The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 1

I WEATHER TODAY Pleasant High, 74; Low, 54 Yesterday High 83; Low, 57 Indianapolis Star TODAY'S CHUCKLE At the end of a big day of shopping, the average woman is not only weary, but spent. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty" 7 Cor. 3:17 VOL. 73, NO. 352 SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1976 CARRIER DELIVERED 75c PER WK.

Single 15c Mario Adds Spice To Today's Time Trials THE By RAY MARQUETTE Mario Andretti could add a little spice to the third round of time trials at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway today if the 1969 500-Mile Race winner decides to go for big numbers. With 23 of the 33 starting spots for the May 30 race decided on a temporary basis last weekend, the speed seekers who, for one reason or anothr er, couldn't get the job done in the first two rounds will be seeing if they can stop the clock a little more quickly when qualifications begin at 11 a.m. BUT IT SHOULD be Andretti who will offer the biggest thrill for the people who start gathering when the gates open at 9 a.m. Forced to miss the opening weekend of trials so he could run in the Belgium Grand Prix, Andretti has been working his No. 6 CAM2 McLaren so hard this week that he has reached the same speed plateau as pole-sitter Johnny Rutherford.

When Andretti was asked yesterday if he would be trying to pass Rutherford's 188.957-mph average in the No. 2 Hy-Gain McLaren, he didn't even smile. "I don't know and won't know until Order Of The Day TODAY Gates open 9 a.m. Practice a.m. Time trials 11 a.m.

to 6 p.m. Admission $3. TOMORROW Gates open 9 a.m. Practice a.m. Time trials Noon to 6 p.m.

Admission $3. I get out there and see how the car is handling," he replied. "Naturally, if this were the first day and there was a chance to win the pole, I would be extending myself as far as possible. "BUT KNOWING I can't move very far up in the starting field, I don't think I will be extending myself quite as far as I ordinarily would." In the next breath, however, he did admit it would be of great personal satisfaction to both himself and the Roger Penske crew to exceed the pole-sitter's average speed. That may indicate that Mario will A lot of attention will be focused on old pro Lloyd Ruby, who finally landed a ride and a Fairco sponsorship and began sorting out the No.

51 Eagle yesterday. "I'll be ready," drawled Rube, "and Mike (Devin) will have the car ready, too." Janet Guthrie, trying to become the first woman ever to compete in the "500," will be drawing a lot of attention in the No. 27 Bryant Heating Cooling Vollstedt. She's had nothing but mechanical problems since passing her rookie Turn To Page 17, Column 5 be standing on the gas just as hard as he safely can. Rutherford, admitting the possibility that his speed could be eclipsed, just shrugs his shoulders over the question.

"I do have the pole no matter what Mario does," he said. "If conditions are right and his car is handling as well as it seems, he could go a little faster. As a matter of fact, I'm still a little unhappy about not going faster myself." REGARDLESS of the dos-and-don'ts of the CAM2 operation, there should be action aplenty when a 90-minute practice session begins at 9 a.m. CHOIR MEMBERS WERE ON TRIP In School Bus Pli mge Martinez, Calif. (UPI) Twenty-eight members of a high school choir were killed and more than 20 others seriously injured when a school bus crashed through the guardrail on a bridge approach, flipped in the air and landed 30 feet below on its top.

The tragedy occurred as the youngsters from Yuba City High School in the Sacramento Valley were en route to Orinda, for a performance. The big yellow school bus had just crossed the Martinez-Benicia Bridge over San Francisco Bay and was leaving the freeway to make a rest stop. ONE OF THE first persons on the scene was Highway Patrolman Dan Ackerman. "The terrible thing about it was that when it flipped over everybody in it was thrown from their seats to the top of the bus," he said. "Then, when it hit the ground on its top they were all smashed into the seats." The top of the bus collapsed, crushing the dead and dying youngsters in its tangled wreckage.

"I heard a lot of kids moaning," said Ackerman. SEVERAL large cranes, working from the freeway overpass, raised the vehicle carefully 5 feet off the field where it fell. Rescue workers lifted the victims from the hanging wreckage as gently as possible. The dead were left on the ground nearby and the injured were put in waiting ambulances. The Rev.

Thomas Hayes, a priest called from St. Dominic's Catholic Senate Appropriations Committee from the majority party (Bayh) could not block a public works project so long as he is in the Senate." BAYH WAS re-elected to a six-year Senate term in 1974. Of Bayh, Moses said, "He's in the catbird seat and there's not a damn thing I can do about it!" Bayh's opposition to the project was disclosed in a press release and a letter to Moses. Highland Reservoir Project Killed By Bayh, Moses Says CALIFORNIA LVWypf )1 bet i-; -f 28 1 OH 1 i Zll 'J i I r--- Senate Panel Approves Limit On Deductions For Gasoline Taxes Church in Benicia at the north end of the bridge, said the scene was "like a battlefield. The injured had been taken away and all that remained were the dead." He said he and several other clergymen went among the bodies, administering last rites.

N.W. STIVER, deputy director of the Contra Costa County Office of Emergency Services, said he was on the scene when the bus was lifted. "They had to inch it up, a little bit at a time," he said. "A body dangled out, one leg in one direction, another the other way." He said rescue workers cut open the vehicle from both sides and the front. Many of the victims appeared to Turn To Page 17, Column 1 The water company chief said, "We have really never expected the results embodied in the senator's let'er, so I can't tell you of our plans fcr the future.

"Clearly, planning will be on a crisis basis," he said. BAYH SAID IT would take about 10 years to construct the reservoir, and that inflation during the time could Turn To Page 17, Column 1 itemizing deductions. Removing that incentive would make the standard deduction which is much simpler for the Treasury and taxpayers to deal with more attractive, Long said. BETWEEN 60 and 70 per cent of taxpayers already use the standard deduction, meaning that they get no benefit from the gasoline-tax break. In other action affecting individual taxpayers, the committee voted to accept a House-passed provision that would repeal the complex tax exclusion for sick pay and replace it with a $100-a-week exclusion for persons under 65 who have retired with total disability.

Also, the panel slightly liberalized existing tax breaks for workers who claim a deduction when they move from one area to another to take a new job. The bulk of the tax break for business was in the committee's vote to Turn To Page 6, Column 1 was based on national figures predicting a 10 per cent annual increase in health care costs. THE FIRM'S original proposals had been based on figures predicting an 18 per cent yearly hike. The insurance department will review the rate increase at the end of 1976 to determine if it has provided sufficient revenue, according to H.P. (Pete) Hudson, insurance commission- By JOHN S.

MASON Opposition to the proposed Highland Lake Reservoir by United States Senator Birch E. Bayh (D Ind.) has killed the project, Thomas W. Moses, Indianapolis Water Company president, said yesterday. "In my opinion, the Highland Lake project is dead," Moses told a press conference. In an announcement yesterday morning, Bayh said he had decided to oppose the project on the basis of an 11-month-old U.S.

geological survey which showed that underground water supplies in Marion County could provide 59 million gallons of additional water each day. MOSES SAID construction of the reservoir project had been considered critical to the utility's future plans and that Bayh's action constituted a severe blow." Bayh, who based his figures on data from the Research Foundation of the National Well Association, claims that the cost of providing future water needs from wells would be a. quarter to a half that of providing water from the Highland' project. Moses disputed those figures, saying that well water would cost twice as much as reservoir water and that Bayh had not considered the fact that well costs would be much higher in urban than rural areas. MOSES INDICATED that developing wells, as Bayh suggested, could seriously affect stream flow from White River and Fall Creek, since most of the proposed' wells would contain outflow from the two streams.

If it were built, Highland would absorb and expand the area of Geist Reservoir. Funding approval for the project, which would be built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, would be required by Congress. Moses said, "It would be extremely naive to think that a member of the COVERED BODIES UE WHERE A CALIFORNIA SCHOOL BUS PLUNGED FROM BRIDGE RAMP Cranes Were Used To Lift The Upside-Down Bus So Rescue Workers Could Reach Victims Washington (AP) The Senate Finance Committee approved a $10-bil-lion package of tax breaks for business yesterday and voted to take away most of the individual deduction for state gasoline taxes. In the name of simplifying income tax returns, the panel agreed unanimously to allow a person to deduct only that amount of state and local gasoline taxes above $50 a year.

The average deduction is about $75. THIS WOULD save the Treasury up to $400 million a year but result in slightly higher income taxes for the estimated 20 million taxpayers who claim the gasoline-tax deduction. "They tell me it's absolutely impossible to keep people from cheating on" the gasoline deduction, said Senator Russell B. Long the committee chairman. "This is one of the ideal areas to chisel on taxes." But the main argument in suggesting repeal or a cutback in the deduction was that it would take away one incentive that taxpayers now have for The rate hike will not affect elderly and retired persons who have special coverage to supplement the Federal Medicare program.

Holders of individual policies now pay premiums ranging roughly from $20 to $50 monthly. UNDER THE increase, the rates will vary from about $27.50 to $67.50 a month. Blue Cross -Blue Shield officials ii greed to the lower increase, which I -7 imJMffi Inside Today's Star News Summary On Page 2 Amusement Finance Pages ..22,23 Obituaries ...18 Area News 7 Sports Bridge 15 TV, Radio ...19 Churches Want Ads 34-47 Comics 24 Weather ....47 Crossword ..15 Women Editorials 1 6 Pages Court News and Statistics 47 Star Telephone Numbers Circulation 633-9211 Main Office 633-1240 Want Ads 633-1212 Scores After 4:30 p.m. 633-1200 Today's Prayer Let us remember that coming to You in praise and thanks, gracious Lord, is our best way to dispel depression and to achieve peace and tranquility. -Amen.

Blue Cross-Blue Shield Granted 35 Individual Policy Rate Hike Coming Sunday THE COST of being sick in Indianapolis is going up, up, up and no one seems to know when it will stop MEMBERS OF the Indianapolis Motorcycle Drill Team are unhappy with the way their benefactors' money is being spent AN ELKHART fraud case demonstrates just how easy it is to rip off tax dollars through phony Medicaid claims SOME OF the nursing home residents' best friends here are 1,100 ele- mentary school pupils WHAT'S A contract? The Law and You a new Sunday column provides some answers for the nonlawyer MAKING SENSE out of the poor relief problems in Center Township These are just a few of the interesting topics tackled in tomorrow's edition oiThe Indianapolis Star. The Weather Joe Crow Says: Some senators want to take away most of the taxpayers individual deduction for state gasoline taxes. No doubt they are the ones who ride around in chauffeured limousines. Indianapolis Sunny, pleasant today; clear tonight; partly sunny tomorrow; high today 74, low 54; high tomorrow 73, low 53. Indiana Fair, pleasant today; fair, cool tonight; partly sunny tomorrow; highs today 65-77, lows 45-55; highs tomorrow 65-78, lows 45-55.

CRI3IE ALERT 633-2811 Call This Number If You See A Crime Committed Or Spot Suspicious Activity A 35.52 per cent increase in premiums for holders of individual Indiana Blue Cross-Blue Shield medical and hospital policies was approved yesterday by the Indiana Insurance Department. The firm had sought a 48.63 per cent hike. AFFECTED BY the rate increase, to be effective July 1, are an estimated 108,000 self-employed persons and others who are not covered by group polices..