The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 5

THE COURIER-JOURNAL LOUISVILLE, KY. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 1992. Farm, tobacco advocate Clay Crupper resigns in wake of indictment FIRST TIME A-FISHIN' KENTUCKY T' vy'Ty i 1 w-M0Mi yyiv m' I V. "1 tion. The district had only 259 registered independents last fall.

Because no Republican filed for the 1993-94 term, the GOP cannot run a candidate in the general election. However, a Republican could file for a special election to fill the unexpired term. Gov. Brereton Jones said yesterday that he will call such an election, but has not given any thought to its timing, said his press secretary, Frank Ashley. Jones has said he wants to hold a special legislative session on ethics before another session on health care, which he is planning for November.

Late September seems the likeliest time for the ethics session. The winner of the special election could serve during those sessions if the election is held early enough. At times, governors have called special elections for unexpired terms to coincide with the general election because it is less expensive and, in this case, could give an even greater advantage to the Democratic nominee. The district, where Republicans are outnumbered by more than 10 to 1, is one of the state's most heavily Democratic. It lies in the so-called "Golden Triangle" formed by Louisville, Lexington and Northern Kentucky, but is probably the triangle's most rural area.

It spans the northern part of the hilly Outer Bluegrass region, a sparsely populated area of small towns and small farms that produce mainly tobacco, beef See CRUPPER Page 3, col. 1, this section By AL CROSS Political Writer FRANKFORT, Ky. Rep. Clay Crupper resigned yesterday, leaving the state House withput one of its most veteran and sometimes controversial members and one of its main advocates for farmers. The Democrat from Dry Ridge in northern Grant County resigned after being indicted this week on bribery charges in the federal investigation of corruption in state government.

"Clay felt he owed it to his people to resign, though many of them have asked him not to," said Crupper's lawyer, Philip Taliaferro of Covington. Crupper, 56, the first current legislator charged in the probe, plans to plead guilty Friday to accepting a $400 bribe in return for helping a race track. Convicted felons cannot hold office in Kentucky unless pardoned by the governor. Because Crupper will be disqualified, the Democratic Party can name a replacement nominee to run for the 61st District seat in November, most likely unopposed. County party committees in the district will cast votes, based on the number of registered Democrats each county has in the district 34 percent in Grant, 31 percent in Carroll and 27 percent in Owen.

Harrison and Pendleton counties, which lie only partly in the district, have a total of 8 percent. Independent candidates can file no later than Aug. 4, but must have been registered as independents at last November's elec iZhSM 1 til-, STAFF PHOTOS BY KEITH W11XIAMS Tony Brown's nephews swallowed the sport of fishing hook, line and sinker last weekend as he took Jeffery, at left above, and Zachary Brown on an excursion to Jack Fisher Park In Owensboro. At right, after hooking one Jeffery got so excited he nearly ran into the pond. But the deft hand of Uncle Tony saved the day.

Finn to bring 300 jobs to Plan would save millions in miners' medical costs By DAVID REED Associated Press ABINGDON, Va. A federal judge has approved a plan to contain health-care costs for 120,000 retired coal miners, and a fired trustee of the miners' health funds reached an out-of-court settlement to keep his job until Sept. 30. Yesterday U.S, District Judge Glenn Williams approved a plan to save up to $10 million annually by limiting the type and amount of prescription drugs doctors can prescribe to miners and beneficiaries. Williams said he will rule next month on a plan to save up to $12 million by developing a list of preferred providers doctors who agree to discount their fees in return for faster payment.

The insurance funds have a deficit of about $140 million, partly because of the rising cost of health care and the declining number of coal companies willing to pay into the funds. "Given the financial straits of the funds, Presbyterians elect own version of Ross Perot used since October 1990 by the post office in Louisville, which was one of the first sites in the United States to begin using the system. The Postal Service has been installing it nationwide to speed up mail processing and save money. The contract Lockheed Support Systems got was one of three awarded this week. The company is based in Arlington, Texas, and is a division of Lockheed the defense contractor.

Good economic news has been hard to find in Madisonville. Coal employment has been declining, a York air-conditioning factory that at one time employed 500 people shut down last year, and Goodyear announced last month that it will close a tire factory that now employs about 180 people. "We're back in the job game," Vassallo said. "That was unfortunate with the timing of those particular companies, but we're not reeling from it." Most of the full- and part-time Lockheed jobs will be entry-level and require typing skills. The average pay at a similar operation run by the company is $5.70 an hour, Vassallo said.

may yet bear STAFF PHOTO BY BYRON CRAWFORD Jennie Williams Long, with some of the Puccini signature postcards. They were carted around like nothing for a long, long time." For the last few years, after being given the cards by her mother, Long has kept them in a lockbox at a Lexington bank. The nine cards signed by Puccini which were postmarked in various cities in 1899 and 1900 are inscribed with colorful scenes from productions of his operas. One bears only a portrait photograph of Puccini himself, with his signature below. "They sound very valuable," said Thomson Smillie, general director of Kentucky Opera in Louisville.

"They could be priceless if they were signed by Puccini, iiiifli Minim idrinfrftr i H-vAu Madisonville The city plans to make an announcement Friday about another company coming to Madisonville that will employ 150 people, Vassallo said. He refused to provide more details. In January 1991, Mayor William Cox began a marketing effort to promote Madisonville as a good place for companies to locate operations that rely on telecommunications, Vassallo said. Because the city is in the center of Western Kentucky, three long-distance telephone companies have installed fiber-optic telephone equipment there, making it an especially attractive place for companies that process information, Vassallo said. Madisonville will be featured this year on the cover of an annual guide published by National Consulting Systems, a telecommunications consulting firm based in Omaha, that matches communities with companies wanting to relocate or expand.

"Kentucky has really come to the forefront with their recruitment of telecom-See FIRM Page 3, col. 6, this section stamp of fame but you'd have to go to an evaluator." "In those days it was not uncommon for an actress to have what were called 'cabinet pictures' printed up to give to adoring fans," Smillie said. "Similarly, postcards were used much more as a kind of promotional vehicle, and they were either mailed or handed out to people. It sounds like that sort of thing. Somebody would write in expressing love or affection for Puccini, and he'd reply with an autographed picture, either of himself or of one of his operas.

He was very gallant, of course, and a great ladies' man." By coincidence, Smillie said, he had just been speaking of Puccini a few minutes before receiving the call in which he learned of Jennie Long's rare collection of the composer's cards. "We're doing 'Madama Butterfly' this fall, and I wonder if she'd allow us to use them in an exhibition or something," Smillie said. Long said she would be willing to consider it. Long has never had the cards appraised, but she fears that she may one day be forced to sell all or part of the collection if she is unable to raise money to restore Mount Sterling's historic Colonial Inn, which dates to about 1800. The inn was left to her by a dear friend in the hope that it could be refurbished as a dining establishment and a gallery for local artists, Long said.

Her efforts over the past four years to obtain state, local or private assistance to restore the inn have been unsuccessful, and Long says the cards may have to be sold as a last to avoid having to demolish the building. "I had hoped to pass the card collection on to my grandchildren, but I am ob- sessed with restoring the inn," she said." "(Countess) Natalia probably had no idea what would happen to the cards but I have a vision that she is smiling very broadly at me now." A Chapter 7 bankruptcy listing for Kenny Williams Electrical Contractor Inc. that appeared May 11 may have implied that Kenny Williams and Jean Williams were involved. They were not; they had sold the business, including the use of the corporate name, in October 1988. By MARK SCHAVER Staff Writer A company that electronically deciphers poorly addressed mail for the U.S.

Postal Service will open an office in Madisonville that will employ 300 people. Lockheed Support Systems Inc. will build a operation that will open by Oct. 1, said Steve Vassallo, the president of the Greater Madisonville Economic Development Authority. Lockheed has a two-year, $8.6 million contract with the Postal Service in Indianapolis to process misdirected or illegibly addressed mail, Vassallo said.

The post office will take an electronic picture of the mail and send the information via phone lines to Madisonville, where employees will key part of the address into a computer to determine the correct ZIP code. That information is then sent back to Indianapolis, where a bar code similar to those used in grocery stores is applied to the letter before it is sent on its way. The process is known as the "remote bar-coding system" and is identical to the one Old postcards BYRON CRAWFORD MOUNT STERLING, Ky. Some old postcards that spent many years in a worn shoebox may hold the key to helping Jennie Williams Long fulfill an elusive dream that she shared with a departed friend. During much of her childhood, the Kentucky-born Long lived in Germany and Italy, where her stepfather, a military lawyer, assisted in preparing cases for the Nuremberg trials and handled numerous other postwar assignments.

Long vividly remembers playing in a glorious attic in a villa near Pisa, Italy, that was owned by a countess named Natalia Cuturi. Long's family lived there for about a year before moving to Rome. The countess gave Long's family a collection of more than 600 postcards, several of which carry the signatures of European royalty and a few of which bear the photograph and signature of Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), whose "Madama Butterfly," "Tosca" and "La Boheme," among others, brought him universal acclaim. Countess Cuturi instructed Jennie, who was then 7 or 8, in the Italian language and customs, and would sometimes tell her stories about Puccini, who she said was a family friend. "There are times when those poor cards have been wrapped in a shoebox," Long said.

"They were sent to military government storage, and they spent a few years at a furniture-storage warehouse in Lexington with some household goods. Alva A. Hollon a lawyer for Jackson County school Superintendent Danny D. Scalf, said yesterday that he had not meant to include the district's financial deficit when he said Scalf followed advice of state Education Department consultant Robert Gover in matters that led to administrative charges against Scalf. A story yesterday anything that helps them economically is desirable," said Dr.

Michael McGarvey, a health-care consultant for the Bituminous Coal Operators Association. "The benefits are extraordinarily generous in today's world." The consortium has 14 members but negotiates union contracts for about 300 other coal companies that contribute to the insurance funds. UMW attorney Robert Stropp said the cost-containment proposals should be negotiated with the union and not put into effect unilaterally. The national contract with the operators' association expires Jan. 31.

Mark Lawson, a lawyer representing the retired miners, said the prescription-drug program will not diminish the benefits. But he said that reducing the number of doctors miners can visit could be a problem because there already are shortages of physicians in the coalfields. See PLAN Page 3, col. 1, this section Vice President Dan Quayle tells Southern Baptists he'll keep preaching family values. Story, Page 2.

outsider candidate in his speech before the General Assembly. "You don't know me like you know Jim (Andrews) and Chuck (Hammond)," he said. "I'm the joker in this pack, the one that no one heard of before." The new official said after the vote that his election was a call for change and "a new direction" within the 2.8 million-member denomination, but declined to identify specific changes lie foresees. However, Chamberlain apparently questions his denomination's current policy of banning gays and lesbians from ordination. During a candidates' debate before he was elected, Chamberlain said he "would hope that we would be wise enough in the church See LEADER Page 3, col.

5, this section y-x -w -wiiw- v. 8 By BILL WOLFE MILWAUKEE The Rev. W. Clark Chamberlain III became the "Ross Perot of the Presbyterian Church" yesterday as he defeated the Rev. James Andrews, a two-term incumbent, to become the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Chamberlain, 45, of Houston, was elected over Andrews and a third candidate, the Rev. Charles Hammond of Philadelphia. He will take over one of his denomination's top two executive posts and will oversee a budget of $12 million. His election came as a surprise after Andrews had been endorsed for a third term by the assembly's nominating committee. "This is something I had no expectation of absolutely none," Chamberlain said after the election.

He received the required majority of votes from the assembly on its third ballot, capturing 312 votes. Andrews received 257 votes and Hammond 18. Chamberlain presented himself as the Corrections clarifications said Hollon blamed the deficit in part on decisions by Gover, who has helped manage district finances since the fall of 1990. The charges blame Scalf for most of the deficit, but Hollon said yesterday that Gover had not contributed to it. In fact, Gover "was sent there to work them out of a deficit, and that's what he's done," Hollon said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS The Rev. W. Clark Chamberlain III, left, was congratulated by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) moderator, the Rev. John Fife, after being elected stated clerk..