Fort Lauderdale News from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 3

MtMM Fort Lauderdale News, Wednesday, Nov. 17, 1332 hf 3A deliver? crew yipiMe9 grilled Teacher's brother is far out to art became shuttle-oriented Tuesday and virtually By Kevin Allen Staff Writer HOLLYWOOD It wasn't textbook stuff that had Barbara Barnes' first graders at Sheridan Park Elementary School flying in their own special orbits Tuesday. Rather, it was the return of the space shuttle and all the accompanying hoopla. The 6- and 7-year-olds became celebrities by association because one of the astronauts aboard Columbia was Mrs. Barnes' only brother, Bill Lenoir, a 15-year NASA veteran.

For the students, the presence of a local television news crew in their classroom was almost as exciting as the landing itself. The 42-year-old Hollywood teacher admitted there was no way she would have missed the televised landing. "I'm not sure how much learning got done today. But it's amazing how much interest the kids showed in the shuttle." In preparation for the event, activities from math all the week before. Students produced space-shuttle pictures, Bill Lenoir letters, NASA compositions and astronaut posters.

For example: "Dear Astro. Lenoir, We wish you luck. Try to keep well on your first journey. I would love to be a doctor and a Astronaut Well I got to go. Your friend, Kristy." Janine Eisner was a little confused about the destination "good luck on your trip to the moon." And some of the budding artists couldn't resist drawing in a picture of E.T.

alongside the shuttle. George Pignanelli remembered Lenoir couldn't walk in space because his space suit didn't work, and Dominick Branco recalled Lenoir gobbling up a weightless peanut. Mrs. Barnes said she tried to incorporate the shuttle excitement into a practical learning experience, but admitted her personal link to the mission sometimes filtered through. and being readied for normal operation.

"Yes sir, we deliver," Brand said, repeating the mission motto after landing Columbia precisely on the center line of an Edwards Air Force Base runway. "The United States Space Transportation System is in operation," Lenoir told a cheering crowd that had gathered in the chilly predawn hours to watch Colum- bia land. The craft, slightly tarnished and stained but in good shape after more than 10 million miles of travel, will be ferried to the Kennedy Space Center for a six-; month refurbishing. Its next mission is scheduled for next fall. The sixth shuttle mission, the first for the new Challenger, is set for no earlier than Jan.

24, 1983, Abrahamson said. After flying home to Texas, the astronauts told the welcoming crowd theirs was a "fantastic voyage." Allen called the spacecraft "awesome." Lenoir was given a jalapeno pepper and delighted the crowd by popping it into his mouth. The astronaut had chosen jalapeno peppers as his "fresh fruit" during the mission and his fondness for the hot peppers was an ongoing joke. Abrahamson said if the space suits are fixed in time, a space walk will be planned for the sixth flight. If the "fix" takes longer, Abrahamson said, the space walk would be on flight seven, now scheduled for next spring, also with Challenger.

Different components failed on the $2 million space suits Allen and Lenoir were to wear in a 3 Mi -hour spacewalk. A fan broke on Allen's suit and Lenoir's could not be brought up to the correct oxygen The AociatH rna SPACE CENTER, Houston The cheering stopped and the paperwork began today for the four astronauts back from the first cargo voyage of space shuttle Columbia, now facing three weeks of debriefing by flight directors and space engineers. Astronauts Vance Brand, Joe Allen, Bob Overmyer and Bill Lenoir, home from space for less than 24 hours, were to start work early today on the pilots' report of their five days in orbit. For the next three weeks, with time off for weekends and holidays, the astronauts will undergo eight hours daily of debriefings. They will be grilled by flight directors, space engineers and, the toughest questioners of all, their fellow astronauts.

"I'm proud to be a member of 'the gang of said Brand, using a nickname adopted by the first four-member shuttle crew. "We're sometimes known as the 'can deliver crew," he told a welcoming crowd of 500 after the astronauts flew Tuesday from the shuttle's California landing strip to Ellington Air Force Base near their homes and the Johnson Space Center in Texas. From launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida last Thursday to a flawless landing Tuesday morning on a concrete runway in the Mojave Desert, the fifth mission of Columbia encountered only one major problem. Components in two space suits failed on Monday, canceling a planned spacewalk. An engineering study to determine why the suits failed was to start today at the Johnson Space Center.

The failure will force mission planners to include a space walk in one of the next two space shuttle flights, officials said. "We're standing on the edge of what I consider a revolution," he said, comparing the first commercial flight of the shuttle to "the first train that went over the golden spike' in the rails that linked the East and West coasts. Officials said the two satellites, owned by Satellite Business Systems and Telesat Canada, were in orbit The astronauts launched two satellites for paying customers in a picture-perfect inaugural of the shuttle as a commercial hauler of cargo. "Our first job was to deliver the two satellites and we did that in a flawless way," said Lt Gen. James A.

Abrahamson, associate administrator for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Libyan lax cut arms sale case goes to jury The Associated Press ALEXANDRIA, Va. A federal court jury is trying to decide wheth er former CIA agent-Edwin P. Wilson is "a spy who was left out in the cold" or a criminal who agreed to sell arms to Libya. The seven-women, five- ft'4- men jury received the case late Tuesday af Wilson date may move nip to Jam.

1 T(ie Associated Pren WASHINGTON The Reagan administration is actively considering moving up the effective date of next year's scheduled income-tax rate reduction from July 1 to Jan. 1, chief White House economist Martin Feldstein said today. Feldstein said the advantage of an earlier effective date for the 10 percent cut in personal tax rates is that it would provide a boost to help pull the economy out of its prolonged recession by putting an additonal $14 billion in consumer hands. i But the disadvantage would be that it would increase a budget deficit already headed for record levels of $150 billion or more, he added. Under the present plans, the 1983 rate reduction would apply to the entire year, but the reduction would not be reflected in payroll withholding until July 1.

The proposed change would move up the date for cuts in taxpayers' withholding to Jan. 1. Administration sources, who did not want their names used, said Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan first proposed the idea about 10 days ago as a way to get the economy growing again and help bring down unemployment The sources said that President Reagan is interested in the idea but that Feldstein and budget director David A. Stockman oppose it.

A Jan. 1 effective date would require congressional approval during the special post-election session that gets started later this month. Some administration officials doubt the Democratic-controlled House, where there is talk of repealing next year's tax cut altogether, would go along with moving up the effective date. Congress initially approved the tax cut in 1981 as part of a three-year program for lowering personal income-tax rates by 25 percent. A 5-percent reduction went into effect Oct.

1, 1981, and a 10-percent cut took effect last July 1. Feldstein, in a meeting with reporters, refused to say if he favors moving up the tax cut. "I think that since that's being actively talked about internally, I'm going to pass on answering that," he said. Asked to state the pros and cons of the idea, he said the main advantage is "to add a little bit of a stiumulus to the economy by putting $14 billion of additional money in the hands of taxpayers over the year." On the negative side, the tax cut would increase the budget deficit, put upward pressure on interest rates and, therefore, discourage spending in interest rate-sensitive areas such as housing and capital investment. Feldstein said another important consideration the administration must take into account is the "psychological impact" on financial markets, which could be positive or negative.

UPI photo Grain elevator fire kills 4 Firemen pour trucked-in water on a fire following a spectacular grain explosion that ripped apart a 100-foot-tall elevator, killing four persons and critically injuring three others in Raymond, Tuesday. The injured ran from the blazing structure with their clothes in flames. Exhausted rescue workers, digging through water-soaked debris, recovered two bodies. Witnesses said smoke from the fire was visible in Lincoln, 10 miles away. 2 crewmen in train accident were each fired twice before checks for drugs.

Earlier testimony revealed an ICG clerk, Janet Brumfield Byrd, 34, who said she was "along for the ride" was at the controls when the train derailed, forcing evacuation of 2,700 people for two weeks. She said Robertson and Reeves were drunk and kept falling asleep. After the derailment, police arrested Robertson, Reeves and Miss Byrd and charged them with reckless handling of hazardous wastes. They were fired by the railroad for speeding and drinking while on call. handling a hazardous material train," he said.

Robertson, 42, had been fired for dereliction of duty, including drinking on call, and had been reprimanded for several Incidents, including one that resulted in a collision between locomotives. Reeves, 31, who railroad medical officials once said had an eye defect severe enough to "probably disqualify a brakeman," had been fired for indictments for selling drugs. Records show ICG officials found methadone in his urine in 1969 and recommended future spot United Preti International BATON ROUGE, La. The chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board says it is "disturbing" that the engineer and brakeman of a chemical train that derailed in Livingston, had each been fired twice before the disaster. At a hearing into the Sept.

28 derailment and chairman Jim Burnett expressed concern Tuesday about the spotty job records of Illinois Central Gulf Railroad engineer Edward Peyton Robertson and brakeman Russell Reeves. "It's disturbing to me that we have that kind of people with that kind of record ter a two-day trial in this Washington, D.C., suburb. The panel deliberated 75 minutes before recessing for the night. The husky Wilson is charged with eight counts of conspiracy and firearms and weapons violations. Conviction on all charges carries maximum penalty of 44 years in prison and a $245,000 fine.

It is the first of four trials Wilson faces in the next three months on various charges of supplying munitions for a Libyan terrorist training camp and conspiring unsuccessfully to kill a Libyan dissident in Egypt. "This should be entitled 'the spy who was left out in the the jury was told by defense lawyer Herald Price Fahringer. He said Wilson's arms deals were only a cover so he could pick up "high quality intelligence" about the radical Arab nation. Nonsense, said chief prosecutor Theordore Greenberg. "This is a case of greed, not a spy left out in the cold There is absolutely nd evidence that he was authorized by the CIA.

This is nothing but a criminal enterprise." I "We don't want ex-CIA men runi ning around doing anything they want and saying, 'I'm helping the national Greenberg said! Prosecutors say the motivation for Wilson's sale of a single M-16 and four handguns to Libya was to show the Libyans he could deliver. American arms. Several former Wilson employe ees testified that shortly after the weapons were delivered to Tripoli early In 1979, the Libyans signed a $22 million contract to buy 5,000 M-16s and an unspecified quantity! of handguns and ammunition fromj Wilson. Fahringer admitted that the 54 year-old Wilson had sighed the con, tracts, but said it was only to win! the trust of the Libyans so he could' penetrate their intelligence network. "He never Intended fulfill: those contracts, never Intended to' send 5,000 M-16s to Libya," said; Fahringer.

Testimony Indicated: that only the single demonstration: M-16 was actually delivered. "How else do you explain the' fact that no M-16s were actually. delivered," Fahringer asked. But several of Wilson's former 1 employees said the Libyans gave? Wilson $3 million as part of the; total $22 million weapons package. Because Wilson only delivered one! M-16 and four handguns, the Lib-! yang cashed a $1 million per-; formance bond, they testified.

Thus, Wilson apparently kept 17 million. The case went to the jury after; the defense put on only three wit- ncsses, including two former Wilson employees and John Keats, one of; the defense lawyers. Peter Goulding, who ran Wilson's office in Geneva, said under cross-; examination that he found out late'; in 1979 that Wilson wasn't a CIA agent. Grow up9 Student newspaper scolds wild alumni i Slashed body found along Chicago River United Pren International CHICAGO Investigators say they doubt there Is a link between the stabbing death of a young woman and four men jailed for several sexual mutilations of women in the Chicago area, but they are checking to make sure. The body of Susan Baker, 22, was discovered Tuesday along the banks of the Chicago River on the city's Near West Side.

It was the same area where mutilation slaying victim Sandra Delaware was found Aug. 28. "At this point, I don't think it ties In with the others," Police Commander Kenneth Curln said, but the possibility was "being Investigated." Detective Marty Ryan said although the latest victim had been stabbed, she did not appear to have been intentionally mutilated. Construction workers discovered the body. Police Identified Ms.

Baker, who lived at a motel, through a bail-bond slip that had been posted for a disorderly conduct charge. Four suspects have been arrested and are being held for a combination of three deaths and two mutilation attacks. At one fraternity house, glass doors and display cases were smashed. In another case, drunken alumni took an antique' chair and an antique card catalogue and burned them in a fireplace, he said. Campbell said many of the Incidents were targeted at women students at the college, which was an all-male school until 1976.

"After this weekend we have only one injunction: Grow up or stay home," the newspaper said In an editorial. "Homecoming should only recall those Amherst traditions that are consonant with the college's contemporary standards of decency," It said. United Pmi International AMHERST, Mass. Alumni who went on a drunken binge, smashing glass and furniture during homecoming weekend at prestigious Amherst College, were told by the student newspaper to "grow up or stay home." College officials reported no problems during last weekend's festivities, But, Bradley Campbell, chairman of the Amherst Student, said Tuesday there were "a lot of ugly Incidents" of vandalism and harassment of women on the once all-male campus. The trouble began after Amherst defeated rival Williams 52-26 In Saturday's homecoming football game.

i Mom. son to be reunited The Georgia Supreme Court Tuesday ordered Kathleen Blackburn's son, in photo she'i holding, returned to her. He was taken away after she gave birth to her racially-mixed daughter. i i.