Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 15

is MetroMichigan Lansing State Journal Wednesday, Jan. 1, 1986 IF, Oemms Also: bom report fcamiiiDw year Digest State issues 'Komfy Dolls' warning The state Department of Public Health has asked parents to stop their children from playing with "Komfy Dolls" received for Christmas until it probes complaints that the toys may be toxic or flammable. Director Gloria Smith urged parents to place the dolls in plastic bags until the department's analysis is completed in about a week. About a million of the foot-long, yarn-haired dolls have been sold nationwide. Complaints about the Taiwan-made toys surfaced in California about two weeks ago when parents noticed they gave off a kerosene-like smell.

Los Angeles County health officials said tests by private laboratories found some of the dolls stuffed with material that contains chemicals such as phenol and napthalene. Low levels of malathion, a pesticide, also were found, officials said. Those chemicals could cause breathing and nerve problems. Smith said. The importer, Abernathy and Closther of West-bury, N.Y., and a federal agency have said the dolls aren't hazardous.

Tests by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission found petroleum solvents in the dolls were "considerably below" hazardous Poll: Quality medical care in doubt Michigan residents will find it increasingly hard to get competent medical care because of medical malpractice problems, according to a new survey of doctors done for the Concerned Physicians Committee. Two-thirds of the 178 neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons who responded said they believe the rising cost of malpractice insurance has hurt the quality and availability of general and emergency health-care services, the group said. About a third of the responding doctors say they plan to reduce the number of surgeries they perform or stop operating altogether, the report said. Half of the surgeons say they have either reduced or stopped emergency medicine in the past five years.

The survey for the group was by Martin Block, a professor of advertising at Northwestern University and Michigan State University. The state Legislature is considering bills to ease the liability insurance crisis. State charges oil man with pollution Attorney General Frank Kelley has filed suit against a Kent County oil well operator for allegedly contaminating some residential water wells. The Kent County Circuit Court suit against Howard Fenske follows citizen complaints and an investigation by the state Department of Natural Resources, Kelley said. Compiled from Associated Press reports.

An undercover police officer who buys illegal drugs outside his jurisdiction and without cooperation from state or local police still can file a criminal complaint against the seller and testify against him in court, the state Supreme Court said in reversing rulings by Kalamazoo County Circuit Court and the state Court of Appeals. Corrections officials say they have increased prison capacity by 3. 1 1 6 by opening five new prisons and a new camp and adding space to six existing facilities. i I jThe ''CVieV Michigan Lansing From IB By JACQUELYNN BOYLE Associated Press Democrats watched their governor gain widespread popularity in 1985 and Republicans recruited the Democratic chief of state's largest county as each party tuned up for 1986 elections. GOP candidates won three special state legislative elections, retained control of the state Senate and successfully wooed Wayne County Executive William Lucas, who had been a lifelong Democrat.

But Democrats scored major gains with the steadily growing public appeal of Gov. James Blanchard, who declared the state solvent 2'2 years after he pushed through an unpopular income tax increase to erase Michigan's $1.7 billion deficit. State Democratic Chairman Richard Wiener said the popularity of Blanchard and his programs "will help all Democrats in the state in the 1986 elections." A poll published Dec. 8 by The Detroit News showed Blanchard with a 65 percent job approval rating. His approval rating was just 33 percent in a similar poll in mid-1983, six months after he became governor.

Blanchard Press Secretary Richard Cole lists a litany of accomplishments that boosted his boss' image Mazda Motor decision to build a plant at Flat Rock, the reopening of the Upper Peninsula's White Pine Copper Mine and a massive prison construction program. Even losing General Motors Saturn plant to Tennessee was tempered by the automaker's promise to put Saturn's headquarters in Oakland County, Cole says. But it was Nov. 8, which the administration billed "Solvency Day." that Cole calls the governor's greatest 1985 success. That day Blanchard ceremonially settled the debt he inherited from the previous administration.

The governor has recovered from the ill effects of the income tax increase he implemented after taking office. Cole contends. The rate boost, from 4.6 percent to work together for economic improvement. The new Regional Economic Development (RED) Team includes Lansing and East Lansing; Ingham, Eaton and Clinton counties; the Tri-County Employment and Training Partnership, the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission and the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce. The RED team came about from efforts of the local organization on such projects as the Michigan Biotechnology Institute and Lansing's bid for General Motors Saturn plant.

Hundreds of communities throughout the United States entered a frenzy of bidding for the Saturn plant, and the prize went to Spring Hill, Tenn. to 6.35 percent, had prompted the recall of two Democratic state senators and the party's loss of Senate control. Now, the state's bills are paid, the tax rate is 5.1 percent and to drop to 4.6 percent in 1986 and the state has regained its credibility on Wall Street factors that will fuel Blanchard's expected bid for re-election, Cole says. However, the GOP also is optimistic. "We had as good a year for an off year as we could have hoped for in terms of affirmative, positive activities," said Spencer Abraham, chairman of the Michigan Republican Party.

In March. Vernon Ehlers, a Republican state representative, beat former Democratic state Sen. Stephen Monsma in a hotly contested race for a Grand Rapids Senate seat vacated when Republican Paul Henry left for Congress. The election, which set a spending record for a state Senate race, with a total above S500.000. kept the GOP in control of the chamber with a 20-18 majority.

In June. Republican Richard Bandstra was elected to replace Ehlers in the House. And in August, former state Sen. Jack Wel-born of Parchment defeated a Democratic opponent in a special election to fill the seat of his brother, GOP Sen. Robert Wel-born of Kalamazoo, who died in May.

Abraham said Lucas' party switch was a watershed for Michigan Republicans. Basil Brown: Preliminary exam on drug trafficking charges resumes Jan. 1 5. of Education on a recall Board ballot. Sen.

Basil Brown Capital Area Transportation Authority competed for fares on the busy West Saginaw Street route in Delta Township. Thousands of physicians from throughout Michigan rallied at the Capitol in October to protest skyrocketing liability insurance rates. Others claiming to be medical malpractice victims or their relatives held counter-demonstrations. Lansing hospitals waged a television spot war to lure patients. The United Auto Workers absorbed thousands of state employees in autumn bargaining unit elections.

The UAW snatched two thirds of the members away from the largest union of state workers, Michigan State Employees Association. The East Lansing City Council in December voted to restrict smoking in public places, and Lansing councilmen took up that cause. Lansing will have hearings on the plan in January. Ronald Bailey, 26. faced kid-nap-murder charges in Livingston County for the death of 13-year-old Shawn Moore of Green Oak Township.

The boy's body was found near a cabin near Gladwin in September. Twenty-three men were charged with indecent exposure and soliciting after police raided two freeway rest stops near Holt in August. Meanwhile. Lansing police stepped up a crackdown on street prostitution in the central city. Patricia Wing of Mason was freed by doctors in November from St.

Lawrence Hospital after she was found innocent of charges in the death of her infant son, Benjamin. Wing admitted that she put the baby in the Red Cedar River on Dec 22. 1984, before telling authorities the child had been kidnapped from a shopping cart in the Meijer store on South Pennsylvania Avenue. Wing pleaded insanity in her manslaughter trial. Wayne L.

Harvey and Patricia Ware, both former convicts, were sent to prison for the shooting death of a Meridian Township woman, Connie Joe Sonnenberg. They were charged in the shooting deaths of Sonnenberg and East Lansing Police Officer James S. Johnson. Both got life sentences for first-degree murder in the Sonnenberg case. Harvey was convicted of second-degree murder in the Johnson slaying.

volving the same Troop 60 scout. Jeffrey Gowing, 18, son of Donald Gowing, drew four to 15 years, while Donald Bushard, 20, who had lived with Delmar Gowing, was sent to prison for eight to 15 years. Late in the year, a brother of the Gowing twins was sentenced on a sex conviction involving a 14-year-old girl. Robert A. Gowing, 51, Eagle, was sentenced to six months in the Clinton County Jail and three years of probation.

He had pleaded guilty to fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct. Policemen killed Lansing police officer Dean A. Whitehead. 30, was killed May 9 when he was struck by the rotor blade of a police helicopter which was downed on the city's south side after striking a utility wire. Whitehead, riding as an observer, was struck as he fled the craft after it hit the ground.

Eaton County Sheriff's Deputy Donald E. Rice, 35, died Dec. 10 when struck by a hit-run vehicle as he knelt to change a flat tire for a stranded motorist on U.S. 27 near Stewart Road. Richard W.

Osborne, 35, of Vermontvilie. faces a manslaughter charge in the Rice death. Lightning strikes golfers Four teen-agers were struck by lightning near the fifth hole on the Forest Akers-West Golf Course on the Michigan State University campus July 15 as they dashed for the club house during a rain storm. One victim, John C. Sullivan, now 18.

who was a senior at Mar-lette High School, was last reported to be in a coma at his home where he is cared for by his parents. The other victims, Scott Klebba. 15. and Jeff Sznynski, 16, both of Utica, and Brian Stanton, 17, Owosso, recovered from their injuries. They were released from hospital care shortly after the incident.

Other major events Mayor Terry McKane squeaked to victory in his bid for a second four-year term. Councilman Louis Adado's bid to unseat McKane fell on a count of 9,945 to 9,154. Buses of the Eaton County Transportation Authority and )- MOVE UP TO A NEW CAREER: Dental Business Assistant Dental Assistant Lansing Community College can help yon prepare for a rewarding eareer in the dental field. LCC offers the following programs: Dental Business A ssistant Dental A ssistant A ssociate Degree Find out more about these programs by phoning Eileen Dean, CDA, RDA, at 4S3-1467. Register on campus Jan.

2 and 3. Winter term classes begin Jan. 7. LANSING COMMUNITY COLLEGE where futures begin An equal (ipixtriiimlii, affirmntii actum collinv. In December.

State Sen. Basil Brown. D-Highland Park, resigned from the Senate Judiciary Committee while awaiting preliminary examination in Lansing District Court on drug trafficking charges. The 58-year-old dean of the Senate was accused of delivering small amounts of cocaine and marijuana to a prostitute in his Lansing apartment. Brown said he was innocent.

The exam resumes Jan. 15. Brown was arrested Nov. 8 by Tri-County Metro Narcotics Unit officers in his apartment on Lansing's Main Street near 1-496. Serving in the Senate since 1956, Brown is a former chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

He was known for a number of run-ins with the law, dating to a 1959 drunken driving charge. The senator has made several public declarations of personal reform. In 1966, after at least four drunk driving arrests and publicity about income tax evasion charges. Brown announced that selling his foreign sports car and surrendering his driver's license were "essential to protect the public." Brown claims entrapment by investigators of the attorney general who said they engaged self-avowed prostitute Katherine Roberts as an undercover agent to gather evidence against the senator. Roberts, 28, testified on Dec.

9 that she had known Brown for four years and had obtained marijuana and cocaine from him for poiice. If convicted of delivering either cocaine or marijuana, Brown might lose his Senate seat because the Michigan Constitution bars from serving in the Legislature anyone convicted of a felony "involving a breach of the public trust" within the preceding 20 years. Brown has said he could not continue in the Senate if convicted on any of the felony drug charges. The cocaine delivery charges carry prison maximums of 25 years, while the marijuana delivery could land Brown in prison for up to four years. Hotels at last After nearly two decades of false starts, a $19.2 million hotel was rising in Lansing's 100 block on East Michigan Avenue.

Started in July, the 262-bed Radisson Hotel is to open in September. The developer is The Churchill Companies of Minneapolis. A year ago. the Churchill firm took over the faltering hotel proposal from Lansing Hotel Association Limited Partnership and won City Council approval for the work. The company immediately sold $10 million in bonds under the city's economic development program to help finance the hotel construction.

The city is adding parking space on the North Grand Ramp near the new hotel. And the city is building a $14.4 million convention-exhibition center on East Michigan's 300 block, across the Grand River from the Radisson. An elevated, enclosed pedestrian walkway spanning the river will connect the two facilities. The convention-exhibition center is to open in late 1986. Lansing's 100-block hotel story began about 18 years ago when Holiday Inns of America proposed to build there under an urban renewal clearance program.

That proposal fell through in squabbles over the land. In 1973, Spira-Mart Inc. of Byron took up the hotel cause, promising a complex to include stores and offices. Spira-Mart went bankrupt in 1974. Four other development groups came and went before the Lansing Hotel Association got in on it.

only to defer to Churchill last year. And on Lansing's south side. Developer Gordon Long built the 300-room, $10 million Clarion Hotel at the south side of his well-known banquet and convention center on South Cedar Street. The hotel debuted Tuesday night with New Year's festivities. St Johns busing SL Johns School District parents raged at school officials when pupil busing was cut off for four weeks to head off a cash shortfall.

Some accused the school board and Superintendent Earl Gabriel of blackmailing them to force approval of a voted tax increase. -The busing cutoff came after voters had rejected millage increases a 4.5-mill hike on a June ballot and a 3.5-mill boost proposed in September. The bus service was restored Dec. 2 following a Nov. 26 election in which voters allowed a 3.5-mill increase for four years.

Before that increase, St. Johns boasted the lowest property levy of any school district in Clinton, Eaton and Ingham counties at 29.75 mills. On Nov. 1, Ginton County Circuit Judge Randy T. Tahvonen denied a bid by parent group leader Harold Foster for an injunction to keep the buses rolling as a matter of child safety.

The buses were parked, starting Nov. 4. Foster leveled the blackmail charge against school officials, saying: "They have opened such a big wound in this community that it may not be healed by this board." Still angry, parents are preparing to circulate petitions to put all seven members of the St. Johns Scout leaders convicted The small community of Wacousta was rocked in May when two Boy Scout leaders were charged with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy. On June 10, twin brothers Donald and Delmar Gowing of Eagle drew life sentences for the assault on the youth, who was a member of Troop 60, sponsored by Wacousta Community United Methodist Church.

The 47-year-olds had pleaded guilty to charges of-first -degree criminal sexual conduct. Later, Clinton County Circuit Judge Randy Tahvonen sentenced two other Eagle residents who pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct in- NOW OPEN: A fitness center that is health-oriented, medically oriented and specially equipped; with programs that are individually structured, professionally supervised, educational and fun to do; in a beautiful new facility; all designed to fit into your busy schedule. Call 351-6696 for more information. (A great gift idea.).