DIGEST
Negotiators for the Machinists union and Boeing reached a tentative contract agreement to end a 67-day strike. Union leaders said they would urge striking production workers to accept the contract in a vote tomorrow. Union members walked out Oct. 6 after rejecting an initial contract offer and voted by more than 60 percent to reject a second contract offer Nov. 21.</br></br>Denny's restaurants has begun sending $46 million to more than 290,000 people to settle racial bias class action lawsuits in Annapolis and San Jose, the former stemming from allegations by six black Secret Service agents assigned to guard President Clinton that they waited for service while their white colleagues received second and third helpings. The 135,997 petitioners who joined the Annapolis class action suit will collect $132.28 each. The Secret Service officers will receive $35,000 each.</br></br>The Clinton administration proposed to reduce the time companies can hold workers' savings contributions after finding some employers were holding on to 401(k) employee pension plan contributions too long. Employers are required to turn the withheld money over to an investment plan as soon as possible, with a ceiling of 90 days. The new rule would require employers to deposit the money as quickly as they now must transfer withheld Social Security funds. The rule will be put into effect in 90 days, allowing for a comment period from affected companies, Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich said.</br></br>T-bill rates rose. The discount rate on three-month Treasury bills auctioned yesterday rose to 5.30 percent from 5.29 percent the previous week. Rates on six-month bills rose to 5.20 percent from 5.19 percent. The actual return to investors is 5.46 percent for three-month bills, with a $10,000 bill selling for $9,866.00, and 5.43 percent for a six-month bill selling for $9,737.10. Separately, the Federal Reserve said the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for changing adjustable-rate mortgages, fell to 5.35 percent last week from 5.39 percent the previous week.</br></br>The government is missing another $20,000 in newly printed bills less than a month since $40,000 in fresh cash apparently was stolen from a shipment to a Federal Reserve Bank. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin sent a terse memo to Larry Rolufs, director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and Eljay Bowron, director of the U.S. Secret Service, saying the two apparent thefts are "of great concern to me."