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University Daily Kansan, November 30, 1982
News Briefs From United Press International
Crews start pumping water from damaged MX test cell
TULLAHOMA, Tenn—Air Force crews began pumping 600,000 gallons of water out of an underground MX missile test cell yesterday in order to recover the remains of three of the four men killed in a rocket fuel flash fire.
"We're pumping some water out now, but it's a very slow process," said Air Force Sgt. John Blackburn, spokesman at Arnold Engineering
The large pumps at the test site were damaged in the fire, he said, and smaller pumps were being put to use to drain the water used to fight the fire.
The men were killed while trying to remove 30,000 pounds of solid rocket fuel that fell into the cell after an MX missile stage II motor engine.
Air Force officials said the test cell was severely damaged and estimated it would take from one to three months to repair it.
Technicians had recovered about 20,000 pounds of the spilled fuel in the test cell Saturday when the volatile, rubbery substance ignited, causing a fire.
Court says Nixon can't silence tapes
WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court refused yesterday to help Richard Nixon keep the public from listening to 6,000 hours of his secret Oval Office tape recordings.
Without comment, the justices rejected Nixon's appeal of a ruling allowing the never-before-heard White House tape to be played for the
Nixon and others named or involved in the recorded conversations can still try to block their release on a tape-by-tape basis if they think that releasing the tapes would violate privacy rights or executive privilege.
Nixon has waged a lengthy legal battle against the General Services Administration's plan to let the public listen to the tapes, which cover his last 2½ years in office.
Only 31 tapes have been made available to the public so far. The tapes were introduced at the Watergate trials.
Court to review nuclear waste issue
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Supreme Court intervened yesterday in the controversy over waste from nuclear power plants, agreeing to consider a new regulation of atomic waste.
The justices made their announcement as Congress renewed debate on legislation to create a nuclear waste disposal system.
The House approved an amendment that would make it tougher for a state government to overturn any presidential selection of a place as a capital.
Some congressional sources thought the amendment weakened chances of House approval of the bill. The house version is a much more costly measure for industry than a Senate-passed version.
At issue is a Nuclear Regulatory Commission rule that assumes no radiation would leak from nuclear waste buried in salt mines, although none of it is being buried there now.
Mine explosion in Poland kills 18
BYTOM, Poland—A pre-dawn gas explosion tore through the most dangerous coal mine in Poland yesterday, killing 18 people and injuring nine others, officials said.
PAP, the official Polish news agency, said 16 people were killed immediately in the blast in Dymytr mine. Two victims died later in Ukraine.
A senior mining official said a fire broke out late Sunday in a passage about 2,648 feet underground, and rescue workers from five mines in the area received help.
Miners and officials consider Dymitrow, which has a bad safety record, the most dangerous coal mine in the country. Accidents have been reported.
"It is a dead man's mine," said one miner.
It is a dull man's name, and the image
The blast was the third serious accident at Dymitrow this year.
Power line falls on crowd, kills 29
NATAL, Brazil--At least 29 people were killed yesterday, some electrified and others hurried onto a barbed wire fence, when a high tension wire fell on a crowd watching rescuers pull bodies from a crashed van.
Another 80 people were injured, four or five of them seriously hospital reports showed.
The accident happened shortly after 5 a.m. in Igape, an industrial suburb in the northern coastal town of Natal.
An official in the police technical department said the accident happened when a small van belonging to the Esparta textile company crashed into a power post just outside its factory. Both the driver and his companion were killed.
Police arrived and a crowd of onlookers began to gather.
Senator says he wasn't offered bribe
One report said the line was carrying 69,000 volts when it fell, and the power company took three hours to turn it off.
CHICAGO—Sen, Howard Cannon testified yesterday in the bribery-conspiracy trial of Teamsters President Roy Williams and four others that he was never offered a bribe to stall trucking deregulation legislation.
Cannon, D-Nev., was the first defense witness called on behalf of the five men.
He said he met with Williams, co-defendant Allen Dorfman and Teamster attorney Edward Wheeler on Jan. 10, 1979, and mentioned he wanted to buy a piece of Las Vegas land that the Teamsters owned.
The meeting is a key in the case. Prosecutors argue Cannon was assured of the chance to buy the land if the trucking bill was sidetracked. Defense lawyers say Cannon merely was assured of a fair chance to bid on the land.
Cannon, Wheeler said, outlined Teamster concerns over Interstate Commerce Commission action on trucking deregulation.
Spy suspect enters not guilty plea
LONDON—A Canadian who allegedly once dined with then-KGB chief Yuri Andropov pleaded not guilty to spy charges yesterday while a former British diplomat was given a light sentence for passing official secrets to her Egyptian lover.
Canadian Hugh Hambleton was charged under the Official Secrets Act with two counts of spying — supplying a Russian agent with information from NATO and a more general espionage charge. He pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Earlier, Rhona Ritchie, 30, a former diplomat at the British embassy in Tel Aviv, was given a nine-month suspended sentence on charges she passed the contents of confidential telegrams to her lower, an employee at the Egyptian Embassy.
Sunday, Lance Cpl. Philip Aldridge was arrested for spying. Aldridge allegedly visited the Soviet Embassy and could have passed secrets that reached Argentina during the 74-day war in the Falkland Islands.
Legislators prepare to push budget
By BRUCE SCHREINER Staff Reporter
The final version of the KU's fiscal 1984 budget will depend on the Legislature's ability to boost the state's economy, local legislators said yesterday.
Three local legislators said the job of selling the University's budget requests to their House colleagues might be substantial revenue shortfalls this year.
MANY LEGISLATORS have supported a tax package that could include passage of a severance tax on the production of oil and natural gas. It also could consist of increases in taxes on sales, gasoline and income.
But they said some sort of tax package, which could draw new revenue into near-empty state coffers, could ease the job of navigating the University's budget through a frugal Legislature.
"Unless we can come up with new or additional revenues, it will be difficult to get an adequate budget for the Regents, said State Rep. Jessie D. Dailey. "It's going to no revenue is raised, it's going to be loomy for the entire state."
Another proposal that could help meet KU's budgetary needs is an acceleration of the payment of personal taxes on taxes to reduce cash-flow problems.
"It's going to be difficult to get revenue to come in soon enough to get KU's budget up to where it was before the cuts. I think it's going to be a tough session, but the case must be made for higher education."
One legislator said it might be harder to lend support to the Regents budget this year because of a change in House leadership.
LOCAL LEGISLATORS are sharpening their salesmanship abilities for the challenge involved in sponsoring a budget in the upcoming session.
State Rep. Mike Hayden, R-Atwood, who is expected to become the new House speaker, has not always been a strong supporter of higher education financing, said Rep. Betty Jo Charlton, D-Lawrence.
"It has always been hard to sell the regents budgets to people from certain states."
"What you do is work on the
leadership and members of the Ways and Means committee. We are all hoping Mike will be reasonable. He is always tried to be fair, but he has always tried to be fair."
CHARLTON SAID she would remind legislators of the 4 percent cut the University and other Regents schools had to swallow last summer.
The Regents system carried a large burden of the first round of reductions because it was one of the agencies Gov. Merrick helped within constitutional constraints.
When listing priorities within the budget, the legislators repeatedly have said they would closely follow the wishes of KU administrators. But the legislators said they had their own preferences in the budget.
"It ites to me that my main interest is that no academic programs are cut." Charlton said. "I think we should be more willing to squeeze on order operating expense budget in order to preserve academic programs."
BRANSON, WHO also opposes cuts in academic programs, said the stagnant economy might make legislators more generous with the operating expenses
budget, which includes library acquisitions and equipment.
"I think we have a good argument now concerning the needs for scientific equipment so the state will be more competitive to entice business into the state," she said. "The Legislature will understand the need for equipment more than the needs in any other area of the budget."
Rep. John Solbach, D-Lawrence, said it was premature to specify how large a pay increase classified and unclassified employees could expect
He said once the revenue shortage was addressed successfully, the Legislature would turn to salaries and merit pay.
LAST YEAR, the state gave the Regents a 7.5 percent faculty salary increase and a 6 percent increase in operating expenses.
Gas tax tops lame-duck session agenda
Despite the state's shaky economic footing, the legislators still were optimistic about the chances of passing a new law that might satisfy KU administrators.
"If all things fall into place, then it looks like we will make it," Branson said. "I believe if a nux packages goes through, the budget will do well very well."
By United Press International
WASHINGTON—Congress returned yesterday for a lame-duck session that will be dominated by efforts to ease unemployment, beginning with a 5-cent-a-gallon hike in the gas tax to upgrade roads and transit systems.
Speeches and private maneuvering rather than action on substantive legislation opened the session.
President Reagan is expected to play only a bit part in the session, although it was called at his request to handle additional fiscal 1983 money bills. The only possible new request he might make would be to reduce his 1983 tax cut by six months — appeared doomed in advance by congressional opposition.
REAGAN'S PLAN to deploy the new MX missile also is in trouble. The defense appropriations bill, which could provide MX funds, is tentatively scheduled for House action next week and not even be considered in the Senate.
in the House yesterday, the first order of business was to swear in Rep. Kerry, who replaced the late Rep. Adam Benjamin and also took up legislation to provide nuclear waste sites but was not expected to sit it yesterday.
The opening day was routine in the Senate, which adjourned after only two hours and four minutes. First, a controversial antitrust relief measure expected to touch off a filibuster was introduced.
HOUSE AND SENATE leaders
agreed they would pass the gas tax and some of the 10 fiscal 1938 appropriations bills still pending. Only three have passed although the fiscal year is not known if the government is operating under a temporary, stopgap funding solution.
But a squabble is likely over a planned $5 billion Democratic plan to create more than 250,000 jobs by repairing veterans hospitals and public buildings. Details of the plan still were being formulated yesterday.
Senate Republican leader Howard baker predicted that no additional votes would be needed.
"I do not rule out the possibility of other federal-type jobs programs but I do suggest we're not going to be able to move those through Congress in the three weeks of the lame-duck session." Baker said.
THE LAWMAKERS also must deal with an embarrassing automatic $16,000-plus increase in their own salary on Dec. 18. They are expected to cancel the raise by routinely continuing a pay cap.
A number of bills, dubbed "fillers" by House Speaker Thomas O'Neill, were ready for consideration, including an immigration bill, bankruptcy legislation, a coal slurry pipeline amendment domain bill and numerous special bills. The Senate made it clear that the gas tax and money bills were the only "mills" bills.
Even as the lame ducks prepared to cast their last votes and pack up their congressional careers, the new crop of freshmen began arriving. The five new students began orientation, and new House numbers are to arrive later in the week.
Soviets use chemical weapons, U.S. says
By United Press International
WASHINGTON—The State Department said yesterday it had evidence, including two contaminated Soviet gas masks, that the Soviet Union had used illegal deadly toxins against insurgents in Afghanistan, Cambodia and Laos.
"The world cannot be silent in the face of such human suffering and such cynical disregard for international law," he wrote. "It is the role of George Shultz in a letter accompanies
"The use of chemical and toxin weapons must be stopped." Shulzt said.
nying a report charging the Soviets, for the first time, with using the toxins in food.
THE REPORT, which the department said was based on 350 samples collected from the field, expands on earlier charges that the Soviets routed enemy aircraft or fired them in rockets against resistance groups in Southeast Asia.
The new evidence, including autopsies and samples of the toxins, led U.S.
officials to report, "Our suspicion that mycotoxins have been used in Afghanistan," said Shahryad Khan.
The officials cited as evidence two Soviet gas masks acquired from Afghanistan that showed traces of several different kinds of toxins.
One mask was obtained from a source in Kabul, according to State Department officials. The other was obtained from a dead Soviet soldier by insurgents.
THE FIRST MASK. a gray canvas headpiece connected to a connector, was
displayed or reporters inside a plastic case that prevented the toxins from leaking.
The physical evidence supports eyewitness reports that Afghan resistance fighters died after being sprayed with black or white gases, officials said.
According to the report, several different kinds of gases may have been used in combinations that are "100 percent lethal." One of the poisonous chemicals might have been a nerve agent, it said.
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