Banner Graphic, Volume 20, Number 163, Greencastle, Putnam County, 16 March 1990 — Page 2

THE BANNERGRAPHIC March 16,1990 __ ■

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A 2 THE BANNfcHvjnArnK* warcn 10, iwu m ‘ ■ Abortion, collective bargaining, casinos: gone but not forgotten

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Legislation without broad public and political support had a tough time during the 1990 Indiana General Assembly. State lawmakers this year blocked or defeated legislation to restrict abortion, grant collective bargaining rights to state employees and allow casino gambling in Gary. SUPPORTERS HAVE suggested that politics played a hand in the defeat of collective bargaining and casino bills. Both measures were blocked by Senate Republicans, who are trying to maintain a 26-24 majority in that chamber. “Once these reelection efforts are not a part of what goes on here, we will have a better chance,” said Sen. Earline Rogers, a Gary Democrat who led the fight for casino gambling. Despite the defeats, supporters say their controversial ideas will not die. ANTI-ABORTION groups already are targeting legislators they will support and oppose in the fall campaign. Community leaders in Gary say they will continue the fight to become the Las Vegas of the Midwest And Gov. Evan Bayh says he is leaning toward using an executive order to implement collective bargaining rights for up to 36,000 state employees. “I’ll have my executive order pen out more than my veto pen,” the Democratic governor said. Abortion rights activists were ecstatic to emerge from the 1990 session without any changes in Indiana’s abortion laws.

Elkhart man seeking a pardon to erase 42-year-old criminal record

ELKHART, Ind. (AP) David LaMar Ort might be the only person who remembers the petty crime he committed 42 years ago. But the memory matters at least to him, and he wants his record cleaned. The retired railyard worker, now 60, wants-a governor’s pardon to erase his theft conviction. “IT’S A MATTER OF vanity, a matter of pride,” says Ort. “That’s the simplest way I can put it. “I want to be able to say that when Dave Ort walked this Earth, he did it with credibility.” His judgment was admittedly less sound March 15, 1948 his 18 th birthday when he got drunk

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“I’ll have my executive ( order pen out more than my veto —Gov. Evan Bayh

FOUR MEASURES to put additional restrictions on abortion passed the Indiana House but failed in the Senate. They included bills to ban most abortions in public hospitals, require doctors to give women more information about the risks of abortion and outlaw abortions done to select the sex of the child. Following those defeats, Nadia Shloss, president of Indiana Right to Life Inc., has begun looking toward November, when all 100 House seats and 25 in the Senate will be up for election. “Our primary goal is to return to office every incumbent who voted with us and to try to pick up those who are retiring,” she said. STATE EMPLOYEES failed to win the right to negotiate their wages and working conditions when Republicans blocked four attempts to bring collective bargaining legislation to the Senate floor.

“It’s a matter of vanity, a matter of pride. That’s the simplest way I can put it. I want to be able to say that when Dave Ort walked this Earth, he did it with credibility.”

and stole a hearing aid and a wallet from an old man sleeping with the door ajar in a motel room. Almost immediately, he was ashamed. He told his mother, confessed to the police and returned the stolen items. “Yes, it was a trauma for me at that young age,” he said. “I didn’t leave the house for a couple of days because I was afraid to run into one of my friends.” THE YOUNG ORT followed his father’s advice and pleaded

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“We’ve come close, and the movement won’t stop,” said Steve Fantauzzo, Indiana organizing director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “AFSCME has been fighting for collective bargaining in Indiana for more than 40 years, and we’re not about to stop now. The extensive campaign we have launched will continue, and we won’t let up until we reach the bargaining table.” BAYH SAID HE might implement collective bargaining through executive order, but only if there are strong provisions to prevent strikes and the Legislature has the final say over budget decisions. “As long as we can do those two things, it’s something I look favorably toward,” Bayh said. Legislators representing Gary wish their colleagues had looked more favorably toward allowing

—Dave Ort

guilty to theft, expecting light punishment for a first-time offender. He served no prison time, but got more than he bargained for a suspended sentence of one to five years and six months’ probation. Ort completed his probation and resumed an uneventful life. He worked a variety of jobs, got married, divorced and remarried, and retired on disability in 1984 after surgery following an injury at the Coiuail yard. His single offense never interfered with his life, but Ort wants the blot removed. So on March 29, he will appear before the Indiana Parole Board to ask for a pardon recommendation. The final decision would rest with Gov. Evan Bayh. “I THINK THAT’S the kind of thing the pardon law was designed for,” says attorney Charles Wicks, an Elkhart County deputy prosecutor who will appear as a character witness for Ort. Had the crime occurred in recent years, the case might have been handled as a misdemeanor, rather than a felony, said Wicks. Parole board statistics suggest Ort’s chances may be slim. The board last year considered 51 pardon requests but recommended only two. “Those are hard to get,” said Vaughn Overstreet, a spokesman for the Department of Correction. Ort nevertheless thinks it worth a try. “I said, ‘What the heck. I’m a deserving individual, and I want to clear my record.’ ”

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casino hotels in the economically depressed northwest Indiana city. ROGERS SPONSORED legislation to legalize casino gambling but didn’t call it for a vote in the House when she realized she didn’t have the votes. Later attempts to amend casino language into a bill in the Senate were scuttled by Senate Republicans. Supporters say they will continue the fight, but Rogers acknowledges that time may be running out for Gary. Casino proponents in Lorain, Ohio, are organizing for a statewide referendum that would allow residents of the Cleveland suburb to vote for or against casinos. “I SENSE FROM the industry a feeling they will come to (Gary) if it opens up, but if someplace else opens up that will not present the kinds of problems Gary has, they will go there,” she said. “The longer we wait, the more problems we will have.” Other measures that failed to gain acceptance during the 1990 session included: • A bill banning open containers in most vehicles and lowering the legal definition of drunkenness from a blood-alcohol level of .10 percent to .08 percent. • Legislation regulating drug testing in the woikplace that would have protected companies from lawsuits if they followed the measure’s guidelines. • A measure to shift personnel and resources from the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to the Utility Consumer Counselor’s office, which represents the public in cases before the URC.

state

Gov. Bayh signs DOC boot camp bill, others into law

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Gov. Evan Bayh has signed into law a measure allowing the state to establish a military-style boot camp as an alternative to prison for certain youthful non-violent offenders. However, Department of Correction officials said Thursday the boot camp won’t be created soon because the General Assembly didn’t appropriate the money needed to build and operate a camp. IN A SIGNING ceremony in his Statehouse office, Bayh said the boot camp could help Indiana with “its real crisis in the correctional system,” which is filled to capacity. Under House Bill 1089, the state could set up the camp with military-style discipline for criminals 18 to 25 who have been convicted of non-violent offenses with suspendible sentences of less than eight years. The Department of Correction would screen prisoners to determine which ones could benefit from the camp. The camp would house 100 to 120 inmates, who would spend up to 120 days in a program of work, discipline and education. The camp would also offer programs for drug and alcohol dependency. IF AN OFFENDER successfully completed the boot camp program, followed by a one-year transitional period on probation, a judge could then suspend the remainder of the criminal’s sentence. If the offender failed or dropped out of the boot camp program, he would be sent back to prison. While the governor expressed support for the program, the DCXI! said there’s no money to pay for it. DOC spokesman Vaughn Overstreet said an appropriation to pay for the boot camp was removed early in the legislative process and never put back into the bill or a supplemental budget. THE DOC RECEIVED about SIOO million in additional appropriations in the supplemental budget, but all of that money is earmarked to help ease prison overcrowding, said Overstreet The department had estimated first-year operating costs of the camp at $750,000 and construction costs at $4.5 million. “With the funding eliminated,

State cashes $73 million as its lottery winnings

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) The state of Indiana has cashed in the biggest prize yet from the Hoosier Lottery, getting a $73 million check that will help pay for a variety of programs from highways to pensions. On Thursday, Lottery Director John R. Weliever presented Gov. Eyan Bayh a check for $73,160,738 which represents the state’s profit from the sale of lottery tickets since Oct. 13. “THIS CHECK REFLECTS the huge success of the lottery in Indiana, the willingness of citizens to participate and the hard work of all our employees,” said Weliever. “The Hoosier Lottery is benefitting all citizens of Indiana by allowing us to cut the excise tax, paying for highway construction and other capital improvements and by helping to support pensions for Indiana’s teachers, police officers and firefighters,” said Bayh. The lottery has had total sales of $243.3 million. Of that amount, $138.9 million has been paid out in prizes. About 15 percent of the lottery revenue is used to cover administrative costs, advertising and commissions for retailers. WELIEVER NOTED that lottery sales, which have averaged about $11.2 million per week, are well ahead of projections. Budget analysts had originally expected the state’s profit from the lottery to be $35 million by June 30, the end of state government’s fiscal year. Weliever said he now believes instant ticket sales could total $350 million by June 30. That

REF. JOHN J. DAY Raised minimum wage the department at least has the framework and the vehicle (for a boot camp), but it will have to be deferred for other priorities,” said Overstreet. In other action, Bayh signed bills that will: • Raise the state’s minimum wage to $3.35 an hour from $2 on July 1. ABOUT 7,000 workers, most in small businesses that don’t engage in interstate commerce, are covered by the state minimum wage, which was last raised in 1977. Other workers are covered by federal minimum wage standards. Rep. John Day, the Indianapolis Democrat who sponsored the wage increase in H.B. 1012, said Indiana’s $2 minimum wage ranked 41st among the 42 state wage minimums. Eight states have no minimum wage. • Give tax credits to operators of maternity homes for pregnant women. THE OPERATOR OF a home could receive a tax credit of up to $3,000 for each pregnant woman housed in the facility during the year. The women couldn’t be related to the home operator claiming the credit. Under H.B. 1426, the State Board of Health could establish a maternity assistance development grant fund to help the facilities expand, offer new programs or train personnel. Money in the fund would come from private and public donations.

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would make the state profit a total of about $122.5 million for the fiscal year. That estimate does not figure in profits expected from computerized numbers games that are expected to be in operation before May. THE MONEY transferred to the state on Thursday has already been committed by the Legislature. Last year, in adopting the lottery law, lawmakers approved using more than SIOO million in lottery profits for teacher, police and fire pensions and for capital projects. This year, the Legislature approved a proposal to use $Bl million a year in lottery profits to make up for lost revenue from an auto excise tax cut that takes effect in 1991. As part of that proposal, the Legislature also committed S4O million a year in lottery profits to highway projects and a total of S3O million to economic development. The next transfer of lottery profits to the state is scheduled to occur on July 15. In later years, the transfers will occur every June 30.

E. Europeans take trip to future at IU BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) A visit to Indiana University is “a trip into the future,” according to six officials from East European universities. “This trip is time travel for us,” said lonel Haiduc, rector of the University of Cludj-Napoca in Cludj-Napoca, Romania. “We can only dream of libraries like yours. There are computers everywhere, in every classroom. We are very impressed.” THE RECTORS visited IU Wednesday during a three-week tour of higher education and culture in the United States. The tour sponsored by the the U.S. Information Agency began March 3 in Washington and includes visits to Knoxville and Nashville, Tenn., Salt Lake City and Orange County, Calif . “We need to learn your system, learn how things are done over here and apply them where possible in our countries,” said Andrzej K. Wroblewski, rector of Warsaw University in Poland. “For example, we have no tuition to attend our universities, but every course that a student takes is predetermined. If we offer more flexibility, we need to see how that will work. We are emerging from a completely different political and economic system, but we must go step by step so the people will un derstand,” Wroblewski said. AFTER A BREAKFAST Wednesday with members of the Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, the East European visitors toured the IU School of Business, downtown Bloomington and Cook Inc., a medical instruments manufacturer. They spent the night with host families in Bloomington. Panayot Bontchev, vice rector for research at the University of Sofia in Bulgaria, said the first-hand look at the link between business and the university has been helpful. “This is the kind of thing we really need in our country,” Bontchev said. “We have a big gap between industry and university.” BONTCHEV SAID HE believed that most East European students entering the universities were better prepared for advanced studies than their American counterparts. “But your equipment is much higher,” he said. “We just don’t have the computers. In theoretical areas, we are equal or superior. So we know what we have to do and it takes three things: time, determination and money. Time and determination we have. Money is another thing.” Ladislav Rabat, rector of Agricultural University in Nitra, Czechoslovakia, said the political changes in Eastern Europe came about in part within the universities.