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University Daily Kansan, March 23, 1983
News Briefs From United Press International
France's Socialist Cabinet resigns amid money crisis
PARIS — The Cabinet of France's Socialist government, battered in local elections and struggling to control rising inflation and deficits, resigned yesterday amid growing public disenchantment with Socialist rule.
President Francois Mitterrand retained his prime minister, Pierre Mauroy, to form a new cabinet.
The action came a day after France devalued the franc 2.5 percent as part of a compromise with West Germany designed to avert a European currency crisis.
Michel Vauzelle, presidential spokesman, said Prime Minister Mauroy tendered his resignation and that of the entire 43-member cabinet. Mitterrand immediately asked Mauroy to stay on to help form a new government, Vauzelle said.
U.S. asked to alter zero-option plan
VILAMOURA, Portugal - European defense ministers called on the United States yesterday to modify its zero option negotiating stance at the UN Security Council.
"Everybody has the feeling that there must be some movement in the Geneva negotiations," said Dutch Defense Minister Jacob de Ruiter at the close of the first day of a two-day meeting of NATO's nuclear planning group.
The Europeans want the Americans to present a compromise proposal in the hope of unblocking the negotiations, deadlocked over the Soviet refusal to accept President Reagan's zero option. Reagan's aim is to information of intermediate-range nuclear missiles in and around Europe.
Senate delays Social Security vote
WASHINGTON — The Senate yesterday crushed a withholding-tax amendment holding up passage of its $165 billion Social Security bill and repealing the Affordable Care Act.
Debate was to resume today on the Social Security bill. Leaders expressed hope of quick passage.
The Senate rejected a motion to delay for six months tax withholding on interest and dividend payments. They voted 54-43 to kill the motion.
Like its counterpart passed by the House, the Senate bill would raise taxes, curb benefits and boost the retirement age. The bill also extends federal unemployment benefits, due to run out March 31, through Sept. 30.
Experts predict poor Soviet harvest
MOSCOW — The Soviet Union may suffer a poor grain harvest for a fifth straight year, Western experts said yesterday, and the Soviet press said fuel shortages and inadequate farm machinery were hindering agricultural production.
"The outlook can't be considered very good," said one Western diplomat. "A good part of the winter grain, which is very high-yielding compared to the spring crop, will be lost."
Another Western expert agreed the grain crop did "not look all that promising this year" with 3.5 million hectares (8.6 million acres) of wheat, rye and barley needing to be resown as a result of dry fall months. The U.S.Agriculture Department has not yet projected the 1983 Soviet grain crop.
Move to ease disability laws ended
WASHINGTON — The Reagan administration has abandoned efforts to weaken regulations that forbid universities and others receiving federal aid from discriminating against the disabled, it was disclosed yesterday.
At issue was the administration's 15-month review of 504 guidelines under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, prohibiting state and local governments, universities and a wide variety of other recipients of federal aid from discriminating against the disabled.
The administration's decision was revealed in a letter Monday to Evan Kemp JR., executive director of the Disability Rights Center, Inc., from Vice President George Bush, who heads a task force on regulatory relief.
Oklahoma OKs parimutuel betting
OKLAHOMA CITY — Gov. George Nigh signed the local option race track gambling bill into law yesterday. The action made Oklahoma the 32nd state to legalize parimuthuel betting on horses.
Nigh signed the measure less than two hours after it had won final legislative clearance in the Senate.
The bill creates a seven-member racing commission appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. The bill permits the racing commission to designate any six days of the week as racing days for a track without specifically prohibiting racing on Sunday.
The bill provides for an 18 percent tax on race track tickets, to be divided three ways between the state, track and purses for horse owners.
Prof sues FBI to obtain Lennon files
LOS ANGELES — A professor fitted suit yesterday to obtain censored portions of FBI documents detailing persistent efforts to arrest and deport rock star John Lennon because officials feared he planned to lead an anti-Nixon demonstration.
Documents revealed that the FBI monitored the former Beatle's activities for a period before the 1972 Republican convention.
The suit was filed by Jon Wiener, associate professor of history at the University of California at Irvine. He is writing a book on Lennon and the Beatles.
Entire passages of the FBI documents are blocked out for what the FBI calls national security reasons.
Wallace's future as governor unsure
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Birmingham News reported yesterday that Gov. George Wallace, hospitalized Saturday for the third time since January, has been treated for depression and other ailments and has raised the possibility that he will not complete his term.
The newspaper said it confirmed through the governor's personal physician that Wallace had battled with depression for several months and had been taking large doses of anti-depressant drugs.
Correction
The News said sources close to Wallace reported that he had spoken seriously about being unable to complete the four-year term as governor he began two months ago.
Because of a reporting error, Gerald Tomanek was incorrectly identified as the president of Pittsburgh State University in an article in yesterday's Kansan. Tomanek is the president of Fort Hays State University.
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Farmers pledge to idle 82 million acres
showed farmers planned to leave 82 million acres of cropland idle under the new payment-in-kind program and other government crop reduction efforts. Originally, the department had hoped for enrollment of 23 million acres.
WASHINGTON — Farmers have pledged to idle one-third of their land under government programs seeking to lower crop surpluses that are blamed for weakening the farm economy. The Secretary John Block said yesterday.
By United Press International
"The sign-up was beyond my wildest expectations," Block told reporters after the department released its official data on enrollment.
PARTICIPATION IN KANSAS was about the same as the national rate. The state office of the federal Agriculture Stabilization Conservation Services said 4.17 million acres of wheat would be idled, from a total of 13.9 million. In corn and grain sorghum production, 2.32 million acres of a total
The Agriculture Department report
John Junior Armstrong, president of the Kansas Farm Bureau in Manhattan, said, "To idle that much ground, I think it's definitely going to have an impact, and it's a good sign. This program has received more participation than any farm program that I can remember."
of 6.29 million acres will be idled, the ASCS reported.
Kansas farm leaders were optimistic about the figures, but said the payment-in-kind program must be continued to achieve success.
Armstrong said the program should be continued another two years.
"I think the program will probably take three years to get the large carry-overs that we have back down in line with the demand." Armstrong said.
"I THINK WE could get more participating in another year if they would at least announce it by the first of July. This year the wheat looked awfully good in Kansas, and it's hard for a farmer to go in and tear up a crop like that."
Ruckelshaus vows to restore public trust in EPA
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — William Ruckelhaus said to a cheering crowd of Environmental Protection Agency employees yesterday he intended to restore public trust in the troubled company, making it "adhere to an iron integrity."
Ruckelshaus, named Monday by President Reagan to head the dissension-wracked EPA, received a
noisy and emotional reception from 1,000 agency workers during a 25-minute speech.
"Picture what you are doing or saying as being on a billboard that you pass on the way to work," he told the EPA staff. "As you pay that billboard, if you look up and see what you're doing or saying and you see that it embraces you, then don't do it or don't say 'I'."
RUCKELSHAUS, the EPA'S FIRST administrator from 1970-73, will return
to the agency to succeed Anne McGill Burford. She resigned from the EPA March 9 amid escalating charges of mismanagement, political manipulation of the toxic waste cleanup program and conflicts of interest.
Ruckelhaus will assume control of the agency in about a month, following his expected confirmation by the Senate.
He acknowledged the controversy
queuing the EPA and advised its
employees to exercise caution.
stopped chewing on one another and started pulling together."
"HOW FREE SOCIETIES deal with chronic problems of modern life like pollution, resource depletion, population pressures, will very much dictate whether free societies will remain free," he said.
Environmental protection, he said, "must be harmonized with other social goals, with goals involving our economic and the production of adequate energy."
Minnesota U. patents gel that may reduce herpes
By United Press International
MINNEAPOLIS — The University of Minnesota said yesterday it had patented a gel that appears to suppress inflammation and their recurrence in laboratory animals.
Robert Vince, medicinal chemistry professor at the university's College of Medicine.
— called cyclaridine — offered promis as a way to treat the disease. He
it might it be more promising than other anti-viral drugs now being developed.
In a statement issued by the university, Vince said he hoped "to get the drug on the fast track" for testing on humans.
BECAUSE OF THOROUGH tests required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the drug is unlikely to be used in human use for several years, he said.
The university said Vince was
scheduled to present his findings Wednesday at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Seattle.
Genital herpes is a painful and so-far incurable virus, usually transmitted by sexual contact. The university said 20 million Americans suffer from it and half a million more contract it each year.
VINCE SAID NEARLY 75 percent of babies born vaginally to infected mothers were still born.
recurrent herpes is associated with the development of cervical cancer.
He said tests conducted in tenem-guinea pigs infected with live human herpes virus showed the gel suppressed the lesions and prevented them from recurring. The gel caused no toxic reactions or skin irritation, he said.
"The drug must be applied within a relatively short time after the initial infusion, to 24 hours for an infection, probably within weeks for humans," Vince said.
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