Banner Graphic, Volume 18, Number 53, Greencastle, Putnam County, 7 November 1987 — Page 2
THE BANNERGRAPHIC November?, 1987
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Ginsburg hinted at to withdraw soon
WASHINGTON (AP) The Reagan administration is sending strong signals to Supreme Court nominee Douglas H. Ginsburg to withdraw after his admission of marijuana use, with a senior White House official saying “it would be best for him to step aside.” “The worst of all worlds is that he hangs in there hangs in there until January,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Friday evening. “Something needs to happen in the next 72 hours. “I think it’s incredible the guy didn’t tell us about these things. ” Earlier, after President Reagan reportedly told Education Secretary William Bennett to “do what you think is right,” Bennett called Ginsburg to tell him to withdraw. Administration resolve to stand by Ginsburg began crumbling just a few hours after Reagan had defended the nominee publicly, saying that Ginsburg had “erred in his youth” but that the nomination would not be withdrawn. Reagan said Ginsburg’s admission that he had used marijuana a few times in the 1960 s and 1970 s had nothing to do with his judicial qualifications and the nominee should be confirmed “if there’s any justice left in Washington.” But the tenor of administration statements changed dramatically in the next few hours, as it became apparent the nominee faced serious problems retaining the support of conservative Republican senators essential to his prospects in a confirmation vote. Loye Miller, Bennett’s secretary, said the education secretary called the president about 3 p.m. Friday, said it was essential that Ginsburg’s nomination be withdrawn and suggested that the nominee be given that message. “Do what you think is right,” Reagan told Bennett, according to Miller. Bennett called Ginsburg about an hour later in his chambers at the U.S. Court of Appeals, Miller said. He told the judge that the fight was “not winnable” and that staying in it “hurts the president.” Bennett told Ginsburg he would be
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able to withdraw “gracefully” now but would not be able to do so later, Miller said. Ginsburg was noncommittal after the Cabinet member’s call. The federal appellate judge responded that he had been to the White House earlier, where he received encouragement. Ginsburg’s disclosure had come Thursday, just before a broadcast report of his past marijuana use about to air. He issued a statement admitting that he had used marijuana once in the 1960 s and a few times in the 19705. His chances were damaged further on Friday, when Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., reported that the nominee subsequently told senators the last use occurred in 1979, when he was a Harvard Law School professor. The disclosures led some of the same GOP loyalists who had stood firm behind Reagan’s ill-fated choice of Robert H. Bork to express serious doubts about Ginsburg. One of them, Larry Pressler of South Dakota, said Friday, “I’ve asked the White House to reassess the nomination.” Senate Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., meanwhile, said Ginsburg “should give very, very serious consideration” to withdrawing. Byrd cited not only marijuana but an earlier disclosure of possible conflict of interest Involving Ginsburg’s ownership of nearly $140,000 in cable television company stock while playing a role in Justice Department decisions affecting cable TV interests. Several senators said the marijuana issue was less serious than the possibility of a cover-up before the 41-year-old appeals court judge was nominated last week to succeed retired Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said youthful use of marijuana was “irrelevant.” But in an interview with The (Wilmington) Morning News, he saw the looming political threat to Ginsburg from the right.
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Hey, does this face remind you of anyone you know? Actually, it's 44-year-old Knautschke, a hippo bull at the West Berlin Zoo that appears a little bored due to the lack of visitors.
Highjacker gives up after 3 1 /z-hour siege
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) An “emotionally distraught” man took control of an Air Canada jetliner at the airport Friday and held an ax to the pilot’s head before giving up his siege 3’2 hours later, a spokesman said. The man, identified as James Barrett Drake, 37, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., told investigators “he was being chased by the Mafia and wanted FBI protection,” said FBI Special Agent Dick Held. “There’s no indication that his statement is true.” Drake raced aboard the Boeing 767 at 12:15 p.m. PST, shortly after it arrived at San Francisco International Airport and the passengers had departed, officials said. He initially took the pilot, first officer and 10 flight attendants captive but later ordered everyone except the pilot, Capt. James David Robinson, off the plane, said airport director Louis A. Turpen. • During the siege, the man grabbed a fire ax in the cockpit and threatened to kill Robinson while making rambling demands to be flown to London or Dublin and to talk to the FBI, said airport spokesman Ron Wilson. At about 3:45 p.m., Drake surren-
Man indicted for death
NEW YORK (AP) A lawyer who allegedly showed a “depraved indifference” to the life of his 6-year-old adopted daughter was indicted on murder charges Friday in her beating death, the district attorney announced. Joel Barnet Steinberg, 46, was indicted on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child in the death of Elizabeth Steinberg, said Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. The lawyer was also indicted on charges of endangering the welfare of his 16-month-old adopted son, Mitchell. Steinberg’s live-in lover of 17
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Knautschke was born in 1943 and is one of the few animals at the zoo to survive the Second World War's fire storm. (AP photo).
dered peacefully to FBI agents and police who had boarded the plane to negotiate for Robinson’s release. During the discussions, Drake had stood with both hands on the ax and held it poised over the captain’s head. Robinson was unharmed, - Held said, but emotionally exhausted by the ordeal. Barry Mawn, the agent in charge of the negotiations, said Drake probably would be charged with air piracy, and other charges would be considered. “He was emotionally distraught,” Mawn said. “Initially he was tense, but as the afternoon went on he became more congenial and less threatening until he finally gave up.” Paul Wing of Toronto, who had been waiting to board the plane when the hijack began, said he spoke briefly to Robinson as he walked from the plane at the end of the ordeal. “I said, ‘Good job, sir,’ and he said, ‘Thank you very much.’ He looked a little gray,” said Wing. In addition to the FBI, SWAT teams had been called to the site in case they were needed to storm the plane.
years, Hedda Nussbaum, has been charged with murder in the case but was not indicted Friday. Morgenthau said Ms. Nussbaum, a former teacher and author of children’s books, had notified his office that she wants to testify before the grand jury. “She’s hospitalized and we’ll wait for her,” he said. The girl was found comatose and brain dead Monday in the family’s filthy apartment in a Greenwich Village building where Mark Twain once lived. Ms. Nussbaum told police Elizabeth had choked on food and was having trouble breathing. The first-grader was pronounced dead Thursday in St. Vincent’s Hospital, said Ellen Borakove of the city medical examiner’s office.
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Budget still in review
WASHINGTON (AP) A Republican plan to cut S3O billion from the federal deficit is on the table as the second week of budget negotiations between congressional and White House officials draws to a close. “We have several general parameters we can all think about over the weekend,” House Minority Leader Robert Michel, R-111., said Friday as the participants completed their 10th day of bargaining. The plan was advanced by Michel amid indications that the Reagan administration was softening its stance against defense spending cuts. But it also appeared, following a White House meeting with President Reagan and GOP congressional leaders, that the administration was holding firm in its refusal to rein in Social Security spending. The Republican proposal would reduce the deficit by S3O billion in the 1988 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, and by $45.5 billion in fiscal 1989. Over the two years, it would reduce anticipated spending on federal benefit and pension programs by $15.3 billion. In addition, taxes and fees would be increased by $23.4 billion during the period, and $lO billion worth of government assets would be sold. The plan would freeze the rest of the domestic budget and defense spending at 1987 levels for the first half of fiscal 1988, allow a 2 percent increase in the second part of the year and another 2 percent rise for all of fiscal 1989. “I have to feel very good about the progress we made today,” said Michel, who presented the plan to the other negotiators. However, he conceded that the bargainers have more work to do. “No bitter, clean, tough, longrange decisions have been agreed to,” he said. Rep. William H. Gray 111, D-Pa., chairman of the House Budget Committee, said the GOP proposal “moves the process along significantly,” but cautioned, “It’s unwise to
Fire puts 13 southern states in 'red alert'
ATLANTA (AP) Blazes in the mountains of Kentucky on Friday could be smelled 300 miles away in South Carolina as thousands of fires kept burning in 13 Southern states with no rain in sight before Monday. Foresters blamed a combination of dry weather, brisk wind, falling leaves and arsonists. South Carolina posted its first-ever “red flag alert” for 16 counties, meaning the area was ripe for wildfires. Officials there logged more than 115 wildfires in the first week of November. Three states Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia and 24 counties in western North Carolina banned outdoor burning. Alabama was considering a ban. From Texas to Virginia, more than 121,000 acres of land square miles was burned in 8,018 fires in 11 days, according to the U.S. Forest Service. That didn’t include West Virginia, which is just outside the Forest Service’s 13-state Southern Region. Damage there would bring the total to at least 249,000 acres. Seven homes have been damaged by fire this week in West Virginia, and fire ignited a CSX Corp, railroad tunnel. Firefighters sealed the tunnel Friday and pumped foam inside to smother the blaze. No immediate relief was in sight; chances for rain Saturday were called dim by the Forest Service. Rain was possible Monday for most Southern states. “This wind’s killing us. We’re in a
think we’re anywhere near compromise at this point.” The congressional Republican plan would hold defense spending to $284.4 billion this year, well below the $297.6 billion Reagan sought when he presented his 1988 budget last January. Michel said that at Friday’s session, White House chief of staff Howard Baker and Treasury Secretary James A. Baker 111 said the defense figure “would be acceptable,” as long as the president would be free to shift money from one military account to another. Michel also said the pension cuts envisioned in the GOP plan would not touch Social Security. The negotiators have agreed that the pension program for the elderly will not be touched, but it has been brought up at times anyway. House assistant minority leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said that if Social Security reductions were included in the formula, “I’m out of there.” At his meeting with GOP lawmakers, Reagan was urged to accept Social Security cutbacks “as part of an acceptable package,” according to Sen. Bob Packwood, ROre. Several legislators denied afterward that Social Security still was being actively considered for reductions. The negotiations are aimed at avoiding $23 billion in across-the-board spending reductions that the Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction law otherwise would impose automatically Nov. 20. The talks were convened after the government’s huge budget deficits were blamed in part for midOctober’s stock market crash and the resulting uncertainty in the financial world. The Senate gave final, congressional approval Friday to. a, temporary spending measure to, keep the government operating through Dec. 16. Reagan has said he, will sign the bill.
nightmare,” said forester AllenWaldron in MacArthur, W.Va. At least 10 fires in his eight-county district went untended Friday morning because there was no one to fight them, Waldron said. People in Charleston, S.C., smelled the smoke from fires 260 miles away in the mountains of Ten-* nessee and 320 miles away in Kentucky, said said Jennie Morris, spokeswoman for the state Forestry Commission. Coy Mullins, a forester with the West Virginia Agriculture Department, blamed some of his state’s fires on squirrel hunters who set trees afire in an effort to flush out their prey. Charlie Crail of the U.S. Forest Service in Kentucky blamed “99 out of 100” of his state’s fires on arsonists. To help fight them, 450 firefighters from 17 Western states have been flown in, and 220 National Guard troops have been mobilized. Alabama’s fire alert was ex-' panded to cover the northern half of the state. “We’ve got a major problem,”’ said Rick Hofmeister of the Alabama Forestry Commission. “The wind and the low humidity have taken these fires out of control.” In Virginia, firefighters used air tankers to dump water from the sky onto fires in the Jefferson National Forest and in western Roanoke County. In the national forest, the fire had expanded Friday to 1,500 acres.
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