Columbia Daily Tribune from Columbia, Missouri • 10

PACE 10 Columbia Daily Tribune Columbia Mo Monday December 30 1985 NEWS IN BRIE LOCAL TV switch has explosive start The network affiliation switch be tween Columbia's two television sta tions went off with a bang this morn ing at the Medusa Aggregate Co quarry at 1506 Parkside Drive KMIZ TV Channel 17 kicked off a minicelebration about what general manager Rush Evans called new day a new network a new call and a new excitement for the by exploding a four foot by eight foot plaster and Styrofoam block with the station's old call letters KCBJ printed on it The explosion was preceded by the playing of taps After the explosion the trumpeter played the Tell as a new sign bear ing lowered from a cliff above KMIZ began ABC network pn gramming last night with episode of the daytime drama My The station was wel comed to the ABC network this morning at the end of World News This and by David Hartman on Morning Ameri where two news an chors appeared on a pre recorded segment taped in Shelter Gardens KOMU received no welcome on "Today" and the KCBJ call letters remained on the screen apparent ly by mistake during the morning weather break Station man ager Tom Gray said the network will air KOMU's call letters later this week Columbia woman falls into Icebox A local woman escaped serious in jury yesterday after she fell 20 feet into the Icebox at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park Anita Baker 19 of 2313 Grissum Drive stumbled on ice covered rocks above the cave about 12:30 pm landed on her feet then fell backward a Boone County ire Pro tection District spokesman said today Rescue workers hoisted Baker to safety She was transported to Boone Hospital Center where she was treated and released Marshall symphony to appear on NBC show Perhaps the smallest town in America with its own orchestra Marshall will be featured on the NBC anthology series that airs on KOMU TV Channel 8 at 9 tonight An NBC camera crew filmed the Marshall Philharmonic Orchestra now in its 23rd season during re hearsals and in its first performance of the season in November Included in the segment are man in the street interviews with Marshall residents who support the orchestra with a municipal band tax that helps under write three free concerts each sea son Among the 60 plus members are musicians from Arrow Rock Seda lia Jefferson City ayette and other points within a roughly 50 mile radius Conductor Harold Lickey directs an ensemble ranging from grade school students to octogen arians who are always in harmony even if not always in tune NATIONAL Plane crashes in Utah Washington kill 10 By The Associated Press A small plane en route to a Utah ski resort was flying low with its en gine sputtering before it crashed killing all six people aboard wit nesses said Ski equipment was strewn about the wreckage of the Cessna 210 that crashed in a field near two housing developments five miles south of Salt Lake City International Airport police said The six victims were flying from Ontario Calif for a ski outing au thorities said heard a pop sort of like a minor explosion and it sounded like the plane was going said Russell McReavy who was in his front yard when the plane approached the air port ran around back and pieces of metal started coming out of the sky like West Valley City Police Chief David Campbell said witnesses saw the plane flying very low before im pact and said the engine was sput tering ORREST ROSE 1 Hills Iowa made the network newscasts Dec 10 the day a farmer there went berserk The broadcasters sonorously re lated how debt burdened Dale Burr killed his wife his banker a neigh bor and himself and each anchor man ascribed the tragedy to "the farm crisis" Their analyses took up more than a minute on each network a lot of time by corporate broadcast stan dards It takes only 40 seconds to drive through Hills even if you slow down for the flashing yellow light If a sightseer in a warm and comfort able car cruised through on High way 218 and tried to tell you about the town his account would have the same depth and quality as the net reporting on the farm crisis Dale Bun the news announcers said was in debt and in danger of losing the farm he'd inherited from his father 13 years before When he took a shotgun and mowed down three people and himself they said it illustrated the desperate plight of farmers everywhere In fact Dale Burr's problems ran far deeper than his debt Subsequent reports revealed that his birthright was in no danger of foreclosure His liabilities totaled about $600000 his assets almost a million At the worst he would have had to sell some acreage aggressively ac quired in the early when it seemed land prices would always go up just before they crashed "I thought he was the wealthiest man between here and Lone Tree" a neighbor said later or the networks though it was convenient to view murder spree as a timely marriage of issue and incident as a peg for a story about this hot crisis: the fam ily farm It only the broadcasters A New York Times headline pro claimed New Victims of USA Today went a step further: The slaughter was it argued with the same kind of twisted reasoning that made Bernhard Goetz a national hero Years ago I used to spend some time in Hills at a bar called The Of fice It was a decent tavern with good country music but I finally had to quit going there Too many of its patrons carried guns Maybe the real story behind the Burr slayings is the proliferation of firearms But nobody wants to hear about gun con trol this season That might explain why Sen Ed ward Kennedy who knows lots about gun control but is hazy on fanning traveled to Memphis Mo this month to talk about the farm crisis Lugging along his extended family and the ever mistier mystique of Camelot Kennedy commiserated with area yeomen decried the poli cies of the present administration contrasted the of his own political party and made for the nearest airport Last year the senator and his family went to Ethiopia to get a han dle on the problems there This Christmas the clan apparently voted for Midwestern farms over quake devastated Mexicans or Co lombians buried in lava tough to knock motive though especially since promised not to run for president in '88 And if the sight of a slightly tarnished white knight did folks some good wonder ful Still the fact remains that the closest the Kennedys ever get to the soil is Harvard Yard The most re vealing moment of the excursion might have been Teddy query to a Missouri fanner: "Does a cow nave to be impregnated to have a calf?" MU 1 Princeton 0 I only hope the concern is more than fashionable that they recall Memphis as more than just some Midwest whistle stop on the annual holiday swing Even that memory is preferable to the ridiculous vignette of Dale Bun as a typical Midwestern fanner in fi nancial trouble loading up his 12 gauge and heading to town arm problems are complex and se vere They deserve to be treated as more than media events After the avians Local birdwatchers beat bushes in annual Christmas count By JE TRUESDELL of the staff Dawn broke crisp and clear but Tim Barksdale snoring away in a chair while a friend rapped politely on his door at 6 am yesterday slept uncomfortably through the sunrise It was an accident one that members of the Columbia Audubon Society won't let their vice president easily forget Count days allow for late risers When your goal is to hit the countryside and tally every bird within sight an hour of shut eye puts you a precious hour behind orget that Barksdale was up past 11 the night before So was Bill Clark and Clark arose at 6 with no trouble The two spent Saturday counting birds in Taney County four hours southwest of Columbia that count was seventh in 12 days He drove home while Barksdale napped Then Barksdale had the nerve to fall asleep while waiting at home yesterday for Dave Heyse to pick him up The worst part was that Barksdale had arranged a 6:30 am rendevous with some Boy Scouts who volunteered to help No time for apologies By the time Barksdale was moving the Scouts were nowhere to be seen and he had time to make up All others participating in the local annual Christmas count were already way ahead As a coordinator of the count Barksdale caught up with them at lunch turkey? Get turkey this he told the birders gathered for soup at Bill and Dolores home are we doing on geese and waterfowl? Sharp shins? Coopers? Ted aulhaber photos A chickadee latches onto a branch after being lured by call A Kt A If 1 In Yi I Anybody got any got a great came a reply creeper? got Bill Clark offered no winter And so it went the names tripping off tongues as counters tallied those species seen and ticked off those yet to find Then it was back into the field a 15 mile wide circle centered on Rock Bridge State Park in a race against the sunset deadline end turned up 56 species a total of 6799 birds in numbers as precise as seven wild turkeys four lapland longspurs two red breasted nuthatches 109 American robins 469 cardinals and 1549 starlings an inexact science whole an said Bill Clark you do get population density from the Begun locally in 1960 the count is part of the National Audubon effort to track the winter nesting and feeding grounds indings from across the country are compiled into a national report due out next summer It will supply valuable information to the society and researchers including the US ish and Wildlife Service Local counters divide their region into a series of smaller areas then dispatch teams to invade the groves and watersheds in search of whatever is there total number of species was the second lowest counted by the local society since 1970 a fact attributed to the recent covering of ice that blanketed food sources cold weather and ice chased the birds out of the area pretty said Jean Barr who counted birds with her husband in an area that included Rock Bridge park and ranged as far south as Easley only had to go to Jefferson City to find areas that That slow Barksdale and Heyse who were determined to scare up whatever birds sitting in the open Their search for field birds in the area of the University of Missouri Columbia's South arm and Bradford arm led Barksdale to charge through waist high grasses hoping to flush out the elusive Le sparrow is the Rambo style of Heyse said A Tlm hrh inB to flush out sPo duri Burning of toxic waste at sea drawing protests (C) Newsday WASHINGTON Despite inher ent problems of transportation burning at sea is quickly becoming the federal most fa vored alternative to landfill for dis posal of toxic chemical wastes Environmentalists however are concerned because an Illinois com pany with a record of environmental violations Chemical Waste Manage ment Inc has recently emerged as the monopoly company in the soon to be lucrative field of ocean burn ing As yet no operating permits for routine burning of chemical wastes at sea have been issued by the En vironmental Protection Agency But nine experimental bums were con ducted in the last decade by the firm under permits issued by the EPA One more test bum is planned by the agency before final operating regu lations are issued in July The newest bum site is 155 miles south of Jones Beach and 140 miles east of the Delaware Bay The site is adja cent to the New York City sludge dump in an area of low marine pro ductivity Incineration of more than 700000 gallons 3500 metric tons of dan gerous polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs is scheduled to take place there over an 18 day period in May ormerly used as a coolant in elec trical transformers PCBs have been found to cause cancer in ani mals Chemical Waste only major competitor in ocean burning At Sea Inc of New Jersey had applied to do the test but default ed this month on $64 million in loans from the Maritime Administration after building two incinerator ships that were never used The financial collapse came in part because the company had not anticipated the dif ficulty involved in getting permits from the EPA The action on ocean burning comes against a back ground of dwindling availability of land based disposal sites for toxic chemical wastes November was the deadline under congressional man date for land based dumps to comp ly with a number of expensive new containment and safety monitoring measures designed to keep poison ous chemicals out of drinking water supplies Lobbyists reports revealing Much expended to influence tax bill WASHINGTON (AP) The ex pensive lobbying fight over the tax overhaul bill went beyond the floor of the House extending to limou sines chartered jets and even the posh 21 Club in New York City Reporting lobbying expenses of $561117 in the third quarter of 1985 the Association for a Better New ork said it had used these locales in a so far successful effort to preserve federal deductibility of state and local taxes The association bankrolled prin cipally by New York City real estate and banking interests said it spent $4789 in July to charter a jet to fly House Speaker Tip Mass from Washington to Teterboro NJ The report somewhat un usual in that it contained the names of lobbying targets listed $931 to provide limousine service in the New York City area for and Rep Thomas Downey NY a member of the Ways and Means Committee The association also said it paid $5208 in July to the 21 Club for a re ception honoring Downey and Rep Pickle of Texas a sen ior Democrat on the committee which voted to retain the state and local tax write off Meanwhile the latest lobbyist spending reports released by the House office reflected big buck battles over tax overhaul and legislation to protect US tex tiles from increased foreign compe tition Leading all third quarter spenders with $649477 was the Coalition Against Double Taxation Inc an al liance of labor unions that partici pated in the fight to retain deduction for state and local taxes in the House tax package that is awaiting Senate review in 1986 The third biggest spender in the July September period was the iber abric and Apparel Coalition for Trade reporting outlays of $484622 on behalf of legislation to re strict textile product imports This coalition of US clothing manufacturers also had a well heeled ally domestic chemical companies whose Man Made iber Producers Association Inc spent $210241 during the third quarter Through September the two tex tile groups poured more than $1 8 million into their 1985 campaign for protectionist legislation with much of the money attributed to advertis ing and public relations The textile forces won the battle on Capitol Hill but may have lost the war in Washington Their bill was vetoed by President Ronald Reagan and Congress is not planning to take override votes until next August The latest reports showed that lob byist spending in the second quarter reached $1105 million up from $1024 million in the first three months Incomplete third quarter reports totaled $936 million a rate that could make the July September period the most costly for lobbyists in recent years inal third quartet figures and preliminary fourth quarter totals will not be available until at least ebruary Burger urges stiff penalties for frivolous lawsuits In Seattle mechanical trouble ap parently forced the pilot of a single engine Mooney 231 to attempt a land ing on Interstate 5 witnesses told po lice Instead the aircraft hit a power line and slammed into a 50 foot high hillside scattering debris over the highway witnesses said engine sounded like it had no muffler and it was definitely trying to make a said Richard Stewart of Bellevue who was driv ing north on the freeway when the plane crashed saw some flashes like it hit a power (C) Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON Chief Justice of the Unit ed States Warren Burger citing a growing of case backlogs urged fed eral judges yesterday to impose fines and other penalties against attorneys who bring frivolous lawsuits to court one wishes to suppress hard fought ad vocacy" Burger said in his annual year end report on the judiciary a line needs to be drawn between fair blows and fouls zealous representation is our ideal not dilatory and abusive time has come to penalize those few lawyers and litigants who treat the judicial system as an arena for a sporting he said The chief justice also said that he had asked President Ronald Reagan and the Senate to move faster in filling vacancies on the federal bench to help reduce a rising created by increased caseloads and a shortage of judges "ederal judges are working longer hours and more days than ever before but like Alice in Wonderland they cannot run fast enough even to stay in the same he said In federal district courts the number of civil suits filed increased 5 percent and criminal cases grew 7 percent in the last year he re ported The civil backlog increased 2 percent and the criminal backlog 12 percent in the dis trict courts while the backlog in the federal courts of appeals increased 9 percent Burger noted that 85 new judgeships had been created by Congress last year but that because of delays in filling those positions and new vacancies in existing positions there are still 97 vacancies in the 743 member federal district and appellate judiciary Earlier this year partisan disputes had held up Senate confirmation of many of the admin nominations to the federal bench Burger an outspoken critic of unwarranted lawsuits reported that in the last two years federal judges had imposed sanctions on attor neys and litigants in about 100 such cases Under federal court rules judges may im pose fines or suspensions on attorneys for bringing frivolous suits and or require a law yer and his client to pay fees and court costs to the other party The rules were strengthened in 1983 in the wake of concern over growing caseloads Now when filing suits attorneys must sign a state ment that they believe the suit is grounded and and that it is not being brought to harass the other side unne cessarily delay the case or simply generate legal fees.