Banner Graphic, Volume 16, Number 134, Greencastle, Putnam County, 18 January 1986 — Page 2

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The Putnam County Banner Graphic, January 18,1986

Child abuse charges are dropped c. 1986 N.Y. Times News Service LOS ANGELES The Los Angeles district attorney Friday dropped charges against five of the seven teachers and administrators at the McMartin Preschool in a child molestation case, saying the evidence against them “was incredibly weaifc.” Ira Reiner, the district attorney, took the action one week after a preliminary hearing in which Judge Aviva K. Bobb of Municipal Court ordered all seven defendants to stand trial on 135 counts of sexual molestation. The accusations included charges that the defendants, sue women and one man, raped and sodomized nursery school children over a period of years. The hearing lasted 20 months and cost the county nearly $4 million. Reiner, who said in October he would thoroughly review the evidence in the case, announced his findings at a crowded news conference. He said he and his most senior prosecutors concluded that they would not be able to win guilty verdicts in all seven cases at trial. “We have in the district attorney’s office an ethical and a moral obligaton not to file criminal charges where the evidence is insufficient,” Reiner said Friday. Parents who assert that their children were molested at the school, but whose children were not among the 14 who testified at the preliminary hearing, came to the Criminal Courts building from Manhattan Beach, where the school is located, shortly before Reiner’s press conference began. They protested the prosecutor’s decision and denounced Reiner, saying he had “betrayed” them and their children.

Satellite antenna owners dish up a suit over scrambled TV signals

c. 1986 N.Y. Times News Service NEW YORK Now that two movie and entertainment cable television channels have scrambled their signals so that only those who pay for the programs can receive them, owners and manufacturers of dish antennas are exploring different strategies to try to regain access to the programs. The dish owners, who on Wednesday lost their free access to HBO and Cinemax, two premier entertainment channels, are considering bringing a lawsuit against Home Box Office, the parent company of the two channels. The dish owners are lobbying for legislation that would either temporarily

Banner Graphic (USPSI42-020) Consolidation of The Daily Banner Established 1850 The Herald The Daily Graphic Established 1883 Telephone 653-5151 Published dally except Sunday and Holidays and twice on Tuesdays by Banner Graphic, Inc. at 100 North Jackson St.. Greencastle, IN 46135. Secondclass postage paid at Greencastle, IN. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Banner Graphic, P.O. Box 509, Greencastle, IN 46135. Subscription Hates Per Week, by carrier *l.lO Per Month, by motor route *4.95 Mail Subscription Rates R.R. in Rest of Rest of Putnam County Indiana U.S.A. 3 Months *17.40 *17.70 *19.00 6 Months *32.25 *32.80 *36.70 1 Year *63.00 *64.00 *72.70 Mail subscriptions payable in advance ... not accepted in town and where motor route service is available. Member of the Associated Press The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use tor republication of all the local news printed in this newspaper.

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Temperatures in the 50s may be curtailing activities on the slopes in Indiana, but Vail, Colo., is enjoying perfect ski weather. James and Liz

halt the scrambling of television signals from satellites or guarantee them access to programs at what they consider a reasonable price. They are also hoping that the Justice Department, which is investigating possible antitrust violations by cable operators and programmers, will take action that will make the programming more easily available to those who own dish antennas. The programmers are becoming increasingly aggressive about suing dish owners who make commercial use of the programming. Until the adoption of the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984, there was some confusion about whether it was legal

Reading best predictor: Bennett

Improve skills, combat drugs education goals

c. 1986 N.Y. Times News Service WASHINGTON Education Secretary William J. Bennett suggested Friday that under his stewardship the Department of Education would increase efforts to improve reading skills, improve attendance and combat the growing use of drugs, notably cocaine, in the nation’s schools. Speaking at Howard University before the Council of 100, a group made up of 100 prominent black Republicans, Bennett hinted that he felt the growing emphasis on “high-tech” curriculums in the schools might be counterproductive if it shunted aside basic programs in reading. Bennett, appointed last February, said studies showed “reading is the best predictor of success not only in English and history, but also in math and science.” He also said a major problem in the

Topping of Boulder were among the first to test a new snowfall on the cross-country ski trail at the Vail Golf Course. (AP Wirephoto).

for satellite dish owners to receive signals they did not pay for. The law resolved the question, providing that individuals can lawfully receive unscrambled signals for private viewing. However, the law says, commercial users, such as hotel and bars, who make unauthorized use of the signals face fines of up to $50,000. And recently the programmers have mounted campaigns to make such users pay. Showtime, for example, has filed six lawsuits seeking damages from hotels, motels and a condominium complex for unauthorized commercial use of the programming. And various motion picture producers and distributors have recently settled several such suits against

schools was poor attendance, with the average secondary school student missing 100 classes a year. He said an emerging problem was an increase in the use of cocaine. He did not elaborate but said, “We need not only to have children there but to have them there with minds that are clear. ” The increase in the use of cocaine by urban high school students was documented in a study by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigian. In the study last year, 16,000 high school seniors were surveyed nationwide and 17.3 percent reported they had used cocaine at least once. That figure was 1.2 percent higher than in a similar survey in 1984. The secretary did not suggest a specific program to combat drug abuse, citing in-

No American captives: Vietnam

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) A U.S. congressional delegation leaves Vietnam today after reportedly receiving assurances from Vietnamese officials that the communist country is not holding any Americans captured during the Vietnam War. Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, also said a Foreign Ministry offical told the U.S. lawmakers Friday that Hanoi hopes next month to turn over the remains of up to 50 of the nearly 1,800 Americans still listed as missing in action. The lawmakers met for more than three hours with Deputy Foreign Minister Hoang Bich Son on what Murkowski, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, called a humanitarian mission to seek answers to the mystery of American MIAs. After the meeting, Murkowski said in an interview that the Vietnamese appear committed to resolving the MIA issue in the two-year timetable they proposed earlier this month, when a high-level Reagan administration team visited Hanoi. Murkowski, who is leading the congressional delegation, said Son emphasized more than a dozen times that Vietnam is not holding any live

Florida return waved off Shuttle lands in California

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) Columbia’s astronauts, waved off a third time from a Florida landing, glided safely back to Earth today at the end of a crazy-quilt mission of record launch and return delays and a final detour to California. The 105-ton space plane, its approach heralded by sonic booms, dropped out of the predawn sky and onto a brightly lighted, dry lakebed runway 3,000 miles from the Kennedy Space Center where NASA wanted it to land to help preserve an ambitious launch schedule. With commander Robert Gibson at the controls, Columbia touched down at 5:59 a.m. PST after a six-day, 2.5-million-mile journey with a seven-man crew that included a Florida congressman. Mission Control had kept the ship in orbit two extra days, hoping for clearing weather at the Florida spaceport.

No worries about Reagan's health

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House predicts laboratory results will show President Reagan in excellent health following the discovery and removal of three small growths in his colon six months after his cancer surgery. In a one-paragraph statement issued about 90 minutes after Reagan left Bethesda Naval Hospital on Friday, the White House said the three polyps, as well as a shaving taken from a tiny bump on the president’s face, were judged to be benign. Nevertheless, they are being sent to a laboratory for further analysis to see whether they harbor cancer, like the large polyp that was removed from his colon July 13 and a patch on his nose that was taken off Aug. 1. The president spent nearly six hours at the hospital in Bethesda, Md., just outside

groups of commercial users throughout the nation for sums ranging from SIO,OOO to SIOO,OOO. “It’s because of the commercial users that we’re all going toward scrambling,” said Tola Murphy-Baran, a Showtime official. “It’s not the backyard dish owner that we’re out to get. ” Still, the backyard dish owners are dismayed that they will have lo pay for programs they have become accustomed to receiving without charge.« Although the major association of dish owners would not confirm industry reports that it was planning legal action, a spokesman said the group was unhappy that HBO and Cinemax had taken their

stead only what he said were “themes” to be addressed by educators. Drug abuse among school-age children has been of primary concern to Nancy Reagan. In his brief luncheon address, Bennett, who has essentially sounded a theme of returning to the basics in education, with renewed emphasis on the liberal arts as opposed to narrow specialized curriculums, also suggested that schools should return to substantial homework schedules. “We know,” he said, “that homework is an important predictor of achievement.” Asked in a question period to predict how education will be affected by the budget cuts mandated to decrease federal deficits, leading to a balanced budget, he said that in the long run “the cost of the

Vietnam releases two children

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) The communist government today released two Vietnjmese children into the care of a U.S. senator, who plans to reunite them in the United States with a mother they have not seen in seven years. The transfer by Vietnamese officials took place at the end of their 75minute meeting with Sen. Frank Murkowsi, R-Alaska, and other members of a K.S. congressional delegation in Hanoi for talks on the issue of Americans listed as missing in action in the Vietnam War. Nguyan Vu Chinh, a 10-year-old boy, and Tran Thanh Quynh, a 9-year-

Americans. He quoted Son as saying: “In 1973 we gave back all the important (people) like the pilots. We have no reason to keep unimportant ones.” Since the Vietnam War ended in 1975, there have been 806 reported sightings of Americans in Indochina. The U.S. govern-

But for the third straight day, there were rain clouds and fog in the Cape Canaveral area today and the control center communicator, Fred Gregory, told Gibson, “We’re going to do a one-orbit extension; we’re going to Edwards.” Gibson took Columbia around the globe one more time and zeroed in on this Mojave desert base where the runways are long and there is plenty of margin for error. It was the 18th landing here in 24 shuttle flights. The record three landing waveoffs followed a record seven launch postponements before Columbia lifted away from Earth on Sunday. A shuttle has not landed at the Florida center since April when Discovery blew a tire and damaged its brakes on the concrete runway. Engineers had made nosewheel steering modifications to avoid a

Washington. He and his wife, Nancy, then flew by helicopter to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains, to spend the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. Reagan underwent a colonoscopy, which is a thorough examination of the bowel, as well as blood tests, X-rays and a CAT scan, a procedure that provides a highly detailed and accurate picture of the brain, lungs, pancreas, kidneys and other organs. The three polyps were removed by a non-surgical procedure employing the colonoscope, the same instrument used to examine the bowel. The polyps were described as “very small,” measuring 1 millimeter to 2 millimeters in size. A millimeter is a little less than fourhundredths of an inch. The White House said final results of

programs away from most of the nation’s two million dish owners. “We have questions about the pressure the cable television operators have placed on the programmers, forcing them to scramble their signals,” said Joseph Boyle, a vice president of the Satellite Television Industry Association, a group of manufacturers, dealers and owners of satellite dishes. “We don’t think cable operators should be able to monopolize access to the programming.” Most dish owners live outside areas served by cable companies and so have.no other means of receiving the wide array of programs their antennas can pluck from the air. According to Boyle, there are no

deficits are much greater than the cost of the reductions.” Asked his attitude toward efforts by the Reagan administration to eliminate the Department of Education in an earlier budget and reassign its functions to other departments, Bennett managed to tell his audience the department would survive while avoiding criticizing administration efforts to eliminate it. “I do not think that the Department of Education is necessary to the education of the nation’s children,” he said. At the same time, he said he felt federal programs now administered by the department were beneficial and definitely should be continued. “In any case, he said, “the notion of abolishing the department is moot politically.”

old girl, arrived by plane from Ho Chi Minh City today after weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations prompted by Murkowski’s desire to help a constituent who left her children behind in Tay Ninh City when she went to the United States seven years ago. Xuan Thi Nguyen, now 35 and a resident of Fairbanks, Alaska, has been seeking through legal channels to get her children out of Vietnam since 1983. Murkowski aims to reunite the children with their mother during a stopover in Fairbanks Tuesday, as the delegation returns tonthe United States.

ment has been able to rule out all but 95 of the reports. The delegation includes Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz., who serves on the same comittee as Murkowski; and Reps. Bob McEwen, R-Ohio and Michael Bilirakis, R-Fla., both members of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

repeat of that problem, and NASA had hoped a Columbia return to its home port would mark the start of routine landings there. An Edwards landing requires Columbia to be ferried across the country atop a jetliner and would cost six days in launch preparation time, threatening the ship’s March flight date. “We’re determined to have that March mission,” said William R. Graham, acting administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “We’ll put our sequence planning and our processing in such a way we have the shuttle as close to the March 6 launch date as possible.” Columbia, originally set for launch Dec. 18, went through a record seven launch date delays before lifting off Sunday, and Thursday’s waveoff made it the first shuttle to experience two landing postponements.

tests on the polyps and the facial inflammation “will be released as soon as they are available.” Professor Gary Gitnick of the UCLA School of Medicine, in a telephone interview, said the finding of the polyps was not surprising given Reagan’s medical history. “The fact that they look benign when viewed with the naked eye is encouraging, but the key is how they look under the microscope,” Gitnick said. The White House refused to submit to reporters’ questions about the president’s condition, but Reagan himself made a thumbs-up gesture and said, “Everything’s fine” as he left the hospital. The colonoscopy was a routine follow-up to Reagan’s surgery.

decoders available to dish owners to enable them to unscramble HBO and Cinemax signals. However, Robert Caird, a vice president of HBO, said decoders were available throughout the United States. Boyle also objects to HBO’s decision to Charge dish owners who subscribe to the programming service the same price as most cable subscribers pay. “Dish owners have already paid for their equipment,” he said. “Their price shouldn’t be tied to the cable distribution prices. It’s like people who own VCRs, who can get movies cheaply at a variety of different stores, which don’t all charge the same price the movie theaters do.”

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WILLIAM BENNETT Secretary of education

When one of the lawmakers asked Son if any Americans had entered Vietnam since 1975, Murkowski quoted the deputy foreign minister as saying without elaboration that the Vietnamese had captured three but freed them. Murkowski said when Son was asked if more remains would be turned over at a regularly scheduled February meeting between the Vietnamese and a team from the Joint Casualty Resolution Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, Son said they “hope to have many.” Murkowski pressed him fora number, asking: “Could it be 50?” Son replied, “We hope so. We might have fewer,” according to Murkowski. The United Staten lists 1.7 m Americans as missing in Vietnam, and another 644 unaccounted tor in Laos and Cambodia. Murkowski said Son acknowledged there are 300,000 Vietnamese still unaccounted for from the Indochina War. Murkowski said Son understood the importance of the MIA issue from a humanitarian standpoint. theUSM™ de . PUty fore ‘8 n minister told the U.S. lawmakers, “The loved ones (of t A “ ShoUldn t Pr ° ,ong their hopes war years. tW °