News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 5

cease unsolved: the Pikuritz murde In the section Collier Edition The Weather Partly cloudy today; high in the mid to upper 80s; low in the mid to upper 60s. Details on Page 2A. News-Press Serving Southwest Florida Since 1884 A Gannett Newspaper 95th Year Issue No. 141 Fort Myers, Florida, Wednesday Morning, April 11, 1979 20c Daily, 50c Sunday 250 Twisters kill 26 and injure trapped in demolished buildings elsewhere in Wichita Falls, authorities said. Kay Shannon, a reporter with radio station KAUZ, said she counted 12 bodies at Wichita Falls General Hospital, and witnesses said three other persons were killed in overturned trucks.

Twenty cars were smashed under a bridge and into an abutment. Witnesses said the roofs of some vehicles were sheared off and the wreckage was By The Associated Press At least 26 people were killed and more than 250 injured Tuesday when twisters rampaged across an area of Texas and Oklahoma known as "Tornado Alley." Reporters counted at least 15 dead in Wichita Falls, Texas, where two busy shopping centers were leveled. An undetermined number of people were trapped in the rubble of the shopping centers, and others were A safe in a National Guard armory exploded, exposing shattered M-16 rifles and other weapons. Mobile homes were blown across a highway. Tornadoes also struck Vernon and Lockett, Texas, and Lawton, as they swept northeast over rolling, barren country of sage brush and mesquite trees.

Lawton reported four confirmed deaths, including a man electrocuted when a 220-volt power line came down in a pool of water. Seven were confirmed dead in Vernon, the Civil Defense said. Teamster agreement reached "We haven't had time to stop and confirm how many dead we have," said Lawton Civil Defense spokesman Wes Miller. Miller said two trucks carrying hazardous chemicals were overturned one just a block from a hospital. He said one of them carried chlorine and the other muriatic acid.

Forty homes in a 20-block area of Lawton were destroyed, authorities said. Oil firms are warned on profits By BROOKS JACKSON Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON In a warning to oil companies, President Carter said Tuesday he favors government action, if necessary, to require the companies to explore for new petroleum and gas with the money they receive from decontrolled oil prices. However, Carter did not specify what action might be taken, or if he would initiate it, in giving his answer at a nationally broadcast news conference. He also said proposals to bar the oil companies from ownership of competing energy sources, such as coal mines, "should be explored thoroughly." Carter said that even if Congress enacts his proposed oil-profits tax, which he expects, the oil companies would receive a net boost in profits of $6 billion over the next three years. The president has said he will begin phasing out controls on domestic oil prices this June.

All price controls will be lifted by October 1981 under present law. "The nation has a right to expect that all this new income will be used for exploration for new oil and gas, and not to buy timber lands and department stores," the president said. "I would favor any constraints placed on the oil companies by the Congress or by administrative action" to see that the companies devote their income to increasing production, Carter said. It was unclear exactly what sort of action Carter had in mind. Administration officials said later that a number of proposals were under discussion, but nothing specific had been decided.

"There's nothing hard," said Jim Bishop, spokesman for the Department of Energy. White House press secretary Jody Powell said earlier that the president had several options, but Powell said he could not discuss them in detail. Carter said that despite the accident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear plant, the nation cannot abandon nuclear power, which supplies about 13 percent of America's electricity. But he said the nation must "move more aggressively" to expand use of its abundant coal resources. He said he was asking West Virginia Gov.

Jay Rockefeller, head of the federal Commission on Coal, to hold hearings in a search for "acceptable" ways to Turn To CARTER, Page 2A -v i I i I rr mi.mum i i If I I Y'V ILs.U-f I i v. i I WASHINGTON (AP) Bargainers for the striking Teamsters union and idle trucking companies reached tentative agreement late Tuesday on a new contract to immediately end a 10-day nationwide work stoppage, a federal mediator said. Chief federal mediator Wayne L. Horvitz announced the settlement after more than 12 hours of intense negotiations, saying, "The strike and defensive shutdown (by the industry) are being terminated." Horvitz said that procedures for having some 235,000 Teamsters return to work would be implemented in 24 hours, ending the longest trucking shutdown in the nation's history. Horvitz emphasized that the tentative pact is subject to ratification by the Teamsters' rank and file.

He declined to say whether the new contract falls within President Carter's voluntary wage guidelines. "That matter must await the decision of the ratification process," he said. Horvitz made his announcement flanked by Union President Frank Fitzsimmons and J. Curtis Counts, chief industry bargainer. Fitzsimmons told reporters he will recommend ratification of the pact by the rank and file.

"I'm sure they'll be satisfied with this agreement; at least I hope so," the union president said. Counts said he believes the set tlement falls within President Carter's anti-inflation guidelines, which received their biggest test to date in the trucking talks. Fitzsimmons refused to say whether he agreed that the money package would meet Carter's voluntary 7 percent annual ceiling on wage and fringe benefit increases. "I can't figure their arithmetic," the 71-year-old union leader said, referring to exemptions and changes made in the guidelines. "I've been negotiating for 50 years and this is the first time I've ever negotiated with a third party that was not available for comments, questions or participation," Fitzsimmons said of the Carter administration.

The dispute crippled much of the auto industry, which laid off some 91,000 workers and placed another 57,000 on short shifts-because of parts shortages at assembly plants. The shutdown had only minimal impact elsewhere in the economy. The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that the first week of the shutdown had no adverse impact on food stores, private hospitals and chlorine for water purification. The negotiations have emerged, as a crucial test of Carter's program because other major unions bargaining this year often take their cues from the Teamsters. UPI Radiation check counter" device in Middletown, Tuesday.

Middletown-area residents have the opportu-Dairy farmer Chris Becker is reassured by nity to be scanned for traces of radiation after technicians with Helgeson Nuclear Services the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. Sto-as he receives a scan from this "whole body ries on Pages 8A and 9A. Inside Today's Accord reached on sale of WBBH Respondents strongly favor balanced-budget amendment News-Press Tanzanians enter Ugandan capital Florida Poll The Florida Survey was conducted for Gannett News Service from March 29 to April 2 by the polling firm of Louis Harris and Associates through a telephone canvass of 999 registered voters representing a cross-section of the statewide electorate. This article was written by John Hanchette, chief of the Gannett Tallahassee Bureau. Copyright 1979, Gannett Newt Service remain to be worked out.

Waterman said his firm will own all of the stock in the television station. Broadcasting-Telecasting Services, the original owner of the station, will be dissolved upon completion of the sale, Dakos said. Officers of the firm are station general manager Howard Hoffman, Dr. H. Quillian Jones Patty Meskimen and Ruth Plumb, according to a spokesman for the Florida secretary of state.

"We just felt it was a profitable time to sell and the economic climate was suitable," Dakos said. Dakos said stockholders agreed to sell to Waterman after receiving a good financial offer and deter-, mining that Waterman would continue their policy of serving the interest of the viewers. Waterman, reached at his Massachusetts home, said his broadcasting firm owns only the two Texas radio stations but is in the market for more acquisitions. He said the purchase agreement for WBBH followed yearlong negotiations with the current owners. A news release on the purchase said Waterman would retain all employees in their present jobs as well as present and projected programming.

An unrelated change was WINK co-anchorwoman Catherine Cooper's move to WBBH, WBBH news director Steve Grissom said. By BARBARA JOHNSON News-Press Staff Writer Local owners of WBBH-TV, Channel 20, in Fort Myers have agreed to sell the station for about $8 million to a Texas broadcasting firm, spokesmen said Tuesday. The sale is contingent on approval by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which could take several months. WBBH, the Fort Myers NBC affiliate, is owned by Broadcasting-Telecasting Services Inc. Stockholders of the company are local residents, according to Dr.

William Dakos, chairman of the board. Stockholders have agreed to sell the television station to Waterman Broadcasting Corp. of Texas, which owns radio stations KTSA-AM and KTFM-FM in San Antonio. The Texas broadcasting company is a subsidiary of Waterman Broadcasting Corp. in Massachusetts.

Bernard Waterman of Worcester, is president. WBBH was licensed in 1968 and was the second television station in Fort Myers. WINK began broadcasting first in the 1950s and WEVU came on the air in 1974. Dakos said there had been "quite a bit of demand" for the television station when stockholders put WBBH on the market. Dakos and Waterman confirmed the $8 million price tag for WBBH although some details of the sale 'I Tanzanian troops march into the Ugandan capital of Kampala, following a jet fighter attack and fierce rocket and artillery barrages that appear to signal imminent victory in the war against President Idi Amin, residents of the city report 2A Local ONE COUPLE in Lee County watching Monday night's Academy Awards ceremony was more than casually interested in the outcome of the Best Supporting Actor competition.

Their son was in it. And he won 2B Action Editor 3D Classified 7-18C Comics 9D Crossword 9D Deaths 4B Financial 16-18A Movies 8D Newsmakers ISA Opinion 6-7A People Section Sports Section TV 10D Weather 2A proval to a balanced-budget amendment, they expressed some reservations. Voters surveyed felt the federal government "would be justified in spending more than it expects to receive" in two separate hypothetical circumstances outlined by questioning pollsters. If the country were in recession, and experts said additional government spending would improve the economy, would spending over revenues be justified? they were asked. Floridians responded 60 percent in favor of "pump priming" expenditures, 31 percent against and 9 percent not sure.

When asked if spending over revenues would be justified if defense spending had to be increased for the country's security, 89 percent said yes and only 7 percent objected, with 4 percent not sure. On the original balanced budget question, support for such an amendment seemed fairly consistent in all categories, but was particularly evident among Republicans, who supported the idea 81 to 16 percent, compared to Democrats, who gave it 65-21 percent support. Those who consider themselves politically conservative were much more in favor than the liberals and self-described "middle-of-the-road" respondents. Surprisingly, more support for a balanced federal budget was found in the under-30 age group than any other, with 78 percent behind the idea, as opposed tq 67 percent of those 50 to 65 year olds, and 71 percent in the 65-and-over category. Florida voters are strongly in favor of an amendment to the U.S.

Constitution that would require the federal government to balance the budget, according to a Gannett News Service statewide survey. When asked if they favored or opposed such an amendment that would require the federal government "to spend only as much money as it expects to receive in revenues," Florida voters surveyed answered this way: Favor 72.3 percent. Oppose 17.2 percent. Not sure 10.5 percent. Indeed, sentiment for such a proposal has been strong in Florida for years.

The state is one of 28 that have ratified resolutions calling for a constitutional convention to deliberate a "balanced budget" amendment, and the Legislature has before it this spring yet another proposal to underscore that sentiment. Sen. Richard Stone, along with Sen. Heinz, last week introduced a similar constitutional amendment to cap federal spending by limiting budget increases to increases in the gross national product. The conservative proposal, says Stone, would rein in federal spending and prevent Washington from "shifting the burden of its expenditures to state and local governments." While Floridians surveyed gave thumping ap-.