NATION AND WORLD
University Daily Kansan, April 19. 1984
Page 11
Transition fund status disputed by Kennedy
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., has asked a special protecctor to study whether a $1 million presidential transition fund headed by Edwin Meese violated federal tax laws, it was disclosed vesterday.
In a letter to independent counsel Jacob Stein, who was appointed to investigate Meese's financial dealings, Kennedy also questioned the Internal Revenue Service's failure for four years to rule on whether the Financial Transition Foundation should be granted tax exempt status.
Such status would allow private donors to the fund, whose names have been kept secret by Meese and two other trustees, to apply their contributions as charitable deductions on their income tax returns.
Questions about the use and handling of the foundation fund, which supplemented $2 million in federal money for Ronald Reagan's transition to the White House, have reappeared during the controversy over Meese's nomination to be attorney general.
IN HIS LETTER to Stein, Kennedy noted that the foundation filed 1960 and 1981 IRS returns as a tax-exempt organization, although in 1974 the IRS denied such status to a transition organization formed by a state governor under "circumstances essentially identical."
"Why has the IRS — now managed by a commissioner appointed by President Reagan — failed for nearly four years to apply the law which it established in 19747" wrote the Senate Judiciary Committee, considering Meese's stalled nomination.
IRS SPIKESMAN Ernest Acosta acknowledged that no ruling has been made on the fund's tax-exempt status but declined to elaborate "because that's privacy act information."
“Has Mr. Meese intervened to prevent routine enforcement of the law by the IRST? Has someone under his direction or acting with his badge done so? Is there other evidence that contradicts propriety in these circumstances?”
He said that IRS regulations required that when filing a return as a tax-exempt organization before the status has been determined, it "must indicate on such return that it is being filed in the belief that the exemption is exempt . . . but that the IRS has not yet recognized such exemption."
United Press International reported last week that aides to Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, were looking into the transition fund and efforts to create a coalition of officials to make public details of contributions and expenditures.
No such notice appears on the foundation's filings.
According to the foundation's tax returns, copies of which were made available to UPI, Meese was the only fund trustee to receive a salary
Challenger returns to Florida
By United Press International
CAPE CANERAL, Fla. — The shuttle Challenger, fresh from its dazzling display of space mechanics, was the first to enter the everday bolted atop a 744 jumbo jet.
The jumbo jet landed on Kennedy Space Center's runway after a three-hour piggyback flight from San Antonio to Florida, where it attached to its California to Florida journey.
The Challenger was to arrive in Florida Tuesday, but bad weather and technical problems with the specially equipped force forced the overnight layover in Texas.
NASA officials said the Challenger was in fine shape following last week's seven-day mission, the spacecraft's
fifth flight
"It looks real good, real clean," said Waide Wieden Brewing, a spokesman at the Kennedy Space Center. "It probably came back as clean as it ever has."
NASA work crews immediately began operations to remove the shuttle from the jet and to it a processing hangar. The first work to be performed was removal of an orbital maneuvered bowarrows from its sistership, Discovery.
The Discovery, the newest member of America's shuttle fleet, is scheduled to be launched in June.
The Challenger concluded the most ambitious mission in shuttle history last week as its five-man crew plucked the damaged Solar Max satellite from space, repaired it and placed back in orbit.
Shultz says U.S. won't yield to China
Bv United Press International
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State George Shultz said yesterday that he did not expect President Reagan to make any concessions on Taiwan during a state visit to China next week, despite pressure from Peking.
Shultz told reporters that Reagan would abide by terms of the three joint communiques that have been issued under the Watergate scandal to formal diplomatic relations in 1972.
Discussing Reagan's coming trip — his first to a communist country — Shulz dismissed any expectation of substantial progress in resolving differences over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.
"We're not going there to negotiate a new communique or in any way to try to shift the ground from the existing agreements," Shultz told reporters. "Those agreements will be honored by the United States. The president has said that before, we will when the subject comes up, I'm sure we'll say it again."
He suggested the significance of the Reagan visit would be in sealing and widening the relationship between the U.S. and the Chinese.
"The visit itself will give real impetus to the relationship . . . and help move the relationship forward in a very constructive way," he said.
Reagan leaves today on the first leg of a trip that will give him almost a week in California, Hawaii and Guam before his arrival in Peking. The state has been so strong in Shanghai and Xian, the ancient capital of China and now an archeological site.
Shultz said Reagan's trip "its an important moment in this relationship"
between the two countries.
"President Nixon created an opening to China. President Carter brought about the normalization of our relationships with China. Building on this, he has made it clear that he has sought to make the relationship stable and comprehensive." Shulz tucked.
Although the expectation in Washington and Peking is that the visit will be cordial, the Chinese have indicated they will push Reagan on the issue of Taiwan.
Early suspicions spawned by Reagan's longtime friendship with Taiwan was eased with the issuance of an August 1982 joint communique that committed the United States to reduced arms sales to the nationalists in Taipei. But Peking contends the administration has not met its obligations.
The Chinese also have pushed Reagan to set a date for ending all arms sales to Taiwan, which amount to about $760 million a year.
Reagan sought to allay any anxiety over his allegiance to Taiwan by telling a group of Chinese journalists Monday that although the United States will not "turn our back on old friends" just to improve relations with Peking, "we have been perfectly frank about that and I don't think it is an obstacle to improved friendship between ourselves and the People's Republic."
Amid a swirl of controversy over the CIA-backed secret war against Nicaragua, Shultz also said he expects a "good, strong exchange" in Peking on the situation in Central America. In addition, he said, U.S. and Chinese allies would focus on possible negotiations between North and South Korea.
AT&T chairman blames FCC for lower earnings
By United Press International
MILWAUKEE, Wis. — At its first annual meeting since the breakup of the Bell system, AT&T yesterday announced first quarter earnings of $226.9 million — a poor showing it attributed on federal regulatory delays.
The company, which before divestiture announced plans to pay a quarterly dividend of 30 cents a share, will pay the remaining dollars in the first three months of this year.
The earnings "are about what we expected they would be at this point. They are not as good as we would like them to be," Chairman Charles Brown told 3,145 stockholders gathered in the Exposition and Convention Center.
FCC decision," he added.
Brown said the company no longer expected to earn the $2.02 a share this year it had predicted last November. He blamed the Federal Communications Commission's failure to levy consumer telephone access charges on competitors for the company's problems.
"Absolutely everything hinges on the
WHILE THE FCC delays resolving the access charge issue, MCI and Sprint are paying 70 percent less than the average fee to local telephone lines. Brown said.
In a report issued before the meeting, AT&T said it made $29.1 million, or 20 cents a share, in the first three months of this year. Revenues, after $4.9 billion in access charges were deducted, came to $8.04 million.
The earnings report was the first the company had issued since it was forced to divest itself of 22 local telephone companies Jan. 1 under a court-supervised breakup agreed to by the Justice Department.
The consumer access charges were part of the divestiture plan as was an attempt to move telephone service into cost-based pricing. But consumers reacted angrily to the idea, which could increase some bills dramatically.
In January, the FCC postponed implementing access charges for residential customers until June 1985. Last year, the FCC postponed access charges for business customers.
Federal judge declines to rule in custody suit
By United Press International
DENVER — A judge refused yesterday to intercede in a bizarre child custody case in which a homosexual father in California was trying to find a missing son living at a shelter as a fundamentalist Christian mother.
The son, Batey Batey, 12, apparently is staying with friends of his mother, Betty Lou Batey, who is a member of the Lovingway United Pentecostal Church. The church believes homosexuals are satanic.
Brian's father, Frank Batey of Palm Springs, Calif., won custody of Brian in a San Diego court, but has been asked to visit his mother 18 months ago.
Denver District Judge Harold Reed, agreeing with another Denver judge who sent Mrs. Batey, 39, to jail last Thursday for failing to turn her son over to officials, refused to hear a request for relief from the California court order until her friends produce Brian.
Reed issued an order late Tuesday enforcing a decree from a San Diego judge for return of the boy to California.
Bastary Maurice Gordon of Mr. Batey's church filed a counter petition on the boy's behalf for a hearing to determine whether he could remain in Colorado for the time being.
"When the child's whereabouts are revealed, then and only then will you be given a hearing." Reed said.
Denver police said they had no leads yesterday, 24 hours after being given a warrant from Reed to find the boy.
Reed's ruling ordered Matey, her pastor and anyone helping them to surrender the child to his father or to a law enforcement officer.
"We don't have anything specific in this case yet," said Floyd Gray, a detective in the juvenile missing persons division. "We don't think the kid's in Denver. We think he's in one of the suburbs but we can't prove it."
TONIGHT PHI PSI "500" All Campus Party! Starts at 8 P.M.
Burge Union Parking Lot
Featuring Steve, Bob, and Rich
Hawaiian Tropic Swimsuit Finalists
Tickets: In Advance $4 At Gate $4.50
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Open Sundays 1-5
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APRIL IS CHEF SALAD MONTH
Full Chef
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Reg. Price $3.50
Half Chef
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Good Now Thru The End Of April
ALSO FEATURING Soft-Serve Frozen
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