The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 2

'il-2 Pittsburgh Press, Dec. 8, 1977 State In High Esteem, Junket Discussion Shows Shapp vetoed the first bill, noting that it would set a bad precedent, but the legislature overrode that veto. The Shapp administration took the matter to court, but Commonwealth Court technically upheld the legislature's position and the matter is still pending before the state Supreme Court. At this taxpayer-paid junket attended by lawmakers from Pennsylvania and nine other states, this topic yester-. day could have thrust Pennsylvania in.

the national limelight. House Speaker K. Leroy Irvis, Pittsburgh, and Rep. Max Pievsky, D-Philadelphia, were scheduled as panel participants to help tell the Pennsylvania story. But Irvis canceled his trip plans and warned all other House members, including Pievsky, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, they wouldn't be reimbursed if they headed for the Caribbean sea.

The speaker needed all available Democratic hands back in Harrisburg to try another time to increase the personal and corporate net income taxes to provide state funds committed to the universities. That was a bone-chilling prospect for the Pennsylvania junketeers who spent their last official day here in sunny, high 80-degree weather at either the hotel's tennis courts or the beach. With five Pennsylvania senators checked in at the Frenchmen's Reef Hotel, overlooking the Caribbean or the Atlantic Ocean, any one of them or' their aides could have filled in at the panel discussion yesterday. But no one thought until too late to amend the agenda at the head table to. replace Irvis and "Pievsky" as the; speakers.

At the last minute, Zemprelli and Russell R. Davis, chief counsel for: House Democrats, spoke from the floor about the reasons the Pennsylvania legislature gave itself the power to determine how federal funds would be i spent in the states. i 5 The state junketeers are Ed-; ward P. Zemprelli, D-Clalrton, Qucntin Orlando, D-Erie," and Craig Lewis, D-Bucks County. The taxpayers, through a specific 'appropriation for such junkets in the stale budget, are, paying their expenses, while two other "senators, Democrat W.

Louis Coppersmith of Johnstown and Republican W. Thomas Andrews of New Castle, are here at their own expense, Zemprelli later said delegates from other states also were intrigued by the special financial package Pennsylvania arranged to entice Volkswagen to open an auto assembly plant near New Westmoreland County. The 'lawmakers and aides this week showed little concern about the progress House leaders were making in mustering sufficient votes to pass the tax increase, bill. -'Rather than checking with their taxpayer-paid telephone call privileges, they asked this reporter for the latest daily budget news. The junket to St.

Thomas paled by comparison to previous legislative sojourns, to exotic, "warm spots at.Jhe height of the winter season. Gifts dropped off in trie rooms from accommodating lobbyists weren't what they used to be, compliments of the Frenchmen's Reef, those attending the conference were given a plastic air travel bag, containing some promotional stuff about the Virgin Islands. It also held five miniature bottles of booze, Capricci Parfum, Monsieur de Givenchy after shave lotion and Eau De Calandre Paco Rabanne whatever that is. First Pennsylvania Bank, the largest in Philadelphia, gave each delegate a pewter plaque showing the Liberty Bell and the declaration: First Pennsylvania Bank. Gold jewelry was supposed to be a big bargain here and cigarettes certainly were at tobacco shop at the Frenchmen's Reef" $2.90 a carton and all you could buy, smoke, or stuff in your suitcase.

By PATRICK BOVLE Press Staff Correspondent ST. THOMAS, Virgin Islands The entire Northeastern United States may be in trouble because it is looking to Pennsylvania, a state that can't pass a jC budget, for new S-CThe, received a small pat on pack, yesterday during one of. the Kurd discussions at the annual meeting it; the eastern regional conference of Council of State Government. T8e subject was the disbursement of 'Inderal funds by the legislature rather ttan-by the governor, as was the praecipe, for years in Jlarrisburg.v the legislators, mainly because" didn't trust Gov. Milton J.

Shapp, tossed a bill in 1976 directing federal iifid Earmarked (of Pennsylvania to ktfc dished out by them. fcfor pt, 'M i Gulf Exec Says He Refused AN6 Contest' Plea On Principle Aw i 1 i f. i -m Lv viz v'-, W) ft.v A SS 4 KM Presi Pholo by Michiel Chikirii THE 36TH ANNIVERSARY of the Civil Air Patrol was celebrated with an open house by Coraopolis Composite Squadron 603 yesterday in the gym of the 911th Air Force T.A.G. Reserve base at Greater Pittsburgh Airport. The CAP was founded Dec.

1, right are Charles Christopher, 12, of Dan Dunkle, 16, of Bethel Park; of and Tom Feeney, 14, all members of the CAP, and Tim Moon Township, a visitor. "How in the world with my back ground could I think I was doing anything wrong," Standefer said. Citing his attendance at "hundreds of functions throughout the world where we would entertain government officials," Standefer, who started as an accounting clerk with Gulf in 1947, said no one ever told him the practicewas wrong or illegal In more than a week of testimony, the government has claimed Standefer violated federal law by picking up the expenses of Niederberger, an IRS supervisor of Gulf audits, in connection with five golfing vacations between 1971 and 1974. The defense position has been that the trips were social in nature and Standefer paid the bills because of "As time went by," recalled Standefer yesterday, "Cy and I became more and more friendly. "I can say that I'm his friend," the Gulf executive insisted, "particularly his golfing friend." Assistant U.S.

Attorney Craig McKay yesterday tried to show that Niederberger's real friend at Gulf was Joseph F. Fitzgerald, who worked' under Standefer and had known the IRS supervisor since 1945. The entertainment of Niederberger and other members of the IRS was a Gulf policy at least since his arrival in 1966, Standefer testified. "Rapport with the IRS was very "poor," said Standefer and his Gulf superiors "indicated to me that I was to correct that." He. noted that the IRS was behind in auditing Gulf books and records for a 10-year period, causing the corporation fit i -it i jfj, If, Jy Turk Scales To xThe-TruthH! many unnecessary problems.

"No one can realize the terrible tension that builds up on one of these audits," said Standefer. One of the policies carried out by Standefer to "relieve the tension" was periodic breaks away from, auditing business for Gulf-paid lunches, dinner or occasional golf outings, he testified. "People could get out on the golf course and realize that people didn't have horns" was the way Standefer put it to the jurors yesterday, Among yesterday's defense witnesses was Fitzgerald, 60, a Gulf tax manager who testified that he had earlier pleaded "no contest" in connection with the same golf outings only because he couldn't deny he used his expense account to pay Niederberger's tab. But Fitzgerald, who is awaiting sentence, claimed he had not intended to improperly influence Niederberger's audit of the Gulf books and records dating back to 1960. 1 Niederberger, who was convicted last February in connection with taking the trips, set up shop with a team of IRS auditors in the Gulf Building in 1970 and supervised the tax examination of Gulf through 1974.

Last week, government Introduced a 1974 report by Niederberger and suggested that it was prompted by the Gulf-paid outings and other gratuities. The report allegedly ended an IRS investigation into a clandestine political slush fund that was later found to have dispensed nearly $10 million over a dozen years. Standefer and Fitzgerald have denied knowing anything about the fund at the time of the report. fa' Press Pholo by. Robert J.

Payuch i. u. wt a 1 1 UK I Ljtl iX; i By JAMES McCARRON A Gulf Oil Corp. executive told a jury today he could have avoided his trial by pleading "no contest," but he was raised "to fight for what I believe in." Fred W. Standefer, 53, a Gulf vice president for corporate tax administration, testified in U.S.

District Court that he bad done nothing wrong by picking up the expenses of an IRS supervisor here. "I am not guilty," Standefer told the jury. "At no time did anyone ever indicate to me that what I was doing was wrong," said Standefer, who has headed the Gulf tax department here since 1966. What he did, Standefer' agreed, was to pick up the expense tabs for IRS agents at lunches, dinners and other company-paid functions, including the five golf vacations he has been charged with illegally providing to IRS supervisor Cyril J. Niederberger.

Standefer claimed that although he was offered a "no contest" plea by the government which would have been "an easy way out," he determined to bring his case before a jury because he had acted without any guilty intent. His attorney, Harold Gondelman, repeatedly asked Standefer, quoting from the nine-count indictment, whether he, had intended on each of the Niederberger golfing trips to provide "a fee, compensation or reward which was not prescribed by law for the performance of Niederberger's duties as an Internal Revenue agent." "Absolutely not," Standefer answered each time, An apparently puzzled Standefer noted: "Many of my expense accounts when I entertained IRS agents were approved by my superiors." Led by Gondelman's questioning the defendant recalled that United States presidents had been entertained by. other companies, at Gulf outings, and generals at grouse hunting junkets without being prosecuted. Returning to a local level, Standefer remarked that Gulf-paid Christmas parties and other events were not limited to IRS agents, but were given for government employees at all levels. "One day we'd have a party for the Democrats and the next day 'for the Republicans so that we'd show no par tiality," Standefer said.

City Officials' Oaths Jan. 3 Mayor Richard Caliguiri and four newly elected city councilmen will be sworn in Jan. 3, one day later than specified by the City Charter. The ceremonies were moved back because Jan. 2 is a city holiday.

Caliguiri will take the oath of office at noon in the rotunda of the City-County Building. The councilmen will be sworn in at 10 a.m. in council chambers. Judge Not Partner In Law Practice City school solicitor Justin Johnson, whose resignation was reported in yes-. terday's editions of The Press, notes that the private law practice of John son and Johnson is not shared any longer with his brother, Common Pleas Judge Livingstone Johnson.

Abiding by the law, Livingstone Johnson left the firm when he was appointed to the bench in 1973, his brother said today. For years when he was playing at the Point View Hotel in Brentwood with the jazz group that included Tommy Turk, Reid Jaynes, Harry Bush and Dick Brosky, said Flo Cassinelli, customers would ask him, "Why don't you guys make an album?" They couldn't- be bothered. Then came the decade of rock and roll, and Turk, the star trombonist, moved to Las Vegas, where house bands were hiring musicians, and the issue became moot. But off and on since early last summer the group has been together again at Nino's East on Route 30, all except Brosky, and one day Cassinelli said to the others, "Let's go ahead and, do it. Let's make that album." Recorded live by Asterik, a Wilkins-burg company, it is now in the music houses and hi-fi centers.

With Cassinelli on sax, Jaynes on piano, Bush on bass and John Schmidt on drums in place of Brosky, it features Turk, who named the album himself he called it "The- SrK It ii KiitiiajiM and designed the jacket. They play the old favorites "'A' Train, "Hindustan." "Satin Doll" -and play them better than they did' in the '50s. "Oh, sure we do," Cassinelli was saying. "Oh, hell yes. Back then we had more power, but now we have more experience.

The mistakes we make, if you know what I mean, sound all right now." For those of us who are getting along, that's a comforting thought. At any rate, says Cassinelli," their audiences have been infiltrated with young people, especially young musicians. "They come out and they listen and they say, 'Boy, I wish I could do and I tell them, 'The only way you can is to get a pile of years on you and practice practice every Tommy Turk named the album because it strikes him that only the old music is true music. The hyphen in was a misprint Turk doesn't know how it got there but the exclamation points 1 Si 'U Avenue Bridge, to be replaced with a new $2.5 million span, and the Charti-ers Creek Bridge near the McKees Rocks line, being rebuilt. Inspectors found that some of the main beams of the Ellsworth Avenue Bridge were so corroded they contained holes more than four inches long about half the width of the beams.

Public Works Director John Ruff said the bridge was still strong enough to support pedestrian traffic. Buses once traveled over the bridge from Oakland to East Liberty, but they have been routed around the bridge for several years. The bridge was recommended for permanent closing several years ago by some city planners. Ruff said his department and the city Planning Department would be studying whether the bridge should be replaced. 1941.

Left to Findlay Greg Yenchi, 13, of Coraopolis, Reinsel, 9, of Roy A JMctlUQh iColumnifit-it-largf are his own. Going from left to right, the size of the letters in the title increases, giving it the approximate shape of a horn. "It blares," as Turk says. At 50, Tommy Turk is a man with great reverence for the past. One recent night between sets, he spoke of his "biggest thrill in life" an encounter 30 years ago with Tommy Dorsey.

"I was touring with the 'Jazz at the Philharmonic' unit," Turk said. "It was either in Dallas or Fort Worth -they're close together and Tommy Dorsey was there with the big band." Accompanied by Buddy Rich, the drummer, and Flip Phillips, another musician, Turk went to hear Dorsey play. "He found out we were in the crowd," Turk said, "so he called us up to the bandstand. Tommy was a great one for that. "First he called Buddy Rich up.

Then Flip. I figured I was the junior member. Nobody knew me. I was fresh out of the Army. So he brought Buddy up, he brought Flip up, and he saved me for last.

"He said, 'Ladies and gentlemen, I never have met this man. but 1 want to. His father and my father were coal miners from He said, 'Let's meet Tommy and my knees were knocking. "I had a new horn, a French Selmer horn, which was the best horn made, the most expensive horn. I was taking it out of the case and Tommy said, 'No play my and that was my biggest thrill in life.

He gave me this horn engraved all the way around the bell and he said to me, 'Tom, it's your Turk can no longer remember the names of the tunes he played. "I was too flabbergasted." he said. "I played one set and everybody in the trombone section told me it was an impossibility for Tommy Dorsey to let me do that. They said, 'He doesn't like other trombone I was in complete ecstasy." "How good was Tommy Dorsey?" I asked Tommy Turk. "Much better than people give him credit for.

Tommy couldn't play what we're playing here, I have to be honest. He'd sound like a donkey, because he wasn't a jazz player. But he was the best control player of all. Frank Sinatra modeled his singing after the way Tommy Dorsey played a trombone. Frank Sinatra copied Dorsey's breathing." So he did.

And Tommy Turk fused the elements of Dorsey's style with everything else he had learned and would pick up later. It's The Pittsburgh Press Scnpos-Hownd Nitwspacw runnnl otfirM 34 8nijlnvd of th Allms Pittsburgh Pa 1H230 0lv. $1 20 wink: Sunday 50 null a Mail in in fust and snrnnri postal zonfs whuia than it no r.ama rtnlivatv Daily -orw month $4 SO nn yaw $4 7 Sunday on month. $4 so. ona yn.

Uui poalag coat buynnd wr.ond zona Oaih and Sunday Mcnnrfcla" yf oostaoe paid at Pittsburgh ps "VV" sifclrnntinn latanhorw '4 1 2S3 131? i uin 2 SINKING THEIR TEETH into their ethnic background studies are Claudia Szot, 16, sampling German oil cakes, and Sandra Vernau, 17, trying Polish, stuffed cabbage. They were two of the gifted students at Brentwood High School who took part in a food festival yesterday as part of their studies on students' roots and backgrounds. The Family Circus It Happened Dec. 8 Tommy Turk's professional high was meeting Tommy Dorsey. City To Close Rotting East Liberty Bridge JOHN PLACE tVAVMVAkUM 4 FIVE YEARS AGO Life magazine, pioneer weekly in photo journalism said it was suspending publication because of continuing losses and a heavy increase in postal rates Westinghouse landed a contract worth more than $100 million to build two nuclear power plants in Michigan.

in years Ann The city will close the Ellsworth nrcuuc uiiyi in i-iai Liiuri ly dil cars and other vehicles on Monday because of major "structural deterioration." The bridge is the third to be closed this year after inspections by the city's new bridge inspection team disclosed them to be structurally unsound. Previously closed were the Herron AMiamiA Urifina in n't 1 in ill FOP President Joseph Stanek said morale on the city police force was "very low" after council refused to grant a pay increase Countv Property and Supplies Director John M. Appel said the Courthouse carillon would 1 Christmas 1 SHOPPLM6 ms s'Wiy iniamonai tnnsimas music hut no pop songs. 25 YEARS AGO The Defense Department ordered the induction of 537 physicians and 2D6 dentists the upcoming draft call Slate police led by Corp. Paul O'Mara raided the Barbout ub at Kinloch, just outside New Kensington, "which once played host to the cream of the underworld." 50 YEARS AGO Henry Ford was reported to have "reached into the pants pocket of his motor company for $100 million to make a new auto and assure a flivver in pvcrv fDmih, rv.

fh lflin 'tbun iW fa or 'Dear iuiiiiij jjcuaajc vfi Mr cLhes tra leader Paul Wh'ten, appearing with a vaudeville show in Cleveland, signed a "fat contract" to broadcast over network radio. "Should I say 'Dear Santa Clous'?".