The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 2

VA2 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1978 THE COURIER-JOURNAL, BESS PEOPLE Bigger stakes all that's new in chain letter 7 Continued from Page One sale that the chain letter was not breaking any law because the letter was not sent in the mail. However, he decided against participating after being informed by postal officials in Louisville that he would be violating federal mail fraud statutes by participating in the Circle of Gold. According to Joseph Harkins, an inspector in the fraud section of the U.S. Postal Service headquarters in Washington, it is a crime under federal law to "knowingly deposit in the mail, or send any check, money or money order any share or chance in (a) lottery, gift enterprise or scheme He said the penalty for violating the law is a $1,000 fine, two years in prison or both. Harkins said the U.S.

Postal Service is aware of the new scheme and has been investigating it in the San Francisco area since October. James W. Winegar, a postal inspector in Cincinnati, said his office has received several inquiries recently, especially from the Bowling Green area. The Cincinnati office is responsible for Ohio and Kentucky. Winegar said an investigation is under way, although he says that gathering evidence is a problem because postal inspectors have no authority to open mail and have to rely on information from people who have been involved in the scheme or approached to participate.

Postal officials at Bowling Green said that until about three weeks ago there were a number of inquiries about the legality of the chain letter. chain letters have gone through some rather outlandish crazes. During the 1960s a scheme similar to Circle of Gold used $25 Savings Bonds. Another involved a young Marietta, man who sent out to make himself a millionaire by begging contributions through the mail. In the 1950s postmen across the country were slowed when a chain letter gimmick the Panty Club flooded the mail with unmentionables of all shades and sizes.

The rage in the 1940s was a postcard promising good luck if you copied it and sent it on and bad luck: if you didn't. And, in the 1930s it was "mail a dollar and get a lot back." "As long as someone can come up with a get-rich-quick gimmick someone will be around to try it," Harkins said. The inquiries for the most part stopped after the local news media did stories on the fact that the scheme was illegal. Winegar said chain letters and pyramid schemes have been a problem since they became popular in the 1940s. The Circle of Gold is unique only because of the extremely large sums of money it promises, he said.

"Mostly, our biggest problems have been with the pyramid schemes which promise people that they can make large sums of money at home in their spare time doing almost nothing. These people send off money only to receive a pamphlet telling them they have to send more money and get others involved," he said. Another postal official said chain letter schemes aren't as bad or don't occur as frequently as in the past Through the years in Kentucky, EH' 411: 1 4 Mayor signs law naming street for Ali 2 4m. J.H. Collectibles is a Holiday Mood Mary Frances Crosby, 19, daughter of the late singer Bing Crosby, is held by her husband Ed Lottimer, a music publisher, at their wedding reception in Malibu Saturday.

Miss Crosby met Lottimer, 27, two years ago at the American Conservatory of Theater in San Francisco. Here is a beautiful blending of wool, silk polyester that teams up to make an important fashion statement' The copyrights for the writings and speeches of Pope John Paul II a 1 Ayr? Slimmed down skirts and pants softlv tucked blouses and iackets when he was a cardinal have been given to the Vatican Publishing House to prevent their use by contrasted with a paisley velveteen Responding ia kind, Salt Lake City Mayor Ted Wilson awarded Sen. William Proxmire the "Golden Hypocrisy Award." Proxmire had bestowed his monthly "Golden Fleece Award" on the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation for spending $145,000 to install a wave-making machine in a Salt Lake City pool. But Wilson charged that the Senate gymnasium in which Proxmire relaxes daily costs $200,000 a year. vest.

Oatmeal, sizes 6 to 14. Group priced from $40 to $60 profiteering authors and publishers. Meanwhile, the pope has accepted the resignations of three American bishops. They are Richard Acker- Louisville Mayor William Stansbury has signed into law the ordinance changing Walnut Street and Michigan Drive to Muhammad Ali Boulevard. It isn't clear when the first street signs bearing the name of the heavyweight champion and Louisville native will go up.

James Pasikowski, director of the city's Transportation and Environment Cabinet, said he has been unable to find out whether Stansbury wants a ceremony 'for the erection of the first sign, "or just wants us to put them up as they're manufactured." The signs will be made in the city sign shop and should all be up in three to four weeks, once the job starts. The cost will be about $3,100. New signs will replace signs that are worn, Pasikowski said, and adhesive stripping will be used on signs that are in good condition. Stansbury, who was in Washington yesterday, signed the ordinance Monday, according to Charles Roberts, his executive assistant. In a letter to the aldermen, Stansbury said: "By signing this ordinance, honoring Louisville's most famous native and boxing's three-time world heavyweight champion, I am fulfilling my pledge to comply with whatever legislative action honoring Ali was deemed most appropriate by the Board of Aldermen." Twelfth Ward Alderman E.

Porter Hatcher, who introduced the ordinance, said he is pleased with the mayor's action. Hatcher said it's his understanding that the new boulevard will have east and west numbering designations to keep current addresses consistent. The aldermen, in a 6-5 vote, approved the name change Nov. 14. Smoke detectors paid off; number of fires reduced SAFETY HARBOR, Fla.

(AP) A program to arouse public awareness by installing smoke detectors in every household appears to be paying off. Officials said the number of reported structural fires in the first six months of this year had been reduced from 41 to 22, compared with the same period a year ago. Dollar losses were cut from $87,418 to $7,780. The city will continue to study the life- and property-saving benefits of the program until the end of 1979. The program is operated with the cooperation of Honeywell, of Minneapolis, which supplied the smoke detectors.

Bashford Manor Greentree jf hj SPORTSWEAR jj VmmM III mMI'. No more politics. Former President Richard Nixon told a French television audience that he has no intention of re-entering politics, but he said he would continue to speak out on major issues. During a 90-minute segment of the show "Television Dossiers," Nixon answered phoned-in questions from viewers. man, 75, of Covington, Joseph L.

Hogan, 62, of Rochester, N.Y.; who resigned for health reasons; and Joseph Pernicone, 75, auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of New York. Free on parole. John Wojtowicz, who staged the bizarre bank robbery that was dramatized in the book and movie "Dog Day Afternoon," has been released from prison six years and three months after the heist. Wojtowicz' p'ans to rob a Brooklyn bank went sour when police arrived, beginning a 14-hour drama that ended at Kennedy Airport. Stand-up comedian George Kirby was sentenced to two concurrent 20-year terms in the Nevada prison after he pleaded guilty to trafficking in cocaine and heroin.

Kirby, 52, also faces two 10-year federal prison terms for his conviction on the same charges. An uncontested divorce has been granted to presidential assistant Hamilton Jordan and his wife, Nancy. Atlanta Superior Court Judge Horace Ward ordered Jordan to give his wife half interest in a house in Washington, valued at $115,000, and to pay alimony through next October. Mrs. Jordan had sought the divorce because she claimed their eight-year marriage was "irretrivably broken." Paducah changes waste pickup He also said there is no assurance the company will continue alley pickup of refuse and not switch to a curbside system.

The ordinance to award the franchise to the Indiana company, one of four qualified bidders, was approved by the Have a complaint? News If you have a question or complaint about news coverage, call News Ombudsman John Herchenroeder, 582-4600. If you have a specific complaint about the accuracy or fairness of news reporting, and have failed to get satisfaction from the paper, you are invited to take the complaint to the National News Council. The council is an independent, nongovernmental body. Include a copy of the article and copies of any correspondence with the newspaper. Address: 1 Lincoln Plaza, New York, N.Y.

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To advertise Rates-Advertising 582-4700 Classified Advertising 582-2622 Display Advertising 582-4711 Published by The Courier-Journol and Louisville Times Company, daily and Sunday, at 525 W. Broadway, Louisville, 40202. PHONE: Area Code 502582-401 1 Consolidation of The Focus, 1826; The Louisville Daily Journol, The Morning Courier, 1837; The Daily Democrat, 1843. First issued as The Courier-Journal Nov. 8, 1868.

Editor and Publisher, Barry Bingham, Vice President and Executive Editor, Robert P. Clark; Managing Editor, Paul Janensch. t. Chairman of the Board, Barry Bingham, President, Cyrus Senior Vice-President, John L. Richards; Vice President and General Manager, George N.

Gill; Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer, Leon Tallichet; Vice Presidents, Bernard Block (Accounting), Maurice J. Bochart, Jr. (Sales), Earl Bullard (Organization and Plormmg), Ralph I. Drury (Operations), Donald B. Towles (Public Affairs).

The Associated Press is exclusively entrHed to republish local news originated by The Courier-Journal, as well as oil other AP news. Second-class postoge paid at Louisville, Ky. For Information Latest sports scores: 582-4871. Want to know your congressman's address or the winner of the 21st Kentucky Derby? Our Readers' Service Department will ans-wer your questions. It's open 9 a.m.

to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Call 582-4545. We also have a service for more extensive research. Call the chief librarian, 582-4184. Managing Editor Paul Janensch (in charge of The Courier-Journal news operation), 582-4613.

To report a news item or story idea City News: Chris Waddle (responsible for news about the metropolitan area, except Southern Indiana), 582-4691. Kentucky News: Frank Hartley, 582-4657. Business News: Phil Moeller, 582-4651. Indiana News: Mike King, 948-1315. Sports: Bill Winter, 582-4360 Accent: Irene Nolan, 582-4667.

Weddings and Engagements: Sandra Topy, 582-4667. Church Notices: George Buchanan, 582-4691. Obituaries (call after 2 p.m.): Bob Redmon Louisville-area deaths, 582-4691 All other deaths, 800-292-3570 (toll free) Sunday Arts Calendars: Gregg Swem, 582-4684 Pictures: Cheryl Magazine, 582-4680 if a sufficient number of the signatures are determined to be valid. "There are more than enough to take care of any errors we might have made," he said. The Paducah refuse department, established in 1952 as the result of a referendum, has 44 employees and collects and disposes of about 630 tons of solid waste a week at the Paducan-McCracken County landfill.

Harvey said in an interview yesterday that the switch to the private commercial system "is an attempt to break Pa-ducah's municipal employees union." The refuse department employees are members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. They are the largest single segment of city workers in the union, Local 1586. Other members work for the city's maintenance, sewage disposal, flood-wall, street, maintenance and cemetery departments. "In the six years I was on the commission, the city fathers were constantly trying to break the refuse department's role in the union. They looked upon the department with anger, and considered it a bargaining factor.

It is the same now," said Harvey, a native of Boon-ville, who has been pastor of Padu-cah's Greater Harrison Street Baptist Church for the past 16 years. Harvey, the first black ever elected to the Paducah city commission, noted that the city claims that the refuse department gives poor service and is hampered by rundown equipment. "If that is so, the city should correct the problem rather than bring in an operator at a much higher price, which gives no assurance that the department employees working now will get to keep their jobs," Harvey said. He said city voters established the refuse department and the floodwall maintenance department by voting for a payroll tax. "What was done by referendum should not be undone without one," he said yesterday.

By BILL POWELL Couriar-Journal Staff Wrlttr PADUCAH, Ky. The Paducah City Commission voted last night to switch its solid-waste pickup system from municipal to private hands, and immediately faced a protest petition seeking a public vote on the issue next May. The commission voted 4-1 to award the pickup franchise to the Indiana firm of Browning and Ferns Inc. The company, under the franchise, would raise the current residential pickup rate from $3 to S4.24 a month and have the option of adding increases tied to the consumer price index. The petition was presented by the Rev.

W. G. Harvey, a Baptist pastor who was a city commissioner in 1968-74, and was mayor pro tern in his second term. Harvey said the petition bore 3,954 signatures of registered voters. He said a protest group he heads had to obtain about 1,900 signatures 25 percent of the number of people voting in the 1975 race for Paducah mayor to force the referendum.

City commissioners made no comment last night on the petition. However, The Courier-Journal learned that the application of the referendum law in the franchise case might be challlenged later. Harvey said he thought that the question automatically must go on the ballot Pastor teas a scientist, made many discoveries LONDON The Rev. Stephen Hales, an Anglican pastor at Teddington, near London, made a name for himself in science, which he called his "darling amusement." As. an animal physiologist he ranks second only to the illustrious William Harvey fcr his quantitative measurement of blood pressure.

He also founded, modern plant physiology, and his success with artificial ventilation, particularly in prisons and hospitals, established him as a pioneer sanitarian. He died in 1761 at the age of 84. same 4-1 vote upon its first reading two weeks ago. Commissioner Robert Coleman voted against the switch because of the immediate 41 percent rate increase and future increases that he said could be applied without consent of the commission. Coleman said he also foresaw the threat of curbside collections and the loss of jobs by refuse department employees.

Paducah would be the third of the state's eight second-class cities with private contract service for solid waste. The others are Newport and Covington. Neither city collects a direct refuse-pickup charge for residential service. A recent report by the Kentucky Municipal League shows that Owensboro, Bowling Green and Ashland charge directly for municipal waste pickup. The Owensboro rate is $3 a month and the Bowling Green rate is $3.50, according to the report.

The Ashland municipal system charges $5 a month for its residential service, a member of the city clerk's staff said yesterday. No direct refuse-collection charges are made in Lexington and Frankfort. The league report shows a private pickup firm in Winchester, a third-class city of about 14,000 people, charges $4 a month. Hopkinsville, a third-class city in Western Kentucky with an estimated population of 28,000, has a residential refuse collection charge of $3.30 a month. Hopkinsville city government recently considered use of a private contract svstem for the service.

In a poll conducted by Mayor Al Rutland, Hopkinsville residents favored keeping the municipal system by a wide margin. Circulation If you have a problem regarding service, or if your paper is not delivered, call 582-4752. Newspaper replacement service is available from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. daily and 7 a.m.

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