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Tuesday, April 1, 1986
Nation/World
University Daily Kansan
11
Uninsured town restricts services
The Associated Press
CANONBURG, Pa. — Along Pike Street, and nearly everywhere else in this old factory town, police are putting the brakes on high-speed chases, municipal street crews are doing a lot of walking and residents are being shoed from the park.
Canonsburg is being careful because it has no liability insurance and no prospects for a policy soon, in part because of an old radioactive waste site at the edge of town.
"We just can't take a chance on something happening," said Mayor Jack Passeante.
Passante is urging municipal workers to be especially careful in their duties until an insurance carrier is found.
- "We could be putting the spur on bankruptcy"
with a gigantic lawsuit," Councilman Jim Matrogran said.
This community of 10,400 residents, about 25 miles south of Pittsburgh, has been without liability insurance, or going bare in insurance industry terms, since its policy expired March
Since then, the recipient of the state Chamber of Commerce's 1985 outstanding community award has been unable to obtain coverage, a problem plaguing many other municipalities across the country.
The U.S. Department of Energy and state Department of Environmental Resources recently spent $31.6 million to clean up the 31-acre site where more than 200,000 tons of radioactive waste is buried.
Canonsburg, the first of 24 sites to be cleaned up under the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation
Control Act of 1978, once supplied radium to Madame Curie.
Although Department of Energy officials say the site is safe, town officials and at least one insurance company fear it may be the target of future lawsuits from residents.
Many others are seeing premiums rise as much as 900 percent, he said.
Canonsburg is among hundreds of municipalities across the country, possibly as many as 1,000, which lack liability insurance, according to Barton Russell, president of the National Center for Small Communities.
Businesses, hospitals and spongers of such events as festivals and marches also are caught in the commercial liability crunch, but local governments seem to be bearing the brunt of it, according to Warren Levy of the Insurance Information Institute.
Oil price drops to less than $11 a barrel
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Oil prices hit their lowest levels in eight years yesterday, plunging more than a dollar a barrel to less than $11 on the futures market. Analysts said a continuing fall into single-digit figures was quite likely.
"There's nothing holding the market up," said Andrew Lebow, of the Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc.
securities firm.
in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Oil Minister Mana Saeed Otebai was quoted as saying that oil prices would drop from $8 to $5 a barrel without cooperation among producers inside and outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
"There is no bottom level that can arrest the downslide in prices," the official Emirates News Agency
quoted Oteiba as saying
But U.S. Energy Secretary John Herrington disagreed with that view.
"I think we're getting near the bottom," he said at a meeting with reporters in Washington. "I would be very surprised to see it fall to levels much lower than where it is right now."
cipal U.S. grade of crude, closed at $10.42 a barrel.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, contracts for May delivery of West Texas Intermediate, the prin-
That was down 9 percent from Thursday's close of $11.44, and 66 percent from the $31.01 close of Nov. 25, the day before the current price began. The market was closed Friday in observance of Good Friday.
In 1978, refiners were paying an average of $10.61 a barrel for domestic crude oil.
Average convict term 19 months, study says
United Press International
WASHINGTON — More than half the convicted murderers released from state prisons in 1983 served less than seven years, and the average convict spent 19 months behind bars, the government reported yesterday.
The figures, compiled by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, also indicated that half of the convicted rapists released that year served less than four years; half of the robbers served $2\frac{1}{2}$ years or less, and half of the arsonists served less than two years.
The bureau, an agency of the Justice Department, reviewed more than 325,000 offenders in 30 states for the report, "Prison Admissions and Releases, 1983."
Allen Beck, a bureau statistician, said the report found that 135,000 prisoners were freed during the year, an estimated 65 percent of the U.S. total, and that roughly 2.3 percent of them had been convicted for murder.
Beck said 3,100 convicted murderers were released in 1983, and more than half had served less than 6.6 years in prison.
The study did not compare the 1983 figures against other years because reporting methods had changed, Beck said. However, in 11 states that
had similar data, the statisticians found median sentences served to be virtually the same, he said.
The 1982 statistics, however, were at or near a record low. Beck said.
The new report also said 788 people who had been sentenced to life in prison were freed in 1983, 98 percent of which were convicted of violent crimes with 75 percent of them for murder. Half of those released had served eight and a half years or less.
The median time served for all offenders who left state prisons in 1983 was 19 months, the bureau said. About one third of those had served an earlier sentence for a felony.
During 1983, the last year for which figures are available, the report said most new prisoners, 26.3 percent, went to jail for burglary, but usually spent less than $1\frac{1}{2}$ years behind bars.
More than 93 percent of those entering or leaving prisons that year were men. And violent crimes were much more common among men than women, the study said.
About 54 percent of the offenders in the 30 states were white, 45 percent were black and about 1 percent were of other races, it said. A higher proportion of blacks, however, were convicted of a violent crime, especially robbery.
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Frito Pie
16 oz. Drink
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Wednesday
Chicken Fillet on a Bun
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Thursday
Taco Salad $2.05
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Friday
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THE KANSAS UNION HAWK'S NEST
Windham Hill Artists MONTREUX
An Evening With
Darol Anger • Barbara Higbie Mike Marshall Michael Manring Andy Narell
Saturday, April 12 Uptown Theatre
TICKETS AT ALL CARS OUTLETS ON PHONE 576-8798 DIAL-A-TICK Produced by NEW WEST
The SUA Special Events Committee is continuing it's tradition of bringing quality musical entertainment to K.U. Be a part of an enthusiastic, responsible, hardworking team. Interviews for the following positions on the 1986-87 Special Events Committee will be held Monday, April 7:
Communications Director
Communications Public Relations Stage Manager Lighting Director
Usher Director Security Director Hospitality Photographer
To apply: sign up for an interview today at the SUA office on the 4th floor of the Kansas Union. Deadline is April 7, at 5 p.m.
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