Year 2000

Gold is one holiday gift that has kept on giving for the last seven years. The metal's market price, which last month surged above $800 an ounce for the first time in nearly three decades, has risen every year since 2000. It has trounced the U.S. stock market in that period, rocketing 190%, compared with a 26% total return for the Standard & Poor's 500 index.

I read with dismay "Debunking Year 2000's Computer Disaster" (Nov. 3), suggesting that that problem is overblown and not likely to cause significant dislocation. I am an attorney specializing in year 2000 work. I head a working group of attorneys dedicated to counseling clients with year 2000 problems. I have testified before Congress and the California Assembly and Senate on the implications of the problem. It is my experience that the problem is real. It is a mistake to assume that because this instant industry has drawn its fair share of hucksters that the problem is overstated and unreal.

The U.S. agency managing the nation's nuclear weapon stockpile is testing its most critical computers, after Pentagon inspectors discovered nobody had verified whether key systems could withstand year 2000 problems. The Pentagon's Inspector General's Office found only 25% of the agency's "mission critical" defense computer systems had been tested before being certified as Y2K compliant.

How hotel and motel operators can deal with Year 2000 computer bugs will be discussed at the California Lodging Industry Assn. annual convention Nov. 16-18. Registration is underway for the event, to take place at the Monterey Marriott Hotel and Monterey Conference Center, said Anita Kramer, executive vice president of the trade association. The group also provides information on potential problems and solutions at a Web site: http://www.clia.org/Y2000.html.

The Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce will host a community discussion on the year 2000 computing problem at its monthly luncheon Thursday. Computer consultant Vince Turner is expected to caution computer users about some potential problems, as well as dispel some myths about the predicted glitch. "We know that a number of our members are really frightened . . . by the year 2000 computer problem," said Sondra Frohlich, executive director of the chamber.

In California's bureaucracy, the end of the 20th century is causing severe distress: How to reprogram state computers that never accounted for the year 2000--and how to find up to $100 million to pay for it. The cost of reprogramming the state's computers will be at least $50 million, and maybe twice that, a report issued Wednesday by the legislative analyst's office said.

Whenever the year 2000 is mentioned--in print, in public agency reports and in everyday conversations--that magically numbered year leaves the impression of being a long way off. But only less than a dozen years away, the countdown aura of the century's last year must be one of the most often used dates of our time.

The Ukrainian government will close the accident-plagued Chernobyl nuclear station by the year 2000 and replace it with a gas-fired power station, a visiting delegation of Western officials announced Thursday. "The new millennium will begin with a closed Chernobyl station," said a delighted Michel Barnier, France's environment minister, after hashing out the agreement in a two-hour meeting with Ukrainian President Leonid D.

Los Angeles county planners have revised the Santa Clarita Valley's projected population for the year 2000 upward to 213,000, more than double the number of people now living in the fast-growing area. The prediction was included in a report presented last week to the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission, county planner George Malone said Thursday.

A Medicare memo says senior citizens may miss out on $570 million in savings on co-payments because of delays while the government fixes its Year 2000 computer glitch. Those covered by Medicare are responsible for 20% of most bills. Funds to fix an accounting problem that has stuck them with 50% of the bills are being used to correct the agency's Year 2000 problems.