Panama City News-Herald from Panama City, Florida • Page 2

Page 2A NEWS-HERALD, Panama City, Friday, August 1,1975 I Congress Makes Last Effort On Control Of Domestic Oil WASHINGTON (AF) Congress made one last attempt Thursday at keeping tlie lid on domestic oil prices, but the Ford administration said it would allow full decontrol in a month rather than sit still for more delays. Throughout an debate that began in January, Congress and Ford have continually rejected each others' compromise offers. In a move that was apparently doomed, the Hou.se paased by a 303 to 117 vote and to the White House a bill to extend domestic oil price controls another six months. Federal Energy Administrator Frank Zarb "there is no doubt" Ford will veto the measure. Later, the House resumed work on its over-all energy icy bill, which is given little or no chance of enactment.

It would set up a new, three-pait system of oil price controls imposing ceilings ranging from S5.25toS10a barrel. Congress is packing its bags for a month-long summer vacation beginning F'riday night and cannot try for a veto override until it returns Sept. .1 f'rice ceilings are scheduled to expire Aug. 31 if Ford refu.ses to sign the extension. That could mean a boost of up to 7 cents per gallon in the cost of gasoline at the pump, according to FEA figures.

Zarb he does not think Congress can override a veto and restore price controls when it returns. The top legislative priority now, he said, should be to enact a tax on oil companies to pre- Continued From Page One WATER rush from the man-made Silver Lake into the nearby Yellow River. Department of Transportation reported U.S. 98 is open its entire length in the region. Wednesday a portion of the four-lane route between Transmitter Road and S.R.

22 was closed due to heavy flooding. DOT officials Hwy. 20 remained closed between Niceville and Freeport. Also still impassable was S.R. 79 north of the Ebro dog track.

The Overstreet road S.R. 386 has been closed, along with state roads 67 and 375 in Liberty and Wakulla counties. A portion of U.S. 98 between and Fort Walton was reopened Thursday, Allen Potter of the Chipley DOT -district said. The Panama City S.R.

167 in Jackson County remained closed. Further west two roads in Santa Rosa county and U.S. 29 Pensacola and Flpmaton, was still closed high waters. "Pappy" Myers, county said his crews working around the clock, the rain, trying to get flooded roads back into use. Panama City public works director Charles Peterson said the city has many problems but none critical.

He said the major damage to streets was in Venetian Villa and on north Pal Alto where washouts occurred. Heavy rains raised the level of Deerpoint Lake two feet to seven feet, flooding lawns of many homes bordering the lake. Martin Bayou spilled into St. Andrew Bay and the State Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission gave permission for harvesting of game fish in that body of water. DOT officials said the recent rains have set back the road construction program in this area at least two months.

And post office officials said the mailman, who braves snow and sleet, could not get through into many areas because of flooded roads and streets. Mariners are warned by the weather service to use caution in navigating off the gulf coast in this area because of high seas and winds that are expected to gust over 30 miles an hour. The rains had their bright spots. Thursday Catherine Broxson and David Rountree found numerous baby bream and bluegill in the front yard of the Broxson home at 1222 W. 28th Place and scooped them up with their hands.

How the fish got there is a mystery. There is no body of water nearby, and it may have "rained" fish. vont them from reaping excessive profits once controls arc removed. Zarb said consumers would feel the impact only gradually over the next six to nine months. Some Republicans, including Hou.se Repui)lican Leader Rhodes, said, however, they think prices will go up immediately after controls expire.

Although Congross managed to win the smaller battles with Ford by killing two of his energy plans, it now stands to lo.sc the big one. The Democrats want to letain price controls on U.S.-produced oil while Ford favors taking most of them off. In various compromi.se proposals. Ford offered to decontrol the oil slowiy over a period from 24 to 39 months, thereby easing the impact on con- In the latest compromise rejected by the Hou.se Wednesday night, P'ord gave his approval for Congress to write a windfall profits tax on the fuel industry. But the House rejected all of his ideas, saying there should be a fixed price cap on production.

Democratic energy leaders contended that gradual decontrol should not start until there is a windfall profits tax in place. By killing all of Ford's compromises. Congress has put itself in the position of facing quick decontrol on Sept. 1, the exact opposte of what it hoped would happen. Meanwhile, Sen.

Ernest F. said he would lUD Hazard Noted In New Study NEW YORK (AP) Some 60,000 American women develop painful and dangerous pelvic disease each year from lUDs, a new study suggests. lUDs are intrauterine devices credited with 95 per cent success or more in preventing pregnancies. The University of Washington study points to lUDs as one cause of PID, meaning pelvic inflammatory disease. PID can make women sterile by invading and damaging the Fallopian tubes.

block any plan to pa.ss legislation immediately that would tax windfall oil profits and return some of that money to consumers. "Tax legislation, generally speaking has a lot of rabbits in it. You have to study it carefully," said Sen. Hollings. He called the idea of a windfall profits tax at this stage "only a ploy to get the President off the hook if he vetoes the oil allocation act.

Several liberal senators doubted that F'ord would actually veto the extension and expressed fears that if Congress did pa.ss the windfall profits tax, it would give Ford incentive to veto the measure. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Al Ullman, D- said if there is decontrol his panel will reserve the first half of September to bring a windfall profits tax to the floor. He said it would be retroactive "and will fully pick up any windfall that might occur." But Sen. Russell Long, chairmn of te Finance Committee and author of a windfall tax measure, said that failure to act this week could produce a special congressional next month. IO A' OUTLOOK Rain and showpr.s are again indicated for the entire southeastern United States and from Minnesota and Wisconsin in a band to New Mexico and Western Oklahoma and Texas.

Showers are also for parts of Arizona and Maine with the remainder of the nation to have fair skies. (AP WIREPHOTO) L()CAI. FORECAST The rains are foreca.st to end today, although a 50 per cent chance will still exist until Saturday. The high temperature today should be in the mid 80s with the low tonight in the mid 70s. Winds will be light and variable during the day.

Thursday's high in Panama City was 81 and the low was 72. Rainfall measured at the News-Herald during the past 24 hours totaled 1.5 inches. MARINE FORECAST Apalachicola to Biloxi-Small craft advisory still in effect but with winds decreasing today to 15 to 20 knots from the south. Seas will decrease today from 7 to 11 feet readings Thursday but winds up to 45 knots may be experienced in a few heavy thunderstorms. TIDES (CDT) Panama City: High, 5:51 a.m., low, 5:16 p.m.

Port St, Joe, High, 6:10 a.m.; low, 5:09 p.m. Apalachicola: High, 8:11 a.m.; low, 6:08 p.m. Sunrise, 5:59 a.m. Sun.set, 7:33 p.m. RIVER READING Jim Woodruff Dam, 50.1.

Blountstown River Landing, 18.8. As Deterrent Jurors Retire Again Sans Gurney Decision TAMPA, Fla. (AP) A 12- member jury Thursday retired for the fourth consecutive night without returning a verdict in the slush fund conspiracy trial of former Sen. Edward J. Gurney and three others.

The panel has deliberated a total of 24 hours since receiving the 23-week-old trial just before noon Monday. Earlier, U.S. District Judge Ben Krentzman complied with the jury's request to rehear testimony of I.S. Keith Reeves, a partner in a Winter Park architectural firm that paid the apartment rent of a Gurney aide. Judge Krentzman received two notes in as many days from the panel, which puzzled over count seven of the federal indictment a charge of accepting unlawful compensation PANAMA PLAZA SHOPPING CENTER JULY CLEARANCE SALE CCNTINUES PURITAN" BAN-LON' SPORT SHIRTS OPEN EVENINGS 9 AND reg.

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It charges that Bastien accepted 5180 a month rent for a year from Reeves and the late Little Trial Continuing RALEIGH (AP) Judge Hamilton Hobgood, acting on a motion by the defense, temporarily barred the admission of Joan Little's "personal papers" as evidence Thursday in the 21- year-old black woman's murder trial. Hobgood delayed his ruling on the motion to suppress the material, telling the prosecution to proceed with other testimony. The materials include a Bible, books and magazines left behind in a Beaufort County cell when Miss Little fled on Aug. 27. Her white jailer, Clarence Alligood, was found dead in the cell.

Miss Little reportedly had written several entries in the magazines. Hobgood said he had read the publications, and expressed doubt that it would be beneficial. John Dye in exchange for Federal Housing Adminstration assistance from onetime Gurney fundraiser Larry Williams. The checks were signed by Dye, and jurors apparently wanted to know if the single signature was sufficient to return a guilty verdict or whether they had to find that both men were involved in the payments. As a court clerk played a tape recording, jurors listened attentively in the open courtroom as Reeves testified that he first learned of the checks in May, 1971, but never signed any of them.

Reeves, an unindicted co-conspirator who was granted immunity for his testimony, took the stand June 17 as a prosecution witness. Reeves said he asked Dye what the checks were for testified that Dye "related they were connected to the assistance we were going to get from the FHA (and) represented a contribution to the local (Gurney) office." Later in the replay. Reeves said under cross-examination that he didn't feel Williams had rendered any effective FHA help. Parker Donates Funds, iders Other Items Recreation sites, baseball players and rising waters were considered by the Parker City Commission during a special meeting Thursday night. The Parker body voted to donate $300 to the Southern Junior Major League All-Stars to help defray the team's traveling expenses to Tampa to compete in the statewide tournament.

Parker Mayor Earl Gilbert told the group that several of the boys on the team were from Parker and the Bay County Commission as well as the Callaway Commission had each donated $300 in support of the district championship team. Parker commissioners voted to spend an unspecified amount for an appraisal of the land and property of the old West Florida Baptist Assembly Grounds near Tyndall bridge. Mayor Gilbert said the state is expected to buy the land and a requirement for such purchases is that two appraisals be made on the property. The Bay County Commission is expected to finance the second appraisal. The Parker body also passed a resolution supporting the county in all efforts to acquire the 22-acre park site.

Parker commissioners commended the city's street department for its untiring effort in keeping streets and ditches open and draining during this week's heavy rains. In other action, the commission set Aug. 23 as the tentative date for the new city hail grand opening and received copies of the municipal budget for study and consideration. Welfare Plan Outlined TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) Chairman Robert Graham of the Senate Health and Rehabilitative Services Committee proposed Thursday that the state send monthly welfare checks directly to a bank as a way to cut down thefts and administrative costs.

Graham said in a statement he had in.structed his committee staff to begin exploring the possibility. The federal government is urging such a system in mailing monthly Social Security and Supplemental Securitv Income Turkish Aid Doubtful In House WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate voted Thursday night to restore U.S. militarj' aid to Turkey, but the House showed little willingness to approve the action before the August recess begins. By a vote of 47 to 46, the Senate agreed to a conditional lifting of a six-month-old ban on arms aid to Turkey. The vote came after the Ankara government rejected an offer by President Ford earlier in the day to give the Turks $50 million in arms if Turkey would reactivate U.S.

militai7 bases there. Republican leaders kept the House in session late into the night in hopes of considering the resumption of arms aid. Five Democratic efforts to adjourn were defeated but leaders said they saw little chance that the House would pass the legis- lation before leaving Friday for a month-long vacation. Sen. John Spai-kman, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said military aid, which was cut off after Turkey invaded Cj-prus, should be restored to repair badly strained U.S.-Turkish relations.

checks to Florida and Georgia beneficiaries, he said. That program is scheduled to be expanded nationwide in August, he added. "Approximately 1.5 million Floridians already receive monthly federal benefit checks under the he said. If the welfare checks program works out, the program could be expanded on the state level to state employe payroll checks, he added. The welfare program would reduce the potential for theft of checks mailed to an individual's home and would reduce the costs to the state of keeping a list of current mailing addresses, preparing individual checks and investigating stolen check reports.

Graham did not say how many of the 78,708 welfare cases in the state had checking accounts at banks or holdings in other financial institutions to which their checks could be sent. Angola In Battle As Talks Set LUANDA, Angola (AP) Fighting between Angola's rival liberation movements was reported on all sides of the capital Thursday as representatives of the two movements resumed their informal peace talks in Luanda. Diplomatic sources said representatives of the Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the non-Communist but Peking- backed National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) met at an undisclosed location in Luanda in a new effort to end the fighting. In Kampala, Uganda, the Organization of African Unity decided Thursday to send a conciliation commission to Angola to try to stop the fighting. State Briefs Attorney Convicted DAYTON A BEACH, Fla.

(AP) Prominent DeLand attorney John B. Mattingly was convicted Thursday of stealing more than $50,000 of a client's estate money, willed to the Florida Sheriff's Boys Ranch. The six-member circuit court jury deliberated less than 90 minutes before returning the verdict. Judge Major Harding delayed sentencing and allowed Mattingly to remain free on bond. Harding, of Jacksonville, heard the four-day trial after local judges excused themselves because they knew Mattingly.

Slaying Suspect Caught ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) The third suspect in the execution style shooting death of a small Central Florida town's postmistress was arrested Thursday, authorities said. Police said Glen Herman, 21, of Plant City was arrested in Columbus, after being stopped and questioned by an officer making a routine check. Officials said postal authorities began steps to return Herman to Orlando. A nationwide alert was issued for Herman earlier Thursday following the arrest of Thomas Brunson, 23, of Winter Garden and an unidentified 17-year-old girl on charges of robbery and first-degree murder.

The charges stem fi'om the murder July 21 of Loraine M. Smith, longtime postmistress at the tiny post office serving 900 residents of Gotha in western Orange County. Lawyers Under Gun TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) The state Supreme Court disbarred two lawyers and suspended 13 others in the first six months of 1975, the Florida Bar said Thursday. In all of 1974, the Bar said, the court disbarred one lawyer and suspended 13.

Five Florida attorneys have been publicly reprimanded since January, compared with eight all last year, the Bar said. Two lawyers, facing disciplinary action, have resigned so far this year. The same number resigned in all of 1974. O'Malley Could Collect Benefits, Pension Cash TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) Former Insurance Commissioner Thomas O'Malley could draw at least $8,000 a year in disability pension benefits if he is unable to work as a result of FLORIDA SCREEN ROOIM with Fiberglass Screen GIANT 8'xl6' One door included.

(Other sizes available) NORTIC INDUSTRIES For all Your Aluminum Building Products P.O. Box 2164 Ph. 785-9117 FULL PRICE $79500 Installed $950 with concrete slob his heart ailment, a state retirement official said Thursday. But Retirement Director Robert Kennedy said there was no indication that O'Malley would seek a disability pension. O'Malley indicated when he resdgned Tuesday, citing ill health, that he hopes to return to work as a lawyer when his heart condition improves.

He is currently hospitalized in Miami. Felony kickback and perjury charges and 11 articles of impeachment were dismissed as O'Malley coupled his resignation with a plea-bargained deal to plead no contest to a misconduct misdemeanor. Kennedy said the resignation and no-contest plea would not affect the pension benefits that O'Malley has accumulated in about 14 years as state treasure r-insurance commissioner. Dade County commissioner and a U.S. Marine.

O'Malley, 41, is qualified for pension benefits exceeding $10.000 a year when he reaches the age of 62, normal retirement age for state employes, Kennedy However, O'Malley could get a disability pension at any time if he can prove that he has a total and permanent disability that prevents him from worij- ing, Kennedy said. "We turn down probably 20 per cent of those who apply for disability because it has to be total and permanent," he said. Disability pensions are figured on a sliding scale beginning at a minimum of 25 per cent of the state official's average salary for the last five years of employment. State officials who run afoul of the law lose their pension benefits only if they are convicted of bribery. Lt.

Gov. Jom Williams has denied former Education Commissioner Floyd Christian a pension on the strength of an opinion by Atty. Cien. Robert Shevin. The io? held that it was tantamount to a bribery conviction when Christian was judged guilty of accepting $29,000 in unauth- roized compcn.saiion.

Bui Christian has tiled suit in Leon County Circuit Court, con- lending that briberj' and unauthorized compensation are separate offenses and that he is therefore entitled to his i)en- sion..