The Daily Sentinel from Grand Junction, Colorado • 1

Wholesale woe (hike -A-0 KAXf'-Jpt z7L.ys: ywi wmse said prices rose for cotton, grains and fresh and dried fruits and vegetables, but added these gains were smaller than in February. Prices declined for eggs, poultry and livestock. It appeared that the winter weather was a factor in the continued rise in prices of farm products, but that it was less of an explanation for the surge of prices of industrial commodities. Fuel costs up Fuel prices, which had increased sharply in January and February, rose 1.4 per cent in March, which was less than half the February rise of 3.3 per cent, meaning that they were less a factor in the overall rise than they had been. The Labor Department said prices of industrial commodities other than fuels rose seven-tenths of a per cent in March compared with only a two-tenths of a per cent gain in February and the same as the increase in January.

Stocks decline Worry over the future trend of inflation, especially by businessmen, apparently is responsible for a poor performance of stock prices on Wall Street in recent weeks. The Labor Departments wholesale price index stood in March at 191.9 per cent, meaning that goods priced at $100 at wholesale in 1967 cost $191.90 last month. Blow to Carter There is no question the March price report comes as a blow to the Carter administration, which had been hoping for a downward trend in wholesale prices to reflect the improvement in the weather following the severe winter. Wall Street analysts had predicted an increase in March similar to the February price rise of nine-tenths of a per cent, but several government economists said Wednesday they did not think it would be that bad. In fact it was worse.

In addition to the substantial increases in prices of industrial commodities and farm products, prices of processed foods and feeds also rose substantially at 1.9 per cent. The 2.5 per cent increase in farm product prices in March compared with a 2.2 per cent rise in February. Sharply higher prices for green coffee, cocoa beans, tea and oil seeds accounted for most of the increase. The Labor Department also Grand Junction Fire Department investigators blamed faulty wiring for a blaze that destroyed a garage and burned the outside of a neighboring house about 10:30 a.m. today.

The house at 755 Struthers was occupied by Mi's. Ida Schrooyer, right, who registers shock at the lpss of over $4,000 worth of personal effects that were stored 4n the garage. Sentinel photos by Dennis Hogan Wiring blamed for blaze The Daily Grand Junction, Colo. ews line dye 'll IPs sedtor WASHINGTON (AP) The government said today that wholesale prices increased 1.1 per cent in March, the second big monthly increase in a row and much worse than expected. The increase was sure to fuel demands that the Carter administration take steps to counter a growing threat of a new inflationary surge in the economy.

The March increase followed a wholesale price rise of nine-tenths of a per cent in February and was the largest monthly rise since October of 1975. Farm prices lead Although prices of farm products led the price surge with a 2.5 per cent increase, the most alarming danger signal in the price report was an eight-tenths of a per cent increase in prices of industrial commodities, up from a six-tenths of a per cent increase in February. Economists look to prices of industrial goods as giving the best picture of underlying inflationary trends. There were sharply higher prices during the month for metals and metal products, textiles, apparel and transportation equipment. The Labor Department said prices also turned up for lumber and wood products, rubber and plastic products following declines in February.

Price trends at the wholesale level are eventually passed along to the consumer at least in part, since they represent higher costs to businesses that produce the goods consumers buy. If continued for a 12-month period, the March increase in wholesale prices would result in an overall increase of 13 per cent for the year, well into the feared double-digit range for inflation. Wholesale prices had increased 6.8 per cent for the 12-month period ending in March. Ex-FBI aide under fire WASHINGTON (AP) A former FBI supervisor was indicted by a federal grand jury today on charges of directing a secret mail-opening and wiretapping operation in a search for radical fugitives from 1970 through 1972. The indictment of retired agent John J.

Kearney was the first criminal charge to grow out of a yearlong Justice Department investigation of illegal burglaries and wiretappings used by the FBI against political militants in the early 1970s. Kearney, 55, was in charge of Squad 47 in the New York FBI office at that time and was responsible for apprehending Weatherman fugitives charged in connection with bombings. He retired from the bureau in June, 1972, after 25 years of Thursday, April 7, 1 977 Nahcolito mining plans announced 28 pages Newsstand price 15c Carter says trade for votes 'out' WASHINGTON (AP) Declaring that Im not much of a trader, President Carter said today he is not inclined to trade controversial water projects for votes in favor of his embattled $50 tax-rebate plan to stimulate the economy. Facing reporters in the White House press center. Carter said the best current information indicates a slowdown in federal, spending, plus higher-than-ex-pected tax collections would cut $10 billion from the projected federal deficit for the fiscal year that ends Sept 30.

I feel very strongly that this money should go back to the American taxpayer, he said. We need it for the economy to maintain its present strength and the only equitable way that I see is through the already prepared tax refund Senate opposition seen The rebate plan faces stiff opposition in the Senate, which will begin debating the issue after it returns from a 10-day Easter recess. Asked if he might relent in his opposition to 30 dam and other water projects in return for support of the rebate, Carter responded: "Well, Im not much of a trader. Thats one of my political defects for which Ive been criticized a great deal. Spring mailing due If Congress approves, the administration plans to begin mailing the $50 checks to 200 million Americans this spring.

Noting that the water projects are being reviewed within the administration and that he will assess each one on its merits after receiving a report about April 15, Carter said, I would hope that the $50 tax refund will also be assessed on its own merits. By PAUL HATHAWAY Sentinel staff writer RIFLE As predicted 13 years ago, the initial mining development of the Piceance Creek Basin may be for nahcolite rather than oil shale, if plans announced Wednesday materialize. A joint venture of Industrial Resources Rock School Corp. and Yankee Gulch Joint Ventures has announced plahs to start development of at least two nahcolite mines near the heart of the basin within the next 12 months. Superior Oil Co.

also announced that it is ready to go ahead with a $40 million mine to handle all three mineral in the basin shale oil, alumina and soda ash. Nahcolite is a white, naturally occurring mineral that is essentially ordinary baking soda. Millions of tons of it exist in the Piceance Basin, often in conjunction with oil shale and dawso-nite, a low-grade aluminum ore. Not for biscuits Nahcolites big advantage is not for baking biscuits, however. The stuff slurps up acids even better than the widely advertised product that soaks up to 47 times its weight in excess stomach acid.

Injected into the flue gas stream of coal-fired power plants, the nahcolite absorbs the sulfur dioxide and any minute amounts of sulfuric acid that may have been generated by burning the coal. Depending on how much naho-lite is injected or actually mixed and burned with the coal in a fluidized reaction bed boiler sulfer dioxide emissions from smokestacks can be reduced to almost zero. The acid-bearing naho-iite is removed from the exhaust stream along with the fly ash, usually by baghouse type collectors. Residents of the El Poso neighborhood will be getting city sewer service for the first time this spring, following action by the Grand Junction City Council Wednesday. The council accepted a bid from Leon Parkerson, a Grand, Junction contractor, to install a sewer system in the neighborhood that residents asked for last summer.

There is currently no city sewer system in the predominantly Chicano neighborhood, and some residents are now using outdoor toilet facilities. Other homes in the neighborhood have individual septic systems. Last summer, the council attended a meeting in El Poso, which translates liberally as The Hole, and heard residents say they wanted the system and were willing to pay for it. El Poso is located just east of the Colorado River and north of Grand Avenue. City Utilities Engineer Duane Jensen told the couifcil Parkerson should begin construction of the system next week and complete it with 90 days.

Parkerson bid $37,423 on the project, $500 lower than city engineers estimated it would cost. In other action Wednesday, the council canavassed and officially certified vote tallies from Tuesdays municipal election, which saw incumbents Elvin Tufly and Jane Quimby returned i 5 to office.and newcomers William ODwyer and Robert Holmes elected. Those council members will be officially sworn into office May 2. The council also faced, and resolved, a dilemma Wednesday over how to get rid of a piece of property owned by the citys housing authority. At its meeting three (Continued on Page 8) Carter defers breeder reactor work WASHINGTON (AP) President Carter announced today that he is deferring U.S.

development of nuclear breeder reactors, the power plants that produce additional fuel but could help increase the spread of atomic weaponry in the world. Carter said the risk of spreading nuclear weapons would be. vastly increased by the further spread of sensitive technologies which entail direct access to plutonium, highly enriched uranium or other weapons-usable material. The breeder is powered by plutonium and is so named because it produces more fuel than it consumes. The statement issued by Carter said the United States will study alternative designs of the breeder but postpone their adoption for commercial use.

Without mentioning the project by name, the statment appeared to spell the end of the proposed Clinch River breeder reactor, a $2 billion, demonstration plant planned near Oak Ridge, Tenn. Carter said he would also defer indefinitely the commercial reprocessing and recycling of plutonium produced by U.S. nuclear power programs. A reprocessing plant planned by industry at Barnwell, S.C., but now seeking federal support, will receive neither federal encouragement nor funding for its completion as a reprocessing facility. Prosecutor shot in W.

Germany KARLSRUHE, West Germany (AP) A gunman firing from a motorcycle assassinated West Germanys leading prosecutor of urban terrorists today as his car pulled away from a traffic light in downtown Karlsruhe, police said. The Baden-Wuerttemberg Interior Ministry said Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Buback, 57, and his driver died instantly and his bodyguard was critically wounded. Inside today The properties of nahcolite have been widely known for some time, but the technology has never been developed, or proven, until recently. And, until recently, air pollution controls have not made the expenditure for sulfur dioxide removal necessary. Expensive to build New and increasingly stringent federal and state regulations are now changing that, and more reliance on coal is expected to be a major part of the presidents energy message later this month.

So far, either nahcolite or wet scrubbers expensive to build and maintain appear to be the only viable means on cleaning up the sulfur dioxide. J.H. Smith speaking for the firms planning the nahcolite mines in the Piceance Basin, said the advent now of the off-the-shelf engineering and equipment for nahcolite injection and baghouse systems makes nahcolite a viable (Continued on Page 8) L. Free riders Bundy to stond trial for'imurder. ASPEN (AP) District Court Judge George E.

Lohr ruled Wednesday that there is probable cause to bind Theodore R. Bundy over for trial on a first-degree murder charge in the death two years ago of a Michigan nurse. Lohr had no comment on the case, except to say that he had reviewed the evidence presented at a preliminary hearing Monday and Tuesday and found that Bundy should stand trial. A hearing on motions is set for May 6. No trial date has been set.

Jail transfer Lohr also scheduled a hearing for Monday on a motion that Bundy be transferred from the Pitkin County Jail here to the Garfield County Jail in Glenwood Springs, where there is more security. Bundy is accused of the January 1975 slaying of Caryn Campbell, a Dearborn, nurse who was vacationing in Aspen when she disappeared. Her nude, frozen body was found a month later beside a rural road. Bundy, 29, a former Washington State Republican Party worker, was extradited from Utah, where he was serving a l-to-15-year sentence for the 1974 kidnaping of a Salt Lake City girl. Hair substances An FBI agent testified Tuesday that hair substances found in Bundys car were of the same type as those of Miss Campbell.

Gasoline credit cards were introduced to show that Bundy was in the Aspen area at the time Miss Campbell was slain. Bundy's public defender, however, contended that insufficient evidence was presented to indicate Bundy should be tried. He noted that one of the key prosecution witnesses, when asked to identify Bundy in court Monday, singled out Pitkin County Undersheriff Ben Meyers as the man she saw standing near an elevator in the Snowniass Lodge where Miss Campbell as last seen. Kelly LaDuke, 11, provides the bicycle power for skateboarders Jeff Brown, 13, and Daryn LaDuke, 13, on a concrete pad which remains from a fruit packing shed that burned some years ago. The Palisade youngsters share in District 51s week-long Easter vacation.

Sentinel photo by Bob Grant 4.