Fort Lauderdale News from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 1

ft -t i i Vti fr -inn so: Oscar predictions "iG Louisville, LSU mak RAVE Spring in the South 1J BUSINESS: Oil-price drop aids state ID A Nwsin Broward Edition 75 cents 11-5) SUNDAY, March 23, 1986 HOW BROWARD FEELS ABOUT CASINO GAMBLING Casino supporters gamble on Florida's unique plan -J nrMT OH DOM tnri Casinos: A good bet for Florida? Campaign funding HA What it's all about 15A By Scott A. Zamost Suil WrtMr Grocery store gamblers line up every morning to risk their milk money in slot machines at Smith's Food King, a large supermarket less than two miles from the neon-soaked Las Vegas Strip. Across the country, suburban grandmothers wait for a sleek casino bus to whisk them to the Atlantic City Boardwalk every afternoon where, for several hours, they test fate in a magical cornucopia of cherries, oranges, and watermelons. Backers of a Nov. 4 referendum gambling that has been legal in Nevada for 55 years, nor New Jersey's system that restricts casinos to Atlantic City.

"When you make a comparison of Atlantic City and Las Vegas with Miami and Fort Lauderdale, there isn't any," said David Kennedy, the pro-casino campaign manager. "Because one was a desert, one was a slum, and they really haven't changed except you have hotels and neon signs." Neon or not, the opposition views casinos as a deadly gamble. "This has to be fought as if it were drugs," said Miami beach dentist Richard Schwarz, an executive committee member of Florid- 3 Staff graphic LYNN GOMEZ Proponents cite thousands of new jobs and the multi-billion dollar investment of new Atlantic City hotels as evidence of what casinos can mean. The other side counters with skyrocketing crime and the Please see CASLNOS, 15A ians Against Casino Takeover (FACT), one of two major anti-casino groups that just merged. "What they are pushing is just as dangerous as controlled substances, and they're not doing it for altruistic reasons.

They only care about one thing putting money in their pockets." And whether the hundreds of millions in state revenue that casinos generate is good for Florida looms as what supporters consider a major campaign issue. that would allow individual Florida counties to decide whether they want casinos favor a different approach neither the wide open Cetbacks 4 rV air safety It By Ralph Blumenthal The New York Tlma NEW YORK The government's system of assuring air travelers' safety is becoming increasingly strained, according to aviation professionals and congressional investigators. It is not that flying has become unsafe, they say, but rather that the system is being stretched thin by increases in air traffic and decreases in federal inspectors, investigators and air controllers. The aviation experts trace the problem to cost-cutting by government and industry as new airlines and tempting low-fares lure growing millions of travelers. "What we are facing is a slower but potentially more serious erosion of the entire safety system which started in 1978 and will continue through 1986 and beyond," John O'Brien, air safety director of the Air Line Pilots Association, re cently told the House Public Works and Transportation Subcommittee on Aviation.

"All too often safety is losing out to cost-cutting." Officials of the Federal Aviation Administration respond that federal budget cuts are not reducing safety but say that further large reductions would have a serious effect. Already, they say, shortages of inspectors and deficiencies in training, among other budgetary effects, are making it harder to maintain safety standards. The pilots' group noted in congressional testimony that the num- ber of airlines has grown by 122 percent ince 1979 while the number of federal inspectors assigned' to airlines has dropped 30 percent, The FAA is committed to adding 300 airline inspectors to its staff of 674, but with attrition even that, some say, will not be sufficient The airline industry says it and! Please see SAFETY, 16A i r-1 v- iL Staff pkoto DEBORAH MEEKS Popular art Thousands of art-lovers browse through booths exhibiting sculp- or purchase the works of 250 artists represented at the show, tures, water-colors and graphics during the start of the two-day The festival will continue from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today on Los Las Olas Art Festival.

Despite cool weather and traffic prob- Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale between the New River lems, an estimated 75,000 people went to the festival to view Tunnel and Himmarshee Canal. Story, 3B. Brilliant doctor' really an impostor, police say stead, he is an incredible impostor. Police say he had more than 10 fully developed identities. "This guy reads like something out of a movie script," said William Bayer, deputy director of the New York state Office of Professional Discipline.

"We deal with impostor cases regularly, but none to this extent." Levchenko, 58, has been held without bail in the Metropolitan Correction Center in Dade County since he was arrested Nov. 1 in Fort Lauderdale for allegedly buying illegally a small arsenal of guns and silencers. Levchenko is awaiting trial on the federal firearms charges in West Palm Beach. He also is wanted in a fraud case in New York state. Before he was caught, Levchenko held an untold number of valid medical licenses, driver's licenses and other documents from Florida, New York, New Jersey and possibly other states.

Levchenko treated patients and dispensed large quantities of powerful narcotics. He sold quack mail-order cures for A case of misused identity By Alan Bavley and Michael Connelly Sufi Writer! After practicing medicine for more than a dozen years, Theodore Levchenko thought he was a pretty good doctor. His associates called him brilliant He appeared highly professional Even the state health authorities who tracked him through New York and Florida say Levchenko was unbelievably clever. Theodore Levchenko is not a doctor. In cancer.

When he was arrested, he was preparing to market a bogus treatment for AIDS. Levchenko, a bearded, balding man, acquired his medical licenses by assuming the identities of a long list of real doctors from Massachusetts to California. He thoroughly researched each doctor's academic and professional career and applied for licenses in their names in states where they were not practicing. He even went so far as to legally change the names of some of the doctors he impersonated. Medical licensing officials are still try ing to disentangle the web of paper identities that Levchenko created.

They are scrutinizing Levchenko's methods carefully to find out how he managed to evade every safeguard they had established to prevent the wrong people from being certified as doctors. "This fellow Levchenko is pretty crafty. He did his homework, and he was very successful," said Fred Roche, secretary of the Florida Department of Professional Regulation. The DPR suspended Levchenko's most-Please see IMPOSTOR, 6A 3 Old, young suffer in battle of budget Inside Today 1 ii This is another in a series of Legislature '86 Vol as. No.

2S Local 1-8B Art 4Q Mov tlmot 7Q Boofci 10Q National 3A Bridge 9Q Outlook 1-10F Buainwa 1-16D Politic 2F Classified and FtoQlon 10-12B tagal Ada 1-44H shorellna CroMword 8Q Llfaatylea 1-20E Dude 13-16B Sport 1-20C Dwtha 6B Stata S-12A Editorial 4-SF TV Updata 7A Foralfln 18-20A Trawl 16J horoacop 1SE Washington 4-5A COLUMNISTS bonohua 2E Landara 2E Dr. Ruth 2E Bacchl 1E Hummer 1C 8tein 18 Don Whittington Bill Whittington Whittington case sparks concern for auto racers By Ira Winderman Staff Writer SEBRING While some sports have a problem of drug use by athletes, auto racing may have a problem of a different kind drug money being used to help finance participation in the sport. "You don't need any stimulants at 200 mph," veteran race-car driver Bob Akin said before the running of Saturday's 12 Hours of Sebring. "I have no experience with drugs, but I can't believe you can do it and still race." Drug money, however, is another matter. It is a question big-time racing is being faced with in light of the case involving Fort Lauderdale drivers Bill and Don Whittington, and the January 1985 indictments of John Paul Sr.

and John Paul Jr. on charges of conspiracy to import 200,000 pounds of marijuana into the United States. The Whittington brothers entered guilty pleas March 14 in their case. Under terms of the plea agreement Bill Whittington will receive a 10-year prison sentence for articles examining major issues facing the 1986 Legislature when it opens its session April 8. Funds for AIDS 8A By Jennl Bergal Staff Writer Harold and Ada Walsh have become prisoners in their own home.

The Hollywood couple is struggling to remain independent, although Harold Walsh, 84, is confined to a wheelchair because of a hip injury, and Ada, 76, nurses an ulcerated foot that makes it excruciating for her to walk. For three months, the Walshes have been on a waiting list to get free homemaker services, especially assistance with shopping and housekeeping. It is help they badly need because neither ean leave the house, and Ada can no longer do housework. "I'd give anything in this world if I didn't have to ask for a little help," she says. "But it's either live here or be buried.

You're better off to stay in your own home and try and get by than go off to a nursing home." The Walshes are two of thousands of senior citizens in Broward County, as well as thousands of others throughout Florida, who are on waiting lists to receive at-home services, that include Meals on Wheels, homemaker assistance, and personal care. In an effort to meet this over-, whelming need, Gov. Bob Graham is seeking legislative approval of a 29 percent increase, or an additional $7.7 million, for Community-Care for the Elderly a program that aims at keeping seniors in Please see ELDERLY, 8A conspiracy to Import marijuana and a five-year sentence for tax fraud and income tax evasion. He must serve a minimum of five years in prison before he is eligible for parole and forfeit million. Don Whittington will serve 18 months in prison for pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service in connection with the same case.

Bill and Don Whittington will be sentenced officially before U.S. District Judge Jose Gonzalez Jr. April 25. The drug problem in auto racing if, indeed, it can be classified as a "problem" is one of where Please see RACING, 16A North Broward Office 4B3-6404 South Broward Office 90MO3S Circulation S27-4B00 Classified S1MOQO Other 7(1-4000 SUNDAY REAL ESTATE, 1-24RE.