The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 19

44 Friday, March 2, 1984 Philadelphia Inquirer 3-B A bill on cable TV? again in council II 1 II I II.I.IM l.mill,LI.J.ImWI Ml lll.llll.IIIM.tll I WHIWJ 1 p', 1 I phia, was actually put in place. The original franchises expired in 1976. Mayor Frank Rlzzo subsequently accepted 12 cable applications ia 1979, but he left office without awarding any franchises. In 1981, Mayor William J. Green began a new process, but it broke down after he, and the council could not agree on which of nine bidders should be selected.

Also in the City Council yesterday, the kerosene heater bill was reported out of committee for consider-' ation by the full council next week. The measure would permit the use of kerosene heaters in single-family homes, provided that the heaters meet certain requirements, inducting a label detailing proper use, and would restrict fuel use to only top-grade kerosene. Councilman John F. Street, spon" sor of the measure, said yesterday that the bill "may have taken the longest time in the history of any modern legislation to get approved and signed by the mayor." Street said he would ask Mayor Goode, who has said he supports the bill, to sign the measure during a special signing ceremony in council chambers next Thursday. In other action, the City Council unanimously approved a resolution that empowers the council's Commerce, Transportation and Public Utilities Committee to hold hearings on the impact of federal cutbacks on Philadelphia's Office of Employment and Training (OET).

Councilman Edward Schwartz, a Democrat and sponsor of the resolution, chairs the committee. In the resolution, he noted that an $8 million reduction in federal funds caused OET to reorganize or cut many services it had offered to city residents and community PhUadeloha mqurx KtNDAU. WILKINSON Dr. Mildred Fay Jefferson, president of the Right to Life Crusade and a Senate aspirant, during a luncheon interview Abortion foe turns to politics Boston doctor says it's where 'you get things done' By William W. Sutton Jr.

bupitnr SUtl Writer In a move that Goode administration and City Council officials say will finally bring cable television to Philadelphia, Councilman Francis Rafferty yesterday introduced the city's fourth cable bill in the last 18 years. The measure, which Rafferty called "I hope, the last cable bill ever," was sent to council's Public Property Committee, which is to hold a public hearing on the proposal Wednesday at 2 p.m. Rafferty, chairman of the committee, said he expected the measure, which would give the council almost absolute control of the cable-selection process, to receive a favorable recommendation from the committee to the full council. He said full council approval could be expected in less than a month. "Then it goes to the mayor," Rafferty said, "and I dont really anticipate any problems, because the mayor's people have been there from the ground floor." Rafferty said requests for bids for franchises would go out to cable companies immediately after Mayor Goode signs the measure, possibly as soon as the beginning of April.

In a news release sent out later in the day, Rafferty said city lawyers had informed him that "we have to allow a full three months for the cable companies to submit their proposals after the request for proposals goes out." "And that means getting those bids in here right around July 1," he said, "but you can be sure of one thing we're going to be ready to review those bids and make our final selection fast, even if It means bringing council back from their summer break." The council's last regularly scheduled meeting is June 28. The members are scheduled to return Sept. 6. Handsel B. Minyard, first deputy city solicitor for the Goode administration, said that although the administration wants to work with the council to complete the cable process "in the shortest amount of time possible," more time may be necessary if there are new bidders.

If approved, the proposed cable bill would give the council the final say on franchise selections. The council's choices would then be forwarded to the public property commissioner for a technical review and negotiations with individual cable companies. Assuming that there are no problems, the commissioner then would send the selections on to the Procurement Department, which grants the franchises. The city has wrestled with the cable issue for nearly 20 years. Under former Mayor James H.J.

Tate, 10 cable franchises were awarded in 1966, but only one, in South Philadel name escapes me. I had the necessary signatures, but all of a sudden about half of them vanished from a filing cabinet. This time, we've set up tighter security." Dr. Jefferson is taking the political route, she says, because "it is in the political arena that you get things done." Over the years she has called for a constitutional amendment to reverse the 1973 Supreme Court decision that in effect legalized abortion, and now she wants to have a piece of that action. She utterly rejects the view that abortion is a private matter between the woman and her physician.

To her, it is "a class war against the poor and genocide against blacks. For the minorities in our population, we must remember that if we are fewer, we will disappear faster. The end result is not only genocide but national suicide." Looking at Dr. Jefferson's words on paper, to borrow a line from Daily News columnist Larry McMullen, they, appear to scream. But they do not issue from her that way.

This is a poised, soft-voiced woman, amiable and highly articulate and with kindness of spirit. And this is a goal-setter. Before she retires, Dr. Jefferson says, she wants to be a U.S. senator, serve as dean of a medical school and, finally, be publisher of a chain of newspapers.

"I may," she said, "have to live to be at least 100 to do it all. That's fine with me." she is among the hardest of hard-liners in' her opposition to abortions. She had come to Philadelphia yesterday primarily to speak at the annual "Celebrate Life Dinner" of the Pro-Life Coalition of Southeastern Pennsylvania scheduled for last evening at the Philadelphia Centre Hotel. But during the day there were press interviews and appearances on several radio talk shows, and Dr. Jefferson responded to each engagement with an evangelical zeal.

Now in her mid-SOs, she is one of those people who has been in high gear all her life. She was the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School. She served three terms as president of the National Right to Life Committee (NRTLC), which when she left it in 1978 claimed a membership of 11 million. Two years later she established another lobby, the Right to Life Crusade, the membership of which she says broadly is "huge." Now she is seeking the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts, gathering signatures on nominating petitions that will get her on the ballot in the primary election Sept.

18. The gathering of signatures is not a new experience for her but getting on the ballot would be. "Two years ago," Dr. Jefferson said, "I was trying for the nomination to run against our senior senator Edward M. Kennedy), whose By Edgar Williams bu)utrr Staff Writer By rights, Dr.

Mildred Fay Jefferson should have been at least somewhat weary. She had arisen before dawn yesterday at her home in Boston to catch an early flight to Philadelphia, and she had been on the go since arriving here, but there she was, bouncy as a jack-in-the-box. "I'm used to this pace," she said over lunch at Williamson's in the GSB Building on City Avenue. "There's so much to be done. Here, perhaps you'd like to glance over this." She handed across the table a press release headlined: "Highlights of Speech at Dartmouth College Youth for Christ Rally Jan.

IS, 1984, by Dr. Mildred Fay Jefferson, President, Right to Life Crusade; Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery, Boston University School of Medicine." Below the headline were four excerpts, the first of which read: "The right-to-life movement is a people's movement We belong to no one political party, no one religion, no one socio-economic group. We are united to preserve the Judaeo-Christian sanctity-of-life ethic as the basis of our society and to defend the right to life as the foundation of our constitutional law." Mildred Fay Jefferson didn't get to where she is today by mincing words. Where she is today is in a position of leadership in the anti-abortion movement in this country. Indeed, Trooper imprisoned in jewelry theft Associated Press PITTSBURGH A suspended state police officer from Crawford County has been sentenced to six years in prison for his role in a jewelry-store robbery in Texas four years ago.

In addition, U.S. District Judge Glenn Mencer ordered John T. Sweeney, 50, on Wednesday to pay $5,000 in restitution to the shop's owner. Sweeney was convicted last month in Erie on charges of conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen goods in connection with a robbery at the Bear Claw Jewelry Store in Granbury, Texas, in June 1980. Sweeney was accused of transporting the stolen goods, valued at $100,000, to Pennsylvania.

State panel rejects Medicaid plan but says state is on right track AirFlorida makes it affordable. The new regulations would provide hospitals with a flat fee determined generally by the patient's age, illness and the procedure used. IT. THOMAS 4 Days3 Nights lished for different groups of hospitals. Welfare officials and representatives of the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania have been meeting to resolve their differences on about 70 issues, including how hospitals will be grouped to set those payment rates.

The state also has agreed to phase in the new payment system over three years instead of implementing it fully on July 1. James Redmond of the Hospital Association told the commission yesterday that the phase-in would help the large urban hospitals that care for many Medicaid patients. "We don't feel we've done any compromising that would harm the taxpayers or against the public interest," Radke said. "We are changing the entire payment plan for hospitals in the state. In the process, I'm sure some problems will come up, and we will sit down and solve them." ing on a set of regulations that already was outdated.

They had been rejected by committees in the House and the Senate. And the Welfare Department and representatives of the state's hospitals already had agreed to several changes in regulations to which the review commission objected. The new system is to be based on a number of categories called Diagnostic Related Groups (DRG). Under the state plan, 467 general payment or DRG rates for medical services would be established. Different payment rates, however, would be estab (Incl.

airfare) Price is based on per persondouble occupancy. By Carol Morello Inquirer Harriiburf Bureau HARRISBURG A state panel yesterday rejected proposed changes in the way hospitals are reimbursed for Medicaid patients, but left a door open for revisions that would satisfy their objections. Gerald F. Radke, the deputy secretary for medical assistance in the Welfare Department, promised a memo addressing the concerns of the Independent Regulatory Review Commission before its next meeting in two weeks. Radke also predicted that the changes in payments for Medicaid patients, who receive welfare assistance, would be in place as planned by July 1 the same day that the federal government starts parallel changes in payments for Medicare patients, who are elderly.

The new regulations would change the way the state calculates its Medicaid payments to hospitals to a flat fee that would generally be deter-mined by the patient's age, illness and the procedure used. Now, hospitals are repaid according to the number of days a patient stays in the hospital, whatever the illness. The new system is designed to slow the growth of costs in the state- and federally funded Medicaid program. Despite the panel's unanimous re-'' jection of the proposed changes, commissioners said they approved of the idea and the direction in which the regulations are being revised. "I agree that the system will punish lilt! iueumcui uuaiicM auuir ward the efficient hospitals," said Commissioner Robert J.

Harbison. Yesterday's vote was not unexpected because the commission was vot- Kerr denies guilt in job selling month, eight witnesses testified that cash and job applications had been funneled to Kerr. Among the charges are bribery in official matters, conflict of interest, criminal attempt at theft by extortion, obstruction of administration of law and criminal solicitation to commit bribery. i applicants each paid between $1,000 and $10,000 for jobs in the auditor general's office between 1977 and 1983. HARRISBURG Former Deputy Auditor General John Kerr pleaded not guilty yesterday to 216 counts stemming from allegations that he had helped run a $200,000 job-selling scheme within the department Kerr appeared for a formal ar-raienment in Daunhin Countv Court, according to his attorney, William Costopoulos.

A jury trial was tentatively set for May 14. At a preliminary hearing last The American Express Card makes it convenient For only $399, your package includes roundtrip airfare from Philadelphia to St. Thomas via Air Florida, hotel accommodations for 4 days3 nights at the lovely Virgin Isle Hotel and roundtrip air transfers. And when you fly Air Florida to St. Thomas, you're flying an airline that has made low fares famous.

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Detectives show actor the ropes Philadelphia homicide detectives for his role in the movie Called Home. The movie, with a $12 million budget, is to be filmed in Philadelphia and Lancaster, the source said. In the film, an Amish boy looking out a train window sees one homicide detective murder another. The killer sees the boy and knows that there is a witness to the slaying. Ford will play a Philadelphia homicide detective assigned to investigate the slaying, the police source said.

Police Commissioner Gregore J. Sambor gave Ford permission to observe the city's homicide detectives at the source said. ing death of another man. At 9:20 a.m., the squad and Ford went to a house in the 300 block of Marshall Street and arrested Gerald C. Brown.

Detectives said Brown, 34, is wanted in the July 31 slaying of Wayne Dancy, 30, outside Dancy's home in the 2300 block of Diamond Street. Brown, formerly of the 1900 block of North 23d Street in North Philadelphia, was arraigned before Municipal Court Judge Joseph McCabe on charges of murder and weapons offenses and was ordered held without bail for a hearing Wednesday. According to a Police Department source, Fprd has been observing By Robert J. Terry Inquirer Staff Wrttar Actor Harrison Ford, whose screen credits include action-packed epics such as Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Star Wars trilogy, was involved in a real-life drama yesterday when he accompanied a team of Philadelphia homicide detectives during the arrest of a murder suspect Ford, who has been in the city this week to study the techniques of homicide investigators for a film role as a Philadelphia detective, went with a police fugitive squad to Nor-ristown, Montgomery County, where a pan was arrested to the July shoot.