The Post-Standard from Syracuse, New York • Page 3

Materials With Asbestos WASHINGTON (UPI) The Consumer Product Safety Commission Thursday banned, as possible causes of cancer, spackling compounds and other wall patching mixtures containing asbestos. Asbestos containing imitation logs and ash used in gas burning fireplaces also came under the ban, and a list of other materials, such as vinyl tiles, wallboard, brake linings and modeling clay, was named for investigation. "This (asbestos) is probably one of the most well documented toxic substances around," said Commissioner David Pittle. "You don't have to look at the rats, just look at the people." The agency left open the question of whether consumers will be able to get refunds for banned products now in their possession. The commission voted 4 0, with one commissioner absent, to accept a recommendation from the Natural Resources Defense Council to ban spackling compounds and similar mixtures with asbestos.

The council said millions of consumers were being exposed to a needless hazard when such materials are installed, sanded or removed. The commissioners also banned spackling compounds containing a form of asbestos called tremolitic talc. Pittle said one study submitted to the agency shows that about 50 per cent of all spackling compounds have been reformulated to eliminate asbestos. He said the commission staff should also explore whether the asbestos substitutes are safe. The commission has not decided under what law to apply the ban.

It can be done under one law that would make it immediate or under another that would allow for 60 days of public comment beforehand. The NRCD followed up by asking the commission to consider banning modeling clay, textured paints, brake shoes and linings, wallboard and other products containing asbestos. It also said there was a potential problem with vinyl floor tile because the adhesive used with it contains asbestos which is released into the air when the floor is sanded after the tile is taken up. The commission decided to speed up a staff report on those materials. The agency said it wanted to consider how to tell consumers they could return banned material safely to the store if a refund is eventually ordered.

Judge Orders Ban Revision WASHINGTON (UPI) A federal judge Thursday ordered the Consumer Product Safety Commission to revise its ban on children's sleepwear treated with the fire retar dant, Tris, so manufacturers of nightgowns will not have to bear the estimated $200 million loss alone. U.S. District Court Judge George Hart said the commission acted "arbitrarily and capriciously" when it banned Tris, a cancer causing agent, but left the apparel manufacturers responsible for refunds to consumers and stores that sold the Tris treated garments. The American Apparel Manufacturers Association argued that perhaps 10,000 jobs might be lost in towns across the country if the small manufacturers had to buy back the garments without compensation from the companies that made the material or the chemical. In testimony earlier before the House Small Business Committee, the children's sleepware makers said they are threatened with "chaos and ruin" because of the commission's original order.

Attorney Louis Nizer, arguing the case for the apparel manufacturers in court, said, "The destruction of dozens of firms is no exaggeration." He said one company in Pennsylvania has already closed its doors, throwing 120 persons out of work. suggested that the commission put the blame on the manufacturers of nightgowns because they were "little people" who wouldn't fight in court, whereas the big companies would have. There was a rumble of approval from the courtroom audience, mixed with muffled cries of "Hear, Hear" at Hart's comment. The room was crowded with apparel manufacturers, many of whom had come to Washington to testify to the House hearing. Hart gave the CPSC 10 days to redefine its ban in such a way that everyone down the line, from retailer to chemical company, would be responsible for the loss.

He said it appears "everyone in the chain is a victim." Funds Probe Of Assassinations WASHINGTON (UPI) The House Assassination Committee won full House approval Thursday of a $2.5 million budget to continue its investigation into the killings of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. The house voted 213 192 to adopt the budget for the committee's work through this year, but only after the panel came under heavy criticism. "I would hope we could end this unnecessary, wasteful, counterproductive effort. The Justice Department should do the investigating, if that is necessary," said Rep.

Robert Bauman, Rep. John Dent, manager of the funding resolution, defended the panel and said, "We must put to rest the surmises, surprises, guesses and wishes of those who want to keep the kettle boiling" over whether there were conspiracies in the two killings. Bauman criticized Del. Walter Fauntroy of the District of Columbia, a member of the assassination panel, for his comments that reporters covering the panel should be investigated to determine whether they are working for the CIA in an effort to discredit the investigation. POPULAR WITH TRAVELERS SUVA, Fiji (AP) More than 168,000 tourists visited Fiji last year, a 4.3 per cent increase over 1975, according to the island's statistics bureau.

Most tourists were from Australia, the United States and New Old Style Energy Farmer Alvah Edmunds of Lyndon, Vt, has found a manure spreader. Now, instead of using tractor way to save both gasoline and wear and tear on his power to pull the spreader, he has enlisted his work tractor. Taking President Carter's new energy pro horse, Pat, to do the job. (AP Laserphoto) posals seriously, Edmunds rebuilt the hitch on his 'Johns9 Lose in Crackdown POUGHKEEPSDE (AP) A dozen men, most of them middle aged, paunchy and married, have been arrested recently for taking the name "John" too lightly in Poughkeepsie. The local "johns" have been arrested and fined in a prostitution crackdown in this Hudson River city.

"What I said last August still goes. We're going to crack down on the johns just the same as we are the girls," says Police Chief Stewart Bowles. "Since we began this program last August, we've arrested a dozen johns," said Bowles. He said most pleaded guilty after being "caught in the act." The few others were convicted. Bowles said prostitution is hardly one of Poughkeep sie's major crime problems, but he does hope the concerted effort will minimize it.

So far, the arrested men have been fined instead of being sent to jail. "As a rule he's a fellow who's married. He likes to sneak into court at the crack of dawn and plead guilty as quick as he can," said Bowles. "Usually it's a fellow out for a fling and he has told his wife he's going out bowling with the boys. They usually fall into the same classification white males, married, in their middle forties or early fifties." The men can be fined up to $250 and sentenced to 30 days in jail.

The prostitutes in the cases have also been arrested, and in Poughkeepsie that could mean they wind up wrapping Christmas packages for the poor in a community service program. Gas Main Cut In State Capital ALBANY (AP) A backhoe punctured a 16 inch natural gas main just before the noon rush hour in downtown Albany Thursday, sending a volcano like spout of fumes, dirt and dust into the air. No one was reported injured, but hundrds of persons were evacuated from the area of the Delaware Hudson Plaza, the space in front of the old Flemish style building that served as headquarters for the Railroad and which is being renovated as a new headquarters for the State University system.The leak was sealed within an nour ana tne area returned to normal. Authorities had cordoned off State Street below Pearl, as wen as tne uroaoway area wnere tne plaza is located. Traffic and business were back to normal at noon.

Jack Kelly, a spokesman for Niagara Mohawk Power i restored to 3U buildings in tne area. Sign Darkened At Times Square NEW YORK (AP) The ribbon of headlines in moving lights around the old Times Tower went dark Thursday to dramatize an anticrime campaign by the building owner. Alex Parker, the landlord of No. 1 Times Square, said he regretted being the one to turn out the famous attraction after half a century in operation. Parker said the sign would stay dark until he gathers 100,000 signatures on a petition demanding that politicians get tough against crime and pornography in the Times Square area.

If he can't get the signatures "but I'm sure I will," he interjected then the sign will stay off and another city tradition also will die, the dropping of the lighted ball on New Year's Eve to signal midnight. "The news sign and the New Year's Eve ball cost me a year to maintain," said Parker, "and I'm not going to spend another penny to entertain pimps, prostitutes and criminals." Parker has been an outspoken foe of the pornography industry thriving in the Times Square area. He said smut was a breeding ground for more violent crime. He said that so far he had gathered 3,672 signtures, working on the telephone and by mail to get signers. Seeks Program Funding NEW YORK (AP) Columbia University has announced a $2 million fund drive to establish a professorship in Armenian studies and to endow the school's Armenian studies program.

The fund drive will seek half of its goal to endow a professorship, $250,000 to support language instruction, and $750,000 to fund lectures and symposia by leading scholars, summer fellowships and continuing education programs. Bad Marks for Homework DAVIE, Fla. (AP) Two high school pupils did extra work during their printing shop classes, but police said they weren't after good marks. Officers said Thursday that the students used school equipment to print at least 2ft phony drivers' licenses to sell to fellow students. The licenses with teen agers' real names and pictures but phony addresses and increased were sold for $5 to $40, said Ron Pagano, a spokesman for the police department of nearby Hollywood, Fla.

They were used primarily as proof of age for entry into bars. "I was amazed to learn that something like that covM happen," said Richard BroeWnrizen, chairman of the industrial arts department of Nora High School in this Port Lauderdale suburb. "It was an ingenious scheme," Pagano said. 'These kids were pretty good." Pagano said the 1ft and 17 year oW pupils used class time to make counterfeits of Arkansas drivers' licenses. "They made the prints, reduced them by photographing down to size and then they laminated them with the student's picture on Pagano raid.

He said they had been in business since Dec. 13. The two pupils were in their parents' custody Thursday. Counterfeiting charges were being prepared against them, Pagano said, and "we anticipate multiple arrests of other students on charges of possessing counterfeit licenses." The scheme failed, Pagano said, because of inaccurate details not bad printing qijaMy. 'They must have seen an original somewhere and tried to memorise it," he said.

"The back was the same, bet the fronts were different." Among other things, Arkansas licenses do not have pic tires on them, he said. In addition, the state seal was in the wrong place on the counterfeits and the number series Another detective said the Arkansas license was apparently chosen "because they thought that would he the easiest to reproduce. They copied a picture of a state seal from a yearbook." Pagano said an investigator heard about the scheme "in the course of normal and a 10 day investigation led to the classroom businessmen. He said the pupils kept a list of their customers. The prostitution crackdown is being carried out through a special Crime Prevention Unit, a federally funded local program initiated last summer in this city of 33,000.

Bowles said the prostitutes are usually sentenced to work in some service program, which is often an excuse to have them spend some time with two of the women who work in the program. "The women have actually turned some of these girls around," said Bowles, who noted that the arrested prostitutes have usually been teen agers. SYRACUSE POST STANDARD, April 29, 1977 3 Federal Aid to N. Y. 'Overstated' PLATTSBURGH (UPI) The federal government is short changing New York State by $14.6 billion through its accounting procedures, an economic specialist says.

Erik Johnsen of the Technical Assistance Center at the State University at Pittsburgh Thursday said the federal government overestimated by about one third the amount of money it said it spent in New York State. The overestimate is bad for New York State, Johnsen said, because it creates an impression in federal circles that the state is getting more federal money than is the He said he obtained his figures from a report entitled "Federal Outlays in New York" published by the National Technical Information Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Johnsen said the largest factor in the overestimate came in federal accounting for payment of its debt service, where $13,341 billion was listed as being spent in New York State. He said that figure represented about half of the total debt service and was completely misleading because the money was paid to the large national banks in New York City and a large percentage of it was then transferred to banks in other states.

Another misleading factor was $965 million in foreign economic and assistance payments, including payments for the United Nations and payments of $556 million by the Agency for International Development. According to the federal summary, residents and businesses in New York State pay 13.5 per cent of the nation's total taxes and get back 11.3 per cent of the federal spending. Deducting the $14.3 billion from the $40.6 billion listed as being spent in the state, however, Johnsen said, meant that the federal government actually spent only 8 per cent oi its budget in New York state. In contrast, he said, the report shows that California contributes 9.6 per cent to the federal treaury and gets back 11.5 per cent. Michigan contributes 5.4 per cent and gets back only 2.9 per cent, while Pennsylvania contributes 6.4 per cent and gets back 4.5 per cent.

Cabbie Rehired PHILADELPHIA (AP) A taxi driver who was fired on suspicion of cheating his company out of 20 cents, has been rehired after hunting down the passenger involved. "I guess I've been cleared of everything," said John Carengi, 60, after being told Wednesday he was being reinstated. Carengi was fired by the Yellow Cab Co. for allegedly carrying a passenger with the cab meter off. Carengi denied he had the meter off and said he had charged the passenger $3.10.

The company said the fare should have been $3.30 Carengi said he spent a week looking for the passenger, a legless veteran, to corroborate his story, but he finally found him William A. Sawyer, 47. Sawyer said he remembered paying the $3.10 and said the trip, which he makes several times a weak, usually costs between $2.90 and $3.20, depending on traffic. WE'VE GOTIT SO YOU CAN" FLAUNT IT. GRAND OPENING First Townsend brought you fancy footwear.

Now Townsend and Things is bringing you the greatest looks going for work, play, or nights on the town. We've got shirts, skirts, jeans, shirts, dresses, growns and accessories from size three and up. And to celebrate our Grand Opening you can save at all Townsend stores. Things and Townsend Shoes, Downtown. Townsend Shoes in Penn Can Mall.

(Special Orders Excepted). Look for the Banner next to Flahs on Salina Street. Open Monday Friday til OFF Mis TburnwndShoti 429 S. Salina St. 471 2528 388 S.

Salina St. 471 6310 Penn Can Mall American Express BankAmericard MasterCharge.