The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • 151

1 4F THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER Wednesday August 24 1960 OBSERVER Wednesday August 24 1900 ke stio-iA th ke i ass 'Notch 11: abies' 01 9 ch 1 Jabies allenger itallenger By GREG TREVOR Catawba Vallee Bureau HUDSON They've become a familiar sight on the 10th District campaign trail dozens of senior citizens angry at Rep Cass Ballenger R-NC over the sizes of their Social Security checks More than 500 seniors packed a Caldwell County gymnasium Tuesday afternoon to rally for increases in their Social Security benefits Many were "notch babies" retired workers born in 1917 through 1921 who claim their benefits are unfairly low They want Congress to adopt pending legislation to increase their Social Security pay ments Ballenger a freshman representative from Hickory opposes the bill His opponent Democrat Jack Rhyne of Belmont supports it Rhyne criticized Ballenger's opposition to the bill during Tuesday's rally at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute "I hate to see an issue like this politicized" Rhyne told the crowd "I don't want you leaving this meeting thinking that all Republicans are against you The one who represents us in the I Oth District happens to be" Kathy Rogers of Asheville spokeswoman for the Southern Association for Notch Victims told the crowd: "Cass Ballenger does not support notch reform Jack Rhyne does support notch reform I'm not going to tell you who to vote for But if you put a man back in there who opposes notch reform then you're stupid" The notch controversy stems from a I6-year-old mistake in the Social Security law In 1972 the federal government created a new formula to calculate benefits for retiring workers But retirees born in 1912 through 1916 so-called "bonanza babies" received much higher benefits than the government intended In 1977 Congress passed a new law to correct the error Social Security benefits were gradually restored to their intended "I imagine they are going to be there throughout the campaign said Max Wale Ballenger's administrative assistant "If you stay in Congress long enough and vote with any degree of consistency you're going to offend some people" Ballenger was in Brazil on Tuesday and was unavailable for comment After the rally Rhyne predicted that Ballenger will change his mind and support the notch bill before Election Day "I think it's a good issue and I think we're on the right side of it" Rhyne said "I don't think Cass isn't compassionate I think he made a mistake and I think he should correct it" reale responded: "We rarely call Jack to set our political or legislative agendas" there Max tency ly and I that I sup-Day think said late I nk he I Jack 'Was" levels over five years As a result retired workers born in 1917 through 1921 receive less money than those born a few years before them But they generally receive higher benefits than retirees born later according to a report released in March by the General Accounting Office "I personally don't think anybody gets enough Social Security" Rogers said Notch babies have rallied against Ballenger across the 10th District which covers Burke Caldwell Catawba Cleveland Gaston and Watauga counties and part of Avery County Last week four notch babies picketed a Ballenger speech in Gastonia Rogers said Tuesday's crowd was the largest at a notch rally in the district this year Lincoln Detective Wounded Hearings Office Faces New A udit Over Its Spending ig Law Officer's Friend Charged In Shooting 1 I 4 4 14 1 4 1' ey 0 0 '1-: -10: 4 i Itt ot 5 -1: ik--: tirA ir 0 4 -it '-i--I -3-- 1 1 -0: e''' -4-y- -0 i-A -4-ri: l'--: Jr I Ili: --cE: 'it 4' 4 '''4 :4 :4 3' 4- 4: that review and Melott's request he was speeding up a "performance audit" a harder look at the agency that he said "would seek to uncover any mismanagement duplication overlapping and waste' While the financial review looked randomly at spending by the hearings office Renfrow said it found a pattern of questionable expenses The review which covered the 1987 fiscal year found that the office: Reimbursed employees in excess of maximum allowances for out-of-state travel' Had inadequate documentation to justify the need for out-of-state travel Failed to have an acceptable inventory of fixed assets such as office equipment and furniture despite a warning by the auditor's office the previous year go Reimbursed an employee for renting a car when the rental car agency also was paid Reimbursed an employee for lodging and subsistence when the employee did not travel overnight A review of state records shows that the office's employees have traveled extensively In fiscal years 1986-87 and 1987-88 the 37-per-1- son office spent $44343 on out-of-state travel During the same period the NC Industrial Commission which has 91 employees spent $20517 on out-of-state travel the NC Supreme Court which has 42 employees spent $18895 In the audit the auditor's office recommended that the agency comply with state travel regula- tions In response the agency said it A has "instituted written procedures for travel and reimbursement which will improve internal fiscal controls and accountability" The office also said it would comply with state travel quest at vould ig by aid it nable in ex's for ch as iture litor's for 11 car for the night ihows have years T-per-1- the sion spent I the as 42 )ffice ency gula- A lid it A dures ment fiscal vould gula- From Associated Press and Staff Reports RALEIGH State Auditor Edward Renfrow says his office will conduct a more exhaustive audit of the Office of Administrative Hearings after an annual review showed "extravagant" furniture purchases and questionable out-of-state trips Renfrow said the review found numerous instances of inadequate records concerning travel costs and purchases of furniture and office "Some of the items we found such as chandeliers a mahogany desk and state seals to hang on the walls were extravagant" Renfrow said Monday "The state budget manual says when you spend state money you spend it just like it was yours" Renfrow said "Some of the trips they took and furniture and fixtures they bought would have a hard time meting that test" Bob Melott director of the office defended the expenses and in a letter hand-delivered to Renfrow's office asked for an in-depth audit That audit will begin next month Renfrow said "Nothing we have bought has exceeded normal costs for furniture and equipment" Melott said in an interview "The audit will show that yes there are instances where the documentation is not in the form the auditor now wants" Melott said The hearings office which opened in 1986 is a quasi-judicial office that hears appeals from people unhappy with the decisions of state government agencies and boards The office has nine administrative law judges Last Wednesday The Charlotte Observer obtained a copy of the annual financial audit a routine review of the hearings office Such reviews ensure that state agencies' books are in order Renfrow said that as a result of By CHARLES HERNDON Gastonia Buruu Investigators searched for a mo- tive Tuesday in Monday night's shooting of an off-duty Lincoln County sheriff's detective Jim Ingle 55 a 15-year veteran of the sheriff's department was in good condition at Lincoln County Hospital late Tuesday He was shot in the right shoulder about 8:51 pm Monday A friend of Ingle's Howard Long of Route 7 Lincolnton was charged with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury He was being held late Tuesday in the Lincoln County Jail under $1000 bond "At this point we don't have anything on the motive" said Chief Deputy Barbara Pickens Ingle went to Long's home Monday evening to check on him Long's family had not seen him all day and asked Ingle to stop by the house Pickens said Ingle knocked at the door and was shot through a glass storm door Pickens said The 38-caliber bullet ripped through his right shoulder but was not a serious injury she said At the hospital Tuesday afternoon Ingle said he went to Long's house because he was worried about him "This man was a friend of mine and I was concerned about how he was" he said He referred other questions to the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) The sheriffs department asked the SBI to investigate as an uninvolved agency and because the incident involved a law enforcement officer Pickens said Late Tuesday an SBI investigator said Long 58 apparently had had an argument with his wife Martha Long and she had asked Ingle to talk to her husband The investigator who spoke on the condition that his name not be used said witnesses told SBI agents that Long had been drinking before the shooting etore the shooting Associated Press Mary Ann Schmitt (center) sits with her daugh- Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in ter Cecilia Marie during Tuesday's service at Raleigh Associated Irvice at Raleigh I Mass Said For Abortecl Fetuses Deaths Compared To Nazi Killings Aborted Fetuses: Martin Jordan Run On Environmental Issues 21 I 1 Family To Get Fresh Start 1 -I God that He gave us the opportunity to give a proper and normal goodbye to these 157 people" The hour-long mass had the look of any other Catholic Funeral Mass except for the absence of a casket and the presence in the balcony of TV camera crews The Rev Joe Vetter chancellor of the Raleigh diocese said the priest usually blesses the body but "we felt it was best not to bring the casket of fetuses in here because that would just make it more of a media event" God that He gave us the opportunity Continued From Page IF The fetuses were recovered by members of the Pro-Life Action League while they were searching through the garbage at the Chicago lab The fetuses were individually packaged and labeled with the names of the mothers as well as doctors dates and clinics The ones traced to NC clinics were shipped last week to Lucy O'Keefe an anti-abortion activist from Chapel Hill She then asked the Diocese of Raleigh to arrange for the mass and burial "The dead deserve a dignified burial" O'Keefe explained after the Tuesday mass "When you die and when I die they're not going to put us in a wastebasket There have been 25 million abortions since 1973 (when the US Supreme Court struck down anti-abortion laws as unconstitutional) and most of those dead bodies are rolling around in landfills We're just really grateful to Continued From Page IF The mass drew anti-abortion activists from across the state Ed Shiel a retired postal letter carrier from Morehead City said such funerals must be part of a strategy that also includes going to jail for blocking abortion clinics "Until we put our bodies and lives on the line we are not going to change this (pro-abortion) attitude" he said Columbia Mayor Reaps Publicity On Origin Of Big Apple Nickname Th rtrurT The rest Atinme snue 11etts HENRY EICI1EL The rest Adams is history The Fund for Renewable Energy and the Environment a nonpartisan Washington group in 1987 rated North Carolina's surface water protection best in the country and its overall environmental protection among the top 10 states in the country Environmentalists give Martin mixed marks They praise his administration's record on enforcement During the past 312 years the NC Division of Environmental Management (DEM) has assessed 334 fines worth $93 million for violations of water and air regulations and laws: during the last four years of Gov Jim Hunt's administration DEM levied 136 fines worth $14 million "The administration deserves credit for its enforcement record" said Bill Holman a lobbyist for the Sierra Club and Conservation Council of North Carolina But Holman added: "They've been very slow to take initiative on environmental problems and propose solutions' Holman faults Martin for not taking a more aggressive role in protecting watersheds managing garbage disposal and developing state standards for underground gasoline tanks Holman credits Jordan for supporting a ban on phosphate detergents and for working for a bill that creates a state fund to clean up hazardous waste dumps "Lt Gov Jordan changed the 7 climate in the Senate to ensure that environmental legislation was given a fair hearing" Holman said As lieutenant governor Jordan presides over the Senate As a state senator Jordan in 1979 and 1981 supported the so-called "Hardison Amendments" which prohibit state regulations from being stricter than federal regulations Environmentalists vehemently opposed the amendments some of which are still in place Since 1983 Jordan has supported repealing the Hardison Amendments Jordan said that in 1979 the federal government could be trusted to protect the environment But he said the Reagan administration could not be and that the state needed to be able to adopt tougher rules and laws By JOHN DRESCHER Rebell Bureau RALEIGH The Pamlico River which once supplied enough crabs to keep Et les Henries's processing plant humming no longer does so CZN Pollution in the river CAMPAIGN which empties into the Pam- 988 lico Sound near the Outer Banks has reduced the catch of crab and Henries's business With fewer crabs to process and send to such places as Baltimore Henries has cut jobs at his Beau fort County plant from 55 to 35 "I've completely eliminated the evening shift" Henries said "and I'm trying to hang on to the daytime shift It's taken money right off the bottom line" Republican Gov Jim Martin and his challenger Democrat Lt Gov Bob Jordan are wooing people like Etles Henries Environmentalists say more people care about the environment perhaps because more are making the link between the environment and the economy "Voters are beginning to understand the economic impacts of environmental protection" said Steve Levitas director of the NC Environmental Defense Fund a Raleigh-based research group Jordan on Tuesday attacked Martin's record on environmental issues "I say the citizens of North Carolina are suffering from a lack of leadership at the top in the fight against pollution" he said at a news conference Jordan said the Martin administration opposed a ban on phosphate detergents which contribute to algae growth that can kill fish lagged in efforts to clean up underground gasoline tanks and did not adequately enforce the state's auto emissions-control law A Martin spokesman said Martin had tackled the tough environmental issues such as reducing storm-water runoff into the lakes rivers and the ocean pushed for more money for the state's parks system and vigorously enforced environmental laws "The governor's leadership has been aggressive and forward-looking' said Tim Pittman a Martin campaign spokesman 1 I Continued From Page IF high above the frame of the house before being lowered by a metal crane About 10 volunteers including Wayne Gil leon sat high up along the skeleton of the 1200- square-foot home banging nails into the trusses "I'm not going up there only check on the kids once the floor's in" said Dawn Gil leon 28 scares me just to see them up there" The Gil leons moved to Morganton from Ohio in October to look jobs In Morganton and Lenoir rent was too high or landlords complained about their children couple said "In Ohio we moved so many times because of jobs Here we've been having trouble finding a house" Dawn Gilleon said "No wants to rent to a family with kids" The couple now pay $375 a month to live in a mobile home in Long View and Wayne Gilleon works for the Hickory Sanitation Department Dawn Gilleon first heard about Habitat for Humanity in June She applied for a house in early July Two weeks later the couple were selected Volunteers are building the $27000 home on a quarter-acre near Habitat's two other homes in southeast Hickory The house should be completed by Thanksgiving Habitat officials The Christian housing ministry offers a no-interest loan and requires the family to work 500 hours for Habitat Dawn Gilleon said that for the time her 10-year-old son Robbie couldn't wait to return to Long View Elementary now that knows he won't be moving again soon "The house is not built and we're not moved in but our life is changed" she sail to "I th to fo th cc th tii hc be or w( Ii Di ap se $1 PI hc hc Ti sa of (111 ho fir Lc he ag we ch to "It for the the one five plot said first he says Reading from yellowed New York Times clippings that he has collected for several years Adams especially cited one from April 22 1938: The article reported that 100 New York high school students voted the best Big Apple dancers by their classmates received special jackets from dance teacher Arthur Murray at Macy's "The jackets donated by the store have a 'red apple appliqued on the left pocket" The Times reported Until this week Adams had faced a lonely and uphill battle to draw attention to what he says is Columbia's rightful place in "the heritage of New York City" After a "Dear Abby" column in May dealing with the origin of New York's nickname ignored the Columbia version Adams and Creighton Spivey of Charlotte struck back mailing the columnist some of their documentation In 1937 Creighton Spivey had joined his brother Bill Spivey now deceased and the rest of the Carolinas group as they danced across New York City After the letters to "Dear Abby" Adams went on the New York public radio network That radio interview apparently triggered the Times article Meanwhile Director Allen Stokes of the University of South Carolina's South Caroliniana Library said "It may be provable but it would take a lot more research on both ends than has been done Historians sometimes decide that based upon all the evidence you can't prove it" In New York a Koch spokesman Larry Simon-berg told The State newspaper of Columbia 01f these people want to come up with their evidenctl we'd be glad to have them" He added "Barbecue would be most welcome but we'd rather have a couple of hitters for the Mets and just to be fair some pitchrs for the Yankees" By Columbia Bureau COLUMBIA It's been a big summer for South Carolina in the national press: first the Lizard Man and now the Big Apple is back in the news And just as the existence of the scaly 7-foot-tall reptile that a teenager claims to have seen in rural Lee County may never be proven so may it never be proven that New York's nickname originated 51 years ago in a nightclub in Columbia However that hasn't stopped Columbia Mayor Patton Adams from challenging New York Mayor Ed Koch this week to a bet: a 10-pound bucket of SC mustard-based barbecue against a New York pizza if Adams can prove his claim Whether he wins the bet or not however Adams is already reaping publicity for Columbia a city of about 100000 that up to now has probably been best known nationally for being the home of the Arrny's Fort Jackson basic training center So far Adams has given interviews to The New York Times the New York Post five New York radio stations and the NBC and ABC television networks "It is not a situation where there was any official thing done in New York saying We hereby name New York the Big Apple" Adams said Tuesday "But all of our research does not turn up any evidence that New York was known as the Big Apple before 1937" That was the year a dance troupe of 16 white Carolinas teenagers including Bill Spivey of Charlotte performed in New York a version of a dance that several of them had first watched from the balcony of an all-black Columbia juke joint called Fat Sam's Big Apple Club Fast and loaded with abrupt improvisations the dance spread first to Myrtle Beach where it was called "The Big Apple Swing" then to other Carolinas towris and up the coast 1.