Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 1

ill 0 pecoaii piroseciLflroir wo probe baulk loa loans "did not resolve all factual and legal Issues." Curran's task will be to investigate the handling of $6.5 million in loans made to the Carter family peanut warehouse by the National Bank of Georgia in 1975 and 1976, when former budget director Bert Lance, a close Carter friend, was serving as bank president. Lance has been under investigation by a federal grand Jury in Atlanta looking into his Special, page 5, col. 4 WASHINGTON (AP) Attorney General Griffin B. Hell announced today the appointment of Paul J. Curran, a Republican lawyer from New York, as special counsel to conduct an Investigation into bank loans made to President Carter's family peanut business by the National Hank of Georgia.

Curran, a former U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York, will have powers and responsibilities that fall Just short of those of the special prosecutor who handled the Investigation of the Watergate scandal. Justice Department officials said the final decision on whether indictments will be sought In the case would remain with Assistant Attorney General Philip B. Heymann, head of the Justice Department's criminal division. The department said that if Heymann ultimately overrules Curran, "the matter would be fully reported to the public and the Congress." white House press secretary Jody Powell said the naming of the special counsel "will provide reassurance the matter will be handled In an expeditious manner." "Neither the president nor anyone representing the president conferred with or advised the attorney general on this matter," Powell told reporters.

The decision to appoint a special counsel came In response to mounting pressure from Congress and the public. "It Is in the best interest of the administration of Justice and the public's perception of the fairness and impartiality of justice that an independent special counsel be appointed," Bell said The attorney general said the department's Investigation into the Carter family business List denies agreement with energy official Evening Gazette Reno Reno, Nevada, Tuesday, March 20, 1979-20 A Gannett Newspaper )J-S By SUSAN STOOKEY Tin U.S. Department of Energy said Monday Gov. Robert List has agreed to let the agency consider burying nuclear waste near the Nevada Test Site in Southern Nevada. But List, when questioned, denied any knowledge of an agreement.

Troy Wade, deputy manager of the Nevada Operations office for the energy department, said, "We have an agreement with the governor that if we find no place on the Nevada Test Site (suitable for nuclear waste disposal), he would consider allowing us to look off the test site in Southern Nevada for suitable geology." When asked for details about the agreement, List denied any knowledge of it. Thinking there might have been a past agreement of which he is unaware, List said he asked his aide, Bill Phillips, to' check into it. "Phillips talked to them and confirmed the fact there is no agreement," List said. "Basically, the situation is they have indicated from the beginning that if for some reason they can't locate an acceptable storage site on the Nevada Test Site, then to explore the possibility of putting it elsewhere in Southern Nevada." But he added there has been no commitment on his part to let the government look at land off the test site. Wade could not be reached this morning to respond to List's denial that an agreement exists.

The Nevada Test Site already is used as a disposal site for some types of nuclear waste. Although the federal government denies the waste presents health hazards, a controversy is brewing about that subject among some Nevada residents. The energy department would look at other federal land for a wastes disposal site, but might also look at private land, Wade said in a telephone interview Monday. A study is now going on at the test site honeycombed from numerous underground nuclear tests to decide if the area could safely hold wastes from commercial nuclear plants. Where to put the growing national stockpile of commercial and military nuclear garbage is a decision that has been pending for a number of years, causing controversy across the nation.

In recent weeks, talk of locating the radiation dump site at Nevada's nuclear testing site has been revived and given impetus by the following developments: Revived negotiations for a Nuclear, page 5, col. 1 Story Page 40 CETA job trainees count bathrooms and catch dogs 'Columbia' takes off NASA's second space shuttle, "Columbia" takes an early morning test flight today atop it's 747 mother ship as a chase plane trails behind during a 50-minute flight to check tiles on its heat shield. Weather conditions have delayed the space shuttle's flight to Cape Canaveral, Fla. for its launch Into space later this year. (AP photo) City gathers records for grand jury working as a radio dispatcher for a communications firm, she fell off her chair onto a concrete floor, breaking a disc and cutting off the nerves to her right leg.

Surgery and a two-year layoff restored the feeling in her right leg and, except for heavy lifting, her ability to work. But no one would hire the attractive, red-haired lady. "No one would look at me even though I carried around a statement that they wouldn't be responsible for my back injury should it recur. They still wouldn't hire me." Desperate, she went to Nancy Reed, a CETA job counselor, who put her in touch with Jim Scott, who was handling CETA programs in the city's personnel department. He placed her as a "sewer collection inspector trainee" under CETA Title VI, "special projects" allotment tor "Public Service Employment." "So CETA actually gave me a chance to go back to work when nobody else would touch me," she said.

"I like CETA for that reason. It gives a person an opportunity to go on a job where experience would otherwise be needed. Whereas, you usually walk in and they say, 'What experience have you Of course, few people have experience in utility fixture counting and that's the rub for Mrs. Cates. As she said in a whispered aside laughing at her own predicament, "What kind of job experience is counting Johns?" Actually, there is more to being a sewer collection fee trainee than meets the eye.

Mrs. Cates spent nine weeks in the office learning the paperwork and reporting procedures. She went around one week with a veteran licensing inspector to learn her field work. Then she was on her own. CETA, page 8, col.

1 EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third of a four-part series on Washoe County's federally funded Job training program. CETA, an acronym for the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, was passed to help solve the country's high unemployment rate. This series of stories examines the program's history in Washoe County. By DOUG MCMILLAN Ruth Cates counts bathroom fixtures for a living. She is a CETA employee.

Her employer is the City of Reno, which hired her with federal funds from the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973. Her goal is to count every sink, tub, shower, toilet, urinal, garbage disposal and drain in every commercial building in the city. The city sewer use fee division is using her surveys to revise sewer fees to a "pay-for-what-you-get" formula based on the actual number of water-using fixtures a business has. Mrs. Cates Is wondering about her future.

She has not finished counting Reno's commercial bathroom fixtures, but her temporary CETA job is drawing to a close. Unless she is hired as a permanent city employee, she will be right back where she started 13 months ago looking for a job to support herself and her 5-year-old grandson, Jason. There were trying times for the 43-year-old grandmother before she found CETA. "I've worked since I was 8 years old," she said. Her record was the kind employers usually love.

In 20 years of steady employment, she changed jobs only four times. "So I'm not beyond working," she said. But the last job change shattered her spine and nearly shattered her life. In a freak accident, have no knowledge of attempts by other councilmen to exert such an influence. When asked whether he had received any such complaints regarding fellow councilmen, Granata said he "might have," but he couldn't recall.

It appeared this morning that the investigation would be concentrated on a federal level. Nevada Insurance Commissioner Don Heath said his office has no plans to begin an investigation into the matter at this time. Heath said the FBI has not asked the state to enter the case, City, page 5, col. 1 Comments today by other coun-cilmen tended to support Meni-cucci's opinion that the sewer issue is part of the investigation involving Menicucci's insurance dealings. Councilmen Ed Oaks, Bill Granata, Clyde Biglieri, Bill Wallace and Ed Spoon all said they have had no contact from the federal investigators and have not been subpoenaed, however, Biglieri predicted they will be contacted before the federal probe closes.

Councilman Marcel Durant could not be reached for comment. All five councilmen said they had made no attempts to influence sewer allocations and they 6 Sections, 76 Pages Amusements 13-15 Ann Landers 12 Astrograph 39 Bridge 12 Classified ads 28-39 Comics 12 Crossword puzzle 38 Deaths 10 Doctor column 40 know why Coon wants the documents. Mandagaran said Coon asked him about sewer allocs -ion procedures and how the major projects review process works. "It's been very low key," Mana-dagaran said. City Building and Safety Director Phil Herrington, who testified before the federal grand Jury Feb.

15 on the sewer allocation process, said Coon indicated that the city's building records involving sewer allocations would be subpoenaed "almost immediately." Coon declined comment. In an interview Monday night, Reno Mayor Bruno Menicucci said he thinks the grand jury investigation into the sewer allocation process is linked to a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into his insurance dealings with the Eldorado Hotel-Casino. Menicucci is the target of a ongoing, seven-month-old FBI investigation involving an insurance contract with the Eldorado that Menicucci acquired and then lost in March 1977. "I think it's all part of the same internal investigation," Menicucci said. By BOB LEWIS The Reno city clerk's office has begun compiling records for a federal grand jury investigation of possible misconduct within the Reno City Council involving sewer allocations for major building projects.

The clerk's office is compiling numerous city documents relating to sewer allocations for the use of Assistant U.S. Attorney Sam Coon. Coon has requested documents on all City Council actions on sewer-related items, including major project reviews, since July 1976, according to City Clerk Gilbert Mandagaran. He said Coon has requested the documents but has not issued a subpoena for them. They include council memos and minutes of council meetings pertaining to sewer items.

More than 1,200 documents have been compiled so far, according to the clerk's office. The 1,200 documents compiled to date cover only 1976 and the first half of 1977. The clerk's office started compiling the records two days ago. Mandagaran said be does not Index Earl Wilson 12 Editorials 4 Lifestyle 20,21 Markets 16,17 Public notices 28 Sports 23-26 State Legislature 6 Sylvia Porter 12 Television Log 14 Vitals 10 Weather 2.