail ransit station. Time finally rar out for Bauer. which last summer had been given a tempoftry extension by the city"

Diablo Ownership Changes

Ben Cassinerio is now the sole owner of Diablo Timber, Inc., Napa, Ca., a wholesale distribution and remanufacturing company which he founded in 1980 with Rich Favreau and Ross Ingraham.

As ceo and president, Cassinerio heads a staff including general manager John Cligny; v.p.-sales Rick Rosa; controller Tani Loughmiller; sales manager John Souza and special projects manager Tom Knippen.

AFPA Debunks Sierra Glub Book

Errors and misrepresentations published by the Sierra Club are corrected in a new American Forest & Paper Association publication, Closer l,ook: An On-the-Ground Investigation of the Sierra Club's Book, Clearcut.

Over 40 congressional staffers and several members of Congress attended a press conference introducing tie book. AFPA president Red Cavaney and assistant vice president Doug Crandall discussed the false inforrnation in the Sierra Club book released last spring. Texas A&M UniversitY professor Tom Bonnicksen covered historic conditions and management practices on U.S. forest lands.

Copies of the AFPA book have been disributed to all members of the House and Senate.