IN BRIEF

     McDonald's lets
     McLibel case rest
     
      LONDON -- After winning a dubious victory in the longest-ever English court trial, McDonald's Corp. said Friday it won't try to stop two vegetarian activists from handing out libelous pamphlets about the company.
      McDonald's also will not try to recover any of its legal costs, estimated at $16 million, or to collect the $98,000 in symbolic damages that it won.
      The burger giant apparently decided it had had enough in its marathon court brawl against unemployed former postman Dave Morris and part-time barmaid Helen Steel.
      McDonald's defeated them last month when a judge ruled in the 314-day "McLibel" case that Morris and Steel had falsely defamed the company by handing out pamphlets entitled "What's wrong with McDonald's? Everything they don't want you to know."
     
     Bechtel top-grossing
     environmental firm
     
      Bechtel Group Inc., parent company of Bechtel Nevada, was the top-grossing environmental firm in the nation in 1996, according to the trade journal Engineering News-Record.
      The San Francisco-based Bechtel Group had 1996 revenues of $1.3 billion, topping the magazine's "Top 200 Environmental Firms" list.
      The company's Bechtel Nevada subsidiary is the U.S. Energy Department's main contractor to operate the Nevada Test Site.
     
     Sierra Pacific reports
     record electricity use
     
      RENO -- A combination of hot weather and the region's continuing population growth caused record electric use July 7 and 8, according to Sierra Pacific Power Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sierra Pacific Resources.
      Sierra Pacific's customers were using 1,230 megawatts of electricity from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on July 7, surpassing the company's previous high of 1,226 megawatts on Jan. 13.
      The record was broken again the next day in the same hour, when electric use soared to 1,274 megawatts, just shy of the utility's forecasted peak.
     
     Bankruptcy judge
     approves Kiwi sale
     
      NEWARK, N.J. -- Kiwi International Air Lines has been granted new life after a bankruptcy judge sanctioned the sale of the discount airline.
      U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Rosemary Gambardella approved a $16.5 million bid by Kiwi International Holdings Inc., an investment group led by Baltimore surgeon Dr. Charles C. Edwards.
      It was the only bid made for employee-owned Kiwi, which would have been gone out of business without a sale.
      Kiwi was forced in September to file for bankruptcy-court protection to continue operating while reorganizing its finances. But the debt-laden airline said recently it would not be able to survive without a sale.
     
     Schwab names
     Shultz to board
     
      SAN FRANCISCO -- Charles Schwab Corp. said Friday it named former Secretary of State George Shultz to its board of directors, expanding the board's size to 11 members.
      Shultz, who was secretary of state under President Reagan from 1982 to 1989, is currently professor emeritus of international economics at Stanford University. He also sits on the board of several other companies.
      Shultz was secretary of the treasury from 1972 to 1974 and was secretary of labor from 1969 to 1970.
     
     Nurses picket
     Kaiser hospitals
     
      SAN FRANCISCO -- Nurses protesting a pay package from Kaiser Permanente walked picket lines Friday, the second day of a strike at 47 hospitals and clinics operated by the health maintenance organization in Northern California.
      About 7,500 registered nurses from Fresno to the Oregon border walked off the job Thursday, the first day of the strike, against the nation's largest HMO. An additional 17,500 employees from other unions had planned to honor the strike, although Kaiser officials said most crossed picket lines.
      The walkout, similar to a one-day strike in April, was expected to end this morning.