The Herald-Palladium from Benton Harbor, Michigan • 12

12A The Herald-Palladium, Benton Harbor-SL Joseph, Michigan, Wednesday, January 31. 1990 Colorado bandits don't fit the norm s.The institutions robbed in Colorado in 1989 was about $300,000, small potatoes when compared to the million-dollar takes in complex white-collar crimes stemming from bank failures. Pence said. Pence, who sometimes coins the-nicknames given to the state's bank robbers, is confident the FBI will restore its solved" rate to its normal 90 percent Part of his confidence is based on bank robbers' overconfidence. Even when the FBI publicly identifies patterns of their crimes, most tend to stick with what has worked for them.

"For some reason, they dont change," Pence said. "It's almost like a signature or an ego thing. It's like they want people to know which criminal it is." away drivers. The typical day that most Colorado banks get hit also is out of the norm. There was a time, Pence said, when he almost could hold his breath on Friday afternoon and wait for the bank alarm.

Last year the bank robberies tended to occur on Monday. More troubling though, is the average Colorado bandit's penchant for using firearms. Of the 72 bank jobs in 1989, 43 involved guns. The potential for violence is why the FBI has given bank robbery a higher priority lately, Pence said That's a change, because in recent years white-collar crime has been moved to the front burner. Economics were part of the reason for bank robberies' lower profile.

The total heist for all financial PRICES GOOD AT BOTH LOCATIONS: 2830 FOLES AVENUE, ST. JOSEPH THE ORCHARDS MALL STORE By JOHN C. ENSSUN Scripps Howard News Service ENTER If Colorado's recent bank robbers ever band together, there's a readymade nickname for them: the Over the Hill Against the Grain Gang. The half-dozen repeat stickup artists who've been driving the FBI crazy with a spurt of robberies since November don't conform to the profile of the nation's typical bank robbers. They're older, smarter, less predictable and potentially more dangerous.

"I think some of these people have set out to retire here," said Bob Pence, agent in charge of the FBI office in Denver. With only half of Colorado's 72 bank robberies in 1989 solved. Pence would dearly like to send these felons into early retirement. "It makes it tough for us because they've got some experience in similar types of armed robberies," he said. And, he added, "We're being inundated to the point where we don't have time to settle down HEINEKEN IMPORTED BEER 10 0n Wheels 5.29 Drapery Extravaganza! 6 PACK 12 a.

BOTTLES PLUS DEPOSIT Let's see CUSTOM DRAPERIES AND BEDSPREADS BUSCH OR and solve them." Since Nov. 5 there have been" more than 20 bank robberies in Denver. There were nine in January alone. Last month Pence ordered every available agent to respond to each bank robbery. Such saturation coverage means up to 20 agents will work a crime scene instead of the usual three-agent detail.

The typical profile for bank robbers nationwide calls for a male, age 24 years or younger, who commits one or two jobs and stops. Colorado's recent experience, however, is to the contrary. No one could be further from the norm than the "salt and pepper bandit" Police ended his string in March with the arrest in Long-mont of 82-year-old Jack Kelm, believed to be the oldest active bank robber in FBI history. The "Mary Poppins bandit" also has narrowed the gender gap. Out of nearly 1,000 bank robberies the Denver FBI office has handled in 10 years, Pence said fewer than 10 women were involved, even as get- She'll pay her tax bill right to the penny GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas (AP) The city is demanding that Penny Lang pay the rest of her tax' bill And, true to her name, she's promised to pay it to the penny.

Actually, that's all she owes. Ms. Lang moved to this Dallas suburb recently and the mortgage company that financed her house figured her 1989 city taxes at $229.18 and 83-100ths of a cent The mortgage company rounded the figure to $229.18, which she paid. But the city's computer rounded up, to $229.19. The city has sent two notices of delinquency.

"They want their penny!" Ms. Lang siid. "I'll give it to them, I will. I'll mail them a check." City Finance Director Wayne Usry said the 15-year-old computer tax billing program will be updated next year. The new program won't bill for less than about $15, he said.

Usry said it costs the city $15 to $25 in staff and computer time, mailing costs and paper to bill a resident With the additional invoices, he figures it has cost the city $30 to $50 in pursuit of its penny. Ms. Lang said she would pay the penny this week. Good thing, too, because if she chose to ignore the bill in a couple of years she would owe 2 cents. NATURAL LIGHT wffl ARE Jj Oj TRULY I pi UNIQUE! ALL FABRICS! 12 PACK 12 oz.

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In the current issue of Nature magazine, University of Cardiff astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle and mathematician N.C. Wickram-singhe examine the relationship between large outbreaks of flu and the peak of the 11-year cycle of sun activity. Called the solar maximum, this violent period is marked by large numbers of sunspots and frequent magnetic storms producing radioactive solar flares. While the decade-old research found five instances going back to 1919 of correlation between worldwide flu epidemics and sunspots, the new data carries the connection to 1761. If they ignore three cycles with abnormally low sunspot numbers, the two scientists say, there is a rough correlation between solar activity peaks and the flu.

Part of the roughness may be because sunspot activity often remains intense for two or three years on either side of the peak month. The British scientists suggest that "electrical fields associated with intense solar winds can rapidly drive charged parades of the size of viruses down through the exposed upper atmosphere into the shelter of the lower atmosphere." The scientists involved in the study have previously been associated with the thesis that comets carry mutated viruses which, when they are drawn into the Earth's atmosphere, produce various epidemics, influenza and whooping cough. The scientists point out that previous efforts to tie sunspots to cy-clical Earth phenomena Atlantic salmon catches, bull stock markets, Australian rabbit reproduction, have broken down after a few solar maximums. But the influenza-epidemic connection seems relatively strong. Scripps Howard News Service SEAGRAMS WINE COOLERS 4 PACK BOTTLES PLUS DEPOSIT Diet Co.tc gp Caffeine Free Diet Coke 15 cL bonus pack of 12 cz.

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