Santa Cruz Sentinel from Santa Cruz, California • Page 16

U-Santa Cruz Sentinel Wednesday, Nov. 25, 1981 Cold Turkey Family Survives Without TV PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) It was 9 p.m., well past the hour when one of the four television sets in Peter M. Hewitt's house would have been switched on. Hewitt, his wife Luan and their 12-year-old daughter Caroline were sitting back in their chairs, but they weren't watching TV.

The television sets were silent, and the Hewitts were telling a visitor what it's like to live without the tube. "I was bouncing across the walls at first," said Caroline. But now, it appears, the family is surviving nicely. The Hewitts are one of 50 families who answered an English teacher's challenge and agreed to unplug their television sets for the month of November. Peter H.

Hustader said the challenge was a "gimmick" to draw attention to his contention that television is retarding the reading and language skills of the nation's children. First of all, the family confessed, they cheated a little. "We watched the space shuttle stuff," said Caroline. Her father said the decision to watch the takeoff and landing of the space shuttle Columbia was reached after the family concluded it was something you just don't miss. But otherwise the family has embraced the challenge from Hufstader, who heads the English department at the private Wheeler School, where Caroline is a student.

Caroline, the couple's third child and the only one still at home, used to watch two or three hours of television a day, Hewitt said. "I like to watch 'General Hospital'," an afternoon soap-opera, she said. "I like to watch the 8 o'clock shows after dinner I even like 'Love Boat', even though I think it's so so stupid." But Caroline doesn't regret suggesting the family take up the challenge. "I'm doing more things now. My grades are improving because I'm studying more.

I'm reading more. I'm practicing the flute more. I'm cooking. I'm building a dollhouse; putting on the shingles and stuff." Caroline said the experience has made her realize how much she depends on television to combat boredom. "And that's bad, because television isn't a good way to learn.

Some of the shows even use incorrect language." Hewitt, a 55-year-old trust officer at Rhode Island Hospital Trust National Bank, said he misses television, and that surprises him. "I miss the Today I also like the Friday night news shows" on public television. Mrs. Hewitt said her husband doesn't really watch the "Today Show." "He listens to it while he's getting dressed and shaving." Hewitt laughed. "The thing I've learned is that television is sort of company for me.

When I'm alone upstairs I like to turn it on. I miss that and I didn't think I would." Members of the family say they expect to resume watching television at the end of the month, but with more awareness of how much time they spent in front of the tube before the challenge began. The bank executive said he "bristled" when he first heard about Hufstader's challenge. "I felt at first that my personal life was being manipulated." But he said he respected the teacher enough to agree to the boycott. Mrs.

Hewitt, 51, said she doesn't miss television a bit, and said the family was atypical as far as TV viewing is concerned. "We're readers in this family," she said. "Peter and I grew up when all we had was the radio. Television was never part of our milieu. I think the people in their 30s are more tuned into television." Brezhnev Ends Bonn Visit Conceded Effort Needed At Geneva TcaBks BONN, West Germany (AP) The Soviet Union and the United States should make a concerted effort at the Geneva talks to reach an agreement to limit nuclear weapons in Europe "at the lowest possible level," the Soviet and West German governments declared today.

(See related story and photo on Pages and 9) As Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev flew home after his first visit to the West in almost two years, the two governments said in a joint communique: "Both sides again explained their position regarding the question of limiting nuclear weapons. They consider it of great importance to continue the process of limiting and reducing strategic weapons systems." moratorium proposal he has advocated since 1979. But it said it hoped his willingness to consider missile reductions "is a sign that the Soviets are beginning to see the advantages of pursuing genuine arms reductions." "A dialogue is under way, which in itself is reason for encouragement," it said Tuesday. Secretary of State Alexander M.

Haig Jr. said he saw hope for "a new and constructive dialogue" with the Soviets on arms reductions. He said Brezhnev's reply to Reagan's proposal "indicated our message is going through." Sen. Charles Percy, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he urged Reagan to meet with Brezhnev next year because "the world is too dangerous for us to go any longer without a direct meeting." Both sides "expressed satisfaction" that talks between the United States and the Soviet Union are to start Monday in Geneva, Switzerland, and "explained their respective understandings in regard to the. connected problems in which they differ.

"They are of the opinion that the establishment of a balance in the region of weapons, which will be subject of the negotiations, at the lowest possible level, will be of great importance for the intensification of stability and international security and all efforts must be made to conclude the respective agreement." During his four sessions with Brezhnev, Chancellor Helmut Schmidt sought to explain the U.S. position to the Soviets and asked them to consider President Reagan's "zero-option" proposal to eliminate medium range nuclear weapons range weapons they have in place in Soviet Europe. Brezhnev rejected that, saying it would give the North Atlantic alliance missile superiority because of American missiles in submarines and planes as well as the nuclear arsenals of Britain and France. But the Soviet president in a speech Monday offered to remove "a portion" of the Soviet missiles in Europe if the West would agree to a moratorium on new European missile deployment while the Soviet-American negotiations were going on. Schdmit told Brezhnev a moratorium was unacceptable to the West.

He also said West Germany will accept the U.S. missiles if the talks fail. That commitment is causing Schmidt increasing political problems within his own party. The State Department said Brezhnev's proposal was another version of a from Western Europe. He said West Germany felt threatened by the growing numbers of Soviet mobile SS-20 missiles and warned his nation intended to support the 1979 NATO decision to deploy 572 nuclear-tipped Pershing 2 and cruise missiles in late 1983 if no progress is made in the Geneva talks.

But the Kremlin leadership showed little understanding for the American position, Schmidt told leaders of his Social Democratic Party late Tuesday. "It is more than clear that the Soviet leadership still cannot properly evaluate the intentions of the American leadership and its leaders," Schmidt told members of his Social Democratic Party on Tuesday. "We have, I repeat, tried for our part to clear away serious Soviet doubts about the credibility of the American position and of the readiness for negotiations of the American government," he said. Schmidt's spokesman, Kurt Becker, said the chancellor "has actually taken over the function of an interpreter" of U.S. policy for the Soviets.

That drew a sharp rebuke from Soviet spokesman Leonid Zamyatin who said Becker held a "false opinion" if he thought "that the Soviet leadership doesn't correctly understand the intentions of the American administration." Soviet and U.S. negotiators are opening talks in Geneva Monday to reduce the number of medium-range missiles stationed in Europe. President Reagan was the first to put his bargaining chips on the table with an offer last week to forego deployment of medium-range Pershing 2 and Cruise missiles in Europe if the Soviets would reciprocate by dismantling the 600 medium- New Revelations Insurance Industry Fights Scuttling In Sailboat Mystery Of Automatic Seat Belts By Reagan WASHINGTON (AP) The insurance industry is had been the No. 1 target of the auto industry. The automakers claimed it would cost them hundreds of millions of dollars to comply with the rule, and they loudly hailed the decision to rescind the requirement, made Oct.

23 by Raymond Peck. The price of automatic seatbelts has been estimated at between $50 and $100 per car. Peck, who heads the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, based his decision largely on arguments that there was no evidence that motorists would use the passive belts. He said they could be too easily disconnected and declared: "An unused safety device is no safety device at all." But the suit, being planned by the National Association of Independent Insurers, argues Peck too easily accepted auto industry designs for the restraint systems and ignored potential designs which would have made it difficult for motorists to disconnect the seat belts. Charles Taylor, a lawyer representing the insurance association, said the suit will argue Peck failed to adequately uphold the law on which the passive restraint rule was based.

The automakers "created their own loophole" by offering to equip cars with automatic restraints that could be disconnected "with a push of the button" and Peck did not challenge them, Taylor claimed in an interview Monday night. Last winter, General Motors Corp. submitted to the highway safety agency its design for the seatbelt it planned to install under the passive restraint rule. That design easily could have been circumvented by motorists not wishing to use the belts, Taylor acknowledged. Taylor said, however, that there are a number of belt designs available that could not been easily disconnected, including a design General Motors used for a time in its Chevette model.

He said the insurance industry estimates a usage rate of as high as 70 percent to 80 percent use if a properly designed belt were installed. waging a court fight against the Reagan administration's decision to scrap a rule that would have required new cars to be equipped with automatic seat belts. Representatives of an association of more than 500 insurance companies told a news conference that a lawsuit aimed at blocking the Transportation Department decision last month would be filed in federal court later today. The move will be followed by an attempt to force the government eventually to reverse its position on the issue. Lowell Beck, president of the National Association of Independent Insurers, said Transportation Department officials "acted on whims or personal desire" in rescinding the automatic passenger restraint rule.

He and other insurance industry officials estimated the cost of injury liability coverage could go up as much as 30 percent if automatic restraints are not required. The automatic restraint rule, which required that either automatic seatbelts or airbags be installed on new cars beginning next fall to protect front-seat motorists, SAN FRANCISCO (AP) False declarations are evident in the registration of the sunken sailboat Freedom II, whose origin was "laundered," says the chief Coast Guard investigator probing the accident that took the lives of two women. And the boat's identification number was "fictitious," apparently to obscure the boat's manufacturer, he said Tuesday. The revelations raise more questions about the mysterious accident Nov. 12 off the Marin County coast.

"I'm considering there is some hoax in here, but I'm not sure where," Cmdr. James McCartin, chief investigator of the Coast Guard's San Francisco Marine Safety Office, told The Associated Press. "The newest fact is that the history of the boat is mysterious at best, and it appears to have been laundered," he said. The survivors, Robert Dozier and John Paul Russell, reported they made shore safely after the 51-foot ketch sank in the surf with the loss of two lives: Suzanne Russell and Kristen Tomlin. McCartin said he learned Dozier and Russell failed to comply with a California law requiring that a fatal boating accident be reported to the state.

The men said the boat had been hit by a ship at the northern edge of the main San Francisco ship channel the evening of Nov. 11, causing the loss of steering and the engine and setting the craft drifting toward the Marin shore. But McCartin said, "I don't believe the boat was hit by a freighter." Attempts to interview Dozier and Russell a second time resulted in word that Las Vegas lawyer Gerald Gillock "no longer represents them they have dropped from sight," he said. "Under the presumption that a boat did sink close to shore, we wanted to find a boat of similar kind. Dozier registered the boat in Arizona, but there is no Dozier at at the address given on the registration." McCartin said the registration indicated the boat was bought from a Bay County, man named Michael Hayes.

But he noted Michael Hayes is the alias Dozier used when doing business when the boat was docked in a Richmond boat yard, he said. From the registration, McCartin got the Freedom II's presumed identification number, which contains a code pointing to the builder, in this case Hudson Marine in Collingswood, N.J. But McCartin said he was told, never made a boat of that number and we've never made a boat of that kind. We make 20-24-foot power boats." From this, said McCartin, he deduced that "the hull identification number is fictitious." Recipe Rustlers Foiled Rose Kennedy Hospitalized murder FROM PAGE 1 Senior Maria King said she cried after reading an account of the story. "It kind of makes me feel ashamed to go to Milpitas High, but I'm not," she said.

"We were disgusted that nobody reported it." Sheriff's Sgt. Gary Meeker said several students told police Broussard had bragged of the slaying and offered to show friends the girl's body. According to Icely, one student covered the corpse with leaves so it could not be seen from the road, and others threw rocks at it. night, according to a hospital spokeswoman who refused to be identified. The matriarch of the family that produced a president and two U.S.

senators suffered chest pains Monday night and was hospitalized after feeling them again while attending Tuesday morning Mass. "She's quite sparky," Hospital spokesman Ruth Hardy said after speaking to Mrs. Kennedy Tuesday evening. "I talked to my mother this afternoon and I thought it might make some difference (if I came to Florida)," Kennedy told reporters at Palm Beach International Airport after he arrived from Baltimore. Mrs.

Kennedy was admitted to the West Palm Beach hospital's coronary care unit shortly after noon Tuesday and was to undergo "testing, evaluation and observation," Ms. Hardy said. The St. Mary's spokeswoman said doctors hadn't attributed the chest pains to a heart attack. She declined to describe Mrs.

Kennedy's treatment. WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -Sen. Edward Kennedy says he will stay in Palm Beach "as long as necessary" to be near his 91-year-old mother, Rose, who was admitted to a hospital suffering from chest pains. Kennedy visited his mother for 20 minutes Tuesday night at St.

Mary's Hospital after arriving on a commercial flight. His mother had been sleeping before he arrived, but nurses awoke her. "Well, she's full of spirit and life," Kennedy told reporters after leaving his mother's hospital room. The Massachusetts Democrat then left for the Kennedys' Palm Beach home, where he said he would be spending "whatever time it takes until she's in good shape." One of Mrs. Kennedy's daughters, Patricia Kennedy Lawford, also visited her mother in her hospital room, and other relatives were reported to have telephoned.

Mrs. Kennedy was reported in stable condition this morning after a restful Rose Kennedy ROTKIN SAN MATEO, Calif. (AP) A pair of recipe rustlers made a mistake when they offered Pepperidge Farm Inc. a chance to dip its coporate hand into a competitor's cookie jar. The duo had asked for $24,000 for a dozen secret recipes for Mother's Cookies.

Instead, James Darrel Sims, 23, and Angela Darlene Robertson, 30, were arrested Saturday in a hotel rendevous arranged by security agents for Mother's Cake Si Cookie a 68-year-old Oakland-based company. Paul Wendler, deputy district attorney for San Mateo County, said the cookie caper began when a letter was sent to Pepperidge Farm's research department in Norwalk, offering to sell the 12 recipes for $2,000 each. But officials said Pepperidge turned the letter over to Mother's. A security agent traced the letter to Sims and met with him on Friday, without telling him he was not a Pepperidge representative. Mother's spokesman Ed Abram said he didn't know whether attempts were made to sell the cookies to other competitors.

But he said he was grateful to Pepperidge, calling it a "very ethical company. I think if more companies did that we'd all be a lot better off, and a lot of this so-called white collar crime would not be so tempting to people." During the first meeting, the agent knocked $4,000 off the asking price, got time to confer with his superiors, and then returned with sheriff's deputies to complete the transaction, Wendler said. NICARAGUA FROM PAGE 1 Neighbors, whom he said talked him into running for the council. He credited the Westside Neighbors in leading what has become a citywide movement to overcome political labels. The neighborhood organization, Rotkin said, is made up of "conservatives, liberals, Republicans, Democrats and, yes, even a few of us socialists." Noting that his expected election as first socialist mayor had been widely publicized, Rotkin said, "I simply don't feel comfortable with labels in our society." Rotkin, a lecturer at UCSC, said he has never considered himself a liberal "because they give away money and don't involve people (in the political process) nor a conservative because "the private market is no longer a free market because even in Santa Cruz its controlled by multinational corporations." He said he comes closest to a socialist "related to the democratic socialists at the turn of the century." The key feature of his philosophy, he HEART ATTACKS abuse and job and economic discrimination, should be aired in the public arena.

Repeating what Laird and Wormhoudt. bad said in their acceptance speeches two weeks earlier, Rotkin said he hopes the people of Santa Cruz "will judge me and the council on how we respond to the issues" and not according to political labels. The shift in philosophy on the City Council has been viewed with concern by city conservatives, primarily on the Issues of rent control and social programs vs. capital improvements. Both subjects were touched upon at Tuesday's council meeting.

Van Allen announced he wishes to bring before the council in December issues affecting renters. He said he shares the concerns of renters, who comprise more than half the city's population, about arbitrary rent Increases and evictions. And, on one what is expected to be many 4-3 votes, the new majority voted to approve construction drawings for a grant-funded Raymond-Uhden Street recreational facility, but rejected companion plans for the installation of water main replacements in the area. Rotkin urged that the federal Housing and Community Development funds should go to housing and neighborhood rehabilitation, not water department projects. FROM PAGE 1 On Sunday, White House counselor Edwin Meese III said no consideration is being given to use of combat forces in Nicaragua.

But, he said, the imposition of a naval blockade "would depend on the circumstances." Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig who discussed the Nicaraguan issue during his visit to Mexico this week, has heightened speculation about military action by repeatedly refusing to rule that option out. Haig has denounced the "drift toward totalitarianism" in Nicaragua, citing repeated instances of press censorship, suppression of labor unions and the arrests of several businessmen. He also has expressed concern about Soviet-bloc arms shipments to Nicaragua through Cuba and about Nicaragua's reported plan to create a standing army of 50,000 men. On Tuesday, U.S.

intelligence sources said the Soviet Union recently sent Cuba 17 improved MIG 21 jet fighter planes. They speculated the move could foreshadow the transfer of some older MIGs from Cuba to Nicaragua. Administration officials say Nicaraguan pilots are being trained to fly MIG fighter planes. Soviet-made tanks also have been sent to Nicaragua. Mexico has close ties with Nicaragua but also has been worried about the leftward drift in that country.

The Mexicans already have expressed their concerns to the Nicaraguans and plan to send a diplomatic mission to Managua shortly for the same purpose. The United States welcomes the Mexican initiative, reasoning that Mexico has more credibility with the Nicaraguans than does the Reagan administration. FROM PAGE 1 conducted in 20 clinical centers in Norway, the drug was administered between one and four weeks after the first heart attack. The health of the patients who received the drug was followed for a maximum of 33 months, beginning in 1978. Hayes said U.S.

use of timolol is not likely to duplicate the success rate in Norway because of demographic differences. "Even if we cut their death rate by about one-third that will mean that about 17,000 of these people will live longer," Hayes said. "Even if we can do half as well in practice as was done in the controlled Norwegian study we may save 7,000 to 10,000 Americans a year." Timolol is manufactured by Merck Co. of Rahway, N.J. It is available as eyedrops for treatment of glaucoma.

It will be sold in pill form for its new use under the brand name Blocadren. Timolol cannot be used by persons suffering from bronchial asthma. Its side effects include fatigue, weakness, nausea and dizziness, said, is "involving people in local decisions; I think that's absolutely critical." He said he is not an advocate of "big brother." Rotkin said he also considers himself a feminist, believing that problems long suffered by women, including physical.