Banner Graphic, Volume 12, Number 80, Greencastle, Putnam County, 10 December 1981 — Page 3

Move criticized as 'empty gesture'

Reagan lifts federal jobs ban on former air traffic controllers

c. 1981 N.Y. Times WASHINGTON - President Reagan on Wednesday rescinded the three-year ban on federal employment for fired air traffic controllers, but he kept the door shut on rehiring them in their old jobs or anywhere in the Federal Aviation Administration. The action was characterized in a presidential statement as being taken in the spirit of ! "compassion” for the 11,500 ' controllers who were dismissed for illegally striking on August 3. But it was a big if not unexpected disappointment for the strikers, who have clung to the hope that a significant percentage of them could return to

House GOP presses budget compromise

WASHINGTON (API House Republicans, hoping to avert another governmentstopping confrontation with the White House, are trying to deliver $4 billion in new domestic spending cuts that President Reagan wants and Democratic leaders oppose. The latest in a year-long series of budget fights was due today as the Democraticcontrolled House considered a stopgap spending measure needed to keep money flowing to the government after Dec. 15. The House action comes a day after the Republican-controlled Senate, signaling its impatience with Reagan, voted 49-48 for a 1982 budget outline demanding that the president submit a

Massive 'ball of fire' streaks across Arkansas sky

By The Associated Press A meteor that an El Dorado man said looked like it had “fire breathing out its backside” zipped across the Arkansas sky Wednesday night, startling residents from Bentonville to Texarkana and El Dorado. It prompted reports in northwest Arkansas ranging from a jet in distress to UFOs. Many of the witnesses who called police departments to report the sighting about 5:30 p.m. described it as “a big ball of \

Winter storm blamed in Hoosier road fatalities

By The Associated Press Snow and icy roads snarled traffic as authorities blamed road conditions in two highway fatalities. The deaths Wednesday increased Indiana’s 1981 traffic fatality count to 1,103, compared with 1,123 at this time last year. A heavy snow warning for extreme northwest Indiana was

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Banner-Graphic “It Waves For All” (USPS 142-020) Consolidation ot Tha Oaily Banner Established 1850 The Herald The Daily Graphic Established 1883 Telephone 853-5151 Published daily except Sundays and Holidays by LuMar Newspapers, Inc. at 100 North Jackson St.. Greencastle. Indiana 46135. Entered In tha Post Ofllca at Greencastle, Indiana, as 2nd class mail matter under Act of March 7,1878. Subscription Rates Per Week, by carrier ‘I.OO Per Month, by motor route '4.55 Mail Subscription Rates R.R. in Rest of Reslof Putnam Co. Indiana U.S.A. 3 Months '12.00 *12.55 *15.00 6 Months 24.00 25.10 30.00 1 Tear 48.00 49.20 60.00 Mail subscriptions payable in advance oot accepted Jn town end where motor route service is available. Member of the Associated Press Tha Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for republicslion of all the local news printed In this newspaper.

PATCO s POLI 'A cruel hoax'

revised plan "as soon as possible” to balance the 1984 budget and reduce inflation, interest rates and unemployment. That Senate action was not directly related to the stopgap spending measure, which the Senate will consider after the House acts. In the House, Republicans are pressing for a plan worked out

Ex-GOP chairman charged in theft

WASHINGTON, Ind. (API - A Daviess County grand jury has indicted former county Republican Chairman Harvey C. Newton on charges of theft of receipts from the auto license branch in Washington. The 49-count indictment

fire.” Jim Powell, 43, of Texarkana, Ark., said he had never seen a meteor before but the flash of light “looked just like the pictures in National Geographic.” Powell, an administrative assistant for the city, said he was leaving Texarkana for Little Rock when he saw the meteor. “It wasn’t on a downward plane,” he said. The meteor, which he described as a bright white light with a orange tail 10

changed to a travelers advisory before noon with reports of 4-5 inches of snow on the ground. State police reported roads and highways in northern Indiana slushy but passable with scattered slick spots on overpasses. However, travelers were warned that secondary roads, highways and overpasses might become very slick and hazardous.

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their old posts. And critics of the president promptly derided the move as an "empty gesture” in view of cutbacks being made in overall federal employment and the controllers’ general lack of qualifications to fill other types of federal jobs. Reagan first said he might ease his outright ban on any federal employment for dismissed controllers when he met with labor leaders at the White House last week. It was the start of a campaign to mend his frayed relations with organized labor. But the indications, borne out Wednesday, that he would consider opening only non-controller jobs removed much of the im-

by White House aides, key House and Senate Republicans and their staff aides. It is an attempt to avoid a repeat of last month’s veto of a stopgap bill, which Reagan called a budgetbuster, and the resulting shutdown of government operations for a half-day. An interim measure signed by Reagan expires Tuesday.

returned Wednesday charged Newton with stealing at least $108,850. Newton was fired three months ago as county chairman and manager of the license branch when state officials discovered a shortage of $77,000 in the

to 12 times longer, took about 10 seconds to cross the sky from east to west, Powell said. Police and sheriff’s deputies in Benton and Washington counties answered scores of calls from people reporting the flaming object. It was seen from as far north as Indiana, authorities said. For about an hour deputies and local police officers followed up on residents’ reports that the object had crashed, said Officer Larry Goheen of

Four to five inches of snow on the ground was recorded by noon at the western point of the Indiana Toll Road, along with sections of Starke and Pulaski counties. North Liberty received 4>/2 Inches and Mishawaka had 3‘/2 inches. Geraldine Meribela, 33, of Mishawaka, was killed late Tuesday night after her car skidded across icy U.S. 20 and

mediate impact of Reagan’s initial revamping of his position. The president said Wednesday that, while he was hewing to principles of law and respect for the public trust in barring the controllers from the control facilities, ‘‘there is another principle we honor in America the tradition that individuals deserve to be treated with compassion.” ‘‘ln that spirit,” Reagan added, “I am today extending to the air traffic controllers discharged because of their actions in striking against the federal government, an opportunity to re-apply for federal employment, in departments and agencies other than the

Rep. Silvio 0. Conte, R-Mass., ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, was offering the compromise plan as a substitute to a Democratic measure the committee approved Wednesday. Conte’s attempt to have his substitute adopted by the committee failed on a voice vote. The Republican substitute

license branch checking account. The jury accused Newton of writing himself at least 27 checks totaling $108,850 during 1980 and 1981. The indictment also said he illegally deposited and withdrew funds •

the Springdale Police Department. He said a fellow officer who saw the ball so fire said it was moving at a fantastic speed. Authorities in Washington County said they received reports from as far north as Goodwin, Mo.. Air traffic controllers at Springdale, Fort Smith and Tulsa, Okla., airport towers reported seeing the meteor almost simultaneously as it

hit another auto three miles east of Mishawaka, authorities said. Head injuries caused the death of Richard W. Grossman, 39, of Bristol, officials said. Road conditions apparently caused the victim to lose control of his car on Indiana 15 four miles north of Goshen. The car turned over and hit an embankment.

Federal Aviation Administration.” The president explained his refusal to budge on rehiring the strikers as controllers by saying this “would adversely affect operational efficiency, damage morale, and perhaps impair safety.” Transportation Secretary Drew Lewis, who first announced Wednesday’s action at a noon news conference at the White House, left open the possibility that some strikers might be able to resume controller work at military installations. That would mean, however, an average of about $18,300 a year in pay and benefits, compared with the average annual pay of $33,000

achieves the $4 billion in savings Reagan wants by imposing a 4 percent reduction on those domestic programs for which regular appropriation bills have not yet received final congressional action. Excluded from the cuts in the Republican measure are all government benefit programs including Social Security, food stamps, Medicare and Medicaid the general revenue sharing program, veterans medical care and law enforcement operations. However, about $730 million more than the White House wants for social programs is included in the Republican plan to keep moderate and liberal Republicans from bolting

passed from the northeast to southwest, Arkansas State Police radio operator James Cospelich of Fort Smith said. Cospelich said the Fort Smith tower received a report from the pilot of a jet flying at high altitude over Indiana who said he’d seen the fireball at about the same time it was sighted in Arkansas.

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the controllers were making with the FAA. Lewis said that, despite job reductions in many government agencies, there was no job freeze. He said there would be a “selective buildup” in the military and some other areas. The figures on pay for a military controller were supplied by a Pentagon spokesman, William Caldwell. He said officials there were making a policy review of whether civilian controllers who had gone on strike could enlist or re-enlist as military controllers. Wednesday’s revision of the White House position on controllers brought expressions of support from some labor

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December 10,1981, The Putnam County Banner-Graphic

elements, including the Teamsters and the pilots’ unions. But the AFL-CIO was strong in its opposition, as was the controllers’ union, which was decertified as bargaining agent for its members in late October. Rex Hardesty, spokesman for the AFL-CIO, issued this statement: “We are clearly disappointed. This is not what the AFL-CIO Executive Council had in mind last week when it urged the president to show compassion toward the air controllers. I don’t see how this fits the needs of Patco families or the safety of the nation’s air travelers.” Patco is the acronym for the Professional Air Traffic Con-

trollers Organization. Robert E. Poli, Patccr’s president, was quoted by 'a spokesman, Marcia Feldmap, as dismissing Reagan’s policy as “a cruel hoax on bojh the fired controllers anbd tfce American taxpayer.” “There are few if ai)y available federal jobs,” Poli abided. The union chief contended that the administration w& misinformed about the attitudes of the controllers now at work. This was a reference to the argument that the nonstrikers would object to working alongside returning strikers and that friction could endanger safety.

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