Banner Graphic, Volume 20, Number 223, Greencastle, Putnam County, 25 May 1990 — Page 2

THE BANNERGRAPHIC May 2s, 1998

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Pressure mounting against new federal crime bill, Sen. Dole says

WASHINGTON (AP) Senators say their crime bill limiting nine kinds of semiautomatic guns and prohibiting the death penalty for mentally retarded convicts in federal cases could be running into severe trouble. “It seems to me there is great pressure from certain groups ... to kill the bill,” Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., said Thursday after 271 possible amendments surfaced. The measure was shelved until after a 10-day congressional recess set to begin today. THE SENATE EARLIER Thursday upheld 59-38 a ban contained in the bill on putting to death mentally retarded individuals convicted of capital crimes in federal cases. It voted 58-38 to drop a provision allowing death row inmates to use statistics to prove on appeal that their sentences involved

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racial bias. The Senate also reversed a decision it made Wednesday and approved 52-46 a stringent version of legislation on how courts review capita] punishment cases to determine whether they were conducted in a constitutional manner. THE “HABEAS CORPUS” provision adopted would give defendants at most 60 days after their conviction to seek a federal review to determine if their case met constitutional standards. Courts would have 110 days to reach a decision. The Senate on Wednesday approved a version that would give the prisoners a year to file and impose no time limit on the courts. The bill also calls for the death penalty for 30 federal offenses, including assassination of the president. No corresponding legislation is

Senate passes new foreign aid bill; most of the money spent at home

WASHINGTON (AP) After months of delay, $720 million in emergency U.S. aid to the new democratic governments in Panama and Nicaragua is finally ready to flow southward following final approval by Congress. But the engine behind the bill was not the altruism of members of Congress. Rather, it was nearly $4 in hometown spending for every dollar in foreign aid contained in the money bill. WHEN FINALLY SENT to President Bush early today, the measure had swelled to more than $4 billion. It included programs that ranged from filling in a collapsed utility tunnel on a street in Salisbury, N.C., to giving the Samoan islands a $750,000 ferry boat. The measure did include S3OO million to boost the struggling government of Nicaraguan President Violeta Chamorro, and $420

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on the calendar in the House. SENATE DEMOCRATIC leaders, saying it was necessary to keep the bill from going into a stall, set June 5 on a vote to limit debate. They said that without invoking cloture, or limiting debate, the Senate could become hopelessly bogged down in discussion of each individual item. But senators said it was not cerain that such a constraint could be mposed. The National Rifle Association remained upset by an action Wednesday in which lawmakers voted to keep the bill’s restrictions on semiautomatic weapons. MORE THAN 30 of the 184 Republican and 87 Democratic amendments that materialized Thursday concerned firearms, senators said. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, said he hoped

million to help the new Panamanian democracy recover from U.S. trade sanctions and last December’s invasion. IT ALSO INCLUDED other foreign assistance: $75 million to meet refugee needs around the world, $45 million in anti-narcotics aid to Bolivia and Peru, S3O million for aid to Caribbean countries and S3O million for Africa. But overshadowing those amounts was several billion dollars in domestic programs, such as the $1.2 billion needed to make up a shortfall in food stamp funds for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept 30; $545 million for veterans benefits; $166 million for Head Start; and $432 million for fighting forest fires. IN WHAT AMOUNTS to the first application of a “peace dividend” from reduced East-West tensions, roughly half of the new spending is being financed by cuts

New law is not likely to change bingo in Indiana

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) Beginning July 1 Indiana’s bingo parlors must file reports under a state law that puts some restrictions on the popular game of chance. However, police or state agencies aren’t expected to carefully watch for abuses. “I DON’T HAVE THE manpower or the time,” said Deputy Chief Barry Horman, head of the vice and narcotics division of the Fort Wayne Police Department. “It would be an endless and fruitless task. “Everybody has a bingo game once in a while. Even the FOP (Fraternal Order of Police) has them.” Bingo in Indiana was always winked at by authorities, who knew most games were paying for church programs and Little League equipment Only the most blatant forprofit games were shut down. “IT WAS PROBABLY the most

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there would be no delay. He reminded lawmakers that President Bush has “repeatedly indicated his desire for action on this legislation. Hours earlier, however, Bush told reporters at the White House that he waited “a good, strong anti-crime bill” without the curbs on semiautomatics. JUDICIARY COMMITTEE Chairman Joseph R. Biden, D-DeL, told reporters Thursday night he feared that unless limits were placed on debate the bill might be doomed. “If you don’t get cloture, I think you bring it down,” Biden said. He said it was “a crapshoot” as to whether Senate leaders could mobilize the 60 votes needed to limit debate. Biden led opposition Thursday to efforts to drop the bill’s language prohibiting execution of mentally retarded people convicted of crimes.

in this year’s proposed Pentagon budget cuts agreed to by the administration. The measure includes sllO million to help the Census Bureau finish its lagging 1990 head count and $216 million for disaster aid, primarily far southern states affected by flooding and hurricanes. Most of that was wanted both by lawmakers and by the White House. BUT THERE WERE many other items that could make Bush hold his nose when he signs the measure, most pet projects erf individual members of Congress. Among the items approved were nearly 40 individual grants through the Department of Housing and Urban Development totaling S2B million, most of them for communities whose members of Congress are on the House and Senate Appropriations committees.

abused law besides the 55 mile per hour speed limit,” said state Rep. Chester Dobis, a Merrillville banker who for 15 yeas introduced bills to legalize bingo. In March, the Indiana General Assembly passed a bill to legalize bingo, as well as raffles, tip boards and Las Vegas nights for charity. Under the law, prizes ae limited to $1,500 a game and SIO,OOO a day. Games must be conducted by the organizations themselves or by a group of volunteers. MANY DON’T follow the letter of the law, however. Workers often receive cash for helping out at bingo halls. Sometimes charities don’t receive all the proceeds. Regulations effective July 1 will subject bingo games to state audits, licensing aid restrictions on the use of profits. Non-profit groups running games of chance must register with the Secretary of State, said office spokesman John Ohmer. However, the office won’t make any attempt to confirm information on the applications, Ohmer said. GROUPS CONDUCTING at least 10 bingo games a yea will be subject to an “audit by cause” by the State Board of Accounts. “We really don’t know what ‘audit by cause’ means,” said Ron McLaughlin, supervisor for nonprofit organizations for the State Board of Accounts.

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Calamity & chaos Navy reopens lowa probe WASHINGTON (AP) The Navy faces renewed doubts about its finding that a lone sailor probably sabotaged the USS lowa, as a congressional report is expected to show that friction may have caused the blast that killed 47 sailors. The Senate Armed Services Committee was scheduled to hear a report today on the Navy’s controversial investigation into the April 19, 1989, explosion. The hearing comes just a day after the Navy announced it is reopening its investigation into the blast and halting the firing of 16-inch guns aboard all battleships after an “unexplained ignition” of some gunpowder bags during testing. Last fall, the Navy said the fireball aboard the lowa “most probably” was an intentional act by the ship’s gunner’s mate 2nd class Clayton Hartwig of Cleveland. The Navy accused Hartwig, who was killed in the explosion, of placing “some type of detonation device” between gunpowder bags as he supervised the loading of one of the warship’s 16-inch guns. Today’s General Accounting Office report was expected to show that there was no conclusive evidence that elements from an explosive device were found in the gun barrel, said Rep. Mary Rose Oakar, DOhio, who represents the district where Hartwig’s family lives. The report by Congress’ watchdog agency indicates “that perhaps it was something as simple as a friction that caused the explosion. The bottom line is that the GAO report is going to say that the Navy report simply didn’t prove that anyone set that explosion,” the congresswoman said on Thursday. Hartwig’s father, Earl Hartwig, himself a Navy gunner’s mate in World War H, said in Cleveland: “This is what we’ve been saying all along. My son is not guilty. The Navy was barking up the wrong tree.”

Man sucked out of jet SEATTLE (AP) A passenger whose head and shoulders were sucked through the broken window of an airplane at 14,000 feet says his few seconds of terror won’t cause him to stop flying. “I’m 38 today and I’ll still be an alive 38 tomorrow. I’m just happy to be alive,” said Gale Sears of Portland, Ore. Sears said he remembers hearing a loud thud outside the cabin of Horizon Air Flight 2300 as the plane left Portland on Wednesday morning for Seattle. * He settled back, buckled into seat 2E as the 18-seat, twin-engine Fairchild Metro 111 climbed to 14,000 feet As the plane began its descent over Olympia, Sears heard a loud bang the sound of the window next to his seat suddenly blowing out. He was pulled toward a hole where the window had been, and his world went black. Rain pelted his face and shoulders. “I just remember wondering: What in the world is going on? Is the plane going to explode? Am I going to go splat? Are we going to hit the ground?” Sears later recalled. Airline officials said Sears’ wide shoulders and two passengers who grabbed on to him may have saved him from being further sucked through the roughly 10-by-14-inch opening. He came away with a stiff neck and puncture wounds in his hands from the window’s shattered glass.

Bomb kills two in Oakland OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) A bomb exploded in a car Thursday, injuring the two members of a militant environmental group riding in the vehicle, officials and witnesses said. One of ifie two members of the group Earth First! said recently she had received death threats for helping organize a campaign to halt logging in Northern California’s old-growth forests and other environmental activities. The explosion occurred shortly before noon near Oakland High School, said a garage worker who identified himself only as Charles. “It sounded like a cherry bomb in a tin can,” said the worker. “It was pretty loud. I kind of felt it in my body and I was inside.” After the explosion, the car rolled about 50 yards before hitting another vehicle and coming to a stop, witnesses said. Pieces of seats and windshield covered the street. Authorities declined to identify the victims, but Earth First! spokesman Daniel Barron said they were group members Judi Bari, 40, a passenger in the white Subaru station wagon registered in her name, and driver Darryl Chemey, 30, both of Ukiah. Bari suffered facial injuries and a pelvic fracture and was in serious but stable condition at Highland Hospital, hospital spokesman David Berry said. Chemey was treated for a minor injury above his left eye. Berry said. Michigan plant explodes TECUMSEH, Mich. (AP) An explosion and fire at a plastics factory Thursday forced hundreds of people from their homes in this southeastern Michigan town, and sent up to 14 people to the hospital, authorities said. The fire at Sil-Tech Corp. began around 5 p.m. and was under control by 10 p.m., said firefighter David Ousterhout. Between 500 and 1,000 people were evacuated from their homes for several hours, said police SgL James Knierm. Between 10 and 14 people were treated at Herrick Memorial Health Care Center for eye and skin irritation and released, said Ousterhout Smoke from the fire quickly dissipated, and no hazardous substances leaked, said Bruce Van Wieren of the state Department of Natural Resources. The cause of the blast and fire at the plant, which makes siliconebased fluids and employs about 10 people, was unknown, said Police Chief Laurence Van Alstine. No damage estimate: was available.

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