The Times from Shreveport, Louisiana • Page 13

THURSDAY, November 5, 1992 EBusiness: 15A Opinion: 18A Weather: 20A jiiimim SECTION EDITOR: CRAIG DURRETT, 459-3233 STORM NEWS BRIEFS W.m.,mm U.MIHIH lM Ull If, 9 I -i 4 i hi 'i tz "Jw Sw H' jv 4J Doc Bowman, co-owner of Cajun Food Products, surveys the damage outside his place of business in Arcadia. COURTS NSU probe nets second indictment Misusing funds: Ex-official of Louisiana Research and Development Center facing charges. By GARY HINES and GREG KENDRICK The Times The chairman of the board of the defunct Louisiana Research and Development Center was indicted Wednesday on charges he hired himself an extra secretary with money specifically set aside for a job-training program. Norton E. Marks, former chairman of NSLTs business department, also faces federal charges of obstruction of justice and using the same federal money to pay for work on a journal published by the business department.

The indictment ended speculation the government was through with its probe of Natchi-toches-based center, which auditors believe misspent nearly $1 million in federal training money during its two-year existence ranging from frivolous to personal purchases. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mig-nonne Griffing would not say whether more indictments will be sought. William Long, former director of LRDC, pleaded guilty earlier this year to theft charges. LRDC was a non-profit organization housed at NSU.

It was designed to retrain displaced workers under the federal Job Training and Partnership Act. The money was not to be spent on any other purposes, the government said. "The secretary had nothing to do with the JTPA contacts the research and development center had," Griffing said. "The money they received was only to be used for those contracts." The 10-count indictment was the second returned in the government's investigation of the center, which closed in December 1989 after an audit into misuse of money began. The primary target of the government's case was Long, who was sentenced this fall to 10 months in prison.

He is scheduled to begin serving his sentence Monday at a minimum-security federal facility north of Memphis, Tenn. Marks resigned as head of NSU's business department in 1990. He now teaches at California State University in San Bernardino. Marks said Wednesday afternoon he had not expected to be indicted. "Was anybody else indicted?" he asked.

The obstruction of justice charge alleges Marks falsified a car-allowance contract that would have allowed Long to receive payments tnrough the job-training fund. The government charged Marks did so after auditors questioned Long about the $600 payment. Seven counts of the indictment charge Marks used JTPA funds to pay the salary of a third secretary at the business department. The secretary did no work for the research and development center, Griffing said. The final two counts charge that JTPA money was used to pay a university student to prepare a business department publication.

It was unrelated to the job-training program. Tornado leaves area scrambling toward recovery Owner of flag sought by group Glen Raney read Tell the Times Tuesday and saw red when he read about a flag being stolen on Old Mooringsport Road. "It's a shame somebody stole that flag, since the family put it up to honor a son who'd died in Vietnam," said Raney, who fought in Southeast Asia himself in 1968 and 1969 and is now secretary of Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter No. 94. "We'd like to see about getting their flag replaced." That's easier wished than done, though, due to the anonymous nature of Tell the Times.

Raney and the 109 other chapter members would like to hear from the family that lost their flag to the thoughtless thief. Raney's number is 221-5259. Westbound road on 1-20 to open I Get ready to make the switch. Westbound traffic on Interstate 20 between the Texas Street overpass and Lakeshore Drive is expected to begin using the newly constructed westbound roadway beginning at 9 a.m. today, according to the state Department of and Development.

And at 9 a.m. Saturday, eastbound traffic between the Texas Street overpass and Lakeshore Drive will be detoured onto two of the four lanes of the new westbound roadway. School Board to meet today The Bossier School Board will meet in regular session at 2 p.m. today at the board office in Benton. The agenda will include a report on the SPARK program, an enrichment program at Benton Elementary and approval of nominations for the Special Education Advisory Council.

Real Men founder to deliver address Jackson Katz, the founder of the group Real Men, will speak at Centenary College's Hurley Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. tonight. His program, "Football, Feminism and Other Contemporary Contradictions," deals with sexism, date rape, violence against women and the sexual objectification of women in pornography and media. PhonePoll TODAY'S QUESTION: Are you glad the elections are over? Jo participate, call 222-6397 and, when asked, dial 988. Then, please answer "yes," "no," or "undecided." Calls are taken until 4 p.m.

daily. QUESTION: Do you agree with Earvin "Magic" Johnson's decision to re-retire from basketball? YES 86 NO UNDECIDED 0 Total number of calls: 42 Times graphic hzzd Vassal i 1 By JOHN ANDREW PRIME and CURTIS HEYEN The Times EN ARCADIA, THE SUN struggled to shine Wednesday morning just long enough for the nearly 3,100 residents to realize the full impact of Tuesday's tornado. In Shreveport's Highland neighborhood, residents Heidi and Boyd Snellgrove awoke to a cold house after spending the night bundled in blankets. "Boyd and I had warmup outfits on. It was cold." The Snellgroves' electricity would return Wednesday afternoon.

It was cleanup day after Tuesday's fast-moving line of thunderstorms spawned a tornado, downed power lines, uprooted trees and disrupted power. Damages in Caddo-Bossier ranged from banged B-52s at Barksdale Air Force Base to a roof blown off the Ashland Chemical Co. In Arcadia, the damage was more serious as a tornado cut a half-mile wide path through the downtown area. It left scores of splintered and uprooted trees throughout a 40-square-block area. Red Cross officials surveying homes door to door there Wednesday estimated that nine homes, including two mobile homes, were destroyed.

Another nine homes, including one mobile home and a duplex, sustained enough damage to render them uninhabitable until repaired. Thirty-three homes suffered minor damage. "Tuesday, everybody was in shock," Bienville Police Jury spokesman Jim Martin said. "Now I think everybody is COLUMN sila4 iIiWj a Storm testimonies: 1A amazed that nobody got killed or even injured." Arcadia Mayor Ray Dean Smith said 25 of the town's businesses were heavily dam-" aged. In Shreveport, tree-cutters Mike Colbert and Walt Fender spent Wednesday sawing a fallen, giant water oak at the corner of Atkins Street and Cre-swell Avenue.

"There's enough work out here for the next month, maybe two months," said Colbert, a licensed arborist. James Cook, maintenance supervisor at the Shreveport Downtown Airport, where more than a dozen aircraft were damaged, said cleanup continues there. "There's still some debris where hangars collapsed," he said. Other cleanup efforts: SWEPCO spokesman Peter Main said the 90 line repair personnel have been joined by about 40 company and contract workers from East Texas and Southern Arkansas. About 7,000 customers lost power Tuesday, with all but about 600 back on line Wednesday afternoon.

Local State Farm Insurance agents had gotten 718 auto claims and about 500 homeowner complaints by 2 p.m. Wednesday. The company will bring 20 additional auto claims adjusters and as many homeowner claims adjusters in from hurricane-ravaged South Louisiana. In Arcadia, utility crews worked to restore telephone service to about 600 residents and electricity to hundreds more. TEDDY ALIiEM Victoria's Secret opens: 15A your wardrobe for a time, thus eliminating another worry.

Now we live in an underwear-conscious society. We have THREE underwear stores now. Some of us don't even have that many pairs of underwear. The underwear question attacks us from all sides. Even in Times photosMIKE SILVA Jason Cox, 17, starts the long process of clearing away a tree that fell on his house and truck on Line Street in Arcadia.

The National Guard's 527th trees and debris from houses, Engineer Battalion in Ruston streets and power lines, chipped in 32 members and 54 pieces of heavy equipment to Times reporter Cynthia Jeffries help Arcadia volunteers clear contributed to this report. Are women's unmentionables worth mentioning? the underwear were more than kind but, because of company rules, couldn't comment. This bothered me. All around were mannequins wearing things you could easily fold up in a napkin. This is a chain that mails underwear pictures all over the world.

Yet employees who display and sell the underwear, who spend quality time with these pieces of colored lace and nylon every day, can't talk about the chain's foundation with another God-fearing, underwear-wearing American? What's wrong with this picture? Oh, well. I did manage to find out that a guy named Roy invented Victoria's Secret in California in 1977. As a customer, he'd felt snubbed by department stores when he tried to fulfill his lingerie needs, so he started his own line. (True story.) Roy went first class, too. You can't order this stuff from the back of Marvel comic books.

Another discovery: The name "Victoria" is borrowed from Great Britain's proper and refined 19th century monarch. Under all those white robes, Queen Victoria was usually wearing an emerald green thong. And there you have it. By the way, the Kay-Bee Toy Hobby Shop isn't half as big as its new lingerie-selling neighbor down the way in the mall. The moral here? You can have enough toys, but you can never have enough underwear.

Teddy Allen's column runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Call him at 459-3275. When Victoria's Secret opened Wednesday in Mall St. Vincent, Shreveport had its third store specializing in lingerie. Naturally, the eternal question came to my mind: Is underwear overrated? Like the struggle that comes with breaking in a new girdle, this question is one I wrestle with daily.

But as Official Underwear Beat Writer here at the Beautiful Downtown Offices, I've long ago accepted the duty of tackling the tough questions. I used to think underwear was overrated. After all, you don't see it. And remember when your mother used to shame you into wearing clean underwear with the "What if you get in a wreck and have to go to the emergency room?" line? What did you do? You eliminated underwear from politics. I was caught with my pants down and basically shocked Wednesday when one of the TV stations reported President-elect Bill Clinton was preparing to give a "brief address to supporters.

Startling. I thought some answers might be found at Victoria's Secret. Answers to questions like: Who is Victoria? What is her And how long does she expect her secret to be kept when it seems to be richly displayed at every turn in the massive store? And was the original name of this chain Underwear Us? And when is someone going to open Bubba's Secret? Or Leroy's Secret? We men have needs, too. Alas, few answers were found. The people who actually sell you.