University Daily Kansan, January 29, 1985
NATION AND WORLD
Page 2
NEWS BRIEFS
Ethics report may hurt Meese
WASHINGTON — An internal report by the Office of Government Ethics that concludes Edwin Meee violated ethical standards could cause new problems at his confirmation hearing for attorney general, Senate sources said yesterday.
Senate hearings on the embattled White House aide are to open today amid the new disclosures. Lawyers at the independent watchdog agency concluded that Meese's actions involving two financial transactions appeared to conflict with his old plan.
Leonard Garment, Meese's lawyer, emphasized that the flap over the report disclosed yesterday by The Wall Street Journal — involved a conclusion by staff lawyers who had "no power to issue independent decisions."
Belushi case may not see plea
LOS ANGELES — Cathy Evelyn Smith, charged with the 1982 drug overdose death of comedian John Belushi, may back out of a plea bargain in which she agreed to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter, her attorney said yesterday.
"I'm not comfortable with the fact that she was indicted for homicide," said Howard Weltman, who recently succeeded in his trial. John Do Loegran against cocaine charges
Smith, 38, a former backup singer for Canadian folk-rock musician Gordon Lightfoot, returned to Los Angeles last Tuesday after fighting extradition for nearly two years.
IRS lines give refund status
WASHINGTON — Taxpayers who want to know when the Internal Revenue Service is mailing their refund check can tap into the agency's computer with their telephone to find out beginning March 15, agency officials said yesterday.
The new service will allow callers to check the status of their refund beginning 10 weeks after the tax return is mailed to the IRS by dialing in their Social Security numbers to special telephone lines around the country.
Gleason comedies syndicated
NEW YORK — More than 100 hours of the classic television comedy "The Honeymooners" that had been in a vault of Jackie Gleason, the show's star, will be aired for the first time in 30 years, a cable television network announced yesterday.
About 75 episodes that had been shown on "The Jackie Gleason Show" during the 1950s will be aired this summer on the cable TV channel Showtime.
Compiled from United Press International reports.
Superintendent commits suicide
By United Press International
CLEVELAND — Cleveland school superintendent Frederick Holliday shot himself to death in a high school and left a note blaming his suicide on the school system's "petty politics." authorities said yesterday.
Holliday, 58, whose body was found by a student in a starwell at Cleveland Aviation High School yesterday morning, shot himself once in the chest with a 357-caliber Magnum Saturday, said Lester Adelson, Cuyahoga County's chief deputy coroner.
"This was a purposeful and destructive act." he said. It was a suicide."
Holliday, the first black superintendent in the 76,000 student district, was hired in 1982. He is survived by his wife, Elaine.
School board member Joseph Tegrene, who said he talked to Holliday Friday night, said the superintendent feared his contract would not be renewed at a February board meeting. "I knew he was depressed," he said. "I've been very pleased with this him for two to three weeks."
DETECTIVES FOUND THE gun near
The typewritten letter, addressed to city residents, schoolchildren and school staff, was read to reporters by City Council President George Forbes.
Holliday's body and a note in an office at the school.
"As of this moment, it appears that my last piece of dignity is being stripped," Holiday wrote on high school stationery dated 11 a.m. Jan. 26. "The fighting among school board members and what petty politics is doing to the system has sickened me."
"The past few weeks makes my reporting to work meaningful, less stressful and more enjoyable," only two of the sadness.
His postscript said, "Kids, if there are any errors in this letter, I did not proof it carefully."
Holliday, a widower, had two grown daughters. He lived by himself.
SEYMOUR FREEDMAN, DEPUTY school superintendent, said at the news conference, "We are all shocked and saddened by the sudden death of Dr. Holiday. Our heartfelt sympathies go out to his family, friends and colleagues."
about airplane mechanics and flying, and Holliday, an avid pilot, kept a plane at an airport near the school.
He came to the district when it was faced with financial ruin and helped pull the district out of bankruptcy by passing the first school tax increase in 12 years.
School board members were to consider whether to renew his contract, and Tegreene last month predicted there were enough votes to remove Holiday. But Tegreene said he had secured the four board votes needed to extend his contract at least one year.
Students at Aviation High School learn
Last year, the superintendent became embroiled in a controversy to sell the board's administration building to a hotel developer. He has killed even though Holliday supported it.
Before coming to Cleveland, Holliday was superintendent of the Plainfield, N.J., and York, Pa., districts, and was assistant to the school superintendent in Philadelphia.
A board meeting was scheduled for Thursday to pick an interim superintendent.
Schools discriminate in use of money, study says
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — State and local financing of America's schools amounts to a conspiracy to keep rich and poor students in their schools, a two-year study concluded yesterday.
"It clearly shows intent to keep those folks down there down there, and those up there up there," Harold Howe, co-chairman of theicates for Students, said at a news conference.
Overall, the study found that 31 years after the Supreme Court outlawed segregation in public schools, racial, sexual and class discrimination persist in new and subtle
For example, he said, the top 100 school districts in Texas spend $5,500 a student compared to $1,800 in the bottom 100 districts.
Howe headed the Education Commission in the Johnson administration and recently helped write a new study, "Barriers to Excellence: Our Children at Risk."
The 9-year-old coalition conducted the study by visiting 10 cities and interviewing more than 280 people. The cities involved were Boston, Louisville, Ky., Chicago, Lansing, Mich, New York, Atlanta, Cleveland, Columbus, Ohio, Seattle and San Antonio, Texas.
mentations, including equitable financing of schools, tougher enforcement of discrimination laws and more money for programs for the disadvantaged.
Among the study's findings:
- 63 percent of black students attend predominantly minority schools and just 8.5 percent of teachers are minorities.
- Student placement policies create predominantly white upper-level courses and predominantly black lower-level courses.
The study offered more than 100 recom-
- Black students have three times the suspension rate and double the dropout rate of white students.
Sioux accuse government of tampering
By United Press International
DEADWOOD, S.D. — A lawyer for a band of Sioux Indians fighting to remain at their 4-year-old camp on U.S.' Forest Service land in the Black Hills of South Dakota yesterday accused the government of witness tampering.
During a two-year delay in the trial, three witnesses who were state or federal employees had changed their minds about testifying for the Yellow Tundra Indian Camp.
attorney Bruce Ellison told U.S. District Judge Donald O'Brien.
"The government should check with supervisors and see who is putting on the pressure." Ellison said.
"I'm not chastising anybody," O'Brien replied. "I don't know anybody who has on white hats or black hats."
American Indian Movement leader Russell Means, a prominent figure in the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee, S.D., is serving as a lay attorney for the camp. He charged the government's action mirrors past court cases involving the militant Indian group.
"DIRTY TRICKS ARE always found," he said.
The first witness called to testify for the Indian camp was the courtman organizer M. Mukherjee.
Bill Means compared the Black Hills to "the Vatican as a great religious place." He said the organizers who had asked for a special-use permit to set up the 800-acre Vatican garden wanted to establish a permanent religious, cultural and educational community.
The Indians, all members of the AIM, say they are entitled to the site.
Plant flaws discovered in Bhopal
By United Press International
Within an hour after the leak began, the chemical reaction in a storage tank at the Union Carbide Corp., plant was out of control. About 200,000 people were injured.
NEW YORK - A supervisor at a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, took a tea break before investigating the December chemical leak that killed more than 2,500 people. The New York Times reported yesterday.
The Times said a seven-week investigation found the leak, which spewed lethal methyl isocyanate gas over the city Dec. 3, had been caused by operating errors, design flaws, maintenance failures and training deficiencies at the plant.
The newspaper based its findings on more than 100 interviews with present and former Union Carbide employees, the company said, in a study of company technical documents.
THE TIMES SAID some information from the investigation was not given to Union Carbide, the majority owner of the Bhopal plant, because Indian authorities refused corporate executives access to documents, equipment and personnel.
The newspaper said executives at Union Carbide's headquarters in Danbury, Conn., called discussion of the cases speculation and refused to comment.
The Times said the Indian-run plant had committed at least 10 violations of procedures established by the parent corporation. The newspaper said that executives of the Indian plant declined to discuss their incident in detail, but concurred that Bhopal management was responsible for enforcing safety regulations.
Some of the newspaper's findings:
- The supervisor who discovered the leak in the storage tank initially thought it was a water leak and took a tea break before investigating it. The chemical reaction in the tank went out of control, sweeping gas into the city.
- A refrigeration plant used to cool the methyl isocyanate and inhibit chemical reactions was shut down several months earlier against plant policy.
- The leak began about two hours after an inadequately trained employee was ordered by a novice supervisor to wash out a pipe that was improperly sealed.
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