Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi • Page 1

lM10tVlfl. MSU defeats Ky. 6-5 Florida, LSU win Sports, 1.8D 1A.ILY NfeWS -copyright 1988 JACKSON, MISSIS! FINAL 35t Volume 34, No. 40 4 sections, 46 pages JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI SATURDAY May 14, 1988 Would-be rescuer's actions were natural, Jackson family says grandchildren as well as his own daughter, 1-year-old Lisa. "If her mother said she needed anything, he would give her his last," Crawford's sister, Lucy Crawford, said of her brother and Lisa's mother, Sheila Travis of Jackson.

"He'd give her anything he had." Crawford spent a year in the U.S. Army shortly after graduating from Callaway High School in 1979, Lucy Crawford said. He hurt his leg in the service and came home with an honorable discharge and a limp. He'd worked for a local food service distributor, but was laid off last month. Howard, who was among the adults at the lake when Crawford died.

Crawford, 27, tried to rescue Bar-dray Richardson, 4, and his sister, Kei-sha Richardson, 2, both of 1211 Hair St. in Jackson. The children drowned when the car in which they were playing rolled into the lake on Potato House Road. Crawford dove into the lake after the children, but never came out. "He would help anybody that needed help; he loved children," said Queen Esther Owens, 42, of Jackson, a close family friend.

"I don't think he would have stood up there and let those kids drown. He was just that kind of a person." Owens, the mother of seven, said Crawford grew up playing with her children on Forest Avenue in northwest Jackson. "He was just like a son to me; he was real respectful," she said. Crawford's mother died when he was a teen, Owens said, and he wanted to talk. She said he told her, 'I know that you have children of your own, but would you be willing to take on another Ever since then, he called me Mama." Crawford, who had nine siblings of his own, extended his love to Owens' she said.

His sisters and friends also said Crawford never hesitated to help. Owens said anytime she'd ask, Crawford was there. "There were no words exchanged," Owens said. "He'd say, 'When do you want it And it was done." Just Wednesday, Crawford helped a woman on Mobile Avenue, Pearlie Sanders, who said she was stricken with the news of his death. "It broke my heart," Sanders said.

"I had that boy to mow my yard Wednes- See Crawford, back page this section Crawford was looking for a job, but took a break Thursday to go fishing, she said. "He loved to fish," she said. "One day he came here, the last part of last year. He brought home the biggest catfish. He was toting them by the mouth and their tails were dragging the street.

One in each hand. He said some man tried to buy them from him." Lucy Crawford said her brother told her he caught those catfish in Lake Hico, but she could barely believe it. She said he cleaned them that night and they ate a delicious dinner. "I'd never seen a catfish that big," By CHRISTINE UTHOFF and GRACE SIMMONS Clarion -Ledger Staff Writer It was only natural that Lee Crawford was beside a private lake near Edwards Thursday. It was only natural that he would give his life trying to save two children who drowned there.

He loved to fish and he loved children. "With him being the child lover he is, I guess he gave it all," Crawford's sister, Daphne Crawford, said Friday. "My little girl said he was her buddy. She was up all night," said Elizabeth Governors 'barge' into historic agreement tate halts river pumping ft I i u. ii i 3elta in dry -V 1 50 )a 1 AWUJ JERRY HOLTThe Clarion-Ledger Jackson Daily News Rosedale.

The governors signed agreements to promote economic development and international trade and to improve the quality of life in the three-state region. Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, left. Gov. Ray Mabus and Louisiana Gov.

Buddy Roemer speak to members of the media Friday morning on a barge in the Mississippi River off the shore from the port of 3 states to work together to battle poverty from rainfall or manmade runoff from wells. Emmett Findley, who grows rice, soybeans and wheat near Gunnison on the Bogue Phalia, said the order "puts me in a spot." "My rice needs water now a flood," Findley said. He said he was notified of the order by registered letter Friday, but he intends to complete the irrigation in progress then take his case to Charles Branch, director of the department's Bureau of Land and Water Resources. Branch was out of town when the order was issued. "If I don't get any action out of Branch, I'm going to call Espy and Cochran.

I don't see how they can do this," Findley said. "It will cut all of our potential profit. It would cost me $30,000 to drill wells. And if they stop everybody from taking water out of the Bogue, what becomes of that water? Is it more important to turn that water loose or save the crops?" B.A. Bogy of Rosedale, who now rents out his irrigated farm on the Bogue, said, "I think it's a bad thing, but I don't know what we can do about it." Branch said in a statement that the "low flow on these rivers could adversely affect fish and wildlife, as well as interfere with municipal wastewater treatment facilities discharging into these streams." Turner said that unless the flow is maintained at a necessary level, the discharge from the wastewater treatment facilities would lower the water quality in the streams below acceptable levels.

The sections of the rivers covered by the order are in Coahoma, Bolivar, Washington and Sunflower counties, in areas where the underground aquifers have dropped below the level of the river bottoms. The majority of the pumping permits 60 are along the Bogue. There are four permits for the Hushpuckena and two for the Sunflower. By ALAN HUFFMAN Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer Farmers are prohibited from irrigating their parched fields with water from three Delta rivers under an emergency order issued Friday by the state Department of Natural Resources. "Because of the low amount of water in the Sunflower River, the Bogue Pha-lia River and the Hushpuckena River, the withdrawal of water must cease until further notice," said department spokesman Eleana Turner.

Turner said this is the first time such an order has been issued and anyone violating it "is subject to fines, penalties and other appropriate enforcement action." A total of 66 farmers hold permits to pump from the effected sections of the rivers, primarily to irrigate cotton and soybeans and flood rice fields. Faced with an unseasonable drought at the height of planting season, farmers now must wait for rainfall or hastily drill wells. For rice farmers, whose crops are already planted and must be, flooded, rain will help only if it sufficiently raises the level of the rivers to lift the order. As of Tuesday, the National Weather Service station at Stoneville, just north of Greenville, had collected 14.48 inches of rain since January, while the average for the same time period is 21.28 inches. The rivers and bayous of the Delta have been especially susceptible to drought in recent years because of falling underground water tables coupled with more rapid runoff due to channelization.

The waterways naturally replenish ground water during high flows and are in turn replenished by ground water during dry periods. But because of continued pumping of wells for irrigation and catfish farming, ground water in the Delta is being used faster than it can be replaced naturally. In many areas the water table has now dropped below the level of river bottoms. That means the only surface water available comes Delta Council optimistic, 8B By DAN DAVIS Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer ROSEDALE Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas governors signed regional agreements Friday, trying to lift their states from poverty into the international economic mainstream. "This agreement won't change the face of our land tomorrow, but as surely as I stand here, this region will never ever be the same again," said Louisiana Gov.

Buddy Roemer. Roemer, Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus and Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton signed the agreements on a barge in the middle of the Mississippi River, just north of where the three impoverished states converge. "In signing these agreements, we three governors are trying to put aside the divisive, self-defeating rivalries that can mark and mar interstate relations," Mabus told Japanese Ambassa for the head of a state troubled by an economic depression and a political system tainted by corruption.

The governors said their comparable ages and educational backgrounds made the agreements possible. Clinton explained that it was difficult to develop personal relationships with other governors with which he has served. "Now I have two governors with whom I feel very comfortable working," he said. "The personal relationship makes this possible," said Mabus. "I trust these two folks absolutely." While they were enthusiastic about the historic pacts, the leaders said the ceremony is only the first step to improvement.

"This symbolic and ceremonial act will not solve our problem. But it's a beginning," Roemer said. dor Nobuo Matsunaga and about 200 state officials and local and national media on hand for the ceremonies. Clinton said the states must no longer compete for bottom-rung rankings on economic indicators. "For too long we have made futile efforts to crawl over each other to keep from being in last place," he said.

"That is an approach we can no longer afford. It's time we started working together." The first agreement signed by the governors calls for open lines of communication among the sister states in an effort to address common problems. A second agreement urges the promotion of friendly relations with foreign countries. Both agreements provide for representatives of each chief executive's office to meet frequently. Clinton said it is the first time the states have entered a similar joint venture since a 1948 advertising program designed to lure new factories to the South.

"The radical, revolutionary idea we sign today is that three governors and three states will listen, talk and exchange ideas," Roemer said. The agreement is the first regional bid for improvements promised earlier this year after Mabus and Roemer took charge in their states. All three of the Ivy League-educated governors are products of reform movements. Clinton, 41 and a Yale graduate, is only the second four-term Arkansas governor. Mabus, a Harvard alumnus, last year parlayed a program of education improvements and a corruption-fighting image to become the nation's youngest governor at 39.

Roemer, a 44-year-old Harvard graduate, beat the political odds in Louisiana by swapping a seat in Congress Jam ready for bash or splash Coming Sunday Lucedale inventor's priorities move from patent to prophecy SU iU HOdtinQ Up! Former Mississippi State star Rafael Palmeiro says he has laid the foundation for a great season with the Chicago Cubs. Memo to Mike: Jack Bass of Oxford outlines a winning Southern strategy for Michael Dukakis. 1 i An editorial: Time to celebrate, 8A Map and schedule, 1 OA What will happen to Gospel 1C By JOE ROGERS Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer The heavens christened last year's first Jubilee Jam with 1.6 inches of rain over two days, somewhat dampening the festivities. But adversity builds character, or so they say, and the city's initial underwater music and arts festival prompted certain adjustments for this weekend's celebration. "It has helped us to carefully plan for rain, both light and heavy, and tornadoes, whirlwinds and hail," said Jennifer Packer, Jam coordinator.

"We've looked at every natural disaster that can happen and tried to come up with a plan." The National Weather Service predicts continued partly cloudy skies, with highs between 85 and 90. And the City Council, by official proclamation, guarantees "beautiful springtime weather" both today and Sunday. Jubilee Jam begins at noon both days downtown at One Jackson Place, an area bounded by Capitol, Lamar and Amite streets and the Town Creek Parking Garage. If you get lost, look for the place with all the striped tents and meandering people. Or just follow your ears and nose.

Packer said gates will open at 1 1 a.m. to accommodate early arrivals. She expects a crowd of be- By JOHN MATNES Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer LUCEDALE Joseph Newman's calendar is booked. In the months ahead, the inventor says, he has to sell his futuristic red electric sports car, become United States president and warn the world of impending doom And possibly duke it out with Satan. Newman's priorities have changed dramatically from the days when thousands of people, including Johnny Carson, listened intently to his claim of having invented a machine that would catapult the energy-hungry human race into electric paradise.

It was a machine, Newman said, that pulled energy from atoms and generated more energy than it used, a machine that could make space flight effortless and reduce work weeks to an hour or so. It also was a machine skeptics and federal investigators said that did no such thing, and anyone believing otherwise simply had a screw loose. In recent months, Newman, 51, has practically abandoned his work on the machine. He says he's now on a more important mission: To save the world Index Ann Landers 7C Bridge 7D Business 8B Classified 7C Comics Crosswords Deaths 2B Entertainment 6C Horoscope Jumble 6D Names Faces 2A Opinion 8A Religion 1C Sports 1D State Metro 1B Stocks TV-Radio Log 4C WEATHER Chance of rain. High 88.

Details, 10A. tween 30,000 and 50,000. "And we're prepared for it in all aspects: security, food and fun." And bathrooms, for that matter. Packer promises 40 portable units more, she said, than the Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans. And a necessity in cutting down on that critical bathroom-line wait time.

Plus, there will be five entrances to this year's event, compared with two last year. "We recognize the need to cover all four directions, and then the parking garage has its own entrance." Celebrants should come prepared with their own lawn chairs or blankets if they plan to do any sitting, Packer said. They should not come prepared with their own coolers, glass containers, video equipment or pets none of which is allowed. Children are allowed, and encouraged they See Jubilee, back page this section JOSEPH NEWMAN from the wrath of God, who, Newman said, is angry with the degradation of human morals. To Newman it is serious stuff, and he keeps lists.

He was furious, for exam-See Newman, back page this section.