Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 1

Refugee-laden boat ess Giants, 5-3 1 Li sinks. 68 missina 2A COO mm Wednesday October 7, 1987 35 cents Uncle admits killing family in Missouri 4A t-t Bore Reagan to press on with nomination Mostly sunny, high 83, low 39 Tuesday's smog level: 64 (moderate) Today's smog forecast: moderate Complete weather report, page 16A On page 6A Wyoming's Sen. Alan Simpson tells about a chat he had with Bork. Sen. Howell Heflin finally takes a stand.

A newspaper ad questions the ethics of several Judiciary panel members. Committee chairman Joe Biden scores some points, but loses the game. By Ronald J. Ostrow and David LauterLos Angeles Times WASHINGTON In a historic move, the Senate Judiciary Committee recommended Tuesday, by a 9-5 vote, that the Senate reject the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Robert H. Bork.

President Reagan continued to insist that he would press on with the nomination, but his spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, said that the White House was disappointed by the vote, adding: "It's tough, there's no doubt about it." The blow was sharpened for the administration by the opposition of an influential Southern conservative, Sen. Howell Heflin, D-Ala. The panel's negative vote, only the second such vote in this century, dealt a severe blow to Bork's chance of confirmation. Tom Korologos, the chief Republican lobbyist, described Bork's prospects after the action as "a long shot." "A lot of them will follow Heflin," Korologos said, referring to other Southern Democrats and specifically mentioning Sens. Sam Nunn of Georgia and Richard C.

Shelby of Alabama. "You start losing (votes) and pretty soon you run out of undecideds," he said. Sen. Bob Dole, the minority leader! said Bork told him after the vote that he "wanted us to' continue to look at the options" and promised to get back to Dole Wednesday. Dole said Bork shares his See PANEL, back page 91 plunge rocks stock market 4V "Y'l 4 '--jtfWff" i Aw- j.

I 1 only 3.47 percent on Tuesday, less than the 4.61 percent drop on Sept. 11 last year and far less than the record 12.82 percent decline on Oct. 28, 1929. That 38.33-point drop in the Dow, to a close of 260.64, marked the beginning of the Great Depression. Tuesday's sell-off was sparked in part by falling bond prices early in the day, driven down by investor fears that the Federal Reserve Board would tighten credit and raise interest rates.

Bond prices fall when interest rates rise. The decline also was triggered by concerns that recent sharp rises in bond yields would prompt institutional investors to switch money out of stocks into bonds, analyst Metz said. Yields on four-year Treasury notes rose Tuesday to the highest level in two years, attracting vigorous buying. The average yield was 9.24 percent, up from 7.89 percent at the last comparable auction on June 24. Yields of 9 percent or above on medium-term Treasury issues are "a trigger point" for pension funds and other institutional investors to increase their purchases of bonds, Metz said.

Additional selling came from big institutional investors, whose computerized trading programs gave signals to sell stocks and buy stock-index futures instead. Selling also came amid reports that some leading market prognosticators, concerned that the market was not rising with enough strength, predicted a short-term correction. Most influential was See STOCK, back page i Players optimistic strike to end soon As talks aimed at ending the National Football League's 16-day-long strike resumed Tuesday, players expressed optimism they'd soon be back to work. Gene Upshaw, head of the striking players' union, and Jack Donlan, chief negotiator for the NFL Management Council, met at an undisclosed location in their first face-to-face discussions since Sept. 25.

trhe talks followed Upshaw meeuflg vj with the 28 player representatives Monday night. "The players want to see a resolution to this process. I'll respond to those feelings," Upshaw said. And though Chicago Bears player rep Mike Singletary said he was "very optimistic" about a settlement by this weekend, New Orleans Saints president Jim Finks disagreed. "It's going to take two weeks of hard negotiations, and that's the message that should be told," Finks said.

Details, page IB. Sessions suffers relapse WASHINGTON FBI Director-designate William S. Sessions, suffering from a bleeding ulcer, suffered a relapse that sent him back to the hospital Tuesday and forced indefinite postponement of his swearing-in, FBI officials said. Sessions, a former federal judge, was hospitalized for observation and treatment in San Antonio, Texas, where he had returned after being released from a Washington hospital last Saturday. "Judge Sessions is believed to have experienced more bleeding, which is not uncommmon in these cases," said Dr.

Richard Rubio, Sessions' physician. Rubio said his patient was in stable condition at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio. He said he does not consider the illness life-threatening. Leading cause of bad air WASHINGTON Forty-eight percent of the U.S.'s cars and light trucks are spewing an "unacceptably high" amount of pollution, says a study out Tuesday. The reason: malfunctioning emissions equipment.

The result: "A prominent source of urban air pollution," says Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Thomas. EPA says owner tampering accounted for 20 percent of the violations the same as the previous year. Misfueling using leaded when a car is supposed to run on cleaner unleaded fuel created another 9 percent. Details, page 13A Massacre in Sri Lanka COLOMBO, Sri Lanka A Sinhalese village in eastern Sri Lanka was attacked Tuesday night by Tamil militiamen with axes, guns and daggers, in a massacre that left at least 38 men, women and children killed a police official said. Earlier Tuesday Tamil guerrillas killed 14 Sinhalese, including eight soldiers, in revenge for the suicide deaths of 11 Tamil militants while in police custody.

Details, page 2A. Wire service reports Inside Bridge 15C Business 9-12B Calendar 12D California 3A Classified ads 5-1 5C Comics 11D Crossword 9D Dear Abby 9D Editorials 15A Entertainment 8D Food 1-4D Health 9D Horoscope 11D Markets 10.11B Nation 4-14A Nevada 1-4C Obituaries 2C School lunch 40 Sports 1-8B Style 1-120 TV tog 10D Vitals 2C Weather 16A World 2A Copyright, 1987 Reno Newspapers, Inc. A Gannett newspaper -fr WALL OF FLAME: A Los Angeles firefighter is silhouetted early Tuesday morning in the downtown section of the city as he battles a transformer station fire that left about 37,000 customers without power. Details, page 3A. Bullfrog commissioners oppose nuke dump, plan to visit county Interest-rate fears, pessimism fuel massive sell-off By Bill SingLos Angeles Times Fears of rising interest rates and pessimistic forecasts by some leading market analysts prompted a major sell-off in the stock market Tuesday.

The Dow Jones average of 30 industrial stocks fell 91.55 points, its biggest one-day point drop ever. The fall in the Dow, to a close of 2,548.63, was yet another indication of how investor uncertainty has triggered sharp point swings in that key market index. Investors appear to be increasingly fickle, alternating between fears of an impending bear market and optimism that the 5-year-old bull market still has a lot of life left. Only two weeks ago, on Sept. 22, the Dow set an all-time record for a single-day gain, soaring 75.23 points amid optimism that interest rates might not rise as much as had been feared.

"It's late in the (bull) market, and a lot of people are very nervous," said Michael Metz, "market strategist at the Wall Street firm of Oppenheimer in explaining Tuesday's decline. The 91.55-point fall surpassed the previous record single-day decline of 86.61 points set Sept. 11, 1986. Then, as was the case Tuesday, the sell-off was fueled by bad news on interest rates and by computer-driven stock-selling programs initiated by big institutional investors. But on a percentage basis, the Dow fell Bullfrog County Gazette-Journal up for slot cheat and their underwriter argued the bond only guaranteed Vaccaro would appear in court when required.

They vowed to appeal the forfeiture decision. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Sullivan said one of the conditions of Vaccaro's bond was that he not commit any federal, state or local crimes. However, Vaccaro protested in court he has been charged with commiting crimes while on bond, but he hasn't been found guilty of those charges. The firm that insured Vaccaro's bond, Spencer Douglass Insurance Associates of San Francisco, would have to stop backing bonds for defendants accused of federal crimes if their "good behavior" has to be guaranteed, an official with the company testified.

See JUDGE, back page Nevada I Nye I County 270 mlkwVV 1 I between Ov. I Carson City A i I and VNrV Bullfrog County 1 Las aw XV1 Vegas I Associated Press ing their heads over how to notify the pub lie of future meetings in compliance with Nevada's Open Meeting Law. That's because the 144-square-mile county, with one dirt road and no structures, has nothing in it on which to post a meeting notice. Notices for Tuesday's meeting were posted in the county seat, Carson City, 270 miles from Bullfrog County, and in other state locations. The commissioners, chairman Mike Melner, a Reno attorney, and Eisenberg and David Powell, both of Las Vegas, talked about scheduling a trip to visit the county for the first time.

During their 90-minute meeting, the See BULLFROG, back page while on bail, in violation of the conditions of his bond. Vaccaro is charged with racketeering, including drug dealing and extortion, in a Los Angeles grand jury indictment returned last May. Federal officials also claim the 47-year-old Las Vegas businessman Vaccaro is a soldier in the Los Angeles family of La Cosa Nostra. During the federal investigation that led to the indictment, Vaccaro was free on bail pending the appeal of his 1985 conviction for heading the largest slot-cheating ring in U.S. history.

He recently lost that appeal. Attorneys for theaitbond companies WW 1 By Laura MyersGazette-joumai CARSON CITY Bullfrog County commissioners met for the first time Tuesday and agreed to oppose a nuclear dump in their county. Then they admitted they've never been to Bullfrog County. "I've been to the (Nevada) Test Site and I believe I drove past the county, but I've never been in it," said Commmis-sioner Dorothy Eisenberg, a former lobbyist for the Nevada League of Women Voters who wore a small bullfrog pin to the meeting. "We're all in a very strange position.

There's certainly no other county in Nevada with no people." Along with passing a resolution opposing the federal high-level nuclear waste dump, the commissioners were scratch Climb in interest rates slows, page 12B Justices tredding warily over issue of school prayer By Tony MauroGannett News Service WASHINGTON Supreme Court justices seemed anxious to avoid the thorny issue of school prayer Tuesday as they heard arguments over New Jersey's law that calls for a moment of silence to start the day in public schools. Instead of debating the issue of whether the law unconstitutionally fosters religion, most of the hour-long hearing was taken up with a procedural issue in the case. The tenor of the discussion suggested the case watched by several states with similar laws may not produce a definitive ruling on church-state relations. In court papers, Connecticut, Arizona, Delaware, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada and New Mexico asked for a ruling because they had laws like New Jersey's. A decision in the case could come any time before next July.

Nevada's law, which went into effect in 1977, calls for a moment of silence in public schools. It requires every teacher in all public school grades to set aside at least 30 seconds a day when everyone must be silent. Most schools schedule it at the beginning of the day. There haven't been any complaints about the law, said Nevada Superintendent of Public Instruction Eugene Pas-lov. "Nothing has changed," Paslov said Tuesday.

"But if the court rules that a moment of silence is unconstitutional I'm sure there will be some changes." The 1982 New Jersey law called for the moment of silence for "quiet and private contemplation and introspection" without mentioning prayer. But New Jersey teacher Jeffrey May challenged it, and it See SCHOOL, back page Judge revokes bond TV star put By Lenita PowersGazette-Journal Slot cheat John Vaccaro's $350,000 bond, most of it put up by television star and former pro-football player Fred Dryer, was ordered forfeited Tuesday by a federal judge in Reno. After hearing arguments from attorneys for the bail bond companies and Vaccaro to set aside the forfeiture, U.S. Magistrate Phyllis Halsey Atkins took the issue under submission and will decide later. A federal prosecutor argued Vaccaro's bail should be forfeit because the Las Vegas businessman is accused of committing crimes while he was free on bond pending the appeal of a 1985 slot-cheating conviction.

Atkins declared the bond forfeit, saying the government had shown probable cause Vaccaro committed other crimes 0.