Daily Press from Newport News, Virginia • Page 25

rtvnxrr. TT --A' CA' i flfW 4 Council reviews budget NN recreation center, pay hike among topics By Michael S.C. Clarfey Daily Press NEWPORT NEWS Newport News should be able to give school employees a raise on July 1 without adding a penny to the proposed 5-cent real estate tax increase for next year. City Manager Edgar E. Maroney said Thursday.

Maroney delivered the news at an afternoon City Council work session, during which council members reviewed the city's operating budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 and discussed Maroney's five-year, $160 million capital spending plan. During the session, council members added a handful of spending proposals to next year's budget and reduced the city's revenue by about $90,000 by giving owners of recreational vehicles a tax break. Council members did not figure out how they will pay for the additional spending. The council agreed to add one big ticket item a $5 million recreation center for midtown Newport News to the capital plan at the insistence of Vice Mayor Marty Williams. The school system will be able to give raises averaging 3 percent in July by reducing some of next year's spending and savings some money this year, Maroney said.

The manager had suggested delaying the pay raise until November to save $670,000. The reductions in next year's proposed budget were offered by school officials, Maroney said. The cuts total $270,000 and come primarily from the New Horizons vocational program, he said. He added that the school system projects it will finish the fiscal year on June 30 with at least $400,000 that can be used to pay for the raises. Please see BudgetC2 J'VisE' I ii i Shoppers' express Rebecca Maloney of Williamsburg, right, greets Elizabeth Eitt of Fredericksburg upon Eitt's arrival at the Williamsburg Pottery Factory Thursday on Amtrak's inaugural stop at the 200-acre shopping outlet complex.

With the new service, Washington and Richmond residents can get in about three hours of shopping on Thursdays and Fridays a little longer on Saturdays for a roundtrip fare of from Richmond. The stops begin in time for prime tourist season, when ridership through Williamsburg jumps 22 percent, Amtrak has said. The service is meant to attract more distant shoppers, so there are no same-day round trips from Amtrak's Newport News station. But a one-way ticket from Newport News to the Pottery is $7. Photos by Adrln SniderDaily Press 20 years later, taste police prowl The Spring 1973 William and Mary Review, official student literary magazine of the College of William and Mary, features a cover photograph of a smiling 5-year-old girl holding a severed hog's head.

The last 15 pages of the book are a short story that chronicles the sexual exploits of a couple of lustful college boys on a weekend trip to the beach. The whole thing was too much for the Review's faculty adviser. As the magazine went to press, he threatened to withdraw his support and told its upstart editor that he might even ask the college president to cut off funding. Questionable content and controversy aren't new to student journals at William and Mary. But it is ironic that on the 20th anniversary of the Review's "sex and sand" issue the taste police once again are running amok on the campus.

Currently, the calls are for the college to abandon its financial support of The Pillory, a fledgling humor magazine that ticked off a lot black students with a cartoon called "Mighty Whitie." Hopefully, this call to censure will fail as miserably as the faculty adviser's did two decades ago. If it succeeds, it will put African-American students at William and Mary in league with Jesse Helms and others who don't want public funds paying for art that mainstream America considers offensive. That's a dangerous place for any minority group to be. I spent a recent afternoon in the Special Collections section of the William and Mary library reading every issue of The Pillory ever printed. It was easy.

There are only six. Parts are hilarious. I laughed out loud at the "Ten Lesser Known Dr. Seuss Books," including "Horton Hears His Imminent Death," "Green Beans and Spam" and Thidwick the Well-Endowed Moose." I also found plenty of stuff that was boring a leaden tome on college indoctrination and tasteless the "Talk Show KT Doll" that makes fun of William and Mary date rape victim Katie Koestner. But nowhere did I find anything that could be taken seriously.

Each and every issue of The Pillory begins with "A message from the Weasel," the magazine's mascot. It says something like: "None of this is meant personally All of the contents were sifted carefully, and so if you find it offensive good. Satire should be. Humor and satire function as tools to expose the problems that nobody dares to face in a straight manner." "Mighty Whitie" certainly does. The cartoon hero portrays black men as jive-talking drug dealers in T-shirts that say "Watermelon" and "Fried Chicken," Asians as slant-eyed provocateurs of "Yellow Peril," and Indians as "Tur-banators," all bent on taking "Mighty Whitie's" power and women.

Are those stereotypes and fears vicious and racist? You betcha. Are there students at William and Mary who believe them? Probably. Does this cartoon affirm their ignorance and hatred? No way. "Mighty Whitie" makes racists look foolish, which, one can only hope, will make them rethink their positions. The cartoon is definitely satire.

It's also heavy-handed and extremely sophomoric, which shouldn't surprise anyone. The Pillory's editor is, after all, a sophomore. "Mighty Whitie" fails to meet the standard set down by the Weasel himself. "In a lawsuit-laden America," he writes, "quality is the only successful preventative defense for humor." Nevertheless, if colleges and universities pulled the plug on all the bad art produced on their campuses, there would be no student publications at all. I should know.

I wrote that short story about "sex and sand" 20 years ago. Downtown complaint gets mayor's attention NN city manager to work on Navy's objections r- ZTV.J? It i vtt- By Michael S.C. Clarfey Daily Press quality of life issues will be important in decisions about where operations are maintained. "It's an economic development issue," DuVal said. "The Navy is the shipyard's number one customer and the shipyard is the city's number one employer.

We have to be cognizant of that." DuVal suggested that Maroney explore a joint effort with the Navy and the shipyard: "I'm not sure what the dollar amount is, but I'd like to think we could come up with a program to improve pedestrian traffic, improve security and improve the facilities in the area." The prompt attention to the Navy complaint drew a testy reaction, however, from Councilman Charles C. Allen, who lives downtown and has long been pressing other members to take an interest in the area. "It's good the Navy is expressing con- NEWPORT NEWS Newport News will have to spruce up its downtown and improve safety to ward off the loss of Navy contracts, Mayor Barry DuVal said Thursday. The subject came up at a City Council budget work session at which DuVal instructed City Manager Edgar E. Maroney to create a plan to deal with Navy complaints about panhandling, harassment and crime in downtown.

Hundreds of sailors and Navy civilians work downtown at Newport News Shipbuilding. DuVal said the complaints came up at a meeting he had last month with Capt. Frederick R. Lutz, who is supervisor of shipbuilding at the yard. Lutz told DuVal that as the Navy scales back operations, LET US PRAY.

W.A. and Hattie Morgan are among those who gathered at Hampton City Hall at noon Thursday to mark the National Day of Prayer, designated as the first Thursday of every May. Hundreds gathered to pray for needs of the city, city leaders, families and spiritual renewal. Similar gatherings were held in Gloucester Court House, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach and Norfolk. Dermis TennanVDaiiy Press Please see ComplalntC2 J' Poll shows Terry in comfortable lead Front-runner Mary Sue Terry Democrat Mary Sue Terry's higher name recognition is one reason she continues to outpace her Republican competitors, former congressman George Allen, state Del.

Clinton Miller and retired businessman Earle C. Williams. it By Bob Kemper Daily Press Attention to detail marks Mary Sue Terry's career. A1. Terry If the 1993 election for governor were held today who would you vote for? Republican candidates Terry vs.

Allen 56 27 17 50 60 70 10 20 30 40 Percent Fresh water is no threat to oysters By Mark Di Vlncenzo Daily Press JAMES CITY Oysters still must contend with two devastating, parasitic diseases, but this year at least they appear to have defeated one nemesis: fresh water. In fact, this spring's massive infusion of fresh water into the Chesapeake Bay, which scientists feared might kill much of the bay's remaining healthy oysters, might even help them, a scientist on Thursday told the Chesapeake Bay Commission, a tri-state advisory group. The fresh water, much of which fell as rain and snow in the western part of the state in February and March, has kept dermo the bay's most widespread oyster-killing disease from infecting most of the oysters in the James River so far this year, said Gene Burreson, a Virginia Institute of Marine Science oyster researcher. Last year in April, 40 percent of the oysters in a section of the James called Wreck Shoals were infected with dermo. Last month, in April, 2 percent were infected.

Please see Oyster C2 Allen Terry vs. Miller CITADEL LAWSUIT. South Carolina lawmakers help college fight discrimination C3. ROARING APPLAUSE. Food Lion's president Tom E.

Smith gets an ovation from stockholders. Business, C6. 58 RICHMOND The Republicans who hope to challenge Democrat Mary Sue Terry for governor this year are making little progress, a poll released Thursday shows. Terry, who just recently stepped down as attorney general to run for governor full time, remains far ahead of three Republican candidates in popularity and support among voters, according to a Mason-Dixon PoliticalMedia Research Inc. poll conducted for the Daily Press and other Virginia news organizations.

The poll shows Terry outpacing former congressman George Allen, the presumed front-runner for the Republican nomination, 56 percent to 27 percent. She is even further ahead of the other two Republicans. Earle C. Williams, a retired Northern Virginia businessman who is fueling his first run for public office with $1.6 million of his own money, is trailing Terry 17 percent to 63 percent. Clinton Miller, a state delegate from Shenandoah, the long-shot candidate for the Republican nomination, trails Terry 58 per- cent to 20 percent.

The results of the hypothetical match-ups are almost identical to polls done last January and last June, showing little improvement in the Republicans' performance. The Republicans have gained slightly in name recognition over the last five months as attention focused on their nominating race. But they still lag far behind Terry in popularity. Some 54 percent of those polled have a favorable view of Terry. That compares to 18 percent for Allen, 8 percent for Miller and 6 percent for Williams.

Terry's strong showing is linked directly to her high name recognition, said Mason-Dixon's Brad Coker. Terry has run twice for statewide office and captured more votes than any other statewide candidate in those elections. None of her would-be challengers has ever run in a statewide election. Please see TerryC2 I 50 60 70 10 20 30 40 Percent Miller TODAY'S QUESTION: Would you work for the post office? Story, A1. Terry vs.

Williams CALL 247-7878 to give your opinion on today's question. Thursday's responses: see C2. 50 60 70 10 20 30 40 Percent M. GonlMkyDaily Press Williams Souj. Mason Dixon Pontics! Research, Inc.

Eml Gant, Metro Editor 247-4620 1.