The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • 13

ttHp lb Foremost Newspaper of the Carolinas Tuesday August 17 1982 Home Delivery Assistance 379-6666 6:30 pm Place A Classified Ad 377-5555 Price: 25c Politically Columbus Is A County With A Past into politicians protecting hinge on a few votes and participants are often reluctant to let the ballot boxes out of their control When results of a July 27 runoff election were disputed for example the Columbus County Elections Board wanted to lock up the ballots The contestants demanded their own security measures The solution: The ballots were locked into a Columbus County Jail cell with three padlocks Each of the interested parties controlled See IN LOCAL Page 3A By KATHERINE WHITE And KEN ALLEN Observer Raleigh Bureau WHITEVILLE Columbus County had been rife with tales of political intrigue and possible corruption for years before last month's arrests in a federal undercover operation there That investigation called ColCor for Columbus County corruption resulted in 21 arrests including a judge a legislator a po-lice chief and a county commissioner Charges against all 21 include interstate theft drug lumbus County is an outgrowth according to residents and outside observers of the particularly brutal brand of politics practiced in this mostly rural county of 51000 where disputes often are settled out of court and sometimes outside the law Columbus has been a Democratic county since Reconstruction's end and most of its political feuds are intraparty strife with the general election a poor second to the primary in interest and importance Hotly contested elections might dealing bribery and conspiracy US Attorney Sam Currin says ColCor started out after one of the things Columbus County is most famous for political corruption and just grew "Then you run into politicians protecting gambling and drugs and you can't ignore it" Currin said But the original reason for being in Columbus County is still there Currin says "We're looking into vote buying as a part of ColCor We've encountered vote buying in ColCor and have also Minor Points Delay PLO Evacuation By THOMAS FRIEDMAN New York Times BEIRUT Lebanon The differences blocking a final agreement among Israel Lebanon and the PLO on an evacuation of the Palestinian guerrillas are relatively minor and should be resolved shortly Lebanese Prime Minister Chefik Wazzan said Monday He predicted "implementation" of the PLO withdrawal from West Beirut would begin this weekend at the latest Wazzan's statements followed his briefing from US special envoy Philip Habib who returned to Beirut Monday to resolve the remaining differences Wazzan said "Differences have now narrowed to the point ere they have almost disappeared" He added that the Lebanese cabinet which canceled its session last Reunited: This was the moment of other for 40 years after being after screaming recognition while reunion Monday at CharlotteDoug- adopted as children from a Wisconsin brother Dick LeBeau embraces his las International Airport for three sis- orphanage Mary Barrett (right) and tearful sister Mary Dittman See ters and a brother lost from each Patricia Kurt (left) look at each other Kays Gary's column on Page IB dr rugs and you can Sam Currin US attorney trict is basically the eastern third of the state The possible corruption in Co- Observer Pholo by BILL BIlLINGS In contrast with previous speeches the president refrained from attacking the "tax and'ta spend and spend" policies of the Democratic Party In their responses after Reagan's speech two Democrats Sen David Boren of Oklahoma and Rep Thomas Foley of Washington answered Reagan with conciliatory remarks of their own "Now we are faced with a tax bill that has both good and bad provisions" said Boren "Each member of Congress will have to strike the balance and vote for or against it as one package" This was as far as he was willing to go in support of the measure Bill Votes By the time the conferees reached the cigarette tax early Sunday morning Martin said he and Rep Carroll Campbell R-SC had rounded up two dozen tobacco state House members who said they would vote for the entire package if the cigarette tax increase were reduced or eliminated In addition the Reagan administration the Treasury Department and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Bob Dole R-Kan all supported a reduction in See MARTIN Page 4A Reagan Urges Support For Tax Bill You run gam bling md norc it run into vote buying all over the Eastern District" The eastern federal judicial dis members Some Democrats have suggested that he might need at least that many to win passage of the bill Monday night Reagan denounced any suggestion that the bill was the "greatest single tax increase in history" and said the legislation was mostly a matter of "raising revenue from those who are not now paying their fair share" "Possibly it could be called the greatest tax reform in history" Reagan said "but it absolutely does not represent any reversal of policy or philosophy on the part of this administration or this president" state members of Congress oppose such an increase because it is expected to cut cigarette consumption by 5 and thereby reduce demand for tobacco from NC farmers who grow most of the country's tobacco Tobacco brings more than $16 billion to North Carolina each year Martin has been stressing for weeks that while the Republican-controlled Senate initiated the package it was the Democrats in the House who were protecting it in the hopes of making political hay Driver Education Hits The Airwaves Carolina Living Page 10A Partly Cloudy Partly cloudy today and tonight Highs will be in the upper 80s Lows will be in the mid-608 Details Pg 16B By STEVEN WEISMAN New York Times WASHINGTON President Reagan appealed Monday night to Republicans as well as Democrats to put aside partisan misgivings and support a $983 billion tax bill he described as distasteful but essential to achieving an economic recovery "I am told by many that this bill is not politically popular and it may not be" Reagan said in a television address "Why then do I support it?" the president went on "I support it because it's right for America I support it because it's fair I support it because it will when com (lines House Leaders For Blocking Compromise Martin: Cigarette Tax To Cost week would have its regular Wednesday meeting The cabinet is expected to designate the evacuation day and officially request the participation of French American and Italian troops in the multinational peacekeeping force that will oversee the PLO withdrawal After his meeting with Habib the prime minister went into consultation with Palestinian officials to try to iron out the last sticking points between them and the Israelis The director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry David Kimche arrived in Baabda a Beirut suburb Monday morning and said he planned to stay as long as necessary to expedite a final accord An official directly involved in the negotiations indicated that Israeli concessions Sunday left only three relatively minor points of difference to be settled: Israel is demanding that before the PLO leaves West Beirut it turn over an Israeli pilot shot down over southern Lebanon in the early days of the war Capt Aharon Ahiaz as well as the remains of nine Israeli soldiers missing in action since the 1978 Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon PLO officials said there would be "no problem whatsoever" about turning over the pilot and indicated that they knew where some and possibly all of the nine missing Israeli soldiers were buried in southern Lebanon PLO spokesman Mahmoud La-badi said this could be done as "soon as the Israelis want" adding however that it should be handled through the Israeli and Palestinian delegations to the International Committee of the Red Cross Labadi said the PLO would demand some of the "thousands" of Palestinians now being held in Israeli prisons as part of the prisoner exchange The withdrawal of Syrian See MINOR Page 4A Last year she led a successful effort to pass the Uniform Child Custody Act which coordinates child-custody matters among states Jensen is a state-licensed emergency foster parent who Jensen is given tempo rary custody of abused and ne glected children During the past few months Jensen was assigned by probate judges as administrator of the estates of the children though she never was a foster parent to them She filed the first of the lawsuits In US District Court July 2 the remaining five were filed Monday Lawsuits in at least two other child-abuse and neglect cases will likely be filed against DSS within the next few weeks she said rr i i I- fh Panel OKs $178 Billion For Military By RUDY ABRAMSON les Aneetes Times WASHINGTON House and Senate negotiators Monday approved compromise legislation authorizing the Defense Department to spend $173 billion in the next fiscal year more than half of it for new weapons and research on such exotic arms as space-based lasers Although they reversed themselves and eliminated a controversial request for money for chemical weapons the conferees generally followed the Reagan administration's proposals for modernizing the nation's arsenal The compromise agreed on after 10 days of intense closed-door debate would authorize more money than either the House or Senate previously approved It now goes to the floors of both chambers for final approval In July the House authorized Pentagon expenditures of $1753 billion compared with $1779 billion approved by the Senate last May Congressional sources predicted that such controversial issues as the MX missile and nuclear aircraft carriers will be fought out again when Congress takes up legislation to appropriate defense money The authorizing legislation merely sets spending limits before the appropriations process begins Sen John Tower R-Tex chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee expressed satisfaction with the compromise saying "The bill represents a continua- See PANEL Page 4A Jensen is suing DSS on behalf of the dead children and is asking that money be awarded to the children's relatives except those who caused the deaths The lawsuits do not ask for a specific amount of money DSS attorney Stanley Kohn said the agency can't comment on lawsuits in litigation The suits are apparently the first ever filed against DSS alleging negligence in the deaths of children Kohn said While the circumstances differ in each case in all six DSS had investigated the children's parents for abuse or neglect before the deaths occurred And in each case one or both of the parents later pleaded guilty or was convicted for the child's death In three of the cases DSS had removed the children from their homes and placed them with foster parents but later allowed their return Jensen alleges in those Sec SC SOCIAL Page 4A By STEPHEN KELLY Observer Washington Bureau WASHINGTON Rep Jim Martin R-NC Monday charged that the House Democratic leadership effectively blocked last-ditch efforts to defeat a proposed doubling of federal cigarette tctX6S As a result Martin predicted that a package of $983 billion in new taxes strongly backed by President Reagan stood a poor chance of passage in the House and perhaps in the Senate as well "I expect there will be very few votes for this package from bined with our cuts in government spending reduce interest rates and put more Americans back to work again" Reagan's speech his first televised presidential address advocating increases not reductions in taxes came as White House aides and congressional leaders alike predicted a close vote on the legislation in the Republican-controlled Senate and especially the Democratic-controlled House All sides said the president had failed so far in surmounting the revolt among conservative Republicans in the House where he was deemed unlikely to win support of even half the 192 Republican the Southeastern United States" said Martin who said that with a few compromises the support of at least a dozen tobacco state House members could have been assured Martin was an observer to the weekend work of a House-Senate conference committee that was hashing out a tax package designed to ease the federal deficit over the next three years Included in that package was a Senate provision doubling the current 8-cent-a-pack federal cigarette tax Martin and most other tobacco Steve Neal of North Carolina both Democrats said they would join the suit Moore noting that lawyers had been given instructions Monday morning to prepare the legal papers said his goal was to line up a balanced bipartisan group of 14 plaintiffs Until now a Reagan loyalist Moore said that unlike some conservatives he does not oppose raising taxes now nor does he want to break with Reagan politically But he stated he felt on principle the federal courts should be asked to reassert constitutional procedures with a declaratory judgment against the tax bill The representatives contend they must sue now before the bill becomes law on the ground that as members of the House they have been denied their constitutional rights If their suit wins but the bill passes taxpayers could later sue to prevent collection of taxes under the bill SC Social Services Department Sued In Deaths Of 6 Children Lawmakers Challenge Tax Bill's Legality By SCOTT FLANDER Observer Lancaster Bureau COLUMBIA A court-appointed estate administrator sued the SC Department of Social Services (DSS) Monday for allegedly mishandling child-abuse cases that led to the deaths of six children since 1976 Karole Jensen 36 of Myrtle Beach charged in the lawsuits that the agency was negligent in failing to protect the children who lived in five SC counties "I'm tired of this big bureaucracy not looking out for the needs of children" said Jensen who described herself as a child advocate "DSS did not act fast enough or appropriately Now these children are dead" She said DSS is primarily concerned with administering Medicaid Medicare and food stamps "Children are not a priority with DSS" said Jensen who worked with citizen committees that helped draft the SC Child Protection Act of 1977 From New York Times And Observer Washington Bureau Reports WASHINGTON A bipartisan group of congressmen including two from North Carolina has decided to sue this week to challenge the constitutionality of the $983 billion tax bill before Congress Under the Constitution the House is supposed to initiate tax legislation But the Senate drew up the current tax package which the House never formally reviewed Rep Henson Moore R-La said Monday that despite pressures from the White House and the House Republican leadership and the personal disapproval of President Reagan he would take the lead in suing in federal court before the scheduled vote on the tax bill Thursday Reps Jim Martin of North Carolina and Philip Crane of Illinois both Republicans and Carroll Hubbard Jr of Kentucky and Index Business 8A Movies 16A Classified 5B Obituaries 53 Comics 14B People 16B Editorial 18A Sports 13A Landers -12A TV Listing 17A Living 10A What's On18B Young Observer 15B Contents (C) 1962 The Charlotte Observer.