The Minneapolis Star from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 1

GS A contractor payo trackec By RONALD KESSLER Washington Pott WASHINGTON Federal agents probing corruption in the General Services Administration (GSA) have uncovered a network of bank accounts here and abroad that they believe were used to hide millions of dollars in contractor payoffs to GSA employees. The contractors put into the accounts money paid by the GSA for maintenance and repair work that never was done, according to sources close to the investigation. After shifting the money from bank to bank in various cities to make it difficult to trace, the contractors withdrew the cash and gave it to the GSA employees who had approved the contracts and payments for nonexistent work, according to the sources. The GSA employees then moved the payoff money from bank to bank to hide the payoffs, the sources said. FBI investigators and federal prosecutors who are probing the GSA with federal grand juries both here and in Baltimore have examined bank accounts in this country but have yet to check on those they have traced to foreign countries.

(The Associated Press reported today that federal agents are tracking "big, big money" to Swiss banks, where they believe GSA employees channeled it. The AP said it was told by a source close to the investigation: "They're over in Switzerland working on it through FBI liaison Although no one has yet been able to list a total amount involved, Vincent Alto, a former Justice Department prosecutor hired by GSA Administrator Jay Solomon to help clean up corruption in the agency, has said he believes it might be the biggest money scandal in U.S. government history. One GSA employee allegedly got $250,000 in payoffs in just two years, according to the sources. However, the investigators have found that most of the GSA employees being probed still live in relatively modest homes.

"There was no ostentation," one source said. "By and large, the GSA people spent It on cars, girls, dinners and trips. About the only thing that wasn't paid for (by the contractors) was utility bills" of GSA employees. "They spent half their days at Ho-gate's or the Flagship (restaurants on the Maine Av. waterfront)," the source said.

Last week, seven of those GSA employees who are targets of the Investigation into building maintenance contracts were subpoenaed by a grand jury, fingerprinted, photographed by the FBI and required to provide samples of their handwriting, sources said. The handwriting samples were needed to obtain further evidence linking the officials with GSA documents they allegedly signed to approve payments to GSA Turn to Page 10A The Minneapolis TAR Copyright 1978 Minneapolis Star and Tribune Company Single copy 20 Lower price for home delivery Wednesday, August 30, 1978 er mission: Nashville man likely choice for park post By DEBRA STONE Minneapolis Star Staff Writer Charles Spears likes parks for and by the people and reportedly is a whiz at getting federal grants and private contributions to help local taxpayers foot the bill. Spears Is likely to be approved by the park board tonight as the new Minneapolis superintendent of parks. Spears, 48, Spears ttfifc hi 1 1 itt Jtfr to join VF Medals, battle stories, scars make claim valid By SUZANNE PERRY Minneapolis Star Staff Writer Thirty-two years ago, Hazel "Butch" Hill Turk was unceremoniously rejected for membership in the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). "You can't join, you're a woman," she was told.

"You can be an auxiliary member." That wasn't exactly what the World War II Army flight nurse had in mind. She joined the American Legion instead. The slap in the face, however, was never forgotten. So when the VFW last week decided at a national convention to admit female members, Turk's first reaction was: "Boy, they can shove it." THE RICHFIELD WOMAN, 59, CALMED DOWN a little later. "I thought, 1 wonder if anyone else knows.

I want to be No. 1." She called the state VFW office Thursday and said she wanted to be the first woman in Minnesota to join. She talked to Judy Eide, secretary to the adjutant quartermaster, who told her she was the first woman to call the state office about membership. Eide directed Turk to the Fred Babcock VFW post in Richfield. "My husband called from work and I said, 'I'm going to join the Turk said.

"He said, 'Good, let's go over there Lloyd Turk had given up his VFW membership years ago, largely because of his wife's resentful feelings about the organization. THEY WENT TO THE RICHFIELD POST and filled out applications. When she handed over her discharge papers, one of the, members commented, "If you don't belong in here, nobody does." Her papers say: Hazel Hill, 801st Medical Air Evacuation Squadron. First lieutenant. Battles and campaigns: New Guinea, Western Pacific, South Philippines, Luzon.

Decorations: distinguished unit badge, four bronze battle stars, victory medal, American theater ribbon, Philippines liberation ribbon, Asiatic-Pacific theater ribbon, two overseas service bars. Eide said she can't guarantee Turk will be the first female member in Minnesota. None of the posts may accept women until a directive is issued from national headquarters, she said. The state office has heard from about six women who are interested in joiningand from the same number of men who have threatened to resign if women are admitted, Eide said. Whether or not Turk is "No.

1," her war stories are fascinating. She loves to tell them, because, she said, "I want someone to know Turk Turn to Page 8A i fif 1 1 Star Photo by Jim McTaggart Hazel 'Butch' Hill Turk with Japanese flag and other World War II memorabilia COLOR Index who was manager of special services for the Minneapolis parks from 1967 to 1911, is director of parks and recreation for Davidson County (Nashville), Tenn. During his tenure there, the Nashville system has acquired $3 million from the federal government for parks projects. And although Spears says he wants to wait to see more closely what Minneapolis is now doing before he moves on specific projects, he said he feels strongly about "people in the community helping to decide what they need in parks. The nine-member board is expected to unanimously approve Spears to replace the controversial Robert Ruhe, who took the job in 1966 and resigned in June.

The job will pay between $43,000 and Spears Turn to Page 9A Ex-police official is indicted By DANE SMITH Minneapolis Star Suit Writer Minnesota police officers formed the Law Enforcement Memorial Association two years ago to take care of their own to give a little bit extra for families of officers killed In the line of duty. In its short existence, it raised a monument at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to fallen officers and set up a program to help widows and families find financial assistance, according to James H. Crawford, Golden Valley's director of public safety and head of the association. Each time a Minnesota officer was killed, the association would buy a "beautiful large wreath" for the grave and arrange a dinner for the family at the governor's mansion.

There the family and the officers In the department would be given memorial plaques. Now the association's treasury is almost exhausted, Crawford said. Its treasurer, Forbes Martinson, 36, was Indicted by a Washington Martinson Tun to Page I OA COLO I Marriage of ABC to Ch.5 follows a long courtship By JOHN CARMAN Minneapolis Star Staff Writer said KSTP's affiliation switch "has been brewing for some months." He said NBC has labored hard in recent weeks to dissuade Hubbard from abandoning it. SUMMARIES In Brief Page 3A Worth Noting Page7B Sports In Brief Page 2B SECTIONS Metropolitan news Page 19A news Page ISA Opinion Pages I6-17A Business Pages 9-10B Entertainment Page 22B Sports Pages 1-60 Taste Section Variety Pages 1-7B Comics Pages 8-7B TV A radio Page 23B COLUMNS Column 1 PageSA Don Morrison Page22B Dear Abby Page 4B Smile Factory Page2B RECORDS Sports scores, standings Page 2D Vital statistics Page MB Weather forecast PageSA Weather records Page 24B 4 Sections 198 STAR TELEPHONES News, General 372-4141 Want Ads 372-4242 Circulation 372-4343 Column 1 372-4444 1 west of the Twin Cities metropolitan area; Eau Claire is 80 miles to the east. Both cities have TV stations that are affiliated with NBC, preventing an NBC-affillated KSTP from competing there.

Neither city has a station whose primary affiliation is with ABC, though KCMT-TV in Alexandria has a secondary affiliation with ABC and carries some ABC programing. Expansion into the Alexandria and Eau Claire markets would put an additional 200,000 households within KSTP's reach, thus increasing the station's advertising-revenue potential. The KSTP signal presumably would be beamed into the outlying areas by microwave, over a series of relay towers called translate. KSTP Turn to Page 9A KSTP-TV (Channel 5) will align itself with ABC to join an enormously successful television network and, according to an informed source, to expand its market area. For its part, ABC wants KSTP as an affiliate so that Its relatively weak network news operation will be united with KSTP's "Eyewitness News," the Twin Cities ratings leader.

It's a marriage of convenience. The losers in yesterday's announcement that KSTP would become an ABC affiliate in March are the NBC television network and ABC's current Twin Cities affiliate, KMSP (Channel 9). NBC already has begun efforts to find a new affiliate in the Twin Cities. It Is virtually certain to choose either KMSP or WTCN-TV (Channel 1 1), a nonaffiliated station. Stanley S.

Hubbard, president of Hubbard Broadcasting KSTP's parent firm, could not be reached for comment, but an NBC source me source saia HUDDara accepted NBC's argument that Fred Silverman, the programing wizard who moved from ABC to become NBC president in May, would be able to make inroads into ABC's recent prime-time ratings preeminence. But, the source said, Hubbard was concerned about more than the network ratings battle. He is eager to hrnarlraot ARC nroeramine Hubbard into the Alexandria, and Eau Claire, markets. Alexandria is 130 miles north- Nicaraguan city bombed by national guard warplanes HondurM. KL.VM.t.,.1 ftl Caribbean "I intend to remain as president until my term expires," he added, but pledged "a fair and honest election" in 1981.

Somoza has ordered the arrests of hundreds of national guardsmen and political opponents in a crackdown on both the left and right after a weekend coup attempt. The president said loyal national guard troops had taken into custody eight to 10 officers and 25 enlisted men involved in plans for the first attempted military rebellion since he took power in 1974. Unofficial sources said 200 soldiers and 12 high-ranking officers, as well as seven civilians, were arrested as suspects in the plot. The national guard is the police and military force in Nicaragua and has been the bulwark of four decades of rule by the Somoza family In that Central American nation of about 2.4 million people. MANAGUA, Nicaragua (IPD National guard warplanes today bombed and strafed sections of Matagalpa city held by antl-Somoza students armed with machetes, homemade bombs, pistols and rifles killing at least five people and starting scores of fires.

On the ground, troops led by the son of President Anasata-sio Somoza poured machine-gun fire on the municipal palace, overrun by the estimated 500 students who were said to control two-thirds of the city. A UPI reporter said at least five people died in the pitched battle. Several bodies could be seen lying in the streets. Four national guard warplanes bombed, rocketed and strafed the municipal palace and other areas of Matagalpa for more than five hours yesterday, starting many fires, but heavy rains halted the bombardment until shortly after dawn. The students strung barbed wire Sunday throughout downtown Matagalpa, 90 miles north of Managua, and created a no man's land that the national guard could not enter because of the gunfire.

Witnesses said the students, who declared the areas they held "Free Territory of Matagalpa," were poorly armed with homemade bombs, machetes, pistols and rifles. Frequent street battles were reported in Leon, a city of 50,000. and a Red Cross source there said the general strike had paralyzed business. President Somoza yesierday defied demands, including some by right-wing national guard officers who allegedly were plotting to overthrow him, that he step down. "My resignation would insure a Marxist takeover," Somoza said yesterday.

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