COSTLIER COLOR TV is in sight. Radio Corp. of America has boosted prices for three of its ten color sets by $45 to $50, will sell them in range from $645 to $745 v. previous $595 to $695. But lowest-priced RCA color TV will stay at $495 at least until summer, by which time company may hike all color prices to offset higher costs for labor, materials.

AMERICAN MOTORS, which has not paid dues to the National Association of Manufacturers for three years, has withdrawn from the N.A.M. because of "fundamental disagreement with its policies." Automaker charges N.A.M. with an "antediluvian attitude toward labor."

STAVROS NIARCHOS won his Monte Carlo legal battle against his brother-in-law and Fellow Shipping Tycoon Aristotle Onassis. French arbitrator upheld Niarchos' claim that he was a partner with Onassis in buying control of famed Monte Carlo gambling casino's stock in 1953. Niarchos, claiming he gave $258,000 for deal and that stock has rocketed since then, was paid $400,000.

NEW CHICAGO SKYSCRAPER, a 40-story hotel topped only by 1955's Prudential building, will rise along Chicago River by 1959. First hotel to be built in room-short Chicago since 1929 will have 1,216 rooms. Backing it is Promoter Jerrold Wexler, 32, who raised $3,500,000 from Aetna Life, $2,500,000 from his father-in-law, Chicago Real Estater George S. Lurie, and brother Louis R. Lurie, San Francisco real-estate tycoon.

FIRST FORMOSA SHIPYARD for tankers over 30,000 tons will be built by U.S. and Chinese investors. Mississippi's Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp. has taken ten-year lease on Taiwan Shipbuilding Corp. yards at Keelung, will add $2,000,000 to Chinese investors' $10 million for expansion, says it already has two contracts for 32,000-tonners. Formosan shipworkers will be sent to U.S. for training.

RASCAL MISSILE, an air-to-surface, electronically guided rocket that carries a nuclear warhead, will go into limited production. Bell Aircraft Corp. has been awarded $22 million in Air Force contracts to make and test prototypes.

FORD'S NEW EDSEL will swing into production about July 1, go on sale in September. Car will blanket entire medium-price field with 18 models, including two-and four-door sedans, hardtops, station wagons, convertibles. Like competitor Buick, Edsel will sell in four different price classes. Names of Edsel models, from lowest-priced to highest: Ranger, Pacer, Corsair, Citation.

AIR-FARE BOOST will be asked by United Air Lines. Nation's No. 2 domestic air-passenger carrier on March 1 will petition CAB for 6% hike on all passenger flights in order to offset higher costs.

ATOM-JET ENGINE for nuclear planes has been tested successfully by the Atomic Energy Commission, which powered a laboratory turbojet engine solely on heat generated by experimental reactor. Said AEC: "A significant advance toward the ultimate goal of achieving atomic-powered flight."

TIDELANDS FIGHT has forced California to stop leasing its offshore oil lands until controversial royalties scale is reconsidered. State formerly leased lands that had not been prospected for 12 1/2% flat royalty, lands with probable oil at higher sliding scale. But some legislators charge that oil companies have prospected lands secretly, tried to lease them at the flat rate.

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