Vidette-Messenger of Porter County from Valparaiso, Indiana • 1

"11 19 II Till. i I 1-1 462-5151 Saturday, May 24, 19S6 Valparaiso, Indiana 46383 25 cents The politics of poverty and hunger in Scrlpps Howard News Service America enoug trior bus fare to class. There are an estimated 35 million people (15 percent of the population) below the poverty line in the United States. Of those, only 58 percent are getting food stamps, down from 68 percent in 1980. First family will get in the line WASHINGTON (AP) Saying the first family "will do its part," President Reagan abruptly changed his plans and decided to join Hands Across America on Sunday to help raise millions of dollars for the nation's hungry and homeless.

Presidential spokesman Larry Speakes said Reagan told aides Friday morning that he and his wifeNancy, after a long family discussion Thursday nighty concluded they should participate in the privately organized effort to raise $5(Lminion by by reason of denial or lack of ability to feed them." Hungry people, he said, do not know where or how to get help. Winnie a 24-year-old welfare mother of two who lives several miles from Reagan, is hungry. But it's not because she doesn't know about food stamps or other programs for the poor here. She knows about them all. She is hungry because the welfare office decided she was no longer eligible for food stamps and cut heroff.

Her seems to indicate she's right. She briefly had a job in a fast food restaurant. The job paid too much (or her to stay on food stamps, But she was fired. Now there's a problem about reinstalling her on the food stamp rolls. A harried clerk says it will take time, days probably, if not weeks.

Winnie has been through this before, she-says with a shrug. She's going to school to try to get a good job but she keeps missing classes. She says it's because she has baby sitting problems or doesn't have WASHINGTON As Sunday's Hands Across America focuses national attention ott hunger, the politics of poverty have flared again. The Reagan administration insists its "safety net" to take care of the neediest cases is intact, but private groups and congressional Democrats charge the net is full of holes. President Reagan enraged critics of his budget policies when he told high school students last Wednesday that people are not hungry "simply forming a nearly unbroken human chain from New York to California.

Studies seeking to find out why more of the poor do not get food stamps show that many of the poor hate the government's detailed forms or waiting in line. Others do not like the stigma of food stamps. Some do not know how to apply. children are living on peanut butter sandwiches from the neighbors. Winnie 'says she feels bad eating handouts from them.

She says the welfare office made a mistake taking her off food stamps. A telephone call safur daw Bradford wants to close hearing- ii i rftaMMteBBl -y Portage I I Valparaiso I I a Getting in the swim The Memorial Day weekend traditionally marks the opening of local beaches and swimming pools. We have a list of those facilities, plus their costs and other activities available. It may be a bit cool for swimming, but who cares? Page 11 County-Hebron library? Officials from the Porter County Library-system will discuss the possibility of a merger with the" Hebron Library. Hebron already is considering a merger with the Boone Township Library.

Page 11 Indianapolis dream In 1932, Bill Brandt tried to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. His dream ended during practice against the wall of the third turn. Assistant sports editor Scott Cottos tells his grandfather's story. Page 12 4 V-M Weekend The Indianapolis 500 is the Mt. Everest of auto racing, according to sports editor Leo R.

Joint. The names of the drivers are a litany of racing's best. Army to go on credit Army personnel will begin using credit cards this fall, the first time a branch of the U.S. military has used the cards to defer travel expenses. Page 20 HANDS ACROSS AMERICA ROUTE Kurt Waldheim (left) stands with another German officer in 1943 in what is now Titograd, Yugoslavia.

The World Jewish Congress says it can link Waldheim with reprisal massacres against Yugoslavians. (AP) We could extradite Waldheim: Israelis TEL AVIV (AP) Israel has enough evidence to try Kurt Waldheim on charges of being an accessory to Nazi war crimes, but it' is too early to contemplate extradition proceedings, Justice Minister Yitzhak Modai said Friday. Waldheim, 68, a former U.N. secretary-general, is seeking to become president of Austria in a June 8 runoff election. Modai spoke after receiving a preliminary report from an Israeli Justice Department team which two weeks ago began gathering evidence from U.N.

war crimes archives and other unspecified sources. Dennis Gouldman, the head of the team, refused to comment until the investigation is completed. Israel will decide what action to take after reviewing the final report, expected by next week, said the Israeli newspaper Maariv. "It is certainly possible that he could be convicted as an accessory to war crimes. Whether we will ask for his extradition is premature," Modai told the British Broadcasting Corp.

In Vienna, Waldheim spokesman Gerold Christian on Thursday described the claim that Israel has enough evidence to try Waldheim as the "beginning of a witch hunt." Modai, leader of the Liberal Party in the right-wing Likud bloc, rejected such allegations. The accusations against Waldheim are "not a light matter" and neither are the deaths of the millions of victims of Nazi persecutions, he told the BBC. In an interview with the daily Yediot Ahronot on Thursday, Waldheim accused Jewish leaders of lying about his alleged involvement in war crimes in the Balkans, denied any wrongdoing. The New York-based World Jewish Congress has accused Waldheim of signing documents dealing with the killing of civilians in Yugoslavia and complicity in the deportation of Jews from Greece during his service in Adolf Hitler's army in 1944. "We don't have documents and evidence to prove that he (Waldheim) himself carried out war crimes with his own hands," Modai was quoted as saying by the socialist daily Al Ham-Ishmar.

However, Modai told Israel radio: "We have enough proof that (Waldheim), In his capacity as an intelligence officer in the German Army In the Balkans, would pass on information and descriptions that he knew would, and did, lead to liquidation actions." Modal did not release documents to support his charges. by Jim Eng Staff writer Judge Roger Bradford says he wants to keep secret the identities of Porter Superior Court jurors until he finds out if they acted improperly during a recent criminal trial. To keep the jurors' identities secret, Bradford said he wants to exclude the public from a court hearing next week at which one member of the jury and a relative of a jury member will be questioned about possible juror misconduct. The hearing will be conducted Thursday in the case of Jesse Lopez of Knox, who was convicted in March of aiding in the delivery of a large amount of cocaine. Defense attorney Larry Rogers filed papers this week indicating a relative of one of the jurors in Lopez's trial told him that jury members may have acted improperly.

The jurors may have improperly debated the case before hearing all the evidence, and one of the jurors may have concealed the fact that he or she knew the defendant, Rogers said. Lopez was scheduled to be sentenced Thursday, but Bradford postponed sentencing indefinitely after hearing Rogers' allegations. The juror and Rogers' informant are scheduled to testify at 2:30 p.m. May 29. Bradford said he would like that hearing to be closed to the public but will listen to comments or evidence about whether that is appropriate.

The Vidette-Messenger on Friday objected to closure of the hearing, saying that Indiana's Open Courts law requires that the hearing be open. Richard Cardwell, general counsel for the Hoosier State Press Association, said the Open Courts law, passed in 1982, requires all hearings in criminal cases, with a few exceptions, to be open to the public. The exceptions are for situations in which a defendant's right to a fair trial would be jeopardized by prejudicial information about the case reaching potential jurors through the news media before a trial began. "This situation does not meet the requirements to justify a closed hearing under the law," Cardwell said. But Bradford said he believes the hearing can be closed under another section' of the law that allows the judge "to protect the order and decorum of the courtroom." "It's future jurors I'm concerned about.

I don't want them to think that any criminal defendant whose case they sit on can haul them back into court and spread their names all around based on unsubstantiated allegations. "If I find that there is a problem (with the conduct of the jurors), then there will be no reason to protect them, and their identities will be made public. But if people feel that their identities are going to be plastered all over the newspapers, then we will have even more trouble than we do now finding people who are willing to serve on juries. "I'm trying to protect the integrity of the jury system." In objecting to closure of the hearing, The V-M Managing Editor Karl Ilenrichs said the integrity of the Judicial system would best be protected by examining the allegations publicly. Bradford set a hearing for 1:30 p.m.

on May 29 to decide whether or not to close the 2:30 hearing. Hands across America 22,000 expected to form Porter County line by Elizabeth Cloyd Staff writer On Memorial Day All governmental offices will be closed Monday when Memorial Day Is observed. There will be no garbage collection Monday. On Tuesday, crews will service the regular Tuesday routes and then the areas usually serviced on Mondays. The Vidette-Messenger will not publish Monday.

There will be no mail delivery. Weather Associated Press Cloudy today, 20 percent chance of showers. High In the 60s. Low tonight in the 40s. Cloudy and mild Sunday.

High in the 70s. Low in the 50s. Extended forecast: Partly sunny Monday, chance of showers Tuesday and Wednesday. Highs in the 70s. Lows In the areas like Portage have plenty of people ready to participate, but the route east of Portage and Chesterton needs people.

Other sparsely populated parts of the Hoosier segment of the line, the area between Kokomo and South Bend, and the rural areas between Indianapolis and Cincinnati, may be joined by ropes or ribbons instead of people, according to Kathryn Reith of the Indiana Hands Across America office. The national office of Hands Across America announced this week that the line will pass through portions of Nevada and Arizona with a rope instead of people because of hazards to participants. Reith said medical experts were afraid if participants were bitten by desert animals they would not be able to reach medical help in time. Organizers expect that many people in Porter County will wake up Sunday morning and decide to participate, according to Reith. Those people should go to the U.S.

20 and find a place in line. Boehringer said those who are able to donate can pick up donation forms from volunteers along U.S. 20. Boehringer said all people who plan to participate should try to arrive at U.S. 20 about an hour before the line will form.

See HANDS on page 3 About 22,000 people are expected to join hands to form the Hands Across America line in north Porter County Sunday. At 2 p.m. an estimated six million people nationwide will form a human chain from coast to coast to raise funds and awareness about hunger and homelessness in this country. Organizers said 1,340 people are needed to form each mile of the 4.000-mile line. When people across the country join hands, they will sing "We Are The World," the Hands Across America theme song and "America the Beautiful" before disbanding, according to Maria Boehringer, who is coordinating the event in Porter County.

The line will remain intact for about 15 minutes, Boehringer said. Hands Across America, an event sponsored by USA for Africa, hopes to raise between $5 and $10 million to fund domestic hunger relief programs. The line will stretch 17.5 miles in Porter County down U.S. 20, passing through Furnessville, Chesterton, Burns Harbor, Porter and Portage before entering Lake County. Not enough people have registered to form the line in the county, Boehringer said.

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