The Mail-Journal, Volume 18, Number 13, Milford, Kosciusko County, 15 April 1981 — Page 5

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Open Door Weekly Report From Senator John B Augsburger

As the 102nd General Assembly began to wrap up business this week, the Senate considered over 100 bills, including four bills that comprise the state's spending plan for the next two years The four budget bills were Rebated and voted on in two lengthy floor sessions Each bill deals with a different area of the budget, such as school funding, the state s operating budget, the construction budget, and funds for transportation and highways *The total biennial budget amounts to about sll 6 billion Several attempts to increase spending were proposed by the Senate minority, but they were rejected as being too costly. x The budget in its amended form will now go to a conference committee where a compromise between the House and the Senatt versions can be worked out before being sent back to both houses for a final vote A bill I am sponsoring. HJR 1 has passed the Senate Public Policy Committee as a first step to amending the constitution. The proposal would allow businesses who are incorporated to represent themselves in small claims courts, instead of having to be represented by an attorney As it is now. it often costs more to

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- go through the small claims process than the disputed claim is worth; this is in large part due to the cost of hiring a lawyer The consequence of this is higher prices to consumers, and HJR 1, by allowing corporations to argue their own cases, would benefit both businesses and consumers If the full Senate passes the resolution, the next elected General Assembly will also have to pass HJR 1, and then the people of the state would have to vote on it in a referendum At this point, all bills that have not passed out of committee are considered dead for the session As of Friday. April 10th there are six working days left in the session For those bills that do not recave concurrence, conference committees have been or will be formed to iron out the differences Depending on the progress of the drawing of the reapportionment- maps, adjoirnment is expected either during the week of April 20 or April 27 The legislature is by law required to adjourn this year by April 30. I always look forward to hearing from my constituents; please feel free to call me at 1-800-382-9467 or write me at the Indiana Senate. State House. Indianapolis. Ind 46204

Special Friday hours set for License Branch

The Syracuse License Branch will close at 1 p.m. on Good Friday, April 17. The branch will be open for customers, however, from 8:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. Saturday. April 18.

Fithian Reports

Congressman Floyd Fithian today announced the appointment of Ted MoSer of Warsaw, as Press Secretary, effective April 30. Moser. 22. replaces Susan Clark Etter, who is leaving the staff to pursue a writing career in Staunton. Virginia. ? Moser has worked as a legislative correspondent for Fithian since last summer He accompanied the Congressman during Fithian's successful bid for re-election in the fall. Moser graduated in 1980 with a political science degree from Wheaton College, where he also studied journalism and served as vicepresident of the student body. He has written for a number of periodicals Moser is a 1976 graduate of

From the office of—- — Dan Quayle

WASHINGTON - On October 9,1980, a young man was arrested in the Nashville airport for attempting to board an American Airlines plane with a suitcase containing three pistols and 50 rounds of ammunition. He was charged with carrying a firearm on city property —a misdemeanor — fined SSO plus $12.50 in court costs, and turned loose On March 30, 1981, that sajne man pushed his way into the press area outside the Washington Hilton and fired six shots hitting one city policeman, one Secret Service agent, one White House Press Secretary, and one President of the United States. Immediately after it was learned that the President had, indeed, been shot, my office was beseiged with calls from reporters wanting to know (1) my reaction to the shooting incident, and (2) my feelings on the issue of gun control. My answers to both were the same: We are praying for the swift recovery of the injured people. This is a time for calm, not a time for debates on highly emotional issues. The issue of federal gun control laws IS highly emotional. It would be far better, it seems to me. to put that emotional energy into laws which would provide for severe penalties for the use of a

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Warsaw high school. His parents are Warsaw-area residents. Dr. and Mrs Arthur L. Moser. “I am very pleased to appoint Ted to the Press Secretary position,” Fithian said. "His journalistic background, com bined with his previous staff experience and his familiarity with the 2nd District, will enable him to continue Jt he fine news service that Susan Clark Etter has provided. ” Susan Clark Etter, a 1976 journalism graduate of Indiana University, served as Fithian's Press Secretary in 1974 and 1975. She re-joined his staff as a caseworker in 1976 and moved to Washington in 1979 after her appointment as Press Secretary. She is a native of Lafayette and a 1972 graduate of Jefferson high school. Her parents are Mr. and Mrs. Gerald L. Clark of Lafayette. She currently is completing two works of fiction.

What others say —

(The Chicago Tribune) Once again we are hearing and reading about the ‘sickness” of our violent society. The attempt on the life of the President has set off a paroxysm of self-analysis and hand-wringing over what some see as societal schizophrenia. That is nonsense. The society is fine. It is a healthy, vigorous, rich, educated, and moral society. Its only problem is an infection of millions of little pocket-sized killing machines: the handguns with which Americans kill themselves and each other at a rate of around 20,000 a year. There are perhaps 70 million of them loose in the land, a number that is increasing at the rate of about 250 new handguns being manufactured and sold every hour. And every hour, on the average, one American is murdered by a handgun. That is a serious infection, but it is a curable . one and the cure is relatively simple: a ban, at the federal level, against the manufacture, importation, sale and possession of handguns except for purposes of law enforcement and certain carefully defined and regulated recreational purposes. A simple cure, but not a quick one. Getting 70 million pistols out of circulation would be the work of a generation or longer. A ban on possession would have to be phased in over a long period of tune during which handguns would be made subject to programs of registration, voluntary relinquishment, and confiscation in cases of misuse. Eventually, such programs would reduce the number of handguns in circulation to a level where it would be practical to make possession itself a criminal matter. Anything less than comprehensive federal handgun control is virtually pointless. It does little good for one state or one municipality to pass and enforce strict laws if a neighboring state or municipality has no such laws or does not enforce them. A federal law on “Saturday night specials,” while useful, would merely nip at the edges of the problem. But if the cure is so simple, why is it not being applied? The reason is that the seat of the infection, the virulent, pus-filled cyst that feeds it, has proved invulnerable.'That cyst is easy to locate: It is at 1600 Rhode Island Ave., in Washington, D.C., the National Rifle Association’s eight-story office building. From there, the NRA runs a ISO million campaign of intimidation that has so terrified Congress that none but the most ludicrously ineffective of gun laws can be passed. With a membership of fewer than 2 million persons, the NRA has succeeded in blocking legislation that is favored, according to some reliable surveys, by 78 per-

firearm while committing a crime. Former President Gerald Ford, last week, suggested that if a firearm is even brandished during the course of committing a crime, that a penalty be imposed over and above any pehalty for the crime itself. He went on to suggest that if any person is injured through the use of a firearm during the course of committing a crime, it would be considered a capital offense, punishable by death. Notice, he did not suggest that it be a capital offense if someone was killed during the commission of a crime, only that someone be injured. The point of all this is to make the price for illegal use of a firearm so high, that it is no longer worth the risk. I have previously introduced legislation — and will do so again — which provides for mandatory, no parole sentences for the use of a firearm or knife in the commission of a crime. Under the terms of this bill a first offender would have to serve an additional five years, not suspended, and without the possibility of parole, over and above any sentence imposed by the judge for the crime itself. If such a criminal didn't learn his lesson, and committed another crime with a gun or knife, he would have to serve an additional 10 years — with the same no suspension, no parole provisions. If this offender was really hard core and did it a third time, we would throw away the key and sentence him to 15 years to life — regardless of the seriousness of the underlying crime. This approach would serve to do two things: It would take the guns out of the hands of criminals — because the costs of being caught with a gun would be too high, and would take the criminals out of our society —by putting them behind bars for extended periods of time. Parked car hit According to Syracuse police reports, Dixie D. Simmons. 43, r 4 box 422-A Syracuse, was traveling east on Main Street when her vehicle hit a parked car on April 10. The parked vehicle, owned by Louis M. Kuilema, 69, r 4 box 166B Syracuse, was parked on East Main St. when the collision occurred. The Simmons vehicle had no damage and the Kuilema car had S9O damage. Hapner booked William Dean Hapner, 69, r 5 Syracuse, was charged in Kosciusko County Court with conversion, a Class A misdemeanor, the week of April 5.

Gunning for the NRA

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NEW ‘DITCH WITCH’ — Tom Michael, owner of Tom’s Electric, Syracuse, is shown above with a new “Ditch Witch" Custom Trencher. The machine trenches up to three feet deep to accomodate any drainage tile, water pipe or wiring. The machine is ideal for small trench work. (Photo by Bruce Buhemeier)

Designing and building a better tractor was likened to the complexity of designing a good re-districting plan by the House Chairman on Reapportionment last week. That curious comparison was prompted by Minority attempts to add their maps, into a Senate bill at the amending stage in the House, carving the state into House and congressional districts. While the motion was defeated, it did signal the start of House debate on the controversial and urgent issue which will dominate our schedule in the remaining six working days. Because he is a farmer. State Representative Richard Mangus, who is heading the House reapportionment effort, described the process in terms familiar to him. Admitting that designing and building tractors and designing a reapportionment plan aren't identical tasks, Mangus added, “But you are dealing with the big wheels and the small wheels and you’re trying to put a lot of parts together so they make sense . . to do that you need adequate resources . . . you need solid information . . . and the guts to turn that information into a workable plan." Hiat‘ "workable plan," to assure that one group of citizens doesn't have mare influence through governmental representation than another, must take into consideration much more than simply making sure the populaiton figures will meet court tests

cent of the population. That infectious agent must be fought if the battle against handguns is to be won. It must be fought with the same weapons that it uses, money, political pressure, publicity, and the commitment of the millions of individual Americans who feel as strongly about handgun control as the NRA’s true believers feel about handgun anarchy. But despite the mayhem around us, even despite the fact that the NRA’s most prominent member, the President of the United States, has just joined the ranks of handgun victims. Americans who support handgun control are not making themselves heard. A handful of gun control organizations, some of them working at cross purposes, are attracting minimal membership and paltry contributions. In Illinois, for example, the Committee for Handgun Control, which is the most active antihandgun group, claims only about 1,000 members and operates on a budget of merely 130,000 a year. The Committee on Handgun Control and other groups that share its views should pool their efforts in a single national effort to take on the specious argument and alarmist propaganda of the NRA. They should lobby Congress as tirelessly as does the NRA, and with their support neutralize the vicious NRA attacks on members who are courageous enough to vote for controls. It should be a national effort because it is a national problem that requires a national solution. Campaigning for local and state laws, while worthwhile, should be a secondary part of the effort. The anti-handgun effort should also be rigidly separated from the emotional issue of hunting. Rifles and shotguns, which are difficult to conceal and therefore far less dangerous than handguns, should no more be subject to regulation in America than they are in Britain and a dosen other countries where the sport of hunting thrives in an atmosphere of strict handgun control. Target shooting, too, need not be limited Marksmanship clubs operating under police or military sponsorship already are the heart and soul of serious target shooting in this country, and they should be assured of continued operation under the terms (rs any jaxiposed handgun laws. In short, no reasonable firearms activity need be limited in an America that is free of the constant threat of death and maiming by handguns. Americans are beginning to understand that despite the din of idiocy emanating from the NRA.

Report from your State Representative THAMES MAUZY

Ethnic and racial balance, compactness and contiguity of districts, and the one man, one vote concept set forth by the Supreme Court will all enter into our deliberations. Another key issue about which you will hear a great deal in the coming weeks is single member versus multi-member districts. As the state is now apportioned. 20 of the 73 House districts have two or more legislators representing them. The Minority plan would have divided the state into 100 single member districts, suggesting that multi-member districts are somehow bad or undersirable Supreme Court cases do not support that belief, and even suggest multi-member districts serve a valid purpose. While holding that both houses of a bicameral legislature must be districted predominantly on a population basis, the court has said the “composition and complexion” of the two houses could still be varied by making one body of single member districts, and the other with at least some multi-member districts. That is the status quo in Indiana, with the Senate having only 1 Senator per district, and the House with 53 single member districts. A plan that will not dilute or discriminate against minorities is also the intent of House mapmakers. The court has found that a plan which means a candidate does not need support of minorities is unconstitutional. “Population variation” is another phrase which will become House jargon in the foaming weeks. It is a short-hand way to refer to the difference between the largest and the smallest size districts, and Mangus told the House a variation of no more than plus or minus one or two per cent is his goal. According to Mangus, the population equality between legislative districts need not be as strict as for congressional districts because the courts have > recognized the larger number of seats in legislative bodies make it

Wed., April 15,1981 — THE MAIL-JOURNAL

Family Dining At Its Best Serving Smorgasbord 11 A.M. To 4 P.M. EASTER SUNDAY Serving Leg Os Beef, Baked Ham S CJ6S Baked Chicken, Baked Cod, t Roast Turkey 4 Children's Rates Available Prirr tnrludn Salad. Ikuert Bar Anti Drink Arrrpunt Rrtrrvation* Eby’s Pines Family Restaurant 3 Miles East Os Bristol On SR 120 848-4520

feasible to use political subdivision lines to a greater extent than in congressional districting. As with any legislative issues, I urge your questions and comments on this matter of determining your future representation in Washington as well as in Indianapolis. The' toll free telephone service is still in operation, and you may leave a message for me by dialing 1-800-382-9841. In closing, I want to alert you that the House made several Senate bills ready for final passage next week, including measures which would disallow federal regional governments in Indiana; create criminal history repositories to aid law enforcement; update the juvenile code; and, set guidelines for courts in deciding what proceedings should be open to the press and public, for example. Interferon on the Way Interferon, a naturally occurring family of proteins produced by white cells from - human blood, has proven effective in reducing the size of certain kinds of tumors. It is also being used in clinical tests with human cancer patients. Unfortunately, it is very rare. Now, a much -needed supply of human leukocyte interferon, manufactured by a Revlon subsidiary, Meloy Laboratories, has been shipped to the National Cancer Institute of the National Institute of Health. So far, seven billion of the contracted 50 billion units of interferon have been delivered. The remaining 43 billion units will be delivered to NCI in periodic shipments during the year. The Institute reports that the interferon will be supplied to the Stanford University Medical Center in Stanford, California, the Sidney Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and Georgetown University Hospital and the Vincent Lombardi Cancer Center, in Washington. Meloy will also supply 90 billion units s o the M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute in Houston, Texas.

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