The Gazette from Cedar Rapids, Iowa • 2

2a- The Cedar Rapids Gazette: Sept. 13, 1985 BOB GREENE Life on the road: Hotels and airports Editor's note: Gazette columnist Donald Kaul is on vacation this week. I otes, thoughts and observations from a brief spell on the road: A number of hotels have set up the 'Star Wars' defense system. And a local Rockwell unit has received a new $8 million contract. Money, page 6B.

CHAPTER 11 WARNING -Farmers considering getting out of farming should take a careful look at the tax problems that bankruptcy filings often entail, according to a Sioux City lawyer who spoke Thursday at meetings in Carroll and Waterloo. Farm, page 9B. DRUG HISTORY Andrew Carter Thornton II, a former narcotics officer and suspended lawyer who plunged to his death from a plane holding $14 million worth of cocaine, had a history of drug and arms involvement across the nation. U.S.-WORLD, page 1 0B. HAWK ROCK An Eastern Iowa radio station, of I cheerleaders and area record stores are getting behind a new fight song for the Iowa Hawkeyes, "Black and Gold," which is a Teal rocker.

Weekendl page 8C. Linn-Mar High school'students, complete with original costumes and a musical score, has drawn rave reviews from its audience, Linn-Mar elementary students. Metro-Iowa, page 1 4A. IOWA, ISU KICK OFF Iowa Coach Hayden Fry promises he will use many newcomers in the Hawkeyes' opening football game with Drake at Kinnick Stadium. Meanwhile in Ames, Iowa State will take on Utah State in its season opener.

Sports, page 1 B. LINDALE IS 25 Lindale Mall (then Lindale Plaza) opened its doors for the first time 25 years ago this month. Money, page 6B. PENSION IMBALANCE -Payments into governmental pension funds are growing at a slower rate than payments to retirees, the government reported Thursday. Money, page 6B.

AT ROCKWELL Rockwell International heads a team that has entered the race to develop GINSENG POACHING state conservation officers said Wednesday they disrupted a ginseng poaching gang with the seizure of nearly 100 pounds ot the valuable root at five Polk County locations. Arrests are pending, they said Iowa, page 4A. MORALITY COMMITTEE university of Iowa President James Freedman has announced the appointment of a 14-member committee to study the extent to which the university should influence political and moral issues. Iowa, page 5A. GORBACHEV REPLIES Students of Russian at Marshalltown High School have received a rather ambiguous answer to an invitation they sent to Mikhail Gorbachev, the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Iowa, page 5A.

KIDS PLAY A HIT A Fishy Story," a play for children composed and, produced by special "club floors" for businessmen and businesswomen who are traveling. These floors offer upgraded services. Often there is a lounge where, in the morning, breakfast and coffee are served so that the businesspeople don't have to go looking for a restaurant. In the late afternoon and early evening, cocktails and appetizers are served so that the businesspeople don't have to go looking for a bar. In some of these places, late at night, milk and cookies are even served.

What this has unwittingly done is bring back the memory of another kind of facility: the boarding house. When vou see the DOD GREENE Tribune Media Service MJ I 1 .1 1 By Dave Rasdal i Gazette Eastern Iowa reporter GILBERTVILLE Sixteen years after construction began, the entire link of Interstate 380 from Iowa City to Waterloo is open to traffic. About 3:15 Thursday afternoon Waterloo Fire Truck No. 1, the Telesqirirt, sliced through the yellow crepe-paper ribbon, helium-filled balloons filled the air and I-380 was open. The final leg that opened Thursday 21.9 miles from Urbana to Raymond not only completes the 74.6-mile 1-380, but it finishes Iowa's 781.5-mile Interstate system begun in 1958.

"It's a great day for Iowa as we open this segment of 1-380 and signify the completion of the Interstate system," Gov. Terry Branstad told an estimated 380 people gathered at the Gilbertville interchange southeast of Waterloo. Most everyone was happy with the celebration and the opening of the Interstate, although Don and Leona Delagardelle were somewhat somber. Thirty acres of their land was taken to make way for this interchange and part of 1-380. "I hope it lowers our grain transportation (costs) from here to Cedar Rapids," Delagardelle said after shaking hands with the gover-' nor.

The Delagardelles were a last-minute addition to. the opening ceremonies. Before the ceremonies Mrs. Delagardelle approached Iowa Department of Transportation Commission Chairman Robert Rigler and told him that this portion, of the inter-' state had once been their land. Rigler jokingly asked them if that had convinced them to get out of farming, but Don Delagardelle said it hadn't, even though the interstate did divide their Rigler thanked them for their understanding and said it was people like them that made this i possible for the rest of the people in the state.

During the ceremonies Rigler paid tribute to the farmers SJ i businesspeople virtually all of them strangers sitting down together in the lounges to eat and drink and talk, it reminds you of the stories you used to hear about boarding-house life and how friendly it was. I don't think anyone had this in mind when the business floors were set up, but that's what has happened. There was a dance club in a hotel where I was staying; a live band was playing, and the crowd was dancing away. A mother and father brought their little boy he looked to be about 3 or 4 into the club just to show him where the music was Coming from. As soon as the child saw the band he began to gyrate and hop, laughing all the while.

He seemed thrilled to be there there was total happiness all over him. His attitude was in contrast to that of many of the adult dancers, who were doing their best to try to look jaded and They almost reeked of boredom; the little boy who may have been dancing in public for the first time was exuding pure joy. To watch him was to be reminded of what dancing is supposed to be all about. America's airports are filled with all kinds of new pay telephones. Apparently the new pay phones are supposed to be a great improvement over what we had already.

These phones are festooned with buttons and instructions telling the user how to hook up with the different long-distance carriers. Some of them have slots running down their sides, so that credit cards may be inserted. Others have video screens that flash orders about how to complete the call. The result is to make the new phones almost impossible to use, at least for a novice. A common sight now is the befuddled standing silently in front of the new pay phone, trying to figure out what to do.

It's another case of. that was fine to start with. There, was absolutely nothing wrong with the old pay phones; everyone knew how to use them, and they worked great. Now in the name of "progress," we have this new generation of phones that look formidable and fancy and that people are afraid to touch. I live in one of the few remaining parts of America that is not hooked up to a cable TV system.

So the only time I get to see cable is when I am traveling. I'm hypnotized by it. All of those channels, all of those shows; everything I read tells me that cable is failing to live up to its advance billing, and that it really offers only more of the same thing we had been getting. But when I'm in a hotel room with a cable box atop the TV set, it's not unusual for several hours to go by without me noticing. I'll just keep punching those buttons and finding out what's on all of the channels.

I wonder if this is something that everyone goes through when cable is new to them? If you pay close attention in airports, you can tell which people are flying somewhere and which are arriving home. There's a look on their faces that tells you. The people who are leaving have a certain edge to them; they're filled with anticipation that might be positive or might be negative, but that is definitely there. Their eyes are far away, almost as if they're looking into the next city they're bound for. They're in a hurry.

The people who are returning home are looser and slower, almost as if they have just exhaled. It's not that they're sorry to be backjMl's just that they seem to be looking at life as sort of a board game, and now they have reached the square that says "Finish." Their dirty clothes are in their carry-on bags, their credit-card receipts are folded up in their wallets, and their lives now have a couple of more out-of-town chapters. Their eyes aren't so far away; their eyes are looking home, which by this point seems very close. For years people have been saying that America's downtowns are dying. But lately I've been noticing an attempt on the part of a lot of cities to reverse this.

Downtowns are being cleaned up and brightly lighted; there is a real effort to get people to stay around after dark. It's as if people have suddenly decided that if men and women are encouraged to hurry home right after work every night and lock the doors behind them, a kind of isolation will set in that is unhealthy not only for the individual people, but for society as a whole. Something is lost. i Dave Rasdal Gazette photo by Thursday to officially open Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (at right) addresses onlookers at ceremonies Interstate 380 from Iowa City to Waterloo.

The ceremony took place near Gilbertville. "I knew we'd Canney said after receiving the award. "Ours was made right on the spot." Cedar Rapids' entry was from Pizza 2U, which makes pizza in its delivery trucks. ') As the ceremonies progressed, spectators leaned over the overpass and motorists waited patiently for their first 'drive over the new segment of highway. When the signal was given, IDOT workers moved trucks out of the way at the on ramps and uncovered directional signs.

Some workers were still seeding grass and watering the ditches as the first cars drove along the route. Spectators on overpasses all along the four-lane highway waved at motorists as if they were in a parade. After 16 years, 1-380 opened. route, who gathered for the opening ceremonies, said it is worth it. Waterloo Mayor Del Bowers emphasized that this will now put the Cedar Falls-Waterloo and Cedar Rapids metropolitan areas in direct competition.

He also said it will attract industry to the corridor and then jokingly added that it will provide a non-stop route to the Waterloo greyhound dog track within a year. Cedar Rapids, however, won the first competitive battle Thursday in a pizza contest. Mayor Don Canney accepted a bottle of Jacques Bonet Champagne for bringing the best pizza to the event as judged by Patricia Keyes, a regional representative for the U.S. Department of Transportation who. 'was also a keynote speaker.

along the route- by Inviting the Delagardelles to the speakers' platform. "I think we should realize that some people made a lot of sacrifices for this," Rigler said. He emphasized that one of his most- difficult tasks as an IDOT commissioner was deciding where the interstate route should run. THE NEW section of 1-380 has interchanges at Raymond, where it connects with Highway 20, and for the communities of Gilbertville, Jesup and Brandon. It also completes the Vinton-Independence in? terchange.

The new segment opened Thursday cost nearly $41.7 million. That brings the total price tag for 1-380 to nearly $350 million. But community leaders along the Heroin ring figure sentenced; 2nd pleads guilty bution ring, who was in the Linn County Jail and had agreed in a plea bargain to cooperate with the Sage was sentenced to 28 years in prison on his guilty pleas to several of the counts brought against him in i connection with the ring. Lama, who had been kept in the Black Hawk County Jail while Sage was in the Linn County Jail, is now being held in the Linn facility without bail. He will be sentenced after the completion of a pre-sentence Former C.R.

man serving as ambassador to Morocco In return for Lama's guilty pleas and promise to cooperate in prosecution of other persons, the government agreed not to prosecute him on other charges and to recommend that if he is sent to prison he be placed in an institution, where he can be protected. Lama told Judge McManus that he brought 150 grams of heroin from Nepal and obtained the rest from someone in this country. Lama was lured to Cedar Rapids by Thomas Sage, the alleged leader of a heroin importation and distri The Singapore man, who was arrested in Cedar Rapids in July in possession of more than $1 million in heroin, pleaded guilty Thursday to four counts of a nine-count indictment in the case. Nuri Lama, 30, whose name originally was listed as Soh Sai Dong, the name on his passport, pleaded guilty to importing 150 of the 1,100 grams of heroin in his possession and to possessing the entire amount with intent to distribute it. He also pleaded guilty to two counts of using a telephone to facilitate illegal drug transactions.

The pleas were also entered in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids. One person was sentenced to prison Thursday for his part in a Nepal-to-Cedar Rapids heroin smuggling ring, and a Singapore man also linked to the ring pleaded guilty to four charges in the case. Jeffrey H. Stramel received a five-year sentence on his guilty plea to a charge of being an accessory after the fact by holding heroin for another person to aid her in avoiding prosecution in February.

In imposing sentence in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids, Judge Edward McManus recommended that Stramel, 1951 Higley Ave. SE, be placed in an institution where he can receive treatment for his substance abuse problem. Fall is for Planting mini i V-fciW. Linn Service Financial help with medical care Call: 398-3543 Shade Tree Special Marshalls and Summit Green Ash and Purple Ash COO Sappharo Elm 8-10 size JJ Former Cedar Rapids resident Thomas A.

Nassif, 43, is serving as U.S. ambassador to Morocco. Nassif was appointed to the position by President Reagan. The appointment was confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and he was sworn into the position in July.

Prior to accepting the ambassadorship, Nassif served as deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs in charge of North African and congressional relations. Nassif is the son of Claire Nassif and the late George Nassif. The family moved from Cedar Rapids to California in 1951. According to a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, Nassif and his wife, Zinetta, and their two children, Matthew, 13, and Jaisa, 15, moved to Rabat, Morocco, in August.

Duties as ambassador to Morocco include: serving as President Reagan's personal representative to the country, encouraging U.S. commercial interests and being responsible for U.S. citizens and government activities in Morocco. Nassif received bachelor and law degrees from California State University, Los Angeles. Upon receiv- Thomas A.

Nassif I I Nursery 4241 lohnspn Ave. NW I I FERN LEAF PEONIES Large Plants $JgOO EACH ONE ROOM $1995! I ADDITIONAL ROOM I I I I HALL Save $7.00 Sav $5.00 ing his law degree in 1968, he became a partner in the firm of Sands and Nassif. Nassif practiced law until 1981, when he1 became deputy chief of protocol at the State Department. He served in that capacity until accepting the Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs position in 1983. 8-5 SAT.

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