Kingsport Times-News from Kingsport, Tennessee • 1

mmm rfcw- -r 1 imp 4Phm'P i -pj lr' '9 jaMlyl'H WMgi Kingsport Times-News £Jike tU you doovUefi 5 Sections 69th Year Number 327 Kingsport Tenn 37662 (C) 1913 Kingsport Publishing Corp Friday November 1 8 1 983 Price 25 Cents Baby Doe parents block government By BARBARA KANTROWITZ Knight-Rldder Service UNIONDALE NY A federal judge yesterday rejected a request from the federal government to see the medical records of a severely disabled infant whose parents had refused permission for surgery that would extend her life District Judge Leonard Wexler ruling in the case of the Long Island infant known only as Jane said there was no clear evidence that the parents or the hospital were discriminating against the infant because she was handicapped as government lawyers had claimed Therefore the government had no right to see the records he said It was the first time the federal government had gone to court over the medical rights of a handicapped infant The US Department of Health and Human Services contended that it had the power to review the records of any hospital that received federal funds to see if the hospital was obeying a federal law that prohibits discrimination against the handicapped case has an awful lot of emotional Wexler said as a judge I cannot rule on "It was a difficult he added if I erred a higher judicial court will correct my error If I erred a higher authority will say least he feel really said the father after the ruling numb It was certainly a pressure-packed decision for one judge to make but I admire him for making it I have a lot of respect for him are just praying that this is the end" he said Charles Cooper the deputy assistant attorney general who represented the government said a decison on whether to appeal would be made soon obviously thought that our position was the correct he said afterward expect that it will be dered surgery two higher state courts upheld the parents The baby was born Oct 11 in Port Jefferson NY and transferred that day to University Hospital at Stony Brook NY part of the state university system She has been there ever since and is in stable condition according to Gianelli The infant has spina bifida an incomplete enclosure of the spine as well as hydrocephaly or fluid on the brain and microcephaly an abnormally small brain Paul Gianelli a lawyer representing the parents applauded when the judge announced his decision after hearing brief arguments from both sides Detailed written briefs had been submitted earlier The parents were not in the courtroom The case has attracted national and worldwide attention since last month when a right-to-life advocate challenged the parents' decision in state court Although a lower state court or MHP Times-News photo Lorry Turner No it the startup of the Indy 500 but traffic was heavy yesterday after the ribbon was cut to a new section of US 23 West Stone Drive linked to Virginia Related story page 3A PLO rages Related story page 3C TRIPOLI Lebanon (UPI) Followers of guerrilla chief Yasser Arafat advancing against fierce artillery barrages battled Syrian-backed rebels today near a blazing oil refinery for control of the Beddawi refugee camp Claims by the Arafat forces to have retaken the disputed camp could not be independently confirmed because the relentless shelling made it impossible for reporters in Tripoli to reach the area of the fighting The state-run Beirut radio said the shell-scarred Beddawj camp just north of the port city of Tripoli was the scene of more heavy fighting today but gave no other details Officials of the Syrian-backed rebellion were not immediately available for comment major battle is now under way between our men and a combined force of Syrians Libyans and (Palestinian) dissidents The battle is around the an Arafat spokesman said today in Tripoli The refinery on the northwestern perimeter of the camp has been burning for a week because of the fighting between Palestinian factions The Beirut newspaper An Na-har today quoted Lebanese security sources as saying that 969 people including 385 Lebanese died in the two-wi ek campaign that forced Arafat from the nearby refugee camps and cornered him in Tripoli 42 miles north of Beirut Arafat his hand swathed in bandages vowed yesterday to fight the end" despite heavy casualties and a tightening siege by Syrian-backed rebels fighting to oust him as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization "Arafat is not giving up" one of his aides said today in Tripo- li Palestinian rebel leader Abu Mousa brought up extra tanks rocket launchers (and artillery near Tripoli yesterday increasing pressure on Arafat and his remaining supporters An Na-har reported today have pushed them back (around the refinery) and the retreating forces have left behind 12 dead and four knocked-out military vehicles" the Arafat spokesman said are in an excellent situation We have 95 percent of Beddawi and most of the hills around he said A Lebanese cameraman in Tripoli to cover the fighting for the British television news company Visnews suffered a shrapnel wound near the heart Arafat aides said is not my last stand in the said Arafat yesterday referring to the Middle East are 5 million Palestinians in this area and you liquidate 5 million Arafat whose hand was bandaged and marked with dried blood spoke to reporters at his headquarters set up in a Tripoli school He refused to give any details of how he was injured he said still mile section on the same road from the Washington County line to the Bluff City bypass Virginia residents have perhaps the most to gain from the newly-opened section of US 23 (previously known as state Route 137 and before that as corridor of the Appalachian Highway) means a great deal to us" said Bruce Robinette executive director of the Lenowisco planning district which serves Lee Wise and1 Scott Counties in Virginia plus the city of Norton Robinette said the road was most appreciated for its better access to 1-81 for Southwest Virginia Lynn Garden Drive with its four unsynchronized traffic lights truck traffic Farris also announced three other Sullivan County road projects that will mean an additional $12 million in new construction Dearest to the hearts of the Greater Kingsport Area Chamber of Commerce which sponsored the ceremony was the widening of the Wilcox Drive (state Route 93) bridge over the South Fork of the Holston River Bids on this three-quarter mile project will be opened Dec 16 The project will be a four-lane bridge The other projects are the widening to four lanes of a 53 mile section of state Route 34 south of the Bristol city limits near Bristol Caverns (including a concrete box bridge on Paper-ville Creek) and another 50 fruition" but he noted that the Alexander administration has spent $54 million on roadwork in Sullivan County out of $180 million spent on Upper East Tennessee during the period Farris said the new section through Lynn Garden cost between $12 million and $13 million though a press release he supplied put the figure at $15 million That release also noted that the Federal Highway Administration has authorized Tennessee to begin to acquire right-of-way for the first section of Franklin Road in Washington County which extends from the Johnson City Memorial Center Hospital to Walnut Street Tern tative bid-letting that project is set for December of 1984 By TOM YANCEY Times-Ncws Business Editor opening of a section of US 23 from West Store Drive to the Tennessee-Virginia state line is of a total renewal and revitalization of the transportation network in Upper East said Transportation Commissioner Robert Farris During ribbon-cutting ceremonies on the $13 million project Farris also announced bid dates on three other Sullivan County projects totalling an additional $12 million The hilly twisty mile-long section of four-lane US 23 cuts through densely-populated but unincorporated Lynn Garden In the process it bypasses Lynn Garden Drive including it four unsynchronized traffic Fights all situated on grades The new road has been joked about for its corrugated metal sound barriers (known locally as Wall) but there were only words of praise at a ribbon cutting ceremony yesterday Kingsport Mayor Norman Spencer said appreciate this new link in our transpora-tion and called Farris of Kingsport's and East best for his efforts toward road improvements Farris demurred saying he happened to be occupying this post when it all came into Nuclear future tied to Inside today Index our lethal legacy" Classified 5B-8B Column one IC Comics 9C Commentary 9A Crossword 10C Dear Abby 10C Deaths 5 A Editorials 8A FYI 4A Horoscope 10C NationWorld 1C-3C Religion 4C-5C Sports 1B-4B TV Insert Weather 1C Weekend 1D-8D dream more than a year after the first nuclear plant began producing electricity a reprocessing specialist from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory told a subcommittee of Joint Committee on AtomiCEn-ergy: have estimated that there will be possibly 20 chemical (reprocessing) plants (They) can be centrally located so that the shipping distances (from reactors) are not greater than 200 to 500 By 1965 the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) charged with promoting the growth of nuclear power envisioned reprocessing plants literally everywhere is not unreasonable to foresee a the AEC reported large nuclear power sites may have their own integrated reprocessing Despite the unbridled optimism its vision of a reprocessing plant connected to every reactor complex failed to materialize Nor did the more modest 20 reprocessing facilities anticipated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Only three commercial re- More oh page 2A col 3 Sixth In aeries eral encyclopedia of radioactive-waste management mistakes Reprocessing once the centerpiece of American nuclear planning is instead an economic technological and environmental failure Government officials predicted that reprocessing would profitably convert large quantifies of nuclear waste into valuable fuel and other byproducts They were wrong Scientists repeatedly assured that all the technological problems of reprocessing had been solved They were wrong Nuclear regulators promised that reprocessing could be accomplished without threatening the environment They were wrong In the end 30 years of promises assurances and bright predictions have produced nothing but a growing hoard of radioactive waste and new promises about what will be done with it In a way that was only to be expected Virtually every major claim made by government officials and scientists about the management of nuclear waste has turned out to be empty talk Back in January 1959 a little Related stories page 1C By DONALD BARLETT And JAMES STEELE Knight-Ridder Service (c) 113 The Philadelphia Inquirer The birth of commercial nuclear power in the United States was based on a single assumption that used fuel rods from reactors would be recycled into fresh fuel in a reprocessing plant (J It sounded simple enough The fuel rods which reactors would discard by the hundreds of thousands each year would be dissolved in a chemical solution Then the reusable uranium and plutonium would be recovered and fashioned into more fuel The lethal intensely radioactive liquid waste that remained would be converted into solid form and placed in an underground repository where it would be isolated from man and the environment for centuries Without reprocessing experts in government and industry agreed there could be no large-scale nuclear society Fuel rods could not be allowed to simply pile up at dozens of reactor sitescross the country are some problems in letting any quantity of (fuel rods) accumulate in Edward Bloch director of the Atomic Energy production division told Joint Committee on Atomic Energy in May 1958 Today a quarter-century later fuel rods are doing just that: Piling up And the assumption that gave birth to a nuclear power industry with more than $100 billion invested in plants and equipment turned out be wrong just onmore in the fed Weather Partly cloudy and warmer today with a high near 60 Continued cloudy tonight with a 30 percent chance of rain tomorrow low mid-40s high tomorrow upper 60s.