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Tupelo, Mississippi, Thursday Morning, November 5, 1981
Vol. 108 No. 187
Fair; sunrise 6:33; sunset 4:54. Page 22. r
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education boosted CREA T E Inc., a local charita b le, relig i ous, educational, no n -pr o fit corporation, is com mitted to helping fund the Lee County R e a ding Aide progra m . CREATE board member Jack Reed says he believes in the program and that "education has to start at home." Page 4.
From Staff a nd Wire Reports The Senate, by a bare two-vote margin, approved $189 million Wednesd ay for fiscal 1982 construction on the TennesseeTombig b ee Waterway in northeastern Mis sissippi and Alabama. The 48-46 vote rejecting an amendment to delete money for the $1.9 billion project came after a bitter fight. The project has drawn heavy fi re from environmental groups and some fiscal cons er vative s , and sup p orte r s had pr edicted
Wednesday' s test would be the sternest yet for the massive public works venture. Approval of the funds is a major victory for 80-year-old Sen. John Stennis, D-Miss., the project's strongest backer. He and Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., waged an intense campaign among colleagues in both parties to keep the project alive . Stennis said abandoning the project would make the waterway a "pile of junk." More than $1 billion has already been spent on construction, now a bout 60
percent completed. Senators went on to routinely approve an amendment by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., going on record as opposing any plans to extend the project by straightening the river south of Demopolis, Ala. The potential costs of such a project had been used by Sen. Charles Percy, Rill., in his unsuccessful effort to block funding . The Clinch River Breeder Reactor in Tennessee, backed by Majority Leader Howard Baker, also was approved. Both already
compromise on mall Oxford aldermen, after a compromise move Tuesday, will seek a scaled down federal aid package for development of a shopping mall. Page 9. ·1
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,m ississippl ~, pruett in court AdmittE!d killer Marion Albert Pruett faces arraignment later this week in Jackson on federal charges of armed robbery and kidnapping in one of the most widely publicized cases in the state in recent years . Pruett also has confessed to another killing . Page 3.
nation
Secretary of State Alexander Haig warned Congress Wednesday if the country does not move ahead with the MX missile and the B-1 bomber program, it could doom any chance of realistic arms control with the Soviets. Page 2.
budget action sought Senate Republican budget writers sought to move ahead Wednesday on a massive plan of spending cuts and tax hikes, hoping to bu il d enough momentum to encou r age White House support of the plan. Page 16.
world
UPI Telephoto
PACKING UP - The official countdown clock at Kennedy Space Center in Florida shows how close the space shuttle Columbia came to launching into orbit Wednesday as
news reporters and photographers pack up and leave the viewing area after the shuttle launch was scrubbed for the day because of technical problems.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla . (UPI) - The pioneering second flight of the space shuttle ' Columbia was postponed Wednesday for approximately one week to clean up an oily "gunk" that halted the launch just'31 seconds before blastoff. The contamination in $25 worth of lubricant was located in two of the shuttle's three auxiliary power units that provide power to the spaceship's hydraulic system. Columbia had been cleared for launch once even though those monitoring the countdown knew of the contamination . When another problem halted the countdown, officials re-evaluated the situation and the lubrication problem was ruled severe enough to postpone blastoff. "I think the problem is that at this point we don't know all of the systems perfectly," said Hugh Harris, chief of the public information office . "We learn as we go along." The two power units had been used on Columbia's first flight in April. The third unaffected unit was new, having replaced one
used on the earlier launch. After meeting more tha n two hours, the space agency 's management team decided to postpone the launch "approximately one week." L. Michael Weeks, acting associate administrator for the shuttle, said it could be several days before a firm decision on the next launch would be made . Kennedy Space Center crews were working around the clock to get Columbia back in working order. Technicians were expected to investigate the power units late Friday. Columbia's second launch the first time a manned spacecraft will return to orbit had already been postponed twice and is five weeks behind the original schedule. Astronauts Joe Engle and Richard Truly, both awaiting their first trip into orbit, spent more than five hours in the shuttle's cockpit, lying flat on their backs and looking up at the sky. But they were smiling when Continued OD Page 22
South Carolina Governor Pushes Kindergarten To State
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Democratic floor manager of a $12.4 billion energy and water appropriations bill containing funds for the project. Johnston said a study by the Congress' General Accounting Office showed the project was 81 percent completed - with nearly $1.8 billion either spent or committed and only $343 million more needed to finish the job. The critics, he said, were " misrepresenting" the facts. But Percy said the GAO report actually showed that $1.1 billion had been spent.-rutherford
Shuttle Launch
J uggling the demands of job and home? The Lee Coounty Home Extension Office can probably help. "The Extension is changing its im age in an attempt to meet the changing needs of today's women. P age 18.
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had been approved by the House and backed by President Reagan. Opponents to sinking rpore money into the waterway included Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., who said afterward he would try again to reduce the federal cost of the project by seeking approval of an amendment requiring states that benefit from it to put up 50 percent of its cost. The opponents exchanged charges of twisting the facts with Sen. J. Bennett Johnston, D-La., a strong supporter and the
Oily 'Gunk' Stops
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Senate Funds Waterway Proiect
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sub investigated Swedish naval investigators inspected a captured Soviet submarine Wednesday a nd said the navy tested a secret sub-hunting torpedo the day the Soviet spy . ship was grounded. Page 10.
index About People ...•........... 15 Around Dixie ...•............ 8 Around Mlasi11ippi .... . ..... 3 Busine11 Page . ............. 30 Classified ..............•. 33-35 Comics ... . ........ ... . , .... 32 Editorial .................... 8 Look At Lee .....•.•......•. 10 Markets .................... 21 Mississippi Living . ....... 18-20 Movies ...... •........... ... 18 Obituaries .................. 22 Sports ..............•.... ZS.29 What's Happening .. .•...... 10
By NORMA FIE LDS Capitol Correspondent JACKSON - South Carolina Gov. Richard Riley said Wednesday a voluntary kindergarten system in his state bas resulted in increasing scores on basic skills tests given first graders. Riley also told the Governor's General Education Conference a str engthened compulsory school attendance law in South Carolina is considered necessary to prepare workers for jobs in the
1990s. He said the kinde r garten programs are "costly," but compulsory attendance "is not an expensive program ." "Our basic skills test scores have improved each year for the past four years," Riley said. He said South Carolina opted to go for a voluntary kindergar ten system for five-year-olds, but revised its compulsory attendance law to cover those six to 16 years old. "We now have 95 percent of our
five-year-olds in some type of public or private kindergarten or Headstart, " said Riley. As a result, he said basic reading skill test scores improved 6 percent last year. · "We bad to start at the bottom and then work our way up to the top, developing a solid educational foundation and then building on that foundation," he declared. South Carolina also has encouraged volunteer "parenting" in the schools,
urging volunteers to teach their skills won't be able to find or keep own skills part time; encouraging a job and will wind up on private industry and business to welfare ." "Compulsory attendance is a contribute time, materials and money to the public schools; and strong state statement that establishing a home-based early obtaining an education is childhood education program for important to the state and to the rest of society," Riley asserted . five-year-olds. He said in South Carolina he has South Carolina 's compulsory atten d ance law, formerly stressed " putting the public back requiring school attendance for in public schools" through citizen those seven to 16 years old, was participation in advisory councils strengthened, he said, because that include parents, teachers, "looking at job opportunities in the 1990s, people without basic Continued OD Page 22
Nichopoulos Acquitted
Residents Discuss
Of Overprescribing Drugs
Block Grant Uses
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (UPI) Elvis P resley's doctor was found innocent Wednesday of charges he criminally overprescribed addictive drugs to the rock 'n' roll king, singer Jerry Lee Lewis, and seven other patients. The jury found Dr. George Nichopoulos innocent on all counts in an 11-count indictment after just 3 'I.a hours of deliberation. The six-man, six woman jury
entered the tense courtroom and Criminal Court Judge Bernie Weinman asked jury forewoman Diane Blair if the jurors had reached a verdict. Ms. Blair banded the judge an envelope containing the jury's findings, Weinman read briefly, and asked her if the verdict was hers and each of the other jurors. Ms. Blair no d ded affirmatively. Nichopoulos closed his eyes
Dr. George Nichopoulos and smiled. His wife, Edna sobbed quietly, wiping away the Continued on Page 22
By DE BORAH COUNCE Under the new block grant program, 57 different human Staff Writer An overflow crowd packed services programs funded by the Tupelo's Civic Auditorium ·f ederal government are lumped Wednesday night for public into nine block grants. Decisions hearings on the disposition of on use of the funds to support federal block grants for human services will be left largely to state governments. services programs. The funds made available The Tupelo hearing was one of five meetings in each of the through the block grants are state's congressional districts considerably less than the funds called by Gov. William Winter to previously allocated to the 57 provide public input into programs. Various categories decisions on allocating the federal Continued OD Page 22 monies .
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ScWnti.sts: Fido's Erratic Behavior May Mean Earthquake Knight-Ridder Newspapers pets and the wild animals near MENLO PAR K, Calif. their homes. Scientists at SRI International Studying four California quakes have reported findings that in 1980 and three in 1981- all with confirm what American animal a Richter-scale magnitude of 4.0 lovers suspected all along - their or greater - scientists found that beloved Fidos and Tabbies and reports of erratic animal Budgies can predict earthquakes . behavior significantly increased Dr. Leon Otis, director of the within 30 days before the Psychobiology and Physiology earthquakes. Department at SRI, talked last "This is the first time in the week about the results of his United States anyone has gotten three-year Project Earthquake such a response, " explained Otis, Watch in which 1,500 volunteers who said scientists have been "reluctant, shall we say," in the IT' ~:.::~v- .:d the behavior of their
past to attempt such a study because " it borders on anecdotal type of stuff, psychic type of stuff." But there is evidence, he added, to explain the more attuned senses of the animals, especially dogs. They can detect the same physical stimuli as their masters - and more so - notably lowfrequency sounds, odors, magnetic and electrical fields. The volunteer animal watchers were chosen from throughout
California, but the majority live in three major earthquake areas - Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay area and Humboldt County. They kept a daily log of any unusual behavior and were asked to call the " Project Earthquake Hot Line" whenever there was no doubt behavior was " clearly atypical." Calls, averaging six a day, ranged from reports of jittery birds and predictable raccoons who suddenly became no-shows to agitated coyotes and house mutts
that inexplicably once, and only once, rolled over and kicked their legs in the air. Family dogs received the greatest attention and produced the most responses, but the volunteer animal watchers also monitored the behavior of cats, cows, chickens, ducks , horses, house birds, pigeons , rabbits, snakes, sheep , chipmunks, fish, insects, mice, skunks, one bear Continued oD Page 22