The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 29, 1982, Page 2, Image 2
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Bill deals with drunk drivers
WASHINGTON (AP) - The House, determined to get
drunk drivers off the nation's nighways, is considering a bill
aimed at offering sates incentive grants if they pass tough
alcohol-traffic laws.
The legislation would establish a three-year, $125-million
grant program to encourage states to set up comprehensive,
coordinated drunk driver control programs.
After the bill was approved by the House Public Works and
Transportation Committee, Rep. Michael Barnes, D-Md.,
said it would set aside $25 million in fiscal 1983 from the
Highway Trust Fund, and $50 million the following two years.
Barnes said the grants would be used as "seed money" to
reward states which take recommended steps toward setting
up programs to deter drunk driving and to remove the bottlenecks
in the enforcement and adjudication systems.
The Senate passed similar legislation last May, but
provided for only $75 million over the next two years to states
which enact model drunk driving laws.
An aide to Barnes said House and Senate members were
working toward a compromise that would include the $125
million grants over the next three years.
The House is hoping to pass the measure today. The Senate
was then expected to adopt the House measure before
Congress recesses later this week for the campaign season.
The model law, which Congress seeks to get states to enact,
includes provisions that a driver have his license
automatically suspended for 90 days for failing a chemical
sobriety test. Repeat offenders would have their licenses
suspended for one year.
An individual whose license had been suspended for drunk
driving would have his car impounded for 90 days if he was
caught driving.
Dark fur indicates long winter
LANCASTER, PA. (AP) - The fur of the woolly-bear
caterpillars is the dar kest Martha Krone has seen in 40 years,
leading her to predict a long, harsh winter ahead.
"I have never seen so many solid black ones in my life,"
Mrs. Krone, 84, said Saturday after surveying the coloring of
a handful of caterpillars brought to her by a friend.
Mrs. Krone, who gauges her prediction by the darkness of
the caterpillars' coloring, said, "Usually the red ones are
sort of strawberry blond, but there aren't any (of that color)
this year.
"I would advise everyone to stock up on long underwear
and antifreeze and plan to dig deep for cash to pay heating
bills," she said. "Every indication is that it's going to be a
long, hard winter."
Mrs. Krone is the widow of newspaperman Harold B.
Krone, who made the caterpillar predictions in the pages of
the Lancaster New Era for 40 years until his death last year.
Mrs. Krone has continued the forecasts.
PTL Club settles out of court
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -The PTL Club of Hock Hill, S.C.,
has agreed to pay $23,000 to settle a lawsuit stemming from a
swimming instructor's conviction of lewdly touching an 11year-old
girl, a court clerk confirmed Monday.
"There was a settlement approved last week for $23,000
against Heritage Village," a deputy clerk of Mecklenburg
Superior Court said.
The clerk said the Charlotte girl's mother accepted the outof-court
settlement from the evangelistic TV network
on Thursdav.
The settlement, approved by Mecklenburg Superior Judge
Claude Sitten, came after a brief hearing during which the
mother testified the girl had been fondled during a free
swimming lesson at Heritage Village's day camp at Heritage
USA, about three miles north of Fort Mill.
The assault allegedly took place Aug. 5, 1981, according to
testimony. The instructor asked the girl if she would be
returning to camp the next day. When she said "no," the
mother testified he offered her a free swimming lesson.
During the lesson, the instructor took the eirl to water over
her head and fondled her, the mother said.
Randy McFarlane, 30, was found guilty by a six-man, six
woman jury in December of lewdly touching a minor. He was
sentenced to six years in the state prison.
McFarlane told the judge he had been sentenced in 1973 tc
25 years in South Dakota for statutory rape and voluntary
manslaughter. He served six years before having his parole,
in effect until May 1983, transferred to North Carolina.
PTL, sued under its corporate name Heritage Village
Church and Missionary Fellowship Inc., also paid the mother
$2,000 for the girl's medical expenses. No description of in
juries were given in court.
_ _ _ i _ _
riinutj wiiiidin owns volcano
BOULDEIt, COLO. ' AP) - Besides being second in line tc
the British throne, Prioce William also is master of 1,(XX
acres of land ? on Mars.
David Aguilar, director of the Fiske Planetarium at the
University of Colorado, sent the royal infant a certificate foi
the land on Olympus Mons, a Martian volcano the size ol
Texas.
Noting that the land is no ordinary piece of real estate, he
said the son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana "is nc
ordinary baby."
Since March, Aguilar has been raising money for the
planetarium by selling such 1,000-acre tracts for $20 apiece
and says he has raised $20,000 so far.
"It piques people's imaginations," he said of the sales
promotion. "Deep down, people want to believe there is life
on Mars."
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RH film: "Lost Horizon" starring Ronald Colman
and Jane Wyatt, 2:30, 7 and 9:30 p.m., FREE.
Theatre: "Birthday Party," 8 p.m., Longstreet
Theatre. For tickets, call 2551 or 2552.
] U
Good Neight
(AP) -South Carolina Electric &
Gas Co. employees are extending a
helping hand to utility customers who
find themselves in dire straits.
Food, clothing, medical and drug
bills, and other emergency needs
have been paid for by the Good
Neighbor Fund, according to SCE&G
spokesman Roger DuBose.
But the good neighbors ? SCE&G
employees who contribute to the fund
? don't help out with power or gas
bills.
"We don't pay utility bills, because
we felt that would seem self-serving,"
said Joe Good, "but we have contributed
to a variety of other
legitimate emergency needs." Good's
employer has come under fire for its
record $119-million gas, electric and
bus rate hike request.
Good, the driving force behind the
fund, says it has helped 111 families in
the SCE&G service area.
The fund, Good explained, "is there
for the people who, through no fault of
their own, have fallen through the
cracks. We try to give them one-shot
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Attendance policy enfi
Army personnel were a part of the A
Armv will lend the tank to the universi
Program enfo
(AP) - About 270 divorced oarents in
been forced.because of federal legislate
total of nearly $129,000 in delinquent chil
according to a state welfare officer.
"The program was absolutely a suc<
McKeown, a director with the Departme
child support enforcement. "It's a very
collecting past-due child support."
McKeown was referring to a law pa
August 1981. It allowed states to sub
i Revenue Service names of parents who 1
child support payments.
> If the IRS found names on the list tha
r the refund check was held up and the st
, crack at the refund, up to the amount ow
During the program's first year, DJ
; amount of almost $129,000 from about 27
a list of 500 who owed ahnnt $1 mill
program admisitration director.
Each "hit" DSS made on delinquent j
around $17 while the average amount i
he said.
The program requires that the child r
i Chinese are'ta
> PKKIMfl < AP) - Snuipf PrcciHont
I^eonid I. Brezhnev has made another
f overture to China, and diplomatic
sources here say he will send a high?
level delegation to Peking next month
) in efforts to reopen normalization
talks.
; But the Chinese still are "talking
, about talking" ? neither confirming
nor denying that the Soviet delegation
> is coming ? and observers do not
! expect a quick thaw in the chilly
China-Soviet relationship.
a iic iwu i^uiiiuiuiiisi powers, once
firm allies, split in the early 1960s
over increasingly bitter ideological
differences. China also accused the
Soviets of trying to dominate the
Peking government and the world
Communist movement,- and was
further embittered when the Soviets
abruptly withdrew nearly all aid.
In April 1979, China announced it
mr Fund hel(
help, direct them to appropriate
programs and help them over the
hurdle.
"With Reaganomics, the federal
welfare programs are drying up and
the ball is put back in the local court, <
to churches and other service
agencies. We are trying to do our part
to help on the local level," he said.
The fund isn't administered by the
company, but by a board of 12 SCE&G
employees, DuBose said.
Good heads SCE&G's Customer
Assistance Department. The
department, which counsels lowincome
customers on paying utility
bills, finds most of those helped by the
fund, according to DuBose.
The idea for the fund was born when
the department investigated the nonpayment
of a utility bill by a young
Columbia woman.
"We discovered she was living in a
mobile home with her eight-year-old
daughter, who was suffering from
advanced multiple sclerosis," Good
recalled. "The mother had exhausted
all federal and state welfare sources.
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irced?
ctivities Fair Tuesday in front of Russell H
ity to help enforce the new attendance poli
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South Carolina have Families with Dei
an ,to come up with a parent be at least
d support payments, least $150 and be ui
The remainder i
:ess," said Larry J. payments wasn't
Tit of Social Services' McKeownsaid.
cost-effective way of Some of the pare
within the prograi
ssed by Congress in late payments afte
mit to t.hf? Infprnal Mnnov
haven't been making reimburse the sta
support given thef
t were due a refund, Under tue progi
ate was allowed first what was going tc
ed. parent was allowei
5S intercepted a net the state attorney |
3 parents taken from All states partic
ion, said McKeown, year, McKeown s
required by federa
ronfc? fVia ^^ 41?
>U1 blllO VUOl lilt O L? IJCCdU&C U1 LI1C
ntercepted was $478, mitted only 500 n
parents who are b
eceive federal Aid to percent of parents
Iking about tal
would let the China-Soviet peace and
friendship treaty expire. China
suspended normalization talks after
the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in
December 1079.
The two countries also have long
squaooied over their border, with
China claiming about 40,000 square
miles of Soviet territory. The last
talks on this subject were held in
Peking in June 1978, and China has not
answered a Soviet diplomatic note
asking that the discussions be
reopened.
So far, the Soviet Union clearly has
been the suitor.
Brezhnev said in March that the
Soviet Union is "ready to discuss the
question of possible measures to
strengthen mutual trust in the area of
the Soviet-Chinese frontier."
In a nationally televised ceremony
Sunday in Baku, capital of Soviet
is needy
Her husband had left her, and she
couldn't work because the skilled
nursing care of her child, who was on
a respirator, would cost more than
she could earn."
Good and other SCE&G workers
donated money to cover medical and
other expenses, allowing the mother
to stay home and care for her child.
Since then, employees have pledged
almost $50,000 to help families in
need, according to DuBose.
The fund has helped:
-an unemployed 33-year-old mother
who, along with her children, had
been physically abused by her
husband and was living with the
children without food, running water
or electricity in an abandoned home
overrun bv rats. The fund crnt h<?r an
apartment and refered her to social
agencies for further assistance.
-pay funeral expenses for the
husband of a Ridgeway woman who
was sick and unable to work.
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ouse. It is unknown whether the
icy.
port payments
pendent Children, that the delinquent
three months behind in payments, owe at
ider court order to pay the support.
of the estimated $1 million in delinquent
collected for a number of reasons,
mts had joint tax returns, which don't fall
n's jurisdiction, and others had made up
r being notified by the IRS, he said.
i from the program has been used to
ite and federal governments for welfare
amily.
'am, the IUS sent the parent a notice of
> happen to the refund and the delinquent
d to appeal the interception of the check to
general's office through McKeown's office,
ipated in the program to some degree this
aid. Next year, full participation will be
1 law.
short time involved, South Carolina sub
ames of the "potential 12,000 to 13,000"
ehind in child support payments. About 90
affected are men, he said.
king' to Soviets
Azerbaijan, Brezhnev said his
government "would deem it very
important to achieve normalization, a
gradual improving of relations" with
China.
But the Foreign Ministry here
received Brezhnev's new overture
without comment. Thf? snwfh was
reported by the official news agency
Xinhua in a dispatch from Moscow,
also without comment.
Foreign diplomatic observers in
Moscow said the speech was a scenesetter
for talks next month, the first
high level diplomatic contact between
China and the Soviet Union since
normalization talks broke off.
Although relations are expected to
improve slowly, observers dismiss
any serious rapprochement between
the Communist powers, which have
diplomatic relations but no intimate
party-to-party contact.
I