The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 1

MEIRO EDITION Louisville, Tuesday morning, April 15, 1980 25 68 Pages Vol. 250, No. 106 Home delivery: 80e week Copyright 1980, The Courier-Journal SI Red Cross team says all hostages are generally 'OK By WILLIAM BORDERS New York Timtt Ntwi Service TEHRAN, Iran A Swiss doctor and a Swiss Red Cross official spent eight hours interviewing the American embassy, hostages yesterday and said afterward that all of them seemed to be in generally good health, both physically and mentally. "Under these very heavy psychological conditions, of course, they are not 100 percent," said Harald de Grueneck as he left the closely guarded embassy compound last night. "But I saw fit people, to whom I could talk normally.

The general condition of the people is OK." De Grueneck, the Tehran representa- and telephone numbers, and had gotten a personal written message from every hostage he met to a relative or friend in the United States. These messages, to be delivered in the United States within days, could solve the long-standing mystery of exactly how many hostages there are. Although the two Swiss were not allowed any unsupervised conversations with the hostages, their visit was by far the most comprehensive and thorough that any foreign visitor has been permitted to make to the embassy compound since it was overrun by the militants. The two men described their visit briefly on the sidewalk outside the em bassy, near a huge banner recently posted on the brick wall proclaiming in bright red letters, "Viva Khomeini, Death to Carter." Dr. Bernard Liebeskind, the physician who went to the compound with de Grueneck, said in answer to a question that the hostages were in "very good physical and mental condition." A reporter, pressing the doctor, asked, "All of them?" He replied, "All of them." Asked if he had seen anyone in "great physical or mental distress," the doctor replied, "No, I don't think so." "If there was some problem and they were only minor problems they called specialists," Liebeskind continued.

"They have good access to the doctor, who is coming every day here." De Grueneck, asked about "mental illness or depression" among the hostages, replied, "We wouldn't like to comment too much at this stage. The first to have the right to be informed are the families of the hostages." Liebeskind, who came from Geneva especially to visit the hostages, is returning to Switzerland today, taking the list of hostages and their messages. They will be transmitted immediately to the United States. De Grueneck, who lives in Tehran, said he was hoping to be allowed to make regular visits to the embassy compound. Although he said he had "no commitment" from the captors, "they did seem receptive." It is not clear why the militants want to keep the precise number of hostages a secret.

The State Department has said it believes the number to be 50, though it has never released a list. It is not knewn to what extent, if any, de Grueneck and the U.S. government consulted before he went into the barricaded embassy, which is chained and See RED CROSS Back page, col. 4, this section Common Market leaders have begun urgent talks aimed at developing united support for U.S. policy in Iran.

Story, Page A 5. tive of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross, said he was certain that he had seen all the hostages who are in the embassy compound. But, apparently keeping a promise to the Islamic militants who have held the Americans captive there since last Nov. 4, he declined to say exactly how many people he had seen. He said, however, that he had made a complete list of their names, addresses THE KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE House rejects veto of marijuana measure "tj I I V' By ANNE PARDUE and AL CROSS CourlerJournol Stiff Wrlttr FRANKFORT, Ky.

The House voted overwhelmingly yesterday to override Gov. John Y. Brown veto of legislation to stiffen penalties for the sale and use of marijuana. The 80-14 vote on House Bill 141 followed about 30 minutes of debate and a change of mind by the bill's sponsor, Rep. Dottie Priddy, D-Okolona.

Rep. Priddy had said over the weekend that she understood Brown's position and that she would not seek to override his veto. She decided yesterday, however, to support overriding the veto. The bill goes to the Senate, where 20 votes will be required to override the governor's veto. The House voted yesterday to override Brown's vetoes of six bills and one $42 million federal-court settlement that calls for a substantial reduction in the population of the state's prisons.

If the marijuana bill became law, Brown said, its provisions requiring that one-third of the minimum sentence be served before parole eligibility would worsen overcrowding. He said other prisoners would have to be released to comply with the court settlement. Brown also maintained that the bill would increase the number of jury trials and place additional demands on the state's criminal-justice system. Rep. Priddy told the House that she changed her position after talking with judges, attorneys and law-enforcement officers who told her that Brown's "fears are unfounded." If necessary, the new law can be See HOUSE Back page, col.

1, this section be void was determined that it allows cockfighting. The bill, also sponsored by Sen. Ben-, ny Ray Bailey, D-Hindman, amends a section of Kentucky law defining "animal" to exclude birds. Removing birds from the definition also removes then from protection under statutes against cruelty to animals. The statutes outlaw killing animals or using them in fights for entertainment or pleasure, several attorneys have said.

Berger has said that he introduced the bill to help the state Agriculture Department control blackbirds. Senate Majority Leader John Berry See VETO Back page, col. 1, this section iiilllliiiiliil Veto of cockfighting This is one in a series of photographs used to illustrate stories about a trip to refugee camps in Cambodia last year that won the Pulitzer Prize in international reporting for Courier-Journal reporter Joel Brink-ley and staff photographer Jay Mather. By RICHARD WHITT Courltr-Journil Staff Wrlttr FRANKFORT, Ky. There was some impromptu "cock-a-doodle-doing," but the Senate didn't show its spurs yesterday.

Instead it went along with Gov. John Y. Brown veto of a bill that apparently would have legalized cock-fighting in Kentucky. Opponents of rooster fighting may have little to crow about, however. Brown may have waited too long to veto Senate Bill 263, which slipped through the General Assembly as a bill to control blackbird populations.

The Kentucky Constitution allows the governor 10 days after a bill has passed both chambers to sign or veto it and return It to the House or Senate. The gov INSIDE Legislative leaders are working to keep the veto session from being used as a last-ditch effort to revive dead bills. Story, Page 4. resolution. The Senate also overrode a veto.

The action was taken during the first day of a two-day session to consider bills vetoed by the governor since the legislature finished the regular portion of the session in the early-morning hours of April 2. Today is the final day of the 1980 session. The veto session is possible because of a constitutional amendment approved by the voters last November allowing for changes in the legislative calendar. Brown's veto message on the marijuana bill said that the measure's penalties for use and sale of marijuana are more ernor can also ignore the bill and let it become law without bis signature. If the legislature has adjourned, the constitution provides that the governor should send his veto message to the secretary of state.

Brown vetoed SB 263 on the 10th day after receiving it and returned it to the Senate clerk's office with a veto message on the llttrday. In the opinion of one of the Senate's top constitutional lawyers, Sen. Walter Baker, Brown's veto may be void. "It appears that the governor should have either returned the bill to the Senate clerk by the end of the 10th day or returned it to the secretary of state by the 10th day," Baker, R-Glasgow, said. "If he did neither then it's quite likely Oscars went to Sally Field for best actress and Dustin Hoffman for best actor during the Academy Awards ceremony last night in Hollywood.

The movie "Kramer vs. Kramer" won an Oscar as best picture 8 NBC-TV won't broadcast the Summer Olympics, network sources say, although the official announcement will be delayed until company lawyers are sure NBC can recover about $57 million on an insurance policy Accent 8-12 wiDvoiiigu ouo comics 13 Deaths 6, 7 7 Dimension page A 9 v. Marketplace 13-16, Opinion page A 8 1 People a AL Racing entries 5 by no VI (amowian severe than those for people dealing with heroin, cocaine and other so-called hard drugs. Under the marijuana bill, possession of eight ounces or less could result in penalties of 90 days in jail or a $250 fine. Sale or manufacture of such a quantity could bring a fine of $500 or a year in jail.

The bill provides progressively steeper penalties for greater amounts, up to 10 to 20 years in jail for possession, manufacture or sale of more than 50 pounds. The current penalty for possession of any amount of marijuana is up to 90 days in jail or a fine of not more than $250. The measure also imposes penalties for involving a person under age 18 in the use, sale or transfer of marijuana. In Brown's veto message, he also noted that the state recently agreed to a bill may that the veto is a nullity and cockfighting is lawful." Brown's top legislative liaison, Bruce Lunsford, sees the matter differently. A constitutional amendment approved voters last fall provided for a 10-day recess after which the legislature returned to consider vetoes.

Because the legislature was adjourned, the governor didn't have to return the vetoed bills until yesterday, Lunsford said. "Our position has been all along that we had to deliver them by April 14," he said. One of the bills' two co-sponsors, Sen. Charles Berger, D-Harlan, said he had interest in getting it approved once it frisid air Notional Woithor Strvlct LOUISVILLE area Partial clearing to- LOUISVILLE area Partial clearing today and very cold tonight. Mostly sunny and warmer tomorrow.

High today, upper 40s to low SOs; tomorrow, upper 50s to low 60s. low tonight, low to mid-30s. KENTUCKY Partial clearing today very cold tonight. Mostly sunny and a little warmer tomorrow. Highs today, 40s to 50sj tomorrow, low to mid-60s.

lows tonight, low to mid-30s. INDIANA Clearing and cold today and tonight. Sunny and warmer tomorrow. Highs today, 40s to 50; tomorrow, 40s and 50s. lows tonight, 20s to low 30s.

TENNESSEE Partly cloudy and mild today, fair tonight. Fair and warmer tomorrow. Highs today, low SOs to low 60s; tomorrow, mid-60s to near 70. lows tonight, low 30s to low 40s. High yesterday, 50; low, 38.

Year ago yesterday: High, 70; low, 40. Sum Rises, 6:08 EST; sets, 7:19. Moon: Rises, 6:44 a.m.; sets, 8:07 p.m. Weather map and details, Page 6. i 1.57 life vJ C-J wins Pulitzer Prize for Cambodian series if I TO t.U StiH Photo by Jay Mother For its coverage of the Three Mile Island nuclear-plant accident, The Philadelphia lnquir- er won a sixth straight Pulitzer Prize.

Story, Page A 6. disease-ridden camps by the Cambodians who were able to escape. The Pulitzer Prizes were announced yesterday by Columbia University in New York City. They had been recommended by an advisory board. The prizes are endowed by the late publisher Joseph Pulitzer and carry a $1,000 prize for each See COURIER-JOURNAL PAGE col.

2, this section Ms. Sullivan believes Porter is the; first local company to go through the agency for such a project. If other com-. panies were to follow Porter's lead, she said, "we would do our best to keep them busy." "A lot of agencies could get things done they've been putting off for years," she said. Krueger is quick to point out that the 17 employees can be spared from Porter's local force of some 400 not because of a decline in sales but because of improved inventory control and production techniques.

In fact, 1980 sales are 5 percent ahead of the company's projections, he said, and 10 percent ahead of last year's sales, which totaled $66.4 million. The plant found itself at the begin- See FIRM Back page, col. 1, this section Show clock 10 iA Sports 1-5v TV, radio 2 Supreme Court upholds I "I election-hnancing law Instead of laying off workers, firm C7 donates their services to Boy Scouts Courier-Journal reporter Joel Brinkley and Jay Mather, a member of the combined Courier-Journal and Louisville Times photography staff, have won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for a series of stories on the Cambodian crisis. The series, "Living the Cambodian Nightmare," was published in The Courier-Journal in early December, after Brinkley, 27, and Mather, 33, had spent about a week in refugee camps in Thailand. The four-part series described the Cambodian people's brutalization at the hands of their Vietnamese conquerors.

It also told of the desperate flight to Thailand to overcrowded and next three weeks in an alternative to company layoffs. In an effort to avoid permanently losing trained employees who might otherwise have been temporarily laid off, Porter Paint is keeping them on the payroll and donating their services to area Boy Scouts, via the United Way. The program is unprecedented for the Louisville-based paint manufacturer and rare if not unheard of in the local business community. "We just think it's kind of creative," said Roy Krueger, director of personnel at the company. "Maybe we could start a trend." Predictably, United Way is tickled with the idea.

"It's a real interesting new thing for companies to get into," said Mary Sullivan, coordinator of the Voluntary Action Center, a service of the United Way. By JIM MANN The Lot Angeloi Times WASHINGTON The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the federal law providing for public financing of the presidential election campaigns of the major-party candidates. In doing so it dismissed complaints by the Republican Party that the law unfairly favors Incumbents and labor-backed candidates and infringes on freedom of speech. The unanimous ruling virtually guaranteed that the current system, under which both the Democratic and Republican nominees will be given $29.4 million in federal money to run their campaigns, will remain In effect through the 1980 election. The part of the law governing primary campaigns wasn't at issue.

The law provides federal money for the nominees of other political parties By PAM LUECKE Courler-Journol Business Writer The sleet was unseasonably bitter yesterday afternoon at Horine Scout Reservation, located atop a hill beyond Fairdale with a dazzling view of the surrounding countryside. But within a shed at the nearly deserted campground, a half-dozen men huddled around a makeshift fire, checking over canvas tents that had been folded for the winter, and winding gnarled ropes into neat loops. "It beats a soup line," said Ed Scherzer, who lives in Fern Creek and has worked in the shipping department of Porter Paint in Louisville for more than a year. "I just got a house last year and those payments don't quit." Scherzer is one of 17 Porter Paint employees who is taking part for the The Supreme Court rejects the appeal of former Maryland Gov. Marvin Mandel, upholding his conviction on political corruption charges.

Story, Page A 2. only if they got at least 5 percent of the vote cast in the previous presidential election or get 5 percent in this November's election. In the latter case, the government reimburses the candidates. No minor-party candidate qualified in 1976, the first year of the current system. The law makes no provision for public funding of independent candidates.

Without issuing a decision of its own, the high court affirmed lower-court rul- See PUBLIC FINANCING Back page, col. 4, this section.