Clarion-Ledger du lieu suivant : Jackson, Mississippi • Page 5

Wednesday, May 1, 1996 The Clarion-Ledger B5A 12 Man accused of slaying wife, leaving 18-month-old in desert 'f J' i Grandmother to care for unlikely child By Ban Dobbin The Associated Press Ths Associated Press DEMING, N.M. An 18-month-old girl who survived 20 hours in the desert after her father allegedly abandoned her while fleeing the scene of his wife's murder was released from a hospital Tuesday. Little Tasha Taylor was found in a ravine on Monday. The blue-eyed towhead, wearing a pink sun dress, was in good condition, although severely sunburned. "And her feet were full of stickers and thorns," said the girl's maternal grandfather, Bob Glover.

He said Tasha babbled baby talk, but main ly wanted to sleep after her ordeal. Her father, Charlie Taylor, was charged Monday with the murder of Rhonda A. Taylor, who was found Sunday night at the couple's trailer near Deming, 80 miles northwest of El Paso, Texas. He will also be charged with child abandonment, District Attorney Anthony White said Tuesday. A neighbor who reported the shooting said he saw Taylor leaving in a van with Tasha.

When deputies found Taylor Monday, he said Tasha had wandered off after he changed her diaper just before dark Sunday evening. Audit From 1A Hi4'- I. The Associated Press An aerial view of a neighborhood on the west side storm that passed through the area Sunday and of Evansville, shows the effects of a massive Monday. The rainfall broke an 85-year-old record. Midwest storms leave 6 dead ROCHESTER, N.

Y. A premature baby born six weeks ago to a comatose woman who was raped in a nursing home is being reared by his maternal grandmother, the family's attorney said Tuesday. Neurologists say it is unlikely the mother, who has been in a chronic vegetative state since a 1985 car crash, retains any conscious awareness of herself, let alone the pregnancy and birth. In the hospital, the baby boy was brought to her to hold twice a day, but a nurse had to wrap the woman's arms around him. "Mom would not be able to reach and grasp and hug the child," said Bob Loeb, a spokesman at Strong Memorial Hospital.

"Some people observed that she became relaxed a little bit, that she kind of sensed another living thing next to her, but that's all highly subjective." Born two months premature on March 18, the child is now almost double his birth weight of 2 pounds, 11 ounces. He was taken home Sunday by his grandmother. "It's more likely to be long-term than short-term," said attorney John Parrinello. "Our next step is to formalize the guardianship and then to decide the form of the relationship between the grandmother and the child." The woman's Roman Catholic family rejected an abortion on religious grounds. Family members have declined to be interviewed.

Doctors believe it is the first case of someone getting pregnant and having a baby while in a comalike state. The 30-year-old mother could be discharged later this month from the hospital where the natural childbirth took place, but she's unlikely to be returned to the nursing home in suburban Rochester where she was raped last August. So far, no one has been charged with the rape, which was discovered only last December. By Margaret Lillard The Associated Press and Commerce located at Stark -ville. Patterson said procedures for handlingthe accounts "appear to be adequate," but he recommends increasing surety bonds for employees receiving and depositing checks the agency receives for inspecting farm chemicals and certifying lack of disease in certain plants.

Develop new procedures for regulating a $500,000 quick-payment revolving fund for fruit and vegetable growers. The Legislature created the fund in 1995 to make sure farmers marketing their crops through the Bassfield and Leakes-ville sheds receive quick payment. Spell said still to be answered by the state attorney general's office is whether interest created by the fund should flow to the state's general fund or remain for use in the farm program. "All of these things that were being done helped to promote agriculture in Mississippi," Spell said. "But with the loss of sovereign immunity by the state, it puts them in a different light today." The 1993 Legislature removed the legal cloak that state government had enjoyed from damage suits since the 1800s.

Lawmakers then set up a state Tort Claims Board to cover claims of injuries filed against government agencies. "As long as that immunity existed, we could do a lot of these things, but we have to be very careful doing them today," Spell said. tra funding, Spell furloughed 144 agency employees in March. A volunteer panel reviewing the agency will suggest to Spell by mid-May exactly which employees should be terminated. Among Patterson's recommendations Tuesday: The farm agency should immediately stop using two state-owned refrigerated trucks to haul crops to fruit and vegetable sheds at Leakes-ville and Bassfield, particularly for the blueberry industry.

Legislative authority will be sought to approve the transfer of the trucks to private marketing organizations. The department should discontinue the practice of furnishing portable toilet facilities for wagon trains that travel throughout Mississippi promoting the Dixie National Rodeo. The department began the practice in 1981 and formerly assigned its employees to work with the wagon trains as volunteers. Patterson estimated the practice cost the state $4,135 for the 1996 rodeo earlier this year. "Hopefully something can be worked out.

These wagon trains are a big part of the Dixie National," Billy Orr, director of the state Fair Commission that puts on the rodeo each year, said Tuesday. Establish written procedures governing checking accounts of the Bureau of Plant Industry, a division of the Department of Agriculture damage at $100,000. In Dayton's Deeds Park, a stand of towering Siberian elms toppled onto the streets. Cleanup crews used chain saws and chip-pers to clear them away. "These trees are top-heavy," Charles Barlow said as he helped clean up.

"When a storm gets ahold of them, it blows them over." Two deaths in Ohio were blamed on the weather: a 6-year-old boy who grabbed a live electrical wire in his flooded back yard, and a 15-month-old who wandered into a creek. In Missouri, three people died in weather-related traffic accidents, and a fisherman was killed when his boat capsized. The storm caused widespread flash flooding in the St. Louis area, where about 500 homes were damaged. Most of that water had receded by Monday.

State damage-assessment teams set out to figure the cost of the storm. The Mississippi and Missouri rivers were expected to crest over the next couple of days, but only at or slightly above flood stage. In Illinois, Gov. Jim Edgar declared Madison, Monroe and St. Clair counties disaster areas, making them eligible for state aid.

Some 3,800 Madison County residents still didn't have electricity Tuesday and could be without service until Wednesday. And in Ohio, about 2,500 customers were still without power. Around East St. Louis, 111., about 400 homes and 163 nursing home residents were evacuated. "Today it appears as if the water is beginning to recede, minus any rain, which we were fortunate not to have," said Chris Tamminga, a spokeswoman for Illinois' Emergency Management Agency.

Shelters began closing. Torrential rains eased and the cleanup began Tuesday in the Midwest, where hundreds of people were forced out of their homes by weekend storms that killed six people, including two children. The storm system, which had dropped up to 9 inches of rain on Illinois, Ohio, Indiana and Missouri since Sunday, broke up and moved on, leaving behind swamped homes, power outages and plenty of damage. Donald Beachler watched as workers fixed the battered roof of his fireworks company outside Dayton, Ohio, which was raked by winds up to 120 mph. Shingles and other debris were scattered around his Imperial Enterprises Inc.

"You've got to go on with life," Beachler said. He estimated the Families From 1A "Democratic leaders would find a reason to be anywhere but the Democratic National Convention. In 1964, the state Democratic delegation to the national convention was led by a state senator because the governor, lieutenant governor and two U.S. senators wouldn't go. My thought was we ought to be involved in a party in which we could participate.

The prophecy of that need has since come to pass with (U.S. Sens.) Trent Lott and Thad Cochran." elected as county attorney in Jones County, then switched parties a year later. "My primary reason, as much as for philosophical reasons, was that Mississippi needed to participate on the national scene. The decisions affecting us were being made by both the national Democrats and national Republicans," Charles Pickering said. "Yet, every time the national conventions were being held, our state's CORRECTION The Clarion-Ledger on Tuesday transposed numbers in a chart concerning tax revenues for the city of Madison.

The correct chart is below. It was a reporter's error. John Eaves Taggart said. Agreed Warnsley: "Their daddies' names are familiar, but each candidate has to establish a separate name ID to win. People want to know what they stand for." John Eaves Sr.

said he likes his son's position in the 3rd District race at this point six months before the Nov. 5 general election. Early reports have Chip Pickering with the upper hand off his win over eight others in a hotly contested Republican Primary and because of several years' worth of speculation that the 3rd District would turn to a Republican once Montgomery retired. "The people of the 3rd District, in my judgment, are independent thinkers and have enough sense to decide which candidate and which party they want to vote for in November, and they don't need any hierarchy from Washington, or any Washington lobbyists, trying to dictate a successor to Sonny Montgomery," Eaves Sr. said.

"Our roots are throughout that district in several counties. My mother was a Rodgers and a distant cousin to Jimmie Rodgers (a Lauderdale County native known as the 'father' of country music). John conservative nature comes from those people. He knows how they think." Eaves Sr. said that if his son trails Pickering at this stage, "it is better to be an underdog than it is to be the crowned prince of Mississippi.

But I am not real sure he is behind. The parties have spoken, but the people haven't spoken yet." Like a lot of Mississippi Republicans, Charles Pickering once called himself a Democrat. In 1963, he was scape. And John Eaves Jr. is reaping the benefits.

Said Union voter Vardaman Vance: "I never knew him, but I do remember the Eaves name. It looks like that would help his son." Added Morton resident Shirley Warnsley: "I know that the Eaves name is very big in Scott County and should be familiar all over the district. When you start talking about rural Mississippi, his claim about the cost of car tags got a lot of people's attention, especially older people." Jackson lawyer and lobbyist Andy Taggart, a longtime friend of Charles Pickering said the Pickering name is not only well known, but highly respected. "Most Mississippians hold him in extremely high regard, even if they don't know him personally. He has acquitted himself honorably in everything he's done," Taggart said.

When Chip Pickering's campaign began, Taggart said, "there is no doubt that his father's good name helped him. Now, though, he has gone through two election cycles (Republican primary and runoff) and he is standing on his own merits. Chip has established his own credibility." Taggart noted political legacies are somewhat of a tradition in Mississippi politics the Johnsons, the Barnetts, the Stennises, among others. "It helps some and probably hurts some others," Taggart said. "The bottom line in this race is that the fathers are an interesting footnote to the race and it probably helped both candidates early, but now it's down to Chip Pickering and A breakdown of Tax Base As Percentage of Total Budget Revenue From Property Tax From Year (residential and commercial) Sales Tax 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 38 22 22 21 21 19 42 40 42 45 and Chip Pickering was a Baptist missionary to Hungary in 1986 and 1987.

Paul Oglesby, who pastors a Baptist church in the Bay Springs community of Kemper County, said it would be hard for 3rd District voters who are Baptists to overlook the Pickering name. "That's going to help Chip Pickering. Most Baptist churches and pastors are not too actively involved in politics as far as trying to lead a congregation to vote for a candidate, but you can bring it out indirectly in talking about family values and that sort of thing," Oglesby said. "(Chip) Pickering will benefit from that." Eaves Sr. served one term in the Mississippi House from 1972 until 1976.

But, as with Charles Pickering, the Legislature is not where Eaves Sr. built his name. He did that in 1987, in 1979 and in 1975 in three unsuccessful campaigns for governor. Eaves Sr. was the quintessential flashy orator on the state's political stump, often arriving at rallies in Cadillacs, white suits and white shoes and bold ties.

He espoused myriad populist issues, but is best known for promoting a flat $10 charge for a Mississippi car tag. "I always felt the people who pay the taxes and work hard deserve a tax break. The car tag was then and is now the most glaring example of over-taxation in this state," Eaves Sr. said. "I thought that if Louisiana could have a $3 car tag, Arkansas one for $25 and Alabama one for $35 that $1,000 for a tag on a Chevrolet in Mississippi was too much." Eaves Sr.

credits the late Cliff Finch who counted Eaves Sr. among his victims on his way to the Governor's Mansion in 1975 for first promoting a lower car tag, "but I probably brought it more to the forefront than anybody else," Eaves said. The idea of a lower fee for a car tag apparently had merit: After all the prodding down through the years, the 1994 Legislature finally delivered car-tag reform by diverting surplus state revenues to a fund that allows cities and counties to reduce charges for car tags. Eaves Sr. is not wholly sure Mis-sissippians are satisfied that car-tag costs are much lower.

"It seems as though we've been given an aspirin for a headache, but it's really a placebo. Car tags still cost too much." While Eaves Sr. failed in his three gubernatorial bids his best finish was third place in the 1979 Democratic Primary won by William Winter his name became well knownn the state's political "Various grants, proceeds, fund transfers and city-assessed fees account for the remaining revenue. Source: City of Madison work of taking care of Chip and Lei-sha Pickering's four sons, ranging in age from 9 months to 7 years. Charles Pickering, appointed to the federal bench in the state's Southern District by President Bush in October 1990, is on the Republican side of what is a rarity in Mississippi politics: a race in which the two candidates' fathers are better known than the candidates themselves.

Over on the Democratic side, there's Jackson trial lawyer John Arthur Eaves the father of John Eaves Jr. The younger Eaves, who is 29, won the Democratic Party's nomination March 12 without a runoff. He and Chip Pickering, 32, meet in the Nov. 5 general election, with the winner succeeding retiring 3rd District Rep. Sonny Montgomery, a Democrat, in January.

While the name of each of the "3rd District dads" carries a powerful political wallop, the two elders maintain they are not as involved in their sons' campaigns as one might think. Eaves Sr. has more freedom to do that than Charles Pickering, but even Eaves whose law firm has a hefty business, says "there is a limit to what I can do." However, Eaves Sr. says his and his wife Patricia's extensive families in Winston County and other parts of east central Mississippi are doing yeoman work to get John Jr. elected.

Each father has a political history dating far enough back that most 3rd District voters knew the names "Pickering" and "Eaves" while "Chip" and "John Jr." were babes: Charles Pickering, 58, was a two-term state senator from Laurel from 1972 until 1980. But he is best known politically for his chairmanship of the Mississippi Republican Party from 1976 until 1978, for running against Thad Cochran for the U.S. Senate in 1978 and for his ill-fated campaign for state attorney general in 1979 when Pickering entered the election's final week supposedly carrying a wide lead of between 15 and 20 points over Bill Al-lain. A Charles Pickering advertising blunder in the campaign's final days that incorrectly tied Main to the segregationist Citizens Council group handed the election over to Allain, who won with 51 percent of the vote. Almost two decades later, Charles Pickering refuses to discuss that race except to admit it is "a painful memory.

Anytime you lose, it's painful." Some say another Pickering connection is even more important to residents of the rural 3rd District than politics: the Baptist connection. Charles Pickering was president of the Mississippi Baptist Convention from 1983 ujptil 1985 The Clarion-Ledger attempts to report news accurately. When we find that an error has been made, we will correct it gladly. William D. Frazier, M.D.

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