ongress tightens belt
THE BATTALION
MONDAY, APRIL 30, 1979
Page S
f!2
United Press International
i WASHINGTON — “I believe in
fiscal restraint as strongly as any
member of this Senate,” Sen. How-
Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, prom-
d his colleagues. Then he asked
t AA , t them to add $100 million to the rec-
p 1 ' ommended 1980 budget.
■ Metzenbaum believed the
Budget Committee’s proposed fiscal
■ plan gave short shrift to the nutri
tion program for the elderly.
B But, like nearly every lawmaker
to take the floor in three days of
budget debate last week, he did not
iJpant to sound like a big spender.
■ Most requests for funds above the
Stringent committee recommenda
tion were prefaced with calls for
government belt-tightening.
| And when two amendments add
ing $400 million to the committee
plan won Senate approval, the law-
akers trimmed other programs to
lablt
make up the difference.
The budget the Senate finally^
adopted is a plan born of “Proposi
tion 13 fever” and the threat of a
constitutional convention to require
a balanced budget.
It cuts the federal deficit to $29
billion next year and provides for a
balanced budget in 1981; it would
be the first balanced spending plan
in 12 years. And it postpones tax
cuts until 1982 in favor of putting
the government back in the black.
The House begins work this week
on its own, similarly austere version
of the budget. It differs from the
Senate version not so much in the
bottom line, but in where spending
cuts will be made.
Defense funds under the Senate
plan would increase 3 percent over
the inflation level; the House plan
calls for a 2.4 percent hike.
The House plan provides more
generously for social programs and,
unlike its counterpart, it recom
mends that revenue-sharing fiindc
mends that revenue-sharing funds
be dropped in 1980.
Budget Committee spokesman
Jack McDonald and other House
staff members believe the debate
will be heated. CT -—o --
quick or easy, which might string it
along into next week,” he said.
Veterans Committee Chairman
Ray Roberts, D-Texas, already has
announced he wants to increase
veterans benefits. And committee
staff members say they expect other
amendments to restore funds to so
cial programs and beef up defense
allocations.
The House plan would trim the
federal deficit from an estimated
$34.3 billion in 1979 to $24.9 billion
in 1980. It sets spending at $532.7
billion and revenues at $507.8 bil-
rogram sets fire to set-fires
lion.
The new Senate budget puts
spending at $532.6 billion, with
revenues of $503.6 billion.
The two plans also vary because
the House and Senate used difierent
economic assumptions to compute
them.
The Senate basically adopted un
employment, inflation and eco
nomic growth rates figured by the
Congressional Budget Office.
The House figures, developed by
House Budget Committee staff after
interviews with administration and
private economists, are slightly
more optimistic.
By law, the two chambers must
reconcile their fiscal plans by May
15. The resulting, non-binding
budget will be used by committees
to fund legislation throughout the
summer. A final budget will be
adopted just before the 1980 fiscal
year begins Oct. 1.
Reputed crime leader busted
United Press International
SAN FRANCISCO — Joseph
C. Bonanno, reputed crime syn
dicate leader, was arrested today
on charges of conspiracy to
obstruct justice in an investiga
tion of the “laundering” of Mafia
money through legitimate busi
nesses, federal officials said.
Also arrested was Jack Di-
Filippi, 53, of San Jose, Calif., an
employee of Bonanno, one-time
head of a New York Mafia “fam
ily now living in Tucson.
The two men were named in a
secret indictment handed down
by a San Francisco federal grand
jury Thursday.
They are charged with conspi
racy to obstruct justice, and De-
Filippi is also charged on six
counts of perjury.
Federal officials said the
charges involve attempts to con
ceal the books and records of four
companies in San Jose, Calif.,
owned by members of Bonanno’s
family.
The grand jury is investigating
Hiese companies, all now de
funct, to determine whether
they were used to launder Mafia
money.
Evidence leading to Friday’s
arrests was apparently gathered
in a recent FBI raid on Bonan
no’s residence in Tucson.
DeFilippi is charged with per
jury because on six occasions he
denied before the federal grand
jury that he knew anything about
the records or where they were.
Arson all washed up in Seattle
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United Press International
SEATTLE — “The more you talk
out arson, the less it occurs.”
The speaker is James H. Dixon,
an investigator for Seattle’s arson
prevention program which is being
Bsed as a model for other cities.
I Under the program to publicize
flie danger of arson and ways to pre-
jent it:
—Buses carry signs with such slo-
ns as “put the heat on arson.”
—Kids sport T-shirts with pic-
res of a creature dubbed “Sinder
Sid the Arson Rat.”
A toll-free Arson Hotline oper
ates 24 hours a day for anyone wish-
pig to report a fire suspected to be
son-caused.
—A special police and fire de-
lartment arson unit has been estab
lished.
-Insurance companies have put
up a $5,000 fund for rewards for tips
leading to conviction of arsonists.
—Athletes from Seattle’s profes
sional sports teams visit schools reg
ularly in support of the “Sinder Sid”
campaign to combat juvenile arson.
—Each fire battalion has a car
available for arson patrol in high in
cidence areas.
—Businesses which, because of
financial problems or economic
conditions, might be likely arson
targets are inspected regularly by
fire marshals.
While arson nationally has be
come the fastest growing and most
destructive crime, in Seattle the in
cidence of arson and resulting prop
erty loss have declined dramatically
in the past three years.
A task force of business and gov
ernmental leaders was set up in
1975 to organize an attack on arson
because Seattle faced the same
problems of escalating arson loss as
other large cities.
“It was a reaction to a crisis,” said
Tom Brace, who represented busi
ness on that task force and has since
become state fire marshal. “Our
arson problem was bad, though not
as severe as in Detroit or (New York
City’s) south Bronx.”
The statistics show that in the four
years prior to organization of the
task force, property loss due to
arson had climbed from $620,000 in
1971 to a projected $4 million in
losses in 1975.
The statistics since then indicate
the impact of the program. In 1974
there were 662 arson fires in the city
with a loss of $3.2 million. In 1977
there were 518 arson fires and a loss
figure of $1.8 million.
While cases of arson in most
major cities remain unsolved, or
even undetected, Seattle’s arrest
rate in arson fires runs close to 50
percent.
“The key message is that if you
start an arson fire in Seattle, you
stand a good chance of being
caught,” said Hugh Maguire, a
spokesman for the Seattle Fire De
partment. “And if you are caught,
you stand an even better chance of
going to jail.”
“We attempt ty be highly visible.
People who might be thinking about
setting a fire think again.”
When 500 copies of a thick man
ual on the Seattle program were
printed in response to requests from
other cities, they were snapped up
in a few months.
uclear accident:
rauma lingers
United Press International
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Three
ile Island was safely shut down
aturday, the first month anniver-
sary of America’s worst nuclear
ower accident, but people in the
usquehanna River Valley say the
rauma of the near-catastrophe lin-
srs.
Richard Vollmer, a high-level of-
[ieial of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, said the new cooling
brocess designed to put the nuclear
Jeactor in the equivalent of “cold
shutdown” was successful.
“We’re certain it’s working. I
vould describe it as very stable and
pafe,” said Vollmer, who was put in
pharge of NRC operations at the
plant while the regular chief, Victor
Stello was absent to attend to a per
sonal matter.
Vollmer said experts knew the
ew core cooling system was work-
jing because temperatures in the
Ireactor dropped steadily at first and
Ithen leveled off as expected. The
hottest part of the core was at 323
legrees Farenheit.
Vollmer said engineers will work
) isolate the cooling system entirely
rom the outside world so that no
|radiation carried off from the
uranium core in the cooling process
vill get into the air.
“When that’s done, we can walk
[away from it and just think about
ultimate recovery of the plant, ” said
Vollmer. He would not estimate
bow long the isolation plan would
[take, but estimates were a minimum
of a month.
The shutdown means that the
vater in the reactor’s critical cooling
system is circulating by natural con
vection rather than by use of a huge
pump.
The NRC decided to go ahead
with the final shutdown plan Friday,
five days ahead of schedule, because
gauges for the pump cooling system
that were important in a pre
cooldown phase issued “erratic
readings.”
Rather than use backup instru
ments, the NRC believed it was safe
to turn off the pump at 2:07 p.m.
Friday.
Heat in the damaged uranium
core will remain over 212 degrees
Farenheit — the maximum temper
ature under normal circumstances
— for some time yet, Stello said.
That’s one reason officials hesitated
to use the phrase “cold shutdown.”
Workaday life in the vicinity of
Three Mile Island, 10 miles south of
Harrisburg, resumed its pace.
Robert Reid, who as mayor of
Middletown spent hectic days reas
suring alarmed citizens, went fish
ing.
Korean family reunited —
split in war in 1950
United Press International
PYONGYANG, North Korea — With tears streaming down their
faces, a 36-year-old Korean-American and his mother and sisters
were reunited Saturday for the first time since he left North Korea
and followed the retreating U.S. Army south 29 years ago.
Ko Young II, operator of an automobile body repair shop in Annan-
dale, Va., came to North Korea as an interpreter for the American
team at the 35th World Table Tennis Championships.
In this heavily politicized Communist country, Ko saw his mother
and two sisters for the first time since. 1950 in front of a battery of
reporters and cameramen for an hour.
Ko was only 7 years old when he left and they did not recognize
each other at first. They sparred for two or three minutes, talking
about their long ago home near the China-Korea border before the
doubts vanished.
The reunion symbolized the tragedy of divided families that over
took Korea when it was separated into Soviet and American occupa
tion zones at the end of World War II. About 10 million Koreans were
separated from their families because of the hostilities between the
two Koreas.
Ko and his father left North Korea together and followed the re
treating American Army into South Korea after China intervened in
the 1950-53 Korean War.
Now you know
United Press International
Frankie Avalon sang his first hit
song, “Dee Dee Dinah,” while
holding his nose.
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