The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 1

(a0 ti i til in iix i it i E7sin in in I I i i KENTUCKY EDITION, 26 PAGES, COPYRIGHT 1992, THE COURIER-JOURNAL, LOUISVILLE, A GANNETT NEWSPAPER THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1992. 35 CENTS Perkins won't seek re-election DIVERGENT VIGILANCE Democrats scramble to find a candidate "I have a definite interest," Hays told The Associated Press. Hays said he was concerned about a Democratic primary and then having to face Republican Rep. Hal Rogers of Somerset. "That makes for a doggone tough situation," Hays said.

The General Assembly put Perkins into a radically redrawn 5th District with Rogers. The new district's voter registration is 55 percent Democratic, but most Democrats rated Perkins the underdog because he had largely squandered the political inheritance he got from his father, Carl Perkins, who See PERKINS Back page, col. 1, this section By AL CROSS and MIKE BROWN Staff Writers LEXINGTON, Ky. With his Eastern Kentucky seat in Congress jeopardized by political and personal problems, Democratic U. S.

Rep. Chris Perkins of Hindman announced yesterday that he would not run for re-election. Perkins' surprise announcement climaxed a scramble, which had been going on behind the scenes for about 10 days, to find another candidate to represent the generally liberal Democratic faction that has held the seat since the Great Depression. Perkins, 37, said in a prepared state- ment that he wanted to be a better father to his children, aged 4 and 3, and that would be even more difficult because his old 7th District had been eliminated by redistricting. Perkins' friends said last night that they hoped former state Sen.

John Doug Hays of Pikeville would make the race. PERKINS: Hindman Democrat cited family considerations In choosing not to run for re-election. uv 11' i III 4 i IIP if 4-; v- A THE DECISION Three members were removed by the State Board for Elementary and Secondary Education. Benny Dale Coleman of Evarts: Guilty of failing to get state Department of Education permission before opening a field house at Cawood High School; of buying gasoline storage tanks State board removes 3 from Harlan school panel By MICHAEL JENNINGS Staff Writer if a tf.Ai I i ill 1 Coleman (L0BtN from Richards Oil Co. for $18,168 without competitive bids; of receiving $3,487 in credits from the Progress Paint Co.

of Louisville for the sale of paint to the county schools; and of profiting from one of his employees' sale of weightlifting equipment to the schools. Acquitted of violating the state open meetings law. David Lewis of Rosspoint: Guilty of opening the field house without permission and purchasing the tanks without bids. Acquitted of violating the open meetings law. Ronnie G.

Ball of STAFF PHOTOS Br PAT McDONOGH Above, William G. Palmer helped mark the 19th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion at a rally outside the Jefferson County Courthouse. Below, Vicky Breeland participated in a candlelight abortion-rights vigil at St. Andrews Episcopal Church. Stories, Pages A 2 and 3.

Lewis FRANKFORT, Ky. The State Board for Elementary and Secondary Education yesterday found three Harlan County school board members guilty of misconduct and removed them from office. A fourth member of the local board was acquitted, and the fifth has resigned. Those removed were county board Chairman Benny Dale Coleman of Evarts and board members Ronnie G. Ball of Wallins and David Lewis of Rosspoint.

David Kennedy of Cumberland, the county board's newest member, was cleared. Yesterday's action was the first removal of local board members by the state school board. Their removal left Kentucky Education Commissioner Thomas Boysen in effective control of the Harlan County school district, which has about 6,500 students in 17 schools. The state education-reform law authorizes Boysen to replace the four members who were removed or resigned. Boysen said yesterday he would advertise for candidates for county board seats and would name a six-member panel to help screen applicants.

He said he hopes to have a new local See 3 REMOVED Back page, col. 4, this section 3T Ball Bayless is out for mine job, but who's in? By FRAN ELLERS, Staff Writer FRANKFORT, Ky. The Jones administration changed course again yesterday on a controversial appointment to the state Mines and Minerals Department. According to a news release from the governor's office, Morgan Bayless of the United Mine Workers declined yesterday to become commissioner of the department because he couldn't move from his home in Tennessee to Kentucky quickly enough. Instead, Gov.

Brereton Jones is asking Bayless and a representative of the coal industry, which rallied against the appointment of Bayless, to recommend someone else. The administration would not elaborate. "There will not be any further information beyond the release," deputy press secretary Bill Griffin said. The process of choosing the commissioner has been confusing at best the choice has apparently changed twice in the last week. On Tuesday, Jones acknowledged to frustrated coal-industry officials that, if he had it to do over again, he might have See BAYLESS Back page, col.

1, this section Bush pledges $645 million to aid Russians By BARRY SCHWEID, Associated Press WASHINGTON President Bush pledged $645 million in new U.S. aid yesterday to the beleaguered people of the former Soviet Union as they struggle to "make the leap" from communism to democracy and free market economies. Bush's unexpected gesture at a 47-nation conference on emergency relief for the people of the shattered Soviet empire could inspire others to hike their own contributions. In fact, several of the governments participating in the conference came forward later in the day with offers of new assistance, said U.S. officials.

The prospective donors and the amounts were not disclosed. And in Moscow, a European Community representative said that the 12-nation organization has a food aid plan so ambitious that it could help foster market-based systems in Russia's two largest cities. In the next two months, the European Community will provide 150,000 tons of meat, butter and dried See BUSH Back page, col. 1, this section Wallins: Guilty of opening the field house without permission, getting the tanks without bids and violating another bid law that involved steering school business to Lexington Office Supply, a company owned by Ball's brother. Acquitted of violating the open meetings law.

I ft Richest school districts face unexpected revenue shortfall 4 By RICK McDONOUGH and HOLLY HOLLAND Staff Writers FRANKFORT, Ky. The state's wealthiest school districts are about to hit the wall on state funding increases, and some of them aren't prepared for the crash. A major goal of the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act was to equalize school funding, eventually by giving poorer districts more state money than the richer ones. The richer districts were spared the full brunt of the new funding formula during the More legislative stories, Pages 1 2. first two years of education reform because the legislature guaranteed minimum increases for every district.

Officials in the Jefferson County, Fayette County and Daviess County public schools said yesterday that legislators implied in 1990 that all state school districts would get a minimum funding increase of at least 5 percent annually See SCHOOL Back page, col. 4, this section rBHSlI I Family reunion Boys who fled Vietnam meet relatives' embrace as men BUSH NOSE: Filling the last vacancy in his Cabinet, President Bush named deputy chief of staff Andrew Card Jr. as transportation secretary, page a 2. 4.,:... i I 1 58 .0 5, 6 BUSINESS CLASSIFIED ADS.

COMICS DEATHS -C 4, FEATURES LOTTERY RESULTS. PEOPLE A A RACING RESULTS. SPORTS TV 1-5 2 By TODD MURPHY Staff Writer They knew little about where they were going, or exactly why. They only knew they were going away, to another world. Vu and Thanh Nguyen and their uncle, Than Tu, edged toward a creaky Vietnamese boat at the edge of the harbor.

For months, even years, Vu and Thanh's parents had been trying to accomplish this first trying to get Vu, the older son, then both boys, out of the horrors of Vietnam and away from communism and the Vietnamese government that "drafted" teen-age boys to kill and be killed in the rice paddies of nearby Cambodia. Finally, the plans became reality. For a week, Vu and Thanh, tucked and hidden underneath another fishing boat's deck like two caterpillars in cocoons, had traveled down a Mekong Delta tributary to the edge of the Gulf of Thailand. Now, they had reached the boat that would take them across the gulf to Thailand. With 104 other Vietnamese, they moved under the deck, into the belly of an 11-meter boat where they would stay for the next three days and two nights.

They had little food, almost no water and a rough ride in a barely seaworthy boat ahead of them. They would either reach their goal freedom from their government and the almost certain death as soldiers or they would die at sea. It was 1980. Vu and Thanh Nguyen were 14 and 12 years old. They floated away from all they had ever known their home, their friends, their family.

It was all gone. Probably forever. Forever ended at 11:35 p.m. Tuesday at Louisville's Standiford Field. Vu and Thanh See VIETNAMESE Back page, col.

1, this section CGGUKG OUT KENTUCKY Rain or flurries northeast early today; otherwise, partial clearing through tomorrow. Highs, 40s to 50 today, 30s tomorrow. Lows, 20s, low 30s. DETAILS, PAGE 2 irm i-ifcmH STAFF PHOTO BY DURE1X HALL JR. Thanh Nguyen, with back to camera, embraced his father, Dao Nguyen, and held the hand of his mother, Lysa Nguyen, as the Vietnamese family members were reunited late Tuesday night at Standiford Field in Louisville.

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