BUSINESS MEMO

CHARLESTON -- Randy Brazel of Charleston has signed a dealer contract with Lynks Seeds of Marshalltown, Iowa.

Lynks markets seeds throughout the Midwest and in the East through a network of 1,200 dealers.

Brazel will offer customers in Mississippi County a full line of corn hybrids, soybean varieties, alfalfa and forage sorghum.

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AT&T has predicted record calling volumes on Christmas Day, anticipating it will handle 94 million long-distance calls, an increase of 10 percent over last year.

Christmas Day is typically the busiest holiday of the year for AT&T, followed by Mother's Day and then Father's Day.

AT&T's lower evening rates will be in effect from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Christmas Day. The holiday rates will apply to AT&T direct-dialed, state-to-state calls from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

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MARION, Ill. It's now official: a Red Lobster restaurant will open at Marion.

Debby Sweeny, spokesperson for the Orlando, Fla.-based corporation, said construction on a Red Lobster restaurant near the Illinois Centre Mall should start in January, with an expected opening five to six months later. A ground-breaking is scheduled for Jan. 6.

The 6,000-square-foot restaurant, which will seat about 216 people and employ about 100 people, will be adjacent to the Toys `R' Us store in front of the Illinois Centre.

A company spokesman said the opening in Marion will be a break from the company's policy requiring that a city must have a population of 50,000 before a Red Lobster is built.

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A brochure, "You and Your Grief During the Holiday Seasons," is available from Lorberg Memorial Funeral Chapel.

"The holiday season is often among the most difficult of times for people who have experienced the death of a loved one," said a spokesman for the funeral chapel. "This brochure provides specifics to aid bereaved people in coping with the holidays.

The brochure is available by contacting the funeral chapel at 335-3223.

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ST. LOUIS The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri is now able to answer telephone inquiries for case information by means of a new computer service.

The service, known as Voice Case Information System (VCIS), contains case information on a number of bankruptcy filings in Cape Girardeau, Hannibal, and St. Louis.

Callers seeking information may dial a special VCIS telephone number using any touch-tone telephone and enter the name of an individual or organization by pressing the telephone keys that corresponds to the letters in the debtor's or party's name. The caller then presses the "pound" (#) key to indicate the key has been entered. A voice synthesizer then responds with basic case information. The caller must already know the name of the case.

The VCIS number is (314)-539-3054.