Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 1

1 Ceiling, Lighting Flaws Found i At Marana High light fixtures In most of the ceilings were improperly supported, and the ceilings in many of the rooms were beginning to show signs of sagging." The spokesman said Engineers Testing Laboratories indicated there was too much weight on the secondary support strips used to support the lights in the ceiling. He said these secondary strips were anchored only to the main support strips and should also have been anchored to the ceiling joists. In most cases, he said, on only one side of the light fixture was the metal secondary support strip hooked to the ceiling joist for support. Workers are now repairing the defects, and Alan Levin, mechanical engineer, will be called in over the weekend to re-examine the ceilings before students are allowed back in the classrooms, which have been closed since Wednesday. District officials, after the collapse of two light fixtures in the classroom occupied by about 25 students on Tuesday, said they thought the incident was caused by a "dust devil" that produced a change in the pressure of the room and pulled the lights away from the ceiling.

Friedman and Jobusch concurred with that statement, However, Levin concluded that the storm only speeded up what was bound to happen sooner or later. A separate check of the school auditorium ceiling will be made before that room Is used again. "We looked at all the ceilings and, as a precaution, did some additional wiring, not because of improper materials, but only as a precaution," said Fred Jobusch of Friedman and Jobusch. "In a couple of Instances, the light fixtures did not have enough support, and we gave them additional support. It was a very minor thing.

"Some of the supporting strips were not properly anchored, and we made an occasional correction," he said. The light fixtures, he come lost to the doctors while the building was closed. Bernard Friedman, the other co-owner of the architectural firm, said yesterday that the damage was caused by a defective truss that gave way under the weight of water that had accumulated between the roof and ceiling. During construction, Friedman said, his company rejected two trusses for the structure. "When we design a building, we are not building a building," said Friedman, "and that's the big problem that doesn't get Into the paper.

The contractor builds the building, and the contractor employs sub-contractors. The architect is not the builder." William Ruck II, of Ruck Construction declined comment yesterday because of litigation pending in the incident. Slutes, however, said that Ruck was called back in for repair work when the trouble occurred in July. Ruck subsequently sent (Continued on Page 7A, Col.l) By KEN BURTON and BOB SVEJCARA Star Staff Writers Improperly supported light fixtures and sagging ceilings have been found in a majority of classrooms and the cafeteria at Marana High School, investigators revealed yesterday. A school spokesman said he was told by Engineers Testing Laboratories Investigators that the collapse of light fixtures in a classroom at the school Tuesday resulted from defective parts or improperly Installed anchoring supports.

The spokesman asked he not be identified. Meanwhile, the Arizona Daily Star has that a medical clinic where part of the roof collapsed last July was designed by the same architectural firm Friedman and Jobusch that designed Marana High School and Sahuaro High School, where a ceiling collapsed July 29. Of the Marana incident, investigators said, "The ceilings, in a majority of the classrooms and the cafeteria, were examined, and the FINAL Edition VOL. 134 NO. 283 added, are part of a ceiling system in which the lights are designed to lay into the ceiling suspension system with support on each side of the lights.

"It must have been a hell of a wind to pull those lights off, as heavy as they are," Jobusch said. Officials said the lights weigh from 20 to 35 pounds each. At least two students were struck by the falling lights on Tuesday, but neither was seriously Injured. The medical clinic, called the Holbrook-Hill Medical Group, Ltd, 5100 E. Grant was built in '1969 and 1970 by Ruck Construction Co.

Last July, water seeped through the roof of the reception room and eventually sent sagging ceiling panels to the floor. Attorney Thompson D. Slutes, who represents the physicians that own Holbrook-Hill, sued Friedman and Jobusch in January for 36,000 in repairs, plus between $4,000 and $5,000 in in Radical Arizona BgHtr TUCSON, ARIZONA, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1975 0 In Iralpracoce Laws Proposed By JOEL NILSSON Star Phoenix Bureau 413 NbW i top of the news I CLEAR AND WARM. Warm days and cool nights are forecast (or Tucson through tomorrow with temperatures ranging from the 90s to about 60. Yesterday's high was 89 and the low was 57.

Details on Page 4A. global SPAIN ARRESTS OFFICERS. New evi-dence of unrest in the Spanish army, a traditional source of strength for Gen. Francisco Franco, is revealed when three officers with possible links to Basque separatist guerrillas are arrested. Page 14A.

PORTUGAL AID. The Ford administration has prepared an emergency package of $80 million to aid Portugal more than the amounts suggested by two congressional leaders but much less than Portuguese officials are asking. Page 13A. WORD FROM KIDNAPERS. The kidnapers of a Dutch industrialist in Ireland contact their victim's employer, and the Irish state radio reports that negotiations have begun.

Page 6A. ARAFAT AS MEDIATOR. Vasir Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, will try to stop the bloody fighting between Lebanese Christians and Moslems, the Lebanese premier announces. The premier says that the army will not be used to end the fighting. Page 8A.

E2 national HIGHER OIL PRICES. The price of U.S. crude oil not covered by controls in many cases exceeds the price charged by the members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The industry says the recent increases have been caused by tight domestic supplies and an increase in world prices. Page 15A.

SERIES CONTROVERSY. As baseball's World Series nears, controversy swirls around Cincinnati Reds' Manager Sparky Anderson. Did or didn't he accuse Boston Red Sox pitcher Luis Tiant of using a balk motion in his unorthodox delivery? Page ID. CONGRESSMAN'S GUN. Rep.

John M. Murphy, demonstrates how easy handguns are to get and conceal he pulls one from his coat and waves it at the chairman of a House subcommittee considering gun-control legislation. Page 8B. FORD PRESS CONFERENCE. The President says that any tax cut Congress proposes must be accompanied by a ceiling on federal spending, or he will veto the bill.

He discussed a variety of other subjects at his press conference last night. Page 10A. anzona MEDICAID SUPPORTED. The top men in the Arizona House and Senate vow that Medicaid will take effect in the state on July 1, county protests notwithstanding. The House majority leader says a promised veto of legislation negative to Medicaid could not be overridden anyway.

Page IB. local GRANT STORES. The two Tucson branches of W. T. Grant stores will be closed by the end of the year, leaving about 220 employes jobless.

The rest of the chain's stores in Arizona will also be closed. Page IB. ENROLLMENT LIMITS. The Board of Regents may have to consider limiting enrollment at the University of Arizona unless more classroom space is provided within the next few years, UA President John P. Schaefer warns.

Page IB. EMOTIONS AND CANCER. Emotional 'stress and life-threatening diseases such as cancer might be linked, says a husband-wife medical team from Texas. But, they tell the First National Congress on Integrative Health meeting here, they have no statistics to prove it. Page IB.

Bridge 12A Comics 6-7B Editorial 8D Financial 6-7D Horoscope 15A Lifestyle 1-8C Movies 5B Public Records 18A Sports 1-5D Tucson Today 14A TV-Radio 7B Want Ads 9-19C Sakharov Wins Nobel Physicist and Russian dissident Andrei Sakharov has been awarded the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize, it was announced yesterday in Oslo, Norway. Sakharov worked on the Soviet hydrogen bomb. Story on Page 11 A. (AP Wirephoto) jfi index 1 mi i Navy's 200th Birthday ff 1 Helm notified the Supreme Court Aug. 8 that he ruled against the railroad on both counts and the judges unanimously agreed with him.

"It is sufficient to say that the record adequately supports the trial judge and that it is unnecessary to comment further," Struckmeyer wrote. Struckmeyer, in the April 25 order, wrote that the facts in the case "are more than sufficient to support a finding of both wanton and willful negligence" on the part of Southern Pacific in the crash. Struckmeyer said that some of the most damaging evidence was that Southern Pacific had done studies showing that the crossing should have had an automatic gate, but the railroad withheld the information from the City of Willcox. The city had been assured that the crossing was safe when railroad officials asked permission to increase the speed of their trains moving through there. Testimony during the trial indicated that the work train had been traveling backward for 24 miles and was traveling at 70 miles an hour when the accident happened.

The speed limit was 60 miles an hour and a caution light was operating limiting trains to 40 miles an hour. President Ford reviews troops during ceremonies in William Middendorf and Adm. James Holloway, chief of naval Washington honoring the Navy's 200th birthday yesterday. operations. Ford declared that this "is not the time to disman- With him are, from left, Rear Adm.

Ralph Carnahan, comman- tie our defenses" and said he is disturbed by congressional dant of the naval district of Washington; Navy Secretary J. cuts in the military budget. (AP Wirephoto) FINAL Edition 15 CENTS 56 PAGES Change A means to provide damage payments in monthly installments to malpractice victims, instead of in a single lump sum award. Hospital, medical and nursing care also would be provided if required. -A limit on attorney's fees, which now run as high as 40 per cent of the lump sum award on the present contingency fee system.

A five-year statute of limitations on filing malpractice claims aimed at reducing the amount of reserves insurance companies must now keep to cover lawsuits filed 10 to 20 years after the injury. Establishment of a trust fund by the insurance company with the interest being used to pay the award. "Instead of a $5 million lump sum payment," explained Humphrey, "the company could place $1 million in trust. The money would remain part of the company's assets and would" revert to the company when the interest has paid all the awards." Additional requirements on the medical profession to police its own members to avoid costly and unnecessary surgery and tests, Senate Approves Sinai Resolution WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate last night passed a resolution approving the stationing of 200 American technicians in the Sinai to monitor the Egyptian-Israeli peace accord. The resolution, passed by the House 24 hours earlier, now goes to the White House where President Ford has been urging quick congressional action for more than a month to implement "a step toward peace" in the Middle East.

The vote was 70 to 18. (Arizona's two Republican senators, Paul Fannin and Barry Goldwater, voted against the resolution.) At his news conference last night, Ford again said that the American technicians sent to the Sinai will be civilians and will have no connection to the military. The Senate action clears the way for an Israeli signature of the agreement, initialed Sept. 1 after months of shuttle diplomacy by Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger in August.

Under the agreement, Israel is to pull back its forces in the Sinai and return the Abu Rudeis oilfield to Egypt. Egypt is to open the Suez Canal to Israeli ships and cargoes. The stationing of American technicians at early-warning surveillance stations in the Sinai passes was requested by both Israel and Egypt as a condi-. tion for their agreement. West and UA administrators, West also accused the administrators of "covering up" UA College of Medicine admission policies, of withholding information on Harold Jones, curator of the UA's new Center for Creative Photography, and of covering up an alleged forgery on a grade-change form on UA bas-' ketball star Al Fleming.

Last night, Schaefer said his meeting with Akers and the three regents was "very positive, frank and open. I appreciated the discussion and the opportunity to get many questions that have been raised behind us. I'm really very pleased." $3.08 Million Award Upheld in SP Death By JOHN RAWLINSON Star Staff Writer PHOENIX A far-reaching proposal completely restructuring the state's medical malpractice insurance laws in an effort to reduce skyrocketing premium costs was unveiled yesterday by State Insurance Director Millard Humphrey. The proposal also would make the sale of malpractice coverage more attractive to insurance companies threatening to leave the state, and could "substantially reduce" the cost of medical care and hospitalization policies, according to Humphrey. "The key to this proposal is taking the profit out of it for everybody," Humphrey said.

"It may be criticized as being socialistic, but it will allow companies to know how much they will have to spend and their rates have to be lower as a result." Senate Majority Leader Alfredo Gutierrez, D-Phoenix, co-chairman of a legislative interim committee on malpractice insurance that is expected to meet this month, said Humphrey's proposals are not new. "Each of the things he mentions are areas which the interim committee has under study right now," Gutierrez told the Arizona Daily Star. Some would require state constitutional amendments, and others are expected to face rough sledding in the Legislature, he added. Included in Humphrey's package is a two-phase recommendation starting with the creation of a joint underwriting association to include about 450 insurance companies selling all kinds of liability policies in the state. The companies would be required to contribute to a fund in proportion to the amount of premiums they collect from other types of liability insurance, and the funds then would pay malpractice claims.

Humphrey termed it a "stopgap measure" to make malpractice coverage more available, but Gutierrez said that perhaps it should include other western states in a compact which would mean more revenues in the fund, and lessen the chance of insurance companies leaving Arizona. Humphrey's second stage would call for the creation of a new state agency or "panel" to administer a system not unlike the state compensation fund, which oversees insurance payments to persons injured on their jobs. The underwriting association then would be disbanded if the new system was approved by the voters in a referendum, Humphrey said. "I don't believe we can reach concensus on that kind of program this year," Gutierrez said. While insurance companies would still sell coverage directly to doctors and hospitals under the proposal, the new agency or panel would decide on the amount of damages in malpractice claims.

Also included would be: in Humphrey's proposal --A commission of doctors, lawyers and laymen that would assess fault in malpractice claims and make recommendations to the panel for awarding damages. effort to calm the tempers raised by harsh treatment of University of Arizona officials last month during a visit to the campus by the House Appropriations Committee. Rep. Tony West, R-Phoenix, during the visit accused Schaefer of misusing funds in paying new state staff members and of showing favoritism in medical school admissions. He demanded Schaefer's resignation.

Schaefer said he believed the ad hoc. committee would resolve the issues raised by West and offered UA staff help to the committee, which Akers accepted. In the September confrontation between ixon Enters Teamster Golf Tournament By ROBERT LINDSEY 1975 N.Y. Times News Service CARLSBAD, Calif. In a rare public appearance, former President Richard M.

Nixon emerged from his seclusion at San Clemente yesterday to play golf in a tournament that has drawn the high command of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and several men linked by law enforcement officials to organized crime. "I'm just fine, and I'm going to play good golf today, too," Nixon told newsmen, before climbing aboard a golf cart with Frank E. Fitzsimmons, president of the union, at the La Costa Country Club, a lavish resort complex here built largely with loans from the Teamsters' pension funds. Nixon looked gray and tired and surprisingly old when he alighted from a limousine that had come from his home at San Clemente, 30 miles north of here, with Jack Brennan, a former military aide who resigned as a Marine Corps colonel to serve Nixon after he resigned the presidency 14 months ago. Nixon and 173 other players paid $650 each in entry fees to raise money for a home for retarded children in Palatine, 111., to which Fitzsimmons has given support.

When a reporter approached him and asked a question, Nixon looked stunned and moved back in what looked like a reflex action. Ignoring the reporter's questions, he walked away, for the first time showing some spring in his step. Until then, he had seemed to walk very slowly and with some effort. Nixon appeared to have gained a considerable amount of gray hair since leaving the White House. The skin and muscles of his face seemed to have lost some tightness, there was little color in his face and not much sparkle in his eyes.

The other three members of the fivesome, were Murray W. (Dusty) Miller, executive secretary of the Teamsters union; John W. Murphy, president of Gateway Transportation who is a trustee of the Teamsters' pension funds; and Joseph Trertola, an international vice president of the union. Most of the other players in the three-day (Continued on Page MA, Col. 2) The Arizona Supreme Court has affirmed a $3.08 million jury award reportedly the highest-ever single-death judgment in Arizona to a Tucson woman whose husband was killed nine years ago by a Southern Pacific train.

In a unanimous opinion written Wednesday by Vice Chief Justice Fred C. Struckmeyer the high court affirmed a decision by Superior Court Judge Lloyd Helm that Southern Pacific shouldn't get a new trial in the case. The Supreme Court had already on April 25 reversed a 1974 Appeals Court decision that overturned the 1973 Pima County Superior Court jury's verdict in favor of Melanie Lueck Sakall and against Southern Pacific. Attorney Dale Haralson, who filed the suit for Mrs. Sakall almost nine years ago, said the award is the largest single-death award in Arizona history.

Mrs. Sakall, 34, is the mother of two sons and is now married to Pima County adult probation officer Daniel Sakall. Richard M. Bilby, an attorney for Southern Pacific, yesterday said the decision will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on three constitutional issues of due process.

Mrs. Sakall's first husband, William T. Lueck, was killed in 1966 while driving a truck filled with gravel across a railroad crossing in Willcox. Lueck waited for a freight train to pass, then started his truck across the crossing, which was marked only by flashing lights. The truck was struck by a work train following just behind the freight train.

Helm presided over the 1973 trial when the jury awarded Mrs. Sakall $2 million in compensatory damages and $1,080,000 in punitive damages. The high court on April 25 sent the case back to Helm for his recommendation on a new trial requested by the railroad. The railroad claimed that one of Mrs. Sakall's key witnesses had perjured himself on the stand.

Helm was asked to decide if the new evidence could have been discovered in time for the railroad's attorneys to move for a new trial under the time limit imposed by law, and whether the new evidence was of such a nature that a new trial might end Schaefer Offers Help Akers To Examine Criticism Of UA PHOENIX (AP) House Speaker Stan Akers, R-Phoenix, said yesterday he will name and head an ad hoc committee of civic leaders and legislators to examine charges made against University of Arizona administrators. UA President John P. Schaefer said last night he was delighted with the idea "because it will be most beneficial to all concerned." He said the UA will provide personnel to help the committee. Akers met yesterday with Schaefer, Board of Regents Chairman Gordon Paris and regents Eliot Dunseath and Sidney Wood in an.