NEW "VaStat" WEB PAGE WILL OFFER DETAILED
INFORMATION ABOUT THE VIRGINIA ECONOMY

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., March 29 -- The University of
Virginia's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service will launch on
the Internet next week a special new World Wide Web page offering
detailed information about the Virginia economy.  "VaStat is part of
the Cooper Center's continuing effort to use computer-age technology
to deliver information efficiently to the Virginia public, state and
local government, business firms and the academic community,"
announced John W. Garland, the center's acting director.
	The new "VaStat" Web page will contain the latest available
information on some 18 broad topics, from agriculture to
unemployment, and will also have data on the national economy and
other states, according to U.Va. economist John L. Knapp, who
developed the site.  Among the main topics are banking and finance,
earnings, economic forecasts, exports, housing, income, mining,
population, price indexes, tourism, trade, poverty and services.
	Under each topic users can open tables and charts about the
economy; about 65 will be available at first and others will be
added.  All data on the Web page will be provided free to users. 
	Links to numerous other organizations include the Federal
Reserve System, federal and state agencies and academic
institutions, Knapp said.  The Cooper Center plans regularly to add
new topics, tables, graphs and links to other sites.  Within the
next six months detailed economic data on Virginia cities, counties,
metro areas and planning districts will be added to the site. 
	"VaStat is designed to be useful to a wide range of Internet
users, from persons wanting a few basic statistics on the Virginia
economy to professionals needing a large amount of detail," Knapp
said.  "We will be continually updating the economic information and
links to other resources." 
	Users who want to download detailed files will be able to do
it from the Cooper Center for Public Service's "ftp" site, which is
accessible from VaStat.
	The World Wide Web address of VaStat is:
http://www.virginia.edu/~cpserv/vastat.html
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March 28, 1996
	For interviews or additional information John Knapp may be
reached at (804) 982-5604.  Television reporters should contact our
TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.