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Wednesday, June 24, 1987
Around the Nation
Texas inmate executed; professed innocence
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A 10th grade dropout who blamed his problems on drugs was executed by injection early today for the 1982 murder of a jeweler.
Johnson, who maintained his innocence, was convicted by a jury that deliberated only six minutes.
Elliot Rod Johnson, 28, was pronounced dead at 12:55 a.m. said state Attorney General Jim Mattox
His hand-written appeal had been rejected yesterday by U.S. District Judge Howell Cobb in Beaumont and then by a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
halt the execution.
The U.S. Supreme Court, which granted him a third stay in February, also refused late yesterday to
Johnson was the fourth Texas inmate executed by lethal injection this year and the 24th, more than half a decade later. Texas resumed executions in 1982.
Johnson was executed for the murder of 67-year-old jeweler Joseph Granado, during a daylight robbery.
"I haven't killed anyone," Johnson said in an interview two weeks ago. "I feel like I'm being rail-leaded."
Johnson and another man, Maurice Andrews, were sentenced to death for the Granado slaying. A third man received a life term and a fourth got 30 years. An execution date has not been set for Andrews.
Medical association calls for AIDS testing
CHICAGO — The American Medical Association yesterday called for mandatory AIDS-virus testing of immigrants and prison inmates to prevent lessons about the deadly disease for elementary school students.
"We hope this is the framework for a national policy," said Robert E. McAfee, an AMA trustee, after the 406-member House of Delegates voted yesterday, the third day of the AMA's annual five-day meeting.
Policymakers for the 271,000 member organization debated less than half an hour before adopting, virtually unchanged, 17 recommendations from an AMA board of voters' report released Saturday.
Most of the recommendations concern testing for presence of the AIDS infection, which the trustees said should be required for prison inmates and would-be immigrants but not for people seeking a marriage license or entering a hospi-
With the delegates' approval, the recommendations became the basis for AMA education and lobbying efforts on acquired immune deficiency syndrome, which has struck more than 35,000 people in this country and killed more than 20,000.
Some of the recommendations the delegates approved were:
- Routine testing of patients at sexually transmitted-disease clinics and drug-abuse clinics, unless subjects raise specific objections.
- Creation of a commission of national, state and local leaders to develop a consensus on how best to fight AIDS.
— More federal funding for AIDS-virus testing, counseling of those found to be infected and research to determine the most effective counseling methods. The trustees said the $1 billion expected to be appropriated by Congress for 1988 will not be enough.
May retail inflation rate slowest yet in '87
WASHINGTON (AP) - Inflation at the retail level rose at a moderate, annual rate of 4 percent in May, the slowest pace this year, as a slowdown in energy costs partially offset higher food prices, the government reported Tuesday.
prospect of spiraling inflation this year.
The 0.3 percent rise in the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index followed 0.4 percent increases in each of the three preceding months and a 0.7 percent rise in January.
For the first five months of 1987, consumer prices have risen at an annual rate of 5.6 percent, far above last year's 1.1 percent rate, but still a far cry from the double-digit inflation at the start of the decade.
Economists said the May figures partly reflected a stabilizing of the dollar on foreign exchange markets that put the brakes on rising import prices and lessened the
Many analysts predicted inflation for the year would stop just under 5 percent and said that the price rise was now behind us.
Despite the recent leveling off,
the value of the dollar now against
other key currencies is about half
what it was two years ago.
Around the World
S. Korean president meets foes, attempts to end two-week protest
SEOUL, South Korea — President Chun Doo-hwan agreed to meet with opposition leaders today in an attempt to end two weeks of anti-government violence, but radical students vowed to continue protesting whatever the result.
Only a few demonstrations were reported yesterday. Relative calm appeared to reign for the first time since the opposition began a campaign June 10 to oust the former general and force democratic elections.
Chun declared an end to debate on political reform in April and had refused to talk with his opponents. He changed his mind yesterday and offered to meet at the Blue House presidential residence with 'Tim Young-sam and others.'
cal opposition. He also appeared to take a softer position, agreeing to meet Chun without the condition that all political detainees be released.
Kim said he would insist on major political reforms, particularly direct presidential elections to replace the existing electoral college system which favors the government.
Kim leads the Reunification Democratic Party, the main politi-
When he announced an end to discussion of reform until after the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Chun also said the electoral college would choose the man to succeed him in February.
750,000 protest terrorist bombing in Spain
BARCELONA, Spain — Police estimated that 750,000 marched silently through the city Monday night, protesting a bombing by Basque terrorists last week that killed 17 people and wounded 35.
The preside chose fellow ex general Roh Tae-woo as the ruling Democratic Justice Party candidate, and protests began June 10 to coincide with the party convention that endorsed Roh's candidacy.
Two large placards reading "For peace and liberty, Catalonia
Mayor Pasqual Maragall said the size of the march spoke for itself. "These citizens have taken up to protest terrorism," he said.
Families with children, young people and community leaders took part in the demonstration in Barcelona, which has a population of 3.5 million and is Spain's second-largest city.
Silence prevailed until thousands of people reacted to the appearance of a placard in the crowd denouncing ETA, the Basque separatist group that claimed responsibility for the Friday attack in the underground garage of a department store.
Jordi Pujol, president of the Generaltat, the autonomous Catalonian government, and Culture Minister Javier Solana, representing Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, led the throng of protesters.
rejects terrorism" and "Popular collaboration against terrorism" were carried at the front of the march.
"To face terrorism is not only a police job but a job of all citizens." Pujol, who said he had never been confronted, said before the march.
Others marching included Miquel Coll, president of the Parliament of Catalonia, who organized the march, and Jesus Eguiguren, president of the Basque Parliament.
Flags with black ribbons of mourning hung from apartment buildings and thousands observed five minutes of silence earlier in the day to protest the bombing.
Nation and World Syria seeks release of U.S. journalist
LEBANON (AP) — Syria and Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim militants yesterday apparently sought to avoid a showdown on the kidnappings of U.S. journalist Charles Glass and the son of Lebanon's defense minister.
Syria denied it had set a deadline of sundown (1:30 p.m. yesterday) for their release, and Hezbollah, or Party of God, said in its first statement on the abductions that it had nothing to do with them.
Sources in the mainstream Shiite Muslim militia, Amal, which is allied with Syria, said Monday that the Syrians threatened violent action unless Glass, Ali Osseiran and Osseiran's driver were freed and the kidnappers surrendered by the deadline.
"We are working to obtain their liberation but a deadline has not been set yet," the state radio station quoted Brig. Gen. Ghazi Kenaan as saying two hours before sundown.
The exchange suggested backstage negotiations were in progress.
Kenaan commands the 7,500 Syrian soldiers deployed in Muslim West Beirut.
Radio stations have said Syrian soldiers might storm South Beirut's Shite slums, where many of the 25 foreigners missing in Lebanon are believed to be held, if Glass and Ossairan were not released quickly.
remarks were broadcast and denied it was involved in Wednesday's kidnappings.
"We do not approve this incident," the statement said. "We fully realize its political and security dimensions. We do not know the culprits and hope efforts to discover them will bear fruit."
Hezbollah, the most militant Shiite Muslim group, issued a statement at about the same time Kenan'a's
Fourteen gunmen seized Glass, 36, Ossisean, 40, and driver Suleiman Salman, a policeman who doubles as a bodyguard, in the seaside district of Ouzai, a Hezbollah stronghold in South Beirut.
Glass is the first foreigner abducted since Syria sent 7,500 soldiers to West Beirut on Feb. 22 to stop a factional war and restore order in the lawless Muslim sector. The kidnapping has embarrassed Syria, which is Lebanon's main power broker and keeps 25,000 troops in the northern and eastern parts of the country.
In March, Kenaan urged foreign diplomats and journalists who had fled West Beirut to return "on my personal responsibility."
Among the 25 foreigners missing and believed kidnapped since March 1985 are nine U.S. citizens, six Frenchmen, two Britons, two West Germans, an Italian, an Irishman, a South Korean, an Indian and two men who have not been identified.
Also missing is Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite, who disappeared Jan. 20 after leaving a West Beirut hotel to meet with kidnappers.
States to adopt 21 drinking age or lose aid
By a 7-2 vote, the justices upheld a 1984 law in which Congress voted to withhold money from states failing to pay taxes. Most states already have complied.
WASHINGTON (AP) — States refusing to adopt a minimum drinking age of 21 can be forced to forfeit some federal highway aid, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday.
The court said the law is a valid use of Congress' spending power to promote public safety by discouraging drunk driving by teen-agers.
In other decisions, the court:
—Ruled, 6.2, that a Washington state manufacturing tax favoring some in-state businesses discriminates against interstate commerce.
The decision could force a major overhaul in the business-tax systems of most states.
—Shut down another potential major source of state revenue by
declaring unconstitutional, 5-4, two successive Pennsylvania "flat taxes" on the interstate trucking industry.
Overturned a Supreme Court ruling that had stood for 126 years as it decided unanimously that federal courts may force states to extradite fugitives to other states.
The minimum drinking age law had been attacked by South Dakota as a violation of the Constitution's 21st Amendment, which in 1933 repealed Prohibition and gave states greater liquor distribution within their borders.
But Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, writing for the court, said the 21st Amendment does not bar Congress from tying highway money to state passage of such laws.
"Congress found that the differing drinking ages in the states created particular incentives for young persons to combine their desire to drink with their ability to drive, and that this interstate problem required a national solution." Rehnquist said.
"The means it chose to address this dangerous situation were reasonably calculated to advance the general welfare," he added.
According to Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., one of the 1984 law's sponsors, only four states — South Dakota, Colorado, Ohio and Wyoming — still allow people under 21 to drink alcoholic beverages.
The South Dakota Legislature recently adopted a drink-at-21 law to take effect next April, but the law would have been repealed automatically had the state won its court battle yesterday.
The Colorado Legislature voted to raise that state's drinking age to 21 the day its current session ends, expected to be sometime next week.
The drinking age would have been bumped back to 19 in Colorado had South Dakota prevailed it the court test.
According to Colorado officials, those who are 18 and legally drink now will be allowed to continue. The state law phases in the new minimum age for those currently in the 18-21 age group. How that provision affects the state's eligibility for federal highway aid was not immediately clear.
Yesterday's decision is a victory for the federal government and organizations such as the National Safety Council and Mothers Against Drunk Driving that backed the legislation.
It is a defeat for South Dakota and the eight states that supported its Supreme Court effort: Colorado, Hawaii, Louisiana, Montana, Ohio, South Carolina, Vermont and Wyoming.
The Black Experience
in Kansas
The Black History Collection UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LIBRARIES
The Black Experience
In spite of its claim to be "the grandest, greatest, and freest of all the States in the Union," Kansas, in its Wyandotte Constitution, denied Blacks the right to bear arms, serve on juries, or attend integrated schools. But the Civil War enrolled many blacks as soldiers, and the succeeding decade saw "buffalo soldiers" at Forts Larned and Riley. In the late 19th century, Blacks participated in politics and held office—Edward P. McCabe held the office of state auditor for two terms, 1882-87. Changes in education took longer, and it was not until the landmark Supreme Court decision of 1954 that segregation in schools ended.
The first black settlers came to Kansas Territory as slaves. A few, both slave and free, lived there in the days of "Bleeding Kansas" when settlers fought to control territorial and state government and to determine whether Kansas would have slavery or not. Later, black settlers entered Kansas during the Civil War—some attracted by its reputation as a "free" state and some fleeing from slavery. After the War, migration continued, and the trickle became a flood as the "Exodusters" flowed in by the thousands, to establish new towns such as Nicodemus and Dunlap, or to expand the subcommunities of Kansas City, Kansas and Topeka. They founded settlements and colonies which, over the years, dwindled and dispersed. It took two World Wars before the critical issue of black employment in Kansas began to be addressed.
Today there are black judges, legislators, doctors, lawyers, and teachers; men and women who occupy all walks of life in Kansas. The legacy of Tennessee Town, Rattlebone Hollow, Mississippi Town, Nicodemus and Dunlap, and the black communities of the larger cities, lives on in the works of writers such as Langston Hughes and Gordon Parks, and in the major achievements of members of the black community.
Kansas Black History Collection
On Display Now in Special Collections at Spencer Research Library