OTHER NEWS - Feb. 4, 1994

Bad Loans in Farm Program Approach $4 Billion: Nearly 1,000 borrowers owe an average $2.3 million each in bad loans issued under a federal program to help struggling farmers, a Senate panel was told, and the government is unsure how much of that it can collect, the head of the Farmers Home Administration said. Other bad loans in lesser amounts bring the bad debt total closer to $4 billion for an agency that has had to write off $14.8 billion since 1984. The hearing was called to focus on the millions of dollars owed by wealthy borrowers. Of the delinquent large loans, 110 of them worth a total of $562 million are in California, the largest agribusiness state.