12/20/96

The following Ohio University professors are available for insightful interviews on topics in the news. Please contact Dwight Woodward at 614/593-1886 to arrange an interview.

INTEREST RATES: TIME TO REFINANCE THE HOME MORTGAGE?
If your home mortgage interest rate is above 9 percent, it may be time to refinance. With mortgage interest rates holding steady at 7 to 8 percent, "now would be the best time to refinance and get a fixed rate loan," says K. Rakes, professor of finance and banking at Ohio University. "I think it's unlikely the interest rates are going to drop anytime soon. The prevailing wisdom is the federal reserve is more inclined to raise interest rates if the numbers come along and suggest the economy is moving along." Rakes serves on the board of directors of a bank, gives seminars to Bank One employees and is chairman of the supervisory committee of a recently formed credit union for low-income people. Rakes recommends home owners shop around before they refinance and, if they are facing a good chunk of high-interest credit card debt after the holidays, paying off the credit cards with cash from the refinance "would be extremely prudent. The problem is to control that instinct that put the credit card debt on in the first place."

WINTER BRINGS RISE IN PREVENTABLE CARBON MONOXIDE DEATHS:
Hundreds of Americans die each year of carbon monoxide poisoning from fireplace and furnaces in deaths that could have been prevented, according to Chuck Hart, Ohio University's environmental safety coordinator. Plugged fireplace chimneys and leaking furnaces can cause carbon monoxide to accumulate in homes, resulting in chemical suffocation as human bodies absorb the deadly carbon monoxide more easily than oxygen. By simply installing a carbon monoxide detector would alert homeowners to the deadly gas, according to Hart, who can discuss the various kinds of detectors and also talk about smoke alarms and fire extinguishers.

NATIONAL POLL SAYS TV REPLACING NEWSPAPERS AS NEWS SOURCE:
Americans are increasingly turning to television instead of newspapers as their principal source of news, according to a nationwide survey of 1,006 adults. The phone survey, overseen by Guido Stempel, distinguished professor at Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, and Thomas Hargrove, reporter for the Scripps Howard News Service, found that Americans of all ages use local and national television newscasts more than other forms of media to obtain news. Seventy percent of those surveyed said they watched local TV news four or more days a week, compared to 67 percent who watched network TV news four or more days, 58 percent who read a daily newspaper and 49 percent who listened to radio for the week of the survey. "The best surveys in the 1970s indicated newspapers were the primary source of news for Americans, leading both network and local broadcasts," said Stempel. "There appears to be a shift over the last 20 years with local and network TV news use increasing and newspaper use declining some."