The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 4

Pittsburgh Press, Sept. 12, 1975 New Soviet I ft fl I 1 3 V--7 If I --i -V-tf i tp mmmm Grain Deal In Works By DON KIRKMAN Scripps-Howard Staff Writer WASHINGTON The U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) says the United- States definitely will make another massive grain sale to the Soviet Union. The sale may be consummated by American and Russian negotiators next month and call for American farmers to provide eight million metric tons of wheat, corn and barley from this year's all-time bumper crop. ONE OF THE POSSIBILITIES being explored by the administration is a swap of American grain for Soviet oil.

President Ford outlined such a plan yesterday, and American negotiators in Moscow have been instructed to present it to the Russians, now the world's largest oil producer. According to Assistant Agriculture Secretary Richard E. Bell, the Russians need at least 25 million tons i of grain to make up the serious grain shortage created this summer by the drought that parched the Western Ukraine and Volga River basin. far, they have managed to buy about 17 million tons from the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina and Brazil. About 10.2 million tons of that were sold "by American grain dealers this summer before the White House ordered sales halted until U.S.

crops were harvested. Because there's no possibility the Russians can buy the other eight million tons they need elsewhere, they must turn to the United States, Bell said. HE SAID THE AMERICAN harvest Is proceeding now amid indications farmers have produced a record 240 million tons of wheat, corn, oats, barley and rye. That's 34 million tons of grain above the previous record in 1971. So the Ford administration now sees no reason why American grain dealers can't sell another big part of their crop to the Russians, Bell said.

The only two areas of disagreement between American and Russian negotiators are the freight rates the Russians will have to pay American shipping companies for hauling grain to the Soviet Union, and American insistence that the Russians become regular purchasers of American grain, Bell said. BELL ALSO SAID the USDA's estimate of the 1975 crop is a little under its optimistic summer forecasts, but still reflects an outstanding year. The corn crop now being harvested should hit a record 5,687 million -Press Photo by Michael Chlklrli NOW LET ME THINK A MINUTE No doubt you'll react the same way Patty Becker of Models Unlimited did when faced with some of the intriguing clues which will show up in that exciting new game "Play $1776." Watch for the entry coupon and complete details on "Play $1776" in Sunday's Press. Student Loan Fraud Hinted By CARL WEST Scripps-Howard Staff Writer WASHINGTON Health, Education and Welfare bushels. Most of the wheat crop already has been harvested, Bell said, and should total a record 2,136 million bushels.

Department (HEW) officials today began untangling what may be the largest single cheating scandal in the 10-year history of the federally insured studenraoan program. It involves nearly $7 million in possibly.fraudulent federally guaranteed loans made to students who may have been no more than fictitious names of six privately owned Los Angeles trade and technical schools known as the West Coast Schools. HEW OFFICIALS SAY the loans were made by the schools, which then "sold" the notes to 20 financial institutions, mostly credit unions, who are responsible for collecting on the loans. But HEW officials are questioning whether the "students" ever existed or, if they did, ever attended classes. The six schools have closed and their owner is the target of a federal grand jury investigation.

The 20 financial institutions have filed claims for federal reimbursement of $2 million for loans they say are in default. HEW officials fear $5 million more may turn out to be in default. HEW says if it determines the loans are fraudulent It will not compensate the financial institutions be iiiiiis xscaami i cause they are required by law to determine the validity of loans they buy from the original lender, in this case the trade schools. HEW SAYS IT IS not obligated to repay a student Farmers also had excellent oats, barley, sorghum, soybeans, rice, rye, sugarbeets and tobacco crops, Bell reported. The only crop to fall below expectations was cotton, down 19 per cent from last year.

Sadat Fighting Soviet Pressure By ALAN HORTON Scripps-Howard Staff Writer WASHINGTON Russia, working behind the scenes, is doing its best to topple President Anwar Sadat by applying political pressure throughout the Middle East. Sadat's angry denunciation of the Soviet Union as a faithless ally earlier this week told the world that he is fully aware of Soviet efforts. i' SENIOR U.S. OFFICIALS cite these late intelligence reports as evidence of the Russian effort to undermine Sa4at: The Egyptian Communist Party, though still Illegal, has issued a manifesto damning Sadat. Moscow has revoked invitations to 65 Egyptian students who were to start military training in Russia and has ordered 10 Russian and 15 Czech tech- ticians who teach at the Egyptian Technical Military Academy to pack their bags and head for Libya.

Russia also has enpouraged SjTjia and various Palestinian groups to denounce Sadat. Publicly, Moscow has charged that the new Interim agreement between Egypt and Israel sold out Syria and the Palestinians. But Russia has not leveled personal invectives at Sadat publicly, only behind the scenes. RUSSIA WAS STUNG by the success of American efforts to reach an interim settlement and by Sadat's turn toward the West and would like to undermine the interim settlement or at least prevent another one on the Golan Heights between Israel and Syria. Toppling Sadat could accomplish both aims, analysts said.

But Moscow also wants to maintain detente and dares not openl sabotage U. S. Mideast peace efforts, State Welfare Fund Running Out 4 The State Department of Public Welfare will have to apply for its own relief check next spring. So said its secretary, Frank S. Beal, who has been visiting here the past two days.

1 Beal said yesterday the Welfare Department is 1 going to run out of money early next year and will need about $100 million more from the legislature to I get through the current fiscal year, which ends next June 30. He noted that the legislature appropriated $77 mil-1 lion less than the department had requested, okaying about $907 million in all, and at the same time directed that relief grants be increased 7 per cent as of this month. loan in which the holder of the promissory note failed to check its validity. "The financial Institutions are going to have to "eat" the largest part of these loans," Ken Kohl, associate comjnissioner in HEW's Office of Guaranteed Student Loans, told Scripps-Howard Service. HEW has repaid only $156,000 of the nearly $7 million of loans made through the now-defunct schools.

It says a major hangup has been that when the schools closed in 1973 their owner, identified as Fred Peters, vanished along with all the schools' records. HEW says Peters was arrested recently in California on charges of having an illegal passport. HEW says it now has access to the West Coast Schools' records and hopes to know within a few weeks the magnitude of the case. Meanwhile, HEW has told the lending institutions that it is not satisfied with what they've done to deter' mine if the loans were valid. 'Plastic' Attorney Conflict Claimed By ROBERT McHUGH The Shadyside Action Coalition said today its next move against the controversial Fantastic Plastic nightclub will be the filing of formal conflict of interest charges against the club's attorney.

Coalition President Robert Dilts said the charges will be filed with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's disciplinary board against attorney Frank A. McFer-ran Jr. McFerran, in addition to serving as attorney for the club at 4650 Centre Oakland, recently was named president of the nightclub corporation. He also serves as attorney for the bank trust which controls the building leased to the nightclub. Is McFERRAN DENIED the conflict of Interest' charges, saying it's "rather commonplace" for an attorney to represent both parties to an agreement.

The attorney also confirmed that a liquor license for the nightclub is "under active consideration and it's quite likely that we will make an application soon." The club, which has been opposed for more than years by city officials and Shadyside-Oakland civic groups, now operates on Friday and Saturday nights only on a bring-your-own-bottle basis with no dancing permitted. McFerran said that, starting next week, the club will be open Wednesday and Thursday evenings also. The coalition made its conflict of interest charges following a private meeting today among coalition members, McFerran and two other members of his law firm and nightclub owner John Morrow of Florida. Wilkinsburg Rail Stop I DESPITE THE BOOST In welfare checks, Beal laid those on welfare have not been able to keep up with rising living costs. Indeed, he said, they are even now drawing enough to meet only 80 per cent of the state's own minimum standards of health and decency.

Meanwhile, Beal added, hospital costs in Pennsylvania have risen so much 17 per cent in the first six months of this year alone that the Welfare Department is working to meet the escalating costs of its Medicaid program. He said the department has pressured hospitals Into reducing average stays of Medicaid patients and is trying to root out needless use of costly tests, over-prescribing of drugs and padded doctor bills. But the cost of the program is still enormous. II i House Creates Panel To End, Amtrak Says To Investigate MIAs (3km mi ii IK If i Preu Washington lurtau WASHINGTON Amtrak announced today Its passenger trains will stop serving Wilkinsburg effective Sunday, because of lack of patronage. The National Limited has been making a westbound flag stop at Wilkinsburg at 10:17 p.m.

and an eastbound stop at 7:42 a.m. Those trains run between New York and St. Louis via Pittsburgh. An Amtrak spokesman said only 128 passengers boarded or detrained at the Wilkinsburg stop in the first six months of this year, which was the lowest patronage of the 457 stations served by the system. He said Amtrak requires a minimum of 180 passengers per month to maintain a flag stop.

4 WASHINGTON (UPI)-The House created a select committee to investigate U.S. military and civil-Ian personnel still officially listed as missing in action In Southeast Asia. The 10-member committee was created yesterday cn a 394-3 vote and will have a mandate to report its findings back to the House within a year. The panel's jurisdiction covers not only MIAs but 'an inquiry into "known dead whose bodies have not been recovered" and "the need for additional international inspection teams to determine whether there i are servicemen still held as prisoners of war." PARK FREE any 3 hours at Glmbels Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m: purchase or more at Gimbels Melton Square and have your parking ticket validated a any service desk.

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