University Daily Kansan / Monday, January 29, 1990
Nation/World
7.
'Robin HUD'agrees to deal
The Associated Press
BALTMORE — A real estate agent dubbed "Robin HUD" after admitting she stole millions of dollars in federal housing funds and gave some money to the poor said she has decided to accept a bargain with prosecutors.
In a deal with the U.S. attorney's office, Harrell said she would plead guilty to stealing government property and failing to report income for taxes.
In return, prosecutors will drop two other tax counts, two counts of lying to HUD and one count of lying to a bank on a loan application, Harrell said.
"I don't want to spend taxpayers' money in a court proceeding." Marilyn Louise Harrell told The Sun in Baltimore on Friday.
Harrell, 46, of Waldorf, Md., has admitted taking millions in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development money and said she had prepared herself for imprisonment since 1983, when she started diverting HUD funds.
Scheduled to appear today in U.S. District Court, Harrell said she hoped to be sentenced to perform community service but regards prison as a chance to get a college decree.
"I told the kids, just think of it as Mom going away a few years for college," said Harrell, referring to her son, John, and his wife, Vicki. Harrell will become a grandmother next month.
The two charges she said she would admit to carry a maximum sentence of 13 years in prison. But under federal sentencing guidelines, she could serve $2\frac{1}{2}$ to 3 years in prison, Harrell said.
Her attorney, Anthony R. Gallagher, declined to comment Friday, as did Gary P. Jordan, first assistant U.S. attorney, the newspaper said. Attempta by The Associated Press to reach them by telephone Saturday were unsuccessful; there was no answer at their offices and their home numbers are unlisted. There was no answer at Harrell's home Saturday.
Harrell, who confessed her crimes to government officials in December 1988, became a symbol of mismanagement at HUD when scandal erupted there last summer. After her indictment last November, U.S. Attorney General Richard L. Thornbury said the case was the single largest involving the theft of federal funds by an individual.
"I never did have a problem with pleading guilty on No. 1, the embezzlement charge," Harrell said. "Obviously, that's something that's known nationwide."
Prosecutors say Harrell took at least $5.67 million from sales of HUD properties she handled as a private escrow agent. They acknowledge that some money went to charities but say that much of it went to Harrell and her family.
Harrell said she has documents to prove that she took only $4.75 million in HUD funds and that "less than 6 percent" of the money benefited her family.
OIL. SPILL TRIAL: Fired Exxon skipper Joseph Hazelwood would rather be at sea than in an Anchorage, Alaska, courtroom this week, but he is looking forward to making the case that he should not bear criminal blame for the nation's worst oil spill.
"I'd like to get rid of the misconception that I got drunk, ran the ship aground, and just shrugged my shoulders and walked away because that's just not what happened," Hazelwood said.
The 43-year-old former captain of the tanker Kenox Valdez is scheduled to go on trial today in Anchorage Superior Court.
ROMANIANS ON TRIAL: Four high-ranking officials in Nicolae Ceausecu's regime went on trial Saturday in Romania on charges that they contributed to the deaths of hundreds of people during last month's revolution.
One of the four, former Politburo member Ion Dinca, told the court
he was an accomplice to "criminal measures" ordered by Causescu to try to crush the uprising.
Nation/World briefs
Dinca was the only defendant called to testify during Saturday's four-hour session, but the prosecution presented declarations it said were from each of the defendants admitting their guilt.
ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT:
Beirut's top Shiite Muslim cleric escaped an assassination attempt Saturday when a car packed with explosives struck a pile of sand and blew up just before reaching his home, police said.
Sheik Mohammed Mehdi Shamseddin was at home and unhurt when the red Renault-12 sedan carrying 55 pounds of explosives blew up about 150 yards from his third-floor apartment, a 'police statement indicated.
TAX CUT PROPOSAL: Advocacy groups for the elderly say a congressional proposal to cut the
payroll tax highlights their concern that Social Security's trust funds are being used to mask the size of the federal deficit.
Many groups representing the elderly are expressing reservations about the proposal, warning that it could jeopardize Social Security's financial standing and cause a loss of confidence in the system.
REUNIFICATION SUPPORT: Former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger said the United States would have to support reunification of the two Germans, despite Soviet leaders' hopes.
After coming elections, East Germany likely will follow Chechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland in requesting withdrawal of Soviet forces from its territory, Kissinger said.
Kissinger said visible steps would be taken within two years toward German unification.
Polish congress begins party reconstruction
The Associated Press
WARSAW, Poland — Communist leaders met Saturday to write an obituary for their fading party and to form a new group that stands a better chance of winning power in an increasingly democratic Poland.
Party chief Mieczyslaw F. Rakowski, opening the party's final congress of its four-decade history, surprised the gathering by announcing that he would not seek the leadership of the new organization.
"I consider it appropriate to pass over the helm to a new generation. I personally am not going to run for leadership of the party, and I think that comrades of my generation will not do so," the 65-year-old first secretary said to a standing ovation.
Rakowski also appealed to the 1,600 delegates meeting at Warsaw's
'If we want to exist as a real force in the Polish political scene, we should not leave the Congress Hall through different exits.'
Mieczyslaw F. Rakowski communist party chief
Palace of Culture and Science — whose opinions range from orthodox communist to extreme liberalist — not to split into more than one party.
"If we want to exist as a real force in the Polish political scene, we should not leave the Congress Hall through different exits," he said.
Outside the hall, demonstrators still outraged by the Communists'
The Communist Party this year relinquished control of the government to the Solidarity movement after a disastrous defeat in Poland's most open elections since World War II.
long hold on the country battled with riot police. There were no reports of serious injuries or arrests.
Poland since has plunged into economic reforms aimed at swiftly converting the country into a capitalist state.
Poland's party would be the second Eastern bloc Communist Party to dissolve itself and be reconstituted as a non-Communist party. The Hungarian Socialist Workers Party transitional group is the Hungarian Socialist Party in October.
Solidarity leader Lech Walesa and the Communist Party's delegation in
Parliament have supported Parliament deputy Tadeusz Fiszbach, 54, to lead the new party. Fiszbach is a former Gdansk party chief ousted from official positions in the 1980s because he opposed the 1981 imposition of martial law.
Rakowski had planned to run for the leadership. But he wavered last week in the face of opposition from those who argued that the new party stands no chance without new leaders. Polls have consistently shown Rakowski to be among the country's least-popular public figures.
Possible candidates include Slawomir Wiatr, 37, the founder of a liberal faction in the party; Aleksander Kwasniewski, 35, in charge of national sports and recreation; and Leszek Miller, 43, a party secretary and Rakowski loyalist.
Truce holds, but death toll rises in Azerbaijan
The Associated Press
MOSCOW — Troops made scores of arrests to crush nationalist groups in Azerbaijan but acknowledged that 125 people, including 27 police and soldiers, have died since they seized control of the republic's capital, official reports said Saturday.
That raised the death toll since this round of fighting began Jan. 13 to 197.
Ministry reported exchanges of hostages between Armenians and Azerbaijanians.
However, a truce along a section of the Azerbaijan-Armenia border was said to be holding, and the Interior
Most of Baku, the capital of the southern republic, was still reported on strike Saturday, demanding the help of masked soldiers who entered the city Jan. 20.
Quoting the Interior Ministry in Moscow, the Soviet news agency Tass said a truce called Thursday along the border between Armenia and the Nakhlichevan section of Azerbaian was holding.
It said the two sides exchanged 17 Armenian hostages for 22 Azerbaiati hostages.
Rakhmi Gadzhiyev, identified as a leader of the pre-independence Azerbaijani People's Front and a member of the National Defense Committee, the front's militant wing, was among those arrested, Tass reported.
Tass reported the arrests of 80 people in the city of Lenkoran and 22 in Neftechala. Both cities are in the southern corner of Azerbaijan, near the Iranian border.
Nearly 150 people were detained in Baku overnight, most for violating curfew, the reports said.
the ethnic attacks in Baku on Jan. 13 started the latest flare-up in violence in the Caucasus republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan, which are disputing control of the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The population of Nagorno-Karabakh is predominantly Armenian and is demanding unification with Armenia.
Officials of the People's Front organizations of the three Baltic republics announced that officials from analogous movements in Armenia and Azerbaijan had agreed to travel to Latvia for possible peace talks.
But the Azerbaijani said they would negotiate only if the Armenians did not bring up claims to Nasorno-Karabakh.
In Baku, some stores had begun to open, although there were shortages of supplies and long lines. Newspapers had reappeared, but television broadcasts had not resumed and more than 400 enterprises were at a standstill in Baku, reports said.
Honduran president sworn in peacefully
The Associated Press
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — In the first peaceful transfer of power to an opposition party in 57 years, Rafael Leonardo Callejas was sworn in Saturday as president before 40,000 people in Honduras' national stadium.
Vice President Dan Quayle and four Latin American presidents were among dignitaries from 60 nations at the inauguration of Callejas, who has promised to sell some state-owned companies and to establish a "direct dialogue" with neighboring Nicaragua and El Salvador.
He faces grim problems in this underdeveloped U.S. ally of 5.2 million people — a stagnant economy, a $3.2 billion debt that Honduras has stopped making payments on, and civil wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador.
The new president of the legislature, Rodolfo Irias Navas, placed the presidential salute on Calleles, whose term runs through January 1994. Among those attending the ceremony were presidents Vincio Cerezo of Guatemala, Carlos Andres Perez of Venezuela, Alfredo Cristiani of El Salvador and Oscar Arias of Costa Rica.
Callejas, 46, comes from a landholding family and was trained as an agricultural economist at Mississippi State University.
The National Party candidate won the election Nov. 28 by beating Carlos Flores of the governing Liberal Party. He replaces Jose Azcona
Hovo.
Relations between Honduras and Nicaragua have been tense for years because Honduras has allowed anti-Sandinista Contra rebels to set up bases on its territory.
Callejas has said he wants the U.S.-backed rebels removed but wants to keep close military relations with the United States. The United States has an air base in Honduras.
"We should maintain relations with the United States, including military exercises designed to help emphasize our army," Callejas said.
Peace is vital to Callejas' efforts to attract new foreign investment to Honduras, the president said.
The new president has promised to decentralize the government by selling some state-owned companies and incentives for investment and exports.
Honduras is one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere, with a per capita income of about $500. Literacy is 56 percent.
Honduras' principal exports are bananas, coffee, beef, lumber, metals and sugar. United States is its major trading partner.
The last party-to-party transition was in 1933, when Tibucio Carias Andino of the National Party replaced Vicente Mejia Colindres of the Liberal Party. Carias didn't allow another vote until 1948.
Honduras returned to an elected government in 1980 after nearly 20 years of military rule.
Worlds of Fun is conducting an audition tour in search of the best in Midwestern talent to appear in our 1990 show program.
"All The World's A Stage" at Worlds of Fun, from our lively 50's-60' rock revue, STAX OF WAX, to the musical spectaculare at the Tivoli Music Hall to the hand-clappin', foot-stompin' goodtime country and bluegrass at the Country Junction Amphitheater.
If you sing (pop, rock, show tunes), or dance (jazz only), you can earn over $5,800 performing six days per week during the summer, and weekends in the spring and fall. Performers are also needed for the summer only.
AUDITION INSTRUCTIONS:
If you are a singer, please sing one verse and the chorus of two contrasting styles of song; one up-tempo and one ballad. Sing any type of music you enjoy (rock, gospel, show tune, etc.) If you are a dancer, please prepare a jazz routine. Please limit your material to no more than three minutes in length. (No jobs are available for dramatic actors, or instrumentalists).
You must provide your own accompaniment, whether it be a pianist or a cassette tape. We will provide a cassette deck and a piano.
- KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI (NORTH)
Sunday, Feb. 4 at the Adam's Mark Hotel
Located at the intersection of I-70 and Blue
Ridge Cut-off, off north of Royalts Stadium.
9:00 A.M. (Registration begins at 8:30 A.M.)
- LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Thursday, Feb. 1 at the University of Kansas
Kansas Union—Kansas Room (level 6)
3:00 P.M. (Registration begins at 2:30 PM.)
THE CLOSEST AUDITIONS:
For more information and a complete audition schedule, contact the Show Productions Department,
Worlds of Fun.
4545 Worlds of Fun Avenue,
Kansas City, Missouri, 64161
(816) 454-4545
KARATE
KU KARATE CLUB OKINAWAN GOJU RYU
FREE demonstration and opening meeting TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, AT 7 p.m. Robinson Gymnasium. Room 130
Robinson Gymnasium, Room 130
Classes will meet on Tuesdays and Thursda Beginners at 5:30, Advanced at 6:30 Robinson Gymnasium, Room 130
The KU KARATE CLUB studies a traditional style of karate known as:
OKINAWAN GOJU RYU
KARATE TEACHES: SELF DEFENSE, SELF CONFIDENCE, SELF AWARENESS For more information contact Bob 864-6744, Tony 842-7793, or Chuck 766-2693