Data Card Corp

Citing California's costly business environment as well as competitive factors, one of the world's largest makers of plastic cards closed its Orange County plant Monday in a sudden and unannounced move and laid off the facility's 125 workers. DataCard Corp., based in Minneapolis, said that it would consolidate the operations of its Buena Park plant at its factory in Montgomeryville, Pa. For security reasons, the local plant was closed immediately, said James D.

Citing California's costly business environment as well as competitive factors, one of the world's largest makers of plastic cards closed its Orange County plant Monday in a sudden and unannounced move and laid off the facility's 125 workers. DataCard Corp., based in Minneapolis, said that it would consolidate the operations of its Buena Park plant at its factory in Montgomeryville, Pa. For security reasons, the local plant was closed immediately, said James D.

Forty-five people were taken to hospitals for precautionary blood tests after a carbon monoxide cloud formed Thursday outside a plastics firm when two chemicals were inadvertently mixed. The incident occurred about 9:45 a.m. at Data Card Corp., which makes credit cards, Buena Park Fire Marshal Don Tully said. The white cloud drifted next to the 7-Up bottling plant.

Facts about the types of cards whose makers are competing to produce the national health care card: * Magnetic stripe cards: Major producers are Malco Plastics of Baltimore; Perfect Plastic of Chicago; Kirk Plastic of Rancho Dominguez, Calif.; NBS Card Services Inc. of South Plainfield, N.J.; and Colorado Plasticard Inc. of Littleton, Colo. . . .

Ten suspects were in custody Tuesday in connection with a Los Angeles-based credit card fraud ring that allegedly rang up $2 million in cash and merchandise sales with the help of operatives in two Orange County companies, the U.S. Secret Service said. The ring employed shoppers who would each charge $1,000 to $8,000 on fraudulent credit cards either in merchandise or cash withdrawals from automatic teller machines, authorities said.

U.S. Secret Service agents announced the arrests Tuesday of 10 suspects in one of the nation's largest credit-card scams--a Los Angeles-based ring that allegedly rang up $2 million in cash and merchandise on stolen cards. The ring employed "shoppers," who would each charge $1,000 to $8,000 on fraudulent credit cards, either in merchandise or cash withdrawals from automated teller machines.

When Josie del Rosario lost her job as a telephone sales clerk, she was crushed, angry and determined it would not happen again. So she made an appointment to see Laura Chrislip. Although Del Rosario spoke fluent--but accented--English, which she learned in her native Manila, she was certain that she had been dismissed because her Pilipino accent made words like think came out as sink, while bit was pronounced as beet .