The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 1

irrnrr iTLT THE WEATHER 36-point gain puts market at new high I Estherville and Maple VWy Valley gain in tourney tejf 1 Page IS Go out to elegant dinner on the farm l7 1 Page IT THE INDEX Advice 12T Business 5S Classified ads. ST Comics 3T Crossword 2T Editorials 8A Letters 9A Lotteries 12T 3M Obituaries 7M People in 2A Sports 4S TV schedules 2T I DOW JONES I INDUSTRIALS' Cloudy and windy today, with a chance of rain; high in the mid-40g. Good chance of rain tonight, low in the mid-308. Rain likely Thursday; high in the upper 40s. Sunrise: 7:38 sunset 5:13 p.m.

Details: 12T. FFB MARCH IHB7 Page 5S A VMS StCTION 3 1 II I I .11. I -I I II Copyright 1967, Des Moines Register and Tribune Company THE NEWSPAPER IOWA DEPENDS UPON Des Moines, Iowa, Wednesday, March 18, 1987 Price 350 (SMU Jj REGISTER PHOTO BY DOUG WELLS Iran arms money traced to backers of hostage-takers Despite D.M. rejection, 4 towns OK levy 61 percent vote 'no' in city and suburbs Flagg beats Szymoniak for 2nd place New mayor will be picked in runoff vote April 14 OLIVER NORTH JOHN POINDEXTER Reagan to face press following By ANNE WILLETTE and BOB SHAW RwHMr Stan wrftan City Councilman John "Pat" Dorrian, making his first bid for citywide office, overwhelmed his opponents in Des Moines' primary election for mayor Tuesday. Councilman George Flagg finished a distant second.

Flagg and Dorrian will meet April 14 in a general election. Dorrian grabbed 47 percent of the vote, leaving Flagg and Council woman Elaine Szymoniak in the dust with 25.5 percent and 22.7 percent, respectively. "The percentage surprised me," said an elated Dorrian during a victory party at bis campaign headquarters at 506 Locust St. "I told my family on the way down here it was going to be close, so I was surprised at the margin." The turnout also surprised officials, with 31,555 of the city's 101,900 registered voters going to the polls. Michael Mauro, Polk County election director, had predicted that 25,000 people would vote.

Dorrian carried all but 19 of the city's 97 precincts, swept the south and east sides and took many in month hiatus fhV-. JOIN 'PM i if 'l fWW'M A 1 rl For By PERRY BEEMAN and LOU ORTIZ Rrailtar Staff Wrtttrt Voters in Des Moines and most of its suburbs soundly rejected a 1-cent sales tax for the second time in 16 months Tuesday, spreading concern through the city's cultural community, which would have shared in revenue from the levy. Only businesses in Alleman, Elkhart, Mitchellville and Sheldahl will impose the tax beginning July 1. Voters in all other Polk County cities and rural areas decided to take tax opponents' advice and "Zap the Tax." In the key vote, Des Moines and seven adjoining suburbs rejected the tax with 61 percent voting against and 39 percent in favor. That margin of defeat was even wider than in November 1985, when voters in that area rejected the tax with 56 percent against and 44 percent in favor.

Cultural Centers The defeat is another blow for Des Moines art and recreational centers, some of which still are recovering from a $225,000 cut in Des Moines subsidies last year. Those facilities would have shared at least $1 million, under a spending plan approved by local governments, if the sales tax had passed countywide. Gordon Smith, manager of the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines, reacted to the vote by predicting cut backs there. He would not say what those cuts would be. Des Moines library director Elaine Estes has hinted at similar trouble for Des Moines libraries.

Other Polk County libraries were in line for a share of sales-tax receipts as well. Tax opponents said Polk County voters sent a clear message that they don't want any tax increase. "People in Polk County are interested in tax reduction, and they're on the cutting edge of a tax revolt," said Wendell Harms of the Fairness in Taxation Committee, which opposed the tax. "Polk County officials and the legislators should take heed of that." Backers of the measure said they failed to get their complicated mes John "Pat" Dorrian celebrates the primary election outcome with his wife Carolyn, grandson Brian and son David at his campaign office Tuesday night. Branstad urges growth in insurance to aid state By JEFF GERTH 17 New Yort TVrm WASHINGTON, D.C.

Several million dollars in profits from Iran arms sales were paid to an Iranian group that financed the kidnappers of Americans in Lebanon, according to U.S. officials and associates of an Iranian middleman. The payments, made by middleman Manucher Ghorbanifar, meant, in effect, not only that arms were being supplied, but also that money was being paid as part of the effort to free the hostages, the American officials said. American and other associates of Ghorbanifar called the money "ransom," while an American official described it simply as "payments for services rendered." The reports came as congressional investigators tentatively decided to give limited immunity to former White House aides John Poindexter and Lt. Col.

Oliver North during hearings probing the Iran arms sales and transfer of proceeds to the Nicara-guan contra rebels. The hearings are set to begin May 5, but investigators agreed with the independent counsel probing the affair to delay their public testimony for 90 days, as he had sought, sources said. Kidnappers' Expenses The disclosure of payments to Iranians suggests that profits from the arms sales might have paid for some of the expenses incurred by the kidnappers in holding the hostages. According to the American officials and associates of Ghorbanifar interviewed in the United States and in Western Europe, 32 million to S3 million of the money that Iran paid for arms was deposited by Ghorbanifar in 1986 in the Swiss bank account of the Global Islamic Movement. This Iranian organization helped organize and finance terrorist groups in Lebanon, including the Party of God, the Shiite group believed to have been behind many of the kidnappings.

Other payments by Ghorbanifar, according to his associates, were intended as political contributions to Iranian leaders, with as much as $6 million going to Hojatolislam Hashemi Rafsanjani, the speaker of parliament, and his family. Altogether the payments made by Ghorbanifar to various Iranian officials and groups totaled as much as $10 million by some accounts. "Not Yet Time" Ghorbanifar's lawyer, Stuart Pier-son, when asked whether his client knew about payments to Iranian offi- IRAN Please turn to Page 6 A Szymoniak's northwest ward. He was elected to the council in 1983 from the city's northeast ward. Szymoniak took 17 west-side precincts, the area of her support since she first was elected to the council in 1977.

She also carried the affluent neighborhoods south of Grand Avenue. Flagg carried only two precincts, WASHINGTON, C. (AP) Pres-; ident Reagan will hold his first news conference in four months Thursday, facing questions about the Iran-i contra affair and the Tower commission report that criticized his han- dling of the matter. Reagan will meet with reporters at 7 p.m. in the East Room four months to the day since his last news confer- ence, Nov.

19. Given the long hiatus between news conferences, reporters asked i presidential spokesman Marlin F'itz-water on Tuesday to expand the news conference to an hour double the usual time. He declined, saying: "The time will remain a half-hour. I think a half-: hour will do it." "Do what?" a reporter asked. I "Answer all the questions," Fitzwater replied.

Reagan, during a Rose Garden ceremony in which he greeted Soviet sailors saved from a sinking freighter i by the U.S. Coast Guard, said he was "looking forward" to the news con-, ference. He declined to answer ques-; tions, saying, "Wait until Thursday." The news conference will be Reagan's first meeting with the press i since publication of the Tower com-1 mission report, which said the president "did not seem to be aware" of the way his arms-to-Iran policy was handled and did not recognize its con By DAVID YEPSEN RcolsMr Staff Wrftar Gov. Terry Branstad said Tuesday the insurance industry should be rapidly expanded in Iowa, just as the but ran a strong second in many others. The lawyer has been running in citywide races since he was elected to his at-large seat on the council in 1980.

Flagg looked dour amid the green MAYOR Please turn to Page 7 A banking industry was developed in Delaware a few years ago. And the governor, in a meeting with reporters and editors of The Des Moines Register, also said he plans to study creation of a statewide leadership institute to TERRY BRANSTAD already have their headquarters in Iowa, and Des Moines has been called "the Hartford of the Midwest." State studies have shown the insurance industry is one of the fastest growing segments of Iowa's economy, creating executive, clerical and construction jobs. "We should look at this industry as an opportunity," Branstad said. "Are there some incentives that might accelerate Iowa's already advantageous, positive position? A lot of times, the way you succeed is to build on your strengths." Leadership Institute The governor also said he is exploring development of a leadership institute to help train government and civic leaders in ways to improve their communities and economies. Those leaders often are at the forefront of economic development efforts in Iowa, he said.

But they need a place to go for ideas and for ways to hone BRANSTAD Please turn to Page 6 A their help communities improve sage across that passing the sales tax would result in lower property taxes. They also suspect that voters sequences. It also will be the president's first news conference since the disclosure that profits from the Iranian arms sales Dumortedlv were diverted to Here are final, unofficial results in Tuesday's voting: Des Moines mayor Dorrian 14,867 Flagg 8,058 Szymoniak 7,156 Murillo 862 One-cent sales tax Yes No Des Moines and adjoining suburbs 14,840 23,162 SOURCE PolV Cowilv Barton 0llr didn't trust elected officials to stand by their agreement to use 75 percent of the tax receipts to offset property taxes and 25 percent to finance libraries and cultural centers. contra rebels in Nicaragua. The four-month gap between news Lloyd Clarke of the Cents-able Op- TAX such hiatus since Reagan assumed office in January 1981.

The longest span was 5V months in 1985. Please turn to Page 7 A economies. The two new Branstad proposals are significant because they indicate the governor is looking at new ways of reviving the state's economy. Noting Delaware's success in developing a bigger banking industry by providing a variety of incentives, Branstad said be did not think Iowa could repeat that with banking because other states have done it first. "But I think we could in insurance," he said.

"We've already got a very substantial insurance base, and I think there's some real opportunity. That's an area we need to target for some very substantial growth." He said he has asked William Hag-er, the state insurance commissioner, to begin work on the study. Three things are needed, he said, to encourage the growth of the insurance business: Creating regulations that are fair and competitive. Marketing the state as a good place for insurance companies' regional offices because a lot of them Panel lights fuse on legalized fireworks police chief admits theft from Target By ELIZABETH FLANSBURG Register Staff Wrttar Former West Des Moines Police Chief Orval Dean Cooney was charged with shoplifting at a Des i By THOMAS A. FOGARTY Rwtitar SMI Wrttar Iowa's ban on buying and selling fireworks the legacy of a fire in the 1930s that destroyed much of downtown Spencer would be lifted under a bill approved Tuesday by a House Committee.

The House Judiciary and Law Enforcement Committee voted 17-7 to allow Iowans once again to buy and sell fireworks. Two southern Iowa lawmakers Democrat Dan Jay of Centerville and Republican William Harbor of Henderson pushed for the repeal of the ban. Both have districts close to the Missouri line, where fireworks stands thrive legally on the Missouri side. "I get awfully tired of seeing all those Polk County cars driving through my district," Jay said. Harbor, 66, a 23-year veteran of the Legislature, said the bill would be the first major move, to open Iowa to fireworks sales since they were bannea shortly after the fire in Spencer.

A fireworks display in a store started that fire. Jay said the bill is partly motivated by a desire to permit southern Iowans to compete with Missourians for fireworks business. In addition, he said, the ban on fireworks has been 1 are looking at expanding tneir operations. widely ignored. The state fire marshal, who is responsible for enforcing the fireworks law, wants the ban eased because of the difficulty in enforcing it, Jay said.

Representative Dorothy Carpenter, a West Des Moines Republican who voted against the bill, said she is concerned about the potential for injuries that could result from lifting the ban. Jay argued, however, that federal regulations are gradually reducing the amount of explosive material allowed in fireworks. Fireworks are weak enough now that injuries aren't the problem they once were, he said. The measure would allow the sale of firecrackers and other smaller explosives. "Cherry bombs" and larger explosives would remain illegal.

The sale of fireworks would be permitted between Memorial Day and July 20 each year. City and county governments would have the option of not allowing the businesses in their jurisdiction to sell them. The bill would require a person to be at least 16 years old to possess or use fireworks, which would be limited to the Class variety a federal classification for fairly weak fireworks. The bill now goes to the full House for debate. Moines Target store last month, court records show.

Cooney, 54, of 3330 N.E. 46th St. pleaded guilty to the fifth-degree theft charge in Polk County District Court Feb. 19 and was fined a total of 148.75, court records show. Providing financial incentives or blank videotapes worth J6.99 each, two switch plates worth $3.99 each and two packages of screw hooks each worth 79 cents from the Target store at 2309 Euclid Ave.

He appeared two days later before Associate District Judge Louis Anan-ia where he pleaded guilty and was fined $25 plus court costs for a total of $48.75. Polk County Attorney James Smith said Tuesday that the maximum penalty for fifth-degree theft is 30 days in jail and a $100 fine. Cooney retired from the chief job in June 1983 following open-heart surgery that left him unable to work. He currently draws a pension from the city's pension fund, city officials said. tax breaks for companies that establish their home offices in Iowa.

Branstad said he planned to meet 1 ORVAL COONEY with academic leaders and Iowa insurance industry officials as well as their competitors from other states to find other ways to encourage expansion of the insurance Reached at his home Tuesday, Cooney declined to comment Court records show Cooney was charged Feb. 17 with stealing two About 70 insurance companies.