The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • 12

12A THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER Saturday March 22 1986 Reagan Aides Staying On Sidelines Of Deficit Talks Continued From Page 1A possible adding that any com promises at this point would mean settling for less military spending and more taxes Still the strategy is a sharp reversal from past form In previous years former budget dlrec- tor David Stockman spent much of his time on Capitol Hill bargaining with lawmakers over virtually every aspect of the budget By design successor James Miller has been much less visible in Congress One administration official argued too early to criticize the new stance what Stockman negotiated last year almost the official said But the success of this year's strategy remains to be seen In the Senate at least the hands-off strategy has helped spawn an unusual cooperation between Republicans and Democrats In fact members of the Senate Budget Committee both Republicans and Democrats appear to be lining up against the White House This was most vividly demonstrated when the Republican-controlled committee produced a 1987 budget plan last Wednesday that substantially reordered the priorities The plan proposes spending $25 billion less on defense than request recommends a tax increase three times larger than the $6 billion in Reagan's budget and preserves most of the domestic programs he sought to eliminate And unlike the past budget measures this one has bipartisan support It was drafted by the chairman Sen Pete Domenici R-NM and the top Democrat Lawton Chiles of Florida think the fact they (White House officials) were not involved in the process is why Pete decided to work on a bipartisan basis" Chiles said "And the longer they stay on the sidelines the more that will Chiles said he thinks the administration is misreading Congress if it feels it can hold out and win a better budget deal The reason he said is the Gramm-Rud-man-Hollings balanced budget law which requires a 1987 deficit no larger than $144 billion Failure by Congress to meet the target would result in automatic spending cuts in October just a month before the November congressional elections a strong feeling in this body to show that we can pass something that meets the $144 billion target" Chiles said "We want to show not for automatic Similarly Budget Committee member Nancy Kassebaum R-Kan predicts the Senate will eventually approve a budget plan very close to the Domenici-Chiles proposal and she thinks the distance from the process has been good for Congress "1 personally believe it's been very useful to have this bipartisan effort It's critical to achieving meaningful success In the long she said But the administration be able to stay at length from the budget process forever While a budget plan does not go to the president for his signature the bills that implement it do go to the White House the key question" Slattery said will the president do after Congress comes to an Group Might Make Millions On TV Deal Traces Of Poison Found In Contac Teldrin Dietac Continued From Page 1A search to find the source of the tampering The company said it had received telephone threats against the products in Orlando and Houston as well as St Louis and Chicago One caller claimed cyanide and rat poison were placed in packages on shelves in the four cities dealing with a deliberate terrorist criminal act" Young said He cited information from the FBI that a man identifying himself as had made calls to radio stations and newspapers identifying specific stores in Houston and Orlando where capsules had been adulterated The caller demanded officials publicize that the capsules could be and were being tampered with and demanded that all capsules of any kind be withdrawn from the market Young said liken this situation to the taking of hostages or the placement of a bomb on an aircraft" Wendt said SmithKline spokesman Wachter said options the company was considering included changing packages for better security or halting the production of capsules entirely a marketing route taken by Johnson Johnson two months ago after a Tylenol capsule was tainted with cyanide killing a woman understand his motives" Wendt said of the tamperer "He seems to want to hurt the company perhaps the public at Thomas Collins vice president of corporate affairs said the telephone calls began Wednesday and that he took one of them conversation was all over the Collins said "But the gist of it is that he says the actions are being taken against these three products His intent is to remove them from the Wachter said the affected SmithKline products easily produced in solid form instead of capsules They are "sustained release meaning the hundreds of tiny beadlike pills in each capsule dissolve at different rates "They lend themselves to tablet form" Wendt said Meanwhile a fourth SmithKline over-the-counter medication used for treating sinus problems Sine-Off was removed from a chain of Houston grocery stores after an anonymous caller told a local television station he had poisoned capsules in four of those stores Asked about the threats against Sine-Off Wendt said they appeared to have been made by a different person do not believe there is any hazard with Wendt said Tampering with a drug to cause injury is a federal crime punishable by five years in prison and a $25000 fine Threats have forced these items off the market Substitutes For Drugs Exist 46 license Two merged to form Metro-Crescent Four dropped out Then Metro-Crescent paid the other three a total of $275000 to withdraw their applications leaving no competition Gantt said he joined the license application at the suggestion of Rollins whom he had met in June 1983 at Concord radio station WPEG was a likeable guy" Gantt said of Rollins "We got to meet each other and Rollins said Gantt then Charlotte mayor pro tern over and threw the switch to increase our power We met and sort of became instant friends You sometimes meet people like Some competitors say Gantt played a key role for Metro-Crescent in part because the FCC also considers the civic involvement of license applicants Scott Neisler of Kings Mountain an unsuccessful applicant for Channel 46 said stature In the community was an advantage "The FCC they give preference to minorities and living in the area and community involvement" Neisler said "Harvey Gantt is very great in community involvement I think that greatly enhanced the During a February 1985 hearing in Washington an attorney for group introduced as evidence a five-page resume listing address marriage status education and professional academic civic and cultural affiliations An attorney for a competing applicant objected that it was Irrelevant because Gantt would not be running the station Mark Prak an attorney for group agreed that under existing case law the material might not be relevant But he tried to keep it in the record anyway relevant" he said "for the commission (FCC) to take into consideration in this proceeding the fact that our principals also have these enhancing factors" The judge struck most of the resume from the record Gantt said he doesn't think it was wrong for his role as mayor to have been a possible factor In an FCC decision like saying the mayor go out and buy a piece of property and seek to get a loan because going to use his prestige as the mayor Is there something wrong with that? It had never even crossed my mind Gantt admitted Friday that he disclose ownership of the company on the ethics disclosure form He said it was inadvertent The purpose of the ethics reports is to make clear potential conflicts of interest There is no criminal penalty for violating the policy although city council can vote to censure think much ado about Gantt said "I regret it obviously because I want anyone to think hiding Staff writer Bill Arthur contributed to this article Continued From Page 1A been that this is a business investment and if the right opportunity came along sure we could sell it right An FCC spokesman contacted Friday didn't know exactly how many of the 10000-plus radio and television stations were owned by minority firms She estimated fewer than 200 "They might get several times more in selling out to a chain rather than operating it said Frank Gantt Orme president of the National Association for Better Broadcasting a California-based watchdog group The prospective buyer of WMHU Capitol Broadcasting of Raleigh owns nine radio stations and WRAL Raleigh's top-rated television station The new station could be highly profitable WMHU will broadcast from a 2000-foot tower near Belmont at 5 million watts That's enough power to cover a circle of the Carolinas roughly bounded by Forest City Morganton North Wilkesboro Lexington Albemarle Pageland SC Great Falls SC and Spartanburg The area has a population of about 19 million Capitol Broadcasting has an option to buy 49 of WMHU this spring for $15 million Capitol can buy the remaining stock for another $15 million within the first two years on the air The option agreements also call for owners to receive additional payments if WMHU increases substantially in value over the next five years the kind of thing as a communicator having invested the time in school that you dream about" said State Alexander a WPEG radio news director who could make about $150000 selling his 5 interest a once in a lifetime Charlotte dentist Spurgeon Webber and his wife Jean together own a total of 24 worth about $720000 in the pending sale They Gantt and Alexander hold all of voting stock and so control WMHU Nonvoting investors are Winston-Salem lawyer David Wagner with 24 and broadcasters Robert Hilker and William Rollins who each own 16 worth about $480000 The federal license prevents Hilker and Rollins from taking an active role in running WMHU because they own other broadcast stations in Belmont and Concord Rollins said he believes Capitol would be good for the Charlotte area biggest winner in this is the community" he said they will get an operator who knows Nine groups had originally applied to the FCC for the Channel phenylpropanolamine) and chlorpheniramine (an antihistamine) You can get the same ingredients over the counter in Allerest or by prescription with Histabid or Ornade For Teldrin the ingredient is chlorpheniramine You can get the same ingredient in Chlor-Trimeton or house brands such as Aller-Chlor or get a doctor to prescribe Chlor-tab or Phenetron For Dietac the ingredient is PPA It's identical to Dex-a-trim Control and Accutrim If worried you be able to use Contac Dietac or Teldrin for a while just relax says pharmacologist Joe Grae-don of Durham author of "The Pharmacy" and an Observer columnist of these drugs cure anything They are all symptomatic treatments for either colds allergies or overweight There are plenty of alternatives" what he suggests you substitute: For Contac the ingredients are PPA (a decongestant Carolinas Stores Pull Capsules From Shelves the pharmacist who declined to be named that keeps up and people quit buying capsules maybe stop producing Others ready to proclaim the end of capsules think it's premature to say what the eventuality will be with said Mike Zagorac vice president for public relations of Florida-based Eckerd Drugs which has 255 stores in the Carolinas "Like FDA Commissioner (Frank) Young says" he added someone is diabolical enough to want to tamper with food or medicine there is no packaging that is By SKIP HIDLAY Jt WrtHr Across the Carolinas drugstores and supermarkets complied Friday with SmithKline Beckman Corp's request to remove all Contac Dietac and Teldrin capsules from their shelves Eckerd Drugs Revco Kroger and Harris-Teeter supermarkets in the Carolinas pulled all sizes of the capsule products from their shelves officials said Some store officials speculated that coming on the heels of the recent Tylenol poisonings the new tampering Incidents would spell the end of pull-apart capsules would be strictly speculation but I would guess the days of capsules are numbered" said Leland Carawan Kroger's advertising manager in the Charlotte regional office covering the Carolinas "There already seems to be a lot of interest in moving the capsule business to the caplet produce Wc know what Tylenol is doing and I suspect see more companies do Carawan said One Revco pharmacist in Charlotte said she already had seen customers shying away from capsules "I know some of the customers had come through have been wary of buying capsules and say they prefer said US Nuclear Weapons Test May End Soviet Moratorium Crow Plans Mall Near Raintree Continued From Page 1A ment stores in Charlotte about its interest in locating in the mall The mall which would be developed in partnership with the Edward DeBartolo Co of Youngstown Ohio would open in 1988 or 1989 on the southwest corner the sources said No office or apartment development is planned next to Raintree About 200 Raintree residents attended a 2 Vi -hour meeting Thursday in the Raintree Country Club "There are still things that have to be pinned said Lee Starer president of the Village of Raintree Homeowners Association "But the reaction from those who attended the meeting in my opinion was a favorable Residents said at meeting they were shown slides architectural sketches and models of the proposed development on all four corners and proposed street improvements have put together a proposal and are showing it to the people to get their feedback" said Margo Davis manager of the Village of Raintree Crow in December 1984 paid $85 million for 72 acres or $118000 per acre at the southwest corner of the intersection where the mall is planned Accom- Southwest corner of the intersection of NC 16 and NC 51 Continued From Page 1A announcement that a test was to take place today A hastily assembled group of legislators issued a last-minute appeal to Reagan to cancel the test Soviets say they will not test unless we the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Reagan the United States now proceeds to test this will compound the Soviet Union's political gain and our political Congressional sources said Friday the administration had made some changes in its testing schedule because of the Gorbachev statements The last US test had been In December One member of Congress with contacts in the Defense and Energy departments said the administration had delayed tests originally set for earlier this year and could have delayed test Instead he said the decision was made to proceed because for the moratorium would build up if they waited for Public announcement of test with the code name Glencoe was made In Nevada on Thursday because the expected power of the explosion between 20 and 150 kilotons could shake buildings in towns and cities near the test site In rejecting the Soviet moratorium Reagan has maintained that as long as nuclear weapons are needed to deter war testing is required to modernize and maintain confidence in the US stockpile Friday In Bonn Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger told NATO defense ministers that United States will not accept a ban on nuclear testing because it is necessary until a protective umbrella can be provided by Reagan's "star wars" missile defense program Rescuer Compounds Injured Man's Flight DtuHdw PrMM-AMMur LONDON When 71 -year-old Jack Griffiths of West Wales slipped and fell on a stretch of icy pavement passersby called for help and waited with him at the side of the road But as an ambulance neared the scene the driver lost control on the slippery road ran into the retired man and dragged him several feet along the street before colliding with two cars Griffiths sustained a broken hip 1 panying the deed was a document committing Wachovia Bank Trust Co to lend $20 million for an urban development center-village consisting of retail space offices and apartments Sources said Crow officials who have options to buy land at the other three corners outlined the following plans: Northwest corner three three-story office buildings with the first to be developed in 1987 Northeast corner a large neighborhood type shopping center slightly larger than Cotswoid Mall which is 242000 square feet Southeast corner a small neighborhood-type shopping center slightly smaller than Cotswoid Mall i Staff M(v by fcAHNtbT HAH I.