Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi • Page 3

larion-rcrt0cr FRIDAY a July 16, 1982 "Middle income people are most affected by the problems in this country' Jackson said. Noting that lobbyists play an important role in the legislative process, he said, "Middle income citizens have not had a lobbyist. Someone has to represent them." i A 1' REP. ED JACKSON Legislator launches quest for Bowen's 2nd District seat Staff photo by Ctwit Todd Presiding Justice Robert P. Sugg of Eupora, center, administers the first woman on the Mississippi Supreme Court Amsting in the oath of office to Lenore Loving Prather of Columbus, right, the ceremony is Associate Justice Armis E.

Hawkins of Houston. Lenore Prather takes court seat By FRED ANKLAM Jr. Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer Saying he intends to represent the interests of middle-income families, state Rep. Ed Jackson of Cleveland met with Jackson media Thursday to launch his campaign for the 2nd Congressional District seat being vacated CVOT0 Belzoni, two of his three opponents in the primary. Jackson was first elected to the legislature in 1976.

Clark has served since 1968, when he became the first black elected to the statehouse since Reconstruction. Mohamed served as a state senator from 1964-72 and was re-elected to the Senate in 1979. The fourth Democrat in the race is Clarksdale banker Pete Johnson, who has never run for 1st woman state Supreme Court justice sworn in by Rep. David Bowen. "Middle income people are most affected by the problems in this country," Jackson said.

Noting that lobbyists Mrs. Prather had already put in a day's work she was proud of, even though it wasn't as important as Thursday morning before her swearing in, hearing oral arguments in several cases. Court personnel said a private swearing-in ceremony early Thursday morning allowed Mrs. Prather to begin hearing cases before the public ceremony. Mrs.

Prather was selected by Winter from among five names sent to him by the Judicial Nominating Committee, a 20-member committee set up by the governor to screen applicants for unexpired state judgeships. Fourteen attorneys applied for Smith's position. Under state law, Mrs. Prather will only serve until January 1984. She has said she will seek election to the seat in a special election slated for November 1983 and also will run for election to a full six-year term in January, 1985.

The new justice joins 47 other women around the country who are currently serving as state appellate court judges. According to the National Center for State Courts in Williamsburg, 5 percent of all state appellate court judges in the country are female. Two states, California and Michigan, have women chief justices on their supreme courts. By JOY McILWAIN Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer The Mississippi Supreme Court chambers were packed with spectators Thursday for what Chief Justice Neville Patterson called a "historic occasion." Lenore Loving Prather, 50, was officially installed as the first woman Supreme Court justice in Mississippi history, assuming her seat on the bench two weeks after Gov. William Winter appointed her to succeed retiring Justice Lemuel Smith Jr.

As Associate Justire Robert Sugg administered the oath of office, Mississippi's first woman justice promised to "administer justice without respect to persons and do equal right to the poor and to the rich." Later, in a brief address to the court, Mrs. Prather called her appointment a "great honor and rare distinction." It wasn't the only first in her life, she noted, ticking off a long list beginning with one she garnered as a 9-year-old. In 1940, she was named the first girl page in the history of the Mississippi Senate, the new justice told her fellow justices, an honor the one she assumed Thursday. Mrs. Prather was also the first woman municipal judge in the city of West Point and the first woman Chancery Court judge in Mississippi.

Until her July 1 appointment by Winter, she had been a Chancery judge in the state's 14th Chancery District, which includes Chickasaw, Clay, Noxubee, Lowndes, Oktibbeha and Webster Counties, since 1971. "Nothing has brought me greater satisfaction than to contribute to the competence of this great court with this appointment," Winter told the courtroom audience. Winter said he appointed Mrs. Prather on the basis of her "competence, ability, integrity and experience," but that the fact she was a woman "did not hurt her in my estimation." The governor was not the only one at Thursday's ceremony to take note of Mrs. Prather's sex.

Mississippi State Bar President Curtis Coker of Jackson said the former Chancery judge will add some much needed "prettiness" to the court. "I've often said Judge Prather was too pretty to be a chancellor. She's gonna have a better background up here because I don't think any of you gentlemen are noted for your beauty," Coker joked. political office and is playing that angle as well as counting on the name identification that comes to him as the grandson of former Gov. Paul B.

Johnson Sr. and the nephew of former Gov. Paul B. Johnson Jr. Echoing statements made by the other candidates, Jackson said that 2nd District residents would vote for the man, based on his stand on the issues, rather than looking at a candidate's race.

Jackson said blacks would be involved in his campaign and on his staff, if elected, but because they are responsible individuals, not because of their race. He estimated that he needed to raise $30,000 to $40,000 for the primary, and said he anticipated a runoff election for the nomination in the 2nd District To receive the Democratic nomination, a candidate must gain a majority of the votes cast in the primary. The top two Democratic vote-getters will enter play an important role in the legislative process, he said, "Middle income citizens have not had a lobbyist. Someone has to represent them." Jackson, the 40-year-old owner of Cleveland Printing and Office Supply, declined to discuss his reasons for running when filing qualifying papers at the secretary of state's office Tuesday in Jackson. He said he wanted to make his announcement in his hometown as a favor to the local newspaper editor.

The decision not to run for the Democratic nomination for Congress by Cleveland attorney Gerald Jacks, a former Bowen campaign finance chairman, prompted Jackson to enter the Aug. 17 Democratic primary, he said. Jackson said Jacks will bo on the steering committee for his campaign. Both Jacks, reached by telephone in Cleveland, and Jackson said Jacks' Involvement did not mean support by Bowen or by any supporters of Bowen's past campaigns. "Ed is a friend of mine," Jacks said.

"Our friendship dates back a number of years, back to childhood." Jackson said he had been a legislator "long enough to still be interested in the (legislative) process, but not long enough to lose the idealism." He quickly added that the remark was not intended to re-flprt on state ReD. Robert Clark of Lex 1 suspect plea bargains in cop-killing i rnhtwv anAug. 31 runoff if no candidate receives a majority Aug. 17. Jackson said that although he favored a balanced federal budget, he believed that it must be accomplished gradually to avoid putting a lot of small businessmen and farmers out of business and rni.T.TNS One of four men chareed with the harm those "who need federal assistance to pay for seeing a doctor or eat- ington or state Sen.

Ollie Mohamed of "The Florida decision had a great deal to do with our decision in the recommendation," Evans said. However, Evans said he is convinced, as a result of the investigation, that Fields did not participate in the attack. Evans told Pittman that had the charges against Fields gone to trial, testimony would have shown that Fields was an occupant of the car stopped by Langham. "Mr. Fields did not actively participate in the altercation that killed Mr.

Langham," Evans told the court, adding that Fields did participate in the escape attempt. The car stopped by Langham was found abandoned outside a Collins business and several payroll checks drawn on a Louisiana firm were discovered inside. Fields pleaded guilty to possesing three forged checks totaling $1,173, although he never worked for the firm. Indicted along with Fields were Charles Montgomery 27, and Samuel Johnson, 37, both of Springfield, and Otis Lee Fairley, 30, of Collins. Montgomery's trial is scheduled to begin Monday in Meridian, while Johnson faces trial July 26 in Jackson and Fairley faces trial Aug.

3 in Magnolia. Pittman agreed in June to move the trials out of Covington County because of pretrial publicity. Evans said the plea agreement, which eliminates the possibility of a death sentence for Fields, came as a result of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, and because an investigation showed he was not involved in the attack on Langham. The Supreme Court, acting in a Florida case, ruled last month that the driver for an armed robbery that led to a murder could not be sentenced to death.

The driver didn't leave the car when two other men went into a store and shot and killed an employee during a New Year's Eve slaying of a Mississippi Highway Patrol officer pleaded guilty Thursday to a reduced charge of being an accessory after the fact of capital murder. Anthony Fields, 27, of Collins, had faced trial early next month on charges of killing Patrolman Billy Morris Langham on Dec. 31, 1981. However, he entered the guilty plea to the reduced charge in Langham's death and pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing forged payroll checks. Covington County Circuit Court Judge L.D.

Pittman sentenced Fields to 25 years in prison. District Attorney Bob Evans said Fields had agreed to testify in the trials of the other three men charged with capital muder in the patrolman's slaying. Langham, 37, of Mize, was stabbed in the back with a knife and shot in the head with his service revolver after he stopped a speeding car on U.S. 49 just south of Barbour, who said he is "not going to forfeit the black vote to Stennis," said he supports extension of the Voting Rights Act's enforcement provisions nationwide. GOP Senate candidate Barbour won concede Standards will cut remedial education costs black vote to Stennis Board member Bobby Chain said the new policy would require adjustments at state high schools because "there are many teachers teaching classes that they are totally unprepared for, they're teaching out of their fields." He said the situation has developed in part because the state can't compete with the salaries offered by private industry to qualified math and science instructors.

Jackson Schools Superintendent Robert Fortenberry said he welcomes the policy shift, but he said it will have little effect in city schools where the same requirements have been in force for about two years. Fortenberry said, however, that the current short supply of qualified math and science teachers would make it difficult to comply with the policy. By DOUGLAS DEMMONS Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer The state College Board, deciding Thursday that $1 million a year is too much for it to spend correcting learning deficiencies of incoming freshmen, formally approved tougher admission standards to state universities. The board gave final approval to a plan requiring all college-bound high school students to complete four years of English, three years each of math and science and 2 Vz years of social sciences such as U.S. history and American government and urging them to take two years of a foreign language and a computer science course.

time" for Mississippi to impose standards that sister states such as Alabama have enacted. He said the standards would upgrade the quality of students entering state universities and curtail the need for remedial education of freshmen with learning deficiencies. "We spend $1 million in remedial areas educating 3,500 students and that's too much," he said. "We're doing the remedial educating on the wrong end." Harrison launched a wide-ranging attack on the state system of education that he said leaves many students, beginning in preschool years, unprepared for college. "We ought to have kindergartens to start the children out right," he said.

By JOHANNA NEUMAN Gannett Newsservice WASHINGTON -Haley Barbour, the Republican attorney from Yazoo City who's trying to unseat 80-year-old Sen. John Stennis, said Thursday he doesn't think black voters in Mississippi will be fooled by Stennis' vote for extension of the Voting Rights Act. "I have confidence in the black voters of Mississippi," Barbour said. "They can read and plied to everybody," he said. "I know they do." Asked specifically whether he would have voted for the 25-year extension of the law's enforcement provisions, which the Senate overwhelmingly approved in June and which Stennis voted for, Barbour pulled back.

"I didn't have that before me," he said. Barbour was in Washington for the second time in two months to line up support from political action commit jVOTE) Board President Robert Harrison said it is past Future job market may leave state behind seeking trip to Los Angeles. clude data processing, paralegal, computer systems By BRIAN WILLIAMS Jim Meredith, director, agreed that technological industries are interested in skilled personnel. "We're moving to a new industrial reveolution, it's one based on technology," Merideth said of national employment trends. Referring to the study, he added, "The areas where we are projecting growth (in Mississippi) is based on business as usual without any innovation or change." In order to attract high technology industries, Meredith said, Mississippi government must offer "a gamut of services, everything from education to recreatjn to transportation." analysts and computer operators ana oince maunine servicers.

But in Mississippi, the study concludes, the highest rate of growth will be in jobs such as rotary drill operators and helpers, blasters, roustabouts and derrick operators. Winter said that even though Mississippi is an advantageous location for expanding technological industries, the question is whether Mississippi can provide skilled workers. He said industry leaders do not want to locate in a state that does not offer the needed vocational and technical education to prepare workers for skilled jobs. "They've told me that in very plain tns," said Winter, who returned earlier this week from an industry Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer The employment outlook for the next two decades in Mississippi indicates that the state could remain in 50th place, Gov. William Winter said Thursday.

Winter, at his weekly news conference in Jackson, released a study showing that Mississippians are not being prepared for the types of high technology jobs that will dominate the jobs market of the future. The study, by the Mississippi Research and Development Center, predicts occupational growth patterns through 1990. The study concluded that while technological jobs will expand nationwide, the occupational utuV2 facing Mississippians still is manual labor jobs, ft Nationally, the top job prospects for the future in write. They can see ine record for the last 35 years the same as I can. They know that Stennis may have voted for the Voting Rights Act in 1981, but they know how he voted in 1965, in 1970, in 1975." Barbour, who said he is "not going to forfeit the black vote to Stennis," said he supports extension of the Voting Rights Act's enforcement provisions nationwide.

"I tfink black people inlississippi agree that it's fair and ougnt to be ap- tees and Republican interest groups he is hoping will help finance his campaign. He said he is encouraged by reports from his pollster, Bob Teeter, showing that Stennis has the highest approval rating and the lowest percentage of support for his re-election of any Senate incumbent "There are not a whole lot of people out there who feel like they have to knock down the doors to keep Sen. Stennis in off ice," Barbour said..