Banner Graphic, Volume 17, Number 281, Greencastle, Putnam County, 31 July 1987 — Page 2

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THE BANNERGRAPHIC July 31.1*7

Belly-deep in her flooded basement, Sherry Utter wades around searching for personal items like photgraphs and books. The Utters' basement flooded this week when a sandbagged wall caved in and the waters of Nine Mile Creek poured through the Bloomington, * Minn., area. (AP Wirephoto).

Frogs' natural healing abilities may help in surgical recovery

c. 1987 N.Y. Times News Service NEW YORK Curiosity about the way wounds in frogs healed quickly from surgical cuts has led a federal researcher to the discovery of a new family of natural antibiotics that appear to kill a broad spectrum of microbes and may have uses in human therapy. The antibiotics are called magainins, from the Hebrew word for shield, and they appear to kill a wide variety of bacteria, fungi, parasites and possibly viruses. The discoverer, Dr. Michael Zasloff, said that preliminary experiments had shown that magainins held the promise of eventual use in the treatment of burns and many human infections. Laboratory tests have shown that magainins can kill a wide variety of bacteria that cause illness in humans, but they have not yet been tested in people. Zasloff and other scientists said it would take years of research to determine whether the magainins can be used in everyday medicine. Although scientists remain uncertain about the potential usefulness of the chemicals in fighting human disease, they said they were intrigued and excited by the discovery. Zasloff’s institution, the

Pro-abortion groups vow court action

WASHINGTON (AP) Proabortion groups promised court action to block President Reagan’s plan to end the use of federal family planning assistance money for abortion counseling and referral. “We will go to the hearts and minds of people,” said Faye Wattleton, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “But we will also go through the judicial process.” On Thursday, Reagan said he had ordered Health and Human Services Secretary Otis R. Bowen to propose rules “to ensure that no Title X funds go to any program that encourages, promotes or advocates abortion, or which assists a women in obtaining an abortion.” Title X is part of the Public Health Act. He also said he ordered the Health and Human Services Department to draft a proposal to eliminate language in Title X that requires

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National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said in an announcement Thursday, “It is the first time a chemical defense system separate from the immune system has been discovered in vertebrate animals.” Zasloff said that scientists “haven’t appreciated the extent to which animals are protected by mechanisms of simpler design than the immune system.” Zasloff also speculated that the protective chemicals, or similar ones, may be found in the human body, although none has been detected so far. The discovery of magainins was an unexpected offshoot of experiments Zasloff was doing by injecting genetic material into the eggs of African clawed frogs at the institute, where he is chief of the genetics branch. Zasloff’s team surgically removed the eggs from the frogs’ abdomens, then sutured the incisions and returned the frogs to a murky aquarium loaded with microbes. Normal healing almost always occurred and only rarely did the frogs’ surgical wounds become infected. Zasloff said he had taken the phenomenom for granted until “one day when it struck me that the frogs healed without any inflammation, without any pus, or signs of infection.”

recipients of federal funds to suggest abortion as an alternative for the pregnant. The specific changes Reagan suggested include these: —Rules governing disbursement of federal family assistance money should “specifically state that a program that does provide counseling and referral for abortion services as a method of family planning will not be eligible.” —Regulations covering Title X grants would be revised so that “any organization that provides abortionrelated services will be required to clearly separate these services” from programs for which federal money is used. —There would be a cessation of federal financial support for “activities that advocate abortion.” “We believe this is an outrageous assault on the women of this country and specifically the poor women and

37 die as plane hits highway during rush hour

MEXICO CITY (AP) Steam shovels moved in today to clear charred debris from a highway where a plane crashed into rushhour traffic before slamming into a restaurant and exploding. Thirtyseven people died. The commercial cargo plane was bound for Miami with 12 people and 18 horses aboard Thursday evening when witnesses said it began swaying from side to side, shearing the tops off trees and knocking down power lines before crashing into bumper-to-bumper traffic on the eight-lane Mexico-Toluca Highway. Mexico City Police Chief Jose Domingo Ramirez Garrido Abreu said the search for bodies ended early today and that 37 people were dead. Earlier, officials said 39 died.

world

Three missing in Navy copter crash

KUWAIT (AP) - The damaged supertanker Bridgeton waited to take on oil today as the U.S. Navy searched for three men missing in the crash of a U.S. helicopter that went down in the Persian Gulf. At least one person died. Choppy seas Wednesday and Thursday delayed the loading of the Bridgeton and drove it away from its moorings, but shipping sources in Kuwait said the tanker was back docked at the Sea Island terminal late Thursday after spending a night anchored 10 miles off shore. They could not confirm if it had begun taking on oil. American divers hunted for mines Thursday on the southbound route that the Bridgeton, Gas Prince and their U.S. Navy escorts will take through the gulf. The Navy said Thursday’s crash occurred late in the afternoon during a routine flight as the helicopter tried to land on the USS LaSalle, the command ship of the U.S. Mideast Task Force. Five men were rescued, and the search for the missing men went on through the night. The U.S. Navy SH-3G Sea King

the young women of this country for whom this program is designed to serve,” said Ms. Wattleton. Scott R. Swirling, executive director of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, said Reagan is seeking to impose “ill-conceived, misguided, untenable and illegal, unconstitutional regulations on the family planning program.” Patricia Ireland, executive vice president of the National Organization for Women, said the plan is “a desperation move, it’s a lame-duck presidency, it’s a discredited administration. We don’t believe they’re going to be successful.” In Congress, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., chairman of the Labor and Human Resources Committee, accused the Reagan administration of grandstanding on the abortion issue.

It wasn’t immediately known how many died on the ground and how many on the plane. A passenger who survived, horse trainer Guadalupe Pina. 42. said in a television news interview from his hospital bed that panic broke out as the plane began rocking from side to side. Passengers screamed “God save us! Save us!’’ and cried as the cabin filled with smoke, Pina said. Alejandro Perez Palma told television news he was in the kitchen of his home when the plane flew past. The impact from the crash made his house shake so violently he thought an earthquake had hit, Perez said. Residents of the Lomas Santa Fe neighborhood in the plane’s flight path ran outside and watched as the

helicopter crashed while ferrying equipment and personnel from a land base to the LaSalle. Pentagon sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, would not confirm a CBS News report that the rear rotor of the chopper struck the ship. “The only thing we know is that it went down fairly close to the ship,” said one source. The men involved in the crash were not immediately identified. The Pentagon said the LaSalle and destroyer Kidd were patrolling the central Persian Gulf. Officials would not identify the land base, but Bahrain in the central gulf is the main staging area for the task force. The two ships apparently were near Bahrain when the accident occurred, marine salvage officials in the area said. High winds and nine-foot waves drove the Bridgeton away from its moorings Wednesday. Shipping sources said it was anchored 10 miles off shore from Kuwait’s deepwater Sea Island oil terminal. “She has a big surface area and any wind or waves would affect her. The only thing is to wait until the wind calms,” one source said.

“All this new rule would do is undermine a physician’s duty to tell the truth,” Kennedy said at a hearing on renewal of the $142 million family planning program. “The administration doesn’t seem to be listening to its own cabinet officials and is grandstanding on this particular issue.” Meanwhile, the National Right to Life Committee applauded Reagan’s decision. “The president is taking action to remove tax funding from abortionpromoting groups, and has come out swinging against a bill which would force many hospitals to perform abortions,” said Dr. John C. Willke, a physican and president of the group. Willke and other anti-abortion activists gathered in the Old Executive Office Building Auditorium gave Reagan a loud ovation as he announced each initiative.

plane buzzed low over their homes. “It was obviously laboring. It looked like it wasn’t going to make it, and it didn’t,” said Elaine Carey. The Boeing 377 crashed at 5:03 p.m. (7:03 p.m. EDT), seven minutes after takeoff from Mexico City’s international airport, said airport general manager Carlos Padilla. Three of the four crewmen and four passengers were being treated at three hospitals, but officials at those hospitals refused to give their conditions. Hospital officials identified some of the victims being treated as the pilot, Rick Moore; the co-pilot, Robert Banta; and the cargo master, Bryan Stuart. Josue Beutelspacher. a

Regan says pardon proposal spurned by Pres. Reagan

WASHINGTON (AP) Former White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan testified today that President Reagan “shot down right away” a proposed pardon for Iran-Contra figures John Poindexter and Oliver North last December, telling aides that neither man had been accused of a crime. Testifying for a second day at nationally televised hearings, Regan recalled the president saying, “I’ll be darned if I’m going to accuse them of a crime in advance.” Regan said the subject “never came up again” in his presence, adding that Reagan “put his foot down hard.” Regan was expected to conclude his testimony later in the day, and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was expected to begin answering questions immediately afterward. Leaders of the House and Senate investigating committees hope wrap up the hearings early next week. Regan sidestepped a question on whether he believed that former CIA Director William Casey did not know of the diversion of funds until last Nov. 24. Casey told him he had not known, but former White House aide Oliver L. North has testified that Casey knew all along. Regan said that after discussions of the Iran initiative in January 1986, he turned his attention to U.S.-Soviet relations and other issues. “I really didn’t focus on the Iranian situation at all,” between February and October, he said. “I was busy on a lot of other things.” He said the exception was in May, when the president decided to snd former National* Security Adviser Robert McFarlane on a secret negotiating trip to Iran in the hope of winning the release of five U.S. hostages from captivity in Lebanon in exchange for American-made weapons. In his testimony on Thursday, Regan said Poindexter had misled the and other administration officials even as he resigned in the Oval Office last Nov. 25, not telling them he had taken it upon himself to divert arms profits to the Contras. He added that Poindexter withheld vital information when he was preparing Reagan on Nov. 18 to go before a televised news conference the next day. The result, Regan said, was that the president botched answers to several questions. In his testimony Thursday, Regan said it had become clear that the Iran arms deal that the president hoped would free U.S. hostages in Lebanon and which Regan also

Kokomo chlorine leak sends 38 to hospital

KOKOMO, Ind. (AP) - Thirtyeight people were taken to area hospitals early today following a chlorine leak at the Kokomo wastewater treatment plant, Mayor Stephen J. Daily said. City officials said they will conduct an internal investigation to determine what caused the accident, which forced the evacuation of two neighborhoods, Daily said. “We are still investigating what happened, and we continue to deal with the situation. We know that a line to a 1-ton cylinder of chlorine separated,” the mayor said. Twenty-one police officers and firefighters, five other city em-

spokesman at the airport, said Moore was a U.S. citizen. Red Cross officials had earlier identified the pilot as Robert Rigmar. The plane was transporting 18 horses of he Mexican Equestrian Federation that were to travel to events in Virginia and Massacusetts, officials said. The plane clipped power lines and blacked out surrounding neighborhoods. Airport officials said two of the horses survived but were badly burned, and police later shot one of the horses because its injuries were so severe. Capt. Humberto Hernandez of the Civil Aeronautics Command said Thursday night that officials would not comment or speculate on the

Nose woes for Reagan WASHINGTON (AP) President Reagan, paying the price for spending long hours in the sun, will have a skin cancer removed from the tip of his nose late today. “They have to do a little peeling here on the end of my nose,” Reagan said Thursday. He said he was feeling fine and was unconcerned about today’s procedure at Bethesda Naval Hospital. It’s the third time in two years Reagan has had skin cancer on his nose. Experts say the 76-year-old Reagan likely will have recurrences of the problem known as a basal cell carcinoma for the rest of his life. Reagan, an avid outdoorsman and onetime lifeguard, called attention to his problem Thursday during a speech to anti-abortion activists. Pointing to a small bandage on his nose, where a skin sample was taken a day earlier, Reagan said, “This is just a small billboard that says ... ‘Stay out of the sun.’” Later, Reagan joked about his nose when reporters asked him about the seriousness of the cancer. “Oh, my nose gets laughs all the time,” Reagan said.

had approved had been largely a scheme by international arms dealers who used the hostages as “bait.” “They saw an opportunity here and tried to keep it alive,” said Regan, who was forced out of the administration Feb. 27 after he was blamed by the presidential Tower commission for the disarray at the White House. “It was the old promises, promises ... the check’s in the mail type ol thing.” In other developments: —The Army unwittingly helped generate additional profits from the Iran arms sales when it underpriced TOW anti-tank missiles conveyed to the CIA for resale, according to a report by the House Armed Services Committee. But panel chairman Les Aspin, D-Wis., said Army procedures make it almost impossible to find the right price, and led in this case to “soap opera-like confusion.”

ployees and 12 citizens were taken to hospitals, city officials said during a 7:45 a.m. news conference. At least seven people were admitted to hospitals for treatment. Mark Miller, a 27-year-old firefighter, was airlifted to Indianapolis Methodist Hospital, where he was reported in serious condition, authorities said. The leak was discovered about 1 a.m. Firefighters managed to seal it about 2:30 a.m. and disperse the cloud of chlorine. The mayor said people were allowed to return home shortly after 5:30 a.m. Chlorine is a poisonous gas used in water purification

cause of the crash, which occurred during a light rain. The federal Attorney General’s office said it had joined the agency in the investigation but gave no indication when anything might be announced. A member of the Airline Pilots Association told the Notimex news agency that the plane had no recorder in its cockpit and that this would hamper the investigation. Notimex reported that investigators were focusing on the possibility that there was a short circuit in the plane’s central electrical system. It did not indicate the source of its information. The agency also quoted witnesses as saying they saw a fire in the right wing shortly before the crash.