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ft I Bennin Weather Today, sunny, cool; Tonight, clear, cold; Friday, sunny, cool. See Page 6. Thursday, October 20, Vol. 81 No. 241 Bennington, Vermont Weekly 1841 Daily 1903 Reagan vows no change in Beirut policy WASHINGTON (UPI) President Reagan said Wednesday no one could feel more deeply than he does about the deaths of American Marines in Beirut, but he vowed the United States will not change course in seeking peace in the Middle East.

We have made great progess there, Reagan said of Lebanon, where a fragile cease-fire has been punctuated by sniper attacks on U.S. and foreign peace-keeping troops stationed around the Beirut airport. Were going to keep on what we have been doing, trying to complete the plan we launched a little more than a year ago, he told reporters at his first news conference since July 27. There had been speculation that a full-scale review of U.S. policy toward the Middle East conducted over the last six days might yield changes, but Reagan signaled no shift and even sharpened his denunciations of Syria for impeding the quest for peace.

Syrians have been dragging their feet I know the Syrians have been dragging their feet," Reagan said, suggesting Damascus has designs on Lebanese territory and blaming the Soviet Union for encouraging the intransigence. If theyre doing it with the idea of wearing me down, theyre going to be disappointed. As long as there is an overall possibility of making the peace plan work, were going to stay there, he declared. On another foreign policy topic, Reagan stopped just short of confirming that the CIA is acting to undermine the Sandinista regime in Nicargua and asserted it is the United States right to conduct such covert operations. Asked if the American people have a right to know what the CIA is doing, Reagan refused to discuss details.

But he said, I do believe in the right of a country when its interests are best served to practice covert activities. The president also said he will sign legislation giving final congressional approval Wednesday to establish a national holiday for slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. He would not, however, express an opinion on the validity of charges by Sen. Jesse Helms, that King was a communist sympathizer unworthy of such an honor. On other topics, Reagan: Warned Iran against trying to close off Iraqs Persian Gulf oil ports.

I do not believe the free world could stand by and allow the closing of the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, he said Declined again to announce he is a candidate for re-election, coyly suggesting he will make public his decision probably before my birthday. Reagan, who will turn 73 on Feb. 6, authorized formation of a re-election campaign committee earlier this week. Said he has no qualms about playing golf this weekend at the exclusive Augusta National Gold Club in Georgia, which has no black members. I know there is nothing in the bylaws of that club that advocates any discrimination of any kind, he said, noting blacks have played in tournaments there.

Expressed confidence that a nuclear arms control agreement with the Soviets can be concluded before the end of his current term, and said that even if Moscow breaks off the talks the United States will wait at the table. Lauded William Clark, his nominee to succeed controversial Interior Sectretary James Watt, as a very fine and able administration and manager who will carry out the policies Watt developed. President reviews economic progress Reagan, sounding very much like a man looking for another four years in the White House, opened the nationally broadcast session in the East Room with a statement reviewing economic progress during the first 1,000 days of the new course for America charted by his administration. We knew coming in (it) would be long and hard, and it has been, he said. His upbeat assessment stressed the reduction of inflation and the income tax rate cut he pressed through Congress in his first year.

A strong recovery is sending Americans back to work, he said. Reagan called on Congress, as it closes its current session, to join him. Let us dedicate ourselves to not taxing people more and more, but spending less and less, he said. Foreign policy and national security matters dominated the 33-minute session, in which the president called on 15 reporters, including two who tried to draw him out on the military tactics of the U.S. force in Iebanon.

Six Americans have died in hostile fire around Beirut since the president last faced reporters. Four more were wounded Wednesday. Reagan stressed, We know there are hazards there and no one can feel more deeply about the loss of life Asked why the Marines are not seeking more secure ground, Reagan noted they are part of a multinational force and their duty is to try and maintain a stability and maintain that airport and open it up for traffic. And airports just happen to be flat. Dr.

James M. Pollock, president of Green Mountain Kimball of Plattsburgh, N.Y., who said her father College in Poultney, holds a bell clapper stolen from proved his theory. She said he took the 10-pound the college over 100 years ago by a teenager who clapper to test his theory if you do something or take proved he couldn't get caught. The clapper was something and not reveal it, you will never be returned this week with a note from Mary North discovered. See story on Page 15.

Grenada prime minister is killed during coup 1983 coup to seize control of Grenada's government. A government spokesman also said on the radio that the army had imposed a 24-hour curfew and anyone caught leaving their home would be "shot on sight. All schools and businesses except for those essential to the running of the country will be dosed until further notice, the spokesman said. Our main task now is to defend ourselves against imperialist attack," the spokesman said. The three Cabinet members reported to have been killed Wednesday were Foreign Minister Unison Whiteman, Education Minister Jacqueline Creft and Housing Minister Norris Bain.

All three had resigned to support Bishop along with Agriculture Minister George Lewison and Tourism Minister Lyden Ram-dhanny. Earlier Wednesday, Grenadians legislative report sent by the panel to the full Legislature. He also said the panel never reviewed a recommendation to create a mechanism so the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees could jointly issue annual revenue projections. And, Reynes said a conclusion that we are high on spending but low on resources included in the report in capital letters was never discussed by the full committee and did not necessarily reflect a majority view. He said the committee was given a draft copy of the report after its most recent meeting, but never met to discuss the draft before the report was sent to the full legislature.

House Ways and Means Chairman Peter Giuliani, R-Montpeller, who has long argued Vermonts deficit problems mostly are the result of persistent state government overspending, declined substantive comment on the minority report. The majority report, speaks for 25 Cents King holiday passes WASHINGTON (UPI) The Senate voted 78-22 Wednesday to create a new national holiday honoring slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King and President Reagan said he will sign the legislation as a symbolic tribute. The holiday, approved two months ago by the House, will be observed on the third Monday in January starting in 1986. Four Democrats and 18 Republican senators led by conservative Jesse Helms, who charged King was influenced by communism voted against the holiday bill. Kings wife, Coretta Scott King, watched the vote with black leaders and blind singer Stevie Wonder in seats overlooking the Senate.

She called it a great day for America and for the world and pointedly said he will wait for Reagan to make it law. Helms, battling the bill on the Senate floor and in court, dug up decades-old charges that King associated with communists, infuriating some senators so much they abandoned the Senate taboo of never criticizing a colleague. Character assassination," Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, a fellow Republican from Kansas, called it. A smear campaign, said Sen.

Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. Moments before the final vote, Sen. Bill Bradley, stood to give a scathing denunciation of Helms and his North Carolina colleague, Republican John East. 1 hear their rationalization; theyre not against black Americans, you understand, just Dr. King, Bradley said bitterly, then ticked off their votes against extending the 1965 Voting Rights Act or the Civil Rights Commission.

I wonder how much courage theyd have in the face of an angry mob or the onslaught of night sticks or the fusillade of rocks or the threat that the next church will be bombed? Bradley asked. The fate of the bill in the Senate was never in doubt but Helms stubbornly refused to abandon his losing battle against the bill. His stalling tactics included a filibuster, a federal lawsuit and proposals honoring Thomas Jefferson, Hispanic Americans and Marcus Garvey, a turn-of-the-century black leader who said blacks should consider Africa their homeland and return there. The president said he would have preferred recognizing Kings accomplishments without honoring him with a national holiday. But since they (lawmakers) seem bent on making it a national holiday, I believe the symbolism of that day is important enough that Ill sign that legislation when it reaches my See KING on Page 2 The panel pledged to analyze state revenues and recommend a sweeping tax proposal by mid-October, so lawmakers could review the suggestions in time for action when the legislature resumes in January.

Ieist week, the panel issued a slate of "preliminary recommendations to pay off the deficit which it projected at $40 million by the end of fiscal 1984 within two years. Included were proposals to tax bank profits; raise the rooms and means tax by a percentage point; extend the sales tax to non-essential, or junk, food; tax receipts on video games; and scale down corporate tax breaks. The report said the package could generate nearly $20 million annually in new revenues. But Reynes, a first-term representative, disagreed with many of the specific suggestions. He said the fiscal centerpiece" of the committee report was a proposed 4 percent sales tax on junk foods.

declared a general strike that closed Pearls airport and stores, and witnesses living in the hills surrounding the capital reported seeing plumes of smoke rising from various parts of the city. The whole city is closed down, said one witness in reference to the seafront capital. Thick black smoke billowed from downtown Fort Rupert, the headquarters of the People's Revolutionary Army. Bishop had been marching to the fort with the crowd when the shooting began. The demonstrators, protesting the bid by hardline elements in the ruling Marxist Party to oust Bishop, stormed his residence to free him from the detention he was placed in last Thursday.

Radio Free Grenada, the islands only radio station, suddenly went off the air in the late morning. Employees later reached by telephone See GRANADA on Page 2 process charged ST. GEORGES, Grenada (UPI) -Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was killed Wednesday by troops firing into a crowd of more than 3,000 people who freed him from house arrest imposed during a coup by his deputy, Radio Free Grenada said. The government radio said the 39-year old Marxist leader who has led the tiny Eastern Caribbean island of Grenada since a 1979 coup was killed in political violence and three former Cabinet members died with him. Troops loyal to Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard opened fire on the crowd that freed Bishop from house arrest, killing at least four people and wounding 47 others, according to the Barbados-based Caribbean Broadcasting Corp.

Quoting sources in Grenada 150 miles to the west, the report said as many as 11 people may have been killed in the shooting. Last week, Coard, a hardliner who favors closer ties with Moscow, led a Byp ass of By KEVIN GODDARD MONTPELIER (UPI) A slate of proposals for balancing Vermonts books, issued last week by the House Ways and Means Committee, was actually prepared before the committee drafted recommendations and included suggestions never discussed by the full panel, a member charged Wednesday. Rep. Stephen Reyncs, D-North Pomfret, said in a 16-page minority opinion that an Oct. 12 House Ways and Means report was at a serious bypass of the public legislative process.

"It is worthwhile to bear in mind that although the committee appear(s) to reflect a unanimous view, no formal vote was taken by the committee on any particular tax, or on the report, or on any other issue, he wrote. Reynes said a proposal to require a statutory limit on growth of government spending was never discussed by the tax-writing-committee, even though it was recommended in the Sanders blasts Reagan on undeclared CIA tear BURLINGTON (UPI) Mayor Bernard Sanders, a self-described socialist, has written to President Reagan to protest what he described as an undeclared CIA war in central America. In the strongest possible terms, I urge you to stop the CIA war against the people of Nicaragua and allow them to develop their independent nation as best they can, he said in a letter dated Oct. 17 and distributed to news agencies Wednesday. "At a time when your administration has imposed horrendous cutbacks to the American I am appalled that you are using taxpayers money to destroy the government of a small nation.

Sanders said in the letter written on his official letterhead that the Reagan administration is attempting to destabilize the Sandinista government through CIA bombings" of oil storage depots and industrial targets. Meanwhile, a second Burlington official this week turned his attention away from municipal affairs to criticize Reagan administration foreign policy. Alderman Terry Bouricius recently returned from a nine day factfinding trip to Nicaragua and Honduras. He said Wednesday the trip organized by a coalition of church and peace groups gave hime a thorough first-hand Understanding of the situation. Bouricius said the Sandinista government has a very Impressive commitment to the countrys poor, and labeled "unforgiveable the use of U.S.

money to undermine the government. itself, he said. Mr. Reynes is a minority of one. He is free to articulate his own tax philsophy in any way he sees fit." House Speaker Stephan Morse, R-Newfane, said he had discussed the issue with Reynes, but had not seen the minority report and declined comment.

However, Morse said he hopes to have tax-hike recommendations drafted into proposed legislation and open discussion between opposing factions before the Legislature convenes in January. The committee, which traditionally originates all measures to raise state revenues, has been the focus of attention since mid-summer, when it refused to author a tax-hike package fdr a special legislative session called in response to a $30 million fiscal 1983 state budget deficit. Giuliani said at the time a more comprehensive tax restructuring was needed to pay off the largest budget deficit in Vermont history. ft.