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

SIDE TIIE REGISTER Scrccmvriter Loos dies Firms fold health saves Personal income rises em A A Insurance study finds that Anita Loos, who wrote "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and many other popolar mnvtea. hooka aad nlvi dies at age IS. Details: 1C. companies can save millions spending money to help employees stay healthy. Details: tC.

3- fcHkii Iowa, Wednesday Morning, August 19, 1981 Three Sections, price 25 cents Bold challenge by union draws mild response from Communists Americans' personal Income jumped 1.6 percent In July from Jane, the largest gain in year, the Commerce Department reports. Details: SB. THE NEWSPAPER IOWA Two agencies start probes off air safety Studies launched by FAA and transportation unit From The Register's Wire Services WASHINGTON, D.C. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board announced Tuesday that they had started separate studies to investigate whether air safety had deteriorated in any way since the nation's air traffic controllers began their strike 15 days ago. The announcements came amid a growing debate between officials of the controllers' union and the federal government over the safety of the nation's air lanes.

The controllers claim the strike has impaired the safety of the airways, while the FAA on Tuesday released figures it said showed that only one-third as many near crashes had been reported since the strike began as were reported in the like period a year ago. Meanwhile, three former secretaries of labor appointed by Republican presidents said they have offered to act as special mediators in the strike, but the Reagan administration has shown little interest in the idea. Safety Concerns Announcing the safety studies at a Tuesday news conference, Secretary of Transportation Drew Lewis and FAA chief J. Lynn Helms repeated that safety was their paramount concern and said they would order flights further reduced if necessary to maintain safety. Helms said: "We have no reason to believe that the system has deteriorated in safety in any way.

We have leaned over backward to make sure we don't get two aircraft in the same space at the same time." Asked about the report of a narrowly averted mid-air crash over New Jersey and about the collision of two light planes Monday in San Jose, Helms said: "I don't quite know bow one proves you're safe. I do know it's very easy to allege you're unsafe." The FAA has said that there was no Indication of error by a controller in either instance. The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, whose 12,000 striking members are being dismissed by the government, issued a statement saying there had been "a dramatic increase in the number of system errors and near-midair collisions in the first 10 days" of the strike. The union detailed more than two dozen incidents in which it said there was a safety hazard. Helms said the reports would all be investigated.

Private Survey The FAA has asked the Flight Safety Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Arlington, to STRIKE Please turn to Page 12A be ti 11 sS An IJ Board votes school lunch price boosts By JONATHAN ROOS Rtotstar Staff Wfltat Students in Des Moines public schools will pay more for school lunches this fall than they did last year under a new price schedule approved by the school board Tuesday. Board members voted to increase lunch prices for most students from 70 cents to 85 cents when school opens Aug. 27. In addition, the board approved a 20-cent jump to 40 cents for children from low-income families who qualify for reduced-price lunches. Lunch prices for adults will climb 10 cents to $1.35.

Breakfast prices were raised 5 cents, to 40 cents for students and to 60 cents for adults. But children from low-income families will pay 20 cents for breakfast, an increase of 10 cents from last school year. The cost of extra milk was increased 7 cents to 15 cents, and chocolate milk will sell for 20 cents a 5-cent increase. Board members expect the higher prices and new guidelines that reduce the number of pupils eligible for reduced-price or free lunches to cause some dropoff in the number of students who buy their meals at school. But they hope that a set of new meal options to be introduced during the year will help offset that drop.

For the first time, elementary pupils will be able to choose from among the five menu items served daily, and they may select as few as three of the dishes. And secondary students will be offered a range of more popular menu items. School officials say the meal options should make eating at school more attractive and hold down food preparation costs. The board also heard Superintendent William Anderson outline the administration's opposition to proposed tuition tax credits for families with children attending private schools, but it did not adopt a position on the issue. The board is trying to arrange a meeting with Senator Roger Jepsen a sponsor of the tuition tax credit bill in Congress.

Anderson said the tax credits would reduce the amount of money the district receives from the state and federal governments, and violate the constitutional separation of church and state. Supporters of the legislation urged the board not to take a stand against tax credits, saying it would hurt the harmony and goodwill that exist between the public and private schools in the area. Anderson said money lost to the SCHOOLS Please turn to Page 8A the index: Business 58 Movies 5A Obituaries 9C People In news 1C TV schedules 9C Ciassifie4ds 3C Comics 2C EdKoriab 10A 1 by their the weather: Clear to partly clondy throagh Tharsday. High today in apper 70s. Low in apper 50s.

High Tharsday aroand 80. Satirise 1:27, sanset 8:09. Details: Page IOC CmrWi) mi (USM I54-7M) Mmhm RittiMr Trown Cmrnm In a remarkably mild response to the bold challenge from the union, the Communist Party Politburo on Tuesday night issued a statement charging the strike was the result of "unconcealed ambitions of extremist circles of Solidarity who want to decide about the functioning of the mass media." "Those ambitions should be stopped in the interest of social peace," said the Politburo, which announced no concrete measures against the union or the strike. Unfolding Smoothly Like other strikes called by Solidarity, the printers' action appeared to be unfolding smoothly. In Kracow, printers occupied a number of printing shops Monday when members of the government-supported communist union attempted to publish a strike paper, and that southern city was consequently without newspapers Tuesday.

Other pre-emptive plant occupations took place Tuesday in Bialystok, Olsztyn and Warsaw. There were reports that POLAND Please turn to Page 2 A Air guardsmen, not kids, painted Army tank blue By ELIZABETH BALLANTINE Rvolitar Staff Wrttar The vandals who painted the Sherman tank at the entrance to Camp Dodge blue were not high school pranksters, but air guardsmen finishing a job they had started 23 years ago. During summer camp in 1958, members of the 132nd Air Defense Wing of the Iowa Air National Guard first tried to change the color of the massive weapon from Army green to Air Force blue. Angry at an adjutant general who had restricted them to base, some of the airmen took aim at the tank. When the efforts to paint it by hand were unsuccessful, the men attempted to drop paint on the tank from the cockpit of a civilian airplane.

"But our bombing skills weren't that good," recalls Col. Junior L. Lane, who was a captain that summer. "As soon as the word went out about the tank, they put out guards. When the plane approached, TANK Please turn to Page 12A "Shut up.

Just give me the money." "Listen, man," the writer said, "if you get your knee off my back and let me stand up, 111 give you the money. OK? Be cool." "All right Just don't yell" Big Mugger The writer got up stiffly and wiped the filth from his suit He turned. The mugger was bigger than him about 5 feet 10 inches tall 160 pounds. He wore a perfectly creased brown gabardine suit and a tie and you could see your face in the shine on his shoes. In his rumpled seersucker, the writer looked more like the mugger than the mugger.

Soaking wet he weighed about 125 pounds, and he wasn't about to try a fight "I don't have much money," the writer said. "You're welcome to what I have, but this is ridiculous." The mugger was calm but persist- MUGGING Please turn to Page 12A DEPENDS UPOND Des Moines, Arms funds, deficits vex Reagan team By SAUL FRIEDMAN 9 mi KiMit-RMfer Miwiininn LOS ANGELES, CALIF. -President Reagan and his high command struggled Tuesday to figure out how the nation can afford billions more for the military in the face of sinking federal revenues and budget deficits that threaten to climb higher than administration experts had expected. But the president made it clear that despite the economic problems and hardships resulting from budget cuts, he would not retreat from his plans to increase spending for the Pentagon by an estimated 81.5 trillion over the next five years. He told reporters "there is a window of vulnerability" threatening the nation and he said be intended to "close that window." As a result, Reagan ignored reports of mounting deficits that threaten to add new fuel to the fires of inflation and ordered a search for cuts in the 1983-84 budget to pay for strategic weapons systems now under consideration.

As deputy press secretary Larry Administration sources said the president's orders meant they would Speakes told reporters, the president has directed his budget and defense planners to go back to the drawing boards" to find ways to achieve the twin goals of "a balanced budget in 1984 and a strong national defense. REAGAN Please turn to Page 2 A board member Charlotte Pritcfaett "Trash! You trash! You trash!" Saadiq shouted. Friends subdued Saadiq and led him from the chambers, but he returned, yelling, then spat toward Paxton's then-empty chair. His brother Muhammed Abdulla Saadiq also shouted racial epithets. At one point, Ako Daillobe told board members the reaction reflected blacks' frustration at being ignored and slighted by the city.

Some residents pledged to pack the next meeting of the City Council, but others, including station officials, promised a court appeal No Arrests, No Charges Several police officers quickly converged on City Hall to restore order, but no arrests were made and no charges were filed. Saadiq, an unsuccessful 1177 candidate for a seat on the City Council, said later that he considered RADIO Please turn to Page iA From The Register's Wire Services WARSAW, POLAND In a move without precedent in the Soviet bloc, a printers' strike called by the Solidarity union swept Poland Tuesday, closing or disrupting most national and regional newspapers. The strike, which the union said would last for two days, was called to protest what Solidarity says is a propaganda offensive against it, and to demand expanded and regular access to the state-run television, radio and press. At a news conference here, Solidarity leaders accused the government of printing strike papers in military publishing houses. They appealed to train, truck and bus operators not to transport the striker papers, to kiosk vendors not to sell them, and to readers not to read them.

"In Our Hands" "We have the great center of propaganda in our hands," declared Eugeniusz Koscianek, a national coordinator of the strike, claiming overwhelming support from the printers. "We can take it over any time we like. The mass media can be taken over any time and be what they are supposed to be for the masses." Blue Angels may not fly in D.M. show By NICK LAMBERTO Rottstar Stall Wrttar Pentagon officials may cancel the Navy Blue Angels flight team's scheduled appearance in Des Moines next month because of adverse national publicity about evacuating a residential area near the airport Des Moines Aviation Director George Perry said Tuesday he has been told by Pentagon officials that the precision flight team may not be here for the airport's 50th anniversary celebration Sept. 19 and 20.

Show committee officials will meet today to find ways to prevent the cancellation, Perry said. Tm still saying they should be here because I have a letter of commitment saying the Blue Angels are coming to town," Perry said. That letter of commitment was received long before the announcement of the anniversary fete was made, Perry said, and long before a controversy about evacuating families for the air show came up. Last Friday, news wire services picked up stories from the Des Moines newspapers about how 120 ANGELS Please turn to Page 12A walking down the street when a dozen kids approached him and demanded his money. They weren't belligerent they just wanted all his money.

32-cent Robbery He gave them everything he had 32 cents and the bottle of soda he was drinking. But he considered that more social work on his part than a mugging on theirs. Now, here he was struggling to make a living on a failing magazine and this guy was making his seersucker suit look worse than a pair of pajamas somebody had used to wash windows. The writer had his face to the floor and there was a knee in his back. "Don't say anything," the voice behind him said.

"Give me all your money." The champagne had wiped away the writer's ability to feel fear. "Well, I can't get my hands in my pocket," he snapped. The mugger didn't want to hear it Han indicted in river parly stabbing death By NICK LAMBERTO RtVhtar Staff WrtlM A 21-year-old Nebraska man has been charged with involuntary man slaughter in the fatal stabbing of Todd Steven Brooks of Marshalltown during a party along the banks of the Missouri River in Harrison County last June 7. Named in an indictment returned Monday by the Harrison County tooo stevcn grand jury was John os P.KelleyofOmaha, Neb. Brooks' father, M.C.

"Dick" Brooks of Marshalltown, said he was upset with the charge of involuntary manslaughter. "I still think someone is getting away with murder," he said. Gerald Shanahan, chief of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and Harrison County Sheriff Merle Sass also indicated they were disappointed with the grand jury's indictment Brooks, 22, was stabbed while trying to get some sleep in a car parked under a bridge on the Iowa side of the river, officials said. Bled to Death His assailant had tried unsuccessfully to get Brooks to Join a party in progress there and, after a scuffle, Brooks was stabbed and bled to death, officials said. The indictment accuses Kelley of "unlawfully and unintentionally causing the death or Brooks "by committing a public offense an assault which was other than a forcible felony or escape." Sheriff Sasa said he is "real disappointed" with the indictment, "but I don't know what to do about it I think it was unusual, too, that the accused wasn't booked or had his fingerprints taken by us." Shanahan said that although the DCI was involved in the investigation "from the start, we weren't contacted or consulted about the indictment" Harrison County Attorney Judson L.

Frisk said charge of involuntary manslaughter "was the best deal we could come up with, based on the evidence we had and the elements needed for various crimes." Frisk said he had talked with Kelley'i attorneys, SJ. Albracht and David S. Lathrop, at least twice, but be denied there had been a plea-bargaining agreement Lathrop said notification of the in dictment was received late Monday afternoon. He said District Judge Glen McGee of Glenwood set Kelley'i bond at 110,000, with 11,000 in cash required. Kelley is scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m.

Monday at Harrison INDICT Please turn to Page 12A fpr Radio tower bid rejected; Saadiq hurls wastebasket How to survive a mugging in N.Y. By DIANE GRAHAM RtOtetar Still Wrtfw CWges of racism, a wastebasket and spittle all flew through the air Tuesday at Des Moines City Hall when a minority radio station was denied permission to install a transmitting antenna in a residential area. Backed by a standing-room-only crowd, officials for Urban Community Broadcasting Co. urged the Zoning Board of Adjustment to reconsider its July denial of a variance to allow installation of a 100-foot tower in a residential neighborhood. But when board member Paul Erickson's motion to grant the group's request failed on a 2 to 3 vote, bedlam erupted and the most ardent supporters voiced their frustration.

"You said what? Denied what?" shouted Kaloojl Saadiq, as he walked toward the board members. "You don't deny no 20,000 black citizens!" Heaves Wastebasket With that, Saadiq grabbed a nearby plastic wastebasket and heaved it toward Chairman James Paxton. The basket narrowly missed Paxton and By FRANK ROSSI mi KiMiMMMtr Newi NEW YORK, N.Y. It was maybe 3 o'clock in the morning when the writer left the party in New York's Sobo section. It was a fancy wing-ding put on by a hip couple.

The writer didn't get that kind of invitation often, so he stayed for five hours and drank a lot of champagne. He wasn't bombed, though, because he had sense enough to realize that he couldn't walk home. He hailed a cab and it brought him to his apartment in the Village. It was clear and warm. He walked down a flight of stairs into the vestibule, and be was fumbling with his keys when the sky fell in.

Somebody grabbed him by the neck and knocked him to the floor. "Rats," his wine-fogged brain thought 'Tm being mugged." Twelve years before be had been mugged sort of. In those days he was going to Columbia University and be needed an apartment. He was offered a six-room apartment for 880 a month. It was in Harlem.

One day he was.