Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 9

LocalState Jennifer Carroll City Editor 377-1192 Databank 2B Greater Lansing 3B Business 4B Lansing State Journal Friday, Oct; 14, 1988 Page 1B emperatures climb just in time for the fun of fall JE NICHOLS State Journal are in the mid-6()s. wagon rides, craft demonstrations, countrv contests. NICHOLS State Journal wagon rides, craft demonstrations, country contests, By SUE Lansing fonthall hri air folk music and food. Admission is $1 for adults, 50 Friday night may bring some showers, with sprin It may not get any better than this. Everything is peaking this weekend.

Color. Temperatures. Fall activities. The past week's cold spell is breaking today, leaving a sharpened appreciation for temperatures hovering around 60 degrees. After this morning's clouds clear, temperatures are supposed to reach into the upper 50s, perhaps even the low 60s, said Margaret Shnowski of the National Weather Service at Capital City Airport.

Normal daytime temperatures for this time of year kles hanging around through Saturday morning. Things should clear up for the 1 p.m. football game between Michigan State University and Northwestern University. "We're in a transition weather pattern," Shnowski said. "Michigan is going to be sitting in the middle of where cold and warm meet." The warm trend could continue through Tuesday.

Here are some ideas on how to wallow in it: Woldumar Nature Center's Fallfest is noon to 5 p.m. Sunday at 5539 Lansing Road, with horse-drawn "uc aim a luiliaillic auveil- ture weekend. Tickets are $8 or two for $15. For tickets or more information call 887-2593. Superfest88 features eight shows 8 a.m.

to 8 p.m. today, Saturday and Sunday at the Ingham County Fairgrounds Mason. More than 1,500 dealers will display wares in 400 booths in 15 buildings. Among the shows: Antique and collectibles, arts and crafts, antique and classic autos, dolls and toys, gems and minerals and gun and military relics. Today is early buyers day, admission $10 per person.

Admission Saturday and Sunday is $2.50. Children are admitted free; parking is free. cents for childen, free for those under 5 years old. "The leaves are turning and its lovely out here," said office manager Mary Negus. "Fall is one of the prettiest times of year here." Ionia Antique and Collectible Markets on Sunday at the Ionia County Fairgrounds.

The Greater Lansing Food Bank is having its Fall Fantasy Auction fundraiser 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center. Items to be auctioned include an autographed MSU xpert: may Ihsiwe Spec acddeinrtaDlly action forward put a slight indentation in the firing pin. Bullet holes in plywood of the McMellens' basement wall appear to indicate a slight upward trajectory, Martin also testified.

Witnesses have said McMellen told them he was sitting at a table, working on the gun or cleaning it, when it went off. He said his wife was walking away towards some stairs. In other testimony Thursday, Charlotte teacher James Hylen said he never heard David McMellen make a negative comment about Christina McMellen. Hylen, who taught with McMellen at the junior high school, said he never noticed anything unusual between McMellen and Cindy Wentworth, another teacher. McMellen and Wentworth married eight months after Christina McMellen's death.

Hylen said he often spent planning periods in McMellen's classroom, along with Wentworth and another teacher. Hocking has tried to use McMellen and Wentworth's relationship to show a motive for murder. Since 1981, McMellen has lived in Traverse City, where he operates an interior decorating business. He is free on bond. By JIM RASMUSSEM Lansing State Journal CHARLOTTE The gun that killed Christina McMellen could have fired accidentally if debris was in the firing mechanism or the slide action was slammed forward, a firearms expert testified Thursday.

Lama Martin, an independent firearms tester from Bel Air, testified that the 30-06 rifle's firing pin could strike the cartridge primer which fires the bullet if the rifle's slide was pushed forward harder than normal. That type of accidental firing would be more likely with a sensitive primer, he said. Martin testified during the eighth day of the trial of David McMellen, 47, a former Charlotte junior high school teacher who is charged with murdering his wife Dec. 6, 1980. The shooting was ruled an accident until rumors led Eaton County Prosecutor G.

Michael Hocking to reopen the case two years ago. Martin said several accidental firings have occurred with the type of Remington rifle involved in the shooting. Martin's experiments showed that slamming the Helping Day honors our young volunteers Lansing State Journal James Hollaway Jr. was polishing toy fire helmets Thursday morning because he figured it would help his career. Hollaway, 21, of Detroit is studying merchandising marketing at Michigan State Unversity, so he is volunteering this semester to work in the gift shop of the R.E.

Olds Museum in Lansing. Hollaway and thousands of student volunteers across the country were honored Thursday in "A Day in the Life of Youth Service." MSU's Service Learning Center and the Voluntary Action Center of Greater Lansing coordinated local activities, sponsored nationally by Youth Service in America and the Campus Outreach Opportunity League. Photographs of volunteers across the country will be part of an exhibit that will travel to 47 state capitals. About 1,300 MSU students and 400 Lansing-area middle and high school students volunteer in the community each year. Most work four to 12 hours week.

Some are tutors at the Cristo Rey Community Center, others work at the Arthritis Foundation, the Michigan School for the Blind and the Capitol among other places. "They've been a big, big, big help," said Lisa Gonzales of the two student volunteers who help children from Lansing's Hispanic community with their homework at the Cristo Rey center. Tutoring is offered after school on Tuesday afternoons. "We started out with five kids and now we have over 25," Gonzales said. Frank Slobig, co-director of Youth Service in America, said student volunteers were honored to increase awareness of their work.

"The youth service movement is so diffused throughout our society that it is often ignored or unappreciated," he said. Pro-life lawmaker challenges report i if 1 hikW -y- (v. --vi, im- -r it hwwhwwfrrfwaMfl65 -Sw, j- ri 4riTf rfWr ri fill 1 1 iMlftl 'uA By CHRIS ANDREWS Lansing State Journal A state House report predicting higher welfare costs if Medicaid Lansing State JournalROD SANFORD Molly Field, 1 0, of East Lansing receives a kiss from Whitehills Health Care Center resident Olive Anspach during a visit to the center Thursday. Molly was one of the area youth volunteers being documented Thursday in a nationwide "Day in the Life of Youth Service" project locally coordinated by the Voluntary Action Center and MSU's Service Learning Center. abortions are banned is riddled with errors, pro-life lawmakers charged Thurday.

State Sen. Fred Dillingham said the report, which predicted $27.7 million in new welfare CAMPAIGN '88 Aviator Hall of Fame today ABORTION PROPOSAL $6 million a year for about 18,500 Medicaid abortions. I Dillingham said the House re-r port didn't take into account the" likelihood that some women would put children up for adoption, or that some would get off the wel-I fare rolls in less than two years. In addition, he said, the conception rate probably would drop1 dramatically. State Rep.

David Hollister, D-" Lansing, defended the House study. He said it assumed that onlyl 70 percent of the additional chiK dren would end up on welfare and that 10 percent would go off the' rolls each year. He noted that a Senate Fiscal Agency report in 1985 predicted' even higher costs $51 State Rep. Nick Ciaramitaro, D-Roseville, said he thinks added" costs, if there are any, are highly exaggerated. He also criticized the pro-choice side for reducing the' issue to dollars and cents.

"A civilized society cannot de-' cide that the answer to the gnaw-: ing problem of poverty is the elimination of the poor themselves," Ciaramitaro said. Hollister said pro-life advocates have focused on the tax issue "It was their ads that raised the cost issue," he said. By NORRIS INGELLS Lansing State Journal Amelia Earhart would be proud. The letter of encouragement the famed avia the second-biggest thrill of her 52-year flying career. The biggest came about 9 a.m.

Oct. 27, 1936. She was working at the restaurant her parents ran at Capital City Airport when her flight instructor, Harvey Hughes, stopped in and asked if she wanted to go flying. Babe, then 18, didn't even bother to take off her apron. They flew around a while, practiced stalls, then landed.

Hughes got out. "You're going to go alone. You can do it," he told her. With pillows propped behind her to get her close enough to reach the rudder pedals, Babe took off on her solo flight. "Soloing was the biggest thrill of my life.

I had to do it myself. Nobody could do it for me," she recalled. Tonight's induction is a close second. "I never expected I would be in the hall of fame in my lifetime," said Ruth. During World War II, she was one of the few women picked to teach military pilots instrument flying.

In 36 years as a professional pilot and flight instructor she amassed more than 10,000 hours in the air. In 1980 the prestigious OX-5 Club of America named her a "Pioneer Woman Pilot." Former astronaut Jack Lousma, a veteran of two space flights, will speak at tonight's ceremony. Other inductees include Mario Fontana of Iron Mountain; Clarence Johnson of Encino, Edward Lesher of Ann Arbor; and the late William Stout of Quincy, 111. Babe, now 70, still cherishes the letter she got from Earhart in 1933. She had written to Ear-hart to ask what she would have to do to become a pilot.

"I believe that if you are not afraid to work hard and really wish to enter aviation you will be able to do so some day," Earhart told her. costs during the first two years of a ban, was incorrect and misleading. Dillingham charged that Social Services Director Patrick Babcock and two pro-choice state lawmakers were using deceptive scare tactics to help defeat the Medicaid ban. "One does not need to be an economist or a statistician to see that these numbers are blatantly bogus and are meant to deceive, rather than enlighten us," said Dillingham, R-Fowlerville. Voters will decide Nov.

8 whether to end state funding for Medicaid abortions. The state pays about tor sent little Marion Weyant back in 1933 really got things rolling: straight down the runway and into the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame. With four others, Landing's Marion "Babe" Weyant Ruth will be inducted into that elite circle of in 6:45 p.m. ceremonies in the General Avia-tinn Tnr hanpar at City Airport. Ruth Ruth says tonight's recognition will only be Dumping an unwanted cat means letting it die a cruel death EAST LANSING A lot of cats are dying of faulty reasoning.

Dying the hard way. funnels as many as he can into MSU's medical search programs. Good, who said he loves cats, joined Kristen Mul- JOHN SCHNEIDER Said Mullaney: "There's more to survival than catching cat toys." inan DDD Have car; will travel. If that's you, you're needed. I The Easter Seals' Jane Thurston Recreation Gron a local gathering of physically disabled adults is lnnk ing for volunteer drivers willing to transport mem bers to recreational outings.

uiem" "Feopie tninK mat you dump a cat near a barn, everything's hunky-dory," said George Good, Michigan State University's shepherd. Good's barns, on Hagadorn Road, have long been a favorite dumping ground for unwanted cats. "That's the easy way out for the people, but not for the cats he said. Premise number one: Show me a barn and I'll show you a cat para- Please don't sentence your unwanted cat to death by starvation. Her voice cracked more than once as she described the episode that prompted her plea.

Mullaney was jogging near the MSU cattle barns last weekend when she saw a gaunt cat searching for food. Unable to forget the image, she went back the next day, found the cat and took it home. Her husband, veterinarian pathologist Tom Mullaney, examined the cat and discovered that it was beyond the point of being saved. "We took the cat to the clininc and put him down," Kristen said. "He was only about eight months old." Tom later performed a necropsy on the cat and confirmed that starvation was the cause of death.

Kristen started asking questions and discovered that at one point last summer more than 23 half-starved cats were roaming around the cattle barns. The sheep barn is also a popular choice, Good said. "They drop them off, leaving the barn managers to decide on their destiny," said Good, adding that he Generally there are two such activities a month This month, for example, there will be a havride JS' trip to Impression 5 Science Museum. The eroun mvpr! thp pvnoncni. j- at a distinct disadvantage.

Premise number two: It's more humane to give an unwanted cat a fighting chance than to put it to sleep. False again, Good said. All it takes to appreciate that fact is to encounter a starving animal that has slipped past the point of no return. That's exactly what happened to Kristen Mullaney of Okemos, who remains haunted by the experience. Mullaney called to issue a plea to cat owners: Good dise protection from the ele ments, room enough for all, mice galore.

False, Good said. For one thing, a barn, like any other environment, can support only a certain amount of foraging, which leaves the basic house cat ui ui i vers If you can help, call William Brooks at 694-i985 John Schneider is a Lansing State Journal writer. His telephone number is 377-1175.