Banner Graphic, Volume 21, Number 100, Greencastle, Putnam County, 31 December 1990 — Page 2

THE BANNERGRAPHIC December 31,1990

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Congress next step for waste issues, experts say

WASHINGTON (AP) Congress, not the courts, might be the best place to settle disputes arising from state attempts to close their borders to garbage from other states, waste management experts say. Indiana, South Carolina, and other states are “clearly losing” in trying to convince judges they can bar out-of-state waste haulers from their disposal sites, said John Thomas ian, an environmental researcher for the National Governors’ Association. A FEDERAL JUDGE in Indianapolis last week ruled that a new state law regulating solid and hazardous waste shipments into Indiana violated the Constitution’s commerce clause. That clause says Congress is authorized “to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states.” The clause does not prevent Congress from passing legislation delegating that regulatory authority

Father helps crack son’s murder after four years

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (AP) Frustrated with the slow pace of justice after his only son was murdered four years ago, Joseph Viscido spent $50,000 investigating the case on his own. His dogged detective work finally paid off. Three men are jailed and awaiting trial on first-degree murder charges in the shooting death of Joseph Viscido Jr. Two of the defendants are to be tried in February. A third is fighting extradition to Florida from Rhode Island. “I LOST HIM because of a scumbag who blew him away for no reason at all,” Viscido said. “I couldn’t let them kill my son and get away with it” On Oct. 12, 1986, the younger Viscido was beaten and shot in the head in his Deerfield Beach apartment by two men who came to steal cocaine, police said. He was buried the day before his 28th birthday. Unlike many parents of murdered children, Viscido, a used-car dealer who had leased out his car lot, had both the money and the time to pursue the case after the official investigation bogged down. HIS SURVEILLANCE and interviews took him as far away as Canada, New York, and Ohio. His information helped build a 1,300page file and led last September to the indictments of Peter Dallas,

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to the states for specified purposes, Thomas ian said. HE SAID THE association has decided to launch a lobbying effort to persuade Congress to grant such an exemption from the commerce clause to states that want to limit the amount of out-of-state trash they are receiving. A spokesman for companies that haul and dispose of solid and hazardous waste agreed with Thomasian that the next battleground is Congress. The courts have shown they believe unilateral bans violate the Constitution’s protection of interstate commerce, said Allen Blakey, spokesman for the National Solid Wastes Management Association. STATES HAVE TRIED both outright bans and more subtle mechanisms that encourage waste generators to look elsewhere for disposal sites. In South Carolina, Gov. Carroll Campbell on Dec. 17 issued an executive order barring shipments of

Carl Stephen Rosati and Phillip Roussonicolos. During a recent interview at his Pompano Beach home, Viscido, 59, said avenging his son’s death became an obsession. Depressed and frustrated after the slaying, he resumed smoking, after quitting 10 years ago. “I felt I had three choices: I was either going to get killed, die of a broken heart or get enough evidence to bring them to justice,” Viscido said. THE YOUNGER VISCIDO worked in the body shop of his father’s used-car lot and dabbled in construction. But his life took a dangerous turn when he began using drugs and selling them to his friends, his father recalled. Viscido began his probe by talking to his son’s friends. Several weeks after the murder, police gave him composite sketches of the gunmen. Viscido won’t divulge many details of his tactics because the case awaits trial. HOWEVER, HE SAID police put a hidden microphone him several times when he met with potential suspects or witnesses. Other times he took notes, which filled four notebooks. “As I went along I got more professional,” he said. When the case first came before a Broward grand jury in early 1989, no indictment was returned. But a second proceeding resulted in murder and robbery indictments against Rosati, 30; Dallas, 27, and Roussonicolos, 29.

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hazardous waste from North Carolina, effective Jan. 1, until that state selects a location for its own disposal site. Four days later, acting on a request from a Rock Hill, S.C., disposal company and a trade group, U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Perry temporarily blocked Campbell’s order. SOUTH CAROLINA Attorney General Travis Medlock will ask that Campbell’s order be allowed to take effect when Perry holds a hearing on ThermalKEM Inc.’s request for a more permanent ban, Medlock spokeswoman Julie Horton said last week. Blakey said he hopes states have learned by now that the federal courts frown on unilateral attempts to restrain interstate commerce. The judge’s ruling in Indiana, he said, also shows the courts similarly reject fee structures that require waste haulers to pay higher fees to dump trash in a state other than the one in which it was

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Lawmakers call for greater diplomatic efforts in Gulf

WASHINGTON (AP) The Bush administration must try to find a diplomatic solution to the Persian Gulf crisis before going to war, top lawmakers say. But they disagree over whether to hold back money if the fighting starts without congressional approval. “A diplomatic effort really needs to be made and has to be made before the decision to go to war,” Rep. Les Aspin, D-Wis., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Sunday. HIS THOUGHTS WERE echoed by the Senate’s ranking Republican, Bob Dole of Kansas, who said he would like to see President Bush “pursue at least one additional time” a date for U.S.Iraqi discussions. “The American people are not yet committed to war, and they

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generated. “WHILE WE sympathize with states not wanting other states to use their disposal capacity, we think it’s wrong to try to set up artificial barriers, like state laws that simply ban imports or set exclusionary fees or discriminatory fees,” Blakey said. “A more appropriate approach to solving the problem is to have federal legislation that requires states to site facilities that will handle much of, or most of, their own waste. That’s what’s missing, that states are not doing enough to site their own environmentally sound facilities,” he said. Thomasian agreed that so-called targeted fees those which impose higher costs on out-of-state haulers “have been shot down fairly clearly” in the federal courts. BUT HE SAID Congress could make such fees constitutional by passing legislation specifically allowing states to impose them, even though they restrain interstate trade.

reporter for details on what Kuwait expects to gain from his visit to China (AP photo)

want to make certain that President Bush has done everything, pursued every avenue for peace before the firing starts,” Dole said on NBCTV’s “Meet the Press.” Dole said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein may be willing to bend in an effort to end the stalemate on diplomatic talks. HE SAID IRAQ’S ambassador to the United States, Mohamed AlMashat, telephoned him from Baghdad on Saturday night with that news. “I had some indication there was some flexibility,” he said. Previously, Saddam had said he was only able to see Secretary of State James A. Baker 111 on Jan. 12, a date rejected by the United States as too close to the Jan. 15 deadline set by the United Nations for Iraqi troops to leave Kuwait. A U.N. resolution authorized the use of force to expel Iraq after that date. Dole said Mashat indicated “it would not have to be the 12th of January.” REP LEE Hamilton, D-Ind., appearing with Aspin on CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation,” predicted an intense round of diplomatic negotiations as Jan. 15 draws near because “people are very, very nervous about the outbreak of war.” “There are some straws that in-

London’s Christmas tree attacked with chain saw

LONDON (AP) The traditional Christmas tree in London’s Trafalgar Square was attacked with a chain saw early today, and authorites were deciding whether it could be saved. The tree, which stands in the square through Christmas and New Year, was under police guard. Part of the square was closed to the public as a safety measure in case the Norwegian fir tree collapsed. SCOTLAND YARD police headquarters said they were holding an unidentified man for

Congress would likely react more favorably to targeted fees than to outright bans on out-of-state waste, Thomasian said. The fees would provide some relief to states that believe their landfills and hazardous waste disposal sites are being quickly filled up by trash that other states produce, he said. UNLIKE OUTRIGHT bans, the fees would avoid “all-out balkanization or closing of borders,” he said. Blakey said many of the states that want to ban out-of-state waste fail to own up to the fact that they are generating trash that is being shipped elsewhere. South Carolina, for instance, exports solid waste to North Carolina and Georgia, while importing waste from those states and Virginia, he said. “It seems a little disingenuous for states to try to just shut the door on what’s coming in, because most of them don’t look hard enough to see what’s going out,” he said.

dicate a diplomatic solution may work,” he said, but arbitrary deadlines ought to be ignored in any case. The new Congress goes into session Thursday but is expected to quickly recess until later in the month. BUSH WILL MEET GOP and Democratic leaders at the White House. Lawmakers said they will press Bush on whether he intends to ask Congress to give him war-making authority before he launches any attack. “I do think that’s a very, very important thing that ... we do have a vote on that in Congress,” Aspin said. HOUSE MAJORITY Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., has suggested the Democratic-controlled Congress might try to cut off money for Operation Desert Shield if Bush initiates a war without prior congressional approval. Dole called such an attempt “incredible” and a “big, big political mistake,” that would not get through Congress. But Dole agreed with Gephardt that Japan and Germany should pay more of the cost of keeping more than 300,000 U.S. troops in the gulf region.

questioning, and tree surgeons were to examine the tree. Police said a man jumped over barriers around the tree at 3 a.m. and managed to saw a good way through the trunk. His motive was not known and he was not immediately charged with any offense. The 100-foot tree is shipped annually from Norway as a gift to the British people for their efforts in World War II to defeat the Germans, who had invaded and occupied Norway.

Stolen papers found in trash LONDON (AP) Secret documents used by the commander of British forces in the Persian Gulf were stolen and later found dumped in the trash, apparently discarded by a thief who didn’t examine them, police say. A briefcase containing the documents said to concern British war plans against Iraq was delivered to police after being spotted in a north London dumpster by a passing doctor, police say. DEFENSE SECRETARY Tom King said Sunday that all the documents were recovered “but it is a serious matter and it is a matter for police investigation.” The documents could have compromised allied interests in the gulf, King said, but apparently were not examined. The Times of London and other media reports said the documents were used by Air Chief Marshal Sir Patrick Hine, commander of British forces in the gulf, to brief Prime Minister John Major on Dec. 17. AFTER THE BRIEFING, the documents were handed to Hine’s personal staff officer, Wing Cmdr. David Farquhar, to return to Royal Air Force Strike Command at High Wycombe, northwest of London, the news reports said. Farquhar and his driver stopped the car in west London and got out to look at some used cars. In the few minutes they were away, a thief opened the trunk and stole the briefcase, a dictaphone, a portable television and money. The defense ministry said Farquhar had been moved to unspecified “other duties” pending an investigation. ANTHONY Beaumont-Dark, a Conservative legislator, said Farquhar should be court-mar-tialed for failing to strap the briefcase to his wrist.

Government looking into price fixing NEW YORK (AP) Federal authorities subpoenaed the records of the nation’s biggest baby formula manufacturers after state welfare officials and consumer advocates made allegations of price fixing, a newspaper reported. “This is a top-priority, front-bur-ner investigation,” said Kevin J. Arquit, head of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition. HE SAID AUTHORITIES have not concluded that price fixing occurred. The companies denied the allegations. The New York Times reported today that records were subpoenaed from: Ross Laboratories, a division of Abbott Laboratories; the MeadJohnson Nutritional Group, a division of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.; Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, a division of the American Home Products Corporation; the Carnation Company, a subsidiary of Nestle S.A.; and the Gerber Products Company. The American Academy of Pediatrics was also subpoenaed, it said. Ross, Mead-Johnson and WyethAyerst account for about 95 percent of all baby formula marketed in the United States, while Carnation and Gerber account for about 5 percent, the newspaper said. The domestic market is worth about $1.3 billion a year, it said. INFANT FORMULA is a major ingredient in food packages given to low-income families who qualify for the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children. The program serves about 4.4 million people a month and accounts for one-third of the infant formula sold in the United States. The program’s funds are limited and higher costs mean fewer people benefit, Arquit said. Dennis H. Bach of lowa, who heads the National Association of WIC directors, said baby formula prices “have seemed to go up in lock step over the last 10 years.” BETSY CLARKE, director of the WIC program in Oregon, said prices have tripled during the past 15 years, with different companies raising prices by the same amounts within days of each other. Current retail prices range from SI.BO to $2.30 for a 13-ounce can of concentrated formula.