The Sacramento Bee from Sacramento, California • 24

£24 The Sacramento Bee Final Wednesday December 21 1980 £24 Th -1 FROM PAGE ONE AIDS Farm Fai oo 1 --a' '''i l' '1 I 4 1 f' 6 1 -Gattop atmoitilmitaikagootN 1 1 4 7 i io210 I '1 ov '7'4 4--000441W wkif INS 711 44404 1 iiN ''''ll 00 0 00 priations had totaled $23 billion to reimburse Farmers Home for past loan losses The $36 billion shortfall is in addition to the previous sum In its audit the GAO found that while the agency had total liabilities of about $91 billion the value of its outstanding loans to farmers was only about $55 billion leaving a $36 billion shortfall The liabilities were mainly in the form of the agency's debt obligations to the Treasury While some of the agency's loans are backed by land others are made so that farmers can buy seed and equipment and the chance for recovery on those loans is next to zero The agency also lends to rural firms like small equipment businesses Typically Farmers Home makes loans to qualifying farmers at below market interest rates so that its cost of funds is generally greater than the income on its loans In addition the agency is the lender of last resort for a farmer who does not qualify for a loan from a bank or a Farm Credit institution "By definition the borrowers are the least credit worthy and you better expect some losses" Wolf said Continued from page Al billion Farm Credit System "The crisis at Farmers Home is somewhere between Farm Credit and the thrift crisis" said Frederick Wolf director of the GAO's Accounting and Financial Management Division "People just don't realize how much money we are lending to farmers in this country" Wolf said "Congress is clearly going to have to deal with this problem next year" Next year $24 billion of Treasury obligations issued to finance the Farmers Home program come due Wolf said Congress has two approaches: rolling over the debt thereby prolonging the losses and not aggravating the deficit or appropriating a large sum of funds to wipe out some of the losses thereby creating a bulge in the deficit He predicted that most of the debt would be rolled over and a few billion dollars would be appropriated over a number of years to minimize the impact on the budget deficit Since the agency was founded Congress has frequently appropriated modest sums to cover loan losses The GAO found that those appro Continue billion Fa "The somewh( and the Wolf counting Division "Peopl much mo ers in thi! gress is with this Next yi obligati() Farmers Wolf proaches thereby I not aggra priating a out some ing a bulg He pre( would be lion dolla over a nu the impat Since Congress ed modes The Gil 1 annel '14h: 1 94 41' io--r ft ki 10100-- ie z- ortt: I I -4 i 47t 1: ri 1 141 kf oei kr----'-: Y' I 1 1 $--''' 4 lo 1 iA''' ti Arr ''''''4A'''I'si 1' Hift- t' A 't 1' l' i 4' 4 4' 7t1 's 4 i 4 et -7 i' -4 -0) 4 da I -gt 1r- '''s Continued from page Al ulation officials said has never been used to assist an AIDS patient in California to help make Buchacher's waning days worth living The policy gives lottery workers the option of transfering vacation or compensatory time to an employee suffering from a long-term illness thus allowing the co-worker to keep both salary and medical benefits Lawrence Bersano a warehouse supervisor for the lottery learned about the program while searching for a way to ease his friend's medical and financial burden It was May and Buchacher who had been hospitalized for brain lesions and pneumonia had a few weeks of vacation and sick pay left before he would be forced to seek public assistance "AIDS in San Francisco has become almost synonymous with homeless" Bersano said "When Phil was diagnosed with AIDS the first thing I thought is he would end up homeless" Bersano worked feverishlyo help Buchacher calling department heads throughout the state for adviceThen11most in passing a friend with the state Department of Corrections mentioned the cata strophic leave Tprogram and within weeks Bersarto had convinced lot tery officials to implement it Time donation form were sent out to employees statewide gifts of time came pouring in Before Ber- sano knew it 89 employees had turned over 939 hours of their vacation time just enough to keep Buchacher's monthly salary of $1300 coming in until Jan 21 One employee whom Bachacher and Bersano still haven't met donated two weeks Of vacation time "It's more than frioney" Bersano said "What it does is allow Phil to deal with his 'illness and he doesn't Change anything on his income" Robin Rogers started working at the 'San FranCisco headquarters a few days after Buchacher quit because of his illnesS Yet the office assistant still found it in her heart to give 40 hours of vacation time to a stranger in need "I think a lot of people are afraid to get close 6 people dying from AIDS" Rogers said "I felt proud to be working for an organization that did something and I was happy that I could do something positive" Office assistant CarolynGray said: "I wanted to do soMethinebut it just felt hopeless When thesubjecj of donating time was discussett I felt it was the best thing we cotild -do for Phil" I Now that We original donation is running out Buchacher's friends are planning another time drive next month Buchacher would need nearly 2000 hours to get through 1989 but his friends think they can come through again "Not all the employees were notified last time" Bersano said The catastrophic leave program is so obscure that Buchacher and Bersano have been hit with a deluge of interview requests "Good Morning America" aired a feature on Buchacher and the catastrophic leave program on Monday And on Friday "2020" will broadcast its own story on the program Buchacher is overwhelmed by the media attention "It's a good story instead of a bad story about AIDS" Buchacher explained But the constant interviews and the mountain of purple white and pinks pills he takes daily have left him physically and emotionally drained Buchacher said he will use his remaining days to spread the word about the program that has made life with AIDS worth living "The catastrophic leave program doesn't cost anything" he said "People are just giving you some time" Channel 40 in November 1986 when it swapped its interest in a Portland TV station for Sacramento broadcaster Jack Matranga's 20 percent interest in KTX1 But BMA always intended to sell both the Sacramento station and its Denver sister station said BMA president and chief executive officer Thomas Grant In October BMA announced it had hired First Boston Corp to help it sell both stations for $70 million to $80 million Tuesday Grant said BMA has yet to sell the Denver station "'We have: not received an offer acceptable to BMA for the Denver property However we will continue to evaluate the alternatives" he said Phil Keller president of KXTV Channel 10 in Sacramento said the $56 millioi paid for Channel 40 was "a real legitimate price" "If they would have had to buy Denver along with it" as intended it would not have been a good deal he said "Denver is not doing well because the market is not doing well It has nothing to do with the station" Channel 40 however is good television station" he said "It has a good track record and performance record and this is a good tharkerjr The sale price 40 could be adjusted upward by $2 million or $3 million to pay for working capital during the delay Matthews said Continued from page Al tion as a company that acquires stations in good shape For that reason he doesn't expect much change for the station's 85 employees "They've walked away from stations they would have to resurrect with a house cleaning That's not their style They saw this station they liked what they saw and that's what they bought with everyone intact" Fisher said "Our paycheck will come from a different place is all" he said Renaissance is a private company owned by Warburg Pincus Capital Co of New York and Michael Finkelstein of New York Neither Finkelstein the company president nor 4 a Warburg spokeswoman could be reached for comment on how the acquisition would affect Channel 40 Alex Matthews spokesman for BMA said Renaissance is acquiring three other independent television stations WDZI in Miami WPGH in Pittsburgh and WTXX in Hartford and New Haven Conn Fisher said the three acquisitions should be finalized in January "It's like I tell my people we are at the ground floor now" of a company that intends to grow Fisher said As one of two stations owned by BMA there was no opportunity for transfers or promotions Now "With the group that bought us their intent is buying stations" he said BMA became the sole owner of Continue( tion as a stations ir son he tit for the sta "They' stations urrect wit not their they liked what they tact" Fish "Our pa different Renaiss owned by Co of Ne' kelstein ol kelstein ti a Warburl reached to quisition Alex rst I BMA said three othE stations in Pittsbur and New the three nalized in "It's likE at the grot fly that int one o' BMA ther transfers the group 1 tent is buy BMA bE Associated Press ed a controversy by saying he supports a woman's right to have an abortion Dr Louis Sullivan president of the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta ignit :10 w0dP Mt i a i 1 1 i 1 I 1 1 I i I I 1 1 1 I i I I I Ch I I 1 I I I i I I I 1 I 1 1 1 i 00y40 Sti Ivan Deaths el conservativeS that he stood by his quoted remark on fetal research but said quoted position on abortion rightrdid not accurately rt pot his views' "We'd like to go forwarcOvith Sullivan" said Fuller "I think we're pretty close" Barbara Bush a longtime friend and associate of Sullivan's she is on the Morehouse board also was said to be pulling strings with her husband to proceed with the nomination Some GOP officials said the flap over Sullivan put Bush in the uncomfortable position of having to choose between offending a black constituency still skeptical about his civil rights commitments and disappointing anti-abortion forces and Christian fundamentalists who played a major role in his presidential campaign Charles Untermeyer head of personnel selection for the Bush transition said abortion probably is the most important policy consideration involved in the HHS appointment because most people see it as the department's top Issue All Cabinet members he said must reflect the GOP platform and Bush's basic views But he also left the door open to having Bush pick Sullivan with a clear explanation that the nominee's private views would not stand in the way of his public responsibilities Anti-abortion leaders flooded Bush's office with messages urging rejection of Sullivan A Sullivan appointment would be "perceived as a slap in the face to the millions of anti-abortion voters many of them Democrats who backed Bush in overwhelming numbers" said Jack Fowler chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee in Defense of Life "Generally among the various conservative and rightto-life groups in town there is confusion and thus concern about his possible appointment" Gary Bauer who was former White House domestic policy adviser to President Reagan and now heads the private Family Research Council told the Associated Press Phil Buchacher His friends are hoping donations of vacation time will see him through 1989 Coniinued from page Al back later to say that after a meeting with Bush signal? had changed and the vice president decided to hold up new Cabinet nominations at least until today There were indications that Bush still planned to pick Sullivan but was looking for ways to reassure anti-abortion groups that his administration would not ease up on efforts to ban abortions Bush aides reportedly assured anti-abortion groups they would surround Sullivan with strong anti-abortion officials at HHS Sullivan and Bush had conferred in Washington on Thursday Afterward Bush indicated that Sullivan shares his anti-abortion views The controversy mushroomed during the weekend when in an interview with the Atlanta Journal and Constitution Sullivan reportedly said he supports women's abortion rights but opposes federal funding for abortion He also told the newspaper that he favored research on tissues from aborted fetuses "I don't think the federal government should be involved because it's such a divisive emotional issue with such polarization on both sides" Sullivan told the newspaper But he also indicated that if appointed to the HHS post he would carry out Bush's policy on abortion Sullivan conferred Tuesday with GOP conservatives on Capitol Hill who began drafting an abortion statement for him that might defuse the controversy By day's end Sullivan had assured critics that he shared Bush's view on abortion that he personally opposed it except in cases of rape or incest or when necessary to protect a mother's life and that he would "enforce administration policy" the Los Angeles Times reported According to the Times Sullivan reportedly told the Continued from nape Al i V' )'-t 1 'il 1 lk olv I 1 Continued from page Al put up a struggle or that anything in the home was disturbed "His wallet was sitting on the dresser untouched Her jewelry was visible but left untouched" Sibbald said Officers did notice however that the golden retriever was limping The dog was examined by a veteri narian who said he had been shot in the right front paw Tasia 43 a native of Greece was a "vivacious woman" who owned hair salons in San Rafael and Larkspur Landing and was active in the local Greek community said Allison Pharis of Sebastapol Medeiros' attorney Bill 45 owned a video rental store in Petaluma and had recently sold a video store he owned in Novato Medeiros who is 18 and single arrived in Mann County Superior Court Monday to claim the baby But relatives of the Stephenses argued that returning Travis to Medeiros was not in the infant's best interest The court refused to give MedelFos custody agreeing with the county's Child Protection Services agency that the baby should remain 4 in a foster home until the court has Investigated the claims by the Ste phens family "1 love him very dearly" Medeiros was quoted as saying outside the closed court hearing I She was allowed to visit with the baby later Monday Medeiros "was very pleased" with Continued put up a St the home "His wz dresser un visible bu said Officers the goldei The dog narian NO the right fi Tasia 4 a "vivacil hair salon spur Land local Gree Pharis of torney Bil store in sold a vidE to Medeirt rived in Court Mon relatives that retur was not in The coll ros custod ty's Chit agency th 4 'In a fostel Investigat( phens tam "I love 11 was quoto closed cou She was baby later 1 Medeirt Economy the parents she chose to adopt her son said Pharis The custody battle has spoiled what was a warm congenial relationship between Medeiros and the Stephens family said Pharis who represented both parties in the adoption "Battle lines are being drawn and it's very sad" Pharis said Pharis said the Stephenses got to know Medeiros through a friend She said Medeiros got pregnant at 17 then separated from her boyfriend and decided to give the baby up for adoption She came to Santa Rosa had the baby April I and gave him to the Stephenses who paid only her medical and travel expenses Pharis said Pharis said more than 80 people attended the couple's "coming out" party for Travis Oct 28 at their two-story Novato home Novato police said their interviews with employees friends and neighbors have yielded no leads Novato police have been joined by county and FBI investigators Tax board member's records subpoenaed By James Richardson Bee Capitol Bureau seized in Miami $50 million in coke James Martinez Associated Press $50 I By Jame Associated percent rate estimated last month The first estimate in October was 22 percent Tuesday's consumer price report showed small price increases for food energy and shelter while apparel prices fell modestly after rising sharply for two straight months Grocery store food prices which climbed at a 109 percent annual rate during the six months through September slowed their increase in October and were unchanged in November as the effects of the summer drought continued to wear off Most analysts however expect hefty increases in meat prices to occur in late winter or early spring as a delayed result of diminished herds In housing a 18 percent increase in the price of natural gas about offset a decline for fuel oil while in the transportation sector automobile finance and insurance charges continued to rise but by less than in October while airline fares jumped 11 percent Apparel prices fell sharply on widespread promotional sales for footwear and for women's and girls' clothing The preceding increases were related to the introduction of seasonal lines the Labor Department said For the first 11 months of the year the price index covering urban consumers rose at an anval rate of 44 percent the same as tile rate for the 1987 calendar year Continued from page Al showing that inflation during the third quarter ran at an annual rate of 53 percent This was somewhat higher than last month's figure of 51 percent and was the highest quarterly rate in six years "This is a strong indication of a spreading inflation problem" contended Francis Schott chief economist for the Equitable Life Assurance Society "Inflation is creeping up insidiously though not acutely" The 51 percent rate in the fixed-weighted price Index reported last month was itself revised upward from the initial estimate of a 49 percent rate for the quarter in late October Since the second-quarter rise was at a 5 percent rate economists are contemplating two straight quarters of inflation at 5 percent or more "For a couple of years now the economy has been growing faster than its productive capacity" said Stephen McNees an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston McNees added that while he was not yet alarmed about the inflation picture history shows that "nasty surprises" in prices tend to occur when the economy is operating at a relatively high level The nation's factories are running at more than 84 percent of capacity the highest of the decade The Commerce Department also said Tuesday that :0 economy grew at a 25 percent annual rate in the third quarter slightly below the 26 vestigate his colleagues claiming there are links between favorable votes on tax cases and contributions given to some members Some board staff members have said they have been interviewed about some of those tax cases by agents including cases involving Price Club stores and the BKK Corp operators of hazardous-waste sites Terry Knowles FBI agent in charge of the Sacramento office has declined to discuss specifically what agents have been collecting However Knowles said agents have been trying to independently verify meetings undercover agents had with various Capitol figures A federal grand Jury has been sifting the evidence from a three-year undercover "sting" on state legislators and their aides The FBI set up at least five dummy firms to snare legislators into asking for bribes in return for help on legislation Using evidence from the sting agents obtained search warrants to seize records in the Capitol on the night of Aug 24 The agents searched the offices of Sen Joseph Montoya D-Whittier and Assembly members Gwen Moore D-Los Angeles Patrick Nolan R-Glendale and Frank Hill R-Whittler Since then federal authorities have also pursued tips on otkerr allegations oV'torruption whrth led them to the Board of Equalization The captain was arrested on smuggling charges Last Thursday customs agents conducting similar surveillance on the Miami River boarded the Haitian freighter Cha Cha and discovered 1941 pounds of cocaine concealed inside a fuel tank also stuffed inside duffel bags Four Colombian nationals were arrested in that case The federal grand jury investigating state Capitol corruption has subpoenaed the calendars and phone lists for state Board of Equalization member Conway Collis The subpoena was served at Collis' Sacramento office on Dec 13 A similar subpoena was served the same day on board member Paul Carpenter The five-member board rules on state tax disputes The Collis subpoena a copy of which was obtained by The Bee requires board officials to turn over to the grand jury by Dec 29 "records both business and personal relating to Collis' daily contacts and appointments including but not limited to calendars date books scheduling sheets dailyweekly planners Rolodexes or similar listings of phone numbers phone messages and any computerized recordings of like information" The period covered by the subpoena was for Jan 1 1986 through Dec 31 1987 Collis a Los Angeles Democrat has not returned telephone calls placed by The Bee since last week His offices in Santa Monica San Francisco and Sacramento are closed until Jan 3 according to a recorded telephone message Board member W)illiam Bennett has urged the FBI for months to in SETTING IT STRAIGHT MIAMI More than 6700 pounds of cocaine with a street value of 00 million was seized aboard two '(freighters that US Customs Service agents said Tuesday were intended to supply Christmas customers "We had a little Christmas party" customs spokesman Michael Sheet han said of the five-day operation The latest seizure came Tuesday after customs agents spent the week-'end staking out the Panamanian-reg stered freighter Santo Domingo Express They boarded it at a dock in the Miami River cut into a ballast tank and found the cocaine 4792 pounds of it stuffed into duffel bags "This shipment was designed to be brought in during the holiday sea- 1 son" Wwidrow Kirk a customs Lagent told NBC News MIAMI of cocain( million 1 i freighters agents sal to supply I "We hat customs FT han said The lat( after custo 'end stakin istered fre press The the Miami tank and pounds of 1 "This sh brought hi el son" Wo( Lagent told An article on page B1 Sunday about a $70 million bond issue for the Elk Grove Unified School District contained an incorrect cost The measure will cost $242 a month for taxpayers who were residents at the time of passage'.